CAPTION:  Lincoln Mayorga (tuxedo) spent most of his life composing, conducting and arranging music in Hollywood – soundtracks, TV scores, pop and rock-n-roll.  Names like Johnny Mathis and Disney Studios show up on his resume.  Arnold Steinhardt (sweater) took the multi-cultural exposure of his childhood in LA to heart.  He co-founded The Guarneri String Quartet, a group that re-defined classical string music during the 45 years they performed together.  ClaverackLanding is presenting these childhood friends in Arnold Steinhardt and Lincoln Mayorga – From 0 to 75 in 60 Minutes for one night only on Saturday, May 11^th at Club Helsinki, beginning at 8pm.  Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased through www.ClaverackLanding.org  or at the Helsinki Box Office – 518.828.4800.

Music from the Heart

HUDSON – “I think people are longing for more feeling in their lives,” says pianist, composer and arranger Lincoln Mayorga.  “People are being ruled by their analytical minds.  The relationship to digital machines is a little crazy.”  – Not that he hasn’t had his own lapses: session musician and arranger for Frank Zappa comes to mind.

Mostly, though, Mayorga, an East Chatham resident, has been working hard to keep the feeling in his music.  From a close musical relationship with singer Phil Ochs, to heavily emotional soundtracks for such movies as The Rose and Ragtime, to tracks for seventies television classics including Bonanza, Dallas, and Little House on the Prairie, Mayorga has been demonstrating his love of music.

In the 1970s, he set up his own record label, TownHall (sic) Records that specialized in historical reissues and comprehensive collections of jazz and classical music.  And, just to keep things interesting, the pianist was invited to perform with the Moscow Philharmonic at their first concert devoted to American music.  He played Rhapsody in Blue and I Got Rhythm Variations.

Arnold Steinhardt, who grew up less than a mile away from Mayorga in the Los Angeles of the 1950s, took a completely different musical path.  His neighborhood was “intensely Jewish”, filled with European émigrés, and his parents had no use for popular music at all.

Instead, Steinhardt received early violin training from Iranian-born Ivan Galamian and made his debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of 14.  From there he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and, in 1958, won the Leventritt International Violin Competition.  No longer extent, the contest was known to have set among the highest standards and produced more outstanding musicians (pianists and violinists) than any competition since.  Steinhardt’s winning prompted him to search for a new and better violin.  With a prize that included 6 solo performances, he needed a world-class instrument.  Years later, Steinhardt told the story of that quest in his book Violin Dreams (Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

With stops in between as second chair in the Cleveland Orchestra’s first violin section, faculty member of the Curtis Institute and, later, faculty member at the Colburn School in LA, Steinhardt is best known as co-founder and first violinist of The Guarneri String Quartet.  A staple among string performance groups for more than 40 years, the group made numerous recordings during its long history, including some of the most important works in the string quartet and chamber music literature.  They disbanded in 2009.

Between the two of them, stories abound.  Steinhardt and Mayorga grew up together.  They attended school together.  They both played in the Bancroft Junior High orchestra.  And, they’ve kept in touch since 1949.  Including a few pieces recorded together, these two old friends have a lifetime of musical memories to talk about.

Arnold Steinhardt and Lincoln Mayorga – “From 0 to 75 in 60 Minutes” is slated for Saturday, May 11^th at Club Helsinki in Hudson.  The show starts at 8 pm.  Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased through www.ClaverackLanding.org or at the Helsinki Box Office – 518. 828.4800. By making pre-show dinner reservations, seating in the club in guaranteed.

The evening, a one-of-a-kind reminiscence, should actually be titled “From 0 – 76 in 60 Minutes” as that is the current age of these two gold-standard musicians.  Along with plenty of talk and laughter, the twosome will be playing the Brahms Sonata in A Major, the Grieg Sonata #3 in C Minor (recorded together in 1985), and Mayorga’s composition West Hollywood Rumba (created at the request of Steinhardt). “For any audience that comes,” says Steinhardt, “there will be stories and beautiful music.  We have a long history together.”

A musical force in her own right, the performance will be followed by a celebration of ClaverackLanding founder Gwen Gould’s 25 years producing concerts in Columbia County.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding: great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company foundation, T.Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

PHOTO CAPTION: Lincoln Mayorga (left) was staff pianist for Walt Disney Studios and contributed to the soundtracks of such motion pictures as “Chinatown”, The Competition” and “Ragtime.”  Arnold Steinhardt (right) was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet – recipients of dozens of awards for excellence in string playing.  ClaverackLanding is presenting these two in concert: “Steinhardt/Mayorga – From 0 to 75 in 60 Minutes” at Club Helsinki on Saturday, May 11^th beginning at 8 pm.  For tickets ($30.00 each) go to www.ClaverackLanding.org or call Club Helsinki directly at 518.828.4800.

For the Audience: Stories and Beautiful Music

HUSON – In 1952, two young boys from Bancroft Junior High School in Los Angeles played in the orchestra together, played in their backyards together, and played at being grown-up impresarios.  For youngsters, it was a time when arts education was at its peak.  The school had a senior orchestra, a junior orchestra, senior and junior choirs, a patriotic bugle corps and even a class for “remedial” instrumentalists.  Those were the days….

For these two, at least, all that training paid off.  After making his solo debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of fourteen, Arnold Steinhardt went on to be a founding member (1964) and first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Guarneri String Quartet.  The group criss-crossed the globe and made numerous recordings, many of which are considered the most important works in string quartet and chamber music literature.

Mayorga took a different route to success entirely.  While his training was as a classical pianist, he began his career as an arranger for his high-school friends, The Four Preps.  He went on to be part of several rock and roll groups, segued to work with Phil Ochs, and released the first single ever on Frank Sinatra’s Reprise record label in 1961.  He became staff pianist for Walt Disney Studios and contributed to the soundtracks of Chinatown, The Rose and Ragtime.  He also worked on the music for familiar TV series Bonanza, Dallas, Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven.  Not one to be pigeon-holed , he spread his wings as a  session musician and arranger who worked on recordings with Sam Cooke, Dory Previn, Johnny Mathis, Barbra Streisand, Mel Torme and Frank Zappa.

On Saturday evening, May 11^th, beginning at 8 pm, these two extraordinary personalities will be sharing memories of over 75 years in music, during their performance: Arnold Steinhardt and Lincoln Mayorga – “From 0 to 75 in 60 Minutes”.  Presented by ClaverackLanding, the show takes place at Club Helsinki, 405 Columbia Street in Hudson.  Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased online at www.ClaverackLanding.org or by calling Club Helsinki at 518.828.4800.

“The program will be like a meal,” says Steinhardt.  “There will be several courses with lots of variety.  We’ll be playing the Brahms Sonata in A Major; a piece we put on CD years ago, The Grieg Sonata #3 in C Minor, and, for the ice cream course, a rumba that Lincoln wrote for me years ago.”  Interspersed will be stories from each of them – “talk of how our lives have intertwined over the years” as well as ways they spun off in independent directions.

“We’ve each had different experiences in music,” adds to violinist. “But, it’s bringing those two viewpoints together that has been so influential for each of us.  My classical music is interpreted differently because of my exposure to Lincoln’s style and approach.”  Mayorga, too, has taken his film and rock background and played a series of solo classical concerts that are deeply affected by his commercial ventures.

Together, these two childhood chums, now both 76 years old, will be spending an evening “schmoozing” as Steinhardt puts it.  “It should be an absolutely delicious evening.  We’ll give the audience something classical and something popular.  For anyone that comes, it’ll be an evening of stories and beautiful music.

“Arnold Steinhardt and Lincoln Mayorga – From 0 to 75 in 60 Minutes” takes place on Saturday, May 11^th beginning at 8 pm.  The show will be at Club Helsinki, 405 Columbia Street, Hudson.  Tickets are $30.00 and can be purchased at www.ClaverackLanding.org or by calling Helsinki at 518 828.4800.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company foundation, T.Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

ClaverackLanding brought young musicians from the Bard College Conservatory of Music to perform two quartets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) along with readings by poet Kate Light on both Mozart and Albert Einstein (1879-1955) titled “Two Geniuses” at the Presbyterian Church.

Kate Light read with delight her words and poetry celebrating Einstein and Mozart between the movements of the two quartets.  Her celebration of Einstein was particularly grand and the Mozart was fine but he spoke so eloquently of himself in the two quartets.

The great painter John Hansegger (1908-89) who lived in Columbia County for over a quarter century painted Einstein from life at Princeton in 1953.  Hansegger said that the sessions with Einstein were the most memorable of his career.  Hansegger and Einstein conversed in their Swiss-Deutsch dialect.  Hansegger remembered that Einstein told delicious Swiss Jokes and even played on the violin for him.  Hansegger reported “Einstein loved classical music and said that Mozart’s music could be a proof of God and that perhaps by the next century science and religious belief might actually converge.”

The young Bard musicians played magnificently.  This writer in a long life has heard all the famous Quartets way back to the Lowenguth Quartet that came from Paris in 1949 to play Mozart’s Quartets dedicated to Haydn.  These young musicians matched the best of one’s memory.

The program began with Mozart’s “Quartet No 21 in D Major K575″. Composed for King Frederick of Prussia who was an excellent cellist caused Mozart to write a cello part that deferred to the “royal virtuosity”.  It is a brilliant melodic miracle pulsing with joy and optimism.  The fine artists Scott Moore and Reina Murooka, violins, Rosemary Nelis viola and Stanley Moore cello reached lyric heights through the magic of their playing.

After intermission Jiazhi Wang and Jiamin Wang violins David Toth viola and Rylan Gajek-Leonard cello played the last of the Mozart Quartets dedicated to Joseph Haydn “The Quartet in C Major”, “The Dissonance” K 465″.  At the premier performance Haydn told Mozart’s father “I tell you before God, and as an honest man, your son is the greatest composer known to me by person or reputation.  He has taste, and what is more, the greatest skill in composition”

The quartet is known as the “Dissonance Quartet” because of its mysterious discordant beginning that sets the mood for this unique masterpiece.  It shocked the public and those complaining to Haydn about it heard the old master, “Well if Mozart wrote it, he must have meant it”.  Heightened expression and rhythmic spice brings the work into ecstatic wonder and the elegance of the minuet is only surpassed by the final movement which goes like the wind bringing down the house by the brilliance of the young artist.

Two Geniuses Celebrated in Poetry and Music

HUDSON – In 1905, Albert Einstein published five papers and introduced his revolutionary Theory of Relativity.  Almost two-hundred and fifty years earlier, Wolfgang Mozart, a genius in his own right, was born in Salzburg, a city in what is now Austria – then part of the Holy Roman Empire.  In 2005, Kate Light, a librettist, lyricist and poet was commissioned by the Colorado Chamber Players to commemorate the close convergence of these two greats.

The result is Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses a combination of music and poetry that is being presented by ClaverackLanding on Saturday, April 13^th beginning at 6 pm.  The event takes place at the First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Fourth and Warren Streets in Hudson.  Tickets are $20.00 each and can be obtained on-line at www.ClaverackLanding.org.  Two string quartets, made up of students from the Bard Conservatory of Music will be playing works by Mozart.

“This is National Poetry Month,” says ClaverackLanding’s founder, Gwen Gould.  “We wanted to make sure to celebrate poetry in some way as part of our chamber music series.  The opportunity to have Kate Light come and perform her own compositions is a special treat.  Kate played in the Columbia Festival Orchestra for many years, but more recently, has been working extensively on original pieces.  To be able to present this convergence of chamber music by Mozart and Kate’s readings is like offering the best of both worlds.

Scot Moore, a Bard student and violinist, has his own take on the musical selections.  During the first half, the String Quartet in D major, K575 will be played in conjunction with readings in observation with Einstein. “To my  knowledge,” says Moore, ”this isn’t a very progressive piece in terms of melody and tonal development.  In fact, its nickname is The Violet.  But there are clever inner workings and rhythmic integrity, and a devilish cello part (played by Moore’s brother, Stanley).  I equate it with Einstein’s internal thought process.”

Part two, featuring the String Quartet in C Major, K465 “Dissonance” brings different thinking into play.    Says Moore, ”I think that Mozart was pushing his skills and intellect in order to impress Hayden, his idol.  Since it is Hayden who is attributed with the invention of the string quartet, Mozart wanted to push the boundaries of the new form.  Including a long dissident line is one way of stretching the definition of the string quartet.”  Bard’s Jiazhi Wang- violin, Jiamin Wang – violin, David Toth – viola and Rylan Gajek-Leonard – cello will be playing this piece.

In this original presentation, the two men “meet” through the imaginations of both and through the magic of Mozart’s music. The performance will alternate movements with poetry and readings meant to emphasize the similarities of the two geniuses;  Mozart, with over 600 works created during his brief life and Einstein, named “Person of the Century” in 1999 by Time Magazine.   Light captures the similarities in her poetry and draws upon the emotions captured in the two string quartets to round out the lives of these extraordinary men.  Cho-Liang Lin, Music Director, Summerfest LaJolla described Einstein’s Mozart as an “informed, insightful and heartfelt tribute to two giants of mankind.”

Bard at the Landing: “Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses begins at 6 pm on Saturday, April 13^th at the First Presbyterian church in Hudson.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.ClaverackLanding.org and cost $20.00 each.  For more information, go to the website or call 518.828.7513.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company Foundation, T. Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

National Poetry Month Inspires Classical Music Presentation

HUDSON – In 1996, President Clinton declared the first National Poetry Month with these words: “[It] offers us a welcome opportunity to celebrate not only the unsurpassed body of literature produced by our poets in the past, but also the vitality and diversity of voices reflected in the works of today’s American poetry…”  The resulting spotlight has brought some welcome exposure to the vast creativity shown by the country’s poets.

On Saturday, April 13^th beginning at 6 pm, Kate Light will be adding her own poetic and narrative voice to the innovative works of 21^st century poets when ClaverackLanding presents: Bard at the Landing: “Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses”.  The performance, including two student string quartets as well as Ms. Light, begins at 6 pm and takes place at The First Presbyterian Church, Warren and Fourth Streets in Hudson.  Tickets are $20.00 each and can be purchased at www.ClaverackLanding.org.

Both men were creative and led extraordinary lives.  Einstein is even known to have played Mozart’s works on his violin in order to clear his mind.  So Light allows them to “meet” through the imaginations of both and through the magic of Mozart’s music.  String Quartet in D major, K575 will be performed by Scot Moore and Reina Murooka – violins, Rosemary Nelis – viola and Stanley Moore – cello, students in The Bard Conservatory of Music. The “575,” as violinist Scot Moore calls it, will serve as a backdrop for poems about Einstein. Here is an excerpt from Light’s “From ETHER, OR…?”

Excuse me, dear physicists,
please make a note of this;
I have a radical theory of light:

If I may articulate:
it’s both wave and particulate.
You’ll want to debate, so I’ll wait, for I’m right.”

In the second half, students Jiamin and Jiazhi Wang – violins, David Toth – viola and Rylan Gajek-Leonard – cello, will play Mozart’s String Quartet in C major, K465 “Dissonance”.  This piece will act as a counterpoint to Light’s narration about Mozart.   Included will be this excerpt from Light’s TRAVELING IN COACH.

Could he play with a cloth totally covering the keys?
Could he improvise fugues with astonishing ease?
Could he make up an aria with pure melodies?
And a text as well? As quick as you please.

Did he ever get tired; did he ever feel pain?
Did he once say, Please, don’t put me through this again?
Did he say, Couldn’t somebody else entertain?
He was such a good boy. He would never complain.

Student Moore observes: “I think with “Dissonance”, Mozart was pushing his skills to impress his idol, Hayden.  We know Einstein was constantly pushing himself, too.  It seems reasonable that there is a parallel between the two.”

Light found commonalities, too.  Einstein, a physicist and creative thinker, published five papers in a single year – including his revolutionary Theory of Relativity.  Mozart, a child prodigy, wrote and performed nearly 600 musical works in his brief life – becoming one of the most widely played composers in the world.  To her, it seems like a natural connection.  “This is an exploration of two creators who left indelible marks on our world,” she concludes.

The poet is leaving her own indelible mark, too.  Her work includes the libretto for The Life and Love of Joe Coogan, an opera adapted from an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show; Metamorphoses, a musical-in-progress based on Ovid’s life and work and the lyrics for the song “Here Beside Me” heard in Disney’s Mulan II.  Her poetry has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Sun, Feminist Studies and has been featured four times on Garrison Keillor’s The Writer’s Almanac.  Keillor edited her book Good Poems for Hard Times.  During 2011 – 2012, Light was Resident Artist with American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.  She has also been Visiting Professor at Cornell and Musashino Art University in Tokyo.

The performance, part of ClaverackLanding’s “Bard at the Landing” series, takes place on Saturday, April 13^th beginning at 6 pm at The First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Warren and Fourth Streets in Hudson.  For more information and tickets, go to www.ClaverackLanding.org.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company foundation, T.Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

PHOTO CAPTION: Albert Einstein is half of the brilliant combination that inspired poet, librettist and lyricist Kate Light to create her music and poetry compilation Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses.   On Saturday, April 13^th, Light will read her poetry and act as historical narrator while students of the Bard College Conservatory of Music play string quartets written by Mozart.   The event takes place at the First Presbyterian Church in Hudson beginning at 6 pm.  For information and tickets, go to www.ClaverackLanding.org.

HUDSON – Fans of chamber music would probably never find a commonality in the lives of W.A. Mozart and Albert Einstein.  But Kate Light, a violinist for many years with the Columbia Festival Orchestra and New York City Opera, a lyricist and poet, saw something more.

“The two men were both definitive geniuses of their ages,” she says. The parallels seemed obvious.  Mozart was a child prodigy who wrote more than 600 musical works.  Einstein, at 26, published 5 definitive papers in a single year (1905). Each was singularly creative.  Together, their stories inspired Light to write some ”information-packed” poetry and prose about the two men’s extraordinary lives and creative work.

Light will be reading the result in company with the students of the Bard College Conservatory of Music on April 13^th beginning at 6 pm when ClaverackLanding presents Bard at the Landing: “Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses” at the First Presbyterian Church in Hudson.  Tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased online at www.ClaverackLanding.org.

Two Mozart string quartetswill act as a landscape for Light as she “fills in” the details of the two geniuses.  In the first half of the performance, the String Quartet in D major, K575 will be performed in alternate movements with poems about Einstein.  Performers for this portion of the program, all students at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, include Scot Moore and Reina Murooka – violins, Rosemary Nelis – viola and Stanley Moore – cello.

After the intermission, Light will read pieces inspired by Mozart “somebody I’ve spent a lot of time with over the years.”  His String Quartet in C major, K465 “Dissonance” will be performed by Jiamin Wang and Jiazhi Wang, violins, David Toth, viola and Rylan Gajek-Leonard, cello.

The program, premiered in 2006, has been called “a landmark of artistic synthesis” and “an informed, insightful and heartfelt tribute to two giants of mankind.”  It was chosen specifically by ClaverackLanding’s founder, Gwen Gould as part of the celebration of National Poetry Month. “I write poetry myself,” she says. “This event combines two creative arts that are very close to my heart.  And it’s a great way to support the national efforts to expose more people to the vitality and cultural diversity of poetry.”   The Hudson Area Library will be including all publicity for this ClaverackLanding event in its bulletins in hopes that card holders and library patrons will become aware of this opportunity to explore poetry and its relationship to music.

Bard at the Landing: “Einstein’s Mozart: Two Geniuses” begins at 6 pm on Saturday, April 13^th.  The performance is at the First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Fourth and Warren Streets in Hudson.  Tickets are $20.00 and can be purchased at www.ClaverackLanding.org.   To view a trailer about this work go to: www.katelight.com/emtrailer.html.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company Foundation, T. Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

PHOTO CAPTION: Tift Merritt (l) a folk singer/song writer who has often been compared to Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris, is joining Simone Dinnerstein (r), arguably the best-selling classical pianist of the past three years, in a concert debuting their new CD Night.  The concert, presented by ClaverackLanding, takes place at Club Helsinki, Hudson, on Saturday, March 23^rd beginning at 8 pm.   For tickets ($30.00 each) and further information go to www.ClaverackLanding.org or call Club Helsinki directly at 518.828.4800.   Photo Credit Lisa Marie Mazzucco.

Folk and Classical –The best of Both Worlds

HUDSON – On Saturday, March 23^rd, Club Helsinki will host two of the best performers in their fields.

Tift Merritt, a folk singer/songwriter and Simone Dinnerstein, a classical pianist known for her vision, originality and expressive interpretation, will be appearing together to introduce their collaborative CD, Night.  The recording, a Sony Classical production, is being released on March 19^th, just days prior to this appearance.

A powerful folk musician known for her thoughtful songs and strong style, Merritt has been compared to Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris.  In fact, the first time Harris heard Merritt, she said, “She stood out like a diamond in a coal patch.”  Her recordings have frequently landed on Top Ten Lists including those published in Time and The New Yorker.  She’s opened for the legendary Elvis Costello and even participated in the epic Dylan tribute concert, I’m Not There.  Her selection was notable – “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall”.   Merritt has been called “a force to be reckoned with” more than once and The Wall Street Journal featured her on a list of songwriters that included Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Leonard Cohen.

In addition to Merritt’s singing and songwriting skills, she is an accomplished photographer and also hosts an artist-to-artist interview radio show called The Spark with Tift Merritt that is broadcast and produced in the burgeoning art colony of Marfa, Texas.  Stream the show at www.marfaspark.com.

Dinnerstein burst on to the classical music scene in a flash of brilliant light.  Her first recording, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, for which she raised the funds herself, skyrocketed to the top of the 2007 charts.  It ranked No. 1 on the Billboard Classical chart its first week of sales and was named to many “Best of 2007” lists including those of The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times. Since then, she has released three additional recordings, all of which have landed on “top” listings.  Most significantly, in 2011, Dinnerstein’s work on Bach: A Strange Beauty, was included in NPR’s 100 Favorite Songs from all genres.

Such exemplary recognition indicates two minds constantly striving to be the best.  And, in so doing, each of these women is noted for pushing the boundaries of her genre – giving fans a new approach to traditional sounds.  It is this common need to explore and expand that brought the two performers together.

Merritt, who learned to play the guitar by ear from her Father, and Dinnerstein, formally trained in classical schools including The Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music, were both booked to appear at a fund-raiser for Barack Obama in 2007.  Backstage, while awaiting their separate introductions, they started playing together – just to pass the time.  The result was a recognition that both the similarity of their constant quest for pushing boundaries as well as their disparate learning styles might make for an interesting collaboration.

Shortly after that, the two got a 5-day residency at Duke University – complete with funding for two composers with whom they could work, and the considerable support and enthusiasm of the Director of the Arts program, Aaron Greenwald.  That gave them a chance to explore and rehearse – and, not coincidentally, present two concerts displaying the result of their time together.

The process since then has been one of growth.  Merritt, who only plays by ear, needs to record their rehearsals, then step back and learn the notes each evening before moving on to the next  improvisation.  Dinnerstein has had to revisit  her  understanding of how classical music is constructed.  In fact, she says she’s  had to “give up some of the notes” in order to make the collaboration work.

She even added  string plucking – from the bowels of the piano, as a suitable accompaniment on one song.  (And boy,” she says, “It’s not easy to make the strings hit the same notes each time you pluck them.”)

The concert, just the second since the CDs debut, will include not only songs played together, but songs each musician will present solo.  So the range of music extends from classical to folk to a whole new genre – ripe for further exploration.  And these two women are more than willing to continue doing what they do best – pushing boundaries, pulling disparate sounds together, melding the best of both worlds.

The concert takes place on Saturday, March 23^rd beginning at 8 pm.  Presented by ClaverackLanding, it is being held at Club Helsinki, 405 Columbia Street, Hudson.  Tickets are $30.00 each and can be obtained at www.ClaverackLanding.org or by calling Club Helsinki at 518.828.4800.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company foundation, T.Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

PHOTO CAPTION: Simone Dinnerstein (l) and Tift Merritt (r), powerful musicians – each in her own genre – join forces on the newly released CD Night (Sony Classical) and in a local CD debut concert at Club Helsinki, Hudson, on Saturday, March 23^rd beginning at 8 pm.  The concert, presented by ClaverackLanding, showcases a collaboration between one of classical music’s most recognized and gifted pianists and a folk music singer-songwriter who has worked with Elvis Costello, Joan Baez and Kris Kristofferson.  For tickets ($30.00 each) and further information go to www.ClaverackLanding.org or call Club Helsinki directly at 518.828.4800.

Unusual Musical Collaboration Presented at Club Helsinki

HUDSON – Tift Merritt learned to play guitar by ear from her Father. She has spent almost her entire life writing songs, recording and exploring the world of folk music.  Her debut album, Bramble Rose, was on the top ten lists in both Time Magazine and The New Yorker.  Her second album, Another Country (including songs written during a voluntary residency in Paris) prompted Emmylou Harris to say, “She [stands] out like a diamond in a coal patch.”  Not content to sit on her laurels, album number three gave The Wall Street Journal an opportunity to place her “in the tradition of Joni Mitchell, James Taylor and Leonard Cohen.” Pretty good creds.

Simone Dinnerstein, on the other hand, learned to play classical music first at the Manhattan School of Music, then at Julliard, and finally, in London with master teacher Maria Curcio.  Her professional recording began with a self-financed CD of Bach’s Goldberg Variations in 2007.  The disc rapidly appeared on a number of “Best of” lists including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Amazon.com’s Best CDs, and Barnes & Noble’s Top 5 Debut CDs of 2007.

Her album Bach: A Strange Beauty, released in 2011 by Sony Classical, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Classical Chart.  She went on to garner the No. 1 top selling spot at Barnesandnoble.com and No. 2 over-all on Amazon.com – in the unlikely company of Cake, The Black Keys and Bruno Mars.

Still, back in 2008 when they decided to work together, these two strong women, each with solid standing in her genre, were  taking a substantial risk.  Beginning with a curiosity about each other’s process (discovered while performing at an Obama fundraiser), the collaboration became more concrete during a residency they shared at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

The school’s Director of Arts, Aaron Greenwald, was captivated by their unique proposal and worked at sourcing funds in order to commission two composers to write songs for the pair.  Most important,” says Merritt, “we had a 5-day residency – time for us to rehearse and work together.”  As a result of their exploration, the pair presented two concerts.  But more importantly, they were hooked on the collaborative process between classical and folk.

“Simone didn’t play anything off the page in the beginning,” Merritt explains.  “And I didn’t play anything on the page.  We had to trust each other so much.  It was an exciting and emotional collaboration.”  And given Merritt’s need to play by ear, exhausting, too.  “I would record our rehearsal, then go back and practice on my own to catch up with Simone.  I found it fascinating.”

Fast forward to 2012 when the results of the two musicians’ explorations bore fruit on the new album, Night. Dinnerstein says, “This album has been about pushing our creative boundaries. I’ve learned from Tift to be a good band member, not use too many notes, let the words come through and keep an edge and rawness to the improvisation.”  Not the standard mantra for a classical pianist.

At Club Helsinki, where the ClaverackLanding sponsored concert will be only the second live performance of the just released CD, the audience will be able to judge for themselves how these two independents have become a “genreless” duo.  Pieces from the album will include music written by Merritt as well as other folk song writers.  Also included will be a CD world premiere of The Cohen Variations by Daniel Felsenfeld, commissioned and performed exclusively by Dinnerstein and based on one of her favorite songs, Suzanne.

“It’s a beautiful moment of a classical musician loving folk music and storytelling,” says the guitarist.  “And Cohen was a singer/songwriter telling a story from his own experience.  It all comes together then.”

The evening begins at 8 pm on Saturday, March 23^rd.  Presented by ClaverackLanding, Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt will be at Club Helsinki, 405 Columbia Street, Hudson.  Tickets are $30.00 each and can be purchased on line at www.ClaverackLanding.org.  Call 518.828.7513 for more information or Club Helsinki directly 518-828-4800 to purchase tickets.  Watch an excerpt of NIGHT from WNYC, New York Public Radio at http://bit.ly/NIGHTWNYC.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company Foundation, T. Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

CAPTION:  Classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein(r) has joined forces with singer-songwriter/folk music powerhouse Tift Merritt (l).  Together, they have created a new genre of music with elements of classical, folk and rock.  The pair will be performing work from their newly released CD NIGHT on Saturday, March 23^rd beginning at 8 pm at Club Helsinki in Hudson. For tickets, go to www.helsinkihudson.com or www.ClaverackLanding.org .    Call 518.828.7513 for more information.

Simone Dinnerstein and Tift Merritt Join Forces at Club Helsinki

HUDSON – “Intimate, introspective and heart-felt.”  These are the words classical pianist, Simone Dinnerstein uses to describe the work she and folk artist Tift Merritt have recorded and will be performing at Club Helsinki in Hudson on Saturday, March 23^rd.  The concert is presented as part of the 2013 ClaverackLanding season.

“Though the music isn’t at all classical,” she adds, “the songs have a really strong narrative.  They’re intimate – almost confessional.”   Not descriptions usually associated with a Dinnerstein concert.  Her reviews run more to exclamations like…”majestic originality”, “wonderfully expressive interpretations” and, of course “triumphant”.

The American pianist put her name on the classical map in 2007 when her first recording – self-produced – was ranked No. 1 by The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker.  Bach’s Goldberg Variations was such a success that her subsequent recordings Bach: A Strange Beauty, and Something Almost Being Said opened at high positions and easily topped the classical charts.  Dinnerstein has subsequently become Best Selling Instrumentalist of 2011 on the U.S. Billboard Classical Chart and was included in NPR’s 2011 100 Favorite Songs from all genres.

So how did she come to collaborate with Tift Merritt, a folk artist and song writer who has been compared to Joni Mitchell and Emmylou Harris? You can thank President Obama.

“We were both in Columbia, Missouri doing a benefit for the Obama campaign,” says Dinnerstein.  “We were all going to perform separately.  Then Tift and I decided to collaborate.  We figured out how we could play together and what that would sound like.  By the time we got on stage, it seemed completely natural.”  That was the beginning.

Five years later, the two have a new release (Sony classical) entitled Night.   Included are original Merritt songs, songs written specifically for the duo by Brad Mehldau and Patty Griffin, and the world premiere recording of The Cohen Variations  - a solo piano piece commissioned by Dinnerstein and based upon one of her favorite songs, Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne.  “

“It’s been one of my favorite songs for awhile,” says the pianist.  “Long before Tift and I began working on this CD, I had commissioned a composer, Daniel Felsenfeld, to write me some variations on Suzanne.  It took me awhile to figure out how to present them.  Then when Tift and I got together, I, all-of-a-sudden realized that this piece was a perfect way of presenting both genres.”  The piece is performed in a solo section of the CD.

Each of the performers has had to adjust to working outside of their comfort zones for this collaboration.  Dinnerstein says that every time they perform together, “it feels like a risk.”  That said, she adds, “I don’t think that’s a reason not to do it.”

Instead, they are learning how to approach new material from different perspectives.  When trying to interpret Merritt’s song, Feel the World, for example, Dinnerstein was initially stumped.  “In classical music,” she explained, “I don’t improvise.  Interpret, yes.  But deciding how to present the feelings of a song in partnership with a vocalist/guitarist was completely outside my realm of education.”

Songwriter Merritt had a little more experience in this area.  Her advice? ‘Less is more.’  The result is a pianist who is able to support the vocalist while still lending a strong personality of her own.  Together, the headliners are thrilled to have created a new genre of music.  “That’s what is so beautiful about this album,” concludes Dinnerstein.  “These songs can’t be pinned down to a specific category.  They exist in another world.  They’re special.”

Presented by ClaverackLanding, a Hudson, New York non-profit founded by Gwen Gould and dedicated to the presentation of great music in great spaces, the Helsinki event will be only the second time Dinnerstein and Merritt will be introducing their new recording.  In fact, the CD is scheduled for release on March 19^th, just days before the March 23^rd event.   And, if two headlining recording artists weren’t enough to sell NIGHT, the CD was produced by Grammy-winners Adam Abeshouse and Ryan Freeland.   All together, NIGHT is a risk worth taking.

For tickets, go to www.ClaverackLanding. Org or www.HelsinkiHudson.com.  For more information, call 518. 828.7513.  The show starts at 8 pm on Saturday, March 23^rd.  Club Helsinki is located at 405 Columbia Street in Hudson, N.Y.

Concerts and education programs of ClaverackLanding, great music in great spaces, are supported in part by Herrington’s, Hudson River Bank & Trust Company foundation, T. Backer Fund, JSL Computer Services, and many generous individuals and business sponsors.

Members of Concordium ensemble in front of a photograph by Roy Volkmann.
Photo by Tatiana Klacsmann.

ClaverackLanding, established in 2010 by artistic director Gwen Gould, sponsors chamber music  in an informal atmosphere. Programming includes both guest artists and musicians drawn from the Columbia Festival Orchestra. On November 17, at the First Presbyterian Church in Hudson, ClaverackLanding hosted musicians from the Bard College Conservatory of Music. The ensemble group, Concordium, comprises Greg Drilling and Alex Meyer, oboes; Noémi Sallai and Molly Wyrick-Flax, clarinets; Josh Hodge and David A. Nagy, bassoons; Ferenc Farkas and Jimmy Haber, horns; Bence Botár, double bass; and Frances Lee, piano. Oboist Stephen Hammer coaches the young musicians. Hammer performs with groups including the New York Collegium and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society and has been affiliated with Bard since 2003.

Concordium is a harmonie ensemble—a group mostly made up of wind instruments. The group’s name relates to Concordia, Roman goddess of agreement, whose Greek counterpart is Harmonia. The harmonie is a large ensemble with up to nine members on stage at a time and, as an ensemble, performs without a conductor. The goddess of cooperation and accord is an apt patron for the group, which played beautifully in unison by staying alert to cues from fellow musicians while each maintaining his or her own intricate part.

The concert, titled The Streets of Vienna, included late 18th- and early19th-century music written and performed in Vienna. Vienna was a hub of musical activity and home to Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. It was also the city where the harmonie type of ensemble was popular.  Hammer, who selected the three pieces by Mozart, and one each by Beethoven and Franz Krommer, considers the harmonie group to be in some ways analogous to an iPod in that it offered music on the go. Originally these wind ensembles performed out-of-doors and helped popularize music commissioned by and performed for the aristocracy. The contemporary audience was likewise treated to arrangements of popular pieces for symphony orchestra, including the overture from Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Program notes written by Michael Collier accompanied the music, providing more information about the composers and each piece. These notes could be helpful to anyone who might be new to classical music or just needed a reminder of the particulars. I found them particularly useful in learning more about Czech composer Krommer, who spent part of his productive years in Vienna as well as Hungary.

The program’s integrated offering of both music and historical information reflects Bard’s approach to conservatory education.  Established in 2005, the Bard College Conservatory of Music offers a five-year program during which students complete both a bachelor of music and a bachelor’s degree in a nonmusical subject. Bassoonist David A. Nagy, a Bard senior, describes first becoming acquainted with the program while living in his native Hungary in a conservatory where one needs to know math. Nagy is in the midst of applying to Juilliard for graduate school. At Bard he studied linguistics and will receive a degree in Japanese literature.

ClaverackLanding’s The Streets of Vienna, performed by the Concordium ensemble, offered the audience classical Viennese music. The students engaged with a receptive and enthusiastic audience. ClaverackLanding and Concordium is a win-win situation. Concordia would be pleased.

For more information about ClaverackLanding.com including upcoming concerts: http://claveracklanding.org/.