Marcy Rosen

The 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival will be held at the Ebenezer Theater (17 S. Washington St., Easton, MD) from June 10^th to June 18^th. The Festival’s six concerts will feature 18 performances, each conceived around “artful dialogues” among the musicians and composers over the centuries. As Chesapeake Music Executive Director Don Buxton stated, “Given the stresses of the ongoing pandemic, the Festival’s program hopes to offer the calm, beauty, and humanity that especially chamber music can communicate between musicians and audiences.”

Catherine Cho

Long-time Festival participants will be back – including Festival Artistic Directors, cellist Marcy Rosen, and violinist Catherine Cho, as well as clarinetist J. Lawrie Bloom, pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, oboist Peggy Pearson, and violinist/violist brothers Todd and Daniel Phillips. Completing the roster will be cellist Peter Stumpf, violinist Carmit Zori, violinist Jennifer Liu, and violist Maiya Papach. Of special note is the appearance of Metropolitan Opera star, mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, who will open the first week’s three concerts performing arias from Johann Sebastian Bach cantatas. Cano will also present two songs by Johannes Brahms (for voice, viola, and piano), Ernest Chausson’s poignant Chanson Perpétuelle, and Maurice Ravel’s three exotic Chansons madécasses (“Songs of Madagascar”).

Jennifer Johnson Cano

As is customary, the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival program will feature several well-loved chamber ensemble pieces, including a trio for flute, cello, and piano by Franz Joseph Haydn, four works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a string quintet by Johannes Brahms, and a string sextet by Antonín Dvořák. Several early modern tonal pieces are on the program. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Amy Beach, two outstanding American composers, are represented with a clarinet quintet and a piano quintet respectively. The French composer Édouard Destenay’s extremely virtuosic trio for oboe, clarinet, and piano will also be featured. A brilliant contemporary work, John Harbison’s Six American Painters, will help bring the Festival to a dazzling conclusion. Based on six paintings that Harbison viewed at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the work was originally written for flute and strings. Harbison recast the work for oboe and strings for his long-time student and friend, oboist Peggy Pearson,

As in past years, the winners of the 10^th International Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals will perform on June 17^th.

Program selections are subject to change. For further details on the 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and to purchase tickets, visit https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival Schedule – Ebenezer Theater, Easton, MD

June 10, 7:30 p.m.    Opening Extravaganza!             

June 11, 7:30 p.m.    From Bach to Brahms                 

June 12, 5:30 p.m.    Artful Dialogues

June 16, 5:30 p.m.    Mozart and More

June 17, 7:30 p.m.    Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition Winners

June 18, 7:30 p.m.    Festival Finale

June 8 and 15, 10 a.m.   Free! Open Rehearsals     

Chesapeake Music has announced the winners of the 10th Biennial Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals held on April 2 at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland. The five finalists competing in the Competition were the Abeo Quartet from the University of Delaware, the Aero Quartet from Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Elless Quartet from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Terra String Quartet from New York City, and Trio Colores from Zurich, Switzerland. Trio Colores was awarded the Lerman Gold ($10,000) Prize and the Audience Choice Award. Abeo Quartet won the Silver ($5,000) Prize.

This year’s finalists came not only from the U.S. but also from Austria and Switzerland and have studied and prepared at distinguished schools and conservatories. The average age of an ensemble must be under 31, and some include members as young as 21.  The applicants represented a wide range of instrumental combinations: winds, strings, brass, and mixed instruments, including percussion.

Speaking to the five finalists, Marcy Rosen, one of Chesapeake Music’s artistic directors who was also a preliminary judge, said, “The level of playing we heard today was really unbelievable. The sensitivity and artistry you all showed were magnificent.”

Pictured is Trio Colores who was awarded the Lerman Gold ($10,000) Prize and the Audience Choice Award. (Photo by Cal Jackson)

Trio Colores, which hails from both Austria and Switzerland, connects a longstanding passion for percussion with a visible joy in performing music while sharing the versatility of percussion instruments.  The musicians’ knowledge of classical and contemporary music, combined with their interest in challenging the traditional boundaries of modern music, results in creative, ambitious, and uniquely arranged concert programs.

The trio mesmerized the audience with a range of percussive instruments, including playing “Music de Table,” using hand percussion on wooden tablets, as well complex arrangements for the marimbas – what the group called “big xylophones.” Its member Fabian Ziegler commented, “We want to change this mindset from the people that percussion is just a show instrument. We want to show that we can play a recital, like a piano recital.”

Trio member Luca Stafffelbach, who arranges many of the trio’s compositions, added, “As percussionists, we don’t have the repertoire from all the great composers centuries ago like pianists or violinists have. So, we try to create our repertoire with arrangements of music that we like, which is actually not composed for our instruments, but we try to find a way that this music works.”

Pictured is the Abeo Quartet who won the Silver ($5,000) Prize at the 10th Biennial Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals. (Photo by Cal Jackson)

The Abeo Quartet is currently the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the University of Delaware under the tutelage of the Calidore String Quartet. Formed at The Juilliard School in 2018, the quartet was selected as a finalist in the 2021 Young Concert Artists International Competition, and previous accolades include the silver medal winner of the 2019 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, among others. The ensemble is compelled to integrate their music with the societal issues that grip humanity today while transmitting their love for chamber music to a wide variety of audiences both inside and outside of the concert hall.

Abeo Quartet member Brian Gadlow, a cellist, stated, “The competition pulled out all the stops to just make sure we were feeling good throughout our time here. We were able to spend time getting acquainted with like the community and felt so welcomed by our host family – it’s been awesome.”

“The conversations that we have had with other musicians are also really important to us and our development. It influences our choices going forward and how we view music. It’s been a really wonderful experience.”

Rebecca Benjamin, a quartet member and violinist, added, “The energy of the audience was really special too. You don’t find that everywhere.”

James Kang, a violist, commented, “We get to play music of people that are living and writing today and that’s really special to us. At the end of the day, it’s important to connect with people and connect with the world and to spread the message of love and joy as our name Abeo suggests.”

The other finalists, the Aero Quartet, the Elless Quartet, and the Terra String Quartet commented that in addition to the hospitality of their Eastern Shore hosts, the in-depth feedback from the judges and the opportunity to interact with their colleagues from around the world were extremely valuable and some of the strengths of the competition overall.

Geirthruder Gudmundsdottir, a cellist with Terra String Quartet, concluded, “As young people, especially young people coming out of the pandemic, we’ve been craving social time, playing music with our friends and getting to know people. Spending time with people and getting to know music through other people – that’s neat.”

The two judging panels for the preliminary and final competitions were chaired by Chesapeake Music’s artistic directors, Marcy Rosen and Catherine Cho. Preliminary judges include Marcy Rosen (head), Tara Helen O’Connor, Daniel Phillips, and Ieva Jokubaviciute. Finalist judges include Catherine Cho (head), Diane Walsh, and Peggy Pearson.

The ensembles performed concerts the following day on April 3 at Christ Church in Cambridge, St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Easton, Temple B’nai Israel in Easton, Holy Trinity Church in Oxford, and at a private concert given by a competition benefactor.

The Trio Colores will perform again at the 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival on June 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton. Visit the website www.chesapeakemusic.org  for further information.

The Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition is underwritten by Talbot Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, and private benefactors.

The 10th Biennial Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals will be held live on April 2, 2022, at 1 p.m. at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland and live-streamed all day. This exciting daylong celebration of chamber music will feature five of the most distinguished young ensembles competing for the Lerman Gold ($10,000) and Silver ($5,000) prizes.

This year’s finalists come not only from the U.S. but also from Austria and Switzerland and have studied and prepared at distinguished schools and conservatories. The average age of an ensemble must be under 31, and some include members as young as 21.  The applicants represent a wide range of instrumental combinations: winds, strings, brass, and mixed instruments, including percussion. The preliminary judging panel reported this to be a particularly talented group of young musicians. The five finalists are the Abeo Quartet from the University of Delaware, the Aero Quartet from Bloomington, Indiana, the Elless Quartet from the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Terra String Quartet from New York City, and Trio Colores from Zurich, Switzerland.

The Abeo Quartet

The Abeo Quartet is currently the inaugural Graduate String Quartet in Residence at the University of Delaware under the tutelage of the Calidore String Quartet. Formed at The Juilliard School in 2018, they have studied with members of the Alban Berg, Ebene, Takács, Artemis, Miro, Emerson, and Brentano Quartets. Most recently, the Abeo Quartet was selected as a finalist in the 2021 Young Concert Artists International Competition, and previous accolades include the silver medal winner of the 2019 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, among others. Abeo means “to bring joy” which is the aim of the quartet as they perform and engage with audiences across the country. The Abeo Quartet is compelled to integrate their music with the societal issues that grip humanity today while transmitting their love for chamber music to a wide variety of audiences both inside and outside of the concert hall.

The Aero Quartet

The Aero Quartet has been praised by Pulitzer Prize finalist and Grammy-winning composer Augusta Read Thomas for their “nuanced, colorful, and artfully sculpted” chamber music interpretations for the saxophone. The quartet, from Bloomington, Indiana, has won numerous awards in chamber music competitions, including First Prizes at the New Orleans Chamber Festival, Music Teachers National Association, and Briggs Chamber Music Competitions. Most notably, Aero won the Gold Medal in the Senior Wind Division of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In the fall of 2021, Aero completed a residency at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, New Hampshire before embarking on a Midwest performance and educational outreach tour. The quartet conducted clinics for hundreds of middle and high school students in multiple states.

The Elless Quartet

The Elless Quartet was formed in 2019 at the Cleveland Institute of Music and is comprised of violinists Emera Gurath and Megan Lin, violist Marcus Stevenson, and cellist Cecelia Swanson. They have performed in masterclasses given by members of the Emerson, Orion, Dover, and Miami String Quartets. In 2021, the ensemble was selected by members of Alban Berg and Artemis quartets and Director André Roy to participate at the prestigious McGill International String Quartet Academy (MISQA). The quartet was also the Grand Prize winner of the 7th Annual Coltman Chamber Music Competition. In addition, the members of the ensemble have participated in renowned music festivals such as the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Heifetz International Music Institute, Meadowmount School of Music, the New York String Orchestra Seminar, and Saint Paul Chamber Music Institute.

The Terra String Quartet

The Terra String Quartet is a vibrant young ensemble based in New York City. Hailing from five continents, these four musicians share a mission to perform chamber music with intellectual and emotional vitality. The quartet has performed in such venues as Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. They have also been featured on WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces. They have attended festivals including Four Seasons Chamber Music’s Winter Workshop and have collaborated with artists such as Robert McDonald, Natasha Brofsky, Catherine Cho, and the Cremona Quartet. The Terra String Quartet is represented by Le Dimore del Quartetto in Italy, Si-Yo Music Foundation in NJ/NY and is the first quartet to have been chosen to pursue the Four Seasons Chamber Music String Quartet Fellowship at East Carolina University.

Trio Colores

Trio Colores hails from both Austria and Switzerland. Its members, Matthias Kessler, Luca Stafffelbach, and Fabian Ziegler, connect a longstanding passion for percussion with a visible joy in performing music.  Playing as an ensemble since 2017, the repertoire of the trio spreads over a large spectrum of 20th-century percussion masterpieces by Iannis Xenakis, Steve Reich, and John Cage alongside works by living composers such as Ivan Trevino,  Emmanuel Séjourné, and Theirry de Mey.  Their knowledge of classical and contemporary music, combined with their interest in challenging the traditional boundaries of modern music, results in creative, ambitious, and uniquely arranged concert programs.  The Trio shares with audiences both the versatility of percussion instruments and the fascinating always growing new timbres they provide.

It takes a dedicated and experienced group of musicians to make great decisions about young talent and the Competition’s two panels are no exception.  The preliminary judges, responsible for selecting the finalists, conduct blind evaluations based only on an audio performance included in the application. The finalist judges watch the live performance on April 2 and select the prize winners at the end of the evening.  Over the past 20 years, they have proven their expertise as many of the winners and finalists have gone on to illustrious careers.

The two judging panels are chaired by Chesapeake Music’s artistic directors, Marcy Rosen and Catherine Cho. Preliminary judges include Marcy Rosen (head), Tara Helen O’Connor, Daniel Phillips, and Ieva Jokubaviciute. Finalist judges include Catherine Cho (head), Diane Walsh, and Peggy Pearson.

The Competition will begin at 1 p.m. on April 2 and last all day with prizes announced following the final performance before 9:00 pm.  There will be Sunday afternoon concerts on April 3 by the ensembles at the following locations: Aero Quartet (4 p.m. – Christ Church, Cambridge), Trio Colores (2 p.m. – St. Marks United Methodist Church, Easton), Elless Quartet (2 p.m. – Temple B’nai Israel, Easton), Terra String Quartet (3 p.m. – Holy Trinity, Oxford), and Abeo Quartet (private concert given by Competition Benefactor).

Visit the website chesapeakemusic.org/competition for further information. The Competition is a program of Chesapeake Music. Tickets for this all-day extravaganza are available online. The cost is $20 for the entire day. Children are admitted free but must obtain a ticket at no charge. For those who cannot attend, live streaming will be available at $5 per household. The recording will be available both the day of the performance and for the week following. For further information about attending the Competition events, visit chesapeakemusic.org/competition or call 410-819-0380.

The Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition is underwritten by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and private benefactors.

Pianist Elliot Wuu

Chesapeake Music’s Rising Stars winter concert will present two outstanding young classical musicians in performance at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland (17 S. Washington St.) on February 13th at 2 p.m. Pianist Elliot Wuu and cellist Sterling Elliott will perform music by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, and Tchaikovsky. The concert will also be streamed for a week, following the live performance.

In this exciting concert, Elliot Wuu will open with one of Robert Schumann’s major solo piano works: “Kinderszenen“ (Scenes from Childhood), which depicts both the happiness and sadness of youth in 13 musical snapshots. Next up will be Franz Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy (Fantasie in C Major), long considered Schubert’s most technically demanding solo piano work.

In the second half of the program, Sterling Elliott will join forces with Elliot Wuu, and this will mark their first public duo collaboration. They will perform Ludwig van Beethoven’s late “Cello Sonata No. 4,” an emotionally expressive work that also demands technical prowess of both players. Following will be an arrangement of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s famous “dante cantabile.”

Concluding the concert, Elliot and Sterling will play an arrangement of Camille Saint-Saëns’ “Havanaise in E Major,” a show-stopper with its fiery, virtuosic outer sections and dreamy, lyrical central melody for the cello.

Although young – both artists are 22 – Elliot and Sterling are widely lauded as exceptional musicians. The Republic, in reviewing Wuu’s 2017 performance of Saint-Saens’ G minor piano concerto, wrote, “Wuu is an unbelievable talent who will undoubtedly stun audiences all over the world with his powerful musical gifts.” And the Tribune Star reviewed his 2018 concert with the Terre Haute Symphony, stating, “The remarkable young pianist commands a keyboard with the power, speed and finesse of artists twice his age.”

Cellist Sterling Elliott

The New York Concert Review praised Sterling’s 2018 solo recital at Carnegie Hall, writing: “The very fine young cellist Sterling Elliott played with perfect intonation, style, and total involvement.” And Victor Carr, Jr. of Classics Today wrote of an early performance, “Elliott’s impeccable musicianship, as well as his discernible love for the music, won over the audience, which responded with sustained standing applause.”

Both of these young artists received baccalaureate degrees from The Juilliard School, and both are presently pursuing master’s degrees at Juilliard, each having been awarded Kovner Fellowships there. Despite the rigor of their classes, they have been able to win prestigious competitions and awards and embark on concertizing careers at major venues in the U.S. and abroad.

Elliot Wuu won the 2021 Salon de Virtuosi Prior Family Foundation Career Grant and was named a Young Steinway Artist as well as a Gilmore Young Artist, two of the most prestigious awards given to young pianists. Sterling Elliott, who is now represented by Colbert Artists Management, received both an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant in 2021. In 2019, he was the first recipient of The National Arts Club’s Herman and Mary Neuman Music Scholarship Award as well as the first prize winner of the senior division of the National Sphinx Competition, becoming the youngest winner in the Competition’s history.

Despite their numerous competition successes, awards, and concert engagements, both musicians feel strongly that completing their educations remains paramount. At Juilliard, Eliot continues to study with Robert McDonald – a pianist well-known to Chesapeake Music audiences at the annual Chamber Music Festivals – and Sterling is studying with Joel Krosnick and Clara Kim.

Sterling summed up their shared goal to keep education a top priority, saying, “I saw the need to finish my degree and felt the need to go back for my master’s. There’s no way I could have stopped my education at this point. I could continue performing as I have been, but I would feel artistically incomplete to stop my learning. There’s so much to learn now, and I have to continue.”

For more information and to purchase tickets, please see www.chesapeakemusic.org.

Alison Crockett

Chesapeake Music is excited to announce its Summer Jazz Concert with vocalist and pianist Alison Crockett on August 7, 2021, in its new home and recently renovated Ebenezer Theatre at 17 South Washington Street in Easton, Maryland. The concert begins at 8:00 P.M. Tickets are available at https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

Crockett will be performing her “Echoes of an Era” show highlighting music from Chaka Khan, Chick Corea and the “American Songbook.”

“We are very excited to be in our new home, the Ebenezer Theatre,” says Don Buxton, Executive Director of Chesapeake Music, “and thrilled with its recent renovation by Bluepoint Hospitality including state of the art audio/visual equipment. I have no doubt that our 180-seat concert venue will provide a true intimacy between Ms. Crockett and her audience.”

A multi-talented singer, songwriter and pianist, Crockett developed her formidable jazz chops from Temple University in Philadelphia while gigging with stalwarts Orrin Evans, Matt Parish and Mike Boone. Later, after moving to New York City to pursue her master’s at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music, she was introduced to the vibrant music scene by fronting hip-hop jazz pioneer Greg Osby’s band.

“I consider myself a musician who comes out of the jazz tradition, the black music tradition where jazz people take established forms and reimagine them in new and different ways,” she says, eschewing strict genre categorizations for herself and her responsive, ever-evolving artistry. To learn more about Crocker, read her complete bio at https://www.alisoncrockett.net/bio/.

About Chesapeake Music

Based in Easton, Maryland, Chesapeake Music is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to bring renowned jazz and classical musicians to delight, engage and surprise today’s audiences, and educate, inspire and develop tomorrow’s. They’ve been doing it for 35 years! To learn more about Chesapeake Music, visit their website at https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

Catherine Cho, Violin/Viola

Chesapeake Music announces the 36th annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival will be held June 4–12, 20201 at its new permanent home, the Ebenezer Theater, at 17 South Washington Street in Easton, Maryland. The Festival’s exciting two-week program of six concerts featuring 15 artists will be presented live, in full compliance with state and local Covid-19 regulations, as well as streamed on the web.

Week One

June 4, 7:30 p.m. – Festival Opening Extravaganza! – Mozart’s Piano Trio in G Major, Anton Webern Langsamer Satz (Slow Movement)  and Dvořák’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major

June 5, 7:30 p.m. – Bologne’s, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Sonata No. 3 in A Major for two violins, Still’s “Mother and Child” from the Suite for violin and piano, Bolcom’s Graceful Ghost Rag, Beach’s Romance for violin and piano, Opus 23, and Schumann’s Six Studies in Canon Form and Bilder aus Osten “Pictures from the East” for piano, four hands

June 6, 5:30 p.m. – Haydn’s Trio No. 30 in F Major, Hob. XV:17, Beethoven’s String Trio in C minor, Opus 9 No. 3, and Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Opus 47

Week One Artists

Catherine Cho, Violin/Viola

Francesca de Pasquale, Violin

Molly Carr, Viola

Marcy Rosen, Cello

Marcy Rosen, Cello

Peter Stumpf, Cello

Peggy Pearson, Oboe

Ieva Jokubaviciute, Piano

Diane Walsh, Piano

Sponsors of this year’s Festival include Talbot Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, Paul and Joanne Prager, and our donors. Chesapeake Music now has additional tickets for sale for all six in-theater Festival concerts. Please go to chesapeakemusic.org to order tickets for the in-theater or live-streamed performances or for a complete program listing.