Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival Celebrates 35th Anniversary With Gala Concert at Dimenna Center Tonight

Celebrating its 35th anniversary, the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival will present a concert open to the public for the first time in New York this evening, April 8, 2014 at 7:45 p.m. at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cary Hall, 450 West 37th Street, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues. A special orchestra-the Cape Cod Gala Orchestra, conducted by Liam Burke-has been assembled for this occasion. Noted WQXR radio announcer Jeff Spurgeon will host the evening and Nancy B. Barry, First President of the Festival, as well as Honorary Artistic Chair Charles Hamlen, V.P. of Orchestra of St. Luke's and Co-Founder of IMG Artists, will be on hand for the event. The complete program follows:

Beethoven: Quintet in E-flat Major for Piano, Oboe, Horn, Clarinet, and Bassoon, Op. 16
Julia DeRosa, oboe
Liam Burke, clarinet
Laura Weiner, horn
Nanci Belmont, bassoon

Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A Major, K. 622
Jon Nakamatsu, piano
Jon Manasse, clarinet
Cape Cod Gala Orchestra, Liam Burke, conductor

A reception preceding the concert will begin at 6:30 p.m. The concert starts promptly at 7:45 p.m. Patron tickets at $300 and sponsor tickets at $150, which include the reception as well as the concert, and tickets at $45 ($15 for students) for the concert alone can be purchased by calling 508-247-9400 or emailing info@capecodchambermusic.org.

The Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, founded by the late collaborative pianist Samuel Sanders, presents classical and contemporary chamber music performed by internationally noted musicians and exceptional young artists. The artistic directors, clarinetist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, follow in the footsteps of Nicholas Kitchen, first violin of the Borromeo String Quartet; pianist Brian Zeger; pianist Margo Garrett; and Samuel Sanders.

The Festival offers four weeks of intensive chamber music programming at various Cape Cod locations in August, spring and fall concerts on the Cape, special events in New York, and expanded residencies in Cape Cod schools. Joshua Bell, Andres Diaz, Yo-Yo Ma, the Borromeo String Quartet, and the Eroica Trio all appeared with the Festival early in their careers. The Festival also commissions new works and introduces contemporary composers to Cape audiences.

Clarinetist Liam Burke, a recent graduate of The Juilliard School, is currently a fellow with The Academy at Carnegie Hall and Ensemble ACJW, with whom he performs regularly. A recipient of The Juilliard School's Peter Mennin Prize for Outstanding Achievement and Leadership in Music in 2011, he has appeared as soloist with the Juilliard Music for all National Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Colorado College Summer Music Festival, and Senior Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra. Also in demand as an orchestral musician, Mr. Burke has performed with the New York Philharmonic, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the American Symphony Orchestra, the American Ballet Theatre Orchestra, the New World Symphony, and the New York String Orchestra. He performed on tour with musicians from The Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music at the 2012 BBC Proms and toured as guest principal clarinetist with the Philharmonie der Nationen in a three-week series of concerts throughout Germany and the United States. In 2010, Mr. Burke was invited to play E-flat clarinet in John Adams' Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center with Mr. Adams conducting. He received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School where he studied with Jon Manasse.

For well over a decade the renowned American pianist Jon Nakamatsu has been heard throughout the United States, Europe and Asia as a concerto soloist, solo recitalist, and chamber collaborator of extraordinary musical powers. Most notably he has performed to universal critical acclaim in such venues as New York's Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and in such cities as Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Paris, London, Berlin, and Milan.

In the fall of the 2013-14 season Mr. Nakamatsu performed as soloist with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Cape Cod Symphony, and with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Ensemble at the Berlin Philharmonic as well as in recital in New Mexico, the Bay Area and Rhode Island. Most recently he appeared with the Sarasota Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, the Topeka Symphony, the Springfield Symphony, and in recital in Georgia, California and Dallas, Texas. He collaborates with the Jupiter String Quartet at the Soka Performing Arts Center, travels to Brazil to appear as soloist with the Filarmônica de Minas Gerais at the Grand Teatro do Palácio das Artes, and returns to California to perform his signature Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Symphony Silicon Valley.

Highlights of Mr. Nakamatsu's 2012-13 season included guest soloist engagements with the Rochester Philharmonic, Des Moines Symphony, the El Paso Symphony, the Stanford Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony. He was also featured in the 2013 Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center in August. In recital he was heard in Pittsburgh, Rockford, IL, and Fresno, CA. As part of the Manasse Nakamatsu Duo with clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu toured the United States in the spring of 2013. Mr. Nakamastsu also joined Mr. Manasse in a concert presented by Music of the Spheres in New York in February 2013.

In 2010 Mr. Nakamatsu, an idiomatic interpreter of Chopin's music, performed a Chopin Bicentenary recital at Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, and at the 2010 Beijing International Piano Festival. In July 2011 he was heard in recital on the prestigious Masters Series of the International Keyboard Institute & Festival in New York City.

In April 2011 Mr. Nakamatsu was heard in recital at the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Mr. Nakamatsu has been an active guest soloist with leading orchestras throughout his career; among them the orchestras of Dallas, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Rochester, San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Berlin, Milan, and Tokyo. He has collaborated with such esteemed conductors as James Conlon, Philippe Entremont, Marek Janowski, Raymond Leppard, Gerard Schwarz, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Michael Tilson Thomas and Osmo Vänskä. In February of 2010, he was the featured soloist for the highly acclaimed American tour of the Berlin-based Philharmonie der Nationen, conducted by Justus Franz, performing Brahms's First Piano Concerto and Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto in twelve cities nationwide. Numerous summer engagements have included appearances at the Aspen, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Caramoor, Vail, Wolftrap, and Britt festivals. In 1999, Mr. Nakamatsu performed at the White House at the special invitation of President and Mrs. Clinton.

Among the many chamber ensembles with which Mr. Nakamatsu has collaborated are the Brentano, Jupiter, Miami, Tokyo, Prazak, St. Lawrence, and Ying String Quartets. He also tours frequently with the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet and in 2008 debuted on the Philharmonic's chamber music series performing with the Quintet and members of the orchestra. Together with the acclaimed clarinetist Jon Manasse, Mr. Nakamatsu tours regularly as part of the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. In 2008, the Duo released its first CD (Brahms Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano) which received the highest praise from The New York Times Classical Music Editor James R. Oestreich, who named it a "Best of the Year" choice for 2008. Their latest CD (American Music for Clarinet and Piano) released in 2010 has also garnered international rave reviews. Mr. Nakamatsu and Mr. Manasse also serve as Artistic Directors of the esteemed Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, founded by pianist Samuel Sanders in 1979.

Mr. Nakamatsu records exclusively for harmonia mundi USA, which has released ten CDs to date, all to high critical praise. His recent all-Gershwin recording with Jeff Tyzig and the Rochester Philharmonic featuring Rhapsody in Blue and the Concerto in F rose to number three on Billboard's classical music charts.

For his 2011-12 season Lincoln Center presented Mr. Nakamatsu in an all-Liszt recital on its 'Great Performers" series in New York City. His busy touring schedule takes him throughout the United States in recital, as concerto soloist and as collaborative artist for many of the most prestigious series and festivals.

A high school teacher of German with no formal conservatory training, Mr. Nakamatsu's electrifying performance of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto won him the Gold Medal at the 1997 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition amidst a field of experienced competition warriors. Jon Nakamatsu studied privately with the late Marina Derryberry from the age of six, and worked with Karl Ulrich Schnabel, son of the great pianist Artur Schnabel. He has also studied composition and orchestration with Dr. Leonard Stein of the Schoenberg Institute at the University of Southern California, and pursued extensive studies in chamber music and musicology. Mr. Nakamatsu is a graduate of Stanford University with a bachelor's degree in German Studies and a master's degree in Education.

Clarinetist Jon Manasse is internationally recognized for his inspiring artistry, uniquely glorious sound, and charismatic performing style. His past season is highlighted by continued touring with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, giving performances throughout the United States as the Manasse/ Nakamatsu Duo. He appeared as guest soloist with the Manassas Symphony Orchestra and, with Trio Solisti, collaborated on the world premiere of Kevin Puts' Arc of Life, presented by California's Chamber Music Monterey Bay.

Jon Manasse's solo appearances include New York City performances at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall, Hunter College's Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse, Columbia University, Rockefeller University and The Town Hall, debuts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Osaka and concerto performances with Gerard Schwarz and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, both at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall and at the prestigious Tokyu Bunkamura Festival in Tokyo. With orchestra, he has been guest soloist with the Augsburg, Dayton, Erie, Evansville, Naples and National Philharmonics, Canada's Symphony Nova Scotia, the National Chamber Orchestra and the Alabama, Annapolis, Baltimore, Bozeman, Dubuque, Florida West Coast, Green Bay, Indianapolis, Jackson, Missoula, Oakland East Bay, Pensacola, Princeton, Richmond, Roanoke, Rogue Valley, Seattle, Stamford, Silicon Valley and Wyoming symphonies, under the batons of, among others, Peter Bay, Leslie B. Dunner, Peter Leonard, Daniel Meyer, Michael Morgan, Eckart Preu, Glenn Quader, Matthew Savery and Lawrence Leighton Smith. Of special distinction was Mr. Manasse's 2002 London debut in a Barbican Centre performance of Mozart's Clarinet Concerto with Gerard Schwarz and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

Recently Jon Manasse gave the world premiere performances of a major new work commissioned for him-- Lowell Liebermann's Concerto for Clarinet & Orchestra. Music Director Neal Gittleman led the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra in concerts that were recorded for commercial CD release. Subsequent performances included those with the symphony orchestras of Chappaqua, Evansville, Juneau, Las Cruces, North State (CA), Roanoke and the University of Massachusetts.

An avid chamber musician, Jon Manasse has been featured in New York City programs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Walter Reade Theatre (on Lincoln Center's "Great Performers Series"), The Sylvia & Danny Kaye Playhouse and Merkin Concert Hall; at the Aspen Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Colorado Springs Music Festival, Newport Music Festival, Sarasota Music Festival and France's Festival International des Arts, as well as the chamber music festivals of Bridgehampton, Cape and Islands, Crested Butte, Georgetown, St. Bart's, Seattle and Tucson. He has also been the guest soloist with many of the leading chamber ensembles of the day, including The Amadeus Trio and Germany's Trio Parnassus and the American, Borromeo, Colorado, Lark, Manhattan, Moscow, Orion, Rossetti, Shanghai, Tokyo and Ying string quartets, and has collaborated with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Jon Nakamatsu.

Mr. Manasse is also principal clarinetist of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra. In 2008 he was also appointed principal clarinetist and Ensemble Member of the Orchestra of St. Luke's in New York City. As one of the nation's most highly sought-after wind players, has also served as guest principal clarinetist of the New York Pops Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and New Jersey, Saint Louis and Seattle Symphony Orchestras, under the batons of Gerard Schwarz, Zdenek Macal, Jerzy Semkow, Robert Craft and Hugh Wolff. For several seasons, he was also the principal clarinetist of the New York Chamber Symphony. Mr. Manasse has been a guest clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic in concerts conducted by Valery Gergiev and André Previn, and, during the 2003-04 season, served as the principal clarinetist of The Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, performing under the batons of Artistic Director James Levine and, among others, Andrew Davis, Valery Gergiev, and Vladimir Jurowski.

In addition to the premiere performances of Lowell Liebermann's Clarinet Concerto, which was commissioned for him, Mr. Manasse has also presented the world premieres of James Cohn's Concerto for Clarinet & String Orchestra at the international ClarinetFest '97 at Texas Tech University and, in 2005, of Steven R. Gerber's Clarinet Concerto with the National Philharmonic. Mr. Manasse has six critically acclaimed CDs on the XLNT label: the complete clarinet concerti of Weber, with Lukas Foss and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra; the complete works for clarinet and piano of Weber, with pianist Samuel Sanders; recording premieres of 20th Century clarinet works; "Clarinet Music from 3 Centuries," including Mozart's Clarinet Quintet (with the Shanghai Quartet), as well as music by Spohr, Gershwin and James Cohn; James Cohn's Clarinet Concerto No.2; and the concertos of Mozart, Nielsen, and Copland, with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Also available are his recordings of Steven R. Gerber's Clarinet Concerto with Vladimir Lande and the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony on the Arabesque label and Lowell Liebermann's Quintet for Clarinet, Piano and String Trio on KOCH International. His first pair of CDs with pianist Jon Nakamatsu, harmonia mundi releases of the Brahms Clarinet Sonatas and an all-American album, received rave reviews throughout the world. 2010 saw the release of concertos by Mozart and Spohr with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony, also on harmonia mundi.

Jon Manasse is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with David Weber. Mr. Manasse was a top prize winner in the Thirty-Sixth International Competition for Clarinet in Munich and the youngest winner of the International Clarinet Society Competition. Currently, he is an official "Performing Artist" of both the Buffet Crampon Company and Vandoren, the Parisianfirms that are the world's oldest and most distinguished clarinet maker and reed maker, respectively. Since 1995, he has been Associate Professor of Clarinet at the Eastman School of Music; in the fall of 2007 Mr. Manasse joined the faculty of his alma mater, The Juilliard School.