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. 

University of Delaware Hosts a Mendelssohn Marathon

By Margaret Darby
The Music Department of the University of Delaware has put on some amazing concerts over the years. Their latest Mendelssohn Festival with The Calidore String Quartet as visiting guest artists is an ambitious undertaking with all of the published string quartets of Felix Mendelssohn and his Octet for Strings, performed with UD's Ensemble-in-Residence, Serafin String Quartet.

The Calidore Quartet was founded in 2010 while the members were in Los Angeles studying at the Colburn Conservatory. They discovered their potential as an ensemble when they first began to work on the Mendelssohn String Quartet, Opus 13, which was actually the composer’s first mature string quartet, although it was the second to be published.

The Calidore String Quartet.

Mendelssohn was 18 years old he wrote this quartet, and although his prowess as a pianist was well known, he actually played violin and viola quite well, so his composition for both instruments came from a thorough knowledge of how they were played. He, like Beethoven, put a lot of emphasis on the middle voices.

Both Estelle Choi, cello and Jeremy Berry, viola are able to bring these voices to the fore without dominating the ensemble’s sound. The first two movements of Four pieces for quartet, Opus 81 feature the viola leading the melodic chase, but the cello also has a big and dominant part in the Tema con variazioni which segues into a brief but thrilling Presto. Choi’s vibrant tone and acute attention to detail makes the harmony for the quartet work.

In all of the music of the first two days of the festival, the sound was so well blended that it seemed almost to be performed by a single musician. First violinist Jeffrey Myers, a tall and lanky man, leans into his violin, tilting his head to the left as if to hear himself better. But then he turns to the other players before lowering the sound of the violin as he plays in the low register, to just the point at which you can hear his soft melodic line over the others, who manage to play even softer at the end of the Allegro vivace of Opus 13. As the recapitulation of the theme (Mendelssohn’s short song: Ist es wahr?/Is it true?), the quartet diminishes the sound to the softest nothing as they reach the final chord.

When the two violinists Jeffrey Meyers and Ryan Meehan trade off the melodic lines in the Scherzo of the Four pieces for string quartet, Opus 81, it is impossible to tell who is playing. Their innate ability to match each other’s intonation and bowing make it sound like a single line of music. Each of them also have a solid sound in the low register of the violin which projects well, even at a soft dynamic.

The Calidore played the String Quartet Opus 44, No. 3 so fast that the sixteenth note patterns which come after the repeat in the Allegro vivace sound like trills — magically even and exciting. They played the fourth movement, Molto allegro con fuoco, with very big sforzandi, giving the entire movement a playful, roller coaster feel.

When they played the last quartet written by Mendelssohn, Opus 80, they talked about how he wrote this after his beloved sister Fanny died suddenly. He used this very beautiful piece as a metaphor of his grief, writing a wailing and sustained high B-flat for the first violin, which Jeffrey Myers managed to make a delicate cry of anguish.

Having a quartet of this caliber visit the Gore Recital Hall, with its fine acoustics for such intimate concerts, is a treasure. The Calidore have won impressive international chamber music competitions. They have a wide range of repertoire, including some dissonant and modern pieces like the Anton Webern Five Movements for String Quartet, Opus 5, which you can hear online here.

And if you miss the Mendelssohn Festival, the Calidore Quartet’s mentors, the Emerson Quartet, will appear at the University of Delaware on Sunday, April 30.

See www.music.udel.edu or call 302.831.2577.