Celebrating New Year’s Day and 10 Years of Washington Friends of Music!
On Jan. 1st, 2023 at 4pm Washington Friends of Music is starting the year off with a celebratory New Year’s Day concert and party at The Frederick Gunn School Thomas S. Perakos Arts and Community Center in Washington, CT. Artistic Director and world-class cellist Wendy Sutter created a superb program featuring Vivaldi, Torelli and Telemann, which is sure to please the audience. A group of twelve renowned artists, including from the New York Philharmonic, and principal musicians from the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, will be performing with trumpet, two cellos, four violins, two violas, guitar, double bass, and harpsichord, an impressive concert appropriate to welcoming the New Year as well as celebrating the 10th anniversary of WFM.
Esteemed Principal Trumpet of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, David Krauss, will play Concerto for Trumpet ‘Estienne Roger 188’ in D major by Giuseppe Torelli. Mr. Krauss has performed as soloist with the All-Star Orchestra on their Emmy-winning PBS series and has appeared as guest principal trumpet with renowned orchestras in the US, including the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. He is a faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music, Mannes/New School, Columbia University, and Boston University.
Milan Milisavljević will be featured playing the exquisite Concerto for Viola in G major by Georg Philip Telemann. He is Principal Viola with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, on the faculty at the Mannes School of Music and is considered one of the leading violists of today. His playing is described as “very imaginative, with a fine, cultured tone.”
Renowned cellist Wendy Sutter and noted guitarist Rupert Boyd are performing Manuel la Falla’s “Suite Populaire Espagnole.” Wendy Sutter is one of the foremost and diverse soloists of her generation and has been quoted as “one of the leading cellists of the classical stage” by the Wall Street Journal. In addition to performing on five continents she has played with major orchestras and at many concert halls and festivals, including New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, the Classical Tahoe Music Festival, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. She has appeared alongside the most significant living composers and musicians like Philip Glass, Steve Reich and many more.
The strings are in full swing in Concerto for Two Violins and Cello in D minor by Antonio Vivaldi, featuring violinists Pauline Kim Harris and Conrad Harris. Conrad Harris is a member of the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Ms. Kim Harris, is a GRAMMY®-winning recording artist, composer, curator and producer. She has appeared throughout the US, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia as soloist, collaborator and music director.
The performance will conclude with Telemann’s Concerto for Trumpet, Violin and Cello in D minor, featuring David Krauss on trumpet, cellist Laura Metcalf, renowned worldwide as a passionate solo and chamber musician, as well as violinist Daniel Khalikov of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, violinist Deborah Buck of the Lark String Quartet, esteemed violist William Hakim, cellist Wendy Sutter, double bass David J. Grossman of the New York Philharmonic, and Paolo Bordignon, harpsichordist of the New York Philharmonic and organist and choirmaster at NYC’s St. Bartholomew’s Church.
The audience is invited to a festive post-concert reception and to mingle with the musicians with French bubbly and delectable hors d’oeuvres.
The concert was made possible in part with a grant from CT Humanities, an affiliate of the State of Connecticut National Endowment for the Humanities.
Further information and tickets are available online at WashingtonCT4Music.blogspot.com or by phone 860.868.9174. Tickets can also be purchased (cash or check only) at the Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington and County Wine and Spirits in New Preston. Admission includes the concert and the party, $40 in advance or $45 at the door (cash or check only), based on availability. Children and students are admitted free of charge.
