Serafin Ensemble Opens Trinity's Concert Season, Welcomes New Member

The Arts at Trinity proudly welcomes Serafin Ensemble to open its 10th Anniversary Season. Fresh from their season opening performances in October, the Serafins are honored to launch Trinity Episcopal Church’s performance season with a concert on Sunday, November 14, at 4:00pm. The performance is free of charge and open to the community. Donations are welcome.

Serafin Ensemble member, violist Amadi Azikiwe. Photo by Andre Lamar.

Featured in this concert are returning Serafin favorites: violinists Hal Grossman (in town from Oregon) and Kate Ransom; South African cellist (now residing in Baltimore) Jacques-Pierre Malan; and Wilmington’s own countertenor, Augustine Mercante. Also performing will be the newest Serafin roster artist, violist Amadi Azikiwe (in from New York City); and, new to Wilmington, harpsichordist Gabriel Benton who will join the Serafins for selections from the Baroque era by Georg Frideric Handel.

 

The other repertoire includes Little Suite for Autumn for Violin and Viola by Peter Schickele; Beethoven’s String Quartet in Eb Major, Op. 74 (Harp); and Terzetto for Two Violins and Viola in C Major, Op. 74 by Dvorak.

 

“We are thrilled to welcome Amadi Azikiwe to the Serafin roster this fall,” says artistic director, Kate Ransom. “He is a remarkable artist and an experienced chamber musician. His perspectives and approach to interpretation and collaboration have been inspiring for us to incorporate.”

 

Violist, Amadi Azikiwe has performed as a guest with the ensemble in past seasons and is participating in Serafin performances this fall throughout Delaware. He will also join Serafin Summer Music in June 2022. Azikiwe is a busy collaborative artist, in high demand for performances. He is a violist, violinist, and conductor who has performed throughout the United States, Israel, Canada, South and Central America, Switzerland, India, Japan, Nigeria, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean.

 

“We are also delighted that Gabriel Benton joins us for this performance,” Ransom added. “The harpsichord is essential to do justice to the works of Handel, and his expert playing in this collaboration with strings in supporting the gorgeous countertenor artistry of Augustine Mercante is exceedingly wonderful!”

 

“At Trinity, we can’t imagine a better way to open our 10^th anniversary season than with the Serafins,” said Trinity’s rector, Patricia Downing. “They helped us launch the first season and have been a mainstay and audience-pleaser since the beginning. We welcome the community to The Arts at Trinity this fall.”

 

About Serafin Ensemble

Serafin Ensemble, “The Serafins,” is a group of internationally acclaimed performing artists (string, wind, piano and vocalists) devoted to collaborative chamber music performances of repertoire for up to eight players. The ensemble evolved from the former Serafin String Quartet and continues the nearly two-decade-long Serafin legacy of passionate commitment to presenting exceptional performances of small ensemble repertoire. 

Serafin Ensemble roster artists are devoted to collaborative chamber music performance as an important aspect of their professional lives. They are bound together by mutual respect and camaraderie, and a shared passion for small ensemble repertoire and the collaborative process. The goal of the ensemble is to prepare and share with audiences, performances of great masterworks and lesser-known works for an unconducted ensemble of two to eight players. Occasionally, larger works or solo works are also included in the programming. 

Serafin Ensemble takes its name from master violin maker, Sanctus Serafin, who in 1728 crafted the violin currently played by Serafin founder and Artistic Director, Kate Ransom. Learn more at www.serafinensemble.org

Summer Chamber Music Returns to Delaware Scene

By Christine Facciolo

For more than 30 years, chamber music had enjoyed a strong and secure place in the summer arts schedule in Delaware. Aficionados of the art form could count on exciting and intelligent performances each June courtesy of the Delaware Chamber Music Festival.

That came to an ended with the demise of the festival two years ago.

The good news: Thoughtful and well-played chamber music has once again found a place on the local arts scene as Serafin Summer Music debuted at The Music School of Delaware in Wilmington on Thursday, June 20.

“Bohemian Gems” was the umbrella title for the music of Dvorak and Smetana. What’s refreshing about this festival is the diversity of its repertoire with the varied lineup of instrumental combinations, including vocal music.

Case in point: Dvorak’s Terzetto in C major for two violins and viola, Op. 74. Each of the three movements explored a myriad of musical ideas and sentiments, with an emphasis on the cheerful. The playing was excellent, especially in the unison sections, which were polished to a high gloss. The performers were Kate Ransom and Hal Grossman, violins and Luke Fleming, viola.

Grossman and pianist Amy Dorfman were well-matched for a performance of the composer’s Sonatina in G major for Violin and Piano, Op. 100. Its use of Native- and African-American themes place it squarely in the company of the more familiar “American Quartet.” 

Grossman and Dorfman listened attentively to each other as they spun out the charming musical themes. Grossman imparted a poignant — yet tasteful — expressivity to the Larghetto second movement, sometimes extracted as the “Indian Lament,” while Dorfman echoed with measured atmospherics. In perfect synchrony, the performers flexed their interpretative muscle while delivering the stylish nostalgia the composer sought to impart.

The second half of the program featured compositions by the father of Czech nationalist music, Bedrich Smetana. Ransom and Dorfman collaborated on two gentle pieces for violin and piano, From My Homeland. Written in 1880, the title suggests that these lyrical works form a sort of chamber counterpart to the composer’s great cycle of symphonic poems, Ma Vlast, but in fact reflect the peace that the composer, wracked by physical and mental illness, found in the countryside of central Bohemia.

Ransom and Dorfman offered a charming, unassuming and well-played interpretation of this work by a major composer that has not been played to death.

The inaugural concert closed with the composer’s E minor String Quarter, No. 1 (“From My Life”). A happy piece this is not. True, the early movements do offer themes that reflect the composer’s early life, his youth, the joy he found in dancing and his first love, but the tragedy of his inevitable deafness increasingly added somber tones to the score, petering out on just a single chilling note.

Ransom, Grossman and Fleming were joined by cellist Charae Krueger and this ad hoc quartet performed with all the qualities of a veteran ensemble. Both in technique and artistic temperament, these musicians, drew inspiration from one another, coalescing into an instrumental choir, with the individual voices clearly heard, yet singing as one.

Serafin Summer Music continues through the weekend with performances on Friday, June 28, Saturday, June 29 & Sunday, June 30's "Finale Fireworks" of Brahms' Sextet in Bb Major, Op. 18 for two violins, two violas & two cellos and Tchaikovsky's Souvenir de Florence for two violins, two violas, two cellos. Tickets are available at brownpapertickets.com.

Serafin Summer Music Brings World-Class Artists to Delaware

Content of this post originates from a press release from Serafin Summer Music...

Serafin Ensemble, University of Delaware Department of Music and The Music School of Delaware, present Serafin Summer Music. The 10-day festival runs from Thursday, June 20 through Sunday, June 30.

Festival artists hail from China, the Philippines, New Zealand and from around the U.S., including New York City, Oklahoma, Ohio, Kentucky, Atlanta, Florida, Pennsylvania and right here in Delaware. 

“Bringing superb artists together to prepare and share marvelous masterworks with a community of eager listeners is a thrilling creative enterprise in every respect,” comments Kate Ransom, Festival Artistic Director.

The festival’s exceptional lineup features a range of repertoire including works by great classical composers Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, as well as works by lesser-known composers, such as Smetana, Khachaturian and Faure. Each concert has a unique theme and ensemble configuration of up to six string, wind, piano and vocal performers.

Festival sponsors are Dr. William Stegeman, Ph.D., Jacobs Music Company, Harry’s Savoy Grill, Tonic Bar and Grille, Montrachet Fine Foods, Delaware Today, WDEL and GateHouse Media Delaware.

All performances will be held at The Music School of Delaware's Wilmington Branch, 4101 N. Washington Street in Wilmington. Season subscriptions are $135 for all eight performances; a four-pack of tickets is $70 and single tickets are $20. Purchase by visiting www.brownpapertickets.com or calling 302.762.1132 (the Music School).

Serafin Summer Music Artist Roster

• Amos Fayette, violin
• Hal Grossman, violin
• Kate Ransom,violin
• Benjamin Shute, violin
• Lisa Vaupel, violin
• Amadi Azikiwe, viola
• Luke Fleming, viola
• Mary Harris, viola
• Charae Krueger, cello
• Lawrence Stomberg, cello
• Guang Wang, cello
• Miles Brown, bass
• Jennifer Nicole Campbell, piano
• Amy Dorfman, piano
• Read Gainsford, piano
• Augustine Mercante, countertenor 
• Eileen Grycky, flute
• Christopher Nichols, clarinet

Serafin Summer Music Schedule

Thursday, June 20, 7:00pm - BOHEMIAN GEMS

• Dvořák “Sonatina” in G Major, Op. 100 for violin and piano
• Smetana “Two Pieces From My Native Land” for violin and piano
• Dvořák “Terzetto” in C Major, Op. 74 for two violins and viola
• Smetana String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor “From MY Life”

Friday, June 21, 7:00pm - IT’S CLASSIC!

• Michael Haydn Duo No. 2 in D Major for violin and viola
• Beethoven Piano Trio Op. 1, No.1
• Schubert song set
• Schubert “Trout” Quintet for violin, viola, cello, bass, piano

Saturday, June 22, 5:00pm - FRIENDS and MENTORS

• Brahms Scherzo ("Sonatensatz") in C Minor for violin and piano WoO2
• Schumann “Fairy Tales” for clarinet, viola and piano
• Niels Gade Sonata in D Major for violin and piano
• Dohnanyi Piano Quintet No.1 in C Minor

Sunday, June 23, 4:00pm - OUT OF BAVARIA

• Mozart D Major Quartet for flute, violin, viola, cello
• Reger Sonata in G Minor for solo viola
• Schumann “Fantasy Pieces” Op. 73 for cello and piano
• Brahms Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25

Thursday, June 27, 7:00pm - FRENCH FORAY

• Leclair Duo in E Minor for two violins
• French Song Set
• Faure Piano Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 15

Friday, June 28, 7:00pm - THE THREE B’s

• Bach G Minor Sonata for solo violin
• Beethoven String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No.4
• Brahms Piano Trio in C Major, Op. 87

Saturday, June 29, 5:00pm - RUSSIAN ROMP

• Khachaturian Trio for clarinet, violin, piano
• Arensky Trio in D Minor, Op. 32 for violin, cello, piano
• Borodin Piano Quintet in C Minor

Sunday, June 30, 4:00pm - FINALE FIREWORKS

• Brahms Sextet in Bb Major, Op. 18 for two violins, two violas, two cellos
• Tchaikovsky “Souvenir de Florence” for two violins, two violas, two cellos

See www.serafinensemble.org/summer. 

Serafin Quartet 'Reunites' Two Celebrated Composers

By Christine Facciolo

Born one year and 300 miles apart, Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann met for the first time in Leipzig on August 31, 1835. The Serafin String Quartet reunited them at Wilmington’s Trinity Episcopal Church with a program of two of their most Beethoven-inspired works: the A minor quartet, Op. 13 (Mendelssohn) and the A major quartet, Op. 41, No. 3 (Schumann). The date was also — coincidentally — the 210^th anniversary of Mendelssohn’s birth.  

Mendelssohn, often referred to as the “classical romantic,” was a most celebrated composer during his lifetime. His stature slipped somewhat during the 20^th Century, but this most underrated of the Romantics is enjoying a resurgence in popularity as many top-flight recordings and performances of his works indicate.

The Serafin Quartet. Photo courtesy of the artists.

Mendelssohn was just 18 years old when he wrote his A minor String Quartet in 1827, which was also the year Beethoven died. The Beethovian influence is evident, as are influences from Mozart and Haydn. The quartet also displays the young composer’s facility with the cyclical technique and exhibits a degree of passion and drama not characteristic of Mendelssohn.

Kate Ransom’s first violin was reliably lyrical and dramatic in the highly expressive opening movement, while the ensemble played as if it were one. The musicians lovingly conveyed the aching sorry of the second movement, a complex and dramatic affair marked adagio non lento (“slow not slow”). Beautifully judged phrasing and dynamics characterized the fiendishly difficult third movement with its contrasting moods.

The finale returned to the emotional world of the first movement. Beethoven’s influence again evident with its stormy recitative over tremolo accompaniment. The Serafin delivered a glowing and energetic performance of this most complex movement yet managed a conclusion that was gentle and calming.

Schumann’s A major quartet was again delivered with tonal precision and blend. In the first movement, the playing was flexible and fluid, capturing the halting nature of the music with its unsettling syncopations. The musicians delivered the fugato and tempo risoluto sections of the second movement with a muscular certainty, while the finale was exuberant and full of toe-tapping dance.