American & Juilliard String Quartets & EC Chamber Orch Perform at Cooperstown Fest

The Cooperstown Summer Music Festival will present the American String Quartet on August 15, the East Coast Chamber Orchestra on August 21, and the Juilliard String Quartet on August 28.

The American String Quartet performs with Linda Chesis on August 15 at 7:30 pm at the Otesaga Hotel in Cooperstown. The American, which is celebrating its 35th season, has been hailed for its "luxurious, beautifully sculptured performances," by The New York Times. Quartet members are Peter Winograd and Laurie Carney, violin; Daniel Avshalomov, viola; and Wolfram Koessel, cello. They will perform works by Haydn's Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1, Ravel's String Quartet in F Major and Ries's Flute Quartet, from Op. 145.

The East Coast Chamber Orchestra performs August 21 at 3 pm at the Otesaga Resort Hotel. The 14-member strong ECCO combines the power of a great orchestral ensemble with the sensitivity of a superb chamber music ensemble. ECCO will perform works by Mozart, Elgar, Jennifer Higdon, Bartok, and Corelli.

The Festival finale is August 28 at The Farmers' Museum with the Juilliard String Quartet performing works by Haydn, Martino and Beethoven. Earlier this year the Recording Academy presented the JSQ with a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award. They are the first classical ensemble to be honored in this way. The members of the Juilliard String Quartet are: violinist Joseph Lin, who joined the quartet earlier this year, violinist Ronald Copes (quartet member since 1997), violist Samuel Rhodes (1969), and cellist Joel Krosnick (1974). They will perform Haydn's Quartet in G Major, Donald Martino's Quartet No. 5 and Beethoven's Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge.

Festival Venues

Concerts are held in Cooperstown, NY at the Otesaga Resort Hotel on 15, and 21, and at The Farmers' Museum on August 28. Both venues seat less than 250 people.

"Attending a Festival concert is a truly wonderful, intimate experience. The artists are world-class, yet Festival venues hold a few hundred people. There is a friendly give-and-take between the artists and the audiences that you just can't experience in a grand concert hall," says Festival board member Patricia Smith.

The Farmer's Museum, one of the oldest rural life museums in the country, is located at 5775 State Route 80, Cooperstown, NY. Festival concerts are held in the museum's Louis C. Jones Center, a renovatEd Stone barn known for its excellent acoustics.

The Otesaga Resort Hotel, a grand, century-old hotel overlooking Otsego Lake, is located at 60 Lake Street in Cooperstown.

Tickets and Information
Ticket prices have been reduced for 2011. Tickets can be ordered online, www.CooperstownMusicFest.org, or by calling the box office service Brown Paper Tickets, 800/838-3006. Tickets will be sold at the door, as available.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $15 for students (6-18).

To find out more about the season, go to www.CooperstownMusicFest.org, call the Festival at 877/666-7421, or email info@CooperstownMusicFest.org.