Chamber music fills the air in Jeffersonville

By JONATHAN FOX

JEFFERSONVILLE, NY — The 2009 Weekend of Chamber Music (WCM) Summer Music Festival made it’s debut on Sunday, July 12 on Main Street in Jeffersonville with a free-to-the-public bicentennial concert.

The combination of gorgeous weather, buggy rides through the streets, and Jill Wiener and Carolyn Duke’s “Downtown Arts Day” celebration drew throngs of appreciative attendees who strolled through town, drinking in the atmosphere and poking through the various booths offering pottery, jewelry and sculpture before heading over to the Presbyterian church for an open-air concert sponsored by the 2009 WCM festival.

Now in its 16th year, the festival has been offering free concerts to the public since 2006, and has quickly become a tradition in the area for people of all ages to gather and revel in the two-week stretch of music that the festival has to offer.

Sullivan County’s bicentennial offered a unique perspective for concert promoters and coordinators, including WCM founder and artistic director Judith Pearce and communications director Terry Schommer, both of whom were on hand to entertain and inform as the opening concert got underway last weekend.

“The idea is that we are presenting chamber music in different environments” Pearce explained. “We are able to offer a wide spectrum of repertory.”

Pearce elucidated by stating that chamber music is unique in that it can “consist of a variety of musicians, usually two to eight, that work together in such a way that they are ‘in tune’ to the point that they are able to perform a variety of ensemble pieces with no conductor.”

Sunday’s concert was a perfect illustration of the point, with five musicians and two vocalists: Pearce on flute, Matt Sullivan playing the oboe, Maureen Hurd on the clarinet, David Grabois playing the horn and the bassoon being handled by Leonard Hindell.

The vocal stylings of Annie Hat and David Trombley rounded out the entertaining concert, which highlighted local composers and arrangers Harry Woods and Lee Hoiby with a smattering of Irving Berlin thrown in for good measure.

Harry Woods (1896-1970) is a particularly appropriate choice for the Sullivan County bicentennial, as the majority of the prolific composer’s work was inspired by his years in the Catskills. Here he composed songs such as “Ridin’ Up the River Road,” “Under the Singing Sycamore Tree” and the ever-popular “When the Red Red Robin Goes Bob-Bob-Bobbin.”

Sullivan County’s own Lee Hoiby was in attendance to hear his composition “Diversions for Wind Quintet, Opus 10,” written in 1995 and hauntingly performed by the musicians on hand.

In addition, five songs by Irving Berlin were performed, including “Whisper It,” “If You Don’t Like My Peaches,” “You Keep Coming Back Like a Song” and “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better” immortalized in the Broadway smash “Annie get Your Gun.”

“We have a very flexible group” Pearce said. “They listen and look. They discuss and argue amongst themselves, but ultimately come to a mutual agreement on how the piece should be performed”

When asked how her career began, Pearce said, “My life has been about chamber music since childhood—one of the reasons being that virtually anything can be arranged to be performed in this manner.”

Communications director Terry Schommer concurred.

“I think our ‘Family Day’ program [scheduled this year for July 26] is really special—it is always interactive and fun for kids, but the adults enjoy it as well,” she said. “These special performances are an inexpensive way to spend the day with the entire family, since ticket prices are a reasonable $10 for adults and children 18 and under are admitted free.”

The 2009 Summer Music Festival runs through July 26 at various locales throughout the county offering a wide variety of events and concerts. See page 19 for this weekend’s schedule.

WCM is a non-profit organization and is sponsored by a variety of state, local and private funding. Its mission is “to present chamber music as a vital art to a broad cross section of the Sullivan County, NY community and beyond, reaching out to engage people of all ages and cultures.”

For more information visit WCMconcerts.org or call 845/932-8527 or 718/638-8962.