JULY 12 at 4PM: The Traditional Opening: Members of the Schrade and James Families

Members of the Schrade and James families, several generations, have attracted a loyal following of audiences and press, whether at Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, throughout the US, Canada, New Zealand, France, the UK, Italy, or Fiji, in chamber, solo, and orchestral appearances, and on radio, television, and numerous highly praised recordings. Individually they have garnered dozens of awards and accolades, and as a family they were the first listed on Steinway’s global artists roster (as well as individual listings). This year’s program will include mostly solo piano music of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Kapustin, and Gershwin played by David James, son Christopher James, daughter Lynelle James, and Rorianne Schrade. Lynelle and Rorianne will close with some irresistible music of Dave Brubeck in honor of the centennial of his birth. Come celebrate summer with a half-century-old tradition! 

 

 

 JULY 26 at 4PM: The Whipple-Morales Piano Duo

Sevenars has had numerous audience members ask us to have this wonderful piano duo team since they came to Sevenars in 2013! Kirk Whipple & Marilyn Morales, duo and solo pianists and composers, are on the Kennedy Center Approved Artist Roster, State of Florida Touring Artists Roster from 2000-14, and are the Executive and Artistic Directors of The Unconservatory, a national nonprofit musical organization. Not only are they magic with the audience, with bubbling humor, but they bring a huge variety of their own arrangements from Pachelbel up through Joplin and their own compositions, all honed from years of concert touring throughout 32 states in the US and Europe. Featured on this program will be Gershwin's ever-popular Rhapsody in Blue for piano four-hands, plus works of Schumann, Barber, Albeniz, Joplin, and more - and there will always be a Latin-American composer or two with Cuban-American Marilyn Morales' special fire. 

AUGUST 2 at 4PM: Taconic Music Festival comes to Sevenars:

This powerhouse ensemble led by violist Ariel Rudiakov and violinist Joana Genova will bring to Sevenars a magnificent program of piano trios and quartets, including Beethoven's monumental Ghost Trio, in celebration of Beethoven's 250th anniversary, plus quartets by Camille Saint-Saens and Joaquin Turina. Favorites at Sevenars from the days when they rocketed the Manchester Music Festival to prominence, the stellar Genova-Rudiakov team has now directed their musical and communicative gifts (and decades of international touring and recording experience) to building the rapidly growing Taconic Music Festival, and Sevenars is ecstatic to host them again in the acoustic gem that embraces their sound so beautifully! Joining them will be stunning young pianist Asiya Korepanova, a rising virtuoso (and poet, visual artist, and composer) and cellist Thomas Landschoot, who enjoys a distinguished international career as performer, recording artist, and pedagogue. 

   AUGUST 9 at 4PM: The Bob Sparkman Trio

No Sevenars summer would be complete without the glorious jazz collaboration of clarinetist Bob Sparkman, pianist Jerry Noble, and bass guitarist Kara Noble! The trio will lead you on a journey to many nostalgic destinations of the American Songbook. Tunes like "Stars Fell on Alabama," "Can't Get Indiana Off My Mind," "Moonlight in Vermont," and "Basin Street Blues" are only a few stops on this marvelous musical tour. Bob’s golden clarinet stylings reflect his experience at the last Eddie Condon’s Club and his playing with The Jazzmen, The Bourbon Street Six, the Gotham Jazz Band, and others (including a gig with Fats Waller’s trumpeter Herman Autry).  Clifton “Jerry” Noble Jr., Bob’s longtime collaborator, brings his wealth of musical gifts as internationally known composer and pianist (on staff at Smith) and adds his miraculous musical telepathy. With Kara Noble on bass, this tour is in good hands. Bon Voyage! 

AUGUST 16 at 4PM: A Beethoven Tribute with pianist Rorianne Schrade

Honoring the 250^th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, this program combines some of Beethoven’s great original piano music with a transcription by Franz Liszt of Beethoven's First Symphony. Alan Walker described the Beethoven-Liszt Symphony transcription set as "arguably the greatest work of transcription ever completed in the history of music," incorporating every part of the orchestra into a piano work. To add a 21st-century note, this program will introduce five new pieces (from Norway, Guatamala, Indonesia-Australia, Netherlands, and South Africa/USA), composed as part of the Susanne Kessel commissioning project in Bonn. Rorianne Schrade, whose playing has been compared in the press here and in the UK to that of Cziffra, Horowitz, Bolet, and Rachmaninoff, is a multiple prize-winner (Concert Artists Guild, Washington International, and others) whose first concerto performance decades ago was Beethoven’s First with the New Haven Symphony.