Bridgehampton Chamber Music Inaugurates Fall Series BCM AUTUMN

Continuing its momentum from a successful summer festival of in-person performances, Bridgehampton Chamber Music inaugurates its first fall series, BCM Autumn, that continues the 37-year-old organization's expansion beyond its summer festival (a BCM Spring mini-series began in 2015). Two Saturday early-evening concerts in November will - belatedly - celebrate Ludwig van Beethoven's 250th birthday as a Beethoven "mini-fest."

On November 6, acclaimed Swiss-born American pianist and Bridgehampton Chamber Music favorite Gilles Vonsattel performs two towering Beethoven piano sonatas, the "Waldstein" and "Appassionata." On November 13, a "Beethoven Winds" program features the composer's Trio for Flute, Bassoon, and Piano in G Major, and his Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat Major as well as Valerie Coleman's Umoja for Wind Quintet ("umoja" means "unity" in Swahili). BCM Artistic Director and flutist Marya Martin is joined on this program by returning Bridgehampton Chamber Music musicians James Austin Smith, oboe; Yasmina Spiegelberg, clarinet; Peter Kolkay, bassoon; Eric Reed, horn; and Orion Weiss, piano.

"This summer's festival was exhilarating to plan, perform, and to pull off," said Marya Martin, "and it also whetted our appetites for more. An autumn series was in the planning stages before the pandemic, but it is particularly sweet to inaugurate it now, as a kind of talisman for better days ahead."

"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 expanded it from two concerts to three two years later.

BCM Autumn: A new series launching in the fall of 2021.

Bridgehampton Chamber Music has a wide variety of performance videos from past seasons posted on its website, and its YouTube channel features the online programs created during the past year.

Learn more at www.bcmf.org.

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