Mozart's quintet
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David YangMozart's quintet for violin, bamboo flute, erhu, accordion, and glockenspiel?
The music of Kern and Gershwin was American precisely because it mixed cultures – and genres – in a creatively indiscriminate way.
Alex Ross from “The Rest is Noise”
It hit 80° today in Philly, people are out in shorts, and it is well past time to pack up my huge winter coat. Time to start looking ahead to this summer!
NCMF 2025 includes a broad range of American classical voices, from popularly-inclined composers like Aaron Copland to more abstract works by the likes of Elliot Carter. Some of this summer’s composers, like Jerome Kern, made a living writing hit musicals with lush orchestral scores like “Show Boat.” Others, like John Cage, conceived of the thought-provoking/outrage-inducing “4’33” which challenged the very definition of what music is.George Gershwin, in works like “Summertime” from “Porgy and Bess” or “Lullaby,” (his only string quartet) tried explicitly to bridge the gap between so-called high art and entertainment. Even jazz, our native musical tradition, wasn’t immune to the conflicting pull of these forces. America has always been a country of diverse viewpoints (and they’ve not always coexisted comfortably).
This summer represents a mini-overview of the multiple directions classical music has taken. Opening night on Saturday, August 9th, is an all-American clarinet recital with music of Copland, Ives, Bernstein, Barber, and Gershwin. This is followed by concerts on Wednesday and Thursday (August 13th and 14th) featuring Argentinean-American composer Osvaldo Golijov’s wild klezmer clarinet quintet, “The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind” paired with the darkest piece in A Major that I know, Mozart’s autumnal clarinet quintet. I’ve also slipped in French composer Guillaume Connesson’s jazzy “Disco toccata"
On Friday, August 15th, we’ll hold the popular Nachtmusik concert in a new location, St. Anna’s chapel on High Street. For the final St. Paul’s concert (August 16th), nothing makes more sense for this American-flavored season than to feature Dr. Guthrie “Guy” Ramsey, our 2025 Composer-in-Residence, jazz pianist, and music historian extraordinaire. He is writing a work for string quartet and jazz singer, his daughter, Bridget Ramsey. The piece, “Beat Chick: Tunes for Hettie Jones,” is a tribute to Bridget’s grandmother and Guy’s mother-in-law, the legendary beat poet and Mid-century cultural center of gravity, Hettie Jones, who passed away last year.
The father-daughter duo will also perform Gershwin’s “Summertime” and a spiritual by the Queen of Folk, Joan Baez. Anchoring that concert is none other than Beethoven’s Opus 127, one of the master’s late, great, string quartets that went on to re-shape the direction of classical music.
Our final concert will be something completely new that I am calling “NCMF: Cabaret!” Held upstairs at The Joy Nest in the Tannery, the concert will consist of two mixed sets where Guy and Bridget will let loose with keyboards and voice, alternating with the strings performing some deliciously rare quartets by Gershwin and Kern including “All The Things You Are” and “Smoke Gets in your Eyes.” We’ll then come together and perform “Beat Chick” a second time. Did I mention that there will be a buffet and cash bar?
Like the big, messy, and complicated country it springs from, American music has a big, messy, and complicated history, and it will all be on display this summer up in Newburyport.
Tickets go on sale in June.
David Yang, Artistic Director
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David YangMozart's quintet for violin, bamboo flute, erhu, accordion, and glockenspiel?
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David YangNCMF would not exist without the hard work the board does all year round. Please welcome Christopher Kalisch.
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Alessandra YangThis summer, I attended the Taos School of Music, a chamber music program in the mountains of New Mexico.
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