The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

concerts

Our Backyard Gem – and its Name is Caramoor

by

PHOTO BY GABE PALACIO

If you’ve been to Caramoor, you already know what a treasure it is, but if you’re new to the area, or haven’t been in a while, then it’s time to discover or rediscover Caramoor’s summer music programming!

The season kicks off June 17 with a very special concert featuring the stellar vocalist Audra McDonald with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, performing classics from the American Songbook. The music continues the next day with a Hot Jazz Age Frolic featuring the Eyal Vilner Big Band (bring your dancing shoes!) and continues through August 18 with a concert on the lawn by Neal Francis, who according to Rolling Stone Magazine, “is making piano rock cool again”.

In between there are over 40 concerts, featuring performances by world-renowned artists with local ties, including Hélène Grimaud, Garrick Ohlsson, Alisa Weilerstein, Sandbox Percussion, and 2023 Best New Artist and Best Jazz Vocal Album Grammy winner Samara Joy. The summer also includes Davóne Tines, The Harlem Gospel Travelers, Brooklyn Rider, Pekka Kuusisto and Nico Muhly; Caccini’s Alcina and Handel’s Acis and Galatea, Arooj Aftab – the first Pakistani woman to win a Grammy – performing with Vijay Iyer and Shahzad Ismaily, Ukranian group DakhaBrakha, global superstar and Grammy Award winner Oumou Sangaré, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The American Roots Music Festival featuring Brandy Clark, the Jazz Festival featuring Cécile McLorin Salvant, and much more.

On July 2, the Westchester Symphonic Winds return for the popular Pops & Patriots concert, and on July 8, Ted Sperling will host a very special program titled “Over the Rainbow: The Songs of Harold Arlen”.

Caramoor is located on an 80-acre estate in Katonah NY and offers music lovers exceptional curated concert events across genres in incomparable settings.

In the words of Kathy Schuman, Caramoor’s Artistic Director: “Each summer, we try to curate an extremely broad variety of music, and one of the most fun parts of my job is choosing, from among our many beautiful venues, the perfect setting for each performance, whether it be orchestras and opera in the dramatic Venetian Theater, chamber music in the intimate Spanish Courtyard, Saturday morning deep listening in the Sunken Garden, casual global, jazz, or American Roots concerts on picnic-ready Friends Field and, of course, our all-day, multiple stage festivals and annual free site-specific event (Ted Hearne’s Farming with The Crossing this year). With so many different ways to enjoy music at Caramoor, I truly believe experiencing a performance here is unlike anywhere else in the greater New York area.”   

Audra McDonald performs June 17th (photo by Gabe Palacio)

Caramoor’s grounds will open for summer on June 4 with Soundscapes, a free event, in which everyone is welcome to discover a fascinating world of sounds through Caramoor’s Sonic Innovations sound art exhibition featuring live performances and the opportunity to meet the sound artists while exploring this unique and innovative collection spread throughout Caramoor’s wooded paths and grounds.

A second free event takes place Sunday, July 9, when The Crossing, conducted by Donald Nally, performs FARMING, a stirring new oratorio by Ted Hearne written specifically for this choir and scored for 24 vocalists with guitars, keyboard, and percussion, set near Caramoor’s Sunken Garden, allowing the audience to explore and listen to this explosive work as it unfolds.

New this summer are two Saturday afternoon indoor recitals in the Music Room, a Concerts for Little Ones series offered in July, and a collaboration with the Bedford Riding Lanes Association in which attendees of Caramoor’s Music & Meditation in the Garden programs on July 1st and 15th can add a pre-event 45 minute, 1.75 mile hike before joining the mindful listening program in the Sunken Garden.

Edward J. Lewis III, Caramoor’s President and Chief Executive Officer, elaborates: “True to the vision of our founders, Caramoor is the place where you can be transformed by the convergence of an exciting and diverse mix of remarkable live music performances, stunning gardens and grounds, and the beauty of an art-filled historic home. The Caramoor experience leaves both the artist and audience refreshed and renewed and compels all to return again and again.”

Whether you go to see a favorite artist, or to discover a new one, build in some time to explore the grounds and gardens, tour the historic Rosen House, discover the sound art, and enjoy the lively picnic scene with friends and family, a visit to Caramoor is sure to leave you renewed and inspired!

Information and tickets: caramoor.org

Michael Shapiro’s VOICES Premieres, a Requiem Honoring Victims of the Holocaust

by

More than 20 years ago, longtime Chappaqua resident Michael Shapiro found himself thumbing through a poetry compilation about the Holocaust written from the perspective of Jews in countries such as Greece, Italy and France at at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC. The compilation, And The World Stood Silent: Sephardic Poetry of the Holocaust, chronicles the life of nearly 160,000 Sephardic Jews exiled from Spain in 1492 and who ultimately perished in the Holocaust.

At the time, Shapiro’s work focused primarily on curating concerts featuring music of Jews who had fled the Holocaust and emigrated to Hollywood such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold who scored several films most notably The Adventures of Robin Hood. Shapiro also organized concerts featuring music from composers who had lived in Teresienstadt, a ghetto in Czechoslovakia–a hotbed of musical creativity with composers such as Gideon Klein, Pavel Haas, Hans Krása and Viktor Ullmann residing there.

Shapiro lost about 75 members of his own family among the six million Eastern European Jews massacred during the Holocaust. He yearned for the chance to immerse himself in how the Holocaust impacted Jews in the countries included in the poetry compilation and to share his own family history. Shapiro was immediately moved by the literature. “The poetry hit me completely. It was so powerful,” recalls Shapiro. A few years ago, conductor Deborah Simpkin King of Ember Choral Arts, inspired him to write the 60-minute plus work and is conducting Shapiro’s piece, which took him just seven months to write. “It flew out of me,” explains Shapiro. Shapiro was intentional in having the piece be a requiem. “Nothing gets to people like the sound of a chorus with an orchestra,” he noted.

Shapiro has written more than 100 works for orchestral, theatrical, film, chamber, choral and vocal forces throughout his career. His works have been performed by many of the greatest orchestras and performers in North America and Europe and for years he served as the conductor of the Chappaqua Orchestra. His music has been played on BBC, National Public Radio, SiriusXM and is available on major platforms such as Spotify and Apple Music.

Shapiro has always been interested in exploring themes such as prejudice and racial divisiveness in his music. In fact, one of Shapiro’s most well-known pieces is the score from Frankenstein which has been performed more than 50 times internationally. “I think I was attracted to Frankenstein because I was interested in the way the monster was depicted and treated as the other.”

Shapiro hopes his “Voices of the Holocaust” concerts “give a voice to people who no longer have a voice.” While the Nazis murdered six million Jews, they also targeted other groups such as Roma (gypsies), homosexuals and people with disabilities. This same hatred is happening today, Shapiro is quick to point out. He felt he had to write the piece now, especially with the number of Holocaust survivors dwindling each year to 300,000-350,000 survivors in 2022 according to the nonprofit Holocaust group, Claims Conference.

The premiere of the piece took place at Temple Shaaray Tefila on November 9th and at Manhattan’s famed Central Synagogue on November 10th. The timing was purposely chosen to coincide with the 84th anniversary of Kristallnacht, ‘The Night of Broken Glass’, when Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues and homes were destroyed by the Nazis in Germany and in Nazi occupied territories in Austria and Czechoslovakia. In the two-day spree of massive violence against the Jews, 30,000 Jewish males were arrested and sent to prisons or concentration camps.

The premiere at Central Synagogue also included a Q & A session with Paul Shaffer, the former musical director and band leader of Late Night with David Letterman. It also featured tenor soloist Daniel Mutlu, the Senior Cantor of Central Synagogue and the American Modern Ensemble. “Mutlu has a phenomenal voice. He really is one of the greatest cantors in the country,” exclaims Shapiro.

On the Horizon

The concert will also debut at the Reagan Library in California performed by the Los Angeles Master Chorale and conducted by Grant Gershon. The LA performance will coincide with the Auschwitz exhibition at the library for ten months starting this spring. The moving exhibition originally was showcased at the Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in downtown New York City. Visit MichaelShapiro.com.

What’s Not to Like or Even Love About Friends of Music Concerts?

by

Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Wind Ensemble (L-R): Julie Price, bassoon; Tom Blomfield, oboe; Stephen Stirling, horn; James Burke, clarinet

Sixty-eight years, ago a group of friends in Croton-on-Hudson, who had been gathering once a month to listen to records of classical music and discuss the performances, asked themselves, “Why not bring some of these musicians up to Westchester for live performances?” They did so, bringing the then-young Juilliard String Quartet up to Croton for two performances, one for young people and a second in the evening for adults, setting up a performance space in the high school. Both were over-subscribed.

Thus, Friends of Music Concerts was born, an all-volunteer, non-profit organization with a three-fold mission: to bring musicians of world renown and those relatively new in the burgeoning musical scene to Westchester; include children and older students in special ways to build audiences of the future; and make all those musical experiences as affordable as possible.

Our 69th season began in September 2022 with the wonderful Emerson String Quartet. It continued in October with recitals by the excellent pianist Jeremy Denk and then the dynamic young Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak with his piano collaborator Ji Yung Lee. November saw the return to our stage of the phenomenal Dover Quartet.

Albert Cano Smit, Pianist

Save the Dates

Three exciting concerts are on tap for the spring of 2023. First up, on the evening of Saturday, March 18, is Curtis on Tour, a group comprised of students, faculty, and alumni from Philadelphia’s renowned Curtis Institute of Music. Their adventurous program will include Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat, narrated by actor John De Lancie. Their instruments will include violin, double bass, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, piano, and percussion.

The afternoon of Sunday, April 16, will bring to our stage the young Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit. As a winner of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions held in New York City, he received our annual Performance Award. His program will include works by Mozart, Messiaen, Albéniz, and Ginastera.

Our season will conclude on the evening of Saturday, April 22, with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields Wind Ensemble, joining us from across the pond. The group’s instruments include oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn; with them will be a pianist as guest artist. Their program includes works by Reinecki, Mozart, and Beethoven.

All these musical delights certainly are affordable. Single tickets to our concerts are just $35; $15 for college students with IDs. Because all students 18 and under are admitted free of charge, it’s easy for them to come along with their parents, or on their own, to sample the wonder-full world of classical music.

Presenting concerts is not the only thing Friends of Music Concerts does, however. Another of our popular initiatives is our grant-funded Partnership in Education Program, through which we bring into selected school districts, at no cost to themselves, young professional musicians for one-day residencies when they perform and give master classes to the district’s music students.

Last season, as part of this program, the Tesla Quartet was in residence at White Plains High School, the Aizuri Quartet was at Henry Hudson High School in Montrose, and the Balourdet Quartet was at Sleepy Hollow High School. Additionally, the PUBLQuartet, which in the past has performed as part of our concert series, was in residence at SUNY/Purchase. In all cases, teachers were excited by the way these young professionals elicited their students’ rapt attention. The professionals often noticed that the students’ playing talent improved following the master classes. We now are accepting applications for a new round of such residencies, hoping to expand the program by increasing the grants that make them possible.

For more information about our concerts (including venue locations) and our other programs please visit our website:
friendsofmusicconcerts.org

Try it. You’ll like it!

CityParks Summer Stage 2018

by

Editor’s Note: If you were lucky enough to catch any one of the outstanding performances of City Parks Summer Stage 2018, hats off to you. But if you were not, there’s still time to enjoy continued programming right through September!

For more info and updates, visit CityParksFoundation.org

– Grace Bennett

SEPT 8

Mac Demarco produced by The Bowery presents Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist brings his psychedelic pop-punk tunes to life

Saturday 6-10pm

Central Park | $ BENEFIT MUSIC

SEPT 26

Blood Orange produced by The Bowery presents genre-spanning musical performance from The multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and producer Dev Hynes

Saturday 6-10pm

Central Park | $ BENEFIT MUSIC

SEPT 27

Angelique Kidjo’s Remain in Light/Resistance Revival Chorus Africa’s premier diva stuns with songs from her much-anticipated talking heads cover album, opened with a Women’s Choir Collective

Thursday 7-10pm

Central Park | MUSIC

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Donald Fagen & The Nightflyers at The Capitol Theatre: August 3 & 4!

by

Donald Fagen –musician, composer, vocalist, producer, Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and co-founder of Steely Dan and The Dukes of September–has recruited a quartet of young musicians he’s been working with over the past few years to form a new band called the Nightflyers. At an exclusive August 3rd and August 4th performances at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, New York, Fagen and his band are expected to play songs from Donald’s solo albums, Steely Dan hits and as the Rock & Roll Hall Of Famer describes, “some swell surprises.” The Nightflyers features Connor Kennedy (guitar, vocals), Lee Falco (drums, vocals), Brandon Morrison (bass, vocals) and Will Bryant (keyboards, vocals). Visit The Capitol Theatre online for more info about this concern and other programming, and to purchase tickets: http://www.thecapitoltheatre.com/

 

Donald Fagen & The Nightflyers

About The Capitol Theatre:
Designed by celebrated architect Thomas Lamb in 1926 and listed in The National Register of Historic Places, the theatre is located approximately 30 miles from NYC, conveniently accessible by I-95 and only one block from the Port Chester Metro North train station. In its distinguished history, the 1,835-capacity theatre has hosted concerts by the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Derek and the Dominos, Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead, David Bowie, Santana, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, and many more. Following a transformative renovation under the guidance of music entrepreneur Peter Shapiro (Brooklyn Bowl, Wetlands, Relix, U2 3D), the theatre reopened as a rock palace on Sep 4, 2012, with a performance by Bob Dylan and has since hosted everyone from Al Green and My Morning Jacket to Sleigh Bells and Morrissey. The New York Times raved, “a rock theater that looks and sounds as good as the Capitol is something to celebrate,” while Billboard agreed that “the lavishly decorated theater–filled with mirrors, chandeliers and painstakingly restored detail–looks absolutely stunning, and sounds even better.”