RANDOLPH, Vt. – The Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival will kick off its 31st season at Chandler Music Hall in Randolph on Aug. 7, and offer world-class performances and events through Aug. 19.
Founder, music director, and cellist Peter Sanders has once again packed the two-week residency with music – both traditional and unusual.
The first Saturday evening concert, on Aug. 12, at 7:30 p.m., features two string trios – by lesser known composers Russian Sergei Taneiev and Argentine Pedro Saenz, plus Brahms’s first string sextet “Opus 18.” The musicians will be violinists Arturo Delmoni and Michael Roth, violists Leah Ferguson and Erica Gailing, and cellist Peter Sanders. This concert will be performed as an encore in Woodstock, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, on Sunday afternoon, Aug. 13, at 4 p.m. Sunday tickets are available through the presenter, Pentangle Council on the Arts, at their website www.pentanglearts.org, or by calling 802-457-3981.
The second Saturday evening concert, on Aug. 19, at 7:30 p.m., will be devoted to a variety of genres – “Danzas Panama” by William Grant Still, the “Adagio for Strings” by Samuel Barber, Alexander Glazunov’s “String Quartet # 3, Opus 2,” and Mozart’s “Horn Quintet.” Artists for this second week will include violinists Arturo Delmoni and Michael Roth, violists Katarzyna Bryla-Weiss and Michael Roth, cellist Peter Sanders, and Stewart Rose on French horn.
Traditional and very unusual will be a special concert on Wednesday evening, Aug. 9, at 7:30 p.m. Artistic director and cellist Peter Sanders will perform the J.S. Bach “Cello Suite #5, BWV 1011,” with seating on the Chandler stage with the artist.
The Friday Night in the Gallery this year on Aug. 18 will be a special tribute to treasured Vermont musician, Pete Sutherland. “For Pete’s Sake” begins at 7:00 p.m., and features reflections, tunes, and his teachings by two grateful beneficiaries of the master, Jeremiah McLane and Paul Woodiel. This evening’s event is free, with a goodwill offering, and made possible by a grant from the Lamson-Howell Foundation.
Open rehearsals are being held on two Thursdays, Aug. 10 and 17, beginning at 7 p.m. each day. Admission is free, and the public is invited to come and go, getting a taste of professional musicians at work.
It is tradition for festival musicians to be on the air with Vermont Public Classical in the studio in Colchester. Festival artists will chat with host Walter Parker about the 31st annual season, and perform some of the first week’s program. The public is invited to enjoy the program, which begins at 11 a.m. on Aug. 11, in the studio or on all VP Classical stations.
For more information and to buy tickets online, visit the festival website at www.cvcmf.org. Tickets for the Chandler concerts are also available by calling the Chandler box office at 802-728-6464 on weekdays from 12-5 p.m. Chandler Music Hall is fully accessible and equipped for the hearing impaired.