Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival 2021: August 4-22, Back Onstage, Live and In-Person

The 38^th annual festival presents 13 concerts August 4-22 at its regular venues – the festival’s home, the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, as well as the Parrish Art Museum and Channing Sculpture Garden

 

The festival opens with “Composer Portrait: Bach’s Chaconne” featuring Jennifer Koh, violin, and Alan Alda, narrator, and includes a BCM commission world premiere by Eric Ewazen

 

A new series: BCM Autumn

 

  

 

After a “year of quiet stages” and online programs, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, Long Island’s longest-running classical music festival, is back in business for live, in-person performances this summer. BCMF 2021 presents a total of 13 concerts August 4-22, most at its home venue of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, with returns to the Parrish Art Museum and Channing Sculpture Garden.

 

Bridgehampton Chamber Music’s 38^th annual season is not a complete return to its pre-pandemic configuration: the festival is comprised of eight hour-long programs performed without intermission, five of which have repeat performances. Seating and capacity will be set, and updated if need be, to comply with state and local guidelines.

 

“We are so happy we can once again open our doors and share the joy of live music-making after a long year of quiet stages,” said BCM Founder and Artistic Director Marya Martin. “It’s been a difficult year for so many, so this summer we are presenting some of chamber music’s most beloved and life-affirming works.”

 

The festival opens with “Composer Portrait: Bach’s Chaconne,” a program devoted to this single movement of J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 for Solo Violin that is one of the most cherished works in the classical canon. Celebrated violinist Jennifer Koh performs the entire Partita, and renowned author and actor – and longtime friend to BCM – Alan Alda tells the work’s story. Other program highlights include an arrangement by Marya Martin of Mozart’s A Little Night Music for winds and strings; Beethoven’s arrangements of traditional folk songs; excerpts from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires; Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence; Schubert’s Cello Quintet; and Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1. The season also includes the world premiere of a BCM commission: Seasons of Our Time, a work for flute, violins, viola, cello, bass, and harpsichord by Eric Ewazen.

 

The festival’s annual benefit, a concert with cocktails and dinner, and the annual Wm. Brian Little Concert, an event held at the Channing Sculpture Garden with wine and hors d’oeuvres, will go on as well – both events abiding by the health guidelines of their respective venues.

 

As always, the festival’s roster of artists comprises one of the best multi-generational groups of chamber musicians to be found anywhere. Led by flutist and festival founder Marya Martin, this summer’s BCM musicians are James Austin Smith, oboe; Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Stewart Rose, horn; Benjamin Beilman, Stella Chen, Frank Huang, Ani Kavafian, Jennifer Koh, Tessa Lark, Kristin Lee, Amy Schwartz Moretti, and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin; Ettore Causa, Haesue Lee, Matthew Lipman, Cynthia Phelps, and Cong Wu, viola; Carter Brey, Clive Greensmith, Mihai Marica, Peter Stumpf, and Paul Watkins, cello; Xavier Foley and Donald Palma, bass; Michael Brown, Henry Kramer, and Gilles Vonsattel, piano; Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord; Gregory Feldmann, baritone; and Alan Alda, narrator.

 

A new component: BCM Autumn

Before the pandemic, Bridgehampton Chamber Music had plans in place to inaugurate a new mini-series, BCM Autumn, in the fall of 2020. When the three concerts of the annual BCM Spring series could not take place last year, they were rescheduled as the fall series – and then were replaced by online events. This year, Bridgehampton Chamber Music will launch BCM Autumn as a three-concert series. “It is particularly gratifying to expand our activities – to grow! – after the year we’ve all had,” said Marya Martin.

 

Bridgehampton Chamber Music

“This longtime East End festival, directed by the flutist Marya Martin,” said The New Yorker, “has flourished by offering concerts both effervescent and distinguished.” In the 37 years since its founding, Bridgehampton Chamber Music has become known for presenting a broad range of music performed by some of the best musicians in the world in one of the most beautiful seaside settings on the East Coast. 

 

BCM Festival: Usually comprising more than a dozen events over four weeks, the summer festival has developed a loyal core audience among local residents and summer visitors since it began with four artists in two concerts in the intimate setting of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. The festival is still based in the graceful 1842 church—which boasts glowing acoustics—and has gradually expanded to include other special event venues, including the Channing Sculpture Garden and Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton and the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

 

BCM Records: In 2012, BCM launched its own record label, BCMF Records.  Signifying the festival’s commitment to American composers, the label’s first recording was BCMF Premieres, a disc of contemporary American music. The label’s current discography of 12 releases includes music by Bruce Adolphe, Robert Beaser, Leon Kirchner, Howard Shore, Paul Moravec, Kevin Puts, and Elizabeth Brown, as well as Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and more.

 

BCM Spring: Convinced that there were music lovers looking for more opportunities to hear excellent chamber music year-round, BCM introduced its Spring series in 2015, and expanded it from two concerts to three two years later.

 

BCM Autumn: A new three-concert series was to have taken place in the fall of 2020, but it was moved online due to the pandemic. BCM will launch this series in person in the fall of 2021.

 

Bridgehampton Chamber Music has a wide variety of performance videos from past seasons posted on its website, and its YouTube channel features the online programs created during the past year.

 

BCM website “Watch & Listen” page: https://www.bcmf.org/watch-listen

BCM YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/bcmfmusic

 

www.bcmf.org

 

Marya Martin

Internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin enjoys a musical career of remarkable breadth and achievement. Gracefully balancing the roles of chamber musician, festival director, soloist, teacher, and supporter of musical institutions, she has performed throughout the world in such halls as London’s Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall, Sydney Opera House, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and other international venues.

 

A native of New Zealand, Ms. Martin studied at Yale University, and shortly thereafter moved to Paris to study with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. After winning top prizes in the Naumburg, Munich International, and Jean-Pierre Rampal International competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild and Young Concert Artists International Auditions—all within a two-year period—she returned to the U.S. and has since appeared as a soloist with major orchestras and at leading festivals and chamber music series throughout the country.

 

In 2006 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland, and in 2011 received the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award from Yale University. Committed to expanding the flute repertoire, she has commissioned more than 20 new works. She most recently commissioned eight works for flute and piano comprising Eight Visions, an anthology published by Theodore Presser, and recorded them for the Naxos label. In 2011, Albany Records released Marya Martin Plays Eric Ewazen. Ms. Martin has been a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music since 1996.

 

Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival 2021 Artists

 

 

Flute

Marya Martin

 

Oboe

James Austin Smith

 

Clarinet

Yasmina Spiegelberg*

 

Bassoon

Peter Kolkay

 

Horn

Stewart Rose

 

Violin

Benjamin Beilman

Stella Chen*

Frank Huang

Ani Kavafian

Jennifer Koh

Tessa Lark

Kristin Lee

Amy Schwartz Moretti

Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu

 

Viola

Ettore Causa

Haesue Lee*

Matthew Lipman

Cynthia Phelps

Cong Wu

 

Cello

Carter Brey

Clive Greensmith
Mihai Marica

Peter Stumpf

Paul Watkins

 

Bass

Xavier Foley

Donald Palma

 

Piano

Michael Brown

Henry Kramer*

Gilles Vonsattel

 

Harpsichord

Kenneth Weiss

 

Baritone

Gregory Feldmann*

 

Narrator

Alan Alda

 

 

 

*BCM Debut

 

 

 

 

BRIDGEHAMPTON CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL 2021

 

Wednesday, August 4, 2021, at 5pm & 7pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

 

“Composer Portrait: Bach’s Chaconne”

 

“On one stave, for a small instrument, the man writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings.”

--Johannes Brahms, on Bach’s Chaconne, in a letter to Clara Schumann

 

Unlike anything else he composed, the final movement of J. S. Bach’s Partita in D minor, the Chaconne, stands alone. We take a deep dive into the work with renowned author and actor Alan Alda, and celebrated violinist Jennifer Koh performs the complete Partita.

 

1. S. Bach Partita in D minor for Violin, BWV 1004

 

Alan Alda, narrator; Jennifer Koh, violin

 

Tickets: $65, $45, $10 student ticket

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/Bach-Chaconne

 

Saturday, August 7, 2021, at 6:30pm – concert, cocktails and dinner

Location to be announced

 

Annual Benefit: “Joy in Gathering”

 

After a seemingly endless year of challenge, the BCM Board of Directors invites you to join them in an evening celebrating sublime music and friendship.

 

1. A. Mozart (arr. M. Martin) Eine Kliene Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) for Winds and Strings,
2. 525

Louis Spohr                                         Nonet in F major for Winds and Strings, Op. 31

               

Marya Martin, flute; James Austin Smith, oboe; Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Stewart Rose, horn; Ani Kavafian, violin; Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Clive Greensmith, cello; Donald Palma, bass

 

Individual benefit tickets: $1,500, $2,000. For benefit ticket information, call Michael Lawrence at 212-741-9073.

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/annual-benefit-joy-in-gathering

 

 

 

Sunday, August 8, 2021, at 5pm & 7pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

 

“A Lotta Night Music”

 

How better to launch our return to live concerts than with Mozart’s A Little Night Music? How about in a newly arranged version for winds and strings by Artistic Director Marya Martin. We follow this joyful music with fellow Austrian Ludwig Thuille’s sumptuous Sextet for piano and winds.

 

1. A. Mozart (arr. Martin) Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music) for Winds and Strings,
2. 525

Ludwig Thuille                                   Sextet for Piano and Winds in B-flat major, Op. 6

 

Marya Martin, flute; James Austin Smith, oboe; Yasmina Spiegelman, clarinet; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Stewart Rose, horn; Ani Kavafian, violin; Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violin; Cynthia Phelps, viola; Clive Greensmith, cello; Donald Palma, bass; Michael Brown, piano

 

Tickets: $65, $45, $10 student ticket

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/a-lotta-night-music

 

Wednesday, August 11, 2021, at 5pm & 7pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

 

“Schubert’s Cello Quintet”

 

In a season emphasizing beauty, joy, and renewal, perhaps no piece more exemplifies these qualities than Schubert’s Cello Quintet. Full of gorgeous melodies, it stands as one of the crowning achievements of the chamber music repertoire. The program opens with Barrière’s uplifting sonata for two cellos alone.

 

Jean-Baptiste Barrière    Sonata X for Two Cellos

Franz Schubert                  Cello Quintet in C major, D. 956

 

Frank Huang, violin; Kristin Lee, violin; Matthew Lipman, viola; Carter Brey, cello; Paul Watkins, cello

 

Tickets: $65, $45, $10 student ticket

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/schubert-cello-quintet

 

 

Sunday, August 15, 2021, at 5pm & 7pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

 

“Beethoven & Brahms”

 

Vigor, excitement, and even a little danger are to be found in Brahms’ Piano Quartet in G minor. Beethoven’s clever and characterful arrangements of traditional folksongs round out the program. 

 

Ludwig van Beethoven Folksongs for Baritone, Flute, Violin, Cello, and Piano

Johannes Brahms             Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25

 

Marya Martin, flute; Henry Kramer, piano; Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin; Ettore Causa, viola; Mihai Marica, cello; Gregory Feldmann, baritone

 

Tickets: $65, $45, $10 student ticket

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/beethoven-brahms

 

Tuesday, August 17, 2021, at 6:30pm

Parrish Art Museum

 

“BCMF @ the Parrish”

 

Like many of the artworks at the Parrish, Boccherini’s Quintet is a virtuosic delight, while Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir de Florence paints a picture of the vibrant Italian city.

 

Luigi Boccherini                                 Quintet for Flute and Strings in F major

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky                 Souvenir de Florence in D minor, Op. 70

 

Marya Martin, flute; Benjamin Beilman, violin; Tessa Lark, violin; Haesue Lee, viola; Ettore Causa, viola;

Mihai Marica, cello; Peter Stumpf, cello

 

Tickets: $65, $45, $10 student ticket

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/bcmf-the-parrish

 

Friday, August 20, 2021, at 6:00pm – wine and hors d’oeuvres

Channing Sculpture Garden

 

“Wm. Brian Little Concert: Seasons Upon Seasons”

 

While it feels like we have been bunkered in our homes for years, it’s only been four seasons, so this summer we’ll present all four in one hour. Enjoy them and the world premiere of a work from BCM favorite Eric Ewazen along with some food and wine from the Channing Daughters Winery.

 

Eric Ewazen        Seasons of Our Time for Flute, Violins, Viola, Cello, Bass, and Harpsichord

(BCM commission; World Premiere)

Antonio Vivaldi “Spring” and “Summer” from The Four Seasons, Op. 8

Astor Piazzolla   “Fall” and “Winter” from Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas

(The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

 

Marya Martin, flute; Benjamin Beilman, violin; Stella Chen, violin; Tessa Lark, violin; Cong Wu, viola; Peter Stumpf, cello; Xavier Foley, bass; Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord

 

Tickets: $175

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/wm-brian-little-concert-seasons-upon-seasons

 

Sunday, August 22, 2021, at 5pm & 7pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

 

“Season Finale - Uplift and Romance”

 

The season comes to a close with sparkle and romance. Nino Rota’s Trio lift the spirits, and Bruch’s rarely heard Piano Quintet is filled with lush, sweeping melodies.   

 

Nino Rota            Trio for Flute, Violin, and Piano

Max Bruch           Piano Quintet

 

Marya Martin, flute; Benjamin Beilman, violin; Tessa Lark, violin; Cong Wu, viola; Peter Stumpf, cello; Gilles Vonsattel, piano

 

Tickets: $65, $45, $10 student ticket

https://www.bcmf.org/product-page/season-finale-uplift-and-romance

 

Tickets may be purchased on the festival’s website, www.bcmf.org, or by calling 212-741-9403. A student ticket price of $10 is available for most concerts.

 

 

May 26, 2021