The 7th annual Kutztown University Summer Chamber Music festival, under the Direction of Maria Asteriadou, is pleased to announce Music Without Borders concert at the Kutztown Park bandshell on Wednesday evening, July 5, from 7 to 9 p.m.
The week of Sunday, July 2 through Thursday, July 6 will bring many talented musicians into the Kutztown area, as they participate in the Kutztown University Summer Chamber Music Festival. One of the highlights of the festival will be their performance in the Borough of Kutztown Bandshell at the Kutztown park.
Various solos, duets, trios, and quartets comprised of Kutztown University faculty members and students, will perform a variety of music from classical, show tunes to popular songs. Presenting a pulse pounding extravaganza will showcase students from the Festival on electric and traditional instruments playing popular favorites by Shostakovich, The Beatles, Gnarls Barkley, Latin Gold, Clean bandit, as well as a medley from the Oscar Winning movie – “LaLa Land”.
Come join in the fun and experience some of the world’s most beloved music in a beautiful open-air setting at the Kutztown Park Bandshell. The “Music Without Borders” concert is free to the public and is part of the Borough of Kutztown’s “2017 Concert Series in the Park”, and will be held rain or shine in the covered Kutztown Park Bandshell.
Offering more information about the Kutztown University Summer Chamber Music Festival, Maria Asteriadou writes that the opening night concert will be held on Sunday July 2 at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Auditorium.
“The program will include the exciting and evocative Sketches from ‘Sunset’, by the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov, in the quintet version for flute, clarinet, violin, bass and piano. It is a piece that is derived from the composer’s score for the film ‘Sunset’, based on tales by Isaac Babel which interweave the biblical story of David and Absalom with a depiction of 20th century Ukrainian gangsters. The music incorporates all different genres of popular music, such as Tango, Klezmer, Foxtrot, etc.” she writes.
After intermission is the famous Piano Quintet by Robert Schumann, which was the first major work of the Romantic era for string quartet plus piano and is undoubtedly one of the most beloved works of the chamber music literature.
On Monday, July 3, at 7:30 p.m., in the Georgian Room, Old Main, is a program centered on the Romantic Era.
“The beautiful Trio for Clarinet, Viola and Piano by Carl Reinecke will open the evening, and represents the epitome of post-Brahmsian romanticism. This will be followed by a performance of the popular Serenade for String Trio by Erno Dohnanyi, one of the most melodic and virtuosic works in the literature. After intermission, the monumental Piano Trio in B flat Major of Franz Schubert will close the evening. This trio, which combines heavenly melodic invention with charming Austrian dance rhythms, is inarguably one of the greatest compositions of the 19th century.”
On Tuesday, July 4, at 7:30 p.m., in Schaeffer Auditorium, in celebration of Independence Day, the festival will present the “American Fireworks” program, featuring students and faculty in diverse works. The Suite from Billy the Kid Copland, arranged for two pianos, four hands; the famous Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber; and the exhilarating Sonata for Violin and Piano by John Corigliano (composer of the soundtrack to the movie The Red Violin) will be among the featured compositions.
The concerts on Thursday, July 6 and Friday, July 7, both at 7:30 p.m. in Schaeffer Auditorium and the Saturday, July 8 concert at 2 p.m., in Schaeffer Auditorium, will feature students from the Festival in a variety of works for diverse combinations of instruments by composers from the Classical era through the 21st Century, including music by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Bruch, Tchaikovsky, Prokofieff, Piazzolla, Dahl, and Bolling.
