Genzinger String Quartet
Former New England Bach Festival Musicians Honor Blanche Moyse
 On Friday, September 25, 7:30 pm, at Centre Congregational Church, the Genzinger String Quartet will perform a special concert honoring Brattleboro Music Center founder and southern Vermont musical pioneer Blanche Moyse on her 100th birthday. This is the first concert is the BMC’s 2009-10 Chamber Music Concert Series.
The Genzinger String Quartet was recently formed to focus on repertoire from the classical period, roughly 1750 to 1820. Quartet members Evan Johnson and Mark Rike, violins; Peggy Spencer, viola; and Loretta O’Sullivan, cello, use period instruments and play in an historically informed performance style. Their Brattleboro concert includes Haydn’s string quartets Op. 55 No. 3 in B-flat Major, and Op. 76 No. 5 in D major, and Mozart’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, K.428.
A birthday reception honoring Blanche Moyse will follow the concert in the Centre Congregational Church Parlor. The public is warmly invited to share in this special tribute to Mme. Moyse.
The Genzinger Quartet is a particularly apt choice to begin the Blanche Moyse Centennial Year. In 1952, Blanche Moyse founded the Brattleboro Music Center and, in 1969, the BMC’s New England Bach Festival – which went on to become one of the region’s premiere cultural events for over 30 years. Three members of the Genzinger String Quartet --Peggy Spencer, Evan Johnson, and Loretta O-Sullivan -- were among the musicians hand-picked by Moyse to play in the New England Bach Festival Orchestra.
Peggy Spencer was concertmaster of the New England Bach Festival Orchestra under the direction of Blanche Moyse for two decades, charming Marlboro audiences with the violin solos in all of Bach’s great choral works. She is also a consummate chamber musician (a former member of the Bella Rosa Quartet and the New England Camerata) and has toured with various period instrument ensembles throughout the country. She has taught at Putney School, Brattleboro Music Center, Bennington Chamber Music Conference, and Apple Hill Center for Chamber Music. She owns a farm in Guilford, Vermont.
Loretta O’Sullivan was principal cellist of the New England Bach Festival Orchestra for 16 years and is one of this country’s most sought-after baroque and classical cellists. As a member of the Four Nations Ensemble she has appeared on the Great Performers Series at Lincoln Center, at the Kennedy Center, and at the Mostly Mozart Festival. She performed at Esterhazy Palace and Wigmore Hall with the Haydn Baryton Trio, and toured the U.S. and Canada with the Classical Quartet. She is principal cellist for innumerable orchestras in the northeast, on both modern and period cello, and can be heard on dozens of recordings.
Evan Johnson played in the Bach Festival Orchestra for 22 years. He gained international acclaim with his recording of the Biber Mystery Sonatas, which he also performed on 15 differently tuned violins at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and at the Cleveland Museum. He provoked both praise and controversy with his subsequent recording of the Beethoven Spring and Kreutzer Sonatas with Anthony Newman. He has performed throughout the U.S. with the Bremner Quartet and appears with various other period groups in the northeast. His love of reviving old things led to self-taught expertise in historic house restoration.
Mark Rike has performed around the world as soloist and concertmaster with such renowned conductors as Giuseppe Sinopoli, Yehudi Menuhin, Sandor Vegh, and Leopold Hager. He was a Moy Fellow of the Austrian-American Cultural Foundation and a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. He subsequently studied early music techniques with Jaap Schroeder at Yale, and now appears with many period instrument ensembles in the northeast. He has taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Choate Rosemary Hall, and the Neighborhood School in New Haven. In his free time, he enjoys cooking and bicycling around Connecticut.
CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
The Genzinger Quartet concert is the first concert of the Brattleboro Music Center's CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES. Purchase of a 5-concert series ticket entitles you to attend 5 concerts for the price of 4 and guarantees your seat at each performance. 2009-2010 Series includes:
1. Genzinger String Quartet
Friday, September 25, 7:30 pm, Centre Congregational Church, Brattleboro, VT
2. Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble
Featuring Elizabeth Blumenstock, period instruments, Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Saturday, January 23, 7:30 pm, St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Brattleboro, VT
3. New England Bach Festival Musicians
13- person chamber ensemble comprised of former NEBF musicians
Sunday, March 7, 3 pm, Latchis Theatre, Brattleboro, VT
4. Pianist Peter Serkin with Violinist Madalyn Parnas and Cellist Cicely Parnas
Sunday, April 25, 4 pm, Centre Congregational Church, Brattleboro, VT
5. Schumann Trio
Anthony McGill, clarinet; Michael Tree, violin/viola; Anna Polonsky, piano
Friday, May 7, 7:30 pm, Centre Congregational Church, Brattleboro, VT
TICKETS:
Genzinger String Quartet Only: $30, $20, $10 (limited viewing)
5-Concert Chamber Series: $120, $80, $40 (limited viewing)
Select to purchase on-line: Genzinger String Quartet or Chamber Music Series
Or the call the BMC for tickets: 802-257-4523 |
