The Chamber Music Conference
and Composers' Forum of the East

Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
July 20 to August 17, 2008


Home  |  About the Conference  |  Chamber Music Program
Faculty  |  Composers' Forum  |  Concerts and Seminars
Beyond Music  |  Application and Fees  |  News  |  Contact Us
 


News

Conference Appoints Jack Chan as Administrative Director

[15 December 2007]

The Chamber Music Conference has appointed Jack Chan to the position of Administrative Director.

Mr. Chan is a bassoonist who has attended the Conference as a participant several times in recent years. He is currently completing an Artist Diploma at Ball State University after having acquired bachelor's and master's degrees in Bassoon Performance. He has a keen interest in the administration of arts organizations and has already held administrative positions with the International Double Reed Society, Mannes College, and the Perlman Music Program, and the University Musical Society.

Mr. Chan can be reached through the Conference email address, chmusic@tiac.net.

Glick Fund Commissions Piano Quintet by Gabriela Lena Frank

[22 July 2007]

The Jacob Glick Memorial Endowment Fund of the Chamber Music Conference has commissioned a new work for piano quintet by Gabriela Lena Frank. Tres Homenajes: Compadrazgo will receive its first performances at the 2007 Conference, on the July 28 and August 11 concerts, with the composer performing as pianist.

Praised by the Washington Post as a composer of "unself-conscious mastery," Gabriela Lena Frank represents the next generation of American composers. Her compositions incorporating South American mythology, art, poetry, and folk music into western classical forms reflect her Peruvian-Jewish heritage and have been heard across North and South America. As a concert pianist, Frank recently recorded a CD of music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Leslie Bassett and is featured on a forthcoming CD of her chamber music. Her catalogue contains works for solo piano, voice, string quartet, ensemble, and orchestra and is published exclusively by G. Schirmer.

The Jacob Glick Memorial Endowment Fund was established by the Conference to perpetuate the memory of Jack Glick (1926-1999), former music director and long-time faculty violist at the Conference. A primary purpose of the fund is the commissioning of original chamber works for performance at the Conference.  Tres Homenajes: Compadrazgo is the second work to be commissioned by the Glick Fund.

Conference Appoints Phillip Bush as Music Director

[27 January 2007]

The Chamber Music Conference has appointed Phillip Bush as its Music Director, starting with the Summer 2007 Conference. Mr. Bush is a pianist with distinguished experience as a solo and chamber music performer, as a teacher and chamber music coach, and as founder and administrator of a chamber music festival. He is the recipient of numerous awards, has collaborated with an extensive array of prominent artists and composers, is an advocate for contemporary music, and has a superb reputation in the professional music world.

To read more about Mr. Bush, see his web site: www.phillipbush.com.

Conference Featured in Chamber Music Magazine

[22 July 2005]

The April 2005 edition of Chamber Music, the magazine published by Chamber Music America, featured an article by Laura Schiller entitled "Professionals on the Amateur Scene." The piece contains interviews with several Conference coaches and participants and is a wonderful portrait of the chamber music life that members of the Conference community enjoy.

Click here to download the article in PDF format. (The PDF file is about 2 MB.) This format requires Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can get a free copy here.

The article is reprinted and posted on this web site with permission from the author, the magazine, and the photographers whose works are featured (Claire Stefani's photo of Eriko Sato; Robert Sargent Fay's "Bare Feet at Apple Hill"; and Ted Rust's "Raphael Trio amateur cellist").

Conference Faculty Record 60th Anniversary CD

[16 January 2005; updated 9 December 2005]

To mark the 60th anniversary of the Chamber Music Conference in 2005, members of the Conference faculty recorded a CD featuring works by Senior Composer-in-Residence Donald Crockett and past Composer-in-Residence Allen Shawn.

The works by Crockett include the quintet La Barca (1999) for horn, strings, and piano and the quartet The Ceiling of Heaven (2003) for piano and strings. The Ceiling of Heaven is the first Jacob Glick Memorial Commission and received its world premiere performances during the 2004 Conference.

The works by Shawn, a Bennington-based composer, include Sleepless Night (1996) for string quartet and Wind Quintet No. 2 (2001), which was commissioned by an ensemble of Chamber Music Conference participants.

Performers include Conference faculty members Joseph Anderer, Edward Arron, Nicholas Cords, Joseph Gottesman, Shem Guibbory, Marianne Gythfeldt, Sue Ann Kahn, Jacqueline Leclair, David Oei, Michael Finckel, Renee Jolles, Maxine Neuman, Sheila Reinhold, Eriko Sato, Lauren G. Stubbs, Elizabeth Wright, and Masako Yanagita.

The CD was released by Albany Records. Recording engineer for the CD was Da-Hong Seetoo.


Home  |  About the Conference  |  Chamber Music Program
Faculty  |  Composers' Forum  |  Concerts and Seminars
Beyond Music  |  Application and Fees  |  News  |  Contact Us


The Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East
Phillip Bush, Music Director
Donald Crockett, Senior Composer-in-Residence

July 20 – August 17, 2008
Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
718-859-0525 ∙
chmusic@tiac.net

Copyright © 2003-2008 by The Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East, Inc. All rights reserved.
Last updated 25 June 2008. Photos: Claire Stefani. Feedback: webmaster@cmceast.org
.