On Saturday, October 7, 2017, the Arts Institute of Western Maine is sponsoring a Maine Mountain Chamber Music concert featuring violinist Keiko Tokunaga, bassist Carolyn Davis Fryer, cellist Elisabeth Anderson, and pianist Stephen Pane, joined by Maine Mountain Chamber Music co-directors Laurie Kennedy, viola, and Yuri Funahashi, piano. The program celebrates the music of Franz Schubert and features the incomparable “Trout” Quintet. Also on the program is November 19, 1828, John Harbison’s touching tribute to Schubert, and three marches for piano four-hands by Schubert. The concert will be held in Nordica Auditorium at the University of Maine at Farmington, starting at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults and free for those under 18 and UMF students with ID.

 

ABOUT THE MUSIC:

 

The Pane-Funahashi Piano Duo opens the program, performing Schubert’s Military Marches, the first of which is one of Schubert’s most popular pieces. The next work is John Harbison’s mesmerizing memorial to Schubert, November 18, 1828: ruminations on Schubert’s being welcomed to the world beyond, Schubert wandering into a hall of mirrors, an actual fragment of a Schubert rondo fleshed out most strangely, and an imagined Schubertian fugue. The concert will conclude with Schubert's tuneful and good-natured "Trout" Quintet, a classic of the chamber music repertoire. [From a naxos.com:] It’s the happiest work in the world; the ultimate feel-good piece and the only work that nobody doesn't like. The quintet, named after the Schubert song that provides the theme for the fourth movement, gives us Schubert at his most irresistible: a veritable fountain of wonderful tunes, rippling, dancing rhythms, and amazing surprises.

 

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:

 

Violinist Keiko Tokunaga is a member of the New York-based Attacca Quartet, and has performed both as a soloist and a chamber musician in the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and many other prestigious venues. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from The Juilliard School, is currently a violin instructor at the Fordham University, and maintains a private violin studio in Manhattan.

 

Carolyn Davis Fryer, bassist, has an extensive background as soloist, chamber musician, orchestral player and teacher. She has toured with the New York Philharmonic, performed with Isaac Stern at the Kennedy Center, and played with the Brandenburg Ensemble under the direction of Jaime Laredo. Ms. Fryer performs regularly with the Boston Ballet Company and with Boston Musica Viva. She is on the music faculty at BU’s School of Music.

 

Elizabeth Anderson performs as cellist of the Cassatt String Quartet, and is Assistant Principal Cellist with the New York City Opera Orchestra. As recitalist she has toured throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, and has recorded for Nonesuch, Telarc, and RCA. Ms. Anderson holds dual Bachelor of Music degrees from the Juilliard School and California State University at Sacramento and a Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music.

 

Laurie Kennedy and Yuri Funahashi, founders (in 2002) and co-directors of Maine Mountain Chamber Music, have been providing the community and the Arts Institute with the very best of chamber music. Laurie Kennedy has been Principal Violist and concerto soloist with the Portland Symphony Orchestra since 1981, and has performed at chamber music festivals throughout the Northeast. She received her Masters and the Performer's Certificate from Indiana University School of Music. Yuri Funahashi has performed in Japan, Australia, Canada, throughout Europe and in many of the major halls in the U.S. She is a performing member of the Festival Chamber Music Society in New York City, and has collaborated with the Verdehr Trio, and the Brentano and Cassatt String Quartets. She received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Juilliard School.

 

Steven Pane has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor at universities and in major halls throughout the country, including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. He recently performed and curated the Opus 111 Project, “inter-media variations on Beethoven’s last piano sonata.” Pane is Professor of Music at the University of Maine at Farmington.

 

The concert is sponsored by the Arts Institute of Western Maine, an affiliate of the University of Maine at Farmington. Admission is $15 / free for 18 & under and for students with ID.

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