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Sherman Chamber Ensemble
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Song to Symphony Event Draws Plenty of Support (PDF - The New Milford Times, Nov. 24, 2006)
Cellist Combines Composing and Performing to Reach Children (New York Times, Sep. 3, 2006)
A Little Summer Night's Music (New York Times, Jul. 29, 2006)
Song To Symphony Returns November 16th
Jazz up your Thanksgiving Holiday With Free Concerts by the Sherman Chamber Ensemble
World Premiere the Highlight of Sherman Chamber Ensemble's August 18-19 Offerings
Sherman Chamber Ensemble Opens 25th Anniversary Season with March 24th Concert at Jewish Community Center in Sherman
2007 marks the 25th year that Sherman Chamber Ensemble co-founders Eliot Bailen and Susan Rotholz have been treating Sherman and surrounding towns to world-class music, presented in intimate settings with a warm and welcoming approach that appeals to both classical music lovers and newcomers alike. What better way to kick off this Silver Anniversary Season than with a return engagement at the Jewish Community Center in Sherman on Saturday, March 24th at 8 PM?
The program for the evening showcases the Ensemble's signature eclectic tastes and talents and includes a Mendelssohn string quartet, "Five Pieces for String Quartet" by Erwin Schulhoff (1894-1942), "Lullaby" for string quartet by George Gershwin, and works pairing flute and strings by Alberto Ginestera and Jacques Ibert. Flutist Susan Rotholz will be joined by a quartet of SCE's talented regular contributors - Mayuki Fukuhara (violin), Andrea Schultz (violin), Sarah Adams (viola) and Eliot Bailen (cello).
In addition to marvelous music making, the evening will feature festivities commemorating this landmark occasion, including delicious food, familiar faces and some special guests and surprise announcements. Tickets for the concert and a post-concert cake and coffee reception are $25. A special Silver Patron ticket package available for $50 also includes an intimate pre-concert performance by Eliot and Susan, with champagne and hors d'oeuvres, beginning at 7 PM. For information and reservations, call the Jewish Community Center in Sherman at 860-355-8050 or the Sherman Chamber Ensemble at 860-355-5930. The JCCS is located at 9 Route 39 South, just south of the Sherman town center.
The March 24th performance at the JCCS is only the beginning of what promises to be a banner year for the Sherman Chamber Ensemble and its audiences and supporters. Also on tap are a June 16th anniversary celebration for the entire community in the center of Sherman, our signature summer concert series (this year scheduled for July 6th and 7th, July 27th and 28th and August 31st and September 1st), children's activities, bluegrass jamborees, the annual "Live at the Lake" coffeehouse, Thanksgiving weekend free jazz matinee performances and much more. Subscription tickets for the 3-concert summer series are now available for $50, and first-time subscribers can take advantage of a special Silver Anniversary introductory rate of only $25. For more information, contact the Sherman Chamber Ensemble at P.O. Box 578, Sherman, CT 06784, online at www.shermanchamberensemble.com or by phone at 860-355-5930.
Song To Symphony Returns November 16th
The Sherman Chamber Ensemble and The Sherman School invite the entire community to join us on Thursday, November 16th at 7:00 PM at the New Milford High School Auditorium for the grand finale of Song to Symphony, this fall’s in-school residency with Eliot Bailen, Artistic Director of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble. Close to 200 students in grades 3 through 8, assisted by teachers and school staff, have been hard at work writing songs and dramatic stories celebrating America's immigrant history. After nearly 3 months of work, their families, friends and neighbors will have the chance to see and hear the results – acted and sung by the students and accompanied by a full professional orchestra provided by the Sherman Chamber Ensemble!
The 30-piece orchestra, including many musicians familiar to SCE audiences, will be led by James Sinclair, founder and conductor of the acclaimed Orchestra New England in New Haven. Versatile pop/jazz/rock/reggae vocalist and band leader Babi Floyd will serve as narrator, tying together numerous songs and scenes that explore the richness of the American melting pot. Also taking part in the festivities will be State Senator David Capiello, through whose recommendation the Sherman Chamber Ensemble has been granted special funding for Song to Symphony from the state of Connecticut. Additional support has been provided by Warren Rubin and Bernice Wollman, the Sherman Parent Teacher Organization and the Board of Directors and supporters of the Sherman Chamber Ensemble.
If you still remember those hallmark songs Route 37 and Route 39 and IGA from the original Song to Symphony during Sherman's bicentennial in 2002, you won't want to miss this year's production. Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted), and all are welcome. Call the Sherman Chamber Ensemble at 860-355-5930 for more information.
Jazz up your Thanksgiving Holiday With Free Concerts by the Sherman Chamber Ensemble
Looking for a way to jazz up your Thanksgiving weekend menu? Try the musical smorgasbord offered by the Sherman Chamber Ensemble at its free matinee concerts on Saturday, November 25th at 4:00 PM at the Sherman Congregational Church and on Sunday, November 26th at 3:00 PM at St. Andrew's Church in Kent. Jazz and classical pianist Ted Rosenthal returns for a 7th appearance at this now traditional holiday event, where he will be joined by Eliot Bailen (cello), Susan Rotholz (flute) and Chris Parker (drums). Admission is free and all ages are welcome, so bring the kids and the grandparents and join us for an afternoon of musical enjoyment for the whole family.
The program will feature favorite works from SCE's "clazzical" repertoire, blending classical, jazz and popular idioms to create a musical experience sure to delight listeners of all persuasions. Included will be excerpts from the Claude Bolling Suites for flute and cello, tango-inspired works by Astor Piazzolla, songs by George Gershwin, a jazz arrangement by Marcel Moyse of a Bach flute solo, and a reprise of one of Ted Rosenthal's "Jazzing Up the Classics" improvisations, this time on familiar themes by Franz Schubert.
Rosenthal entered the international spotlight by winning first prize in the 2nd Thelonius Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, and he has continued to garner accolades from critics and audiences alike. He has recorded and toured with the Gerry Mulligan Quartet, performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, accompanied vocalists such as Helen Merrill and Ann Hampton Callaway, and appeared on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz on National Public Radio. He is the recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, has composed numerous jazz tunes and large-scale works, and has been featured in classical/jazz crossover performances with The Boston Pops, The Baltimore Symphony, and many others groups, including for the past six years, the Sherman Chamber Ensemble.
Rosenthal is joined by SCE co-founders Elliot Bailen on cello and Susan Rotholz on flute, both of whom are well known throughout the region for their superb music-making in classical, contemporary, jazz, bluegrass and even rock genres. Also on the roster is drummer Chris Parker, whose fame ranges from his hometown of Sherman to Saturday Night Live to recordings and tours with such rock and pop luminaries as Bob Dylan, Cher, Ashford and Simpson, Natalie Cole, Aretha Franklin, Freddie Hubbard, James Brown, Joe Cocker, Salt n'Pepa, Miles Davis, Patti LaBelle, Michael Bolton, Boz Scaggs, Joe Cocker, Bette Midler, Paul Simon and Ralph MacDonald.
An informal reception with light refreshments will follow each concert. Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted at the door).
Founded in
1983 to bring world-class live classical music performance to Western
Connecticut, the Sherman Chamber Ensemble was recently described in The
New York Times as "about as close as it gets to the Platonic ideal
of a chamber music concert." Now in its 24th season, the non-profit
SCE offers a summer chamber music series, educational activities including
the popular annual Song to Symphony residency at The Sherman School,
and a year-round slate of musical events showcasing the best of live musical
performance, from classical to bluegrass to jazz. Support for SCE activities
comes from the Connecticut Commission for Culture & Tourism, private
foundations and many generous individual donors. For more information,
call 860-355-5930 or visits SCE's website at www.shermanchamberensemble.com.
World Premiere the Highlight of Sherman Chamber Ensemble's August 18-19 Offerings
When was the last time you had the chance to be in attendance at the world premiere performance of a new musical work, specially created for your pleasure? The Sherman Chamber Ensemble offers local audiences just such an opportunity on August 18th in Kent and August 19th in Sherman, when they present "The Aeolian Harp," a brand new piece by composer Aaron Grad commissioned by SCE. Also on the program will be works by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Debussy, George Rochberg and Gabriel Pierné that showcase the talents of musicians Stacy Shames (harp), Oren Fader (guitar), Susan Rotholz (flute), Jill Levy (violin), Dov Scheindlin (viola) and Eliot Bailen (cello).
"The Aeolian Harp" is inspired by the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of the same name and explores in music the spiritual and literary traditions of Coleridge and the New England Transcendentalists strongly influenced by his work and ideas. As is appropriate for a commissioned work, the piece showcases the talents of SCE co-founders Susan Rotholz on flute and Eliot Bailen on cello, along with prominent roles for guitar, violin and viola for a fresh and intriguing sound. SCE Artistic Director Bailen praises Mr. Grad for successfully combining popular musical idioms such as jazz and pop within a classical framework, making him a natural fit with the Ensemble, which has long been committed to celebrating the commonalties and cross-influences among musical styles.
The 26-year-old Grad is an American composer and guitarist who came to New York from his hometown in Virginia in 1998 to study jazz guitar at New York University and was quickly seduced by the "downtown" music scene, where he was active as a performer at venues such as The Knitting Factory and as founder and director of a concert series at Judson Memorial Church. In recent years, he has turned his attention to composing, garnering commissions from the New York Chamber Ensemble and other prestigious groups, grants from the American Music Center and Meet the Composer, and an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award in 2006.
As a special treat, SCE audiences will be able to meet and converse with Mr. Grad on several occasions throughout the weekend, thanks to a Meet the Composer residency made possible in part with support from the New England Foundation for the Arts and Meet the Composer, Inc., with additional support from ASCAP, The Virgil Thomson Fund, and with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts. Look for him providing introductory remarks at each of the performances, chatting with audience members at post-concert receptions and hosting a free children's program on Saturday afternoon at 2 PM at the Lake Mauweehoo Club in Sherman. Additional residency activities are in the works, so check www.shermanchamberensemble.com or call 860-355-5930 for more details.
Sherman Chamber Ensemble concerts are performed Friday evenings in the intimate and acoustically excellent St. Andrew's Church on Main Street in Kent, CT. Saturday evening performances take place in the rustic charm of the lakeside Mauweehoo Clubhouse in Sherman, CT. All performances start at 8:00 PM. Admission is $20 at the door ($15 for students and seniors). Advance reservations are strongly recommended and may be made by calling 860-355-5930. For Sherman concerts only, lawn tickets may be purchased the night of the concert for $10. There is no charge for lawn tickets for children under 12, so bring your blankets and beach chairs and enjoy an evening of music under the stars with the entire family.
Founded in 1983 to bring world-class live classical music performance to Western Connecticut, the Sherman Chamber Ensemble was recently described in The New York Times as "about as close as it gets to the Platonic ideal of a chamber music concert." Now in its 24th season, the non-profit SCE offers a summer chamber music series, educational activities including the popular annual "Song to Symphony" residency at The Sherman School, and a year-round slate of musical events showcasing the best of live musical performance, from classical to bluegrass to jazz. Support for this season comes from the Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism, Union Savings Bank, the NewMil Bank Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, private foundations and many generous individual donors.