2013 Cooperstown Summer Music Festival Kicks Off Free Performances Today

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival will offer free Pro Am performances today, July 9 in Edmeston, July 10 in Cherry Valley, and July 11 in Cooperstown. The Pro Am, now in its sixth year, can trace its roots to an unplanned meeting at a local ice cream shop, when Festival artistic director and founder Linda Chesis and Bruce and Mona Harris discussed the possibility of having non-career musicians participate in the Festival. Bruce Harris, a neurosurgeon at Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, is also an accomplished pianist.

"I wanted the Pro Am to be something where very high level musicians come together-- some of them are professional musicians, and others may have trained as musicians, but have opted to follow a different career path entirely. My motivation was to mix the two in a very intimate group to see what came about in terms of learning and approach to music," explains Chesis. "There's an excitement, an enthusiasm and interesting analogies that really inform the music in a unique way."

Professional musicians rehearsing and then performing in the Pro Am are Chesis, flute, David Geber, cello and Shirley Irek, piano. Non-career musicians in the Pro Am are: Bruce Harris, piano; JoNathan Phillips, viola; Mark Ptashne, violin; Steve Rosenthal, clarinet and Eric Wong, cello.

"Linda Chesis and her outstanding professional colleagues are a great encouragement to me and my playing as we rehearse and perform for the Festival's concerts. I am excited to be invited for another season," says JoNathan Phillips, Senior Image Quality Scientist in the camera group at NVIDIA.

Joining Phillips and Harris are Mark Ptashne, a molecular biologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; and Steve Rosenthal, a physician at the National Institutes of Health.

The performances feature movements from Schumann and Brahms piano quartets as well as selections from the Brahms clarinet trio, a trio by Norman Dello Joio and a quartet by Alan Beeler, written for flute, clarinet, viola and piano, a rare combination of instruments ideally suited for the musicians involved in the Pro Am.

The Pro Am performances, which are free and open to all, will be held at Pathfinder Village, 3 Chenango Road in Edmeston on July 9 at 7:30 pm; Grace Church, 32 Montgomery Street in Cherry Valley on July 10 at 7:30 pm, and Christ Church, 46 River Street in Cooperstown on July 11 at 7:30 pm.

A fourth free performance, the Flute Fest with the New York Summer Music Festival International Flute Institute, will be held August 1 at the Otesaga Hotel, 60 Lake Street in Cooperstown.

In addition to the Pro Am Performances and Flute Fest, the Festival's 15th season features three concerts at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown: Birds of Paradise: Music for Winds and Piano on July 7 at 7:30 pm, REBEL Baroque Ensemble August 4 at 3 pm, and Jazz with vocalist Hilary Kole August 11 at 7:30 pm. The Festival also presents three Wednesday evening (7:30 pm) concerts at The Farmers' Museum in Cooperstown: Vienna 1: The Imperial City August 7, Vienna 2: A Tradition of Innovation August 14, and the East Coast Chamber Orchestra August 21.

For more information, call 877/666-7421, visit the Festival's web site, www.CooperstownMusicFest.org, or email info@cooperstownmusicfest.org.

Tickets are not required for the Pro Am performances, which are free and open to all. Tickets to other Festival concerts ($25 for adults, $15 for students) can be ordered online, www.CooperstownMusicFest.org, by calling the box office service Brown Paper Tickets, 800/838-3006, or purchased at the door, as available.

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