The Trinity Alps Chamber Players, a group featuring young virtuosi affiliated with the expanding Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, joins forces with Bay Area composer Alden Jenks and soprano Amy Foote for a concert of recent music by California composers --- plus a rarely heard work by Bela Bartok.

            “Red River” for violin, clarinet, cello, piano, and electronics by Mason Bates will give audiences a chance to hear chamber music by a composer most recently heard with the San Francisco Symphony, performing his “Liquid Interface” for orchestra and laptop computer. Named after the local nickname of the mighty Colorado River, “Red River” traces the journey of the river from continental divide, past Interstate Highways, Grand-Canyon-Walls, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas to its tragic resting place – the Sonoran Desert on the California/Mexico Border.

            The laptop plays an important role in the title work, “Hammered”, by A. Jenks. Here the computer transforms the sounds of the piano, played by Ian Scarfe,, and it also provides an independent keyboard-like “Ghost Piano” for Scarfe to interact with. In Jenks’s solo opera, “Oh It’s You”, the extraordinary young singer-actress Amy Foote experiences all the thrills and terrors of an encounter with someone new. The laptop provides musical accompaniment as well as speech sounds derived from the text (also written by A. Jenks). Jenks will be present to control the computer in both pieces.

            The youngest composer on the program, Ian Dicke, provides his 2011 “Two Takes Three”, a joyful and energetic study in rhythmic interplay among four performers: Doug Machiz, cello, Paul Miller, clarinet, Kevin Rogers, violin, and Ian Scarfe, piano.

            Back in 1933 a joyful energy was to be found in Bela Bartok’s “Contrasts” for clarinet, violin, and piano. Commissioned by legendary jazz and big-band clarinettist Benny Goodman, this work features Hungarian folk music is woven into the fabric of a sophisticated urban composition.

August 17-21, festival musicians will partner with Bar 717 Summer Camp to offer a special Music Camp Workshop for adults and families. Meals and lodging are provided by the camp, and campers will have daily opportunities to have music lessons, give performances, and hear workshops by a host of professional musicians. Many other fun camp activities are part of the daily offering, more information at www.Bar717.com.

Here are the important details:
Dates: August 17th (evening) - August 21st (morning)
Cost: $500 for adults, $250 for children ages 6-11, $350 for children ages 12-17, free for children ages 0-5
Includes: 4 days of Music Camp, including all meals, lodging, group lessons, and evening activities
Additional Options: Private music lessons are available for an extra fee
Schedule: Mornings will consist of group lessons, afternoons will be free time for exploring the ranch, visiting the river, or scheduling private music lessons, and evenings will consist of jam sessions and/or concerts

          
            This program is a unique collaboration between organizations. San Francisco's Italian Cultural Institute is again showing their increased range of programming, this being their second partnership with the Trinity Alps Chamber Players. The Carmel Bach Festival, long an established presenter of classical and baroque programs in Monterey County, here reaches out to Bay Area audiences in anticipation of its summer concerts featuring “Bach and the Italians”.
            Held at the elegant Century Club of California, this event is an opportunity to experience one of San Francisco's greatest venues for chamber music. Something of an undiscovered gem, this splendid Edwardian mansion features a Julia Morgan-designed ballroom, with a top quality Steinway D on stage and excellent acoustics.
            The program will cover a broad spectrum of Italian classical music, highlighting Vivaldi's baroque masterpiece “The Four Seasons”, written as a colorful and virtuoso concerto for violin. It shows Vivaldi in his most imaginative of moods, with music that describes the dances of spring, the storms and heat of summer, the drunken autumn festivals, and the snowflakes of winter.
            The first half of the program is an interesting window into three composers who are primarily known not for chamber music, but for their contributions to other genres. Ottorino Respighi, best known for his lush orchestral scores, is represented by a little-known gem, the Notturno from his Six Pieces for solo piano. Known primarily for his operas and librettos, Gian Carlo Menotti's witty and playful Clarinet Trio shows the composer at home in the more intimate medium of chamber music. The master of classical Italian opera, Gioachino Rossini, contributes one of his two great virtuoso clarinet works, the Fantasie for Clarinet and Piano.