IU Summer Music Festival Kicks Off With Chamber Music Series; Runs 6/21-8/11

Indiana University's 2009 Summer Music Festival enters its 16th year firmly established as Bloomington's signature summer event, attracting audiences from throughout the Midwest and beyond. The festival is increasingly gaining notice as one of Indiana's premier music festivals.

A festival highlight this year is a world-class Chamber Music Series featuring an array of free and ticketed events that includes members of the prestigious Jacobs School faculty, as well as high-profile visiting artists.

Festival chamber music events through late July include the String Academy 25th Birthday Celebration, performances by the Festival Chamber Players, the Biava Quartet, the Afiara Quartet, the Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio and a special performance by world-renowned pianist Menahem Pressler in a concert with violinist Alexander Kerr, violist Larry Dutton and cellist Paul Watkins.

Internationally known violinist Sarah Kapustin, a Jacobs alumna (and an alumna of IU's String Academy, where she studied with Jacobs Professor of Music Mimi Zweig), will perform the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas across a series of three concerts (July 6, 8 and 15) with her frequent collaborator, award-winning pianist Jeannette Koekkoek, a faculty member of the IU String Academy.

The two met when Kapustin was a student at the IU String Academy and Koekkoek a teacher; they played their first recital together in 2003.

"Since then, we have appeared almost annually in the IU Summer Music Festival, as well as in Italy, France and the Netherlands," said Kapustin, adding that they have played some 25 sonatas together.

"We had the idea of playing all the Beethoven sonatas together a couple of years ago, when we had already played three of them as a duo, and it came up casually in conversation -- 'Wouldn't it be cool to play all 10 sometime?' As it happens, it had been a dream for us both to perform the cycle, and we are so thrilled to be fulfilling this dream together," said Kapustin.

Kapustin and Koekkoek hope to share their love of Beethoven with the public by interpreting not only those beloved sonatas that are so well-known (the "Kreutzer" and "Spring" sonatas, for example), but also those which are, in their opinions, highly underrated. They played the sonatas together last summer in Italy, making the Bloomington performance their second full cycle. (Kapustin and Koekkoek are also in the midst of recording the Beethoven Sonatas for O-live Music; the complete 4-CD set will be available internationally in early 2010.)

Returning to Bloomington feels like coming home to Kapustin, whose mother and stepfather still live here. "When I come back, I get to see family, plus both of my principal teachers, who have made such an impact on my life, both musically and otherwise. It's always wonderful to come back and perform for an audience filled with friends and family; I feel that every trip to Bloomington is like a big reunion."

The Chamber Music Series kicks off June 21 with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio performing at 4 p.m. at RecitAl Hall, with Joseph Kalichstein, piano; Jaime Laredo, violin; and Sharon Robinson, cello. They will perform Beethoven: Op. Posth (Little B-Flat Allegretto); Shostakovich: Trio No. 2 in E Minor; and Schubert: Trio in E-Flat Major.

For more information about the 2009 Summer Music Festival, see http://www.music.indiana.edu/events/summer/2009/index.html. To learn more about the IU Jacobs School of Music, see http://www.music.indiana.edu/.

Photo: Sarah Kapustin

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Indiana University

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