PACIFICA QUARTET: SELLOUT SPRING CONCERTS AT REGATTABAR AND LONGY
LONGY AT THE REGATTABAR View concert online
Featuring the Pacifica Quartet and pianist Wayman Chin
April 11, 2008
“We’re taking chamber music to where you’d least expect it—a jazz bar,” said Longy President Karen Zorn, welcoming a standing-room-only crowd to the first performance of “Longy at the Regattabar,” a collaborative program with the famed jazz bar in Harvard Square (first photo collage). The premiere of this creative venue for classical music was announced in the Boston Globe on April 11. Another first for Longy—the entire performance was broadcast live via Band-Director.com, which reported that 3,650 people watched online. Featured artists included the renowned Pacifica Quartet, which gives 90 concerts per year worldwide and is serving a four-year visiting-artists residency at Longy. Also featured: pianist and chair of chamber music Wayman Chin, four of Longy’s top conservatory students, and premiere works by two Longy composers, student Adam Simon and John Howell Morrison, chair of the composition division. “Longy is daring to be different,” said Simin Ganatra, Pacifica’s first violinist, summing up the memorable night. Stay tuned for more of these outstanding performances in the future. Another recent Pacifica concert was held March 27 at Longy, also attended by a capacity crowd (see second photo collage).
(a) Launching the first “Longy at the Regattabar,” from left, are Wayman Chin (piano), Pacifica quartet members Simin Ganatra (violin), Sibbi Bernhardsson (violin), Brandon Vamos (cello), Masumi Per Rostad (viola) and Longy President Karen Zorn (b) Violist Masumi Per Rostad absolutely sizzled on the world premiere of a new arrangement of “Whipping Post.” (c-d) For Mendelssohn’s glorious Octet in E-flat Major, the Pacifica Quartet was joined by four conservatory students—Alexander Chaleff (violin), Olha Patramanska (violin), Kirsten Swanson (viola) and Rob Bradshaw (cello). (e) John Howell Morrison, a nationally renowned composer who heads Longy’s composition and theory division, created a supercharged version for string quartet of the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post.” (f) Between numbers, Regattabar guests ordered food and beverages and chatted with their friends—a relaxed club atmosphere for enjoying world-class chamber music.
PACIFICA CONCERT AND LONGY RECEPTION
March 27, 2008
(a) The March 27 sellout performance by the Pacifica Quartet at Longy’s Pickman Hall featured pianist Wayman Chin in Dvorak’s Quintet in A Major, opus 81, for piano and strings. (b) Pacifica’s four-year residency at Longy is made possible by the generosity of donors John Zabriskie (right) and his wife, Adelaide (left), who had received piano training under the mentorship of Wayman Chin (center). (c) From left, Sylvia Hammer, Candace Boyden, Roy Hammer, Jeannette Taylor and Linda Conway were among more than 75 members of the Georges Longy Circle and other guests who attended the pre-concert reception, which featured a talk by composition faculty member Jeremy Van Buskirk on Elliott Carter’s second string quartet, played that evening. (d-f) Named in honor of their mentor, Wayman Chin, “The Chinz Trio” gave their coach high praise. The accomplished amateur trio includes (d) pianist John Pratt, shown with his wife, Joy, (e) violinist Deborah Valenze and (f) cellist Kathleen Griffin.
Photos by Steve Gilbert
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