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Geese flying southward signal the coming of fall around the Delaware Bay. For Lewes, another signal is the preparation by Coastal Concerts for the classical concerts that take place between the fall and the spring at the Bethel United Methodist Church hall on the corner of West Fourth and Market streets.
Coastal Concerts, a nonprofit organization based in Lewes, this season has put together an impressive five-concert series that promises to please anyone who enjoys the subtle beauty and emotion of strings, winds, brass and chamber music. All the concerts will take place at 8 p.m. on Saturday evenings.
The season will kick off Saturday, Oct. 13, with The Poulenc Trio, which brings together three uniquely gifted virtuosos, oboist Vladimir Lande, bassoonist Bryan Young and pianist Irina Lande
Lande, the principal oboist of the Baltimore Opera and an active solo artist, graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory with degrees in both oboe and piano. As principal oboist of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, he has performed with distinguished conductors including Evgeny Mravinsky, Leonard Bernstein, Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev and Yuri Temirkanov. Recent tours as a soloist include appearances in New Zealand, Australia, Europe and across most of the United States.
Lande serves as a faculty member at the American University in Washington, D.C., and the University of Maryland in Baltimore. Lande is also the assistant conductor of the Johns Hopkins Symphony Orchestra, the music director and conductor of C.O.S.M.I.C. Orchestra in Southern Maryland, and principal guest conductor of the St. Petersburg Symphony.
Bryan Young is a winner of the Gillet International Bassoon Competition. He has appeared as a soloist with the National Symphony and Baltimore Symphony orchestras, as well as in recitals across the United States and around the world. Young is principal bassoonist of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra and performs regularly with the IRIS Chamber Orchestra in Memphis, Tenn. He is a member of the Peabody Preparatory faculty.
Pianist Irina Lande is a graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. She is a winner of the Baltimore Chamber Music Award and the Montpelier Recital Competition. She has appeared in several concert series including the Yale Gordon Concert Series, the Bachanalia Recital Series and the New York Times Young Performers Series. Concerts abroad in Russia, Italy, England, Germany and the Caribbean have led to critical praise of her “beauty and brilliance of sound, astonishing flexibility and penetrating interpretation.” Fanfare Magazine has hailed her as “a strong pianist who doesn’t settle for an accompanying role.” Lande is a member of the piano faculty at the Peabody Institute.
The second concert on Satuirday, Nov. 3, promises to be just as exciting with Allison Eldredge playing the cello with her husband Max Levinson, who will be playing the piano. Eldredge is a member of the distinguished Boston Trio and has played with Yo-Yo Ma and Andre Previn. She has performed with the New York Philharmonic and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. She has been invited to play at the White House.
Levinson is the first American to win first prize at the Guardian Dublin International Piano Competition, in 1997. In 1999, he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Award grant. A critic with the Boston Globe wrote “His playing reminds us of the deep reasons why music is so important to us.”
The Meridian Arts Ensemble will inject life and vitality into winter Saturday, Jan. 19, with innovative brass chamber music. The ensemble is made up of five brass players and one percussionist. They have performed in venues across the United States, Asia, Europe and South America. Their performances have been featured on TVs “Live from Lincoln Center” and on NPR’s “Weekend Edition.”
Pianist Di Wu will return to Lewes on Feb. 16, due to the popularity of her performance. Her musical ability, combined with her uniquely expressive stage presence, has delighted audiences in North America, Asia, Europe, and around the world. Since her performance in Lewes in 2005, she has won the Astral 2007 National Auditions, performed at Carnegie Hall, won first prize at the Hilton Head International Piano Competition and was accepted on full scholarship to the Juilliard School.
In July, Wu was a front runner in the New Orleans International Piano Competition. According to a column by Chris Waddington in The Times-Picayune, “Wu met the boggling technical demands of Ravel’s 1908 masterpiece and went on to conjure the gothic atmosphere of a three-part work inspired by poems about a fatally alluring water nymph, a gallows and a malevolent dwarf.
March 15 will be the last concert of the series and promises an inspiring evening. Performing will be The Moscow String Quartet, whose members have earned a place among the distinguished artists of our time. Its members are graduates of the Moscow Conservatory and the Gnessin Musical Institute in Moscow.
The Moscow String Quartet gained international acclaim after winning the 1978 Leo Weiner International Quartet Competition in Budapest. The next year, the quartet triumphed at the International Quartet competition in Evian, France.
The Quartet has played to consistent critical acclaim in the major concert halls in Europe, including regular performances at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Salle Gaveau in Paris, Wigmore Hall in London, repeated appearances at the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In addition, the quartet has appeared in many prestigious festivals, including the Paris and City of London Festivals, Berliner Festwochen, Stratford-upon-Avon and Cheltenham Festivals.
According to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, “...A regular in the Chamber Music series, the Moscow Quartet, all women, plays with distinctive personality and color and an earnestness and freedom that gives the performances a feeling of idiomatic truthfulness.”
Tickets for each Coastal Concerts performance are $20 per person. Youth 18 years old and under are given free admission at the door both for themselves and for one accompanying adult. Tickets can be purchased individually at the door, or, in advance at the following locations: Lewes Chamber of Commerce, Books By The Bay Café Lewes Gourmet and PUZZLES, or in Rehoboth Beach at Carlton’s Apparel. Or, concert-goers are encouraged to buy season tickets for a savings. Season-ticket packages are still available and can be purchased at the concert, or by calling 645-1539, or by visiting www.coastalconcerts.org
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