The Historical Piano Concerts series for Spring 2011 is announced

The Historical #Piano Concerts series for Spring 2011 is announced.

http://tinyurl.com/29rfz97

And some articles about last year's performances:

Finehouse on Frederick Collection’s Tröndlin an Alignment of Stars

In these concerts, the piano is as much the star as the pianist

http://classical-scene.com/2010/09/12/finehouse-on/

Pianist Yi-heng Yang Brings Out Qualities of Frederick Collection’s Tröndlin

http://classical-scene.com/2010/06/08/yi-heng-yang/

I'Estro Armonica: Héloïse Degruillier on recorder, Paul Cienniwa on harpsichord

This is a pitifully late review of a concert I went to last April that was just exquisite.

Héloïse and Paul were charming, polished, musically profound and technically brilliant. I took a few photos of them that came out better than I expected. Sadly I have since lost the program which listed the pieces they played, and too much has happened in the interim, but my attention was riveted by the entire performance, which tells me they performed technically difficult as well as musically satisfying pieces. I am not a snob but I do get bored. :-)

I am so thrilled to have music of this caliber available in this area, so I wanted to mention this concert series because it deserves support in the local community to keep it alive, not to mention you get to hear some fantastic performers without schlepping into Boston.

For more information on this concert series:

http://www.uuharvard.org/CongregationalLife/SpecialEvents/Concerts.aspx

Announcement for the concert

Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 4 p.m.

I'Estro Armonica:
Héloïse Degruillier on recorder
Paul Cienniwa on harpsichord

Héloïse and Paul have been performing together in the Boston and Newport areas since 2007. Their 2009 concert for the Boston Early Music festival won them praise in the American Recorder Society and the classical music blog Soho the Dog.

Héloïse has worked extensively as both a recorder performer and teacher throughout Europe and the United States. She has performed with leading period ensembles, including the Boston Early Music Festival Opera, Newport Baroque, Harmonious Blacksmith, the Dunya Ensemble and L’Academic. She teaches with the Boston Recorder society, Recorder Guild of New York, Pinewoods and others. She has a Masters in Music from the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands, and is an Alexander Technique graduate.

Paul has recently performed at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Yale University, Harvard University, MIT, the Kingston Chamber Music festival, and in Chicago. He was hailed by critics for his performance and direction of Handel’s Alcina for the Boston Opera Collaborative. His undergraduate work was done at DePaul University, and he received the doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. His musicological articles have appeared in American and European journals, including Early Music and Ad Parnassum. Read more about Paul at www.paulcienniwa.blogspot.com.

For more information on this concert series:

http://www.uuharvard.org/CongregationalLife/SpecialEvents/Concerts.aspx

Mike Stern in Worcester

On November 21, Mike Stern visited Worcester, MA with his current touring band, which includes percussion wiz Dave Weckl, Tom Kennedy on bass and Tom Malach on tenor sax. The show was hosted by WICN's "Jazz Rocks" DJ Walter St. Dennis.

It was very disappointing to see such a small crowd for a group of performers of this caliber. Of course, the Mechanics Hall is not a great place to put a "rock" band. It's designed for acoustic symphonic groups. The sound was muddy and fuzzy. Way too loud in my opinion, though no one else seemed to mind. I don't know what other venue would have held a band like this in the Worcester area. One would think that the colleges would like to have a top-level band like this on their campus.

Nevertheless, the musicians were very gracious, in spite of a grueling travel schedule, and they played well, smoking solos passed back and forth between band members. Stern plays very tunefully and also produces sound textures that are very compelling.

WICN followed up this concert with a show on the Yellowjackets last Monday. These recordings from a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert was fantastic, were interspersed with an interview with band member Russell Ferrante.

Occidental Gypsy Jazz Quartet

Last Saturday night I went to see the Occidental Gypsy Jazz Quartet (their new website coming soon they say) at the Bull Run in Shirley. I saw them last year at the Bull Run, on a whim. As a fan of gypsy jazz trio Ameranouche of Manchester, NH, I was curious to see other gypsy jazz groups. I am a huge fan of jazz violin, from Grapelli, to Ponty to Goodman (Dregs) so I was really looking forward to hearing OGJQ. Their violinist from last year, Joel, who was fantastic by the way, has departed the band. But not to fear: OGJQ's new violinist, Julgi Kang is incredible.

They started late-- not their fault, their meals arrived late after the drive up from their home base in RI-- but the show proceeded smoothly and gracefully after that. Their violinist, "Julgi," poor thing, had a bad headache but nevertheless played beautifully. She effortlessly doubles many of the solo lines with guitarist Brett Feldman. Julgi is a student at Berklee. I am now an unabashed fan.

They played most of the songs off their debut CD and a few standards like "I can't give you anything but love". The latter song will forever and always bring to mind images of the maladroit, blundering of Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in the movie "Bringing Up Baby", as they chase "Baby," a "tame" leopard sent from South America as a present to Katherine's character. If you can get over the fact that the characters are behaving like imbeciles, it's a fun movie. But I digress.

The OGJQ plays lightning fast and clean gypsy jazz. Their arrangements are well-rehearsed, show a lot of character, great playfulness and inventiveness, and yet do not step so far outside the gypsy jazz genre as to be incongruous. The presentation is balanced-- no one overwhelms or steals the spotlight. They are warm, vivacious and with those solid rhythm chords holding up the bottom - you can't help but move to the music.

They seem to perform mostly in their home state of RI. The Bull Run says they will be back in March 2011. I hope we will see them again in Northampton MA at Django in June.