Mark your calendars and plan to join us for six fantastic LIVE concerts presented as part of the 2022 Charles Ives Music Festival, taking place August 1- August 14.
This annual event explores the history and legacy of Danbury native and American composer Charles Ives (1874-1954) through a series of concerts and education events. Led by Artistic Director Paul Frucht, CIMF offers a concert series as well as educational programs, both featuring some of the most talented early-career artists in the United States. CIMF artists enjoy careers as principals in major American orchestras, touring chamber musicians, and successful Broadway free-lance musicians.
CIMF 2022 explores multiple musical and non-musical themes that are essential to the music of Charles Ives and to his legacy: use of folk music, personal dedications in music, polystylism, grappling with spirituality, and a pioneering leap toward an optimistic future. As always, CIMF presents a tapestry of nearly all American works - primarily those of living composers - to delve into these ideas, bring them to life, and tell the story of American music through the many diverse voices that wrote music and write music in the U.S.
Our concert series begins with “Pulse” on August 1, 2022 at 6:30 p.m. at the Keeler Tavern Garden House in Ridgefield, CT. “Pulse” explores uses of folk music in concert music and folk-influenced, rhythm-oriented works throughout the last century of American concert music and will feature works by Alex Stephenson, Jennifer Higdon, William Grant Still, Joseph Summer, and CIMF Artist-Faculty George Meyer, performed by a CIMF Artist-Faculty String Quartet of Meyer, Chelsea Starbuck Smith, Jacob Shack, and Mitch Lyon.
The concert series continues on August 3, 2022, at a private home in Ridgefield with “Dedication.” Held at a private home in Ridgefield, this concert will feature works with a significant personal influence or dedication and performances by Artist-Faculty members concert pianist Anna Petrova, cellist Francesca McNeeley, and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra violinists Julia Choi and Jeremias Sergiani-Velazquez.
Don’t miss “An Evening of Chamber Music” on August 5, 2022, at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, Ridgefield, CT. “An Evening of Chamber Music” features CIMF musicians participating in CIMF Summer 2022’s Chamber Music Intensive program performing side-by-side with CIMF Artist Faculty culminating a week of chamber music rehearsals. In addition to standard repertoire works by Bach, Dvorak, Ibert, and Mozart among others, participating musicians and artist-faculty perform works by living composers Eric Ewazen and CIMF Composer-in-Residence Jared Miller.
“Simple Gifts” is CIMF Summer 2022’s gift to the community - a FREE outdoor concert and community expo! Held on August 7, 2022, the expo will run from 12 to 2 p.m. and the outdoor concert from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Ridgefield Playhouse Tent in Ridgefield, CT. Presented by People's United Bank, “Simple Gifts' evokes Ives’s legacy of polystylism passed down through generations of American composers who represent the richness of the diversity of styles within American concert music. Performances by CIMF Faculty Artist and guest musicians will feature music works by John Williams, Hannah Lash, Wyton Marsalis, Paul Frucht, Chris Cerrone and more!
Our concert series continues with “The Unanswered Question” on August 10, 2022, at 7 p.m. at the First Congregational Church, Ridgefield, CT. “The Unanswered Question” is a direct reference to the Ives work of the same name which so beautifully and enigmatically contemplates humanity’s existence and place in the universe through a blend of simplicity of modernism that is compelling and thought-provoking. This concert features works that also contemplate existence, our greater place in the universe, or the heavens in some way and our CIMF Artist-Faculty will perform engaging selections by Charles Ives, Vaughan Williams, Han Lash, Jon Cziner and Will Stackpole.
CIMF Summer 2022’s concert series concludes with “New Works and New Worlds” August 12, 2022 at 7 p.m. at the Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School in Ridgefield, CT. On this evening WCYO Music Director & CIMF Orchestra Director Eric Mahl leads the festival orchestra in works by Brahms, Dvorak, Bizet and Aaron J. Kernis. The concert will also include compositions by CIMF youth composers performed by Artist Faculty members. “New Works and New Worlds” is a program about hope for the future, no better exemplified than by the youth participants of CIMF whose talent and commitment are inspirational.
A complete schedule can be found here
More about CIMF Artist Faculty can be found here
CIMF Summer 2022 Artist Faculty:
Katie Althen, Flute
Jonathan Borden, Double Bass
Julia Choi, Violin
Jon Cziner, Composition
Paul Frucht, Artistic Director/Percussion
Emily Levin, Harp
Mitch Lyon, Cello
Eric Mahl, Conductor/Trumpet
Taylor Marino, Clarinet
Francesca McNeeley, Cello
George Meyer, Violin/Viola
Jared Miller, Composer-in-Residence
Ariana Nelson, Cello
Anna Petrova, Piano
Priscilla Rinehart, Horn
Mika Sasaki, Piano
Jeremías Sergiani-Velázquez, Violin
Jacob Shack, Viola
Chelsea Starbuck-Smith, Violin