The Kingston Chamber Music Festival will return to the University of Rhode Island for its 36th season this August, featuring a lineup of international musicians and a roundtable discussion on the relationship between Native American music and classical music.
“We challenge musicians,” says Artistic Director Natalie Zhu. “Many of them are playing together for the first time, and they are learning new repertoire. They thrive on the energy and excitement of the environment, and it fuels their creativity. They inhale fresh air every time in Kingston!”
The festival kicks off on July 24 with a performance of “Air for Flute and String Quartet” by Aaron Jay Kernis, followed by “C Sonata in G. minor” by Frédéric Chopin and “Piano Quintet in E-flat Major” by Robert Schumann.
On July 26, the concert series features compositions that include “blues tonality” and reflect the influence of African tonal complexity and rhythms on Western European, “Manuscript-based” music. The concert opens with Valerie Coleman’s “Wish: Sonatine for Flute and Piano,” which is inspired by the Middle Passage in which African people were trafficked across the Atlantic to be sold into slavery.
“From the rich and dynamic Night Sky by Dana Suesse (once nicknamed “The Girl Gershwin” by The New Yorker) to the lively Cafe Music for Violin, Cello and Piano by Paul Schoenfeld to) to Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce (arranged for Domra and mandolin by the Alexandrov-Skliar Duo who will perform it), enjoy a variety of pieces that reveal the influence of jazz on early 20th-century classical composition,” organizers say.
On August 1, the concert series features a mandolin and classical guitar performance by duo Adam Levin and Jacob Reuven, followed by a free roundtable discussion about the relationship between Native American culture and contemporary classical composition featuring speakers Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha’ Tate, a Native American composer and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation; Camden Shaw, cellist of the two-time Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet; Mary Linn, Curator of Cultural and Lingu Revitalization at the Smithsonian Institution; and Adam Hanna, classical trombone artist and teacher and citizen of the Chickasaw Nation.
On Friday, August 2nd, Ian Lin, a 14-year-old native Rhode Islander, will perform Franz Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy in C Major for our 2nd annual Young Artist Mini Recital. Regarded as Schubert’s most technically difficult composition–one that Schubert himself complained he was unable to perform!–Lin notes that it was “an experience” to learn. The four clearly defined movements are written with connective transitions so as to be played without breaks, creating epic scale and a sense of a journey traveled for the listener.
On Friday, August 2nd, the Dover Quartet–named one of the greatest string quartets of the past 100 years by BBC Music Magazine–returns to Kingston to give the world premiere performance of Jerod Impichcha̱achaaha’ Tate’s Woodland Songs and classical orchestration of Pura Fé Rattle Songs. Tate’s music has been described as “rich, provocative and moving” (The New York Times). His Woodland Songs is a five-character suite celebrating the animals that represent different clans of the Eastern Woodlands People, including squirrel, bird, deer, raccoon, and fish. “My compositions typically express Native culture through highly dramatic and theatrical lenses, and this work is meant to amplify the wonderful personalities of each animal,” Tate says. His transcription of Rattle Songs by Pura Fé is the first time the piece will be presented in classical orchestration. Fé is one of the founding members of Ulali, an Indigenous women’s group whose music combines native roots and contemporary styles through vocals, drumming, rattling turtle shells, and stomping. Included on this program is Jessie Montgomery’s Strum and Antonín Dvořák’s Quartet in F Major–one of the most beloved string quartets in chamber music–exemplifying the Dover Quartet’s inimitable style as an ensemble.
On Sunday, August 4, the festival finale will feature the favorites of Artistic Director Natalie Zhu. “I can’t wait to share my all-time favorites with our audience at the finale concert this summer,” she says. “Each piece on this program is filled with beautiful melodies that are passed between the instruments, creating a sense of unity and cohesion in the music, drawing the listener in with its emotional depth.” She will be joined by the Dover Quartet and cellist Clancy Newman for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s E-Flat Piano Quartet, Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor, and Franz Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) assisted a What’sUpNewp journalist with the reporting included in this story.
