Music Mountain Presents a Labor Day Benefit Concert Featuring Peter Serkin and More

Mark your concert calendars for an extraordinary weekend at Music Mountain, America's longest running summer chamber music festival! The incomparable pianist, Peter Serkin performs Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven with four guest artists on Sunday, September 2 (3pm) as part of Music Mountain's Labor Day Benefit Concert & Reception. The weekend gets off to a celebratory start on Saturday, September 1 (6:30pm) with Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet playing the rhythm-saturated sounds of Latin jazz! Concerts are scheduled through September 23.

Music Mountain's annual Labor Day Benefit Concert & Reception will feature Peter Serkin, piano along with guest artists Jihyun (James) Kim, Oboe; Caitlin Beare, Clarinet; William Purvis, Horn; and Adam Romey, Bassoon. The scheduled program includes Bach: Oboe Sonata in G Minor, BWV 1030b; Mozart: Quintet for Piano and Winds in E Flat Major, K. 452; and Beethoven: Quintet for Piano and Winds in E Flat Major, Op. 16. This will be the Music Mountain premiere of the works by Bach and Mozart, as well as the first time Beethoven's Op. 16 is presented at Music Mountain in its original version with winds and piano.

Recognized as an artist of passion and integrity, the distinguished American pianist Peter Serkin has successfully conveyed the essence of five centuries of repertoire. His inspired performances with symphony orchestras, in recital appearances, chamber music collaborations and on recordings have been lauded worldwide for decades. Mr. Serkin has performed with the world's major symphony orchestras, led by such eminent conductors as Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Alexander Schneider, Daniel Barenboim, George Szell, Eugene Ormandy, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, James Levine, Herbert Blomstedt, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos and George Cleve. An avid exponent of the music of many of the 20th and 21st century's most important composers, Mr. Serkin has been instrumental in bringing to life the music of Schoenberg, Reger, Webern, Berg, Stravinsky, Wolpe, Messiaen, Takemitsu, Wuorinen, Goehr, and Knussen for audiences around the world. Mr. Serkin has recently made several arrangements of four-hand music by Mozart, Schumann and his grandfather, Adolf Busch, for various chamber ensembles and for full orchestra. He has also arranged all of Brahms's organ Chorale-Preludes, transcribed for one piano, four-hands. Mr. Serkin currently teaches at Bard College Conservatory of Music.

Mr. Serkin will be joined by the legendary American hornist, William Purvis and an extremely talented group of young musicians.

William Purvis, horn, is a member of the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Yale Brass Trio, and the Triton Horn Trio, and is an emeritus member of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. A frequent guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Boston Chamber Music Society, Mr. Purvis has collaborated with many of the world's most esteemed string quartets, including the Juilliard, Tokyo, Orion, Brentano, Mendelssohn, Sibelius, Daedalus, and Fine Arts string quartets. A Grammy Award winner, Mr. Purvis has recorded extensively on numerous labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical, Naxos, Koch and Bridge. He is currently Professor in the Practice of Horn and Chamber Music at the Yale School of Music, where he is also coordinator of winds and brasses, and serves as director of the Yale Collection of Musical Instruments.

Jihyun (James) Kim, oboe, is a graduate of The Juilliard School, Stony Brook University, and Yale School of Music. Mr. Kim is a member of The Orchestra Now (T?N), a program designed to educate exceptional orchestral musicians in residence at Bard College. Caitlin Beare, clarinet, is a graduate of Shenandoah University and Manhattan School of Music. She is currently a DMA candidate at the University of Washington School of Music. A curious and committed educator, Ms. Beare has taught in the Music Program at Bard College. Adam Romey, bassoon, is a member of The Orchestra Now (T?N). After pursuing graduate studies at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, he received a grant from the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for a year-long study project in the Netherlands. Mr. Romey has appeared at the Centre for Opera Studies in Italy, and Weimar Bach Academy in Germany.

Music Mountain welcomes first time guest Gabriel Alegría Afro-Peruvian Sextet on Saturday evening! This "dynamic ensemble explores the affinities between modern jazz and the AfroLatin continuum in Perú" (The New York Times). "The visceral excitement is as palpable as the listener's own racing heartbeat" (The Latin Jazz Network).

The Afro-Peruvian Sextet was established in 2005. The ensemble's insistently inventive program of traditional Afro-Peruvian music transformed by Peruvian trumpeter Gabriel Alegría's highly personal synthesis of folkloric Afro-Peruvian rhythms, jazz, and other musical strains has led to a signature accomplishment: developing the band's patented blend of deep scholarship and playfulness into a touring experience that conveys a vast knowledge of the music and, perhaps more importantly, transmits black music from coastal Perú as a way of life to its audiences. Each member of the Sextet is not only a master musician but also a dedicated and experienced educator. During more than ten years on the road together, the mission of the band has incessantly been to spread the joy and love of Afro-Peruvian music around the world. In 2015 the group was awarded New York City's "Best Ensemble of the Year" by Hot House Magazine and "Best Latin Jazz Album" by New York City Jazz Record.

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 continue with Shanghai String Quartet playing the last concert of the Beethoven Cycle (September 9); American String Quartet with Robert McDonald, piano (September 16); and Ariel String Quartet with Music Mountain artistic director Oskar Espina-Ruiz, clarinet (September 23).

The Saturday Evening Twilight Series continues with The Bridge Trio (September 8); Roxy Coss Quintet (September 15); and Bert Seager and The Why Not (September 22).

Specially Priced Concerts include: Labor Day Benefit Concert & Reception on Sunday, September 2. All tickets $75. Special Concert & Wine Reception to Celebrate the Completion of the Beethoven Quartet Cycle on Sunday, September 9. All tickets: $60.

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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