Music Mountain Continues with American String Quartet and More

Music Mountain, America's longest running summer chamber music festival, continues its 89th season with two first time guests! The brilliant American String Quartet offers a program featuring Haydn, Shostakovich, and Dvorak on Sunday, September 16 (3pm). The Roxy Coss Quintet, an inspiring jazz ensemble with a soulful, unique and progressive sound, plays their original compositions on Saturday, September 15 (6:30pm). Concerts are scheduled through September 23.

The highly lauded American String Quartet makes their first Music Mountain appearance on Sunday afternoon. The program will include Haydn: String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76 #1; Shostakovich: String Quartet #3 in F Major, Op. 73; and Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81. The German newspaper, Darmstädter Echo noted, "from this combination of individual brilliance and ensemble perfection emerges one of the best quartets of our time." And the Los Angeles Times stated their performance was "a comprehensive display of ensemble mastery, of passion, precision and interpretive smarts in near perfect synchrony."

Internationally recognized as one of the world's finest quartets, the American String Quartet has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The Quartet will celebrate its 45th anniversary in 2019, and, in its years of touring, has performed in all fifty states and has appeared in the most important concert halls worldwide. The group's presentations of the complete quartets of Beethoven, Schubert, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Mozart have won widespread critical acclaim, and their MusicMasters Complete Mozart String Quartets, performed on a matched quartet set of instruments by Stradivarius, are widely considered to have set the standard for this repertoire.

The Quartet's 2017-18 season features a major project together with the National Book Award-winning author Phil Klay and the poet Tom Sleigh in a groundbreaking program combining music and readings that examines the effects of war on people, their hearts, and their minds. In 2016-17, the Quartet collaborated with the renowned author Salman Rushdie to premiere a new work for narrator and quartet by the film composer Paul Cantelon built around Rushdie's novel The Enchantress of Florence. These wildly imaginative projects cement the American String Quartet's reputation as one of the most adventurous and fearless string quartets performing today.

Pianist Robert McDonald has toured extensively as a soloist and chamber musician throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and South America. He has performed with major orchestras in the U.S. and was a recital partner with violinist Isaac Stern for many years. A member of the piano faculty at Juilliard since 1999, Mr. McDonald joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2007, where he holds the Penelope P. Watkins Chair in Piano Studies. During the summer, Mr. McDonald is the artistic director of New Mexico's Taos School of Music and Chamber Music Festival.

Music Mountain welcomes first time guest, the Roxy Coss Quintet on Saturday evening. The progressive jazz ensemble includes saxophonist Roxy Coss, along with guitarist Alex Wintz, pianist Miki Yamanaka, bassist Rick Rosato and drummer Jimmy Macbride. The ensemble was just selected by a jury panel as winner of the inaugural Emerging Artists Project in New York City.

Musician, Composer, Bandleader, Recording Artist, Educator and Activist Roxy Coss has become one of the most unique and innovative Saxophonists on the scene, a definitional voice of the Millennial Movement in Jazz. Originally from Seattle, and a fixture on the New York scene for the past ten years, her band, the Roxy Coss Quintet, appears frequently around New York City, and tours nationally. Ms. Coss is the Founder, President, and Executive Director of Women In Jazz Organization, a collective of professional jazz musicians who identify as women, gender neutral or non-binary. The organization sheds light on a growing awareness within the jazz community on the subjects of sexism and gender equality.

The Saturday Evening Twilight Series features pre-concert dinners at the charming Falls Village Inn. Experience a piece of history built over 175 years ago that helped shape the history of Falls Village.

Music Mountain is located in Falls Village, Connecticut on Music Mountain Road, where a short scenic drive will bring you to Gordon Hall atop Music Mountain. Free parking and picnic facilities are available. Music Mountain is supported, in part, by the Connecticut Commission On Culture & Tourism and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Chamber music concerts conclude with the Ariel String Quartet with Oskar Espina-Ruiz, clarinet (September 23).

The Saturday Evening Twilight Series concludes with Bert Seager and The Why Not (September 22).

Regularly scheduled Chamber Music Concerts are $35. Twilight Series Concerts are $30. Concert & Dinner Passes are available for all Twilight Series Concerts for $70; includes Pre-Concert Dinner (5pm) at The Falls Village Inn, a Litchfield County landmark - Classic American comfort fare, seasonal - and 6:30pm Twilight Concert at Music Mountain. Dinner reservations must be made no later than the Friday prior to concert date by calling the Music Mountain box office at 860-824-7126.

Children ages 5-18 are admitted FREE to ALL CONCERTS when accompanied by a ticket holder. Saturday evening Twilight Concerts are at 6:30 pm. Sunday afternoon Chamber Music concerts are at 3 pm. Discounts apply through participating organizations. For a complete summer schedule, special ticket prices, and to download a ticket order form visit musicmountain.org or call (860) 824-7126.

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