Spoleto Festival USA Announces 2013 Chamber Music Program

Geoff Nuttall, now approaching his fourth season as Spoleto Festival USA's Charles E. and Andrea L. Volpe Director for Chamber Music, has announced the complete 2013 chamber music program for the Charleston, South Carolina based performing arts festival. The 33-concert Bank of America Chamber Music Series comprises 11 programs, each repeated three times throughout the Festival at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm daily. Highlights of the 2013 season include a world premiere by composer-in-residence Samuel Carl Adams and the Festival debuts of the Brentano String Quartet, young Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, and percussionist Steven Schick. Returning to the series in 2013 are bassist Anthony Manzo, cellist Alisa Weilerstein, pianist Pedja Muzijevic, violinist Livia Sohn, flutist Tara Helen O'Connor, clarinetist Todd Palmer, oboist James Austin Smith, and the St. Lawrence String Quartet.

Samuel Carl Adams, son of composer John Adams, is a Bay Area-born composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music. Based now in Brooklyn, the younger Mr. Adams frequently performs as a bassist with FOUNDRY, a post-classical ensemble in New York. Recent works include "Drift and Providence," an orchestral piece co-commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony and the New World Symphony, which The New York Times described as "atmospheric" and "inventively orchestrated." As the 2013 Bank of America Chamber Music Series composer-in-residence, Mr. Adams' will attend the world premiere of his "String Quartet" performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet on June 2 at 1:00 pm, and June 3 at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm.

Having searched for a percussionist to feature in the chamber series for some time, Mr. Nuttall considers Steven Schick to be among the best. Mr. Schick, who performed with The Bang on a Can All-Stars of New York City and is the founder and Artistic Director of the group "red fish blue fish," will perform Iannis Xenakis' contemporary composition for solo percussion, "Rebonds," in the opening concert of the series. Typical of Mr. Nuttall's trademark eclectic programming approach, the opening concert also includes Franz Schubert's String Quintet in C major, D. 956, bringing together cellist Alisa Weilerstein and the Brentano String Quartet. The Brentano String Quartet's recording of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131 in C sharp minor was recently the basis of the soundtrack for the feature film A Late Quartet starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken. The quartet will also join forces with Ms. Weilerstein later in the series for John Cage's Variations II to be performed on Monday, May 27 and Tuesday, May 28.

Russian pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, winner of the Prize Laureate at the 2012 Honens International Piano Competition, will make his Spoleto Festival USA debut this season. Mr. Kolesnikov will be featured in concerts throughout the chamber series, most notably Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 with the Brentano String Quartet and a performance of Ravel's La Valse for two pianos with Festival favorite, pianist Pedja Muzijevic.

The 2013 series finishes with a set of three concerts that mark the final professional performances of Charles Wadsworth, who retired in 2009 from his role as Spoleto Festival USA's Artistic Director of Chamber Music after more than 30 years. Wadsworth will be joined on the stage by James Austin Smith (oboe) and Peter Kolkay (bassoon) for Francis Poulenc's Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano, FP 43.

A variety of subscription packages are available for the 2013 Bank of America Chamber Music Series, offering waived service fees, special exchange privileges, and premium seating. Subscribers may choose from five, six, and eleven concert fixed packages or create their own three-concert package of mid-week performances. Concert-goers who would like to enhance their experience even further can join a Chamber Affinity Program ($75) that includes invitations to five private post-concert receptions where they can meet Geoff Nuttall and the chamber artists and socialize with other chamber music lovers. Subscription and Affinity Program details are available on the Festival's website at http://spoletousa.org/chamber-music-subscriptions/ or by calling Spoleto's Patron Services Manager at 843.720.1114.

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