There are still two months until the National Music Festival begins, but you can get your NMF “fix” April 25 at the Garfield Center for the Arts. Festival favorite Camilo Carrara will return to Chestertown for “Foolish Hearts,” a special performance with the Eastern Shore’s own premier vocalist, Sue Matthews. They will be joined by bassist Paul Langosch.
The concert will take place at 4 p.m. on April 25, and tickets ($100 for preferred seating and $75 for the upper balcony) are available at https://nationalmusic.us/get-involved/special-events/ or by mail (send checks to: National Music Festival, P.O. Box 284, Chestertown, MD 21620). Proceeds will benefit the National Music Festival Apprentice Scholarship Program, helping us to bring over 100 talented young musicians to Kent County on full scholarship every year. Wine and hors d’ouevres at intermission will be provided by Crow Vineyard and Occasions Catering.
Matthews and Carrara are releasing their duo CD, “Foolish Hearts,” and will perform repertoire that they have recorded together. CDs will be available for purchase at the performance.
NMF Artistic Director Richard Rosenberg says, “I met the ever-cheerful, immensely talented Camilo Carrara for the first time while guest conducting at the Festival Música nas Montanhas in Poços de Caldas, Brazil in 2010. In Camilo’s capable caress I discovered just how poetic, versatile and stirring the guitar could be. Whether playing works by John Corigliano or jamming in a samba band, Camilo had garnered in me a lifelong groupie. The following season my wife Caitlin and I returned to Poços de Caldas to perform music of Beethoven and Stravinsky for their annual Festival. Upon the conclusion of Camilo’s annual solo recital of classical and pop music, I invited him to join the National Music Festival faculty, a roster of primarily orchestral mentors.
“In 2012 the National Music Festival was first situated in the beautiful, colonial town of Chestertown on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. This vibrant arts community boasts several intimate venues where people gather to listen to everything from the music of Mahler to sea shanties, and so it was on Rock Hall’s Mainstay stage where I first encountered the velvety, nimble artistry of vocalist Sue Matthews.
“During the course of the National Music Festival’s annual seasons, entirely new collaborations began to spontaneously generate between our visiting musicians and the Kent County community, and this recording is a delightful result of one such collaboration. In retrospect, it was so natural to pair the silvery, hearty voice of Sue Matthews with the playful invention of Camilo Carrara. They magically reinvent each number at every turn, and so what the recording represents is only a moment in time that happened to be chronicled. Each concert is unique and singular – a signature of invention and joy.
“Part of the genius of their performances is not just what you hear, but what you don’t – that which is implied. Sue and Camilo have created a repertoire of well-loved tunes in which the listener is subliminally invited to fill in the complicated, satisfying harmonies, becoming a sort of quiet co-participant. Their stellar performances redefine what it is to listen.”
For more information visit www.nationalmusic.us, e-mail [email protected] or call (410) 778-2064.
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