For some, summer music means jam bands and nostalgia acts. Connecticut Summerfest provides a true alternative with free indoor concerts of contemporary classical music with guest acts from other parts of the country playing some brand-new works with the composers in attendance.
The annual Connecticut Summerfest is an opportunity for the composers, most of whom are still in their 20s, to hear their new works played for the first time by skilled chamber music ensembles before appreciative audiences at the University of Hartford’s Hartt School.
Connecticut Summerfest’s stated mission is to bring together “talented emerging composers with some of the country’s most inventive chamber music ensembles for a week-long festival of artistic exchange culminating in nine world premieres.”
Four free public concerts are being held this year. First, each of the three ensembles in residence at the festival gets its own concert, performing works by established composers. Then there’s a final concert where all three resident ensembles premiere new works by the nine resident composers.
Aaron N. Price and Gala Flagello, both Connecticut natives, are the co-founders of Connecticut Summerfest, which is now in its ninth season. Price is the artistic director and Flagello has the title of festival director.
The Hartt School has been a great partner in building the festival. “Aaron and I are both composers ourselves, and we’re both graduates of the Hartt School,” Flagello said. They created Connecticut Summerfest because they were discussing how many of the existing classical festivals didn’t fit their needs and realized they should start their own. They both have left Connecticut to be composers/educators at universities: Flagello at the University of Michigan and Price at the University of Manitoba. The summer event is “a welcome homecoming for us,” Price said.
This year’s ensembles and their concert dates include:
- The saxophone quartet Nois from Chicago performs pieces by Augusta Read Thomas Kari Watson, Elijah Daniel Smith, Darian Donovan Thomas, Annika Socolofsky and Shelley Washington on June 7 at 8 p.m. Soprano vocalist Lindsay Kesselmann guests on Socolofsky’s “I Tell You Me.”
- The three-woman Haven Trio performs June 8 at 8 p.m. Besides works by Gilda Lyons, Ivette Herryman Rodriguez and David Biedenbender, Haven Trio adds two more premieres to the festival, outside of the June 11 “Evening of Premieres” concert. These premieres are by the Summerfest co-founders: Price’s “Nonsense Songs” and Flagello’s “Comments by Computers.”
- The Black Moon Trio, which has an interesting format of horn, violin and piano, performs June 9 at 3 p.m., a wide-ranging concert that includes works by big band jazz legend Billy Strayhorn, pop icon Nina Simone, hip-hop violinist DBR, Daniel Schnyder, Linda Delia, Jeff Scott, Leo Brouwer as well as the jazzy Julius Watkins Sextet standard “Linda Delia.”
Nois, Haven Trio and the Black Moon Trio all perform at the “Evening of Premieres” on June 11 at 8 p.m.
The composers in residence are:
- Daniel (Jingyang) Cui, a Chinese-born Indiana University graduate student whose “Refle(cts)x” will be performed by Nois.
- Max Eidinoff, whose work has been described as absurd and surreal and who brings rock elements into his music. His “Colliding Tones, Relentless Waves” will be performed by Nois.
- Spencer Gravel, a composer and percussionist from Michigan whose “Underwater” will be performed by Haven Trio.
- Indigo Knecht, a University of Miami graduate student who uses their works to explore themes of emotional upheaval and self-realization. Their “submerged mirror” will be performed by Black Moon Trio.
- Nicole Knorr, another Michigan-based composer who has several other premieres happening this year. Her three. movement “waiting to speak” (whose individual parts are titled “breath study,” “passion fruit” and “waiting to speak”) will be played by Haven Trio.
- Charlie Kreidler from Illinois, currently studying at the New School in New York. His “The Chatter of a Death-Demon from a Tree-Top” will be performed by Haven Trio.
- Edward Yuwei Lu, a Chinese-American composer and saxophonist whose “leaf litter” will be performed by the saxophonists in Nois.
- Yeeun Sim, a Korean composer and pianist studying at Johns Hopkins University whose “Orbit of Breeze” will be performed by Black Moon Trio.
- Jaylin Vinson, an African-American composer and a student at Rice University who is also an accomplished violinist. His “Boxers, Bullies and Plugs” will be performed by Black Moon Trio.
The concerts are free. They are also livestreamed and then archived on the Connecticut Summerfest YouTube site.
For the artists, the full festival runs from June 6-11 and features workshops, rehearsals, lectures, recording sessions and other activities. The musicians and composers are being housed this year at the University of Saint Joseph.
“The format has been pretty consistent,” Price said. “We engage the ensembles first. During the application process, the composers select which of the ensembles they want to compose for.”
Price said over 100 composers applied to be part of this year’s festival.
“The composers are selected in February or March” for the June festival, Flagello said. “They are given a list of chamber groups and decide who they would like to collaborate with.” By the time the artists arrive in Connecticut, the new works have been shared with them. There is a further rehearsal process in Connecticut where the musicians can offer input and finetune the performances.
“The first priority is chamber groups who love collaborating with new composers,” Flagello said, adding that some of them regularly commission new works for themselves to play. She said the Haven Trio appeared previously at the festival two years ago, recommended to her by a colleague. She said the group connected directly with the composer early in the process, the collaboration went particularly well and “it began a long collaboration between them. That really stood out to me. It illuminates the collaborative spirit of the festival.”
The works span what Flagello called “a diverse range of styles and compositions. They’re all so different.” One of the performances plans to include a cassette tape player. Stylistic influences can come from anywhere: traditional classical forms, jazz, hip-hop, literature and more.
As for audiences, they can be as diverse and adventurous as the artists: young, old, musicians, non-musicians, theorists, fans and whatever else.
“We see people of all different experiences of music coming to our concerts,” Flagello said.
The Connecticut Summerfest has four live performances June 7-11 in Berkman Recital Hall at The Hartt School, 200 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Admission is free. The concerts are also streamed on youtube.com/connecticutsummerfest.
