Carol Wincenc, one of the most respected and praised flutists performing today, will be the Martha’s Vineyard Chamber Music Society featured guest artist in the second concert of its season next Monday at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown.
Ms. Wincenc’s stand-out piece will be Fury of Light, written for her by the well-known young opera composer Jake Heggie, which sets to music Mary Oliver’s poem Sunrise. Ms. Wincenc debuted this work at Merkin Hall in 2009. Another virtuoso piece will be Grigoras Dinicu’s Hora Staccato.
First on the program will be an arrangement of the sonata from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Musical Offering, written originally for chamber orchestra, which Ms. Wincenc will perform in concert with violinist Roger Wilkie, cellist John Walz and pianist Delores Stevens. She will also join Ms. Stevens to play Gabriel Faure’s Morceau de Concour for flute and piano, and Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Jet Whistle with Ms. Stevens and Mr. Walz.
Like the society’s artistic director, Delores Stevens, Ms. Wincenc is deeply committed to fostering new music, especially that of the flute repertoire. With the Detroit Symphony, she gave the world premiere of a flute concerto written for her by Pulitzer Prize winner Christopher Rouse. She also gave the world premiere of Henryk Gorecki’s Concerto-Cantata at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and the U.S. premiere with the Chicago Symphony. She is professor of flute at the Julliard School.
This year is not only the society’s 40th anniversary, but Ms. Wincenc’s as well, her 40th year of performing on the concert stage. To celebrate, she, harpist Nancy Allen and violist Cynthia Phelps formed a trio, Les Amies, which made its debut concert at Merkin Hall in New York city last winter. Other anniversary concerts were held at the Morgan Library and the Julliard School. So beloved is she by the musical community, that in 1998 at a Valentine’s Day recital in Merkin Hall she premiered 10 short “birthday valentines” written for her by Gorecki and Peter Schickele, among others.
John Walz, one of the outstanding cellists playing today, is well known on the West Coast for cofounding the Pacifica Trio, with whom he has played over 800 concerts. In addition, he has soloed with more than 120 symphony orchestras and has had 12 European tours. He has been hailed by the Los Angeles Times as having a “radiant, full tone and flawless technique ... matched by an extraordinary degree of expressivity.”
Guest violinist Roger Wilkie is also a Californian, and a fellow player with Mr. Walz. The Gershwin suite on this program was originally arranged for their trio. He is well known as a founding member of the Los Angeles String Quartet, and now he is concertmaster of the Long Beach Symphony. The Los Angeles Times has described him as having “surpassing virtuosity, a thrilling legato tone and a sense of full emotional engagement.”
George Gershwin’s delightful Suite from Porgy and Bess will be performed by Mr. Wilkie on violin, Mr. Walz on cello and Ms. Stevens on piano.
Monday’s concert at the Whaling Church in Edgartown will be repeated on Tuesday, July 20, at the Chilmark Community Center, Chilmark. Concerts start at 8 p.m. Tickets are $30, available at the door. Students are always free.
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