Cooperstown Summer Music Festival Kicks Off with Jasper Quartet and Pianist Gilles Vonsattel

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival will present three concerts the weekend of August 4-6, featuring the Jasper String Quartet, pianist Gilles Vonsattel, and flutist and Festival artistic director Linda Chesis.

On August 4 at 7:30 pm at Christ Church in Cooperstown, the Jasper String Quartet will perform a program called "Paysages," featuring four works that convey a sense of place. Winner of the prestigious CMA Cleveland Quartet Award, Philadelphia's Jasper String Quartet is the Professional Quartet in Residence at Temple University's Center for Gifted Young Musicians. The Jaspers (J Freivogel and Sae Chonayashi, violins; Sam Quintal, viola; Rachel Henderson Freivogel, cello) have been hailed as "sonically delightful and expressively compelling" (The Strad) and "powerful" (New York Times).

Rachel Henderson Freivogel says they will perform "Viaje" by Zhou Tian, a virtuosic, energetic work for string quartet and flute, and "Valencia" by Pulitzer Prize winning composer Caroline Shaw, a short string quartet "which takes the bright, zesty features of an orange as its inspiration." Alongside these new works are two masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire, the much-loved Dvo?ák "American" Quartet in F major and Haydn's distinctive "Fifths."

On Saturday, August 5 at 11 am, the Jaspers will present a family concert for all ages. Freivogel says that they will "delve into the stories behind the music and what makes chamber music exciting, dramatic and fun." The concert will be held at Templeton Hall, 63 Pioneer Street in Cooperstown and $5 tickets will be sold at the door. The Jaspers strongly believe every person can and should have the opportunity to understand and love great chamber music, no matter the age of the listener or the complexity of the piece. They believe the audience at Carnegie Hall and 3rd graders in Philadelphia Public Schools both deserve to experience world class live performances and the Jaspers approach each such event with equal intensity and enthusiasm.

On Sunday, August 6 at 7:30 pm at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown, pianist Gilles Vonsattel will make his Festival debut in a program called "Folk Inspirations" with the Jasper String Quartet and flutist Linda Chesis. The concert features another Dvo?ák masterwork, the Piano Quintet in A, Op. 81, along with Beethoven's Seven Variations on "God Save the King," the Summerland Folk Song Suite by William Grant Still, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues by Frederic Rzewski.

Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, Gilles Vonsattel has in recent years made his Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, and San Francisco Symphony debuts, while performing recitals and chamber music around the world. The New York Times calls Vonsattel "a pianist well worth watching." The Miami Herald says,"Vonsattel possesses a dazzling technique that can storm the heavens or sing in poetic introspection...an impressive artists and dynamic virtuoso."

"We are thrilled to return to the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival to perform three wonderful and distinctive programs with Linda Chesis and Gilles Vonsattel. It is a great joy for us to collaborate again with Linda and Gilles, who are both incredibly inspiring and dynamic performers," says Freivogel.

Tickets for the August 4 and 6 evening concerts are $25 for adults, $15 for students and available online at cooperstownmusicfest.org, by calling Brown Paper Tickets, 800/838-3006, or at the door. No service charges are added to ticket orders. Tickets for the August 5 Family Music Fest are $5 and will be sold at the door.

About the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival's 19th season, under the artistic direction of flutist Linda Chesis, continues with an All Mozart concert featuring clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois on August 11 at Christ Church, the classically trained, but genre-defying Time for Three on August 20 at the Otesaga, a Benefit Concert of Baroque Favorites at Hyde Hall on August 25, and Four Seasons: Vivaldi and Piazzolla on August 27 at the Otesaga featuring Joseph Lin, the first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, and the Verona Quartet. The Festival will also offer a concert for fall with the Chiara String Quartet and Linda Chesis on October 8. See cooperstownmusicfest.org for details.

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Photo credit: Dario Acosta