Bridgehampton Chamber Music Announced Spring Series
The Verona Quartet, which had been poised to make its BCM debut in March 2020, launches BCM Spring 2022 on March 26.
By: A.A. Cristi Feb. 01, 2022
After a pandemic-induced hiatus of two years, Bridgehampton Chamber Music's BCM Spring series returns in 2022 with three early-evening Saturday concerts in March, April, and May. With its four-week summer festival and the successful launch of BCM Autumn, a two-concert fall series, this past November, Long Island's longest-running classical music festival now has close to a year-round presence in its East End home.
The Verona Quartet, which had been poised to make its BCM debut in March 2020, launches BCM Spring 2022 on March 26 with a program featuring perhaps Beethoven's most magnificent string quartet, the C-sharp minor, Op. 131, as well as Gabriela Lena Frank's Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout, and Schubert's Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703. "Baroque Spring" follows on April 23 with a lively program of short Renaissance and Baroque works for winds, strings, continuo, and percussion. The series concludes with "French Flourishes" on May 14, featuring Gaubert's Mèdailles antiques for flute, violin, and piano; Ravel's Duo for Violin and Cello; and Fauré's Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 120. All concerts take place in the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church (See complete programs below.) Continuing with the success of the summer and fall concert format, all spring concerts will be performed without intermission.
"We had a fantastic summer festival and launched a new autumn series last year," said BCM Artistic Director and flutist Marya Martin. "We know that we need to be alert for course corrections, but we are more determined than ever to be hopeful, and to make music, whatever the circumstances."
Joining Marya Martin on the programs are returning Bridgehampton Chamber Music artists James Austin Smith, oboe; Paul Huang and Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu, violins; Kenneth Weiss, harpsichord; Gloria Chien, piano; and Shane Shanahan, percussion. Cellists Inbal Segev and Brook Speltz are making their BCM debuts.
The Verona Quartet has firmly established itself amongst the most distinguished ensembles on the chamber music scene today. The group won Chamber Music America's coveted 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award, and has earned a reputation as an "outstanding ensemble... cohesive yet full of temperament" (The New York Times). The Quartet serves on the faculty of the Oberlin College and Conservatory as the Quartet-in-Residence, in addition to holding residences at the Lunenburg Academy of Music Performance, Indiana University Summer String Academy and North Carolina's Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle. www.veronaquartet.com
"This longtime East End festival, directed by the flutist Marya Martin," said The New Yorker, "has flourished by offering concerts both effervescent and distinguished." In the 37 years since its founding, Bridgehampton Chamber Music has become known for presenting a broad range of music performed by some of the best musicians in the world in one of the most beautiful seaside settings on the East Coast.
BCM Festival: Usually comprising more than a dozen events over four weeks, the summer festival has developed a loyal core audience among local residents and summer visitors since it began with four artists in two concerts in the intimate setting of the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church. The festival is still based in the graceful 1842 church-which boasts glowing acoustics-and has gradually expanded to include other special event venues, including the Channing Sculpture Garden and Atlantic Golf Club in Bridgehampton and the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill.
BCM Records: In 2012, BCM launched its own record label, BCMF Records. Signifying the festival's commitment to American composers, the label's first recording was BCMF Premieres, a disc of contemporary American music. The label's current discography of 12 releases includes music by Bruce Adolphe, Robert Beaser, Leon Kirchner, Howard Shore, Paul Moravec, Kevin Puts, and Elizabeth Brown, as well as Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, and more.
BCM Spring: Convinced that there were music lovers looking for more opportunities to hear excellent chamber music year-round, BCM introduced its Spring series in 2015, and one year later expanded it from two concerts to three.
BCM Autumn: The success of this two-concert series launched in the fall of 2021 confirmed that a local audience craved concerts, even in pandemic conditions.
Bridgehampton Chamber Music has a wide variety of performance videos from past seasons posted on its website's "Watch & Listen" page: https://www.bcmf.org/watch-listen
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