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SUMMER 2022
CIMF Summer 2022 explored multiple musical and non-musical themes that are essential to the music of Charles Ives and to his legacy: use of folk music, personal dedications in music, polystylism, grappling with spirituality, and a pioneering leap toward an optimistic future. As always, CIMF presented a tapestry of nearly all American works – primarily those of living composers – to delve into these ideas, bring them to life, and tell the story of American music through the many diverse voices that wrote music and write music in the United States. 

PULSE
Monday, August 1, 2022 – 6:30 PM
Keeler Tavern Garden House 
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“Pulse” explored uses of folk music in concert music and folk-influenced, rhythm-oriented works throughout the last century of American concert music. Ives was famous for his incorporation of material from folk songs he heard growing up in Danbury, where his father was a bandleader. Ives would hear these tunes played by bands in the area as a child and go on to incorporate them into his own concert compositions in a compelling and personal way while also breaking ground by infusing them with what was decidedly modernist musical transformation, including his famous method of quoting two folk tunes to be played at the same time and in different keys. This program explored works by CIMF Artist-Faculty George Meyer, who grew up in Nashville and is well-known for his work with folk and bluegrass music, including performances with his father Edgar Meyer, a world-renowned classical and bluegrass bassist. The program also featured a new work by Alex Stephenson, winner of CIMF’s 2020 Call for Scores as well as the North American premiere of a new work by Joseph Summer, and Southern Harmony, a work of Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon which she describes as a “portrait of the south.” The program closed with William Grant Still’s Danzas de Panama, which is based on a collection of Panamanian folk tunes. CIMF Artist-Faculty Chelsea Starbuck Smith, Jacob Shack, and Mitch Lyon join Meyer on performances of all works. 
PROGRAM:
Movement for String Trio – George Meyer (b.1992)
Bloom – Alex Stephenson (2020 CIMF Call for Scores Winner)
Southern Harmony – Jennifer Higdon (b. 1962)
“Where Spain” from The Book of Invisible Women for string quartet (U.S. Premiere) – Joseph Summer (b. 1956)
Rob’s Polka – Väsen
Danzas de Panama – William Grant Still ( 1895-1978)

DEDICATION
Wednesday, August 3, 2022 – 6:00 PM
Private Residence in Ridgefield
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“Dedication” featured works with a significant personal influence or dedication. In addition to the fascinating musical process by which Ives weaves in his quotations, they have a particular resonance in our community because so many of them relate to places and figures important to our present and past, demonstrated deftly by titles like Runaway Horse on Main Street, which immediately conjures up images of a horse loose on Danbury’s Main Street over 100 years ago. The program featured world-renowned pianist Anna Petrova performing solo piano works by Eleanor Alberga, a Jamaican composer, whose work “Jamaican Medley,” was written for the 21st anniversary of Jamaican Independence, CIMF Artistic Director Paul Frucht, who’s Four Pieces are a series of musical dedications from composer “Machaut” to several friends, and Rachmaninoff who’s Variations on a theme by Corelli not only are an apparent dedication to Arcangelo Corelli, but also to his friend, famed violinist Fritz Kreisler. MET Opera violinists Julia Choi and Jeremías Sergiani-Velázquez joined Petrova for Chris Rogerson’s Afterword dedicated to a friend and Petrova and Choi were joined by Boston-based cellist Francesca McNeeley for Reena Esmail’s Saans, which was written as a wedding gift.
PROGRAM:
Jamaican Medley – Eleanor Alberga (b. 1949)
Afterward – Chris Rogerson (b. 1988)
Saans – Reena Esmail (b. 1983)
Four Pieces for Solo Piano – Paul Frucht (b. 1989)
Variations on a Theme of Corelli – Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)

AN EVENING OF CHAMBER MUSIC
Friday, August 5, 2022 – 7:00 PM
Lund Hall – First Congregational Church of Ridgefield
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“An Evening of Chamber Music” featured CIMF participating musicians performing side-by-side culminating a week of chamber music rehearsals. In addition to standard repertoire works by Bach, Dvorak, Ibert, and Mozart among others, participating musicians and artist-faculty performed works by living composers Eric Ewazen and CIMF Composer-in-Residence Jared Miller. 

SIMPLE GIFTS
Sunday, August 7, 2022 – 2:00 PM
The Ridgefield Playhouse 
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“Simple Gifts’ ‘ evoked Ives’s legacy of polystylism passed down through generations of American composers who represent the richness of the diversity of styles within American concert music. With no dominant style today, living composers write in an array of styles to portray the diversity of the American experience. The program opened with John Williams’s Air and Simple Gifts, an elegant arrangement of the famous quaker tune written for Pres. Obama’s 2009 inauguration and includes chamber works by Juhi Bansal, CIMF Composer-in-Residence Jared Miller, and world-famous jazz musician Wynton Marsalis whose work At the Octoroon Balls he describes as exploring “the American Creole contradictions and compromises – cultural, social, and political – exemplified by life in New Orleans.” The second half featured Eric Mahl leading CIMF Artist-faculty and guest artists in works by Han Lash, Patrick O’Malley, and CIMF Artist Director Paul Frucht, whose work Essential, for solo horn (performed by CIMF Artist-Faculty Priscilla Rinehart) and string orchestra, portrays the heroism of the essential workers who led us through the horrifying opening months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The program closed with Chris Cerrone’s High Windows for string quintet performed by violinists Chelsea Starbuck Smith and George Meyer, violist Jacob Shack, cellist Mitch Lyon, and bassist, WCYO alumnus, and Ridgefield native Jon Borden, and string orchestra. Cerrone writes that the “title High Windows is a quote, and has two meanings. It is a literal reference to the windows of St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn, the reverberant space for which I composed the piece; it also refers to a Philip Larkin poem in which the older author sums up the tumult of his youth with the lines:
[…] And immediately
Rather than words comes the thought of high windows:
The sun-comprehending glass,
And beyond it, the deep blue air, that shows
Nothing, and is nowhere, and is endless.
PROGRAM:
Air and Simple Gifts – John Williams (b. 1932)
Cathedral of Light – Juhi Bansal (b. 1984)
At the Octoroon Balls – Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961)
Go! – Jared Miller (b. 1988)
Loneliness in a Beautiful Place – Patrick O’Malley (b. 1989)
Essential – Paul Frucht (b. 1989)
Chaccones – Han Lash (b. 1981)
High Windows – Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984)

THE UNANSWERED QUESTION
Wednesday, August 10, 2022 – 7:00 PM
Lund Hall – First Congregational Church of Ridgefield
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“The Unanswered Question” is a direct reference to the Ives work of the same name which so beautifully and enigmatically contemplates humanity’s existence and place in the universe through a blend of simplicity of modernism that is compelling and thought-provoking. This program featured works that also contemplate existence, our greater place in the universe, or the heavens in some way. After an opening performance by CIMF 2020 Virtual Competition winner Kiril Volkov, the program featured a world premiere by Derek Geary as well as works by CIMF Composition Program Director Jon Cziner and Han Lash, whose work Three Shades Without Angels, will be performed by CIMF Artist-Faculty flutist Katie Althen, violist Jacob Shack, and harpist Emily Levin. Will Stackpole’s work Unbeing, features a narration of Andy Weir’s famous short story The Egg, performed by Daniela Sikora. The short story explores the idea of finding the humanity and every person around us and Stackpole writes that “living through 2020 and the seemingly global struggle to realize and remember the humanity of every single person around us finally sparked the idea to create a version of the story with music.” The program closed with Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Phantasy Quintet and Ives’s Unanswered Question with solo trumpeter Eric Mahl followed by CIMF Artistic Director Paul Frucht’s addendum.
PROGRAM:
Violin Concerto No. 4 in D Major, K. 218 “Allegro” – W.A. Mozart (1756-1791)
Glimmer, Flutter – Jonathan Cziner (b. 1991)
Unbeing for a Time – Will Stackpole (b. (1991)
Three Shades Without Angels – Han Lash (b. 1981)
West/East – Derek Geary (b. 1970)
Phantasy Quintet – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
The Unanswered Question – Charles Ives (1874-1954)

NEW WORKS AND NEW WORLDS
Friday, August 12, 2022 – 7:00 PM
Richardson Auditorium at Ridgefield High School
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“New Works and New Worlds” was a program about hope for the future, no better exemplified than by the youth participants at CIMF whose hard work, talent, commitment, and teamwork is inspirational every year. The program opened with CIMF artist-faculty giving world premieres of four works by student composers: Maxwell Kaye, Eliana Valdivieso, Dmitri Volkov, and Christian Yom. The CIMF Chamber Orchestra then presented works by Brahms and Pulitzer Prize winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis, whose work Elegy (for those we lost) was written in May 2020 as the composer was grappling with the initial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the many lives tragically lost. The CIMF Orchestra rounded out the program bringing tragedy to triumph with works by Bizet and Rossini as well as Dvorak, whose “Largo” from his “New World” Symphony No. 9 was inspired by his experience in a new and strange land, America, and his discovery of African American and indigenous folk music. The movement is a beautiful tapestry of the European symphonic tradition and these folk materials that portray and hope for the future. 
PROGRAM:
New Works by CIMF Composition Participants
– Maxwell Kaye, Eliana Valdivieso, Dmitri Volkov, and Christian Yom
CIMF Chamber Orchestra
Elegy – for those we lost – Aaron Jay Kernis (b. 1960)
Serenade No. 1 in D Major, Op. 11 – Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
CIMF Orchestra
William Tell Overture – Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)
Symphony No. 9 in E minor “From the New World”, “Largo” – Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Excerpts from Carmen Suite No 1 & No 2, plus “Farandole” from L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2 – Georges Bizet (1838-1875)

2021-2022 SEASON

“AN EVENING IN CELEBRATION OF CIMF”
June 17, 2022 at 7:30 PM
Keeler Tavern Museum Garden House
A special fundraiser evening in celebration of the Charles Ives Music Festival, featuring a performance by Emily Levin, Principal Harpist of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra

“FOLKSCAPE” featuring violinist Chelsea Starbuck Smith and pianist Adam Rothenberg
April 3, 2022 at 4:00 PM
Lounsbury House 

“TRIBUTE” featuring cellist Mitch Lyon and pianist Mika Sasa
February 6, 2022 at 4:00 PM
Jesse Lee Church 

SUMMER 2021
CIMF’s Summer 2021 Artist Concert Series, called “The Promise of Living,” was a homage to the movement of the same title from Aaron Copland’s opera, The Tender Land. “The opera takes place on a Great Depression-era farm in the midwest and is about a multi-generational family searching for hope and meaning amidst challenging circumstances. Today, this story feels as timeless and relevant as ever. Over the last year, one largely without live music as we have known it, many have searched for hope and meaning amidst their own challenging circumstances. Ideally, art challenges people to think more deeply about themselves and the world around them, to help them find meaning in life, and perhaps hope. The act of coming together to collectively experience the same art, but experience one’s own individual reaction, can be cathartic and meaningful. CIMF marks the return of live performance with a series of concerts about various aspects of life that make it worth living, or in other words, that fulfill the ‘promise’ alluded to in ‘The Tender Land.’”

JOY
Featuring an array of works that are reveling in their own ecstaticity. A new work by George Meyer, an arrangement by Chelsea Starbuck Smith, and Paul Wiancko’s American Haiku all draw influence from the jubilant tradition of Appalachian fiddling and in the case of Wiancko, he creates a fascinating fusion through the addition of Japanese folk music. Composer-in-Residence Kati Agocs’s Devotion, CIMF Artistic Director Paul Frucht’s Valor, and Florence Price’s Adoration all explore the gratification that comes with commitment, devotion, and audacity. Finally, Julia Wolfe’s Blue Dress and Matt Aucoin’s Dual bring levity and playfulness as the program closes with perhaps one of the most joyous works of concert music, Ravel’s famous Introduction and Allegro, which features CIMF Artist-Faculty and Dallas Symphony Orchestra Principal Harpist Emily Levin.

July 31, 2021 at 6:00 PM
The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum – Outdoors

WILDEST DREAMS
Featuring CIMF Virtual Concerto Competition winner and youth participant, Emma Dawson, as well as works that explore aspiration and the nature of dreams. Artists will perform works by Kati Agocs, Timo Andres, Robert Beaser, Mel Bonis, Frances Poulenc, Shelley Washington, and will close with Christopher Rouse’s phenomenal Compline.

August 4, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Jesse Lee Church

THE PROMISE OF LIVING
Featuring the CIMF Piano Ensemble, led by Mika Sasaki, and CIMF Orchestra, led by Eric Mahl, which will perform works by Albert Lavignac, Jessie Montgomery, Sibelius, and Tchaikovsky, and will close with Aaron Copland’s, “The Promise of Living”. CIMF Artists will also perform works by youth participant composers.

August 6, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Ridgefield High School Auditorium

ADVENTURE
Featuring the acclaimed Ulysses Quartet in a concert titled “Adventure,” featuring the music by Paul Frucht, Rhiannon Giddens, Pavel Haas, David Ludwig, and Charlton Singleton that are inspired by high-stakes drama, energy, and journey.

August 7, 2021 at 7:00 PM
Jesse Lee Church

FAITH
Featuring CIMF Artist-Faculty Marika Bournaki, George Meyer, and Julian Schwarz. The concert will feature works by Derek Bermel, Jon Cziner, Reena Esmail, Paul Frucht, and 2020 Call for Scores winner Harriet Steinke that address faith, religion, and spirituality. Additionally, CIMF Youth Participant Henry Idone will perform as a Virtual Competition Winner.

August 11, 2021 at 7:00 PM
First Congregational Church

2020-2021 SEASON
HORIZON
Featuring CIMF Artists Chelsea Starbuck Smith, violin; Julia Choi, violin: Molly Goldman, viola; and Mitchell Lyon, cello; performing works by Carlos Simon, Jessie Montgomery, Florence Price, Caroline Shaw, Antonin Dvořák, and Paul Frucht.

Wednesday, August 12, 2020 – 6:30 PM
Outdoors at Lounsbury House

2019-2020 SEASON
CIMF FUNDRAISER CONCERT
‘An Evening in Celebration of the Charles Ives Music Festival at the WCYO’ featuring a special performance by  violinist Charles Yang and pianist Peter Dugan

Saturday, January 25, 2020
Keeler Tavern Museum Garden Room