Cape Ann Symphony Musicians Unleashed Concert Series Opens With BLUEGRASS AND BEYOND

Cape Ann Symphony has announced the opening of the 2024/25 Musicians Unleashed Concert Series with Bluegrass and Beyond, on Saturday, October 26, 2024 at 3:00 PM at The Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street, Gloucester. 

The ticket price for Bluegrass and Beyond  is $40 for Adults.  Call CAS at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org to purchase tickets.

Premiering in 2019, the Cape Ann Symphony's Musicians Unleashed programs are small intimate chamber concerts performed by members of the Cape Ann Symphony at unique  performance venues on Cape Ann. Musicians Unleashed  concerts have become a wonderfully popular series with an overwhelmingly enthusiastic audience response.

"The Musicians Unleashed Series gives our musicians and our audience members an opportunity to connect in a more relaxed intimate setting, " points out CAS Board President John Todd,   "Bluegrass and Beyond is a terrific start to the concert series!  The lively afternoon features a wide range of music and showcases not only  instrumental skills but vocals. The musicians will all be singing and playing fiddle, bass and guitar!."

Bluegrass and Beyond is an intriguing blend of American and international Bluegrass, country and folk music played and sung using violin, guitar and bass instruments. This afternoon of fiddle, guitar and bass as well as vocals features CAS Concert Master Scott Moore,  fiddle, vocals;  Erica Pisaturo, fiddle, vocals; George Clements, guitar, vocals; Charles Clements, bass, vocals playing a program of creative and varied compositions.

‘Bluegrass and Beyond' explores folk music, rooted here in America and across the Atlantic," according to CAS violinist Erica Pisaturo, "Audiences experience our take on traditional American songs and instrumental music, then journey overseas with us to Hungary, Finland, Sweden, and the UK. Folk-inspired original tunes by members of the group round out the program. As performers and musicians, we love blurring the boundaries of genre and experimenting with different ingredients and flavors to make the old and timeless into something new and vibrant. This music is full of energy, simple and tenderhearted at times, but always ripe with passion. Audiences will be engaged and immersed, and leave feeling inspired and invigorated by this age-old music." The program includes:  Long Time Traveler,  Jack of Diamonds, Shady Grove, Chinquapin Hunting,  and  Fall on My Knees; Bartok's 44 Duets for Two Violins; Vasen's The Dragonship and Gudda; Ost's Fantomen; plus Wayfaring Star of the Strawstack Medley; Return from Helsinki; Citi Na Gcumman; Calum Sgaire; Boatin'Up Sandy; Hartford's On The Road, and two  pieces written by our performers : George Clements' As The Crow Flies and Scott Moore's Mando Jam.

Scott Moore was born and came of age in rural Kentucky. He began his career as a violinist and composer as a four-year-old in New York. He's been a soloist with a number of orchestras, played Mozart for the Archduke of Austria, and has given an impromptu recital in Carnegie Hall for an audience of ghosts. In 2018, he began performing, from memory, the complete Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by J. S. Bach.  A composer as well, he has composed six adventurous new scores for the Louisville Ballet, including As You Like It in August 2022. This native Kentuckian is now a resident of Gloucester. He and his wife violinist Erica Pisaturo, also a member of CAS and playing and singing in Bluegrass and Beyond , moved to New England in the fall of 2019.

Violinist Erica Pisaturo is a native of New England, where she began her violin studies at the age of four. After earning a BA in Music and Art History from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, she went on to earn an MFA at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia.

While in the South, Ms. Pisaturo played violin in a number of professional symphony orchestras, including the Hilton Head Symphony and Savannah Philharmonic, both of which she also served as Orchestra Librarian. She  has toured and traveled the world extensively including studying architecture in Italy and making music on tour in China and Japan.  She and her husband, CAS violinist Scott Moore moved to Gloucester in 2019 and Ms. Pisaturo now plays with the Cape Ann Symphony and Symphony By The Sea.

Bassist, teacher and twin brother of fellow Bluegrass and Beyond performer George Clements, Charles Clements began playing music at an early age.  A 10 year voyage through piano, viola, trumpet and electric bass led Mr. Clements to the double bass in high school which he began to study privately with Nancy Kidd and play in jazz ensembles and youth orchestras.  He attended the New England Conservatory of Music, earning his Bachelor's Degree studying with Boston Symphony bassist Todd Seeber.  Mr. Clements went on to receive his Masters Degree at Manhattan School of Music in New York, studying with New York Philharmonic bassist and jazz talent David Grossman. He was a New World Symphony fellow from 2011-2014 and now is a substitute in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Clements  now resides in the Boston area playing with a variety of different ensembles and collaborating on a wide range of projects ranging from folk to baroque.

Musician, songwriter and teacher George Clements is a New England based guitarist and singer/songwriter steeped in American folk music traditions.   In the fall of 2019 Mr. Clements became involved with an off-Broadway show called, The Simon & Garfunkel Story, playing Paul Simon.

The Clements brothers played together in the modern acoustic group, The Lonely Heartstring Band, releasing two albums on Rounder Records, Deep Waters (2014) and Smoke & Ashes (2017).  The group traveled and performed all over the US and Canada as well as Scotland, New Zealand, Germany and Switzerland. They were the recipient of the 2014 IBMA momentum award and played the stages of Grey Fox Festival, Rockygrass, Red Wing Roots and many others.

George and Charles Clements are currently working on a new project together called The Clements Brothers. Their debut album, Dandelion Breeze, will be released by the end of the year.

Bluegrass And Beyond is  Saturday, October 26 at 3:00 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 10 Church Street, Gloucester. Ticket prices for Bluegrass And Beyond  are $40 for Adults. Call Cape Ann Symphony at 978-281-0543 or go to www.capeannsymphony.org for tickets.

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