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Music - The Art of Friendship

June 19, 2015

Music: The Art of Friendship

Bowdoin International Music Festival Opens This Week

Events Daily, June 29 through August 7, 2015

Brunswick, Maine — The Bowdoin International Music Festival welcomes more than 300 renowned artists and aspiring young musicians from around the world to Brunswick this week to open the Festival’s 51^st season, the first under the direction of David Ying and Phillip Ying in their inaugural year as artistic directors. The 2015 Festival theme, “Music: The Art of Friendship,” was chosen by the Yings to celebrate the significance of friendship within the world of classical music, among mentors and students at the Bowdoin Festival, and between the Festival and the community it inhabits each summer. Connecting with the community in the spirit of friendship over the next six weeks, Festival artists will present more than 100 concerts, recitals, masterclasses, and other educational events in venues ranging from Bowdoin’s superb Studzinski Recital Hall and Brunswick High School’s Crooker Theater, to historic churches and downtown libraries, from Woolwich to Portland.

“An Evening Among Friends”

Gala Concert and Fundraising Dinner

“An Evening Among Friends,” the Festival’s annual gala dinner and concert, takes place Tuesday, June 30, beginning at 5:00 PM. The concert will feature several Kaplan Fellows, the immensely talented young artists who have been awarded Fellowships to study and perform with the Festival’s faculty this summer, in concert with the Ying brothers. A reception follows, attended by the fellows, the artistic directors, supporters, and friends. Dinner, by the award-winning Bowdoin College catering service, includes a special dessert crafted by James Beard Award-winning chef Sam Hayward of Fore Street restaurant. Individual tickets are $150 for the evening’s festivities. All proceeds benefit the Festival’s scholarship fund.

For further information call 207-373-1400 or email kippy@bowdoinfestival.org.

Wednesday Upbeat!

The Bowdoin Festival’s concert season gets underway in earnest on Wednesday, July 1 with the Wednesday Upbeat! series at Studzinski Recital Hall. The evening’s program includes Frédéric Chopin’s only cello sonata, the Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op. 65. Festival artists Amir Eldan (cello) and Tao Lin (piano) will perform this “rare and beautiful” work (as described by David Ying).

Wednesday’s concert also includes Belgian composer Joseph Jongen’s Concert à Cinq, a work for flute, harp, and strings, featuring harpist June Han of the New York Philharmonic, and Claude Debussy’s Piano Trio in G Major, performed by violinist Kurt Sassmannshaus, cellist David Ying, and pianist Fantee Jones, a Kaplan Fellow.

Wednesday Upbeat! concerts are held at 7:30 PM in Studzinski Recital Hall on the campus of Bowdoin College. Tickets are $40.

Music at the Museum

In collaboration with the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, the Bowdoin Festival will present Festival artists in the museum’s gallery spaces this summer. The first of two concerts takes place on July 2 at 11:00 AM, and will present pianist George Lopez presenting Chopin’s Nocturne in F Minor Op. 55, No. 1, and, with cellist David Ying and violinist Yefim Romanov, Schubert’s Notturno in E-flat, Op. 148, D. 897.

Peter Basquin, piano, and Sergiu Schwartz, violin will follow with Grieg’s Violin Sonata No. 3, Op. 45. Violinist Ayano Ninomiya will close the concert with a medley of short, virtuosic works, accompanied by Pei-Shan Lee on piano.

Music at the Museum concerts are held at 11:00 AM at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. Free. RSVP required at 207-725-3275.

Festival Fridays

The Festival’s premier concert series, Festival Fridays, begins Friday, July 3 in Crooker Theater. One program highlight is the pairing of violinist Ilya Kaler and pianist Boris Slutsky, longtime friends, touring partners, and Festival teachers, to perform César Franck’s Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano. Festival regulars will recall this duo’s stunning performance of Richard Strauss’s Violin Sonata in E-flat Major last summer.

The husband-and-wife team of Paul Katz, founding cellist of the Cleveland Quartet, and Pei-Shan Lee, the Festival’s director of collaborative piano, will open Friday’s program with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and Cello in F Major, Op. 5, No. 1.

After intermission, woodwinds and strings round out the program with Festival faculty and Kaplan Fellows performing together in Johannes Brahms’ Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11.

Festival Friday concerts are held at 7:30PM in Brunswick High School’s Crooker Theater. Tickets are $40.

Artists of Tomorrow

The first Artists of Tomorrow student concert on Thursday July 2 will feature the Kaplan Fellows, the top young artists studying at the Festival this summer. The concert program will be announced the day of the concert on bowdoinfestival.org.

Artists of tomorrow concerts are held at 7:30PM in Studzinski Recital Hall at Bowdoin College, suggested donation is $10.

Bowdoin Festival Extra - Rehearsing with the Ying Quartet

The Festival’s public educational programs, collectively publicized under the Bowdoin Festival Extra banner, begin with a special program on Monday, June 29 at 4:00 PM. featuring the Ying Quartet demonstrating chamber music rehearsal in Studzinski Recital Hall on the Bowdoin College campus.

On Thursday, July 2, Lyris Hung of D’Addario Strings, will present Demystifying Your Strings, a program aimed at helping musicians become more educated string purchasers, players, and teachers. 4:00 PM in Bowdoin’s Gibson Hall.

Both events are free.

For a complete schedule of Festival concerts, ticket information, and to sign up for emailed program updates, visit bowdoinfestival.org. Tickets may also be ordered at the box office, 2077253895.

The mission of the Bowdoin International Music Festival, which was founded in 1964, is to prepare gifted young musicians from around the world for a life in music through study with world-class artists, and to present classical music in concerts performed to the highest artistic standards. The Gamper Festival of Contemporary Music, founded in 1965, has commissioned and presented the work of emerging and established composers, including Luciano Berio, George Crumb, Sebastian Currier, William Bolcom, George Rochberg, Kaija Saariaho, and many others. Over its 51year history, the Bowdoin Festival has established itself as a vital force throughout the music world. Visit the Festival on the web at bowdoinfestival.org

Promotional photographs attached. For additional information, contact Peter Simmons, peter@bowdoinfestival.org.