Newtown Friends Of Music Preparing For 32nd Season

“What a stunning performance!” ~ “An exhilarating, delightful, relaxing, enjoyable afternoon!” ~ “What incredible artists!” ~ “We’ve never heard this piece played so sensitively beautiful!” ~ “What thoroughly uplifting, spiritual music-making by some incredibly gifted artists!”  ~ “Let’s have this group back again soon.” ~ “Such superb musicianship!”…  These are just some of the comments one hears when leaving a Newtown Friends of Music concert at Edmond Town Hall on a Sunday afternoon. “Where did you find these talented youngsters?” is usually a follow-up question.

NFoM board members find them, on occasion, in New York City when the Concert Artist Guild hold its annual international competitions and members sit, spellbound, in the auditorium and listen to young people play their hearts out and then wait, breathlessly, until the final winners are chosen.

“Sometimes we concur with the judges, other times we root for a different favorite. In any case, we learn what it takes to become a concert artist: an incredible amount of stick-to-it-tiveness; a stainless-steel determination, a huge amount of physical stamina, a well hardened skin for all those times when the prize goes to someone else, and, as always, practice and preparation in double and triple measure,” said Ellen Parrella, president of NFoM, who has unveiled its schedule for the organization’s 2009-10 concert season.

“At other times we find unbelievably talented musicians at Music Mountain in Falls Village, or in Norfolk. We have also found artists at the 92nd Street Y in New York City; in Charleston, S.C., at the annual Spoleto Festival there; or at any other of the multitude of summer music festivals all over this country when we happen to travel there on our vacation.

“For Newtown Friends of Music it remains imperative to have a sensitive ear, the ability to distinguish between the merely very good and the truly excellent, and the forbearance to schedule busy musicians as they travel from one concert venue to another,” Mrs Parrella continued.

“This year, we are lucky in that we have managed to engage two such artists who meet our criteria. The rest of the season has been filled with long established and venerated ensembles, making their appearances by request for the second time.”

Concerts will again be performed in the comfortable auditorium at Edmond Town Hall, with each beginning at 3 pm.

Starting the season on October 18, which mark the beginning of the 32nd year for Newtown Friends of Music, will be pianist Daria Rabotkina, a Russian by birth and a talented young lady who won the 2007 Concert Artists Guild International Competition.

Ms Rabotkina holds bachelor and masters of music degrees from Mannes College of Music and has worked with many well known pianists, including Richard Goode. She is also pursuing a doctorate from Eastman School of Music.

A fan of Bach, NFoM expects that several Bach pieces will be on her Newtown program.

“We also know that she has just recorded Prokofiev’s Suite from Romeo and Juliet and will perform this for us,” confided Mrs Parrella.

On November 22, Newtown will welcome a return engagement by Talich Quartet, trained in the strict music conservatories of the Czech Republic.

“When they were our guests the last time, in October 2005, they brought works of the Czech composers Smetana and Janacek, along with Beethoven,” she said. “The musicians will again bring their rare instruments on which they have honed their unique sound and will honor Mendelssohn’s 200 year birthday by performing his lovely Quartet in E-flat Major. They will also premier a piece called Musica Mundi, written in 2008, and will close with a Shostakovich Quartet.

“This concert will be dedicated to the memory of H Dieter Ashley, a longtime member of NFoM and guiding light in matters of taste and quality of string quartets,” said Mrs Parrella.

Following the traditional winter break, performances will return on St Valentine’s Day 2010 with a concert and a French Connection. The musicians will be the venerable Paris Piano Trio, also known as Les Musiciens.

Although music for Valentine’s Day may be thought of as “romantic,” the performance will feature music by Mozart, Ravel and Schubert, none of whom are considered of the romantic age but beloved by listeners of all ages.

Members of Alliance Française of Northwestern Connecticut will attend the concert and then will host a reception with a French theme at the nearby Dana-Holcombe House. (Details about the reception, including costs for ticketholders, will eventually be posted on AFNWCT’s website.)

NFoM will then welcome Violist Jennifer Stumm, accompanied by the Pianist Tom Poster, on Sunday, March 14. Miss Stumm was born in Atlanta, Ga., and began her viola studies at the age of eight in her school’s orchestra program and now devotes time to master classes and educational outreach with the hope that younger musicians will be similarly encouraged.  She is the winner of the 2006 Concert Artists Guild Competition, where she took first prize as the first solo violist in the nearly 60-year history of the competition.

Together the two will introduce composer Rebecca Clarke’s Sonata for viola and piano, along with music by Britten, Villa Lobos and Schubert; an eclectic program chosen to show off how great a viola can sound.

For the final concert of the season, NFoM will continue its French Connection, having invited yet another ensemble from France.  The renowned Quatuor Parisii will make a return visit and perform music of as Debussy, Chausson and the Belgian Cesar Franck.

“Fresh intensity and expressive panache” are words used by The Los Angeles Times in their review and the late Frank Merkling called their performance “…clear, polished, suavely elegant.”

The season finale is planned for Sunday, April 11.

Season tickets are available. Students from K through 12 are welcome for free.

Edmond Town Hall, at 25 Main Street in Newtown, is on the Register of Historical Buildings. The building is handicapped accessible. All seats afford unobstructed viewing and the acoustics in the hall are outstanding.

For more information visit NewtownFriendsOfMusic.org.