Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival to Inaugurate 'BCMF Spring' with Two Concerts

Long Island's longest-running classical music festival launches a new spring series this year. The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, which since 1984 has taken place every summer in the beautiful seaside setting of the island's East End, will inaugurate BCMF Spring with two Sunday concerts, on March 22 and April 26, 2015.

The two programs will feature the festival's signature mix of renowned and up-and-coming artists (all of them BCMF alumni). On March 22, the festival's founder and artistic director, flutist Marya Martin will be joined by Naumburg Competition winner pianist Gilles Vonsattel, New York Philharmonic Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps and Principal Cello Carter Brey, and rising violinist Sean Lee for a program of Mozart and Mendelssohn, including Mozart's Flute Quartet and Piano Quartet in G Minor, selections from Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words for cello and piano, and Mendelssohn's Piano Trio in D minor.

And the April 26 program features the acclaimed Miró String Quartet performing music by Haydn, Schubert, and Copland, including Haydn's "Fifths" string quartet, and Schubert's monumental G Major quartet, his last. Both concerts will take place in the festival's main venue, the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.

"We are so excited to open our doors to music lovers from around the region for our new spring series," said Marya Martin. "Widening the scope of the festival while continuing to offer the community the finest repertoire interpreted by some of the best chamber musicians performing today is a dream come true."

"We are thrilled to make this next step in BCMF's history by expanding our season beyond the summer," BCMF Executive Director Michael Lawrence added. "Because these performances will take place during the school year, we are particularly happy to offer a $10 ticket for students, as well as offer even lower-priced tickets to local students through their schools - hoping to help along our next generation of music lovers."

For regular tickets, priced at $40 and $50, and information on student tickets, visit www.bcmf.org or call 212-741-9403.

The BCMF's 32nd season, which will take place in July and August 2015, will be announced in April. "This impressive festival balances the tried and true with the adventurous and mixes established performers with rising talent," said The New York Times in 2010. In the 31 years since its founding, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival has become known for presenting a broad range of music performed by some of the best musicians in the world in one of the most beautiful seaside settings the East Coast has to offer. The longest-running classical music festival on Long Island, currently comprising a dozen events over four weeks, BCMF has developed a loyal core audience among the local residents and summer visitors to this East End town since the festival debuted with four artists in two concerts in the intimate setting of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.

The festival is still based in the graceful 1842 church-which boasts glowing acoustics-and has gradually expanded to include other special event venues, including the Bridgehampton Historical Society for its annual free outdoor concert kickoff event, the Channing Sculpture Garden, and, new last year, the Parrish Art Museum.

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival - An inspired idea

The festival began with an inspired idea. New Zealand-born flutist Marya Martin and Manhattan businessman Ken Davidson had just married, as Allan Kozinn of The New York Times relates: "Davidson was dismayed by the prospect that Ms. Martin would be spending her summers traveling the festival circuit while he worked in the city and spent weekends on his own in the Hamptons." Ken and Marya's solution-to start their own festival, right in Bridgehampton-is now local legend.

Violinist Ani Kavafian, cellist Fred Sherry, and pianist André-Michel Schub joined Marya Martin for the Festival's first season. Each year, the Festival welcomes back many artists from years past along with new chamber music leaders to create, in Marya Martin's words, "the electricity of good friends making music together." The roster has included, among others, violinists Pamela Frank, Mark O'Connor, Anthony Marwood, and Erin Keefe; cellists Clive Greensmith and Peter Wiley; bassist Edgar Meyer; pianists Jeremy Denk, Claude Frank, and Ursula Oppens; harpsichordist Kenneth Cooper; the late flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal; clarinetist Anthony McGill; and Tony-award winning singers Audra McDonald and Victoria Clark.

Committed to presenting a wide variety of music with emphasis on American composers, the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival has commissioned works from Pulitzer Prize-winners Paul Moravec, Kevin Puts, and Ned Rorem, in addition to works by composers Bruce Adolphe, Kenji Bunch, Bruce MacCombie, and Mark O'Connor, and features each season between 10 and 15 contemporary works.

BCMF features video excerpts from previous concerts-performances of complete works and select movements-on its website: www.bcmf.org/media

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