Durham, NC – The Triangle’s most eclectic chamber music ensemble is once again offering a season of its signature lively and wide-ranging performances. With concerts ranging from Baroque to brand new, Mallarmé Chamber Players creates imaginative collaborations across genres — music, dance, poetry, film — which showcase a variety of North Carolina artists. This year includes a couple of world premieres as well. The season includes a concert series with six concerts and several special events
The concert series opens on September 18th and 19th with Tota Pulchra Es, a collaboration between Mallarmé; Gaspard&Dancers, a Durham-based contemporary dance ensemble; and distinguished composer William Banfield, head of Africana Studies at the Berklee College of Music. Gaspard Louis, the dance group’s artistic director, worked with Professor Banfield and Mallarmé players to create the score for dancers, piano, violin, viola, cello and percussion, which receives its world premiere here. The program also includes several other pieces by Gaspard&Dancers, and a performance of Mahler’s Piano Quartet in A Minor. Both performances are at 8:00 p.m. in Reynolds Theater on Duke University’s west campus.
On October 4, Mallarmé players will team up with Grammy-nominated soprano Kathryn Mueller in Songs of the Night, settings by Juliana Hall and William Bolcom of poems by Emily Dickinson, Jane Kenyon, and Maya Angelou. Along with this featured work, the ensemble will play pieces by Max Bruch and Franz Schubert’s “Shepherd on the Rock.” This is the season’s first house concert, a Mallarmé specialty that allows musicians and audience to engage informally over refreshments in the intimate setting of a private house. Information on location and time will be provided with ticket orders.
In two concerts, on February 6 and 7, Mallarmé opens the 2016 North Carolina HIP Festival season with all 16 of Heinrich Biber’s Mystery Sonatas (1676), performed by up to eight Baroque violinists and a battery of continuo players. Both concerts are at 3:00 p.m. in St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Durham. This annual series of Historically Informed Performances of early music on period instruments was established by Mallarmé in
2013 and comprises concerts by area arts organizations and university music departments. These include, with Mallarmé, Aliénor, Baroque & Beyond, Duke Department of Music, Duke Vespers Ensemble, Raleigh Camerata, UNC Department of Music, Voices for a New Renaissance and The Vivaldi Project. Performances take place in February at various Triangle locations.
New UNC Professor of Violin Nicholas DeEugenio and his wife, pianist Mimi Solomon, have recently commissioned five works from five composers as a contemporary response to Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas. Each of the commissioned works will be performed along with two Beethoven sonatas, in one of five concerts taking place in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and New York. As part of this concert mini-series, titled Undressing Beethoven: Beyond the Canon, Mallarmé players will give the local performance of “Leather,” along with two Beethoven sonatas, on March 12. This event is also a house concert. Information on location and time will be provided with ticket orders.
On Saturday, May 21, at 8:00 p.m., the Eno River Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Durham will swing to a Latin beat, beginning with a quintet by composer Alejandro Rutty, “The Other Side of My Heart” (La otra parti de y Mi corazon en otra parte). This featured work will be followed by tangos and folk songs played on traditional instruments from Rutty’s native Argentina. His wife, soprano Lorena Guillen, will be joined by percussion, flute, guitars and bass guitar, and piano.
Other programs in addition to the series concerts include Mallarmé‘s annual Gala House Concert will be held on April 24 at 3:00, in the newly renovated headquarters of Durham’s SEEDS project, a nonprofit organization working to transform neighborhoods and lives through gardening. The Fire Pink Trio will perform music for viola, flute, and harp.
On Sunday, October 25 at 1:00, the Sarah P. Duke Gardens will host the first of Mallarmé‘s two Family Concerts, “Bach to the Future,” will be in the Gardens’ Kirby Horton Hall. The second, “Terrific Tango,” on Sunday May 9, is also at 1:00. These concerts, geared towards children ages 4-12 and their families, offer kid-friendly presentations on the music in conjunction with other Duke Gardens activities, making for a multi-faceted family outing.
Next, as a special event, Mallarmé invites friends to celebrate Halloween at downtown Cary’s newly renovated Cary Theater with a showing of Nosferatu, one of the classic greats of scary movies. Mallarmé players will accompany the silent film with original chamber music by composer Eric Schwartz, scored for flute, viola, bassoon, keyboard, and percussion. The performance is at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 31.
As the closing event for the 2016 NC HIP Music Festival on February 28-29, Mallarmé will team up with the UNC-CH music department to present a concert version of Georg Frederick Handel’s opera Serse. The production will include members of the UNC faculty as well as soprano Kathryn Mueller as Atalanta, mezzo-soprano Erica Dunkle as Amastra and countertenor Bryan Pollack as Arsamene. The orchestra will include baroque musicians from North Carolina and beyond, as well as a number of UNC-CH students. Baroque cellist and UNC professor, Brent Wissick, will lead the orchestra.
2015-16 Mallarmé Chamber Players Concert Listing
Friday September 18 AND Saturday September 19, 2015 8:00 pm
Reynolds Theater, Durham
Tota Pulchra Es You are All Beautiful
A collaboration with Gaspard&Dancers
PROGRAM:
Gustav Mahler – Piano Quartet in A Minor
William Banfield – Tota Pulchra Es world premiere
Dance works TBA
ARTISTS:
Jeremy Thompson – piano, Janet Orenstein – violin, Suzanne Rousso – viola
Nate Leyland – cello, Julia Thompson – percussion, Bill Banfield – composer
Sunday October 4, 2015, 3:00 pm House concert
Songs of the Night
PROGRAM:
Juliana Hall – Night Dances
Max Bruch – Eight pieces for viola, clarinet and piano
William Bolcom – Let Evening Come
Franz Schubert – Shepherd on the Rock
ARTISTS:
Kathryn Mueller – soprano, Eric Stellrecht – piano, Doug Monroe – clarinet
Suzanne Rousso – viola
Saturday, February 6, 2016 3:00 pm AND Sunday February 7, 2016 3:00 pm
St. Pauls’ Church, Durham
Biber Bowl Parts 1 and 2 (opening concerts for the 2016 NC HIP Music Festival)
All 16 of Biber’s Mystery Sonatas performed by six baroque violinists and a battery of continuo
Sunday March 13, 2016, 3:00 pm House concert
Undressing Beethoven: Beyond the Canon – Leather
PROGRAM:
Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata in A Minor, Op. 23
Ludwig van Beethoven – Sonata in A Major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”
Ted Hearne – New Work
ARTISTS:
Nicholas DiEugenio – violin, Mimi Solomon – piano
Saturday, May 21, 2016 8:00 pm
Eno River Universalist Unitarian Fellowship, Durham
The Other Side of My Heart
PROGRAM:
Alejandro Rutty – The Future of Tango
Lorena Guillén/ Alejendro Rutty – The Other Side of My Heart”
A. Stampone /C. Castillo – “El ultimo café”
F. Canaro /E. Romero – “Tiempos viejos”
M.Pujol – “Palermo” from Suite Buenos Aires
M. Pujol – “Tres piezas marginales”
Oswaldo Estrada – “The Weight of a Dream”
Azucena Maizani – “La Canción de Bs As”
Mercedes Simone – “Cantando”
Juan Carlos Cobián/ Enrique Cadícamo – “Los Mareados”
Carlos Gardel/ Le Pera – “Volver”
Jose Danes/Horacio Sanguinetti – “Nada”
Eladia Blazquez – “Sueno de barrilete”
ARTISTS:
Sandy Block – percussion, Guy Capuzzo – electric-guitar, Alma Coefman – flute
Oswaldo Estrada – vocals, Lorena Guillén – vocals, Alejandro Rutty – electric-bass & piano Adam Ricci – piano, Salome Sandoval – guitar
FAMILY CONCERTS @ DUKE GARDENS Kirby Horton Hall, Duke Gardens
- Sunday, October 25 1:00 pm Bach to the Future
- May 9, 1:00 PM Terrific Tango
GALA CONCERT
April 24, 2016 3:00 pm
SEEDS Building, Durham
ARTISTS:
Sheila Browne – viola, Debra Reuter-Pivetta – flute, Jacqueline Bartlett – harp
SPECIAL EVENT
Saturday, October 31, 2015 8:00 pm
The Cary Theatre, 122 E. Chatham St., Cary
NOSFERATU
Silent film with an original chamber music score by Eric Schwartz.
ARTISTS:
Carla Copeland Burns – flute, Suzanne Rousso – viola, Michael Burns – bassoon
James Douglass – keyboard, John Beck – percussion
NC HIP Music Festival February 6, 2016 – February 28, 2016 (tentative schedule)
(HIP = Historically Informed Performance)
Feb 6-7 Biber Bowl/Mallarmé
Feb 12-13 Aliénor
Feb 13 Raleigh Camerata
Feb 14 El Fuego
Feb 19 Vivaldi Project
Feb 20 Baroque and Beyond/Voices of a New Renaissance
Feb 21 Duke Vespers Ensemble
Feb 26 Duke University Music Department
Feb 27-28 Handel Serse, UNC-CH Music Department/Mallarmé
TICKETS
FLEX SUBSCRIPTION
$90 which includes ONE seated ticket for Sept 18 OR 19 and FIVE General admission tickets for each SERIES CONCERTS
Save over 20% off the single ticket price.
SINGLE TICKETS
$20 in advance/$25 at the door
$5 students with ID at the door
GALA
$75 in advance
$60 for Flex ticket subscribers
FAMILY CONCERT SERIES
in partnership with the Sarah P. Duke Gardens
$5 for children 12 and under/$10 for adults
919-560-2701
ABOUT MALLARMÉ CHAMBER PLAYERS
The Mallarmé Chamber Players are a flexible ensemble of professional musicians based in Durham, North Carolina, whose mission is to enrich the lives of their community through outstanding chamber music. The ensemble distinguishes itself by its innovative educational programs, its commitment to creative collaboration with other organizations, its creation of significant new work, and its dedication to serve a diverse population.
Mallarmé annually presents a series of concerts that features great, diverse, and multidisciplinary chamber music. Mallarmé performs everything from Bach with period instruments to commission and performing brand new works. In 2010, Mallarmé released, to great acclaim, a cd on Albany/Videmus records of chamber music by African American composers.
Mallarmé is unique in that we do not work with a small core of musicians, but instead use the wonderful musical talent North Carolina has to offer to perform with the ensemble depending on the needs of the repertoire. Most of Mallarmé’s musicians are members of professional organizations like the NC Symphony, free-lance players or faculty members of the numerous institutions of higher learning.
Mallarmé is a non-profit, tax-exempt, 501(c) 3 organization. The 2015-16 concert season is made possible in part by grants from the Durham Arts Council’s Annual Arts Fund and the North Carolina Arts Council.