music at yale
all photos this page by bob handelman
Norfolk 2008 wrap-up
Longtime artists-in-residence the Tokyo String Quartet rehearse on the stage of the historic Music Shed.
Mathias Tacke, the second violinist of the Vermeer Quartet, gestures during a coaching.
A sold-out concert with Midori proved the highlight of the season. With pianist Charles Abramovic, she performed a rich program of Bach, Shostakovich, and Respighi. Another program of interest included rarely-heard Messiaen works and the premiere of Richard Stoltzman’s arrangement of Einojuhani Rautavaara’s Clarinet Concerto for chamber ensemble, performed by Stoltzman himself. The Festival also joined in celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Town of Norfolk. An open house welcomed visitors to the Ellen Battell Stoeckel Estate, Whitehouse opened its doors for tours, and the Copper Street Brass Quintet performed on the town Green. A free concert with the United States Coast Guard Band packed the Music Shed to capacity. For the third year in a row, the season concluded with the Norfolk Choral Festival, with Simon Carrington and student conductors leading the choir in works from Gesualdo to Vaughan Williams, as well as the premiere of a new work by Joan Panetti. Said Director Paul Hawkshaw, “It has been an especially gratifying season. Ticket sales increased by an average of 10%, the concerts were marvelous, the students wonderful, and the 250th birthday celebration for the town was an unqualified success.” Norfolk’s longstanding Winter Series moves into a new venue this year. With the opening of the Infinity Music Hall just across Route 44, the Festival has the opportunity to bring classical music into a new environment and become a part of a broader yearround concert series. The four-concert Winter Series opened on November 19 with the Jasper Quartet.
T
he 2008 season brought new levels of success to the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival: increased attendance, strong support from the surrounding community, and what General Manager Jim Nelson called “one of the strongest student bodies we’ve ever had.” At the Young Artist Recitals, Nelson commented, “The quality of the playing was just tremendous.” An unusually high percentage of the Fellows were international students, hailing from countries as widespread as Japan, Australia, Canada, England, Austria, and the Ukraine. The Verus Quartet, from Tokyo, won third prize in the Munich Competition immediately following their summer at Norfolk. At the end of the summer, the Jasper Quartet moved to New Haven to become the School of Music’s fellowship quartet-in-residence. (See page 13 for photo.) The Yale Baroque Opera Project opened the season with two performances of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo directed by Ethan Heard, with period instruments and historically-informed staging. The New Music Workshop presented three concerts. The first featured Don Byron, Iva Bittová, and Lisa Moore; the second focused on the works of the resident composers.
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Japan’s up-and-coming Verus Quartet rehearses in the newlyrenovated Brookside Studio.