Caramoor is delighted to announce a full range of virtual and live fall programming. Dashon Burton, Jeremy Denk, Amy Helm, Anthony McGill, the Aaron Diehl Trio, Callisto Quartet, and TENET Vocal Artists will all perform without an audience in the Rosen House, continuing the series of livestreams from the Music Room that the New York Times calls “adventurous and excellent.” Also presented as a livestream, Broadway stars Laura Osnes and Tony Yazbeck give a special performance for this year’s Cabaret Benefit.
In addition, in-person visitors to the 90-acre Westchester estate will be able to explore the site-specific sound art installations of Sonic Innovations and attend two Beginner’s Ear concerts, in a continuation of the series pairing guided meditations with live music that was introduced last month. With its idyllic woodlands, gardens and indoor and outdoor spaces, Caramoor is ideally placed to participate responsibly in New York’s re-opening process and inspire audiences safely this fall.
Livestreams from the Music Room (Sep 25–Dec 12)
Known for its historic furnishings and superior acoustics, the “intimate, elegant Music Room” (New York Times) of the Rosen House makes an ideal setting for Caramoor’s livestream series.
Amy Helm (Sep 25)
The series launches with a performance by American singer-songwriter Amy Helm, a founding member of the alt-country collective Ollabelle and former member of the Midnight Ramble Band, who “takes you to transcendent moments built from a lifetime of singing” (American Highways). Her performance is presented in collaboration with City Winery.
Anthony McGill, clarinet & Gloria Chien, piano (Oct 2)
New York Philharmonic principal clarinetist Anthony McGill is known for his “trademark brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character” (New York Times). He and pianist Gloria Chien, Director of Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute, perform a program combining works by Brahms and Weber with Peace by Bernstein Award-winner Jessie Montgomery, whose music is “turbulent, wildly colorful and exploding with life” (Washington Post).
Aaron Diehl Trio (Oct 16)
Classically trained pianist Aaron Diehl is “a rising star of jazz piano [with] an individual talent so huge that one day he may extend the jazz tradition” (New York Daily News). Presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, he appears as part of the Aaron Diehl Trio, with Aaron Kimmel on drums and Paul Sikivie on bass.
Callisto Quartet (Oct 18)
The Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence is one of three mentoring programs through which Caramoor supports emerging young artists. Newly appointed for the 2020-21 season, the Callisto Quartet already boasts a string of honors including grand prize at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Banff, Bordeaux, Melbourne, and Wigmore Hall competitions. The group begins its season-long survey of Bartók’s complete string quartets with accounts of the composer’s First, Fourth and Sixth quartets.
Jeremy Denk, piano (Oct 25)
The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship and the Avery Fisher Prize, Jeremy Denk is “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs” (New York Times). For his Music Room livestream, Denk gives a recital of music by Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins, Scott Joplin, Tania León and Frederic Rzewski, bookended by Mozart’s Sonata in C minor and Beethoven’s final piano sonata, Op. 111.
Dashon Burton, bass-baritone & Lindsay Garritson, piano (Nov 8)
An original member of the innovative Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth, bass-baritone Dashon Burton is known for his “enormous, thrilling voice” (Wall Street Journal). Showcasing his versatility, Burton’s recital with pianist Lindsay Garritson combines Schumann’s complete Dichterliebe with works by John Dowland, Charles Brown, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Ernest Charles and William Bolcom, and a set of spirituals.
TENET Vocal Artists (Dec 12)
Continuing Caramoor’s holiday concert tradition, TENET Vocal Artists, the early music ensemble that the New York Times calls “quite simply terrific,” sings “Love Enfolds Thee Round,” a seasonal program of traditional carols and music by English composers Peter Warlock, Herbert Howells, Hubert Parry and Ralph Vaughan Williams under the leadership of Artistic Director Jolle Greenleaf.
Cabaret in the Music Room Benefit with Laura Osnes and Tony Yazbeck (Nov 20)
Caramoor presents another special livestream, when Tony-nominees Laura Osnes and Tony Yazbeck reunite for “An Evening of Gershwin Greats and Other Favorites” in this year’s Cabaret in the Music Room Benefit. Their program celebrates the music of George Gershwin, in whose Crazy For You the two recently wowed audiences together at Lincoln Center.
In-person offerings outside at Caramoor: live music, sound art, and more
Beginner’s Ear (Sep 13 & 27)
Visitors to Caramoor will have the opportunity to hear live music in the new Beginner’s Ear series, which launched in August with a performance by Anthony McGill and Nancy Allen in the Sunken Garden. Conceived by New York Times music critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, these experiences open with a guided meditation, designed to help listeners feel the music more deeply. Moderated by Amadi Azikiwe, the first features live music from violinist Elena Kawazu, concertmaster of the Yale Philharmonia, and Jamaican-American violist Jordan Bak, whom Seattle Pi calls “a star in the making” (Sep 13), while the second, moderated by da Fonseca-Wollheim herself, includes a performance by PUBLIQuartet, winner of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Visionary Award (Sep 27).
Sonic Innovations and more (Sep 4–Oct 11)
Also on offer to in-person visitors is the chance to discover the unique collection of sound art nestled in Caramoor’s landscaped Italianate and woodland gardens. Collectively titled Sonic Innovations, this rotating annual exhibition is curated by Chicago-based sound artist Stephan Moore. Four works, all representing artists working beyond the realm of concert music, are currently on display. A collaboration between sound sculptor Spencer Topel and Hana Kassem, Undercurrent creates a feedback loop between the environment and its visitors, whose movements activate small pods among the trees and grasses. Annea Lockwood and Bob Bielecki’s Wild Energy takes visitors on a fantastical tour of sounds occurring outside the range of human hearing, from sped-up solar oscillations to slowed-down ultrasound from within a Scots pine tree. In the drystone structure of Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Stone Song, strain gauges and sensors for humidity, temperature and barometric pressure are fed into a drone synthesizer whose fundamental tones shift slowly over the months, as the weather changes and the stones settle. Finally, Taylor Deupree’s t(ch)ime turns a quiet, wooded passage into a shimmering sonic environment; familiar yet otherworldly, its sounds derive from a collection of bell chimes, manipulated to create a sense of time’s slowing down as visitors approach the middle of the path. (Previously announced as part of this year’s exhibition, Trimpin’s in“C” has yet to be completed because of the pandemic, and will debut at Caramoor next summer instead.)
Caramoor’s grounds will be open from 12:00pm-6:00pm on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from September 4 to October 11. On Sundays, a sound art educator will be in attendance from 2:00pm-4:00pm, and at 4:30pm guests will be able to hear an archived Caramoor concert recording, amplified throughout the grounds. To explore Sonic Innovations or interact with nature, architecture, and history on socially distant picnics and walks, reservations are required.
Caramoor members receive a number of benefits, including advance ticket sales, free access to livestream concerts, merchandise discounts and now a members-only “Listening Club.” In this special new online series, which features three alumni quartets from Caramoor’s Ernst Stiefel residency program, subscribers can listen to excerpts from new and upcoming recordings, and discuss them directly with the artists themselves. Known for “fine ensemble playing, exemplary dynamic control, poise and elegance” (Time Out New York), the Miró Quartet will be on hand to talk about its multi-year project devoted to recording Beethoven’s complete string quartets (Oct 6). Hailed as “the young American string quartet of the moment” (New Yorker), the Dover Quartet will discuss its album Voices of Defiance, comprising works written in adversity by Viktor Ullmann, Shostakovich, and Szymon Laks (Nov 11). Finally, the Pacifica Quartet, which is “nothing short of phenomenal” (The Telegraph, UK), introduces music by Shulamit Ran, Jennifer Higdon, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the three contemporary female composers celebrated on the quartet’s forthcoming new release (Dec 7). Club members will be able to listen to the recordings and send questions to the quartets in advance of each online event.
About Caramoor
Caramoor is a cultural arts destination located on a unique 90-acre estate with Italianate architecture and gardens in Northern Westchester County, NY. Its beautiful grounds include the historic Rosen House, a stunning mansion listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Besides enriching the lives of its audiences through innovative and diverse musical performances of the highest quality, Caramoor mentors young professional musicians and provides music-centered educational programs for young children. For information about getting to Caramoor, click here.
Caramoor: Fall 2020
Sun, Sep 13 at 10am Outdoor event (Sunken Garden) Beginner’s Ear Elena Kawazu, violin Jordan Bak, viola Adreanna Limbach, meditation guide Amadi Azikiwe, moderator Fri, Sep 25 at 8pm Livestream from the Music Room Amy Helm Presented in collaboration with City Winery
Sun, Sep 27 at 10am Outdoor event (Sunken Garden) Beginner’s Ear PUBLIQuartet Thomas Droge, meditation guide Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, moderator
Fri, Oct 2 at 8pm Livestream from the Music Room Anthony McGill, clarinet Gloria Chien, piano JESSIE MONTGOMERY: Peace BRAHMS: Clarinet Sonata in E-flat, Op. 120, No. 2 WEBER: Grand duo concertant for clarinet and piano
Sun, Nov 8 at 3pm Livestream from the Music Room Dashon Burton, bass-baritone; Lindsay Garritson, piano DOWLAND: In This Trembling Shadow SCHUMANN: Dichterliebe, Op. 48 CHARLES BROWN: Song Without Words FLORENCE PRICE: Night MARGARET BONDS: Three Dream Portraits TRADITIONAL: Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child TRADITIONAL: I’ve Been in the Storm TRADITIONAL: Crucifixion TRADITIONAL: My Lord, What a Morning WILLIAM BOLCOM: Blue ERNEST CHARLES: When I Have Sung My SongsFri, Nov 20 at 8pm Cabaret in the Music Room Benefit Livestream from the Music Room Laura Osnes &Tony Yazbeck “An Evening of Gershwin Greats and Other Favorites”
Sat, Dec 12 at 2pm and 5pm Livestream from the Music Room TENET Vocal Artists Jolle Greenleaf, soprano and artistic director Molly Quinn, soprano Virginia Warnken Kelsey, mezzo-soprano Stephen Sands, tenor Jonathan Woody, bass-baritone Hank Heijink, lute Traditional carols and works by Warlock, Howells, Parry and Vaughan Williams
Sonic Innovations exhibition Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays from Sep 4 to Oct 11, from 12pm–6pm On-site sound art educator: Sundays from 2pm–4pm Taylor Deupree: t(ch)ime Ranjit Bhatnagar: Stone Song Annea Lockwood and Bob Bielecki: Wild Energy Spencer Topel and Hana Kassem: Undercurrent All artists and dates are subject to change. To explore Caramoor’s grounds and the Sonic Innovations exhibition, reservations are required.
So glad to hear you are live streaming in the Fall. I am from Westchester originally but no live in Colorado. I do miss your beautiful concerts. Please add me to your email list. Thank you.
Gail DiVico