The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival will kick-off its tenth anniversary season with two evening concerts, a Family Music Fest concert, and the Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar. The Festival continues through August 19 with a mix of classical and jazz offerings performed by an engaging roster of artists.
On July 11, the concert Nature Calls, features Schubert’s popular Trout Quintet, a new arrangement of Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals and Heinrich von Biber’s Sonata Representiva, and George Crumb’s Voice of the Whale for three masked players.
“The program shows how composers from three different centuries portrayed animals in music,” says 
Festival artistic director Linda Chesis, who will be performing in the concert. “The Farmers’ Museum is the ideal venue for this thematic concert. You’ll hear all sorts of animals, from cats, cuckoos, and swans to frogs, elephants and beluga whales,” says Ms. Chesis.
This concert, which will be held at The Farmers’ Museum Louis C. Jones Center at 7:30 pm, includes a pre-concert chat with the artists at 7 pm, and a post-concert reception with the artists, hosted by Brewery Ommegang. Artists include: Linda Chesis, flute; Gil Morgenstern, violin; Kathryn Lockwood, viola; Wilhelmina Smith, cello; Shirley Irek, piano; and Jeremy McCoy, double bass.
On Saturday, July 12 at 11 am, the Festival offers a kid-friendly introduction to the string quartet. Family Music Fest: What’s That Four? features the highly acclaimed Parker String Quartet. This event, which includes a post-concert instrument petting zoo, where kids can try out musical instruments, costs $15 per family.
The Parkers perform works by Haydn, Janáček, and Beethoven on Sunday, July 13 at 7:30 pm at The Farmers’ Museum. The Boston-based string quartet won both the Concert Artists Guild International Competition and the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition in 2005.
“The Parker String Quartet is one of the very best young quartets performing today,” says Ms. Chesis. “The concert features a great Haydn quartet, one of Beethoven’s blockbuster quartets that marked the arrival of his heroic period, and the dramatic Janáček quartet inspired by Tolstoy’s novel, The Kreutzer Sonata.
Continuing its tradition of offering free community concerts, the Festival’s first-ever Pro-Am Seminar pairs accomplished amateurs with three professional musicians. “We see this as an opportunity to celebrate chamber music as a lifelong pursuit that can be enjoyed and shared,” says Ms. Chesis, who will be leading the Pro-Am Seminar with David Geber, cello, and Shirley Irek, piano. These concerts will be held in venues throughout the Cooperstown area, July 14-16.
“The individuals joining us for the seminar are truly amazing people, who have excelled in their professional life while dedicating time and talent to their love of music,” explains Ms. Chesis. Mark Ptashne, who holds the Ludwig Chair of Molecular Biology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, is a violinist who has performed at many festivals. Bruce Harris is an attending neurosurgeon at Cooperstown’s Bassett Healthcare who is an accomplished pianist. Matt Rosen, a managed healthcare consultant with a Ph.D. in sociology, plays cello and has participated in chamber music workshops in the US and abroad along with his wife, Geraldine Van Dusen. Ms. Van Dusen, a violinist, is a managing editor at St. Martin’s Press in New York City.
Also participating in the Pro-Am Seminar are three students from the Manhattan School of Music, where Mr. Geber is Dean of the Faculty for Instrumental Performance and Ms. Chesis is a member of the flute faculty and chair of the Woodwind Department. The students are Monica Davis, violin/viola; Leat Sabbah, cello; and Emily DiAngelo, oboe, who is also serving as the Festival’s intern and production manager.
After coaching sessions and rehearsals, the artists will perform at Pathfinder Village on July 14 at 7 pm, the Fenimore Art Museum auditorium on July 15 at 12 noon and July 16 at 12 noon. These concerts are free and open to all. The group also will perform for the residents of the Thanksgiving Home in Cooperstown.
Season continues through August 19
The Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival tenth anniversary season also features a Baroque concert on July 23, the Daedalus Quartet and clarinetist David Shifrin on August 3, Flute Fest at the Otesaga (another free community concert) on August 7, Chords and Strings with The Brasil Guitar Duo on August 9, Trio Solisti and Linda Chesis on August 13, Family Music Fest: Go for Baroque on August 16, Gala 10th Anniversary Concert: The Brandenburg Concertos on August 17, and jazz with the Brubeck Brothers Quartet on August 19. Evening concerts begin at 7:30 pm. Audiences are invited to attend 7 pm pre-concert chats with the artists on the following dates: July 11, 13, 23, and August 3, 9, 13.
Tickets and Information
Evening concerts are $30 for adults. Students (6-18) tickets for evening concerts are $15. Daytime Family Music Fest events are $15 per family. Pro-Am Seminar concerts and the Flute Fest at the Otesaga concert are free and do not require a ticket or reservation. Program subject to change.
For more information, call toll-free 877- MOOSIC1 (877-666-7421), or visit the Festival’s web site.
accompany members of Glimmerglass Opera’s Young American Artists Program for We Open in Paris, a concert of selections from French operettas and Cole Porter’s Paris musicals. The free program will be presented Friday, August 15, at 4:30 p.m. at the Alice Busch Opera Theater in Cooperstown, New York.
