Press Releases
PMMF String Octet to Appear in Four Cities
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Pine Mountain Music Festival announces that the PMMF String Octet will give concerts in Kingsford on July 6, Ironwood on July 7, Houghton on July 8, and Marquette on July 11. All concerts are at 7:30 pm. Tickets are $20, or $10 for students and children.
The octet members are also members of the orchestra for the new opera “Rockland,” which will premiere at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 and 17. They are violinists Karen Jenks of the Ann Arbor, Flint and Saginaw orchestras; Molly Hughes who plays with Michigan Opera Theatre and the Flint Symphony; Paul Lundin, an Escanaba native who directs the “Strings on the Bay Series” there; and Judith Teasdle, a freelance chamber musician and teacher in Oakland University’s Preparatory Division; violists Caroline Coade who is a member of Detroit Symphony Orchestra and teaches at the University of Michigan and Wayne State University; and John Madison who is principal violist with Michigan Opera Theatre and substitutes with the Detroit Symphony; and cellists Carrie Pierce who is principal cellist with Lansing Symphony Orchestra; and Daniel Thomas who plays with Detroit Symphony Orchestra and other southeast Michigan orchestras.
Their program includes works by Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn. Since the players usually appear as members of full orchestras, they are looking forward to playing as part of a smaller ensemble and performing these chamber works “on their own.” Joshua Major, the Festival’s artistic director, says, “This will be a very dynamic concert; the pieces are masterworks, and the players are superlative musicians.”
The Pine Mountain Music Festival String Octet concerts are sponsored by Champion, Inc.
Still to come in the PMMF 2011 season are appearances in Ironwood (July 12) and Calumet (July 14) by Ameriikan Poijat, a Finnish-American brass septet from Minneapolis; and the New World Premiere of “Rockland,” an opera based on local history, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 and 17.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit the web at http://www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are available through the Rozsa Center box office, telephone 877-746-3999 or at the door if space permits.
Two Pianos, Four Hands Presented by Festival
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Press Release – Pine Mountain Music Festival
Keyboard artistry will be demonstrated to a high degree when husband-and-wife duo Stephanie and Jonathan Shames perform in a two piano, four hands concert presented by Pine Mountain Music Festival.
The Shameses last appeared here in 2004, and the Festival is delighted to have them back, especially since audiences loved their previous concert.
They will perform Wednesday June 29 at Reynolds Recital Hall in Marquette and Friday July 1 at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts in Houghton. Both performances are at 7:30 pm, and tickets cost $20 (or $10 for students and children).
Composers represented include Debussy, Stravinsky and Ravel, with music written at around the time of the 1906 events on which the opera “Rockland” is based, plus six études by Schumann, who composed earlier.
Mr. and Mrs. Shames have performed together as a piano duo for over 25 years, and separately have maintained busy schedules as soloists and chamber musicians, performing throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and the Far East. Stephanie Shames teaches chamber music and accompanying at the University of Oklahoma, where her husband is artistic director of opera and director of orchestras. He was a prize-winner in the final round of the 1982 Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition.
Other coming events in the PMMF 2011 season include a string octet that will appear in Kingsford, Ironwood, Houghton and Marquette, and appearances in Ironwood and Calumet by Ameriikan Poijat, a Finnish-American brass septet from Minneapolis. Finally, the New World Premiere of “Rockland,” an opera based on local history, will occur at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 and 17.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit the web at http://www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are available through the Rozsa Center Box Office (which is operating out of the Student Development Complex on MacInnes Drive), telephone 498-3200 or at the door.
Baritone Recital With Links to “Rockland”
Friday, June 17, 2011
Esa Ruuttunen, well-known Finnish baritone and one of the lead singers in the upcoming production of the opera “Rockland,” will present a recital in three U.P. cities this month, presented by Pine Mountain Music Festival.
He will appear on June 23 at Reynolds Recital Hall in Marquette; on June 25 at First Presbyterian Church in Kingsford; and on June 27 at Portage Lake United Church in Houghton. All concerts are at 7:30 pm local time. Tickets are $20, or $10 for children and students.
Ruuttunen will be accompanied by pianist Craig Randal Johnson of Minneapolis, who in July will also be the orchestra conductor for “Rockland.”
One of the characters in the opera is Alfred Laakso, the real person who wrote a first-hand account of the tragic events of July 31, 1906, on which the opera is based. Esa Ruuttunen sings that role, and in the recital he will sing three arias from the opera. He will also sing selections from Sibelius, Vaughn Williams, Mendelssohn and others.
Candace Koski Janners, a PMMF trustee, heard a similar recital by Ruuttunen and Johnson at Finn Grand Fest in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, last July, and said, “the silky resonance of Ruuttunen's baritone, underscored by the luminous piano accompaniment of Johnson, was really moving. It was a stunning performance.”
Both Ruuttunen and Johnson have an interesting connection to the opera “Rockland.” Ruuttunen’s grandfather Sigfrid Ruuttunen worked in an iron mine near Ironwood, Michigan, at about the same time as the 1906 events in nearby Rockland. He later returned to Finland. Craig Randal Johnson also had a grandfather who worked in the iron mines, in his case in Minnesota.
The Esa Ruuttunen and Craig Randal Recitals are sponsosred by IMECO.
Other events in the PMMF 2011 season will include opening galas in Lake Linden and Iron Mountain; a string octet; a two-piano recital; a musical revue about New York and Paris featuring songs by Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and others; an organ recital; appearances by Ameriikan Poijat, a brass septet from Minneapolis; and the New World Premiere of “Rockland,” an opera based on local history, at the Rozsa Center in Houghton on July 15 and 17.
Pine Mountain Music Festival presents a season of opera and classical music each June-July in the Dickinson County area, the Marquette area, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and other towns in the Upper Peninsula. Visit the web at http://www.pmmf.org or call 888-309-7861 for more information. Tickets are available through the Rozsa Center box office, telephone 877-746-3999 or at the door if space permits.