The final concert of the Fall 2021 season featured a breath-taking performance by mezzo-soprano Megan Moore. This rising star graced the audience with arias from Rossini’s Barber of Seville and Donizetti’s Anna Bolena, along with other works. The program notes from her concert are now available at the website. You’ll find them on the page for her concert and in the archive with all Program Notes since 2015.
In this season of Thanksgiving, we are grateful that we were able to overcome significant challenges and present four successful concerts this Fall. While we were disappointed that we could not accommodate a larger audience, the social distancing requirements set by the school district left us no choice. It is too soon to say if we will be under the same restrictions in the Spring. If this pandemic eases and covid restrictions are lifted, we will offer more tickets for sale, letting everyone know by email, here at the website and on our Facebook page. Pandemic concerns put a cloud over our season in other ways. International travel restrictions prevented the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble from flying into the US from their UK home base for the performance scheduled in October. We were fortunate that just a few weeks before the concert, we were able to book the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for the same date.
We were gratified when we received a video recording from Tomo Keller, director of the Academy of St. Martin’s Ensemble, with a personal message for Friends Of Music Concerts supporters. Click on this image to hear the touching message in which he shares his own personal connection to Westchester. And then he leads a beautiful performance of one of the pieces they were scheduled to perform for us.
Another challenge we faced this season was uncertainty over whether live performances would be possible. As late as August, we didn’t have approval to use the Sleepy Hollow auditorium. Once we received clearance, we rushed out the programs. They went into the mail two months behind our usual schedule.
In the aftermath of this rush to finalize the Spring 2022 schedule, we now find that we need to make changes to the dates for two of the concerts. Fortunately, we were able to re-book the dates with our performers at Sleepy Hollow High School auditorium. Our new schedule for the Spring is
Jonathan Swensen, Saturday April 9, 8 pm. (new date)
Jerusalem String Quartet, Saturday April 23, 8 pm (no change)
Pacifica Quartet with Orion Weiss, Saturday April 30, 8 pm (new date)
We regret the inconvenience the new schedule causes but our only viable alternative would have been cancellations and we refuse to do that after having survived so many hurdles.
Last year at this time, we were confronting the sad reality that no in-person concerts would be possible. To sustain our mission of supporting chamber music, we shifted gears and worked on a plan to present recordings through our website. It proved popular enough that we have decided to present a new streaming performance to keep our spirits up during the winter break.
In a few weeks we’ll be writing again with news about this performance and about some other projects we are working on to foster chamber music education. Until then, we give thanks to our supporters who have helped us persevere through the many obstacles we’ve encountered.