Music Mountain shined with Music, Painting and Poetry
The rain did not stop Music Mountain's 3rd Painting Music
A Weekend at Music Mountain, July 6-7, 2024
Due to the rain, Painting Music moved indoors. Gordon Hall was transformed into an art studio where performance and painting played equal roles: in Part 1, various marks and colors, painted by Vincent Inconiglios, acted as a guiding score for free music improvisation. In Part 2, by reverse design, the live performance of a chamber music work inspired multiple interpretations in painting.
Vincent Inconiglios, the driving force behind Music Mountain's Painting Music since its inauguration in 2018, guided participating young artists, opening with an introduction that led to Georgia O'Keeffe's Blue and Green Music, the painting that inspired Victoria Bond's eponymous quartet, programmed at the Cassatt String Quartet's Music Mountain concert on September 15, 2024.
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Vincent Inconiglios at Music Mountain's 3rd Painting Music, a popular program with audiences of all ages. Join us next year!
Chamberfest students performed each work twice. First the participating artists listened. Then they interpreted the music they just heard in their paintings on canvas.
The torrential rain gave way to a sunny afternoon...
... and, within 3 hours, the "art studio" became a "jazz club" to welcome Maucha Adnet & Duduka Da Fonseca Trio.
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Bossa Always Nova got a long standing ovation.
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By Sunday, we were ready to follow the music again.., to find a friend at Music Mountain.
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The Pre-Concert Event featured a Poetry Reading by Antoinette Brim-Bell, Connecticut's 8th Poet Laureate.
Kevin T McEneaney wrote for the Millbrook Independent: "Antoinette Brim-Bell, Poet Laureate of Connecticut, began the Sunday program of Music Mountain by reading a selection of her poems. These poems featured subtle rhythmic use of assonance and alliteration as she provided perspectives on her life that echoed with larger social nuance. With calm, clear, and amusing diction she is one of the very best readers of poetry that I have ever heard. The forty-five-minute reading appeared to be half the scheduled time wherein she anecdotally offered her experiences, wisdom, and wit enhanced with a jazzy edge."
The Music Mountain Poetry Project is an initiative to connect with poets and poetry. Each weekend our program features a special poem to explore our 95th season theme, “From Struggle to Triumph: The Power of Music.” The collected poems—submitted exclusively by contemporary poets, most of them from Connecticut—invite us to reflect, discover and enjoy the rich concert experience more deeply.
Then, at 3 PM, the Arianna String Quartet performed a spectacular concert of works by Bruch, Martinu and Tchaikovsky.
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Music Mountain's audience celebrated the Arianna String Quartet's riveting performance with a long standing ovation.
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On Monday, the members of the Arianna String Quartet went back to offering inspiring master classes at Chamberfest.
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Arianna String Quartet's John McGrosso (above) and Kurt Baldwin (below) coached participating students from July 4-9 at Music Mountain.
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And Joanna Mendoza, violist of the Arianna String Quartet taught from within the quartet (below).
Tuesday Showtime! Chamberfest's final concert featured adults and young fellows.
Rosangel Baez-Batista (left), whose Elgar Cello Concerto recording inspired the Music Mountain board of directors to offer scholarship funding to Chamberfest's young artist fellows, shared the cello section of Brahms' Sextet in B Flat Major, Opus 18, with our youngest participant this year, Bobby Mays, while being recorded by an enthusiastic parent.
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What an inspiring weekend. Follow the music..., and you'll find a friend!