The next concert of the Music Academy’s Chamber Nights series has been styled “Schubert’s ‘Auf dem Strom’,” and will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 21, in Lehmann Hall on the academy’s Miraflores campus.
“As a part of the experience, guests are invited to enjoy complimentary wine courtesy of Montgomery Vineyard [Special thanks] during the performance,” he academy said.
The program for this concert will consist of Andy Akiho’s “NO one To kNOW one, 2010” (played by Kylie Kreucher, soprano; Calvin Mayman, flute; Jay Shankar, clarinet; Jenny Bahk, cello; and Younghoon Ryan Jung, piano); Oskar Böhme‘s “Trumpet Sextet in eb-minor, Opus 30, 1911” (Kenneth Chauby, Aislin Carpenter, Ben D’Haiti, trumpets; John Degnan, horn; Gracie Potter, trombone; and Joshua Williams, tuba); Franz Schubert’s song “Auf dem Strom,” for Voice, Horn, and Piano, D. 943, 1828 (Christopher Willoughby, tenor; Phillip Palmore, horn; and Frances Thielmann, piano); and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Piano Quintet in g-minor, Opus 57, 1940” (Chaewon Kim & Jae Yee Lee, violins; Michael Ayala, viola; Jiaxun Yao, cello; and Adria Ye, piano).
For thorough profiles on all the fellows involved in this program, I refer you to the academy’s excellent guideebook.
Akiho (born 1979) is an American musician and composer of contemporary classical music. A virtuoso percussionist, he has been playing percussion instruments since his older sister introduced him to a drum set at the age of 9.
Akiho holds degrees from University of South Carolina (bachelor of music), the Manhattan School of Music ( M.Mus. in contemporary performance), and the Yale School of Music (M.Mus. in composition). He is currently working toward a Ph.D. in composition at Princeton University. His music is compelling without being oppressive, and often quite witty.
Böhme (1870-1938) was a German composer and trumpeter, who spent most of his working life outside his native land. Böhme was born in a small town near Dresden.
After briefly moving westward to study at Leipzig Conservatory of Music, from which he graduated (age 18) in 1888, he began a steady march eastward, spending two years playing in the Budapest Opera Orchestra, from which he moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, and spent the next 24 years playing cornet in the Mariinsky Theatre.
Neither World War I (1914-18) nor the Russian Revolution (1917-18) seems to have had an adverse effect on his career or life. After the war and revolution, he added teaching to his activities, spending 1921-30 as a professor at a music school on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg harbor.
In 1930, he returned to opera, playing brass instruments at the Leningrad Drama Theatre until 1934, when Stalin‘s xenophobia got Böhme exiled to Orenburg on account of his German birth and heritage. “It is said that he died there in 1938,” says Wikipedia, rather vaguely, adding “though he was also said to be seen working on the Turkmenistan Canal in 1941.”
What is for certain, and what you will find out for yourself, is the beauty and charm of Böhme’s music. That he is not better known and more widely celebrated is due, I surmise, to two main causes.
For one thing, he was exiled to Orenburg — 2,000 miles from nowhere — at the very time when his compositions began to gain traction. The other thing is he composed his best music for brass ensembles that would not achieve stable existence for some 30 years.
Regular price tickets for this concert are $40, Community access tickets, as available, are $10; and kids 7-17 are admitted free. Tickets are available from the Summer Festival (Casey) Ticket Office, in person 10 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays, Monday, June 6 through Friday, Augt 6; by phone at 805-969-8787; or online at www.musicacademy.org.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.