Music on the Hill's festival offers concerts June 1-14 in Cranston, Warwick and Westerly

Beginning June 1, Music on the Hill presents its tenth annual chamber music festival. Seven concerts offer a variety of ensembles and solo works, featuring musicians returning to their native Rhode Island as well as those based in the Ocean State. In addition, Music on the Hill will continue its annual outreach performance for Warwick elementary schools. Six concerts will take place in Westerly, Cranston and Warwick, beginning at 7:00 p.m. A special afternoon Lawn Concert will take place Sunday June 4 on the grounds of Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum in Warwick. Tickets are on sale now at www.musiconthehillri.org, at BrownPaperTickets.com or mail order. Ticket prices are $20 before May 21 or $25 at the door (cash or check). As always, students with I.D. are admitted free of charge.

Music on the Hill’s adventurous programs combine highlights of the chamber music repertoire with less familiar gems. Beethoven, Vivaldi and Bach are heard with Suk, Arensky and, this year, Rhode Island’s own Judith Lynn Stillman. Only Music on the Hill performs in five different venues in three towns around the Ocean State, in intimate venues where the audience sits up close to the action. Highlights:

· Phoenix from the Ashes, Judith Lynn Stillman’s 2014 setting of poems written by the children of the Terezin concentration camp, saved and published by one of the few who survived. Featured in a RI-PBS documentary film. Performed by the Metropolitan Opera’s Lori Phillips, with the composer at the piano.

· For those who love the Baroque: fifteen instrumentalists join forces for a thrilling Four Seasons and Brandenburg Concerto No. 6.

· For piano aficionados: Joseph Kalichstein performs Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30 and Schumann’s complete Davidsbundlertanzen, with Schumann’s rarely-heard variations on the second movement of Beethoven’s seventh symphony.

· For those who enjoy music with an elegant picnic in the afternoon sun: Narragansett Brass Quintet offers Bach, Bernstein and Gershwin on the grounds of Warwick’s Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum.

· For the ladies (and the gents): music by women composers, from the dynamic female Trio Nova Mundi. Fanny Mendelssohn, Gwyneth Walker, Mel Bonis and Elisenda Fabregas.

The festival’s ensemble features Rhode Island-raised professionals such as the Metropolitan Opera’s twins Mary and Lori Phillips, East Providence natives and RIC alumnae; soprano Diana McVey; violinists Kyra Davies and Kristen Pellegrino; guitarist Nicholas Goluses; bassist John M. Pellegrino; tubist Tom Gregory; and cellist Elisa Kohanski, with her Trio Nova Mundi. Ocean State artists include pianist-composer Judith Lynn Stillman, Narragansett Brass Quintet (led by Joseph Foley, Alexei Doohovskoy and Robert Marlatt of the RI Philharmonic), violinist Katherine Winterstein (RI Philharmonic and Aurea), harpsichordist Michael Bahmann (Musicians of the Old Post Road). Others festival favorites are the Miller-Porfiris Duo, pianist Joseph Kalichstein, violist Suzanne LeFevre and cellist Trevor Handy. Most play in multiple concerts in a variety of ensembles.

In his Juilliard days and professionally since then, Artistic Director John M. Pellegrino meets many gifted musicians from the Ocean State who lament the fact that they haven't performed in Rhode Island since high school. He says: “I’m thrilled to welcome audiences to our tenth festival,” says John M. Pellegrino. “In 2007, Music on the Hill was transformed from an East Greenwich presenter of four annual concerts to a music festival performed throughout the state. Since 2008, we have offered Ocean State audiences exciting chamber music throughout the state, each and every spring. Music on the Hill has been a Rhode Island-rooted performing arts institution for 43 years, but our festival marks its first decade this June. We musicians are honored to return to the beautiful Ocean State to concertize as professionals, and to meet listeners and supporters.”

Music on the Hill’s festival is made possible through generous support from The Carter Family Charitable Trust, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Taco/The White Family Foundation, and Warwick Department of Tourism, Culture and Development.

Music on the Hill

Tenth Annual Music Festival: June 1-14, 2017

BOHEMIAN BASH: SPOTLIGHT ON JOSEF SUK

Thursday June 1 at 7:00pm

St. Gregory the Great Church, 360 Cowesett Rd., Warwick, RI

Chamber music of Josef Suk (1874-1935), including String Quartet No. 1; Meditation on the Czech Hymn "St. Wenceslas"

Anton Miller, Kyra Davies, Kristen Pellegrino, violin; Rita Porfiris, viola; Elisa Kohanski & Trevor Handy, cello; John M. Pellegrino, bass; Christina Breindel, piano

NARRAGANSETT BRASS QUINTET: LAWN CONCERT

Sunday June 4, 4:00 pm

Clouds Hill Victorian House Museum, 4157 Post Road, Warwick, RI

Brass music of Gabrieli, Bach, Gershwin, Bernstein and more

An outdoor concert, Tanglewood style! Bring a picnic, and a blanket or beach chair. Limited seating available for rental.

In case of inclement weather, concert will be indoors at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, East Greenwich.

Narragansett Brass Quintet: Joseph Foley, Gino Villarreal, trumpet; Robert Marlatt, trombone; Alexei Doohovskoy, horn; Thomas Gregory, tuba

STRINGS ATTACHED

Monday June 5, 7:00 pm

Saints Rose and Clement Church, 111 Long Street, Warwick, RI

Arensky’s String Quartet No. 2, Bruch’s String Octet, works for guitar by Sor and Theodorakis

Anton Miller, Lina Bahn, Kyra Davies, Kristen Pellegrino, violin; Rita Porfiris, Suzanne LeFevre, viola; Elisa Kohanski and Trevor Handy, cello; John M. Pellegrino, bass; Nicholas Goluses, guitar

VIVALDI’S FOUR SEASONS

Tuesday June 6, 7:00 pm

Immaculate Conception Church, 237 Garden Hills Drive, Cranston, RI

Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Lute Concerto

Nicholas Goluses, guitar. Anton Miller, Lina Bahn, Katherine Winterstein, Kristen Pellegrino, Kyra Davies, Maureen Conlon Gutierrez, Amy Sims, Liana Zaretsky, violins; Rita Porfiris, Suzanne LeFevre, violas; Trevor Handy, Elisa Kohanski, cellos; John M. Pellegrino, bass; Michael Bahmann, harpsichord

TRIO NOVA MUNDI

Thursday June 8, 7:00 pm

St. Gregory the Great Church, 360 Cowesett Rd., Warwick, RI

Chamber music by women composers: Fanny Mendelssohn, Mel Bonis, Elisenda Fabregas and Gwyneth Walker

Trio Nova Mundi: Maureen Conlon Gutierrez, violin; Elisa Kohanski, cello; Becky Billock, piano

VOCAL VOYAGE

Tuesday June 13, 7:00 pm

Immaculate Conception Church, 237 Garden Hills Drive, Cranston, RI

· Judith Lynn Stillman’s Phoenix from the Ashes – settings of poems by children of Terezin

· Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise

· duets by Glinka, Arensky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky

· Chausson’s Chanson perpetuelle

· Gliere’s Pieces for Violin and Viola

Sopranos Diana McVey and Lori Phillips; Mary Phillips, mezzo soprano; Anton Miller & Kristen Pellegrino, violin; Rita Porfiris, viola; Elisa Kohanski, cello; pianists Judith Lynn Stillman and Craig Ketter

JOSEPH KALICHSTEIN: FESTIVAL FINALE

Wednesday June 14, 7:00 pm

Dunn’s Corners Community Church, 221 Post Road, Westerly, RI

Pianist Joseph Kalichstein performs Beethoven’s Sonata No. 30; Schumann’s Davidsbundler Dances and Variations on the second movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 7.

Artistic Director John M. Pellegrino is Principal Bass of ProMusica Chamber Orchestra and Peninsula Music Festival, Assistant Principal Bass of Columbus Symphony Orchestra, and a member of Grand Teton Music Festival, Wyoming. He performs, tours and records with many of this country’s leading orchestras. In 2007 John was named Artistic Director of Music on the Hill. In the 1980s, John earned performance degrees from both the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. He has served on the faculties of Ohio Wesleyan University, the Eastern Music Festival, Kinhaven Music Camp and the Chamber Music Connection in Worthington, Ohio. In 2008, John was the recipient of the Ohio Private/Studio Teacher of the Year award given by the Ohio String Teacher’s Association. His students have won competitions held by the International Society of Bassists, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Ohio String Teachers Association, Interlochen Arts Camp and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as positions in major American orchestras. John was born and raised in Warwick, RI, and owes much to his family of music educators/performers, private teachers, the public school music program in Warwick and to the Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Orchestra program under the direction of Nedo Pandolfi