CARAMOOR'S FALL 2005 GREAT ARTISTS IN THE MUSIC ROOM SERIES FEATURES

SCHUBERTIADE

THREE CONCERTS OF CHAMBER MUSIC BY FRANZ SCHUBERT

  Katonah, New York - Schubertiade, an autumn mini-festival of chamber music from the short, but ground-breaking composing career of Franz Schubert will be offered at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in November as part of its 2005-06 Great Artists in the Music Room series.

The three different Schubertiade programs will be presented on Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 pm; Saturday, November 19 at 8:00 pm; and Sunday, November 20 at 4:00 pm.

Michael Barrett, Chief Executive and General Director of Carmoor, said, "We've gathered together a remarkable group of artists to recreate the atmosphere of the original Viennese 'Schubertiades' - informal house concerts where Schubert, friends and guests performed his music.  These concerts will include vocal music, instrumental chamber music and solo piano works.  We're highlighting many of Schubert's last and greatest works.  The Caramoor House Museum Music Room offers an ideal setting for these masterful performers and 200 of our music loving friends."

Great Artists in the Music Room is a delightful series of concerts by acclaimed performers that take place in the Music Room, a 200-seat recital hall in the House Museum, the former home of Caramoor's founders, Lucie and Walter Rosen.

Fall 2005 Great Artists in the Music Room - Schubertiade

The program for Saturday, November 12 at 8:00 pm will include An Die Musik, D. 547; Trio in B-flat Major for Violin, Viola and Cello, D. 471; Impromptus, D. 899; Die Forelle, D. 550; and Quintet in A Major for Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello and Bass (The  Trout), D. 667.  The program will feature Sari Gruber, soprano; Colin Jacobsen, violin; Nicholas Cords, viola; Edward Arron, cello; Leigh Mesh, bass; Michael Barrett and Anton Kuerti, piano.

On Saturday, November 19 at 8:00 pm the program will be The Shepherd on the Rock, D. 960; Fantasia in F minor for Piano Four Hands, D. 940; String Quartet in D minor, D. 810 (Death and the Maiden).  It will feature Lisa Saffer, soprano; Igor Begelman, clarinet; Michael Barrett, Ilya Poletaev and Anna Polonsky, piano; and the Brentano String Quartet.

The Sunday, November 20 at 4:00 pm program will be Schwanengesang, D. 957; Sei Mir Gegrusst, D. 741; Fantasy in C Major for Violin and Piano, D. 934; Quintet in C Major for two Violins, Viola and two Cellos, D. 956.  It will feature William Sharp, baritone; John Musto, piano; Jennifer Frautschi, violin; Pedja Muzijevic, piano; and the Brentano String Quartet with Michael Kannen, cello.

Spring 2006 Great Artists in the Music Room

  In addition to the Fall 2005 Great Artists in the Music Room Schubertiade concerts, three concerts are scheduled for Spring 2006.  Pianist Krystian Zimerman will make his only New York area appearance on Sunday, April 2 at 5:00 pm; Windscape with Jeremy Denk, piano, will offer a Mozart and Bach program on Saturday, April 22 at 8:00 pm; and the Pacifica Quartet will perform on Saturday, May 13 at 8:00 pm.

About the Artists

  In the fall of 2000, cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Earlier that year, the Cincinnati native performed with Yo-Yo Ma and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the opening of the Caramoor International Music Festival.  Mr. Arron is featured in the new Metropolitan Museum Concerts and has recently collaborated with Renee Fleming, James Taylor, and Yo-Yo Ma, and with the Tokyo and Shanghai Quartets. 

Michael Barrett, piano, is Chief Executive and General Director of Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. He is also Co-founder of the critically-acclaimed New York Festival of Song, Music Director and Co-founder of the Moab Music Festival in Utah, and Artistic Advisor for the Estate of Leonard Bernstein.   A protégé of Leonard Bernstein, he began his long association with the renowned conductor and composer as a student in 1982. From 1985 to 1990, he served as an assistant conductor to the Maestro. Mr. Barrett has been a guest conductor with the Orchestra of St. Luke's, New York Philharmonic, London Symphony, Israel Philharmonic and the Orchestre National de France among others.  He also has served variously as conductor, producer, and music director of numerous special projects, among them: The Bernstein Beat, a young people's symphonic concert about rhythm, at Carnegie Hall; Volpone, an opera by Caramoor's newly-appointed Composer-in-Residence John Musto, the world premiere of which took place at Wolf Trap in 2004; and Hopper's Wife by Stewart Wallace and Michael Korie at the Long Beach Opera.

Raised in Kiev, Ukraine, Igor Begelman, clarinet, came to the United States in 1989. He received his Master's degree from The Juilliard School of Music and a Bachelor's degree from The Manhattan School of Music. His major teachers include Charles Neidich and Stanley Drucker. Mr. Begelman was awarded top prizes at the First Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition in Denmark and the 53rd Geneva International Competition in Switzerland. In addition, he has earned top prizes at William C. Byrd Competition, Koussevitsky Competition, International Clarinet Society Competition, Heida Hermanns International Competition, Tilden Prize Competition and Crane New Music Competition among others.

Since its inception in 1992, The Brentano String Quartet has been singled out for its technical brilliance, musical insight and stylistic elegance.  Within a year's time, they claimed the distinction of being named to three major awards, winning the first Cleveland Quartet Award, the 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the 10^th Annual Martin E. Segal Award.  For their first appearance in Great Britain at Wigmore Hall, the Brentano was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award for the most outstanding debut in 1997.  The Brentano String Quartet has made appearances in major musical centers throughout the United States and in such European venues as Royal Festival Hall in London, the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome, and in Frankfurt, Cologne, Florence, Geneva, Stuttgart and Paris.

Nicholas Cords, viola, is a busy performer in a wide range of musical genres. He has appeared as a chamber musician at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Alice Tully Hall, the Cologne Philharmonie, Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood , and the Library of Congress. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Philadelphia and Minnesota Orchestras, the New York String Seminar Orchestra, the Queens Symphony and numerous others. His chamber music credits include the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Piccolo Spoleto, Lincoln Center, Evian, Four Seasons, Ravinia, Bargemusic, Smithsonian Folklife, Charlottesville, and the Caramoor International festivals.

Jennifer Frautschi began playing the violin at age three. Her numerous prizes include the 1999 Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prizes in the Washington and Irving Klein International Competitions. Selected by Carnegie Hall for the 2003-04 Distinctive Debuts series, she gave her New York City recital debut at Carnegie's Weill Hall in April 2004. Additionally, as part of the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organization) "Rising Stars" recital series, she has debuted in ten major concert halls in Europe, including Wigmore  Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, La Cite de la Musique in Paris, and the Konzerthaus in Vienna.  She has performed at Caramoor yearly since André Previn first invited her as a Rising Star in 1992.

Hailed as "nothing short of sensational" by Opera magazine, soprano Sari Gruber's 2005-06 season includes her debut with Pittsburgh Opera as Despina in Così fan tutte, Poppea in Agrippina with Boston Baroque, as well as returns to Opera Columbus for Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel and Kentucky Opera for her first performances of Beth in Little Women. She will also sing concerts of Handel cantatas with Portland Baroque, and give a series of recitals for the Naumburg Foundation throughout the country, including the first of two recitals at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. In the summer of 2005, she sang her first performances of Adina in L'elisir d'amore with Berkshire Opera.

Violinist Colin Jacobsen, a 2003 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, first played to critical acclaim at the age of fourteen, collaborating with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic.  In addition to the New York Philharmonic, Mr. Jacobsen has been guest soloist with the symphony orchestras of Austin, Charlotte, Eugene, Charleston, the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra and the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra.  Mr. Jacobsen is a member of Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society's prestigious program for young artists, Chamber Music Society Two. He has also participated in the Second International Jerusalem Chamber Music Encounters led by Isaac Stern and received the Sol J. Hammerman Memorial Scholarship to attend the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute for Young Artists.

Cellist Michael Kannen was a founding member of  the Brentano String Quartet and for seven years performed with that group on concert stages around the world, on radio and television, and on recordings. During those first seven years, the Brentano Quartet was awarded the first Cleveland Quartet Award, the Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, and the Royal Philharmonic Society's award for best debut recital in England for the 1997-1998 season. With the Brentano Quartet, Mr. Kannen appeared regularly in such venues as Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Library of Congress in Washington, Wigmore Hall in London, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Chatelet Theater in Paris, and the Sydney Opera House.

Pianist Anton Kuerti's distinguished performing career has included tours to nearly forty countries, including Japan, Russia, and most of Europe. He has performed with most major U.S. orchestras and conductors, such as the New York Philharmonic, National Symphony (Menuhin), Cleveland Orchestra (Szell), Philadelphia Orchestra (Ormandy), and the orchestras of Atlanta, Denver, Detroit, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and San Francisco. His vast repertoire includes some 50 concertos, including one he composed himself.

Principal double bass with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1993, Leigh Mesh received his diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music before starting his professional career. He first performed with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, then the Chicago and  Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras.  He is regularly invited to chamber music series in Linton, the Pensacola Classical Festival, the Martha's Vineyard Chamber Music Society, the Mainly Mozart Festival in San Diego and the Salt Bay Chamberfest. Leigh Mesh has played with the MET Chamber Ensemble, the Caramoor Virtuosi and the Brentano and Tokyo String Quartets.

Composer-in-Residence at Caramoor for the 2005-06 season, award-winning composer and pianist John Musto is regarded as one of the most versatile musicians before the public today.  Mr. Musto was a finalist for the 1997 Pulitzer Prize for his orchestral song cycle Dove Sta Amore.  He has also garnered two regional Emmys and two CINE Awards for his scores written for television.  In 2000 he was awarded a Rockefeller Fellowship at Bellagio, Italy.  Mr. Musto has been featured on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Composer Portrait series at Columbia's Miller Theater.  Mr. Musto recently completed his first operatic work, the comedy Volpone, with librettist Mark Campbell. Hailed as a masterpiece by the Washington Post, Volpone was premiered by the Wolftrap Opera in March, 2004 under the baton of conductor Michael Barrett.

One of the most versatile of artists, Bosnian-born Pedja Muzijevic, piano, has been widely praised for his interpretations of the standard literature and for his imaginative programming. He has toured extensively as soloist with orchestras and as a recitalist throughout eastern and western Europe, Great Britain, Canada, the United States, South America and Asia. His artistic curiosity has led him to explore both the music of the 18th and 19th centuries on period instruments and the music of such contemporary composers as Knussen, Carter, Cage, Corigliano, Ades, Wuorinen, and many others.  His many festival engagements encompass, among others, performances at Tanglewood, Mostly Mozart Festival at Avery Fisher Hall in New York, Newport Festival, OK Mozart Festival, Aix-en-Provence, Dubrovnik, Merano and Bratislava.

Ilya Poletaev, piano, has performed across Canada, the United States, and Israel, both as soloist and chamber musician. He began his piano studies at age 6 in Moscow and continued his studies in Israel, where at age 13 he performed a piano concerto of his own composition. After moving to Canada, he became a student of Marietta Orlov, herself a pupil of the legendary Florica Musicescu. At age 17, Mr. Poletaev made his debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, performing the Brahms D minor concerto. Since then he performed at several prestigious festivals, including Sarasota, Norfolk, the Banff Festival of the Arts, The Orford Arts Center, Yellow Barn Music Festival, and Stratford Summer Music Festival.

Anna Polonsky, piano, is an accomplished soloist and chamber musician. She has appeared with the Moscow Virtuosi under Vladimir Spivakov, the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Falleta, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and many others. Anna Polonsky has collaborated with the Guarneri, Orion, and Audubon Quartets, and with such musicians as Mitsuko Uchida, David Shifrin, Richard Goode, Ida and Ani Kavafian, Cho-Liang Lin,  Anton Kuerti, Gary Hoffman, Fred Sherry and Ralph Kirschbaum. She is regularly invited to perform chamber music at festivals such as Marlboro, Chamber Music Northwest, Santa Fe, Bridgehampton, Bard and Caramoor, as well as at Bargemusic in New York City. She has given concerts in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Alice Tully Hall, Weill Hall and the 92nd St. Y in New York, and has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe and Asia.

Renowned for her interpretation of 20th-century repertoire, soprano Lisa Saffer is the preeminent interpreter of the role of Marie in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten and has appeared in productions of Klaas de Vries's A King Riding, Hans Werner Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers, Birtwistle's Punch and Judy, and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, among many others. Her performance of Lulu at English National Opera was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for outstanding achievement in opera and received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for best vocal performance.  In concert Saffer has appeared with the Atlanta Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic in works spanning four centuries. She has appeared in Ravel's L'Enfant et les sortileges with Pierre Boulez at Carnegie Hall, Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic, and Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with conductor David Robertson in the opening concerts of Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. Her world premieres include John Harbison's Four Psalms, James Primosch's From a Book of Hours, and Bright Sheng's Three Chinese Love Songs.

William Sharp, baritone, is the winner of several prestigious awards including the 1987 Carnegie Hall International Music Competition.  A frequent guest soloist with the Bethlehem Bach Festival, Mr. Sharp appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Society, New York Festival of Songs, Bard Music Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. William Sharp is also known for his performances of the early music repertoire, and frequently performs as soloist with the Handel & Haydn Society, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and American Bach Soloists, in addition to his performances with the Bethlehem Bach Festival.

Tickets and Subscriptions

Tickets for all Great Artists in the Music Room performances are $40, with the exception of Krystian Zimerman's recital, which will only be available as part of a subscription.  Discounted subscription available are the Sextet subscription, including tickets to six Great Artists in the Music Room concerts for $192, and the Quartet which offers four concerts for $136.

For tickets, subscriptions, further information, and directions to Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts call the Box Office at 914-232-1252 or visit www.caramoor.org.

Caramoor is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah, New York. 

About Caramoor

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built the great house and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, bringing to reality his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world.  Their musical evenings were the seeds of the International Music Festival of today.  Realizing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor - the house with its art collection; the gardens; and the musical programs on summer evenings - the Rosens established a Foundation to open Caramoor to the public in perpetuity.