(Aug. 17, 2017) The Chamber Music by the Sea concert series returns to the area Aug. 29 to Sept. 3, with performances scheduled in Berlin, Snow Hill and South Point.
Soloist Elena Urioste (violin), the artistic director of the series, will be joined by cellist Brook Speltz, violinist Melissa White, violist Milena Pajarovan de Stadt and pianist Tom Poster.
Urioste went to school with three of the players and met Poster while performing for BBC Radio 3 in London.
A Philadelphia native, she started playing violin with she was 5, attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and did graduate studies at Juilliard in New York City.
Her parents own a second home in the area, where they plan to retire.
“We first came here because my high school boyfriend had a place down here,” Urioste said. “Our families are very close, so his parents brought my parents down a couple of times and they absolutely fell in love with the area. One day they went to an open house and made a very big impulse purchase.”
The chamber music series was expanded from its debut last year, when it was called “Chamber Music in Berlin” and consisted of one concert at Buckingham Presbyterian Church and one house concert in the Isle of Wight.
Initially, Urioste had envisioned a concert series held in barns.
“I had just been to a chamber music festival with this unbelievable, magical barn in the middle of the mountains that was very intricately, acoustically engineered,” she said. “That was my first idea, and I drove around peeking in people’s barns, being a weirdo. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.”
Churches were her second choice, she said, because most include a natural stage area, and most have a built-in audience with their congregation.
“If there is a poster on the church bulletin board, people are more likely to come there than to a barn in a field,” she said with a laugh.
Urioste said she was shocked by the reception the inaugural series received.
“I expected about 40 people to show up to the concert at Buckingham, and I think the total was more like 125,” she said. “I think we filled the whole sanctuary, and this year we’re hoping to do that, plus the whole side room.
“This year [the series] is expanded to two church concerts, two house concerts, and a day of educational activities that will … culminate in a bunch of local, young musicians playing with us at the Friday night concert [at Buckingham],” Urioste added.
Urioste will host a five-hour master class for seven student musicians at Zenna Wellness Studio on 10 South Main Street in Berlin, starting at 11 a.m. on Aug. 31. She said anyone is welcome to observe.
House concerts are scheduled for Aug. 29 and 30 in Snow Hill and South Point, respectively. The series will return to Buckingham on Sept. 1 and travel to the All Hallow’s Church in Snow Hill on Sept. 3. All performances start at 7 p.m.
Urioste explained the thinking behind holding a pair of concerts in people’s homes.
“The definition of chamber music is music originally written to be performed in one’s chambers,” she said. “This idea of a living room concert is really cool because you get to hear all of the intricacies of the music in this intimate setting. It’s a really special thing for both the musicians and the audience, and there are just some really spectacular homes around here.”
She said the program, for the most part, would be uplifting and celebratory.
“There are a few works that are more on the stormy, ominous, darker side, so I’m excited about that contrast,” Urioste said. “Tom, the pianist, is also a composer and arranger, so he has very graciously arranged a few popular American songs for this combination of instruments. So, we’ll have ‘Moon River’ and some Nat King Cole, and some more little surprises.”
Tickets for both church concerts, $20 for adults and $10 for children, are available at all Taylor Bank locations and the Bank of Ocean City, Berlin and Ocean Pines branches, as well as at the door.
For tickets for the house concerts, $125, contact Melisa Reid at 443-365-0014, Hope Palmer at 443-944-5780, or Jon Andes at 410-641-9061.
All proceeds benefit scholarships given through the Worcester County Education Foundation (WCEF).
Chamber Music by the Sea is sponsored by WCEF and by Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.
“We are really excited to be able to have this festival to support, because we feel like it is important to build culture as much as we can here in this area,” Reid said. “While it is a beautiful place to be, it is always important to make sure that people that live in this area have access to all kinds of wonderful, cultural opportunities — and this is a big one.”
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ChamberMusicbytheSea.
Soloist Elena Urioste (violin), the artistic director of the series, will be joined by cellist Brook Speltz, violinist Melissa White, violist Milena Pajarovan de Stadt and pianist Tom Poster.
Urioste went to school with three of the players and met Poster while performing for BBC Radio 3 in London.
A Philadelphia native, she started playing violin with she was 5, attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and did graduate studies at Juilliard in New York City.
Her parents own a second home in the area, where they plan to retire.
“We first came here because my high school boyfriend had a place down here,” Urioste said. “Our families are very close, so his parents brought my parents down a couple of times and they absolutely fell in love with the area. One day they went to an open house and made a very big impulse purchase.”
The chamber music series was expanded from its debut last year, when it was called “Chamber Music in Berlin” and consisted of one concert at Buckingham Presbyterian Church and one house concert in the Isle of Wight.
Initially, Urioste had envisioned a concert series held in barns.
“I had just been to a chamber music festival with this unbelievable, magical barn in the middle of the mountains that was very intricately, acoustically engineered,” she said. “That was my first idea, and I drove around peeking in people’s barns, being a weirdo. Obviously, that didn’t pan out.”
Churches were her second choice, she said, because most include a natural stage area, and most have a built-in audience with their congregation.
“If there is a poster on the church bulletin board, people are more likely to come there than to a barn in a field,” she said with a laugh.
Urioste said she was shocked by the reception the inaugural series received.
“I expected about 40 people to show up to the concert at Buckingham, and I think the total was more like 125,” she said. “I think we filled the whole sanctuary, and this year we’re hoping to do that, plus the whole side room.
“This year [the series] is expanded to two church concerts, two house concerts, and a day of educational activities that will … culminate in a bunch of local, young musicians playing with us at the Friday night concert [at Buckingham],” Urioste added.
Urioste will host a five-hour master class for seven student musicians at Zenna Wellness Studio on 10 South Main Street in Berlin, starting at 11 a.m. on Aug. 31. She said anyone is welcome to observe.
House concerts are scheduled for Aug. 29 and 30 in Snow Hill and South Point, respectively. The series will return to Buckingham on Sept. 1 and travel to the All Hallow’s Church in Snow Hill on Sept. 3. All performances start at 7 p.m.
Urioste explained the thinking behind holding a pair of concerts in people’s homes.
“The definition of chamber music is music originally written to be performed in one’s chambers,” she said. “This idea of a living room concert is really cool because you get to hear all of the intricacies of the music in this intimate setting. It’s a really special thing for both the musicians and the audience, and there are just some really spectacular homes around here.”
She said the program, for the most part, would be uplifting and celebratory.
“There are a few works that are more on the stormy, ominous, darker side, so I’m excited about that contrast,” Urioste said. “Tom, the pianist, is also a composer and arranger, so he has very graciously arranged a few popular American songs for this combination of instruments. So, we’ll have ‘Moon River’ and some Nat King Cole, and some more little surprises.”
Tickets for both church concerts, $20 for adults and $10 for children, are available at all Taylor Bank locations and the Bank of Ocean City, Berlin and Ocean Pines branches, as well as at the door.
For tickets for the house concerts, $125, contact Melisa Reid at 443-365-0014, Hope Palmer at 443-944-5780, or Jon Andes at 410-641-9061.
All proceeds benefit scholarships given through the Worcester County Education Foundation (WCEF).
Chamber Music by the Sea is sponsored by WCEF and by Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore.
“We are really excited to be able to have this festival to support, because we feel like it is important to build culture as much as we can here in this area,” Reid said. “While it is a beautiful place to be, it is always important to make sure that people that live in this area have access to all kinds of wonderful, cultural opportunities — and this is a big one.”
For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ChamberMusicbytheSea.