Welcome to the 2010 Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival. This year we celebrate the wonderful gift of chamber music by commemorating the contributions of two masters with special birthdays. 2010 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Robert Schumann, as well as the 100th of American composer Samuel Barber.
The theme of this year's festival is "The Poet Speaks." It is taken from the title of the last movement of Schumann's Scenes from Childhood, and it perfectly depicts the romantic, lyrical style that characterizes both of these two geniuses.
As is our custom, we will present a wide spectrum of chamber music by these and a host of other composers. Our artists will "speak" the poetry of their music through their instruments. But the 2010 Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival will do more than speak - it will sing. Both Schumann and Barber possessed an amazing understanding of the human voice and how to set text to music. So this year's programs will present some of their most glorious vocal music.
Of course, we must not only look back and celebrate milestone birthdays. We must also look forward. This year we will be presenting two world premieres. In keeping with the Festival's theme, our 2010 Stone Composer-in-Residence Lera Auerbach is not only a wonderful composer and pianist, she is also an outstanding poet in her own right. For our Festival, she has prepared a new work which she will perform with violist Kim Kashkashian, a Festival favorite whose return is always welcome.
The second world premiere is from our Stone Composer Fellow, Uriel Vanchestein. His new work, to be performed by the Harlem String Quartet, represents the first fruition of a project to commission a young composer every year to write a work that will be performed by one of our Shouse ensembles.
No Festival is stronger than the musicians who perform in it, and we are proud of the roster of fine artists, both new and returning, that we have assembled for "The Poet Speaks." Some young, some more seasoned, they are among the very best musicians in the world today. All consider it a privilege to be able to participate in the extraordinary art form that is chamber music, and especially to share that music with an appreciative and informed audience whose hearts, minds and ears are wide open. The Poet Speaks indeed to all of us, and we look forward to sharing the eloquence of that poetry.
Sincerely,
James Tocco
Artistic Director
Sincerely,
