Searsmont Composer Robert Sirota's Muzzy Ridge Concerts Returns For Third Season

Composer Robert Sirota's third annual Muzzy Ridge Concerts series brings the highly acclaimed Fischer Duo and GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio to Maine for performances presented over two weekends in August.

Each of the series' four concerts will be held in the Searsmont, Maine studio where composer and series founder Robert Sirota has written much of his music over the past 35 years. The Sunday programs will be a repeat of the Saturday programs. Performances will run for approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 50 patrons with an additional 20 outdoor seats.

Featured in the first weekend of performances on August 19 and August 20, both at 3pm, are Norman and Jeanne Kierman Fischer of The Fischer Duo, performing works that span from the early 19th century to the present day, including Family Portraits, a new work composed by Robert Sirota and dedicated to the Fischer Duo. Sirota and the Fischer Duo, as well Norman and Jeanne's two musician daughters Rebecca, and Abigail, share a history steeped in mutual appreciation for music and a meaningful relationship of more than 50 years. The Fischer Duo has embraced opportunities to perform Sirota's work and with the recording of Family Portraits on the Fischer Duo's 2022 album 2020 Visions comes a beautiful testament to the friendship these artists share with one another.

Performing on the series' second weekend, August 26 and August 27 both at 3pm, is the Boston-based, GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio. The Trio will perform a program showcasing all-women composers: Lili Boulanger, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Ethel Smyth. Though the Neave Trio will be making their Muzzy Ridge Concerts debut, the group has a strong bond of artistic camaraderie with Sirota. Most recently this connection has resulted in the development of Rising, a new collaborative work between the Neave Trio and Sirota, as well as choreographer Gabrielle Lamb and dance company Pigeonwing Dance. Weaving together music, text, and dance, Rising is a meditation not only on rising temperatures and sea levels, but also on humanity's rising awareness of our connection to and dependence on the Earth's oceans.

Tickets for all Muzzy Ridge Concerts performances are now on sale at www.robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts.

The Fischer Duo –– GRAMMY-award winning cellist Norman Fischer and pianist Jeanne Kierman Fischer –– has performed on five continents in its over-50-year history. Founded in 1971 while students at Oberlin College, the Duo has developed a wide-ranging repertoire covering the traditional “canon” plus many forgotten or unknown works of the past. In addition, the Fischers have been very active with music of our own time, commissioning over 30 works and recording even more. The Duo's extensive discography includes 18 albums from Beethoven, Brahms, 20th Century French Masters, Chopin and Liszt, to generations of American composers.These recordings have garnered rave reviews from The Strad, Gramophone, Strings Magazine, and BBC Music Magazine.

Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-edge performances. WQXR explains, "'Neave' is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." The Boston Musical Intelligencer included Neave in its "Best of 2014" and “Best of 2016” roundups, claiming, “their unanimity, communication, variety of touch, and expressive sensibility rate first tier.” Neave Trio strives to champion new works by living composers and reach wider audiences through innovative concert presentations, regularly collaborating with artists of all mediums. During the 2023-24 season, the Neave Trio will collaborate with Pigeonwing Dance, composer Robert Sirota, and choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, to perform Rising, a brand new evening-length work.

Neave Trio's latest album, Musical Remembrances, released in April 2022 on Chandos Records, was nominated for a 2022 GRAMMY Award in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Musical Remembrances features Rachmaninoff's Trio élégiaque No. 1, Brahms' Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8, and Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 67, and is the Neave Trio's fourth album with Chandos Records. It follows Her Voice (2019), French Moments (2018), and Neave's Chandos debut, American Moments (2016). In 2018, Neave Trio also released its critically acclaimed album, Celebrating Piazzolla (Azica Records, 2018), featuring mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski. More information at: www.neavetrio.com.

During his fifty-year career, composer and Muzzy Ridge Concerts Artistic Director Robert Sirota's works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe by ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; by the Chiara, American, Telegraph, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Cooperstown festivals. His Recent commissions include music for the American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, yMusic, and arrangements for Paul Simon. Having served as chief executive of the Boston University School of Music, the NYU Music Department, and the Peabody Conservatory, Sirota retired as President of the Manhattan School of Music in 2012.

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