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Where Music Meets Ideas

Close encounters with music stands at the intersection of music, art, and the vast richness of Western culture. Entertaining, erudite, lively

commentary puts the composers and their times in perspective to enrich and enlighten your concert experience.

Join our community of friends and patrons as we continue our tradition of bringing together sublime chamber music, distinguished performers, and musical commentary, all in convivial settings.

It’s a season of celebration and discovery as we introduce some extraordinary new faces in classical music: Avery Fisher prize winner violinist Bella Hristova; oboist James Austin Smith, already inducted into Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society (“virtuosic” and “brilliant” performances—The New York Times); and piano wonder David Aladashvili.

The stars of the woodwind firmament we feature this season are sure to leave us breathless—flutist Carol Wincenc, clarinetist Charles Neidich, French horn William Purvis and their colleagues of the superb New York Woodwind Quintet.

We bring back two of our favorite vocalists—soprano Jennifer Rivera and baritone Mischa Bouvier—and the estimable Avalon Quartet playing works by Debussy and Schubert that represent the apotheosis of Western music.

The opening Mozartiana features Daniel Phillips, first violinist of the Orion String Quartet, and the beguiling flutist Tara Helen O’Connor (who happen to be married!) in their CEWM debuts; and our star-studded grand finale is graced by David Parsons Dancers in a night coupling music and dance. From October through June, it’s a season not to be missed!

Close encounters with music presents six concerts this season at the landmark Mahaiwe

Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.

Join the growing number of culture enthusiasts who converge from the Berkshires, Hudson Valley, Northwest Connecticut, New York City, and Boston for each Close Encounters event! We are pleased to invite all ticket holders to an “Afterglow” reception following each performance October through May. Contributing Patrons at all levels are invited to a special Gala reception following the June concert (see Ticket Order Form).

Sunday November 2 2 PM | The Berkshire Museum | Pittsfield, MA

Touching the Sound with Filmmaker Peter Rosen

Touching the Sound: The Improbable Journey of Nobuyuki Tsujii documents the

life of the extraordinary Japanese pianist, blind from infancy, who triumphs as gold medalist at the 2009 Van Cliburn Piano Competition.

From the stages of Texas to New York's Carnegie Hall, to the concert halls of Tokyo and the tsunami-devastated coastline of Tohoku, his music and seemingly miraculous ability to transcend all obstacles have moved audiences around the world.

Peter Rosen, who will introduce the film, has produced and directed over 100 full-length films and television programs and worked with some of the most important figures in the arts, including Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Martha Graham, Garrison Keillor and I.M. Pei. He is currently completing a pilot for a PBS series on the art of collecting art.

$15 includes light refreshment

C O N V E R S AT I O N S W I T H ... Intimate & Stimulating Conversations about Music & Ideas

Sunday May 3 2 PM | The Stables at The Mount | Lenox, MA

Unsilent Composer Phil Kline

This will be a composer’s field guide to the most defining works of the 20th and 21st centuries—

what endures and what’s changing in classical music.

American composer and writer Phil Kline founded The Del-Byzanteens in the 1980s with filmmaker Jim Jar-musch and painter/filmmaker James Nares, and collabo-rated with photographer Nan Goldin on the soundtrack to her Ballad of Sexual Dependency.

Many of his works are moving sound sculptures that include multiple boomboxes, the most famous of which is Unsilent Night. Following a debut performance in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1992, annual December performances have spread to cities across the U.S, Canada and Australia.

Kline’s compositions have been performed at Lincoln Center, BAM, and London’s Barbican Centre and he hosts a radio show on WQXR/Q2 in New York. His CD Zippo Songs, a song cycle based on poems that American GIs inscribed on their cigarette lighters in Vietnam, was named “Best of the Year” by The New York Times, Newsday, Time Out, and Gramophone.

$15 includes light refreshment

"Must-see concerts, engaging hearts and minds"

—B E R K S H I R E L I V I N G

“To experience the finest music presented by the leading musicians of our day, in the inviting atmosphere of the Berkshires, is the best of all possible worlds. . . The quality of Lincoln Center with an intimacy that exceeds it.”

—Yehuda Hanani | A RT IS T IC DIR E C TOR

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CLOSEENCOUNTERS

WITH

“A stunning marriage of breathtak-ingly brilliant performances and intimate musical insights, Close Encounters With Music is not to be missed.” — T H E B E R K S H I R E E D G E

23rd Season in the Berkshires

Yehuda Hanani — A R T I S T I C D I R E C T O R

www.cewm.org

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Saturday May 16 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Center

T HE AVA L ON S T RING Q UA R T E T—Debussy and Schubert

One of the pinnacles of chamber music—if not Western music as a

whole—Schubert’s last work, the String Quintet in C

Major, probes the depths of human experience and rises to seraphic beauty. Next to this visionary quintet (made more poignant still with lighthearted moments and Viennese café music), Debussy’s String Quartet, an early work, is nonetheless regarded as a watershed in the history of chamber music.

With a wealth of dazzling figurations, exotic scales, and his special shimmering pulsations, Debussy captures a nuanced experience of time and essentially invents Impressionism in sound. Two master works performed by the estimable Avalon Quartet.

The Avalon String Quartet Blaise Magniere, violin; Marie Wang, violin; Anthony Devroye, viola; Cheng-Hou Lee, cello

Yehuda Hanani, cello

Ticket Order FormSubscribe now and save 30% plus enjoy a free exclusive-to-subscriber February concert. If you must miss a concert, tickets make a perfect gift or may be returned for a tax deduction.

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ADDRESS

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Payment | ❏ Check ❏ Mastercard ❏ Visa ❏ American ExpressMake checks payable to Close Encounters With Music, Inc.

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Subscriptions 6 Concerts plus Feb. 28 Concert, free for subscribers only PLEASE NOTE: All 6 Mahaiwe tickets include $2 restoration fee NO. OF TICKETS TOTAL $Regular x $225 =Senior (65+) x $195 =Sponsor* x $375 =Patron** x $725 =Benefactor*** x $1,000 = Endowers Circle**** x $2,000 & above =

Individual Tickets Orchestra & Mezzanine $45 | Mahaiwe Balcony $25 Student Tickets available at the door $15

Mozart | Oct 25 x $45/$25 =Best of Baroque | Dec 6 x $45/$25 =Orientalia | March 21 x $45/$25 =NY Woodwinds | April 18 x $45/$25 =Avalon Quartet | May 16 x $45/$25 =Invitation to Dance | June 13 x $50/$30 = I would like to further support Close EncountersWith Music with a tax-deductible contribution.

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Sponsor receives 1 ticket for Priority Seating at each concert, an invitation to the February exclusive salon event & June gala reception, a gift CD, and recognition in the program.

Patron receives 2 tickets for Priority Seating at each concert, 2 invitations to the February event and the June reception, plus all the benefits above.

Benefactor receives 4 tickets for Priority Seating at each concert, 4 invitations to the February event and the June reception, plus all the benefits above.

Endowers Circle receives an invitation to a special Endowers-only event, plus all the benefits above.Close Encounters With Music, Inc. is a non-profit organization. Your contributions are tax deductible to the amount permitted by law.

Close Encounters With Music P.O. Box 34 | Great Barrington, MA 01230 | 800/843-0778 www.cewm.org | e-mail: cewmusic@aol.com Also available at the Mahaiwe Box Office | 413/528-0100 or 14 Castle Street | Great Barrington, MA 01230

All Close Encounters With Music events are wheelchair accessible.

Saturday October 25 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Mozart | Rejoice, Exult!

No composer has survived the shifting tides of ideas, styles

and fashion more assuredly than Mozart.

The celestial blend of strings and winds in major works (Oboe Quartet in F, Flute Quartet in D) will affirm his status as incompara-ble master of the lightheart-ed as well as the profound, his simple intervals penetrating the core of the human soul.

Stars of the chamber music world gather to showcase works Mozart wrote for wind virtuosos of his age—plus the Piano Quartet in E-Flat and Quintet for Glass Harmonica (the instrument invented by Benjamin Franklin) and his incandescent Rondo in A minor for solo piano.

Roman Rabinovich, piano and celeste; Tara Helen O’Connor, flute; James Austin Smith, oboe; Daniel Phillips, violin; Xiao-Dong Wang, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Saturday February 28 6 PMLenox Club | Lenox, MA FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

MID-WINTER FIRESIDE CONCERT

An Intimate Encounter with Pianist Roman Rabinovich

One of the young lions of piano, Roman Rabinovich has enjoyed a

super-charged career since winning the 2008 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Master Competition in Tel Aviv. Praised by critics for

“vivacity and virtuosity” and his “impeccable clarity of execution,” he has performed throughout the world in such prestigious venues as Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, London’s Wigmore Hall, Verbier, Gstaad, Prague Spring, Vienna’s Musikverein, Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, and the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.

He also excels as an artist, and will display his iPad-created musical sketches alongside the performance.

A program of Bach (English Suite No. 4), Smetana, Brahms, Bartok and Haydn.

Roman Rabinovich, piano

Saturday April 18 6 PM Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

S U R V E Y I N G T H E C E N T U R I E S The New York Wind Quintet

Introducing a wind group into our string-rich atmosphere! In chamber

music tradition, the wind ensemble is the counterpoint to the string quartet, covering the same range and thriving on colorful hues and timbres. Unique among woodwind quintets touring today, the New York Woodwinds are five virtuosos dedicated to chamber music yet who are individually known as top soloists. Starting with Renaissance composer Monteverdi’s madrigals and continuing with Beethoven, Anton Reicha, and on to Jean Francaix’s witty and sparkling music, the quintet mines the rich repertoire for winds.

Carol Wincenc, flute; Charles Neidich, clarinet; Stephen Taylor, oboe; Marc Goldberg, bassoon; William Purvis, French horn

Saturday June 13 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Invitation to the Dance

From ritual to romance, from the pagan Fire Dance of Manuel de

Falla to waltz and tango, music provides the pulse and sensuous gesture to the choreographic wonders of dance. Experience the inseparable connection as Close Encounters presents a gala that will have you levitating in your chair: Chopin’s Heroic Polonaise, Bartok’s Romanian Dances,

and Brahms’s Trio Opus 8 with its gentle waltz—a perfect backdrop for David Parsons Dancers. A 2001 commission, Piazzolla’s Grand Tango, receives an updated look.

With major prize winners Bella Hristova (“Jaw-dropping technical prowess”—Gramo-phone) and Georgian piano sensation David Aladashvil. A performance not to be missed!

David Aladashvili, piano; Bella Hristova, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello; David Parsons Dancers

Saturday March 21 6 PMMahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Serge Rachmaninoff and Russian Orientalia

The magnetic appeal of the mysterious East attracted Rachmaninoff’s

artistic predecessors (Rimsky-Korsakov’s Schehe-razade became the best-known example of Russian musical Orientalism), and he followed suit beginning with some of his earliest composi-tions.

The sumptuousness and ecstatic expressivity of the Sonata for Piano and Cello and the early Prelude and Orientale organically entwine Orientalism around his thoroughly European palette. His Variations on a Theme of Corelli, minia-ture character pieces, is a pianistic tour de force.

The mes-meric Russian pianist Vassily Primakov joins Yehuda Hanani in a program that explores the many facets of this enigmatic and prodi-gious figure whose reputation has skyrocketed since the years when he was dismissed as a “Hollywood composer” (he never wrote a note for a movie though his music was appropriated for 50 films!). Music mystical, meditative and sensual à la Russe.

Vassily Primakov, piano; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Sunday April 26 12:30 PMBlantyre | Lenox, MA

Annual Luncheon Musicale Benefit

Celebrate the Salon in the incomparable elegance of Blantyre.

The scintillating atmosphere of the 19th century institution that helped promote artists, painters and musicians as the intelligentsia gathered to exchange ideas, enhanced by gaiety and ambience. Savor a superb lunch and support Close Encounters With Music. La vie est belle!!!

Saturday December 6 6 PM Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

A H O L I D AY C E L E B R A T I O N Best of the Baroque

From the sublime to the humorous (Telemann’s “Canary

Cantata,” the tale of the cat that swal-lowed the canary”—in the spirit of opera buffa), this program has all the elements that make up the music of the era: the extravagance, ornateness, and drama—as in Bach’s secular cantata Amore Traditore (Treacherous Love) and Handel’s aria from Ode to St. Cecilia (“What passion cannot music raise and quell!”).

No program on the Baroque would be complete without a Vivaldi concerto (for two cellos), and Couperin’s Five Concert Pieces introduces the elegance of the French court. With “historically informed” members of the Diderot Quartet, Apollo’s Fire and the Handel and Haydn Society.

Adriane Post, violin; Jessica Meyer, viola; Daniel Swenberg, theorbo; Assaf Sommer, harpsi-chord; Yehuda Hanani and Paul Dwyer, cello; Jennifer Rivera, mezzo-soprano; Mischa Bouvier, baritone

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“Close Encounters With Music is a

chamber music series on a par with anything heard at Tanglewood at the height of the season. For this, we year-rounders are

blessed.”—Rogovoy R eport

Close Encounters With Music is a non-profit organization.

Partial funding provided by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

New York Woodwinds

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David Parsons Dancers

Avalon String Quartet