JOURNEYS IN THE LIGHT, Democracy, Diversity, and Myth in the Wake of the Mayflower: Sunday, May 7, 3 PM
On Sunday, May 7, at 3 PM, the Jacob Sears Memorial Library will present a preview of this newly updated one-hour documentary. The film’s creators look beyond the iconic Euro-centric Mayflower story to present highlights in the history of the African American and Cape Verdean people in this region since the arrival of the English settlers in 1620. They find in the Mayflower Compact, and antecedents in Native American governance, powerful relevance for the divided America of today. Journeys in the Light tells its tale through the eyes, historical research, and works of art of the vibrant community surrounding Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis. The documentary, produced by Janet Murphy Robertson, features important local artists including Robin Joyce Miller, Carl Lopes, Pamela Chatterton Purdy, Joe Diggs, Michael Alfano, Sean Cassidy, Vasco Pires, and others.
DREAMS FROM A PLANET IN PERIL to be Screened at Brewster Ladies Library, Saturday, April 15
DREAMS FROM A PLANET IN PERIL by Lee Roscoe and Janet Murphy Robertson
Screening and Talk Back Discussion with Lee, Janet, and Laura Kelley of Protect Our Cape Cod Aquifer (POCCA)
Brewster Ladies Library, Saturday, April 15, 2:00-4:00 PM
Register at brewsterladieslibrary.org. Free admission.
Please join us for a screening of Dreams from a Planet in Peril, a spellbinding new film about planetary abuse and its underlying causes. The film’s characters, settings, and language change in the four different “dreams” within the film. Earth’s peril comes to life in a variety of engaging ways—as hyperbole, humor, satire, or melodrama and with all the variety, confusion, emotional range, and fragmentation of the dreamworld itself. Created by writer/director Lee Roscoe and filmmaker/producer Janet Murphy Robertson, the film was first released in October 2022 as individual film shorts, one of which premiered at New York’s prestigious Chelsea Film Festival and was a finalist in three categories at the Independent Shorts Festival in LA. Laura Kelley of Protect Our Cape Cod Aquifer (POCCA) will host a post screening discussion of eco-solutions, and the film’s creators will answer questions.
More about the Film
In the first dream—Water Spirits Colloquy—two Greek demigods and a legendary Native American spirit meet to share their torment over the ravaging of Earth’s waters by humans and eventually conspire to exact revenge. They interact amidst spectacular underwater and terrestrial imagery and in scenes of environmental destruction that build to a dramatic ending. In The Cage, an owl watches as three characters argue, with a mixture of stunning insight and staggering myopia, in a fast-paced mini class war that highlights societal conflicts impeding change. In Reprieve, an indigenous man in despair over the demise of his culture and the Earth is saved by the common decency of people he barely knows. The Warning brings the film to its stunning conclusion as the nameless slumbering woman is propelled by her dreams into a cartoon world so outrageously destructive to the planet that she steps into the dream and attempts to stop the madness.
In addition to Roscoe, the cast includes nine other beloved Massachusetts-based actors: Tom Wolfson, Judith Partelow (courtesy of SAG), Rod Owens, Karen McPherson, Constance Wilkinson, Cleo Zani, Geof Newton, Olivia Thompson, and LeVane Harrington.
Dreams from a Planet in Peril is supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (Towns of Brewster and Dennis).
Regional Premiere: Cape Cod Museum of Art to Screen DREAMS FROM A PLANET IN PERIL
The Cape Cod Museum of Art will host the Regional Premiere of Dreams from a Planet in Peril, a new experimental art film by writer/director Lee Roscoe and filmmaker/producer Janet Murphy Robertson. The action unfolds as a series of intense dreams in which the female protagonist—a passionate environmentalist—witnesses the progressive destruction of the Earth and its underlying causes and consequences. She ultimately awakens and confronts the perpetrators within the fourth dream itself. This last portion of the movie—also distributed as a short film titled The Warning—had its New York premiere at the prestigious Chelsea Film Festival in October 2022 and was a finalist for three additional awards at the Independent Film Shorts Awards in LA. After the 65-minute screening, there will be a talk back session with the creators and some of the starring actors.
Just as in an actual night of dreams, the film’s “plot,” visuals, and language change completely as the action unfolds and literal realism is rare. Earth’s peril comes to life at different points as hyperbole, humor, satire, or melodrama and with all the variety, confusion, emotional range, and fragmentation of the dreamworld itself. In the first dream—Water Spirits Colloquy—two Greek demigods and a legendary Native American spirit meet to share their torment over the ravaging of Earth’s waters by humans and eventually conspire to exact revenge. They interact amidst spectacular underwater and terrestrial imagery and in scenes of environmental destruction that build to a dramatic ending. In The Cage, an owl watches as three characters argue, with a mixture of stunning insight and staggering myopia, in a fast-paced mini class war that highlights societal conflicts impeding change. In Reprieve, an indigenous man in despair over the demise of his culture and the Earth is saved by the common decency of people he barely knows. The Warning brings the film to its stunning conclusion as the nameless slumbering woman is propelled by her dreams into a cartoon world so outrageously destructive to the planet that she steps into the dream and attempts to stop the madness. More about the film here.
In addition to Roscoe, the cast includes nine other beloved Massachusetts-based actors: Tom Wolfson, Judith Partelow (courtesy of SAG), Rod Owens, Karen McPherson, Constance Wilkinson, Cleo Zani, Geof Newton, Olivia Thompson, and LeVane Harrington.
DREAMS FROM A PLANET IN PERIL is supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (Towns of Brewster and Dennis).
Lee Roscoe and Janet Murphy Robertson, photo by Johnny Bergmann
An interview of Lee Roscoe and Janet Murphy Robertson by Johnny Bergmann, ArtsLight, Lower Cape TV, on Wednesday, March 8.
JOURNEYS Film Preview, First Parish Brewster, Sunday, February 12, 2 PM
The new release of Journeys in the Light was previewed at First Parish Brewster UU on Sunday, February 12. Under its new title, JOURNEYS IN THE LIGHT, Democracy, Diversity, and Myth in the Wake of the Mayflower, the one-hour documentary presents a unique perspective on four centuries of history since the arrival of European settlers in this region.
The film’s creators look beyond the iconic Euro-centric Mayflower story to present highlights in the history of African Americans, Cape Verdeans, Wampanoags, and other People of Color here. At the same time, they find in the outright conflict aboard the Mayflower, and the ultimate Mayflower Compact, powerful relevance for the divided America of today. Journeys in the Light tells its tale through the eyes, historical research, and works of art of the vibrant community surrounding Zion Union Heritage Museum in Hyannis. Notable among the historical resources are the writings of long-time civil rights activist Dolores Daluz.
This Black History Month program included a brief introduction by the filmmaker, Janet Murphy Robertson, with a special tribute to John L. Reed, her collaborator in the creation of this film, who passed away several days before the event. Robin Joyce Miller read a moving tribute to Mr. Reed written by Massachusetts Representative Kip Diggs. After the screening, Janet Robertson was joined for Q & A by Ms. Miller, who contributed research, commentary, poetry, and history-inspired works of art to the film. The poetry of Robin’s husband James W. Miller is also featured.
Journeys in the Light is produced by Janet Murphy Robertson of ArtistsAndMusicians.org in collaboration with Zion Union Heritage Museum. In addition to Robin Joyce Miller, the featured artists include Carl Lopes, Pamela Chatterton Purdy, Joe Diggs, Michael Alfano, Sean Cassidy, Vasco Pires, and many others. Artwork by Robin, Lee Roscoe's new book Wampanoag Art through the Ages, Traditional and Transitional, and other items will be available for purchase at the event.
Robin Joyce Miller
Robin Joyce Miller is a retired educator, artist, author, poet and public speaker, who taught for 30+ years in the NYC school system. She spent the first half of her career teaching learning-disabled students and the next half as an art teacher. Robin was also a NYC Blueprint for the Arts Facilitator, leading workshops at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum. She is a recipient of the NYC and NY State Region 8 Art Educator of the Year Award.
After retirement she and her husband have maintained two residences in NYC and Cape Cod. After George Floyd’s murder, Robin and her husband, James, began presenting a BLM series with the Cotuit Center for the Arts. These programs are available to the public on Cotuit on Demand - YouTube. She is also on the Board of Directors at the Cotuit Center. Robin has served as a volunteer and resident artist at the Zion Union Heritage Museum, Hyannis since 2013. You can view more of Robin’s work on www.robinjoycemillerart.com.
Janet Murphy Robertson
Janet Murphy Robertson is the documentarian for Zion Union Heritage Museum where, in addition to Journeys in the Light, she produced the film documenting Pamela Chatterton-Purdy and Rev. Dr. David A. Purdy’s magnificent art and historical exhibition Icons of the Civil Rights Movement. Janet is also Executive Director of ArtistsAndMusicians.org, the producer of Shoestring Virtual Theater, as well as stage plays, concerts, and other cultural events. Shoestring’s 2022 film shorts titled Four Plays for a Planet in Peril (Filmmaker: Janet Murphy Robertson; Writer/Director: Lee Roscoe) have been recognized by the LA Independent Shorts Awards and the Chelsea Film Festival where Part IV: The Warninghad its New York premiere in October 2022. Janet works collaboratively with clients on the whole range of activities vital to successful productions— from photography, videography, sound effects, set design, editing, and scoring to marketing, PR, and business planning.
Janet's additional production credits include several highly successful runs of A Woman's Heart by Judith Partelow and the musical version by Judith Partelow and Dana McCoy; Three Viewings by Jeffrey Hatcher; Sorry Wrong Number by Lucille Fletcher; The House of Atreus: From Tantalus through the Trial of Orestes by Elsa Bastone; Mick Ryan's Lament by Robert Emmet Dunlap and Kathi Taylor, and many other plays and concerts.
Before coming to the Cape in 2007, Janet was a senior consultant with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Vice President of two major retail companies, and President of the retail consulting firm Ogden Associates. She earned her BA at Vassar College, where she majored in Philosophy, and did graduate work at Drew University and the University of Paris (Nanterre).
THE WARNING was Screened at New York's Chelsea Film Festival, Friday, October 14!
THE WARNING by Lee Roscoe and Janet Murphy Robertson
The New York Premiere of THE WARNING by Lee Roscoe and Janet Murphy Robertson was held on Friday, October 14, 1:30 PM at Regal Cinema, Union Square, New York, as part of the prestigious Chelsea Film Festival. #CFFBIG10. More about the film at http://www.ArtistsAndMusicians.org/theater.
The Chelsea Film Festival's Vision: “MAKING THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE”
The Chelsea Film Festival is an international film festival, highlighting the work of emerging filmmakers, producers and actors. It offers a wide range of content, such as shorts, documentaries, features, TV series and virtual reality experiences, focusing on the theme of “Global Issues”. It empowers the work of risk-taking storytellers and remains committed to its mission to discover and develop independent artists and audiences around the world." More about the Chelsea Film Festival.
FOUR PLAYS FOR A PLANET IN PERIL: A CAPE COD PREMIERE
FOUR PLAYS FOR A PLANET IN PERIL
written and directed by Lee Roscoe,
filmed and produced by Janet Murphy Robertson
Cape Cod Premiere
Eastham Public Library, 190 Samoset Rd., Eastham, MA 02642
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written and directed by Lee Roscoe,
filmed and produced by Janet Murphy Robertson
Cape Cod Premiere
Eastham Public Library, 190 Samoset Rd., Eastham, MA 02642
_______________
WATER SPIRITS COLLOQUY
THE CAGE
REPRIEVE
THE WARNING
On Wednesday, July 20 a series of short films titled FOUR PLAYS FOR A PLANET IN PERIL was presented at the Eastham Public Library. Following the 80-minute screening, there was a brief Q & A with the writer/director, Lee Roscoe, and filmmaker/producer Janet Murphy Robertson.
Earth’s peril is portrayed differently in each piece. In the first—the poetic and dreamlike Water Spirits Colloquy—two Greek demigods and a legendary Native American spirit meet to share their torment over the ravaging of Earth’s waters by humans and ultimately conspire to exact revenge. They interact amidst spectacular underwater and terrestrial imagery and in scenes of environmental destruction that build to a dramatic ending.
In The Cage, three characters—a boss, a middle manager, and a worker—argue with a mixture of stunning insight and staggering myopia in what might be described as a class war in nine minutes. The highly stylized acting verges on comedy as it highlights the societal conflicts that contribute to inaction on climate issues.
The raw emotion and ultimate sweetness of Reprieve are a counterpoint to the power and intensity of the pieces that precede and follow it. An indigenous man in despair over the demise of his culture and the Earth is saved by the caring concern and common decency of people he barely knows. This work’s inclusion in the series gives a hint of what the films’ creators see as virtues that might help save the planet.
According to Roscoe, a long-time environmentalist, as well as playwright, “Our goal is to draw attention to the uncomfortable reality that our whole way of life, in effect, creates the Earth’s climate, sometimes with catastrophic consequences. We employ a range of theatrical techniques—heightened language, humor, outrage, satire, hyperbole, melodrama—as well as exciting new film technologies to entertain and engage viewers and provoke awareness, discussion and, we hope, constructive action.”
In The Warning, the cycle ends with an explosion of imagery and over-the-top theatrics, noted by Roscoe as “inspired by 1930s German expressionist George Grosz.” In this hyperbolized eco-feminist cartoon, Roscoe herself, as Woman/Earth, takes to the stage and reacts viscerally to the assaults on her body by the heat and fire of fossil fuels and confronts the puppet politicians and corporate overlords responsible. The Warning is an official finalist in three categories for the Independent Short Film Awards in L.A.: Best Experimental Short, Best Original Story, and Best Ensemble Cast.
The three experimental, non representational “shorts”—Water Spirits Colloquy, The Cage, and The Warning—were composed and filmed in a studio in Dennis during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by Janet Murphy Robertson. She filmed the only “realistic” work of the four, Reprieve, on site in Dennis. All four films are produced by Shoestring Virtual Theater, a new venture (founded in 2021) of Robertson’s marketing and production firm ArtistsAndMusicians.org. The works employ a mix of techniques and technologies native to theater, film, and TV, including both traditional and green-screen filming/recording, cartooning, sound effects, special effects, musical scores, virtual video and photographic backgrounds, and black-and-white, as well as color, styling. The films will be available for online viewing at a later date and details will be posted at ArtistsAndMusicians.org and elsewhere.
FOUR PLAYS FOR A PLANET IN PERIL is supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council (Towns of Brewster and Dennis).
Lee Roscoe is an award-winning playwright, environmentalist and journalist and currently a correspondent for Artscope Magazine and Provincetown Magazine. She is a former Cape Cod and Massachusetts environmental activist and environmental educator. She has long-time ties to the environmental science and education community as a Woods Hole Ocean Science Journalism Fellow, a recipient of numerous WHSTEPS (Woods Hole Science, Technology and Education Partnership grants), an Eisenhower grant for creating nature/curriculum, a Massachusetts legislature commendation and EPA award and other awards and grants. As a journalist Lee Roscoe has covered many environmental stories, regionally and nationally (some cited in scientific journals) for publications such as Massachusetts Wildlife Magazine, New York Conservationist, Oceanus online (WHOI's magazine), Sierra, and Natural History Magazine. Her theater writing has been praised as “brilliant,” “powerful and important theater,” by such notables as the artistic director of Shakespeare Theatre Company, D.C., Michael Kahn; the founder of New York’s Living Theater, Judith Malina; playwright David Hare; and the late Howard Zinn, as well as other theater greats and public intellectuals. Early in her career, she worked as an Equity actress Off-Broadway and in indie films.
Janet Murphy Robertson is a former New York executive and management consultant and the founder and executive director of ArtistsAndMusicians.org, a firm that spotlights creative and socially conscious people and produces plays, films, and musical events. Her earlier films about social issues include Journeys in the Light, Untold Stories of Cape Cod, produced with Zion Union Heritage Museum (Hyannis) and Icons of the Civil Rights Movement, based on Pamela Chatterton-Purdy and Rev. Dr. David A. Purdy’s landmark exhibition by this name.
Soprano Joan Kirchner to Headline Early Music Concert, November 19 and 20
On Sunday, November 20 at 4 pm, Church of the Messiah, 22 Church Street, Woods Hole, MA will host Courante Cape Cod players Jan Elliott (recorder), Molly Johnston (viola da gamba), David Gable (violin), and Brittany Lord (harpsichord) in a concert titled "Music for a While." This outstanding Cape Cod group will perform the same program on Saturday, November 19 at 3 pm at the Federated Church, 320 Main Street, Hyannis. Guest artist for both concerts will be soprano Joan Kirchner.
Courante performs music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries on period instruments. The group's name is taken from a popular baroque dance characterized by sprightly rhythms and triple meter. This concert's attendees will be treated to songs and dances by Henry Purcell, courante by Giovanni Battista Buonamente, songs by Claudio Monteverdi's Scherzi Musicali, and cantatas by Georg Philipp Telemann.
Additional opportunities to hear soprano Joan Kirchner!
Also this same weekend—Friday, November 18, 7 pm—Our Lady of the Cape Parish, Brewster will present
"A Change of Seasons" benefit concert for local food pantries. A bevy of talented musicians including soprano Joan Kirchner will present a variety of selections from Broadway to favorite carols.
Sunday, December 18, 4:00 pm, St. Christopher's Church, Chatham. The Cape Cod String Quartet will present "Christmas Around the World." Guest artist Joan Kirchner will provide vocals on several numbers including "O Holy Night" and will also play selections on the church's new Dobson organ.
International Music Star Amit Peled to Perform on Cape Cod Saturday and Sunday, November 5 and 6
Amit Peled is well known to Cape Cod audiences as he has performed with Donald Enos and the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival each summer for many years. Now we will be treated to a fall performance by this great cellist! Join Amit Peled and the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra on the weekend of November 5-6. Please see details in Marilyn Rowland's article below And don't miss the inevitably spectacular 49th summer season of the Meeting House Festival, June-July, 2023. Details will be posted here in the spring!
From Marilyn Rowland's "Notes on the Arts"
Internationally renowned Israeli cellist Amit Peled will perform Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in C Major with the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, under the direction of William Drury, on Saturday, November 5, and Sunday, November 6, at the First Congregational Church of Falmouth, 68 Main Street. Both performances are at 3 PM. Tickets are $20 and available only at the door. For more information about the concert and the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra, visit falmouthchamberplayers.org, or call Fritz Sonnichsen at 508-274-2632.
Other works on the program are Mozart’s Overture to his opera, “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” and Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 in B minor (“Unfinished”).
Acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage today, Peled has performed in many of the world’s most prestigious venues, has released over a dozen recordings, and is on the faculty of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He has presented master classes around the world, and, during the pandemic, he established the Amit Peled Online Cello Academy, providing classes based on his book, “The First Hour – A Cellist’s Daily Technical Regimen.” An enthusiastic and generous teacher, he also provides free “Teaching Tips” via YouTube and Facebook. In the background, his home studio features striking works by local artists for his worldwide audiences to enjoy.
Born and raised on an isolated kibbutz in Israel, Peled did not start taking cello lessons until he was 10 and, for a time, was distracted by basketball—he is six foot five. Peled has retained a buoyant athleticism in his playing, using his whole body to express his dynamic musical voice.
Peled has strong ties to the Cape, considering it his second home, and is enthusiastic about playing with the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra. A frequent performer to sold-out crowds on the Lower Cape, this concert will be his first on the Upper Cape since his early days performing intimate concerts at Johnson String Instrument in Falmouth.
“Haydn C is the first concerto I ever played with an orchestra and the one I have played most frequently,” said Peled. “I just love it. It’s hard and it doesn’t get any easier, but it is so much fun for the orchestra, for the soloist, and for the audience. It never gets boring, and it demands great communication between the orchestra and the soloist.
“C major is the most heroic and festive key for the cello,” Peled said. “Haydn really knew how to write for the cello, incorporating a full range of cello techniques.”
“The concerto always brings something new from me. Each orchestra takes you on a different journey. Each conductor takes you a different way. I allow myself to integrate with the orchestra and conductor. It’s always fun.”
One of Peled’s performances of the concerto was for Bernard Greenhouse, a former student of the legendary Pablo Casals and one of the founding members of the Beaux Arts Trio. Greenhouse was Peled’s “cello idol” because of his beautiful and distinctive tone. So, after Peled spent a year studying cello at Yale, he called Greenhouse, then 81 and retired, at his home in Wellfleet and asked to play for him.
Greenhouse was so impressed with the young cellist that he said, “If you’re willing to live here in Wellfleet, I’ll teach you for free.” Elated, but impoverished, he left a note in the Wellfleet Public Library: “Young Israeli cellist looking for a place to live in return for housework.”
“Just luckily, Judith Davidson saw the note,” Peled said, and she and her husband Arthur offered him their home. “They are still my best friends and have become like family to me, all because of my admiration for Greenhouse.
“Every summer since I left the Cape, more than 20 years ago, every summer I come here to play with Donald Enos, with the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival, or with the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival.”
Peled also performed Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C Major at his graduation ceremony from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Laurence Lesser. He has also performed an all-cello version of the concerto in Wellfleet (and elsewhere) with his Peabody cello students. “I have a lot of connections to Haydn C and to Massachusetts that are very special,” Peled said.
In a 2021 interview with Strad Magazine, Peled said, “We should open our eyes and ears to where we live and play for small communities. You can do just as much good playing in schools, retirement homes and jails as you can in Carnegie Hall. It is unbelievable how music can impact people.”
In 2012, after hearing Peled play, Pablo Casals’ widow Marta Casals Istomin entrusted him with the loan of Casals’ favorite instrument, his 1733 Matteo Goffriller cello, which Casals had purchased in 1913 and had used for all his recordings until his death in 1973.
“It was an amazing experience,” said Peled. “It was supposed to be a loan of only one year. I had it for six years and feel very honored and privileged to have played it.”
Peled is perhaps even more excited about his current cello. “It is the first time in my life that I have owned an instrument—I was always playing on an instrument provided by a foundation,” he said. “This instrument is not an old Italian cello. It’s an old American cello, an American Strad, as we call it, made by Carl Becker, who was the best cello maker ever, in Chicago.
“I simply love it,” Peled said. “When I first played it, I said, ‘this is my voice.’ I’m so very happy to own this special instrument. This concert with the Falmouth Chamber Players Orchestra will be my first time performing Haydn C on it, and I am looking forward to that.”
Peled’s love of the cello and his belief in the power of music and its ability to transcend barriers is unmistakable. He is convinced of its ability to speak to audiences, to bring respite in challenging times, to inspire and bring joy, and he is honored by his ability to share his music—and Haydn’s—and the legacies of his teachers with the world.
“Summer” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Highlights Festival’s Season Finale
On Monday, July 25, at 7:30 PM, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival brought to a close a season widely seen as nothing short of superb. Guest artist Katie Lansdale performed with the Festival’s founder, artistic director, and pianist Donald Enos in the comfortable air conditioned space of Holy Spirit Episcopal in Orleans. The event will conclude the Festival’s 48th summer season—a season where standing ovations have become the norm. The series features world renowned guest artists performing with top flight talent from Cape Cod in programs of classical and contemporary music from the pantheon of chamber music composers. For those not holding season tickets, single tickets ($25) may be purchased at the door. For more about this highly popular and long-running festival, please visit http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
Vivaldi’s exuberant “Summer” movement from the Four Seasons (with visuals!) is the centerpiece of the program, which also features works by Telemann and Ysaye and Sonatas by Andre Previn and Mozart (K.306).
Violinist Katie Lansdale is a highly acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, and teacher who performs to enthusiastic audiences in the U.S. and internationally. She has given outstanding performances with many prestigious orchestras, including the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Austin Mozart Orchestra, and the New York Repertory Orchestra, as well as such concert series as the Phillips Collection, the Caramoor Series, and Lincoln Center’s Rose Room. In New York, where she founded the acclaimed Locrian new music group, Lansdale’s extensive chamber music concerts have included Mostly Mozart at Lincoln Center with Yo Yo Ma and Merkin Hall with the Twentieth Centuryists. She performs regularly in Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall with the Festival Chamber Society. Lansdale is particularly known for her solo Bach performances, and her Bach CD was cited by American Record Guide as “one of the best recordings of this music.”
Pianist Donald Enos, a native Cape Codder, also holds the position of Wesley DeLacy Chair, Keyboards, with the Cape Symphony and is the resident pianist for the Chatham Chorale. He is also director of music at the South Dennis Congregational Church, where he often presents concerts on the church’s Snetzler Chamber Organ (1762), believed to be the oldest organ in continuous use in the United States. It is his exceptional musicianship and creativity that have made the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival the longest running music festival on Cape Cod.
The Meeting House Chamber Festival is grateful for the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, and the Mary-Louise and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation.
Two Music World Stars to Perform with the MH Chamber Music Festival, Tuesday July 19
Violinist Irina Muresanu
Two stars from the international music scene will perform with the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival. Romanian-born violinist Irina Muresanu, a Festival favorite, is known for her passionate, fearless playing. Her dazzling performances have been cited frequently by The Boston Globe as among the best of classical music performances. Cellist Sergey Antonov was the Gold Medal Winner (XIII) in the International Tchaikovsky Competition. Music critic Stephen Brookes of The Washington Post referred to Antonov as one of Russia’s "most spectacular soloists.” Both of these musicians have people crowding into recital halls around the world and Cape Cod residents and visitors will have their opportunity to hear them, along with the Festival’s artistic director and pianist Donald Enos, at Holy Spirit Episcopal in Orleans. Single tickets ($25) may be purchased at the door. Complete ticketing and program information at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org or by calling 508.896.3344.
The concert program includes Brahms’ Piano Trio in B major, premiered by a youthful Brahms in 1855 and imbued by the composer with even greater beauty and dynamism in a revision three decades later. A second piece is by the Norwegian composer, conductor, and violinist Johan Halvorsen—a widely acknowledged work of genius that has an important place in the chamber music repertoire: Passacaglia for Violin and Cello, based on the final movement of Handel’s Harpsichord Suite in G Minor.
This 48th summer season of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival might be called the season of standing ovations, as concert after concert has brought audiences to their feet. This penultimate concert promises to do the same. The final concert of the season will be given on Monday, July 25 at 7:30 PM, also at Holy Spirit Episcopal. It will feature Donald Enos and the highly lauded soloist, chamber musician, and teacher Katie Lansdale.A complete program listing for the 2022 season is available at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
The Meeting House Chamber Festival is grateful for the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, and the Mary-Louise and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation.
Meeting House Chamber Music Festival Presents "Enough Beauty to Last a Lifetime"
On Tuesday, July 12 at 7:30 pm, the remarkable musicianship of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will be on full display as it welcomes violinist Joyce Hammann and cellist Matthias Naegele to perform with the festival’s artistic director and pianist Donald Enos. Hammann has been lauded by The New York Times for her "splendid soloing" and "sweet, rich tone.” Naegele performs to enthusiastic audiences around the world. The centerpiece of the program will be Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio (1809), one of the most popular works in the chamber music repertoire, whose spooking-sounding slow movement earned it the “ghost” nickname nearly 200 years ago. For those not holding season tickets, single tickets ($25) may be purchased at the door. Complete ticketing and program information can be found at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org or by calling 508.896.3344.
George Bernard Shaw’s description of Beethoven’s music fits the entire program well—“Enough beauty to last a lifetime”—and the beauty of this upcoming concert emanates from around the world. Included will be Germaine Tailleferre’s ebullient and entirely French 2nd Sonata for violin & piano; Spanish composer Enrique Granados’ magnificent Intermezzo for cello and piano; British composer James MacMillan’s Piano Trio #2; and Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel for cello & piano.
Joyce Hammann is a virtuoso with an astonishing range—equally at home on the concert stage, in a jazz club, or in front of screaming fans at a rock concert. She has performed and recorded with Paul McCartney, Sting, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen and served as concertmaster for The Phantom of the Opera. Matthias Naegele has performed extensively as soloist and chamber musician in Europe, the United States, Mexico, Brazil, and Asia. Naegele's performances are regularly broadcast over National Public Radio and Public Television. He plays a Mateo Gofriller cello made in Venice in 1735.
The Meeting House Chamber Music Festival is the longest-running music festival on Cape Cod. After July 12, this 48th summer season will continue with two additional concerts: Tuesday July 19 and Monday July 25. A complete program listing for the 2022 season is attached and available at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
The Meeting House Chamber Festival is grateful for the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, and the Mary-Louise and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation.
Meeting House Chamber Music Festival to Present Three Quartets, Masterpieces on a Human Scale
Violinist Heather Goodchild Wade and Violist Laura Manko Sahin. Photo credit Nancy Viall Shoemaker
On Tuesday, July 5 at 7:30 pm, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will present three quartets—all masterpieces on a human scale—written across three centuries and in very different musical styles. The event will feature three of the festival’s favorite guest artists—violinist Heather Goodchild Wade, violist Laura Manko Sahin, and cellist Bo Ericsson—as well as the festival’s Artistic Director and pianist Donald Enos. The concert will be presented at Church of the Holy Spirit Episcopal, Orleans. 7-concert series ticket: $90. Single tickets ($25) may be purchased at the door. Complete ticketing information and program information at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org or by calling 508.896.3344.
The program will open with Mozart’s bright, melodious, and elegant Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, a masterpiece of the Classical Period. The quartet was written in 1783, not long after that new-fangled instrument, the piano, was first played in concerts. Written six decades later, Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet includes an Andante cantabile that has been called one of the most beautiful cello themes of the Romantic Period. The work as a whole was described by a prominent reviewer of the time as “most lovely and appealing, uniting a wealth of beautiful musical ideas with soaring flights of imagination.” The British composer Frank Bridge completed his Phantasy Piano Quartet in 1910. Bridge’s most famous pupil, Benjamin Britten, described this brilliant work as “sonorous yet lucid, with clear, clean lines…. the music of a practical musician, brought up in German orthodoxy, but who loved French romanticism and conception of sound.”
A complete program listing for the 2022 season is available at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
The Meeting House Chamber Festival is grateful for the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, and the Mary-Louise and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation.
World Renowned Cellist Amit Peled to Perform in Orleans on Friday, July 1
Photo by Melissa Golden
On Friday, July 1, at 7:30 pm, Cape Cod audiences will have the delight of hearing the internationally acclaimed cellist Amit Peled perform in Orleans, MA in the third concert of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival’s 48th summer season. Peled will put his bow to the same 1733 Gofriller cello once treasured and played by the great Pablo Casals himself. A 7-concert series ticket: $90. Single tickets ($25) may be purchased at the door. Complete ticketing and program information at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org or by calling 508.896.3344.
Amit Peled has enchanted the festival’s many fans each summer for years, just as he has thrilled audiences worldwide. Reviewers in the U.S. and around the globe have praised his performances: “fiery and intelligent” (The Strad Magazine, London), “sweepingly temperamental” (The Jerusalem Post), “simply gorgeous sound” (The Baltimore Sun), “a glowing tone, a seductive timbre and an emotionally pointed approach to phrasing" (The New York Times), among countless examples.
Amit Peled is widely celebrated not only for his musicianship, but also for his larger-than-life persona and engaging stage presence. Enos chose to collaborate with Amit Peled not only because of the cellist’s virtuosity, but because he brings to his performances the authenticity, raw emotion, and diverse cultural inspirations that Enos himself values, and that have become the festival’s trademark. The details of the upcoming concert will be a surprise, but the caliber will not.
A complete program listing for the 2022 season is available at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
The festival’s Artistic Director and pianist Donald Enos welcomes all to experience the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival this summer. In his words, the festival offers “the delight of hearing exquisite instrumental nuance in ensemble, and the full range of exposed emotion made possible through chamber music.”
The Meeting House Chamber Festival is grateful for the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, and the Mary-Louise and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation.
Hot New Musical "Lily the Tiger" to Rock Cotuit on Tuesday, June 28!
On Tuesday, June 28, at 7:30 pm, a “campfire version” of Dana McCoy’s rock musical Lily the Tiger will be presented in the outdoor theater of Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit, MA. The show features McCoy’s original songs and a story filled with poignancy and humor as “Lily” navigates a parade of catastrophes. McCoy will bring to the performance a plethora of New York talent including notable rock musicians Albert Bouchard of Blue Oyster Cult, Alec Morton of Raging Slab and Monster Magnet, and Mike Fornatale of The Losers’ Lounge NYC, Dot Wiggin Band and The Left Banke. The audience will be treated to a peek at the new musical’s stories and songs in advance of McCoy’s UK tour and the show’s New York launch later this year. Tickets are $35; $30 for Cotuit Center members; $33 for seniors and veterans. Ticketing and additional information: https://artsonthecape.org/explore/lily-the-tiger.
Lily the Tiger took its first steps onto the stage at New York’s historic Theatre 80 on May 31, 2022 in a reading for invited guests, including producers and potential investors. Hit Broadway performer, writer, and director, Gretchen Cryer of I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On The Road fame is helping to shape and direct Lily The Tiger, which also features marvelous dramatic coaching from Marcia Haufrecht of the Actor’s Studio. The show’s developmental producer is Janet Murphy Robertson of ArtistsAndMusicians.org. In early July, McCoy will set off on a UK tour performing selected songs from the evolving show.
A part-time local resident, Dana McCoy is delighted to share her latest creative work here on the Cape as she continues its development. Increasingly well known to Cape audiences, McCoy was actor, story-writer, composer, and co-director for A Woman’s Heart, based on the poetry of Judith Partelow, in 2019. In addition to her original score, the play featured songs composed and sung by McCoy. The Cape Cod Times’ features editor Gwenn Friss said of McCoy’s portrayal of a woman raising her children as she deals with a depressed and abusive husband, “Watching how she pulls off a lightness of being for her child is like seeing a Disney princess cast in a Quentin Tarantino movie.”
Dana McCoy’s professional accomplishments fill the gamut of performing arts—from dance and instrumental music to voice and theater performance, on stage, on film, and in video. McCoy and her music compositions have been heard in venues throughout the U.S., including CBGB’s, The Ritz, and Lincoln Center, as well as in Europe and the U.K. Her hit songs have been performed by such noted groups as Inner City, Degrees of Motion, and Left Field. She produced and performed “88 Butterfly, Taking Shape, a solo CD designated by Billboard editors as one of the best albums of the year. McCoy’s work on stage also includes her original rock musical "Prom Queens" co-written with Jennifer Schanke and Christina Cass. She workshopped the musical at Arnold Engelman’s Westbeth Entertainment in New York, a performance venue known for presenting bold new works from the likes of Stephen Colbert, Patti LuPone, and Sandra Bernhardt—and at Don Hill’s, a SoHo club at the heart of the New York rock scene. The musical was showcased off-Broadway and at Crown & Anchor’s Paramount Room in Provincetown, MA. McCoy played the lead role of Daisey and provided lead and background vocals and dance.
She also originated the starring role of Ingrid in Richard Caliban’s MoM: A Rock Concert Musical,winner of Outstanding Musical at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2008. The musical was selected as part of the Fringe Benefits Anniversary Series and was named one of the Fringe’s best 15 musical in 15 years. Reviewers at numerous publications, including The New York Times and Broadway World cited McCoy’s outstanding work. New York Times theater critic Anita Gates wrote, “(McCoy’s character) Ingrid is the interesting one. She begins as a trophy-wife type with a French twist, goes through an entertaining Patsy Stone of “Ab Fab” phase and ends up as Janis Joplin.” TalkinBroadway.com saluted McCoy for her charisma in the role, as well as her work on keyboards, bass, and percussion.
Dana McCoy has performed regularly at Joe McGinty’s Loser's Lounge, sharing the stage with former Saturday Night Live cast member Fred Armisen, cabaret artist Justin Vivian Bond, and other notables. She later founded and hosted Life Café NYC’s Naked Music Series which provided more than 300 gigs for well- and lesser-known musicians. She is an active performer and producer with New York’s Ukelele Cabaret.
McCoy worked with Gretchen Cryer, Evelyn Page, and Lesley Gore as founder, producer, and performer in Pillow Fight Theatre Festival: Hot Chicks of Substance" at 45 Bleecker in 2007. She wrote, performed, and produced her rock musical Cube Rat which tells the story of a superstar stuck in a cubicle. The musical was workshopped at New York’s SIR studios, the Green Room, and the Pillowfight Theater Festival and was presented at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2011. Colin Quinn of Saturday Night Live called the musical “amazing.” Reviewers at the Fringe said of the work that “it fascinates, thrills and the songs are rhythmic, original and catchy. Beautiful sounds and ideas from a beautiful person.” The musical was included in the York Shakespeare Company's 10th Season.
Dramatists Guild to Present Reading of Lee Roscoe's Gripping Play "Dark"
Playwright Lee Roscoe is on a roll! Following quickly on the presentation of her play "No School" at Eventide's Playwrights' Lab last month, Roscoe will be in the spotlight again at a Dramatists Guild event on Friday, March 12, 7 pm. In her gripping play "Dark," Gaia confronts politicians, is arrested as a terrorist and ends the earth. Or is this mysterious woman merely claiming to be Earth as she attempts to tackle corruption?
Pamela and David Purdy Commemorate Trayvon Martin and the Black Lives Matter Movement
"Eight years ago today, February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was killed— Hunted and stalked by George Zimmerman and shot.Trayvon was carrying a soft drink and a bag of Skittles. Trayvon fought for his life, yet Zimmerman was given a 'not guilty' verdict for 'self-defense.' This began the Black Lives Matter movement."—Pamela Chatterton-Purdy
Since 2004, Artist Pamela Chatterton-Purdy and Rev. Dr. David Purdy, writer and retired Methodist minister, have been working to create an artistic and scholarly record of the ongoing movement of Black people in America for freedom and equality under the law. Their magnificent art exhibition is titled Icons of the Civil Rights Movement. The piece at left, commemorating Trayvon Martin and the Black Lives Matter movement, is one of 46 works in the series. You can see all of the works to date here.
Lee Roscoe's "No School" at Eventide Theatre Company
Eventide Theatre Company's Playwrights' Lab offered its first virtual showcase on Saturday-Monday, February 13-15. One of the highlights was Lee Roscoe's terrific short play "No School," starring LeVane Harrington and Kat Connelly. In a portrayal of the effects of extreme poverty on relationships, a mother and son engage in riveting combat over sports team fees.
More about playwright Lee Roscoe in our Writers' Corner.
Impossible? by Lee Roscoe to Premiere at Eventide Theatre Arts’ Virtual Playhouse
WHAT: Regional Premiere of the Lee Roscoe’s highly anticipated and timely play Impossible?—a serious satire about the rise of tyranny in America.
WHEN: 4 pm, Saturday, October 24 and 2 pm Sunday, October 25—livestreamed online.
WHERE: Eventide Theatre Company’s Virtual Playhouse located at https://www.facebook.com/eventidetheatrecompany
FREE. Donations welcomed.
Impossible? is supported by The Massachusetts Cultural Council, Towns of Brewster and Dennis.
MORE ABOUT THIS EVENT
Impossible? is a serious satire about the rise of a tyrannical president and how this impacts friends in a small New England town. The play is a ferocious, funny, and tragic look at how hyperbolized madness at the national level has real consequences in people's lives. The play is presented in two fast-paced acts. Set in the present day, Impossible? unfolds with an inevitability that is chilling as historical patterns in the rise of dictatorship emerge in modern form. The playwright's keen eye for the ridiculous keeps the audience chuckling along, entertained by witty dialogue even as the unthinkable becomes reality. Racism and sexism also feature in this thought-provoking play. The play is blunt and unsparing, without veering into partisanship or over-simplification, and is likely to be a win with audiences across the political spectrum.
Sarah St. Mimsey is an artist who struggles to make ends meet. Her lover, Dave O’Sulley, owns a local radio station. Their best friend, Landon Eldredge, is a farmer. As the play progresses, their relationships undergo profound alteration as the newly elected President, Eddie Fabuloso—urged on by his adviser, Nikki Mugg—loses his mental stability little by little as he rearranges a nation in his grip. O’Sulley's reporting on an incident at a Fabuloso rally connects the local action with that of the national scene.
Impossible? had originally been scheduled for September 2020 as a full-scale production for Eventide’s stage. Due to Covid, the play is being presented online through Eventide’s Facebook page and will be available at http://www.eventidearts.org through November 15. (Additional information at https://www.artistsandmusicians.org/writers_corner/leeroscoe.html)
The Playwright
Lee Roscoe is an award-winning playwright whose plays have been seen from NYC to the Cape and beyond, at such prime venues as The Living Theatre; Provincetown Theater; SlamBoston at Playwrights Theater Boston; Playwrights Platform, Waltham; Women’s International Theater Festival, Provincetown; The Tilden Arts Center, Hyannis; the Piano Factory, Boston; and Great Plains Theater Conference, Omaha. They have also been heard on public radio in San Francisco and Brandeis University. Her original radio drama, The Mooncusser's Tale, is available at https://beta.prx. org/stories/258677, and womr.org where it premiered. Lee Roscoe is a member of The New Play Exchange (NPX).
An Equity actress who trained at HB Studio, and Circle in the Square, she worked backstage at several Off-Broadway theaters, and later onstage Off-Broadway in the New Pinter Plays, and in the long run of “The Kitchen” directed by Jack Gelber, starring Rip Torn. The Boston Globe wrote “Roscoe is brilliant” regarding her role in The Captain’s Doll, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater. And she was Cape Cod Times' Best of the Year actress twice. She appeared in a number of films and writes of her experiences in counterculture filmmaking in The Cinema of Norman Mailer.
Her work has been praised by theater greats such as Living Theater founder Judith Malina, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, D.C. Michael Kahn, David Hare, and the late Howard Zinn. Her themes are often about how the ills of the world at large affect the human heart, and her styles vary from realism, to satire, to the groundbreakingly abstract and imaginative.
She is a long-time journalist published widely on the Cape, regionally and, on occasion, nationally on topics ranging from the arts, science, and history to the environment and other news. Her poetry has appeared in Counterpunch, The Aurorean, and other journals. Author of "Dreaming Monomoy’s Past, Walking its Present," the interacting nature and history of a typical coastal area, she is a Massachusetts legislature state commended environmentalist/educator, and Woods Hole Ocean Science Journalism Fellow. She invented the first modular, multi-use clothing in the U.S.—The Instant Dress, featured in Life Magazine and Women’s Wear Daily.
Lee Roscoe is represented by ArtistsAndMusicians (http://www.ArtistsAndMusicians.org).
Eventide Theatre Company, located in the heart of Dennis, MA, provides an encouraging, supportive environment for actors, songwriters and playwrights leading to excellent, creative, and thought-provoking performances that stimulate and educate Cape audiences of all ages.
Chatham Chorale Performs at Cape Cod Museum of Art
On Sunday, January 26, at 3:00 pm, the Chamber Singers of the Chatham Chorale appeared at the Cape Cod Museum of Art in Dennis as part of the museum’s “Music & More! concert series. The string players of Quartett Giocosa and Cape Symphony keyboardist Donald Enos joined the singers in an intimate program of choral music. Repertoire ranged from the 16th century (Palestrina) to the late 20th century (Eric Whitacre’s “Five Hebrew Love Songs” and “Ecce Novum” by Ola Gjeilo), and included selections from Haydn’s “Little Organ Mass” and seasonal works.
The Chatham Chorale Chamber Singers. Photo by Bob Tucker/Focal Point
Chatham Chorale is one of Cape Cod’s longest-established choral ensembles, for 49 years presenting an annual concert series with programs ranging from choral masterworks to Broadway, pops stylings, and premieres of new works by regional composers. The Chorale also regularly collaborates with the Cape Symphony—for example, in the annual Holiday Pops concerts—and sings in service to the community.
In 1976 the Chatham Chorale Chamber Singers, a smaller chorus composed of approximately 25 voices selected from the larger Chorale, was created to perform music written for smaller ensembles in more intimate spaces.
For more information, visit www.chathamchorale.org.
Chatham Chorale and Friends Sing "Ode to Music"
A clip from this outstanding concert featuring soprano Joan Kirchner, performed in Chatham, MA on November 9-10: Handel's Ode for St. Cecilia's Day.
"What passion cannot Music raise and quell!” mused the poet John Dryden.
This November, Music Director Joe Marchio led the Chatham Chorale, with guest soloists and chamber ensemble, in an “Ode to Music” and all its delights, at the First Methodist Church in Chatham.
Featured in the program was George Frideric Handel’s “Ode for Saint Cecilia’s Day,” in which the chorus and vocal soloists take turns praising the harmony that tunes all of Creation. Tenor Charles Blandy, soprano Joan Kirchner, and the Quartett Giocosa joined the singers in Handel’s cantata, composed in just ten days in 1739. Cecilia is the patron saint of music, and the text by John Dryden celebrates the “harmony of the spheres”—the theory that music was a force in Earth’s creation. Verses depict the role of various instruments: violins, flute, organ, and others. Some of the musical “tone painting” suggests primordial chaos, or atoms arranging themselves in order, the warlike qualities of the trumpet, or the mythical harp of Orpheus.
Charles Blandy (credit Miranda Loud)
Charles Blandy is a much-heralded tenor based in Boston, specializing in music of the Baroque and praised by the Globe as “unfailingly, tirelessl lyrical.” Joan Kirchner, a frequent soloist with the Chorale, performs in a variety of styles regionally and on the Cape, and teaches voice at her Brewster studio. The instrumentalists of Quartett Giocosa—Heather Goodchild Wade and Irina Fainkichen (violins), Irina Naryshkova (viola), and cellist Elizabeth Schultze—met in the Cape Symphony and have performed as a quartet since 2017.
Marchio has frequently programmed the masses of Franz Joseph Haydn, and the Missa brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo is a favorite. Performed as originally scored, for choir, organ, and a small string ensemble, this short Mass is “elegant and expressive, with a beautiful sense of mysticism,” says the conductor. Haydn layers the words of the Gloria and Credo in different vocal lines, which helps keep the piece “short”! The longest movement (“Benedictus”) is a gorgeous dialogue for soprano Joan Kirchner and organist Donald Enos, the Chorale’s longtime accompanist.
Joan Kirchner (credit Janet Murphy Robertson)
Kirchner takes center stage to perform Franz Schubert’s beloved lied “An die Musik” (“To Music”), accompanied by Enos on piano. Its sweeping melodic line and poetic devotion to musical art have made the song a favorite of musicians since Schubert wrote it in 1817.
The great Victorian choral composer Charles Villiers Stanford created his energetic “Te Deum laudamus” in B flat as part of a complete church service marking the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s reign. One reviewer called it “a major milestone in the development of Anglican church music . . . harnessing Brahmsian symphonic technique to the needs of the liturgy.” Notes Marchio, “It’s never been recorded and is rarely performed, but it’s a riveting example of Stanford’s work and perfect for this concert highlighting the chorus, organ, and small orchestra.”
Chatham Chorale is one of Cape Cod’s longest-established choral ensembles, for 49 years presenting an annual concert series with programs ranging from choral masterworks to Broadway, pops stylings, and premieres of new works by regional composers. The Chorale also regularly collaborates with the Cape Symphony—for example, in the upcoming Holiday Pops concerts—and sings in service to the community.
"Halloween Unhinged" at the South Harwich Meetinghouse on Saturday, October 26
On Saturday, October 26, at 7:30pm: "Halloween Unhinged" will be performed at the South Harwich Meetinghouse, 270 Chatham Road, South Harwich. Soprano Joan Kirchner will join a haunted host of performers presenting pumpkin carols and other songs of the season.
Tickets $20 in advance; info at southharwichmeetinghouse.com.
A Brilliant New Production of A WOMAN'S HEART at Cotuit Center for the Arts, September 12-29!
Actors (l-r) Rod Owens, Dana McCoy, and Judith Partelow
A Woman's Heart has been performed to sold-out audiences since it premiered at Cotuit Center for the Arts' Black Box Theater on September 12. For tickets, please call 508.428.0669 or visit the theater's website.
REVIEWS
The play feels "like an epic poem, wherein the minutiae of the everyday is elevated to Odysseus-like significance." It is "extremely personal and also universal." "The play feels honest and raw in its emotion but polished in its delivery." Joanne Briana-Gartner, The Enterprise The complete review
"A Woman's Heart is a passionate life in poetry." "Watching how (Dana McCoy) pulls off a lightness of being for her child is like seeing a Disney princess cast in a Quentin Tarantino movie." "Particularly impressive is (Rod Owens') ability to transform from besotted lover to angry, chain-smoking stroke victim, depending on the scene. His face is so malleable it could be made of wet clay, remade with each new emotion." Gwenn Friss, The Cape Cod Times The complete review
THE PLAY
With Judith Partelow’s original poetry as foundation, this new production weaves A Woman’s Heart’s beautiful language into a captivating tale of friendship, heartache, and triumph.
From the opening scenes, we see three close high school friends reconnecting at their 50threunion to find their mutual impacts and inspirations have not only endured but also, ultimately, made all the difference in their respective lives.
Replete with life events and cultural references from the 1950s forward, A Woman’s Heart is at once a touching story bound to resonate with all (and especially baby boomers!) and a deft paean to the writer’s craft.
As well as a new story approach, the play is infused with music of the boomer era, plus original music written by McCoy, Owens, and Partelow’s daughter Amanda Sevak.
The show results from a collaboration between Partelow and McCoy—an award-winning New York-based playwright, director, actor, singer, songwriter, and dancer. The multi-talented duo has shaped Partelow’s beautiful writings into a compelling, music-filled journey through a writer’s life. A Woman’s Heart stars the collaborators themselves and actor/singer/songwriter Rod Owens.
This brilliant new production of A Woman’s Heart premiered at Cotuit Center for the Arts on Thursday, September 12 and will run through September 29 in the Black Box Theater. Performances are Thursday through Saturday at 7:30 PM, and Sundays at 2 PM. Tickets are $20, $15 for members. Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit.
About Judith Partelow
An award-winning writer, as well as Actors’ Equity actor and director, Partelow began writingpoetry when she was in third grade. Cape Cod journalist Caitlin Russell observed that Partelow has “a gift for taking heartbreaking subjects and shining a light on the pain, and the beauty and dignity born of struggling with it.” During its 2019 conference, the Cape Cod Writers Center recognized Partelow’s achievements with the Kevin V. Symmons Scholarship for Second Career Writers. In one of many rave reviews of earlier productions ofA Woman’s Heart, Kelley Brocco-Hagen wrote, “The play was FANTASTIC! Touched my heart profoundly! This needs major exposure!” Reviews of A Woman’s Heart---Earlier Versions of the Play
About Dana McCoy
McCoy brings to the collaboration a wealth of talent and experience in creating and honing stories and bringing them successfully to the stage. Among her many theater credits: “Cube Rat”—Writer/Performer/Producer, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Off-Broadway (2011); “MoM: A Rock Concert Musical,” (Lead Cast Member/CoProducer) written by Richard Caliban, winner of Outstanding Musical at New York Fringe 2009 and selected as part of the Fringe Benefits Anniversary Series (2011) and The Almost Annual Festival (April 2013). As singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, McCoy has topped Billboard charts and toured, directed, taught, and performed her own and other people’s original rock musicals internationally.
A Woman’s Heart is produced by Janet Murphy Robertson of ArtistsAndMusicians (ArtistsAndMusicians.org).
For more information about A Woman’s Heartat Cotuit Center for the Arts, visit www.artsonthecape.orgor call 508-428-0669.
VIDEOS
Co-directors and story-tellers Dana McCoy and Judith Partelow kibitz during a rehearsal. It's an extraordinary collaboration!
A New York couple came to see the play on opening night and share their enthusiasm here!
RADIO INTERVIEW
Candace Hammond interviewed director/story-tellers Dana McCoy and Judith Partelow and producer Janet Murphy Robertson about A Woman's Heart for her radio program on WOMR.
MORE INFORMATION (Earlier Productions of A Woman's Heart and Judith Partelow's poetry)
Note: A Woman’s Heart was originally performed by a cast of four and was essentially a sequence of touching vignettes with beautiful language, and without the story line, characters, and musical score of the current production.
Candace Hammond interviews Judith Partelow and Rod Owens on Arts Week: Interview at WOMR
The Cape Cod Times: Sue Mellen’s Review of A Woman’s Heart
Readers’ comments concerning Judith Partelow’s poetry.
Chamber Music Festival's Season Finale: Monday, July 29
Katie Lansdale, Donald Enos, and Megan Koch
The season finale of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will be held on Monday, July 29, 7:30 pm at Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans. Performing in this special celebratory concert will beKatie Lansdale, violin; Megan Koch, cello; and Donald Enos, piano. Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by phone (508.896.3344) or email ([email protected]). Tickets: $25 (under 18 free). More information at http://meetinghousemusic.org.
The typical Festival concert presents a series of treats, each with its unique style of expression, ideas, and cultural foundations. The season’s festive finale will serve up even more than the customary amount of delectable fare. A centerpiece of the program will be the Divertimento in D, Hob.XI:113 by Joseph Haydn (Austrian, 1732-1809)—as joyous and entertaining a piece of music as exists in the repertoire. Entirely different in mood and bursting with folk flavor are works for solo violin by Antonín Dvořák (Czech, 1841-1904). Another featured composer who, like Dvořák, mastered the violin in early childhood and went on to write soaring music for it, is Eugène-Auguste Ysaÿe(French-Belgian, 1858–1931). The passionate elegance of this “King of the Violin” comes through loud and clear in the “Les Furies” movement of his Violin Sonata No. 2.
And then there is the panache of AndréPrevin (b.1929), the German-American pianist and composer whose work has brought him four Academy Awards and eleven Grammys, including one for Lifetime Achievement. Previn wrote his beautiful Sonata for Cello and Piano for Yo-Yo Ma, and the piece was premiered by the world-renowned Chinese-American cellist in 1993. “Spring” from Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires is fast, intense, and dramatic. Piazzolla (Argentine, 1921-1992) was the grand master of tango music and this piece is an exciting blend of traditional tango and classical and contemporary influences. Camille Saint-Saëns (French, 1835-1921) worked in many different styles and music formats during his long life, and chamber music was one of his early passions. His First Piano Trio is an exuberant, youthful, and at times even boisterous piece written when the composer was 28.
Three Superb Musicians Featured in Festival Concert
Donald Enos--Festival Founder, Artistic Director, Pianist
Three superb musicians performed in the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival’s fifth concert of the season on Monday, July 22 at Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans.
Donald Enos founded Cape Cod’s longest-running music festival in 1973 and this concert put his remarkable musicianship and creative direction on full display. Mozart’s Trio K. 254 is written for piano, violin, and cello, and Enos played the most demanding and virtuosic part at the work’s center. He designed the program to include three additional trios with all the intensity and intimacy characteristic of chamber music and interesting back-stories to boot. In Arvo Pärt's “Mozart” Adagio, written in the 1990s, this contemporary Estonian composer creates a respectful and moving
Violinist Joyce Hammann
tribute to the Classical Period master of two centuries before. Maurice Ravel composed his Trio during World War I, just before he volunteered for military service. The piece has a traditional form with some fascinating twists, including a Basque dance and a second movement inspired by the Malaysian poetic form “Pantoum.” Franz Schubert’s radiant Trio Op. 99 was composed in the immensely prolific last year before his death in 1828 at the age of 31.
Cellist Matthias Naegele
Violinist Joyce Hammann and cellist Matthias Naegele completed this concert’s extraordinary trio of musicians. Hammann is a
performer lauded by The New York Times for her"splendid soloing" and "sweet, rich tone.” Naegele performs to enthusiastic audiences around the world and his performances are carried regularly by NPR and public television. Learn more about these artists and the festival itself at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
Next up will be the festival’s season finale on July 29 at Church of the Holy Spirit, 204 Monument Road, Orleans, MA.
Short clips from Meeting House Chamber Music Festival concerts earlier this season
Magnificent Trios from a Magnificent Trio, July 22
Schubert Trio in B Flat, Op. 99
Mozart Trio in B Flat
Dazzling violinist Irina Muresanu performing with festival founder/artistic director/pianist Donald Enos on July 1.
Bo Ericsson, Heather Goodchild Wade, and Donald Enos performing in West Barnstable, July 14. Violist Laura Manko Sahin also performed superbly in this concert.
Festival Presents Concerts in West Barnstable and Orleans on July 14 and 15
Photo by Nancy Viall Shoemaker
On Sunday and Monday, July 14 and 15, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will featured a quartet of superb musicians and several works that are among the finest in the entire repertoire of chamber music. Sunday’s concert was held at 7 pm at 1717 Meetinghouse in West Barnstable and Monday’s concert began at 7:30 pm at Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans. More information about the festival can be found at http://meetinghousemusic.org.
One of the most brilliant lights amidst the program’s gems was the sublimely melodious A Major Piano Quartet from Johannes Brahms, which was premiered in Vienna in 1863 with Brahms himself at the piano. Also featured was Haydn’s Trio No.13 in A Major, whose piano part is particularly complex and exciting. The glorious “Summer” concerto from Vivaldi’s The Four Season, which was written in the very year construction began on the historic 1717 Meetinghouse, is a brilliant evocation of the season. In the Finale from the important Romantic composer Carl Maria von Weber’s Piano Quartet, one could hear the influence of Mozart, as well as the freer forms and lyrical quality of Weber’s later Romantic-style works.
And in true Donald Enos form, there were some surprises—glittering works that are lesser known but no less moving, such as Praeludiumby the Swedish Romantic composer Jakob Adolf Hägg. Rounding out the program was a charming piece called ABird Came Down the Walkfrom the largely self-taught, highly innovative Twentieth-Century Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu. With a poem by Emily Dickinson as its jumping-off point, Takemitsu’s music mirrors the poet’s open-mindedness, economy of language, and inspiration from nature.
The outstanding musicians performing in this concert were Heather Goodchild Wade, violin; Laura Manko Sahin, viola; Bo Ericsson, cello; and Donald Enos, piano. Biographies and additional information about the festival can be found at http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
The festival continues with performances on Mondays through the end of July (July 22 and 29) at Church of the Holy Spirit, 204 Monument Road, Orleans, MA. On Sunday, July 14, the festival travels to 1717 Meetinghouse, 2049 Meetinghouse Way, West Barnstable, MA (same program as July 15).
Elizabeth Remy Johnson and Clark Matthews Headlined Festival Concert July 8
Elizabeth Remy Johnson
On Monday, July 8 at 7:30 pm, two highly popular guest artists performed with Donald Enos and the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival: Elisabeth Remy Johnson, harp, and Clark Matthews, French horn. The concert was held at Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans, MA. More information about the festival can be found at http://meetinghousemusic.org.
Elisabeth Remy Johnson is one of the most celebrated of Cape Cod’s native-born musicians. She holds the endowed Delta Air Lines Chair with the Atlanta Symphony—the orchestra that snapped her up immediately upon her graduation Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard. Matthews performs as principal hornist with the Cape Symphony, as well as the Indian Hill Symphony Orchestra and Discovery Ensemble.
In this third concert of the season, Enos pulled out all the stops as he continues his exploration of the finest chamber music from around the globe. The audience was treated to the dramatic beauty of the ballet music from Romeo and Juliet, the light playfulness of a scherzo for French horn, and a panoply of melody and moods in between. And with characteristic creativity, Enos paired harp, horn, and piano—spotlighting the instruments both individually and together—in a program that reaches technical and expressive heights through works of many styles and periods.
Remy Johnson is a fan of ballet in general and Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) in particular. Performed with Donald Enos, her rendition of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet was a stand-out piece in the superb program. Composed in 1935 and based on Shakespeare’s play about star-crossed lovers across a social divide, the ballet’s premiere was delayed by five years due to political squabbles concerning its interpretation.
Dutch composer and conductor Jan Koetsier (1911-2006) was featured in the program with two pieces: Sonata Op.94 for harp and horn
Clark Matthews
and Scherzo Brillante Op.96 for horn and piano.Koetsier was a piano prodigy who developed a passion for brass and created many highly original compositions revered by brass fans for their fresh, conversational character. John Williams (b. 1932)—distinguished American composer of classical music as well as countless magnificent film scores—was represented in the program with his Horn Concerto. Williams himself described this work, which premiered in 2003, as a symphonic poem exploring a variety of colors and moods.The harp gem Whirlwindby the French harpist and composer Carlos Salzedo (1885-1961) illustrates well why Salzedo is credited with making the harp into a virtuoso instrument.
Turning back to earlier periods, Prelude, Theme and Variationsby Gioacchino Rossini (1792-1868) gave witness to the spirited and technically-demanding best of the Classical style. The earliest piece in the program was the Concerto in C by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), which was originally scored for two harpsichords—the go-to instrument of the Baroque period. And rounding out the concert’s global voyage was Concerto No.1 in C by Antonio Soler (1729-1783), a Spanish Catalan priest and astonishingly prolific composer of more than 500 works.
The festival continues with performances on Mondays throughout July (July 15, 22, and 29) at Church of the Holy Spirit, 204 Monument Road, Orleans, MA. On Sunday, July 14, the festival travels to 1717 Meetinghouse, 2049 Meetinghouse Way, West Barnstable, MA (same program as July 15).
Cellist Amit Peled and His New Vernon Virtuosi Open Chamber Music Festival
Cellist Amit Peled.
Photo credit: Melissa Golden
On Monday, June 10, Donald Enos launched the 46th season of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival in collaboration with one of the most brilliant and colorful figures on the global music stage today, Grammy-nominated conductor, cellist, and pedagogue Amit Peled. The season premiere featured works by Tchaikovsky, Stutchewsky, and Mozart.
Amit Peled is no stranger to fans of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival. Enos spotted the young Israeli-American cellist more than a dozen years ago, not long after Peled moved to the US to assume his teaching position at Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory. Peled brings to the June 10 event his profound musicianship and larger-than-life personality and, adding to the usual high level of excitement, Peled will also conduct the Mount Vernon Virtuosi, the orchestra he founded to be an important platform for young performers.
On Monday, July 1, another virtuoso—violinist Irina Muresanu, whom critics have acclaimed as “dazzling” and “spellbinding” will headline a program that also exemplifies the cultural diversity of the festival.
Violinist Irina Muresanu
The offerings will range from folk airs from Muresanu’s native Romania to the lush artistry of French composer Gabriel Fauré.
And on each Monday through July 29, the festival will continue its presentation of traditional and contemporary repertoire from around the world performed by top-flight international and regional talent. Artists this year will include Elisabeth Remy Johnson, Clark Matthews, Heather Goodchild Wade, Laura Manko Sahin, Bo Ericsson, Joyce Hammann, Matthias Naegele, Katie Lansdale, and Megan Koch. A complete season listing is available here or visit Meeting House Chamber Music Festival
Donald Enos, the festival’s founder, artistic director, and pianist, welcomes all to experience the great music he has in store for this summer. In his words, the festival offers “live music that everyone can love—music that emerges naturally almost like a conversation among musicians, expressing raw, authentic human emotion. Join us and see why chamber music is known as the ‘music of friends!’”
The Meeting House Chamber Festival is grateful for the support of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Cape Cod 5 Foundation, and the Mary-Louise and Ruth N. Eddy Foundation.
Concerts are held at 7:30 pm on Monday evenings at Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans. The Monday, July 15, program will also be presented at 7 pm on Sunday, July 14, at 1717 Meetinghouse in West Barnstable.
A WOMAN'S HEART Wins Kudos at W.H.A.T.
Judith Partelow’s acclaimed new play A Woman’s Heart moved on to Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater on May 10-12 following four successful prior runs elsewhere on the Cape. The play explores a woman’s emotional life as she faces the challenges of child-rearing, career, love, and loss. Alternately romantic, gutsy, self-doubting, and serene, A Woman’s Heart carries a richly detailed narrative thread—beginning in the 1950s and ‘60s and running through to the present day. Life events and cultural references will likely resonate particularly with any baby boomer.
Critics have praised A Woman’s Heart’s captivating poetic language, its strong emotional appeal, and its innovative approach to casting. Three female actors represent the story’s heroine at different stages of her journey, and a single male actor assumes multiple roles. The actors are Lee Roscoe, Rod Owens, and Dana McCoy, and the playwright herself. The play is directed as well by the multi-talented Partelow and produced by Janet Murphy Robertson of ArtistsAndMusicians.org.
Partelow’s work has been met with enthusiasm by general audiences, the theater community, and academics. During its recent conference, the Cape Cod Writers Center awarded Partelow the 2018 Kevin V. Symmons Scholarship for Second Career Writers. James Kershner, Communications Professor, Cape Cod Community College, wrote of A Woman’s Heart, "I loved it! Deep, powerful, and entertaining." Actor Rod Owens facilitated a course titled A WOMAN'S HEART:POETRY-INTO-PLAY in the spring 2018 as part of the college’s Academy for Lifelong Learning series. Author Catherine Kelly-Mahon attended the course and observed, “Shakespeare gave us the Ages of Man; Partelow now gives us the Ages of Women. A Woman's Heart is the truth of human experience expressed in beautiful poetry." You can read more reviews of the play here: Reviews of A Woman’s Heart
The play premiered at the Jacob Sears Library Theater in May 2017 and went on to additional successful runs at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, the Women’s International Theater Festival in Provincetown, and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod.
MORE INFORMATION
Candace Hammond interviews Judith Partelow and Rod Owens on Arts Week: Interview at WOMR
The Cape Cod Times: Sue Mellen’s Review of A Woman's Heart
Readers' comments concerning Judith Partelow's poetry.
Andrea Baker's SING SISTAH SING! to Rock Cotuit Again on Sunday, April 28, 2 pm
On Sunday, April 28 at 2 pm, Cotuit Center for the Arts will present Sing Sistah Sing!—an award-winning celebration of the sound and extraordinary breadth of African American female voices over the centuries. Conceived and performed by internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano Andrea Baker, the show celebrates such musical greats as Leontyne Price, Marian Anderson, Donna Summer, Nina Simone, and Billie Holiday. Sing Sistah Sing! uniquely features traditional storytelling and music ranging from African American field songs to spirituals, gospel, jazz, blues, and opera.
Tickets $50, $40 for balcony seating. Discounts: $5 for members, $2 for seniors/veterans. Ms. Baker’s acclaimed new solo CD will be available for sale at the event.
In this dazzling show, Andrea Baker will evoke the pantheon of African American vocalists and their brave struggles for civil rights and artistic freedom. Whether they chose jazz, pop, or opera to express their inner truth, these women all carried in their souls and voices the sounds of their ancestors’ songs of the plantation. Only a highly-trained and soulful vocalist like Andrea Baker could contemplate such a demanding program, drawing as it does on sublime musicality, a profound connection with American history, and direct personal experience. Ms. Baker’s own great-grandfather Thomas Nelson Baker, Sr. was born into slavery, made his way to Massachusetts, and became the first African American to receive a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University. The long-time minister of the Second Congregational Church in Pittsfield, MA, he lent inspiration for Sing Sistah Sing! via an essay he wrote in 1908, titled “The Negro Melodies.”
Sing Sistah Sing! has been performed to rave reviews in Europe and was spotlighted in “The Best of the Fringe” in Edinburgh’s prestigious Fringe Festival. The show’s sensational American debut was held at Cotuit in June 2018 as a benefit for Zion Union Heritage Museum.
Andrea Baker’s 2019 tour opened in San Francisco on April 7 and will include stops at Arizona State University and Tennessee King Institute before arriving at Cotuit on April 28. Throughout the tour, Ms. Baker’s US fans will also be treated to the rollicking piano mastery of Peter Maleitzke, a popular and multi-talented San Francisco-based artist (bio attached).
Websites:http://www.singsistahsing.com; http://www.andreabaker.org
Video links: https://vimeo.com/292672581;https://vimeo.com/227806238;https://vimeo.com/268377731;https://soundcloud.com/andrea-baker-mezzo/sets/tuscaloosa-bbc-radio-scotland
"FUNK & SOUL" to be presented at Cotuit on Saturday, February 16
The GroovaLottos, L-R: Mwalim DaPhunkee Professor, Eddie Ray Johnson, The ZYG 808, and Richard Johnson. Photo by David John Correia.
"FUNK & SOUL,” a special concert presented by Zion Union Heritage Museum in honor of Black History Month, will take place at Cotuit Center for the Arts on Saturday, February 16. Doors will open at 7 pm for a 7:30 pm start. Featuring The GroovaLottos, 6-time Grammy nominees, the evening is a fundraiser for the landmark museum, which celebrates the African-American, Cape Verdean, and Wampanoag populations, as well as the ethnic and demographic diversity, of Cape Cod. Tickets for the event are $27 and $32, with senior discounts available. They can be purchased in advance by contacting the Cotuit Center for the Arts at 508.428.0669 x1 or on-line at https://artsonthecape.org/explore/funk-and-soul-celebration.
The GroovaLottos are a powerhouse soul-funk-blues band, said to play with their souls instead of their hands. A high-energy band on a mission to unlock the spirit and the soul—and closely connected with the who's who of classic soul, funk and blues legends—these journeymen are keepers of a musical tradition and legacy, rich with storytelling and infectious grooves. Incredible music and wild senses of humor make them one of the most entertaining bands around. The group is comprised of Eddie Ray Johnson, drums and vocals; Mwalim Daphunkee Professor, keyboards and vocals; and Richard Johnson, bass, and child prodigy percussionist and MC, The ZYG 808.
The GroovaLottos and Cotuit Center for the Arts have a common link. The Center's founder, Cotuit resident and former Motown session guitarist James Wolf, brought drummer Eddie Ray Johnson and keyboardist/singer/songwriter Mwalim together for jam sessions in 2009 that evolved into The GroovaLottos. The group made their first concert appearance at the Multicultural Festival at Cape Cod Community College’s Tilden Arts Center in 2011.
The Zion Union Heritage Museum was founded in part by the Community Preservation Act and the Lyndon Paul Lorusso Foundation, in partnership with the Town of Barnstable. Opened a decade ago on the site of the century-old Zion Union Church, the museum is increasingly recognized, not only as a historical landmark in the Commonwealth, but also as a destination of national significance. The museum is sponsoring a wide range of events in honor of Black History Month and hosting an important new exhibition Lewis Hayden and the Underground Railroad.
“A CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS” WITH CHATHAM CHORALE AND FRIENDS, SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15 AND 16
Much-Loved Holiday Concerts Return to Chatham’s United Methodist
Chatham, MA / December 1, 2018 – The Chatham Chorale and Chambers Singers once again offer a bounty of seasonal music in the beautiful space and great acoustics of Chatham’s United Methodist Church, on Saturday, December 15, at 3:00 pm and Sunday, December 16, at 2:00 and 5:00 pm. Led by Music Director Joe Marchio, the singers will be joined by Chorale accompanist Donald Enos on piano and organ and the string players of Quartett Giocosa in a program of traditional and surprising selections from many eras, to lift spirits and warm this holiday season.
“I’ve made it a special mission this year to seek out terrific new arrangements of Christmas favorites,” says Marchio. “It’s remarkable how many gifted composers working today have revisioned this beloved body of music into exciting new forms—on this program are pieces arranged by Mack Wilberg, David Herman, Dan Forrest, and Mark Hayes.”
That’s not to say tradition is overlooked. Audiences will hear the classic David Willcocks arrangements of “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Handel’s Messiahis represented by the thrilling chorus “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” and Marchio will lead a singalong of Franz Gruber’s “Silent Night.”
Bringing a fresh instrumental twist to the music are the women of Quartett Giocosa: Heather Goodchild Wade and Irina Fainkichen (violins), Irina Naryshkova (viola), and cellist Elizabeth Schultze. The players met in the Cape Symphony and have performed as a quartet since 2017. As well as accompanying the Chorale, the Quartett will play the Scherzo from Aleksandr Borodin’s String Quartet no. 2.
The Chamber Singers contingent is featured in the Renaissance gem “Cantate Domino” by Heinrich Schütz, new arrangements of “Who Are These Like Stars Appearing” and “In the Bleak Midwinter,” and the second movement of Schubert’s Magnificat in C Major, D. 486 (joined by the full Chorale in the two outer movements).
Chatham Chorale is one of Cape Cod’s longest-established choral ensembles, for 48 years presenting an annual concert series with programs ranging from choral masterworks to Broadway, pops stylings, and premieres of new works by regional composers. The Chorale also regularly collaborates with the Cape Symphony—as earlier this month in the Holiday Pops concerts—and sings in service to the community.
Tickets ($25 open/$30 reserved) can be purchased at www.chathamchorale.org/tickets, by phone (774-212-9333) or at the door the day of the concert. Students and those under 18 admitted free with a ticket; call the number above. For more information, visit www.chathamchorale.org
Lee Roscoe's THE MOONCUSSER'S TALE Wins Accolades
“The Mooncusser’s Tale,” an original radio drama by Lee Roscoe, was aired on WOMR-FM on Halloween night. For the first time in a very long time, the station presented a full length radio drama. The broadcast is now available in podcast and on Public Radio Exchange for any radio stations that may be interested to hear and license.
Here's what people are saying about the "The Mooncusser's Tale":
"We feel so privileged to have heard The Mooncusser's Tale tonight on WOMR. Exciting, lyrical, spooky, tragic, profound -- and so Cape Cod. The characters were real and well-drawn, the writing beautiful, the actors excellent. Also the pacing and sound effects perfect." June Hager, organizer of Wellfleet Open University, Michael Hager, international lawyer
"Great job! The characters and language were so authentic. The history fascinating. It took me back to another time." Jeff Bumby, retired CEO
"Intelligence, clarity, literacy, integrity..." Bruce Henry, Jesuit archivist
"Last night was so enjoyable, gathering by the radio listening to listen to your play. A great way to spend a Halloween evening. I thought it was very poetic and really captured so much of historical Cape Cod. Everyone sounded real and authentic. I hope you have great success with many performances of your fine and beautiful work, Lee." Bill Salem, actor
"Kudos to you on your wonderfully written (I loved the deft language) beautifully acted, and well produced radio play "The Mooncusser's Tale." Neil Silberblatt, founder Voices of Poetry
"A story that keeps me wanting to know what happens next, characters which interest me, and a story which is new!" (Anonymous) newspaper editor-in-chief
"Terrific Lee! We were spellbound." Larry Minear, author, activist and Beth Minear, weaver
“Bravo! Outstanding work!” Jill Putnam, education expert
“An amazing piece of work!” Bonnie Hiller, best selling children’s author
“Fabulous. Kudos.” Kathy Clobridge, political organizer
“Beautifully written, so poetic” Elysse MaGuire, designer
This radio play is suitable for the whole family. Indeed the fictional family is played by a real family of actors! It is a poetic ghost tale that takes place in the sea and sand laden beauty of Wellfleet, Cape Cod in the 19th century and based on old pirate legends.
Teachers, this can be found in podcast and will make a great teaching tool for the history/nature of the Cape! So pass the word! Please let us know if you are interested by emailing us at [email protected] "The Mooncusser's Tale" would make an excellent YA novel if there are any interested publishers out there!
Festival to Conclude 2018 Season with Fanfare, Monday, July 23 in Orleans
The Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will bring its successful 2018 season to a close with fanfare befitting the occasion. Performing in the exciting and varied program will be horn player Clark Matthews, violinist Audrey Wright, and the eminent Cape Cod pianist and artistic director Donald Enos, who founded this longest-running Cape Cod music festival 45 years ago. The concert will be given at the festival’s principal venue, Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans. Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 508.896.3344 or emailing [email protected] Tickets: $25 (under 18 free).
A selection of delightful and historically significant works will mark the celebratory mood. Fantasy for Solo Horn by Malcolm Arnold—the prolific 20thcentury English composer and Oscar-winning producer of more than 100 film scores—is esteemed by critics and fans for its brilliant expression of both joy and grief. Another piece for solo horn—a sparkling, fast-paced work by the contemporary British composer Alan Abbott— strongly evokes the instrument’s origins in the actual animal horns used for calls during the stages of a hunt. In Brahms’ Horn Trio, Op. 40, the horn will be joined by the violin and piano and engage in a musical conversation inspired by the beauty and tranquility of the Black Forest. Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 8 in G Major, an early work by this great composer, is regarded as transformational in its technical difficulty, structure, and emotive power. This varied program also includes works by Richard Strauss, aleading late Romantic/early modern German composer; the important 20thcentury Argentine composer Alberto Evaristo Ginastera; the 20thcentury Czech American composer Václav Nelhýbel; and the contemporary American composer and teacher Eric Ewazen.
Spotlight on Remarkable Playwrights
A Scene from Judith Partelow's A WOMAN'S HEART
Our "Writers' Corner" is currently spotlighting two remarkable playwrights:
Meeting House Chamber Music Festival Travels to Historic West Barnstable Venue on Sunday, July 15. Concert to be given a second time in Orleans, Monday, July 16
Interior of 1717 Meetinghouse. Photo by Nancy Viall Shoemaker
On Sunday, July 15 at 7:00 pm, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will travel to a magnificent and exceptionally fitting venue in West Barnstable. Not only does the name “1717 Meetinghouse” echo the title of the festival itself, the building was constructed in the century when chamber music began its evolution into a distinct musical form. The program includes two piano quartets that are acknowledged masterpieces, plus an excellent early example and two 20thcentury pieces that demonstrate chamber music’s enduring relevance. On Monday, July 16 at 7:30 pm, the same program will be given at the festival’s principal venue, Church of the Holy Spirit, Orleans. Performing in this concert will be: cellist Bo Ericsson, violinist Heather Goodchild Wade, and violist Laura Manko Sahin, as well as the festival’s founder/artistic director/pianist Donald Enos. Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 508.896.3344 or emailing [email protected] Tickets: $25 (under 18 free).
Artful programming by Donald Enos creates a musical bridge across the centuries.The program’s earliest composition is a Baroque period violin sonata by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, renowned as a composer to this day despite his untimely death in 1736 at age 26. A generation later, Mozart’s bright and genial Quartet in E Flat, K. 493 shows how this musical genius moved beyond the Baroque, giving each instrument an independent voice that responds to the other. The Romantic tragic/heroic energy of the Brahms Quartet in G minor shows how the chamber music form had fully evolved by the mid-19thcentury into "four rational people conversing,” as chamber music has come to be called. Swedish composer Lars-Erik Larsson and Turkish composer Necil Kazim Akses’ further expanded the chamber music form, adding 20thcentury techniques and sensibilities and creating an exciting, modern, and culturally rich conversation.
Meeting House Chamber Music Festival
The Meeting House Chamber Music Festival is the longest-running music festival on Cape Cod for a reason. This year's line-up once again includes an extraordinary mix of engaging music from different periods and countries around the world. And, as always, the festival features the finest local talent and additional top instrumentalists from the national and international stage. The season finale will be held on Monday, July 23 at 7:30 pm at Church of the Holy Spirit. To view the schedule for the entire season, as well as biographies of the artists, please visit http://www.meetinghousemusic.org.
Baroque, Tango, and more!
Violinist Katie Lansdale
On Monday, July 9 at 7:30 pm, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will continue its stellar 45thsummer season with a concert that ranges from the exuberance of the Baroque to the passion of the Argentine tango. Two outstanding instrumentalists—violinist Katie Lansdale and cellist Megan Koch—will join the festival’s founder/artistic director/pianist Donald Enos. The concert will be given at the festival’s principal venue, Church of the Holy Spirit, Orleans, MA. Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 508.896.3344. Tickets: $25 (under 18 free).
Featured will be five compositions from the 18thto the 20thcenturies, each as moving and expressive as the next: J.S. Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor; Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata, Op. 58; Seasons composition by Vivaldi and by Astor Piazzolla; and Frank Bridge’s Phantasie Trio.
As an organ piece, the Bach toccata is well known and popular, yet it is an enigma. Atypical of the great composer in many respects and not particularly “organ-like,” it strikes scholars as either a youthful creation or a transcription of an earlier violin composition. With the artistry of pianist Donald Enos and violinist Katie Lansdale, this iconic work will be served up with a twist and promises to be one highlight in a concert filled with delight after delight.
The festival will also give a musical tribute to the different moods and emotions associated with nature’s ever-repeating cycles. In 1721 when the great Baroque composer Vivaldi composed his Four Seasons, the best known of all his works, the concerto was unusual and even revolutionary as it evoked flora and fauna, storms, landscapes and other distinctive features of particular times of the year. Enos will juxtapose this brilliant composition with the musical portrait of nature that Argentine tango composer Astor Piazzolla composed two centuries later.
Cellist Megan Koch
Scholars have noted the fascination that Bach held for Mendelssohn. While the Cello Sonata is a powerful and passionate work, mostly conveying an exultant mood, the Adagio seems inspired by a Bach chorale and includes a touching cello solo to be performed by Megan Koch.
The early 20thcentury British composer Frank Bridge is increasingly recognized, not only as Benjamin Britten’s teacher, but also as an important composer in his own right. Especially in his earlier years, Bridge composed deeply moving, melodious works with a late Romantic feel. His Trio is a great example and rounds out a program bound to move its audience in the special way that only chamber music can do.
The festival continues with additional performances on July 15, 16, and 23.
Sensational Romanian Violinist to Headline Festival Concert
On Monday, July 2 at 7:30 pm, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will present yet another exciting evening of chamber music at the festival’s principal venue, Church of the Holy Spirit, Orleans, MA. This time the headliner will be the sensational Romanian violinist Irina Muresanu—one of the most popular musicians ever to perform with the festival, and one whose “irresistible” performances have been cited by The Boston Globe as “among the bestin classical music.” Performing with Ms. Muresanu this year will be Gabriela Diaz, critically acclaimed as a young violin master and one of Boston’s most valuable players. Donald Enos—the festival’s founder, artistic director, and pianist—will join the duo in an extraordinary display of expressed emotion and violin and piano virtuosity.
The program is geared to lead the audience to new discoveries. Mozart’s Violin Sonata K.301 is an unusual and engaging piece made up solely of two allegros. Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne is a light, innovative piece even as it echoesBaroque and Romantic styles. Featured as well will be the Suite for Two Violins and Piano by German-Polish composer and pianist Moritz Moszkowski—the late 19thcentury/early 20thcentury composer named by some critics in the same breath as his earlier compatriot, the great Chopin. Moszkowski’s profound knowledge of both violin and piano, his flair for melody, and his zest for life will bring a new and delightful experience to many festival fans. Kodály’s Adagio for Violin is Romantic in theme, melancholy in mood, and utterly beautiful. A piece by Romantic period composer and violin virtuoso Sarasate will showcase this composer’s exemplary technique. It may also inspire music-lovers to learn more about this noteworthy Spaniard referenced in the works of Arthur Conan Doyle, Anthony Burgess, Edith Wharton, and James McNeil Whistler.
As if this were not enough, the program will include a piece by Mark O’Connor, the contemporary cultural icon whose compositions in bluegrass, country, jazz, and classical music sent The New York Timesraving about “one of the most spectacular journeys in recent American music.” All in all, an extraordinary concert lies ahead on July 2. And the festival continues with additional performances on July 9, 15, 16, and 23.
Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 508.896.3344 or emailing [email protected] Single tickets: $25 (under 18 free). 6-Concert Series: $95.
Dazzling Oboe/Bassoon Duo to Perform with Festival on Monday, June 25
On Monday, June 25, at 7:30 pm, the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival will once again feature a dazzling young duo from New York: bassoonist Nanci Belmont and oboist Stuart Breczinski. With Donald Enos at the piano, they will present a diverse program with works by both classical and contemporary composers. The program will include: Malcolm Arnold, Sonatina Op.28 Summer Song; Saint-Saëns, Bassoon Sonata; Pierre Max Dubois, Sonatine Tango; Music of Daniel Black, Rochberg, Vivaldi; André Previn, Trio (1994). The concert will be presented at the festival’s principal venue: Church of the Holy Spirit in Orleans.
The oboe and the bassoon are orchestra mainstays, but they are seldom granted solo roles or put in the spotlight together. Belmont and Breczinski’s brilliance in playing these difficult instruments leaves one wondering why and wanting more. In last year’s festival opening, they played beautifully and engaged their audience with fascinating stories about the pieces they chose. This year’s audience is bound to be charmed once again.
Next up in this outstanding summer series, now celebrating its 45th season, will be a concert on Monday, July 2 headlined by the sensational violinist Irina Muresanu. Attached is the full season schedule Additional concerts are slated for July 9, 15, 16, and 23.
Tickets can be purchased at the door or reserved in advance by calling 508.896.3344 or emailing [email protected]. Single tickets: $25 (under 18 free). 6-Concert Series: $95.