Chamber Music Sedona will present a series of mission-based educational programs for Sedona and regional youth during the fourth Sedona Winter Music Festival, being held Wednesday, Jan. 4, through Sunday, Jan. 8.
“We’re delighted to bring five extraordinary artists to Sedona to perform and work hands-on with music students from around the region,” CMS artistic director Bert Harclerode said.
“Over the course of past 20 years we’ve presented nearly 100 in-school concerts for Sedona and regional youth and once again, in addition to the educational components at the Sunday concert, we’ll provide programs geared for grades 4 to 6 in an introductory fashion at Big Park School, and then grades 7 to 12 at Sedona Red Rock High School — and these SRRHS students will have the opportunity to work with our five artists Saturday in preparation for the Arizona All-Regional auditions.”
The program begins with the 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. free open rehearsal, and then moves into the nitty gritty, working on audition etudes and ensemble material. Lunch follows with festival artists and students, and next is coached performances of etudes and ensemble works. The event finishes with a 2 to 3 p.m. free public concert.
“We are so fortunate to have partnered with CMS as we prepare for the All-Regional auditions,” SRRHS music teacher Courtney Yeates said.
The in-school Concerts for Youth and Musical Explorations and Discoveries are funded by the city of Sedona.
Violinists Bella Hristova and Meira Silverstein, and violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama will be joined by festival co-artistic directors cellist Nicholas Canellakis and clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein for a five-day series of programs that will include Concerts for Youth, a Saturday free open rehearsal for the community and a day-long Saturday hands-on training and coaching program, MEAD, for seventh- through 12th-graders in preparation for the All-Regional auditions later in January.
Hristova, Fiterstein and Canellakis are members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Silverstein is Yale-educated and a private instructor, and Ngwenyama is the director of the Primrose International Viola Competition.
“We’re very pleased to work with your young musicians,” Canellakis said. “We’ve enjoyed our times during the last three years with Sedona and regional students and we were particularly excited to learn that the Sedona middle school system has been blended into the high school environment, and that Courtney Yeates has a fresh opportunity to build her program. We have a wonderful opportunity to inspire all participants from Winslow to Prescott, from Sedona to Cottonwood and Flagstaff and we hope that the music teachers will see this as a wonderful opportunity to give their students a unique edge in this year’s Arizona All-Regional audition process. Kudos to Courtney Yeates for suggesting this unique way of blending our collective interests with the talents of northern Arizona music students.”
The festival begins Jan. 4 at 4 p.m. in partnership with the Sedona International Film Festival at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre with a screening of “I Know I Played Every Note,” a documentary about the early career of violinist Itzhak Perlman hosted by the artistic directors and Harclerode.
Jan. 5, at 5:30 p.m. will be salon musicale in the Village of Oak Creek featuring the festival quintet accompanied by Arizona wines and hors d’oeuvre.
On Jan. 7, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., the free open rehearsal will be held, giving community members an opportunity to see music making in progress.
Registration for the Saturday MEAD training program is required and due no later than Jan. 4 at the CMS office or by email at SedonaCMS@aol.com.
Information is available through Cottonwood, Flagstaff, Prescott, Winslow and Sedona high school music teachers. There is no charge for the program.
Registration forms and information is online at ChamberMusicSedona.org.
