The Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society (MVCMS) will host five concerts this summer, aiming to ignite a love for music and harness its power to unite people both locally and globally.
The season will kick off on July 20 with a performance by A Far Cry, a democratically run, self-conducted chamber orchestra. Founded in 2007, A Far Cry believes that every voice deserves to be heard. Instead of having a single artistic director, the musicians suggest programs inspired by their musical interests. The result is an intimate ensemble showing off a diverse mix of music and collaborators. After hearing the group perform, Marilyn Hollinshead, a former MVCMS board member, decided to invite them on-Island for a concert in memory of her husband, Warren, who passed away this winter.
A quintet from the orchestra will also perform four works on the Vineyard. The first is “Duo for Violin & Cello” by Jessie Montgomery, a Grammy-awardwinning African American composer from New York. Next will be an unusual trio combination, “‘Romeo Turn’ for Viola, Cello, and Bass,” by Errollyn Wallen, a Belize-born British composer. Finishing up the first half of the concert is Shelley Washington’s “‘Towers’ for Solo Piano,” which reflects her experience of what she refers to as the “crushing isolation” of teaching as a Black woman in higher academia.
The final piece will be Franz Schubert’s beloved “Trout Quintet.” It features a set of variations on Schubert’s earlier song, “Die Forelle,” meaning “The Trout,” set to a poem by Christian Schubart that describes a trout in a stream.
The MVCMS and Chappaquiddick Community Center are bringing the musicians of the Cape Chamber Wind Quintet to Martha’s Vineyard for the first time on July 27. The five musicians are the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra’s principal wind players — oboe, flute, French horn, bassoon, and clarinet.
“Summer Music” by Samuel Barber opens the concert. Quintet French horn player Sarah Gagnon says, “It has the atmosphere of a hot, humid, 90° hazy day where you can’t do anything except have an ice-cold drink next to you.” She describes “Aires Tropicales,” by Argentinean composer Paquito D’Rivera, as “a very spicy piece that’s more rhythmic than classical players are used to.” William Grant Still’s “Miniatures” is also featured. Gagnon says, “He liked to take folk songs, which is nice because it keeps them in the literature.” A “Duo for Flute and Oboe” by Alberto Ginastera and the “Concert Trio ‘Potpourri’” by Bernhard Crusell will round out the performance.
On August 10, the Chappaquiddick Community Center and MVCMS will team up again to welcome, for the first time, Black Oak Ensemble, which the London Times praised for its “fierce eloquence.” The group is a string trio, which cellist David Cunliffe says “is a somewhat unusual combination. Usually, you expect a string quartet — two violins, a viola, and a cello. However, many composers have written for this grouping, often leaving out the second violinist. Each composer approaches it differently, but we find that we sometimes have to fill in the missing part. It’s a lot of sound for three players; we often sound like four.”
Black Oak will open with an aria from the “Goldberg Variations” by Johann Sebastian Bach. “We always love to start with this beautiful, serene movement,” Cunliffe explains. Gideon Klein’s “String Trio” follows. It is one of the works from Black Oak Ensemble’s “Silenced Voices” album, featuring Jewish composers who wrote compositions for string trio under terrible circumstances in places like the Auschwitz and Terezín concentration camps. “Making Hay,” by Errollyn Wallen, was commissioned for Black Oak, and is one of six works written by British women composers on the ensemble’s latest recording, “Dance of the Night Sky.” The program will conclude with two string trios, by Henri Tomasi and by Jean Cras.
On August 17, the Boston Lyric Opera will present a free community concert. General director and CEO Bradley Vernatter explains, “This is our 49th season. We are the region’s largest and longest-standing opera company, bringing people together through music, theater, storytelling, and drama. The program will feature fun, lighthearted fare.” Soprano Anya Matanovič will perform selections from the operatic canon, including “La Traviata,” “La Bohème,” and “Roméo et Juliette,” along with popular musical theater songs from hits like “Kiss Me, Kate,” “My Fair Lady,” “Carousel,” and more.
The final concert of the season takes place on August 27, featuring cellist Amit Peled, accompanied by Martin Labazevitch on piano. Peled, internationally renowned and praised by the Strad magazine and the New York Times, is acclaimed as one of the most exciting and virtuosic instrumentalists on the concert stage. Although long familiar with Cape Cod, Peled first came to the Vineyard last year. “I fell in love with the place and the people,” he says. They will be playing two significant works, Mieczysław Weinberg’s “Sonata No. 2” and Chopin’s “Sonata.” “Both of the composers are Polish,” said Peled, “and we are looking at the same country from two different angles. Weinberg was Jewish, and had to flee during the Second World War. And Chopin, who lived outside of Poland in Paris, looked back at his country, missing it. I wanted to create the possibility for people to look at where they live from different angles.”
For more information and tickets, visit mvcms.org/events.html.