Concerts and Tickets

The Atlanta Chamber Players 35th season:

10/17/10
Chamber Music in Art Spaces — “Rapido! Take Two!!”

Sunday, October 17, 2010
3:00 pm

Walter Hill Auditorium
High Museum of Art
1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta
www.high.org

“Rapido! Take Two!!”

  • ARTHUR FOOTE— Piano Quartet, Opus 23
  • RAPIDO! A 14-Day Composition Contest – Southeastern Regional Finals Round
    f
    eaturing works for flute, clarinet, cello, piano
    by finalist composers: Alan Elkins, Jamie Keesecker & Piotr Szewczyk

Christina Smith, flute / alto flute / piccolo • Alcides Rodriguez, bass clarinet / bass clarinet •
Justin Bruns, violin • Catherine Lynn, viola • Brad Ritchie, cello • Paula Peace, piano

We proudly open our 35th Anniversary Season by presenting the 2010 Southeastern Regional Finals Round of Rapido! A 14-Day Composition Contest. Rapido! is even more exciting this season and has expanded to three regions! Composers in 29 states in New England, the Midwest and the Southeast composed almost 200 short new works during a 14-day period this past June. Extensive judging has selected three finalist composers in each of the three Rapido! regions. This concert features the performance of the three Southeastern finalist works and the live selection by a distinguished panel of judges of the Southeastern first-prize winning composer, who will continue on to the National Finals concert in Atlanta January 16 to determine the National First Prize Commission winner. Opening this "Rapido! Take Two" program will be the romantically sparkling Piano Quartet by American Arthur Foote, a first-rate composer not frequently programmed. Featured on the ACP “Footeprints” CD of 2000, this work will also be performed in New York and Boston in April 2011 on our upcoming national tour celebrating our 35th Season.

Click here for Concert Program Notes

11/14/10
Spivey Hall — “Premieres Then and Now”

Sunday, November 14, 2010
3:00 pm

Spivey Hall
Clayton State University, Morrow

“PREMIERES THEN AND NOW”

  • SCHUBERT — String Trio in Bb Major, D. 471
  • Michael GANDOLFI — Quintet (2010) (oboe, violin, viola, cello, piano)
    World Premiere, ACP Commission

  • DOHNANYI — Piano Quintet no. 1 in C Minor, Opus 1

Paula Peace, piano • Elizabeth Koch, oboe • Justin Bruns, violin •
Fia Durrett Mancini, violin • Catherine Lynn, viola • Brad Ritchie, cello

Our annual concert at the renowned Spivey Hall will present the latest ACP commission addition to the chamber music repertoire - the world premiere of a quintet for oboe, string trio and piano by Michael Gandolfi.  Commissioned twice recently by Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony, Gandolfi serves on the faculties of the New England Conservatory and Tanglewood Music Center. Gandolfi’s musical style encompasses not only contemporary concert music, but also sometimes jazz, blues, and rock, or even video and theatre. Our other two works feature memorable music by master composers written during their teenage years. Opening the program is the charming and melodic single-movement Bb String Trio by 18-year old Franz Schubert. Anchoring the program is Hungarian Ernst Dohnanyi’s suave and exuberant Opus 1 first piano quintet, a grand work which was greatly influenced by the soaring lines and rhythms of Brahms, and which was premiered with the barely 18 year old composer Dohnanyi at the piano.

1/16/11
Chamber Music in Art Spaces — “Rapido! National Finals!!”

Sunday, January 16, 2011
3:00 pm

Walter Hill Auditorium
High Museum of Art
1280 Peachtree Street, Atlanta
www.high.org

“RAPIDO! NATIONAL FINALS!!”

  • Benjamin BRITTEN — Phantasy Quartet, Opus 2 (oboe, string trio)
  • Jennifer HIGDON — Zaka (2003) ATLANTA PREMIERE (flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion)
  • RAPIDO! A 14-Day Composition Contest – National Finals Competition
    featuring first-prize winning compositions for flute, clarinet, cello, piano
    from the New England, Midwest & Southeast Regional Competitions

Christina Smith, flute / alto flute / piccolo • Alcides Rodriguez, bass clarinet / bass clarinet •
Elizabeth Koch, oboe • Justin Bruns, violin • Catherine Lynn, viola • Brad Ritchie, cello •
Tom Sherwood, percussion • Paula Peace, piano

We proudly present the climax of the 2010 Tri-Regional Rapido! A 14-Day Composition Contest!! The winning composers from each of the three October regional competitions - in New England, the Midwest and the Southeast – will come to Atlanta for this exciting national finale! Each regional winning composition will be performed and the distinguished judges, headed by ASO Music Director Robert Spano, will choose one winner to receive the National First Prize Commission. During the 2011-2012 season, this commissioned work will receive premiere performances in Atlanta (Atlanta Chamber Players), Boston (Boston Musica Viva), and Chicago (Fifth House Ensemble) by the partnering Rapido! ensembles. The Audience Favorite Prize, chosen through national internet voting on YouTube, will also be awarded. The first half of this concert event will feature Englishman Benjamin Britten’s 1932 Phantasy Quartet for oboe and strings, a work suggesting Britten’s pacifism by juxtaposing lyrical oboe lines against a militaristic string trio. Concluding the first half will be Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon’s “Zaka,” a 2003 sextet for winds, strings, piano and percussion which asks the musicians to “zap, sock, race, turn, drop, & sprint” with great speed.

2/27/11
Chamber Music in Sacred Spaces — “Reeds, Strings & Hammers”

Sunday, February 27, 2011
3:00 pm

Srochi Halll
Ahavath Achim Synagogue
600 Peachtree Battle Avenue, Atlanta

“REEDS, STRINGS & HAMMERS”

  • BACH — Trio Sonata in G Major (oboe, violin, continuo)
  • GLINKA — Trio Pathétique (clarinet, bassoon, piano)
  • MOZART — Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478

Elizabeth Koch, oboe • Laura Ardan, clarinet • Carl Nitchie, bassoon • Justin Bruns, violin •
Catherine Lynn, viola • Brad Ritchie, cello
Paula Peace, piano

We are delighted to return to the wonderful acoustics of the Ahavath Achim Synagogue for our "Sacred Spaces" concert this season. The program spotlights ASO principal winds – oboist Elizabeth Koch, clarinetist Laura Ardan and bassoonist Carl Nitchie – and one of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s most dramatic works of chamber music for strings and piano. Johann Sebastian Bach’s G Major trio sonata will feature the unusual duo of oboe and violin in the treble melody parts. Russian Mikhail Glinka’s engaging Trio is a virtuosic salon piece spotlighting each of the threesome - piano, clarinet and bassoon – in a most operatic instrumental style. Highlighting the program is Mozart’s piano quartet in G minor, the composer’s key of fate, which features some of Mozart’s most jubilant chamber music for strings and piano.

4/7/11 & 4/9/11
35th Anniversary Season National Touring

Thursday, April 7, 2011
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory, Boston
8:00 pm concert; 7:00 pm lecture with Michael Gandolfi

Saturday, April 9, 2011
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York
8:30 pm

“AMERICAN MILESTONES”

  • Arthur FOOTE — Piano Quartet in C Major, Opus 23 (1890)
  • John HARBISON — Songs America Loves to Sing (2004)
    ACP Co-Commission
  • Michael GANDOLFI — Quintet (oboe, strings, piano) (2010)
    NEW YORK / BOSTON PREMIERE
    ACP Commission

Christina Smith, flute • Elizabeth Koch, oboe • Laura Ardan, clarinet •
Justin Bruns, violin • Catherine Lynn, viola • Brad Ritchie, cello • Paula Peace, piano

Featuring three American works for mixed chamber ensemble – the NY/Boston premieres of a quintet by Michael Gandolfi, a chamber music salute by John Harbison to an old American song book, and the Romantic piano quartet by Arthur Foote, our country’s first American-trained composer.

5/24/11
Chamber Music at the Tavern — “Grand Finale”

Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Tavern opens for British Pub menu at 6:15 pm
Concert at 7:30 pm

New American Shakespeare Tavern
499 Peachtree Street, Atlanta

“GRAND FINALE”

  • Franz SCHREKER — Der Wind (1909) (violin, clarinet, horn, cello, piano)
  • Ned ROREM — Trio for Flute, Cello & Piano (1960)
  • BRAHMS — Piano Quartet in G Minor, Opus 25

Christina Smith, flute • Laura Ardan, clarinet • Richard Deane, horn • Justin Bruns, violin •
Catherine Lynn, viola • Brad Ritchie, cello • Paula Peace, piano

To conclude our 35th Anniversary Season, we are thrilled to return to the fun and acoustically excellent New American Shakespeare Tavern downtown. This spring concert features one of chamber music’s most beloved works – Brahms’ G Minor Piano Quartet with its electrifying “Gypsy Rondo” finale.  The unique first half begins with Austrian Franz Schreker’s quintet “Der Wind” for the unusual timbres of clarinet, horn, strings and piano, and displays this composer’s fascinating and haunting blend of romanticism, symbolism and impressionism. American Ned Rorem’s exotic Trio for Flute, Cello & Piano is a tender and brilliant showpiece for the three instruments.

Our audience is invited to enjoy – beginning at 6:15 pm - the British pub menu and libation at the Shakespeare Tavern. Or just come for the 7:30 pm concert downbeat.

(Dinner and drinks are not included in the concert ticket price.)

 

Fully Subscribed
The Soirée Series

SoireeThe Atlanta Chamber Players perform six subscription soirée concerts per year in homes and intimate settings in the Atlanta metro area. This informal series complements the group’s formal public artistic concerts. The soirées are fully subscribed with a waiting list and are limited to approximately 70 attendees at each, depending on the size and available performance space of the home.

A growing list of loyal and passionate supporters eagerly await the chance to hear beautiful music performed expertly by leading musicians of the Atlanta Symphony, see incredible local homes, learn about chamber music, instruments, and composers and meet other chamber music enthusiasts. Our soirée audience and ACP musicians alike count these experiences among their favorite musical outlets.