CZECH PLEASE!

If you want to read about what’s going on with the Unbound Chamber Music Festival this weekend, grab last week’s paper or log onto thesheetnews.com and check out last week’s online edition (pg. 8). 

This story is meant to address the upcoming week’s concerts on July 22, 24 and 26. 

A special guest for the second week is Cellist Azi Aznavoorian, whom Festival impresarios Rebecca Hang and Brian Schuldt have been trying to recruit to play for several years. Their perseverance has paid off, as Aznavoorian has a rare break in her schedule and can finally attend. 

Hang and Schuldt attended Indiana University with Marta Aznavoorian, a world-class pianist.

Aznavoorian has been the principal cellist in Camerata Pacifica, the leading Chamber music ensemble in Southern California, for almost two decades. 

She is a past winner of the prestigious Bunkamura Orchard Hall (the largest theater space in Tokyo) award, and has played with many of the world’s leading orchestras (Chicago Symphony, Boston Pops, Tokyo Philharmonic). 

Her bio states, “As a first-year student at Juilliard, Ms. Aznavoorian won first prize in the institution’s concerto competition, the youngest cellist in the history of the school to do so.” 

And has since more than fulfilled her promise. 

Aznavoorian will be performing at all three shows. During the July 22 concert, she plays on the first three pieces, and is featured in the Paganini. 

Another special guest, and this is a first for the Festival, is vocalist Jessie Shulman. 

Shulman’s father, a cellist, played the festival last year, and Rebecca and Brian met her at a post-concert reception. 

Shulman will be accompanying the Mahler piece during the July 24 concert (and in fact, suggested it). 

July 24 features “our most German program,” says Hang. The Mendelssohn piano quartet was written when the composer was just 14 years old and making his first visit to the Alps. 

The Brahms piece is one of the most emotionally powerful pieces a Chamber musician has the privilege to play. Wrote it towards the end of his career. Described it as his “retirement” piece. An expression of his unique being. 

But much like a star athlete, he had a comeback after that – but … this was initially intended as his swan song. 

The closing concert has the most clever title, “Czech, Please!” And as you may have guessed, includes Czech composers. 

Dvorak’s “Serenade for Strings, opus 22”  fittingly is the final piece of the final concert (July 26). 

A bookend to the Dvorak piece featured on opening night. 

Hang used the German word “lebenkunstler” to describe Dvorak, roughly translated to mean “an artist at life.” 

Dvorak had a sunny personality and was beloved by his fellow musicians. 

Dvorak visited the United States just before his passing at the start of the 20th century. At that time, he declared that the “Negro spirituals” were the future of American music. 

Famed documentarian Ken Burns, who did a ten-part series on the evolution of jazz, would undoubtedly agree. 

Both Dvorak and Samuel Coleridge Taylor, whose piano quintet will be played during the July 22 show, were fans of Henry Thacker Burleigh, the first black composer/arranger/singer who was instrumental in developing “American” music. 

*For info/tix to the Unbound Chamber Festival, please see the ad on p. 5.