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Contact: Gabriel Langfur
info@chameleonarts.org
617-427-8200
Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents "forever sounding
across centuries"
October 10, 2007 - Boston, MA - The second concert
of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble's Tenth Anniversary Season
will be on Saturday November 10th, 2007, 8PM at the Goethe-Institut
Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. The concert is
entitled forever sounding across centuries, and includes the
Boston Premiere of Derek Bermel's Wanderings for woodwind
quintet, Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A Major, and the Piano
Quintet of 1927 by American composer Leo Ornstein. Pianist
Katherine Chi will be joining the Chameleons as a special
guest.
Born in Russia around 1893 (the exact year and day are uncertain)
and initially educated at the St. Petersburg Conservatory
before his family was forced to flee to the United States,
Leo Ornstein was one of the most famous musicians in the world
between 1910 and 1925. He dazzled audiences with his virtuoso
piano playing, both on standard repertoire and often on American
premieres of works by Albeniz, Schoenberg, Debussy, Ravel,
Scriabin, Franck and Bartok. Ornstein's own electrifying compositions,
born simply from the music that ran through his head and not
tied to any particular compositional method or school, earned
him seemingly equal amounts of admiring praise and vehement
derision. Some critics hailed him as equal or even superior
to Stravinsky and Schoenberg, and wherever he traveled, concert
halls were filled to capacity, not only with music-loving
audiences but also with admiring fellow-musicians. He was
famous enough to have a biography written about him by the
age of 26 but abruptly abandoned his performing career, choosing
instead to teach and compose in near-obscurity until his passing
- at the age of 109! Ornstein's piano quintet of 1927 is a
masterpiece of the genre, an epic work deserving of a wider
audience, fully the equal of any of the great Romantic piano
quintets.
Guest pianist Katherine
Chi has performed throughout Europe and North America
to great acclaim, including her 2003 New York recital debut
about which The New York Times raved "Ms. Chi displayed
a keen musical intelligence and a powerful arsenal of technique."
Her debut last season with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra
also established her as one of Canada's fastest rising stars
of classical music. "...the most sensational but, better,
the most unfailingly cogent and compelling Prokofiev's Third
I have heard in years" said The Globe and Mail. Educated
at The Curtis Institute and New England Conservatory as a
student of Russell Sherman, she was a prizewinner at the 1998
Busoni International Piano Competition and was the first Canadian
and first woman to win Canada's Honens International Piano
Competition.
In a city immersed in music, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble
is distinguished by superb artistry, luminous performances,
and dynamic musical dialogues. This innovative ensemble draws
capacity audiences of those who love the adventure of music-classic
and contemporary. A Chameleon concert is a multifaceted experience
in an intimate environment joining audience and musicians
in an exuberant celebration of music. The musicians are award-winning
local artists with growing national and international reputations,
who have appeared with orchestras and in recitals around the
world. Since its founding in 1998, Chameleon and artistic
director Deborah Boldin have earned high praise for integrating
old and new repertoire into unexpected chamber music programs
that are themselves works of art, and were recognized nationally
with a 2007 ASCAP/CMA award for adventurous programming. In
a recent review, Jeremy Eichler of The Boston Globe praised
her "discerning ears and cosmopolitan tastes" and
remarked that "planning a good chamber music program
is an art unto itself, and few in town have mastered it as
persuasively as the Chameleon Arts Ensemble."
For tickets or more information, concertgoers can call 617-427-8200
or visit www.chameleonarts.org. Subscription prices range
from $49 to $152, and individual tickets are $38, $28 and
$18. $5 discounts for students and seniors are available for
individual tickets. The Goethe-Institut is a wheelchair accessible
venue.
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info@chameleonarts.org
