Cooperstown Summer Music Festival Wraps Up this Weekend

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival finale on Sunday, August 24 at 7:30 pm offers dance-infused chamber music by Bartók, Brown, Byrd, Schubert, Strauss, and del Aguila. Performers are the Momenta Quartet; Linda Chesis, flute; Moran Katz, clarinet; Olga Vinokur, piano. The concert will be held in the ballroom of the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown.

The program features Johann Strauss' "Emperor Waltz," Latin American samba and milonga, courtly dances of the English Renaissance, and a piece inspired by Eastern European folk dances written for Benny Goodman. The concert also includes the premiere of a new arrangement of Lost Waltz by Elizabeth Brown, written for the Momenta Quartet and Linda Chesis.

"Music and dance are two of the universal forms of human expression; and in this concert we explore how dance styles and rhythms have influenced composers through the centuries," explains Festival artistic director and flutist Linda Chesis. "Our goal is to have the music get some toes tapping, and shoulders swaying. Let's dance."

Praised by the New York Times for its "focused, fluid performance" and by Sequenza 21 for its "fire, fantasy and absolute musical commitment," the Momenta Quartet will release its debut CD early in 2015.

Clarinetist Moran Katz and pianist Olga Vinokur each perform worldwide as soloists, recitalists, and chamber musicians.

Flutist Linda Chesis is founder and artistic director of the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival. She is a member of the flute faculty and chair of the Woodwind Department at the Manhattan School of Music. She has been hailed by critics on three continents as one of the most exciting and dynamic flutists of her generation.

Tickets available online CooperstownMusicFest.org or by phone 800-838-3006 until 3 pm the day of the event through Brown Paper Tickets. Tickets also will be sold at the door. Adults, $25, Students, $15. No service charges, no matter what method of payment you choose. The Otesaga Hotel is located at 60 Lake Street in Cooperstown.

For information and tickets, www.cooperstownmusicfest.org.

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