Bridgehampton Chamber Music Spring 2020 Series Features Alan Alda, the Verona Quartet, and 'Colorful Winds'

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival has a - slightly - new name: Bridgehampton Chamber Music. Long Island's longest-running classical music festival is streamlining its name to include all its activities: the summer festival, the spring series, and the recording label.

So BCM Spring is Bridgehampton Chamber Music Spring! The series of three Saturday evening (5 pm) concerts, one per month in March, April, and May, will mark its sixth year in 2020 with programs showcasing the BCM hallmarks: some of the best chamber musicians to be found anywhere performing chamber music treasures in historic - and acoustically superb - Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.

"Mozart Portrait with Alan Alda," on March 21, explores the great composer's life through narration and readings from letters, interwoven with chamber music for flute, piano, and strings. This is an encore performance of a BCM audience favorite event, first performed in 2002, and reprised in 2016 for a summer performance. Alda has said of the program, "I just love being in Mozart's presence. The best surprise was not just reading his words, but then sitting among the musicians while they make music. To be among them while they do it is an extraordinary thing - it hits you right in the chest!"

"Colorful Winds," on April 18, unites BCM Artistic Director and flutist Marya Martin with woodwind colleagues for chamber music for winds and piano by Frenchman Albert Roussel, Austrian Ludwig Thuille, Italian Giacomo Puccini, and - in his 250th birthday year - German Ludwig van Beethoven.

And the Verona Quartet - Jonathan Ong, violin; Dorothy Ro, violin; Abigail Rojansky, viola; and Jonathan Dormand, cello - which is the 2020 recipient of Chamber Music America's prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award, makes its BCM debut on May 16 with a blockbuster program of Beethoven and Dvořák (complete programs below).

Joining Marya Martin in the first two spring concerts are Joseph Lin, violin; Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, viola; Brook Speltz, cello; James Austin Smith, oboe; Bixby Kennedy, clarinet; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Stewart Rose, horn; and Orion Weiss and Michael Brown, piano.

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival's 37th summer season, which will take place in July and August 2020, will be announced in May.

Subscribers receive a discount for the three-concert BCM Spring series, and a student ticket price of $10 will be available. For subscriptions, single tickets priced at $40 and $60, and information on student tickets, visit www.bcmf.org or call 212-741-9403.

Bridgehampton Chamber Music

"This longtime East End festival, directed by the flutist Marya Martin," said The New Yorker, "has flourished by offering concerts both effervescent and distinguished." In the 36 years since its founding, Bridgehampton Chamber Music 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 on the East Coast.

BCM Festival: Currently comprising more than a dozen events over four weeks, the summer festival 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 Channing Sculpture Garden and Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton and the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.

BCM Records: In 2012, BCMF launched its own record label, BCMF Records. Signifying the festival's commitment to American composers, the label's first recording was BCMF Premieres, a disc of contemporary American music. The label's current discography of 12 releases includes music by Bruce Adolphe, Robert Beaser, Leon Kirchner, Howard Shore, Paul Moravec, Kevin Puts, and Elizabeth Brown, as well as Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and more.

BCM Spring: Convinced that there were music lovers looking for more opportunities to hear excellent chamber music year-round, BCM introduced its Spring series in 2015, and expanded it from two concerts to three two years later.

www.bcmf.org

Marya Martin

Internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin enjoys a musical career of remarkable breadth and achievement. Gracefully balancing the roles of chamber musician, festival director, soloist, teacher, and supporter of musical institutions, she has performed throughout the world in such halls as London's Royal Albert Hall and Wigmore Hall, Sydney Opera House, Casals Hall in Tokyo, and other international venues.

A native of New Zealand, Ms. Martin studied at Yale University, and shortly thereafter moved to Paris to study with flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal. After winning top prizes in the Naumburg, Munich International, and Jean-Pierre Rampal International competitions, and the Concert Artists Guild and Young Concert Artists International Auditions-all within a two-year period-she returned to the U.S. and has since appeared as a soloist with major orchestras and at leading festivals and chamber music series throughout the country.

In 2006 she received a Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Auckland, and in 2011 received the Ian Mininberg Distinguished Service Award from Yale University. Committed to expanding the flute repertoire, she has commissioned more than 20 new works. She most recently commissioned eight works for flute and piano comprising Eight Visions, an anthology published by Theodore Presser, and recorded them for the Naxos label. In 2011, Albany Records released Marya Martin Plays Eric Ewazen. Ms. Martin has been a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music since 1996.

Bridgehampton Chamber Music Presents

BCM SPRING 2020

Saturday, March 21, 2020, at 5:00 pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

Mozart Portrait with Alan Alda

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: wunderkind, prolific composer, virtuoso pianist, creator of some of the most perfectly profound music in history. He lived life to the full and died, at 35, virtually penniless. Actor Alan Alda takes us on a journey that explores Mozart's life through his music and letters, painting an intimate portrait of a great artist.

ALL-MOZART

Flute Sonata in A major for Flute, Piano, and Obligato, K.12

Flute Quartet in D Major. K. 285

Piano Trio in C major K. 548

Piano Quartet in E-flat K. 493

Alan Alda, narrator; Marya Martin, flute; Joseph Lin, violin; Tien Hsin-Cindy Wu, viola; Brook Speltz, cello; Orion Weiss, piano

Tickets: $60, $40, $10 student tickets

Saturday, April 18, 2020, at 5:00 pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

Colorful Winds: Beethoven, Puccini, and More

We celebrate Beethoven's 250th birthday with his gorgeous quintet for winds and piano, with additional works for winds and piano of stunning beauty.

Albert Roussel Divertissement for Piano and Wind Quintet

Ludwig Thuille Sextet for Piano and Winds

Giacomo Puccini Crisantemi for Wind Quintet (arr. Miller)

Ludwig van Beethoven Quintet for Piano and Winds

Marya Martin, flute; James Austin Smith, oboe; Bixby Kennedy, clarinet; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Stewart Rose, horn; Michael Brown, piano

Tickets: $60, $40, $10 student tickets

Saturday, May 16, 2020, at 5:00 pm

Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church

Verona Quartet

Making their Bridgehampton debut, the dynamic Verona Quartet tackles a program that celebrates Beethoven's 250th birthday with his first and final quartets. Dvořák's late Op. 106, G major quartet closes this gorgeous program.

Beethoven Quartet in F major, Op. 18, No. 1

Beethoven Quartet in F major, Op. 135

Dvořák Quartet in G major, Op. 106

Verona Quartet: Jonathan Ong, violin; Dorothy Ro, violin; Abigail Rojansky, viola; Jonathan Dormand, cello

Tickets: $60, $40, $10 student tickets

For subscriptions, single tickets priced at $40 and $60, and information on student tickets, visit www.bcmf.org or call 212-741-9403.