Festival organizers and musicians smile for the camera at the 2011 Benefit Concert. Aren’t they a good looking bunch?
If you’d like to get involved with the Festival, please contact Daniel Morel at daniel@womencomposersfestivalhartford.com. We are always looking for enthusiastic music-lovers to join our team, and planning is already underway for 2013!
Festival Director Daniel Morel chats with Patrice Fitzgerald, Mattie Banzhaf, Sheri Brown, and other participants at the 2011 Benefit Concert. Thanks to Patrice for hosting this event in her gorgeous home!
How about a little Christmas in July? The next few featured photos come from our 2011 Benefit Concert. Despite being postposed due to last October’s surprise blizzard, the concert – held in December instead – was a great success. Talented musicians from around Hartford presented music that has been performed on previous festivals and previewed works from future events. Today’s photo shows Sheri Brown performing on the alto saxophone.
Sheri Brown on alto saxophone giving an amazing performance of Joan Tower’s Wings (1981) at December’s benefit concert. A virtuosic (and at times frenetic) piece, the composer writes:
Wings was written for my friend and colleague Laura Flax, who premiered the piece at her recital in Merkin Hall (New York City) on December 14, 1981. The image behind the piece is one of a large bird—perhaps a falcon—at times flying very high gliding along the thermal currents, barely moving. At other moments, the bird goes into elaborate flight patterns that loop around, diving downwards, gaining tremendous speeds.
Photo courtesy Mary Scripko.
Anne Berry, Ryan Caparella, and Windsor Johnson – members of The Living Room Players, a regional chamber music ensemble – speaking to the audience at December’s benefit concert. The trio performed two movements of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor, op. 17. Schumann’s piano trio is considered, “probably her greatest achievement. Written in 1846, at a time of great stress, it has an autumnal, melancholy quality, and demonstrates a mastery of sonata form and polyphonic techniques” (Nancy Reich, Grove Music Online).
Photo courtesy Mary Scripko.
