FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact:  David Mayhew for Cohn Dutcher Associates
February 18, 2008 
(203) 738-9280 david@davidmayhew.net

SPRING SEASON OF INDOOR CONCERTS BEGINS MARCH 15
AT CARAMOOR CENTER FOR MUSIC AND THE ARTS

Concerts in the Music Room of the House Museum begin with two comic operas on
March 15 and conclude with a special Cabaret benefit performance on May 9

CARA(moor) ITALIA celebrates the glorious musical tradition of Italy

Katonah, NY - Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts announces Caramoor Indoors, its spring concert series, beginning Saturday, March 15, 2008 with an evening of two new comic operas:  John Musto's Bastianello and William Bolcom's Lucrezia.  The operas are part of CARA(moor) ITALIA, a special series of three Great Artists in the Music Room concerts evoking the glorious musical tradition of Italy.  The other concerts in the series include a recital featuring violinist Anne Akiko Meyers and pianist Norman Krieger and a concert featuring the Caramoor Virtuosi.  Additionally, the Escher String Quartet, Caramoor's 2007-08 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, will give a family-friendly Caramoor Classics concert.  The Spring 2008 Caramoor Indoors season concludes with Cabaret in the Music Room featuring celebrated cabaret performers Jeff Harnar and Shauna Hicks in their acclaimed show I Got Rhythm! - Mickey and Judy's Hollywood.

Caramoor Indoors concerts take place in the Music Room of the House Museum, the residence of Caramoor's founders, Walter and Lucie Rosen.  Caramoor's Chief Executive and General Director, Michael Barrett, describes the Music Room as "perhaps the most elegant and intimate performance space in the metropolitan area."  The Music Room, which seats 200 for performances, is richly decorated with an extraordinary collection of Renaissance paintings, sculpture and tapestry, and Asian art.

Great Artists in the Music Room - CARA(moor) ITALIA

March 15 - New York Festival of Song
John Musto's Bastianello and William Bolcom's Lucrezia

Comic opera returns to the Music Room when New York Festival of Song brings two newly commissioned operas to the Music Room on Saturday, March 15, at 8:00 pm.  John Musto's Bastianello, based on an Italian folktale, is a family fable of love and folly set in 18th-century rural Italy.  William Bolcom's Lucrezia, based on Machiavelli's La Mandragola, is a wickedly funny seduction satire, retold from the viewpoint of the story's wise and captivating heroine.  Both works, with libretti by Mark Campbell, are scored for five singers and two pianos and will be presented in semi-staged performances.

The operas, which will have their world premieres at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City several nights before their Westchester premieres in the Music Room, will feature Lisa Vroman, soprano; Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano; Paul Appleby, tenor; Patrick Mason, baritone; and Matt Boehler, bass.  Steven Blier and Michael Barrett will collaborate at the pianos.

April 13 - Anne Akiko Meyers, violin & Norman Krieger, piano

Anne Akiko Meyers, violin, and Norman Krieger, piano, continue CARA(moor) ITALIA on Sunday, April 13 at 4:00 pm.  The two internationally renowned artists will interpret duo and solo works with strong connections to Italy:  Domenico Scarlatti's Sonata in B-minor, Longo 33 and Sonata in D-minor, Longo 366; Ottorino Respighi's Poema Autunnale; Igor Stravinsky's Suite italienne for Violin and Piano; and Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Opus 9.

April 26 - Caramoor Virtuosi

CARA(moor) ITALIA concludes on Saturday, April 26 at 8:00 pm with the Caramoor Virtuosi:  Ayano Ninomiya and Yosuke Kawasaki, violins; Mark Holloway and Yura Lee, violas; Sophie Shao and Edward Arron, cellos.  Their Italy-infused program includes Luigi Boccherin's Quintet in F-minor for Two Violins, Viola, and Two Cellos, Opus 11, No. 4; Giovanni Sollima's selections from Viaggio in Italia for Two Violins, Viola and Two Cellos; and Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Sextet for Two Violins, Two Violas, and Two Cellos, Opus 70 Souvenir de Florence.

The Spring 2008 Indoors season is made possible, in part, through generous funding from Floy and Amos Kaminski.

Caramoor Classics

April 6 - Escher String Quartet
2007-08 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

On Sunday, April 6 at 4:00 pm the Escher String Quartet - Adam Barnett-Hart, violin; Wu Jie, violin; Pierre Lapointe, viola; and Andrew Janss, cello - will give a Caramoor Classics concert.  Caramoor Classics performances are appropriate for families with children 8 years and older and include comments from the artists about the program. 

The Escher String Quartet, Caramoor's 2007-08 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, will play Anton Webern's Langsamer Satz for String Quartet and Five Movements for String Quartet, Opus 5; Alexander von Zemlinsky's String Quartet No. 4, Opus 25; Louis Gruenberg's Four Diversions for String Quartet, Opus 20; and Ravel's String Quartet.

Cabaret in the Music Room - May 9

New York City's celebrated cabaret singers, Jeff Harnar, a multi-award-winner, and Shauna Hicks, leading lady of Broadway's Blood Brothers, will make their Westchester debuts in Cabaret in the Music Room on Friday, May 9 at 8:00 pm.  The two stars will join forces for I Got Rhythm! - Mickey and Judy's Hollywood, a delightful program that Stephen Holden of The New York Times called "just the right mixture of nostalgia and irony in a seamlessly fluent show that mixes songs and movie lore with astutely chosen snatches of vintage movie dialogue."

This special benefit event includes a meet-the-artists champagne and dessert reception following the performance. 

Caramoor thanks Adela and Lawrence Elow for generously underwriting this benefit evening and sharing their love of cabaret by introducing the best current performers to our audience.

Tickets