Chesapeake Music is thrilled to present international performing guitarist and composer Mary Halvorson, winner of multiple DownBeat magazine critics poll awards and MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” fellow. Halvorson will be appearing with her Amaryllis sextet on Friday, July 7, 2023, at the Ebenezer Theatre in downtown Easton, Maryland. The concert begins at 8 p.m. and tickets are available at ChesapeakeMusic.org.

Halvorson has released over a dozen albums as a bandleader, and 60 plus as a collaborator or sidewoman. She has worked with such diverse musicians as Tim Berne, Anthony Braxton, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Dieterich, Trevor Dunn, Bill Frisell, Ingrid Laubrock, Jason Moran, Joe Morris, Tom Rainey, Jessica Pavone, Tomeka Reid, Marc Ribot, and John Zorn.

“We are fortunate to be able to bring one of New York City’s most in-demand guitarists, Mary Halvorson, and her sextet to Easton,” says Don Buxton, Executive Director of Chesapeake Music.

“This is truly a unique opportunity.”

Halvorson’s most recent albums, released in May 2022, showcase her string quartet writing, interpreted by The Mivos Quartet (Belladonna), alongside her new sextet (Amaryllis), which she is bringing to Easton. The sextet features Adam O’Farrill, described by the New York Times as “among the leading trumpeters in jazz;” Jacob Garchik on trombone who, among other things, has contributed over 115 arrangements and transcriptions for the Kronos Quartet; Patricia Brennan on vibraphone, described by The New York City Jazz Record as “one of the instrument’s newer leaders:” Nick Dunston on bass, described by the New York Times as an “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde [scene];” and last but not least Tomas Fujiwara on drums. Fujiwara has been described by Nate Chinen of the New York Times as having “a way of spreading out the center of a pulse while setting up a rigorous scaffolding of restraint…A conception of the drum set as a full-canvas instrument, almost orchestral in its scope.”

Come listen to whom Steve Dollar of the Wall Street Journal called “one of the most exciting and original guitarists in jazz—or otherwise,” and whom Francis Davis of the Village Voice described as “one of today’s most formidable bandleaders.”

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 more than 35 years! To learn more about Chesapeake Music, visit their website at https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

A treat awaits Chesapeake Music’s 2023 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival goers on June 9, 10 and 11 at the Ebenezer Theater. The internationally-acclaimed Orion String Quartet will perform Haydn’s energetic, at times mysterious C-major Quartet, “The Bird,” Beethoven’s brilliant Quartet in B-flat Major and Bartók’s sixth String Quartet, as well as Brahms’ second String Sextet, with the Festival Artistic Directors violinist Catherine Cho and cellist Marcy Rosen.  Sadly, this will be one of the last opportunities for Eastern Shore chamber music patrons to see the Orion perform. The Quartet will retire at the end of the 2023-24 season, concluding an illustrious 36-year partnership. The members intend to continue their individual teaching and performing careers.

“Having had the privilege for so many years to explore and perform some of the greatest music ever written, we have come to feel that many of these works have actually become a part of our physical and spiritual being,” the Quartet said. “We have chosen to leave our audiences with some final presentations that still fully articulate what we have experienced in this wondrous journey. We look forward to continuing to reach out to inspire people with our recordings, individual performances, and our love of teaching.”

The members of the Quartet, violinists Daniel and Todd Phillips, violist Steven Tenenbom and cellist Timothy Eddy, are Artist Members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  They are especially drawn to Beethoven and recorded his complete string quartets over a five-year period.  During 2017-18, their 30th anniversary season as a quartet, they performed all these quartets over six evenings at the Mannes School of Music where they held the position of quartet-in-residence for 27 years.

Daniels Phillips notes, “We are completely exhausted when we play Beethoven.  His music is very demanding, physically, emotionally and spiritually.  At the same time, he uses very simple notes, which everyone can understand to the greatest effect on the listener. It is brilliant. Beethoven famously said to musicians who complained how difficult his music was, that he gave them ‘music from the Gods.’ This is how we feel!”

Admired for their diverse programming that juxtaposes masterworks of the quartet literature with key works of the 20th and 21st centuries, the Orion is on the cutting edge of programming through commissions from composers ranging from Chick Corea to Wynton Marsalis and a creative partnership with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company.

The Orion Quartet is named after the Constellation Orion as a metaphor for the personality each musician brings to the group in its collective pursuit of the highest musical ideals.

“We each want to play the way we want to play,” Phillips muses.  “To achieve a great sound requires good chemistry, and good ensemble skills; one must learn how to listen, know how much to lead and how much to follow.  If you always follow, you will be late.  If you always lead, the others don’t have a chance to make their voice heard.  It is an ongoing interesting challenge to get the balance right.  Ultimately, it is a very democratic process,” he concludes.

Festival 2023 is thrilled to have the Orion String Quartet join us to celebrate our 38th Anniversary year. Sponsors of this year’s Festival include Talbot Arts, the Maryland State Arts Council, Paul and Joanne Prager, and our donors. Please go to chesapeakemusic.org to order tickets for the in-theater or video-recorded performances.

Chesapeake Music’s Interlude Concert Series will present the Aero Saxophone Quartet in concert at the Ebenezer Theater in Easton, Maryland on Saturday, April 22, 2023, at 7:30 p.m. The group will be performing new and traditional music for the saxophone from their upcoming album release including the music of Carlos Simon, Paquito D’Rivera, Alexander Glazunov, Arturo Marquez, and more.

The Aero Quartet is recognized for its versatility and contrast, with original works and arrangements spanning centuries of musical tradition. They have been praised by Pulitzer Prize Finalist and Grammy-winning composer Augusta Read Thomas for their “nuanced, colorful, and artfully sculpted interpretations.”

This will be a return appearance by the group as they were selected to be one of the five finalist ensembles to compete in Chesapeake Music’s 10th International Chamber Music Competition which was held at the Ebenezer Theater on April 2, 2022. Marcy Rosen, Co-Artistic Director of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and a judge at the 2022 Competition shared these comments, “The Aero Quartet impressed the judges with their artistry and sensitivity.  Had we been able to offer another prize they would definitely have been the recipients!  I am thrilled, as are my colleagues, that Chesapeake Music has invited the ensemble back to perform in the Interlude Series.”

Formed in 2020 at the University of Michigan, the group is comprised of Salvador Flores (soprano saxophone), Walt Puyear (alto saxophone), Matthew Koester (tenor saxophone), and Brian Kachur (baritone saxophone). All of the quartet have pursued advanced musical degrees at Michigan and have continued to concertize extensively throughout the United States both as active chamber musicians and as soloists. This has led to numerous awards. Most notably, Aero won the Gold Medal in the Senior Wind Division of the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2021.

Throughout their careers as a quartet, Aero has dedicated much of their time to educational outreach and student engagement by offering music clinics for hundreds of middle and high school students in the cities where they have performed. This has become a core part of their musical mission as they feel that by spreading their knowledge of the saxophone and love of chamber music, they can provide a lasting impact on youth in communities around the country.

In keeping with this tradition, the Aero Quartet will be conducting clinics for the students at both Easton Middle School and Easton High School on Monday, April 24, 2023.

For more information and to purchase tickets for what promises to be an enjoyable concert, please visit the Chesapeake Music website at https://chesapeakemusic.org.

Chesapeake Music’s YouthReach Program recently sponsored the Kaleidoscope String Quartet of New York City to provide classroom visits at Chapel District Elementary School in Cordova and White Marsh Elementary School in Trappe. Students in the second, third, fourth, and fifth grades were able to hear the Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect group perform and provide instruction on its orchestral instruments. This is the ensemble’s first visit to the Eastern Shore.

“This program has been in the schools virtually for two years and it’s good to be in person this year for the first time. The students were enthralled and focused as they listened to the music. There were great questions and participation,” comments Don Buxton, Executive Director of Chesapeake Music.

The four members of the Kaleidoscope String Quartet, Brian Hong (violin), Arlen Hlusko (cello), Ruben Rengel (violin), and Caeli Smith (viola) have been performing for a few years together as part of a two-year fellowship through Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect, a Post Graduate Leadership Program. They all share a love of music education and community engagement. The ensemble performs in public schools and health care facilities, as well as performs chamber music concerts.

“We are showing the public what a classical musician can be in the 21^st century. There is very little music for applied instruments in schools today, so we try and be accessible and friendly to get students excited about orchestral instruments. Anyone can talk about music but finding entry points for kids to connect to how music works is what we do,” comments Caeli Smith of Kaleidoscope String Quartet.

“What’s rewarding for us is the students seeing what we do together as a collaboration and that this can be a profession too.”

One of the activities the musicians did with the students was to connect the sounds of their music to activities that the children did to show the connections and emotions that can be felt from the music.

“It is so significant bringing live music back this year because it’s so difficult for students to get somewhere where they can experience this. By bringing it here to the students, it especially makes it easier for families,” comments Amanda Leffler, Music Teacher, at Chapel District Elementary School.

“The performances were phenomenal. Our second, third, fourth, and fifth-grade students absolutely loved them. I think it’s so important for music education for students to actually see and hear the music. Many students don’t get those opportunities outside of school, so I think it was so fortunate that Chesapeake Music could bring Kaleidoscope String Quartet to Chapel Elementary. We appreciate it so much,” concludes Kari Clow, Principal of Chapel District Elementary School.

The performances were supported by donors Robert and Ceci Nobel. Chesapeake Music has an extended history of educational outreach to the Mid-Shore community, including its prior Youth Reach and First Strings programs, Chamber Music Festival Family Concerts, discounted tickets to its chamber music, jazz and competition concerts, free open rehearsals for its annual two-week Chamber Music Festival and special video-recorded musical programs for students. Upcoming events in Chesapeake Music’s educational outreach program include local school visits in April 2023 by the Aero Saxophone Quartet, in connection with the quartet’s April 22, 2023 concert at the Ebenezer Theater. For more information about the concert and Chesapeake Music’s programs, you may visit the Chesapeake Music website at Chesapeakemusic.org.

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 have been doing it for 37 years! To learn more about Chesapeake Music, visit their website at https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

Chesapeake Music will present a free Family Concert at 6:00 p.m. on December 2, 2022, in the Ebenezer Theater at 17 South Washington Street in Easton, Maryland. Tickets are not required. The concert will feature The Kaleidoscope Quartet, performing music of American women composers Florence Price, Reena Esmail, and Gabriela Lena Frank. The interactive performance will encourage the audience to join the performers in exploring how composers reconcile and communicate their personal cultures and identities through their music.

The Family Concert, which is open to all members of the public, is part of a residency by the Kaleidoscope Quartet in the Talbot County Public School system sponsored by Chesapeake Music. The residency includes classroom visits and assemblies by the quartet at the Chapel District and White Marsh elementary schools.

The school visits by the quartet will provide students with a closer look at the quartet’s instruments, the collaborative music-making process and include excerpts from “An Andean Walkabout” by Gabriela Lena Frank, a composer of contemporary classical music, recently recognized by the Heinz Award for “weaving Latin American influences into classical constructs and breaking gender, disability and cultural barriers in classical music composition.”

The Kaleidoscope Quartet members, Brian Hong (violin), Ruben Rengel (violin), Caeli Smith (viola), and Arlen Hlusko (cello), all alumni of top musical conservatories across the country, met in New York City and trained together at Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect Program. Following their completion of that program, they formed and now perform as, the Kaleidoscope Quartet. When asked about the focus area of the quartet, violist Caeli Smith, “The players of the Kaleidoscope Quartet place a high value on personal, engaging musical concerts, and using music as a connector between audience and performer. They strive to offer connection and resonance to each listener, regardless of their experience with classical music.”

Chesapeake Music has an extended history of educational outreach to the Mid-Shore community, including its prior Youth Reach and First Strings programs, Chamber Music Festival Family Concerts, discounted tickets to its chamber music, jazz and competition concerts, free open rehearsals for its annual two-week Chamber Music Festival and special video-recorded musical programs for students. Upcoming events in Chesapeake Music’s educational outreach program include local school visits in April 2023 by the Aero Saxophone Quartet, in connection with the quartet’s April 22, 2023 concert at the Ebenezer Theater.

For more information about the concert and Chesapeake Music’s programs, you may visit the Chesapeake Music website at Chesapeakemusic.org.

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 have been doing it for 37 years! To learn more about Chesapeake Music, visit their website at https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

The renowned Calidore String Quartet – gold prize winner at the 2012 International Chamber Music Competition – returns to Easton for a concert on Saturday evening, October 22nd. This Chesapeake Music Interlude Concert will take place at the Ebenezer Theater, 17 S. Washington Street, at 7:30 p.m.

Now based in New York City, the Calidore String Quartet – Jeffrey Myers and Ryan Meehan, violins; Jeremy Berry, viola; and Estelle Choi, cello – first came together in 2010 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. In the short span of just over a decade, the Quartet’s performances have consistently garnered praise and respect. A New York Times review cited the Quartet’s “deep reserves of virtuosity and irrepressible dramatic instinct.” The Los Angeles Times described the Quartet as “astonishing,” their playing “shockingly deep,” approaching “the kind of sublimity other quartets spend a lifetime searching for,” and praised its balance of “intellect and expression.” A Washington Post review stated that “Four more individual musicians are unimaginable, yet these speak, breathe, think and feel as one.”

In addition to the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition, the Calidore String Quartet has won grand prizes in virtually all major US and international chamber music competitions, including the 2012 ARD Munich String Quartet Competition and the 2016 M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, which awarded the Quartet the $100,000 Grand Prize. In 2018, the Quartet received the highly prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The Quartet’s members are passionate supporters of music education, especially the mentoring and educating of young musicians, students, and audiences. In 2021, the Quartet joined the faculty of the University of Delaware School of Music, serving as directors of the Graduate String Quartet Residency program. There the Quartet selected the emerging Abeo Quartet as the inaugural two-year Graduate String Quartet Assistantship recipient. Chesapeake Music will sponsor the Abeo Quartet – the silver prize winner at the 2022 International Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition – in a concert on October 7, 2023.

The Calidore’s program on October 22 will feature three exciting and thoughtful string quartets by Beethoven (Op. 18, no. 6), Smetana (No. 1 “From My Life”), and Shostakovich (No. 8, Op. 110, “To the Memory of the Victims of Fascism and War”). Smetana’s lush and evocative string quartet, “From My Life” (1876), was written as an intimate confession – a tonal biography of his life, his loves, and his response to his deafness. Similarly, Beethoven’s Op.18 quartets (1798–1800), were written at the time when Beethoven was first experiencing the frustration of hearing loss. Together with Shostakovich’s explosive String Quartet No. 8, written in three days in 1960 as a final epitaph possibly before a planned suicide, these intimate musical self-portraits detail the inner lives of the composers and promise a deeply moving concert.

For more information and to purchase a ticket go to chesapeakemusic.org.

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 have been doing it for 37 years! To learn more about Chesapeake Music, visit their website at https://chesapeakemusic.org/.

Chesapeake Music presents the Loston Harris Trio on Saturday, August 13 at 8 p.m. in the Ebenezer Theater in downtown Easton, Maryland.

Harris comes to Chesapeake Music from the legendary Bemelmans Bar at The Carlyle in Manhattan, New York, where he has been delighting audiences with his smooth, soulful voice and piano style. It has been his musical home for nearly two decades and the host to many cabaret and jazz greats like Bobby Short, Eartha Kitt, Elaine Stritch, John Pizzarelli and the Modern Jazz Quartet.

“The innate and dazzling talent of Loston is a beacon of quality in a cacophonous world. He is contemporary, stylish, joyful, playful, powerful, soulful and an immensely satisfying musician. Simply put, his music is a combination of humanity and genius,” said Michael Feinstein, the ambassador of The Great American Songbook.

Rounding out the trio with Harris are Mike Lee on tenor saxophone and Gianluca Renzi on bass. Together, they bring a lively approach to the American Classics.

Harris blends traditional jazz riffs, gospel and blues with his own unique stylings. A protégé of Ellis Marsalis, father of the famed Marsalis jazz family, Harris is reminiscent of another Marsalis protégé – Harry Connick, Jr.  Harris was a percussionist during his early studies, switching to piano on the advice of Marsalis.

“We are excited to bring the talented Loston Harris Trio to the Ebenezer Theater,” said Don Buxton, Executive Director of Chesapeake Music. “This continues our tradition of presenting great jazz artists to local audiences – which we’ve been doing for over a decade.”

Harris has performed with the prestigious Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra under the direction of multiple Grammy winner, Wynton Marsalis and appeared on the PBS special “Portraits in Blue” with fellow pianist and Grammy nominee, Marcus Roberts. His residency at The Carlyle has made him much in demand at celebrity events. Celebrities such as George Clooney, Sarah Jessica Parker, Tom Cruise, Michael Feinstein, and Sir Paul McCartney have all curated Loston’s talents. In addition, he’s received accolades from A-List celebrities such as Liza Minnelli, Clint Eastwood, Lenny Kravitz, Denzel Washington and Alicia Keys.

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/.

This year’s Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival will conclude on June 18^th with an exciting new work: John Harbison’s Six American Painters. According to Harbison, each of the movements of this 2000 composition was begun as a musical description of six paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. However, as the work developed, it seemed better to name the movements for the painters rather than for the specific paintings:

I wanted to evoke the artists’ after-images, rather than any of the individual paintings. When you look at a picture, you take away with you a general impression, a mood or color, that dominates the details; in music, on the other hand, one is apt to remember the details, a tune or a harmony. I wanted these movements to be a perceivable whole, an act of seeing.

The six painters (and the six movements) are: I. George Caleb Bingham; II. Thomas Eakins; III. Martin Johnson Heade; IV. Winslow Homer; V. Hans Hoffman; and VI. Richard Diebenkorn.

The composition was originally scored for a flute quartet and was premiered in Cincinnati in 2002. However, his long-time student and friend, oboist Peggy Pearson, asked him to re-score the flute part for oboe, which he did in 2003. Harbison has known Pearson since she was a teenager and has written a half-dozen or so pieces for her over the years. For the oboe version, he adapted some of the movements and scrapped the Homer movement altogether and replaced it with one based on a painting by the artist George Inness.

According to violinist Jennifer Elowitch, Founder and Artistic Director Emerita of the Portland Chamber Music Festival, Six American Painters “is one of those pieces that audiences can really enjoy on a first hearing. I like the piece’s simplicity, actually. There is a lot of rhythmic unison, so [the musicians] play together much of the time, and it gives the piece a lot of openness and clarity.”

John Harbison won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1989. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned him to write three operas, including The Great Gatsby in 1999. He is on the music faculty at MIT.

Peggy Pearson, the recipient of many prestigious awards, is a member of the Bach Aria Group, solo oboist with the Emmanuel Chamber Orchestra, and principal oboist with the Boston Philharmonic. She has toured internationally and recorded extensively. She has appeared with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Music from Marlboro. She is currently on the faculties at Boston Conservatory and MIT. Peggy also is a frequent and much-admired participant in the annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festivals.

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

Critically acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Jennifer Johnson Cano, will be an exciting newcomer at the 2022 Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival (June 10-18). Cano will open each of the first week’s three concerts, performing arias from Bach cantatas to the accompaniment of the Festival’s instrumentalists. In addition, she will perform works by Brahms, Chausson, and Ravel. Cano has performed in over 100 productions at The Metropolitan Opera and has been lauded as a “consummate actress” (The Wall Street Journal). She also is acclaimed for her song recitals. The New York Times enthused over her 2016 recital at the Morgan Library, stating:

Dramatic intelligence and imagination suffused every note of Ms. Johnson Cano’s performance. Endowed with an attention-grabbing dark mezzo, its depths bracing like strong coffee, she seems to thrive in the role of a storyteller.

The Festival’s artistic directors, cellist Marcy Rosen and violinist Catherine Cho, were especially pleased to engage Jennifer Johnson Cano in order to showcase the vocal component of the chamber music repertoire. The powerful blending of voice and instruments will be highlighted in the Bach cantatas, especially the intertwining of Cano’s rich mezzo with Peggy Pearson’s oboe in Bach’s expressive melodies. And in Ravel’s unabashedly emotional Chansons madécasses, scored for voice, piano, flute, and cello, Cano’s singing becomes the principal instrument in a quartet of independent voices.

Jennifer Johnson Cano performs each season with major orchestras and conductors. She has toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and performed with the New York Philharmonic. In February, she sang in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and in the New York premiere of Marc Neikrug’s chamber opera, A Song by Mahler, presented by the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society. This March, along with Renée Fleming and Kelli O’Hara, she starred in Kevin Puts’ The Hours with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

Johnson Cano is a native of St. Louis. She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition and made her Met debut in the 2009-10 season. Among her honors is taking First Prize in the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

“The beautiful thing about what I do for a living is I get to crawl around in the skin of people I don’t initially see myself in,” Cano says. “I get to explore a world and a way of thinking which is very different from my own. That’s the joy and the challenge of being an actor, trying to not hide yourself but to immerse yourself in another human being’s experience.”

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