Rockport Music
Encyclopedia
Rockport Music is a presenting organization
in Rockport
, Massachusetts
, bringing music, and other artistic programming, in variety of genres to audiences in the greater Boston
area and the Massachusetts North Shore
. Founded in 1981 as the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music has been under the artistic direction of pianist David Deveau
since 1995. In Summer 2010 the organization completed construction on a year-round permanent home, the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Situated on the Atlantic
coast, one hour north of Boston
, Rockport has long been a destination for seaside tourism
, and historically a fishing village and artist colony.
-- a twelve concert series of chamber
, early
, and vocal music
-- by singer Leila Deis and composer-pianist David Alpher, who acted as co-artistic directors until 1994, in collaboration with Rockport businessman Paul Sylva.
Rockport Music has since presented numerous artists, many of whom have returned repeatedly to perform in the festival, including Andrés Diaz (cello), Garrick Ohlsson
(piano), Richard Stoltzman
(clarinet), Andrés Cárdenes (violin), David Leisner
(guitar), Edwin Barker
(bass) and Mark Kroll (harpsichord), as well as acclaimed groups such as the Eroica Trio
(piano, cello & violin), the Jupiter, Borromeo
and Brentano String Quartets, Sonos (violin, viola, cello & piano) and the New Century Saxophone Quartet.
The organization has also commissioned and premiered a number of compositions, including Lera Auerbach’s String Quartet No. 3 & Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano, Elena Ruehr’s Song of Silkie, Mark Harvey’s Rockport Blues, John Harbison
’s Abu Ghraib, Bruce Adolphe
’s Whispers of Mortality, and Scott Wheeler's
Granite Coast.
. The concert stage, set in front of a two story window overlooking Rockport’s Sandy Bay, is visible from ground level and balcony seating.
The space’s design is a collaboration between architects Alan Joslin and Deborah Epstein, of Epstein Joslin Architects (Cambridge, MA
) and R. Lawrence Kirkegaard, of Kirkegaard Associates
(Chicago
). Joslin and Kirkegaard have also collaborated on, among other projects, Tanglewood
’s Ozawa Hall
. Construction was executed by Consigli Construction, which has worked on numerous historical buildings in New England
Also in 2008, the organization was renamed Rockport Music to reflect the gradual expansion of its mission and activities: the Rockport Chamber Music Festival has grown from twelve to twenty-four concerts. Since the opening of the Shalin Liu Performance Center in 2010, Rockport Music has presented a great variety of artists year-round, including Midori
, pianist Russell Sherman
, Scottish-style fiddler Hanneke Cassel
, jazz legend Dave Brubeck
, folk-rocker
Roger McGuinn
, jazz
-singer Kurt Elling
, and Rockport’s own Paula Cole
. The Performance Center is also equipped with high quality audio-visual systems and hosts HD broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre
, as well as special cinematic events, such as showings of the silent films Nosferatu and Metropolis
with live musical accompaniment.
’s public schools, culminating in free evening performances for the community. Since 2010, these artists have included Ten Tumbao, Jose Franch Ballester, Manguito, and the Harlem String Quartet
, among others.
During the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music hosts a lecture series with prelude suppers, master class
es, open rehearsals, and panel discussions, as well as free performances, for residents and visitors of Rockport. Educational outreach events for youth and adults featuring over 50 events annually, serve more than 7,500 individuals.
Performing arts presenters
According to the Urban Institute, "A performing arts presenting organization is an organization, or department or program of a larger organization, that works to facilitate exchanges between artists and audiences through creative, educational, and performance opportunities...
in Rockport
Rockport, Massachusetts
Rockport is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,952 at the 2010 census. Rockport is located approximately 25 miles northeast of Boston at the tip of the Cape Ann peninsula...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, bringing music, and other artistic programming, in variety of genres to audiences in the greater Boston
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston. Due to ambiguity in usage, the size of the area referred to can be anywhere between that of the metropolitan statistical area of Boston and that of the city's combined statistical area which includes...
area and the Massachusetts North Shore
North Shore (Massachusetts)
The North Shore is a region in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, loosely defined as the coastal area between Boston and New Hampshire. The region is made up both of a rocky coastline, dotted with marshes and wetlands, as well as several beaches and natural harbors. The North Shore is an important...
. Founded in 1981 as the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music has been under the artistic direction of pianist David Deveau
David Deveau
David Deveau is an American classical pianist. Born in Concord, Massachusetts, he has appeared as soloist with the Boston Symphony and Boston Pops Orchestras, the San Francisco, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Minnesota, Houston, Miami, Pacific and Portland Symphony Orchestras, and many regional orchestras...
since 1995. In Summer 2010 the organization completed construction on a year-round permanent home, the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Situated on the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
coast, one hour north of Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Rockport has long been a destination for seaside tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
, and historically a fishing village and artist colony.
Founding & History
Rockport Music was founded in 1981 as the Rockport Chamber Music FestivalMusic festival
A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...
-- a twelve concert series of chamber
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, early
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...
, and vocal music
Vocal music
Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...
-- by singer Leila Deis and composer-pianist David Alpher, who acted as co-artistic directors until 1994, in collaboration with Rockport businessman Paul Sylva.
Rockport Music has since presented numerous artists, many of whom have returned repeatedly to perform in the festival, including Andrés Diaz (cello), Garrick Ohlsson
Garrick Ohlsson
Garrick Ohlsson is an American classical pianist.Ohlsson was the first American to win first prize in the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition, in 1970. He also won first prize at the Busoni Competition in Italy and the Montreal Piano Competition in Canada...
(piano), Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman
Richard Stoltzman is an American clarinetist. Born Richard Leslie Stoltzman in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part of the faculty list at the New England Conservatory...
(clarinet), Andrés Cárdenes (violin), David Leisner
David Leisner
David Leisner is a classical guitarist, composer, teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and one of the leading authorities on focal dystonia, due to being impaired by the injury for 12 years and recovering through methods that he developed and now teaches his students.-Biography:David Leisner...
(guitar), Edwin Barker
Edwin Barker
Edwin Barker is an American double bass player who graduated from the New England Conservatory. He is currently Principal Double Bass with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor of Music at Boston University College of Fine Arts.-Career:...
(bass) and Mark Kroll (harpsichord), as well as acclaimed groups such as the Eroica Trio
Eroica Trio
The Eroica Trio is an American piano trio consisting of Erika Nickrenz, piano; Susie Park, violin; and Sara Sant'Ambrogio, cello. Park joined the trio in September 2006 . The trio take their name from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony...
(piano, cello & violin), the Jupiter, Borromeo
Borromeo String Quartet
The Borromeo String Quartet is an American string quartet, in residence at the New England Conservatory since 1992. They have performed throughout North and South America, Europe, and Asia, at numerous festivals and in many distinguished chamber music series...
and Brentano String Quartets, Sonos (violin, viola, cello & piano) and the New Century Saxophone Quartet.
The organization has also commissioned and premiered a number of compositions, including Lera Auerbach’s String Quartet No. 3 & Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano, Elena Ruehr’s Song of Silkie, Mark Harvey’s Rockport Blues, John Harbison
John Harbison
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
’s Abu Ghraib, Bruce Adolphe
Bruce Adolphe
Bruce Adolphe is a U.S. composer and music scholar, the author of several books on music, and pianist. His current positions include Resident Lecturer and Director of Family Concerts of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and founder and creative director of The Learning Maestros,...
’s Whispers of Mortality, and Scott Wheeler's
Scott Wheeler (composer)
Scott Wheeler is an American concert-music composer, born February 24, 1952, in Washington, D.C., now based in Boston, Massachusetts. Since 1989, he has been on the faculty of Emerson College in Boston, where he has co-directed the music theater program...
Granite Coast.
Performance Center & Expansion
Since the first festival in 1981, Rockport Music’s concerts were hosted by the Rockport Art Association in its Hibbard and Maddocks Galleries. In 2008, under the guidance of Artistic Director David Deveau and the Board of Trustees, preparation began on the site of Rockport Music’s new Shalin Liu Performance Center, which opened for the summer chamber music festival in June 2010. The new facility provides seating for approximately 330 and features a third-floor reception space complete with a catering kitchen. The facility is in compliance with the American with Disabilities ActAmericans with Disabilities Act of 1990
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is a law that was enacted by the U.S. Congress in 1990. It was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H. W. Bush, and later amended with changes effective January 1, 2009....
. The concert stage, set in front of a two story window overlooking Rockport’s Sandy Bay, is visible from ground level and balcony seating.
The space’s design is a collaboration between architects Alan Joslin and Deborah Epstein, of Epstein Joslin Architects (Cambridge, MA
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
) and R. Lawrence Kirkegaard, of Kirkegaard Associates
Kirkegaard Associates
Kirkegaard Associates is an American acoustics design firm based in Chicago, Illinois, with an office in Boulder Colorado. As of 2010, the company is headed by Lawrence Kirkegaard and employs 29 professionals in architecture, acoustics, music recording, mechanical and audio engineering, musical and...
(Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
). Joslin and Kirkegaard have also collaborated on, among other projects, Tanglewood
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
’s Ozawa Hall
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
. Construction was executed by Consigli Construction, which has worked on numerous historical buildings in New England
Also in 2008, the organization was renamed Rockport Music to reflect the gradual expansion of its mission and activities: the Rockport Chamber Music Festival has grown from twelve to twenty-four concerts. Since the opening of the Shalin Liu Performance Center in 2010, Rockport Music has presented a great variety of artists year-round, including Midori
Midori
Midori is the Japanese word for "green" and may refer to:- Places :* Midori, Gunma* Midori-ku, Chiba* Midori-ku, Nagoya* Midori-ku, Sagamihara* Midori-ku, Saitama* Midori-ku, Yokohama- People :...
, pianist Russell Sherman
Russell Sherman
Russell Sherman is an American classical pianist, educator and author.Russell Sherman made his debut at The Town Hall in New York at age 15; later studying piano with Edward Steuermann and composition with Erich Itor Kahn...
, Scottish-style fiddler Hanneke Cassel
Hanneke Cassel
Hanneke Cassel is a folk violinist. She was born in Oregon and graduated with a Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance at Berklee College of Music in 2000. Hanneke is the 1997 U.S...
, jazz legend Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck
David Warren "Dave" Brubeck is an American jazz pianist. He has written a number of jazz standards, including "In Your Own Sweet Way" and "The Duke". Brubeck's style ranges from refined to bombastic, reflecting his mother's attempts at classical training and his improvisational skills...
, folk-rocker
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
Roger McGuinn
Roger McGuinn
James Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
, jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
-singer Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling
Kurt Elling is an American jazz vocalist, composer, lyricist and vocalese performer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Rockford, Elling first became interested in music through his father, who was Kapellmeister at a Lutheran church...
, and Rockport’s own Paula Cole
Paula Cole
Paula Cole is an American singer/songwriter. Her single "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1997, and the following year she won a Grammy Award for Best New Artist.-Early life:...
. The Performance Center is also equipped with high quality audio-visual systems and hosts HD broadcasts from the Metropolitan Opera and National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
, as well as special cinematic events, such as showings of the silent films Nosferatu and Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
with live musical accompaniment.
Educational Outreach
Rockport Music is continually developing its program of education activities for both children and adults. The organization has sponsored “mini-residencies” by accomplished musicians, wherein the artists work with students in Cape AnnCape Ann
Cape Ann is a rocky cape in northeastern Massachusetts on the Atlantic Ocean. The cape is located approximately 30 miles northeast of Boston and forms the northern edge of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester, and the towns of Essex, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and...
’s public schools, culminating in free evening performances for the community. Since 2010, these artists have included Ten Tumbao, Jose Franch Ballester, Manguito, and the Harlem String Quartet
Harlem Quartet
The Harlem Quartet is a string quartet that is composed of first-place laureates of the Sphinx Competition for Black and Latino string players. They were formed in 2006...
, among others.
During the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music hosts a lecture series with prelude suppers, master class
Master class
A master class is a class given to students of a particular discipline by an expert of that discipline—usually music, but also painting, drama, or any of the arts....
es, open rehearsals, and panel discussions, as well as free performances, for residents and visitors of Rockport. Educational outreach events for youth and adults featuring over 50 events annually, serve more than 7,500 individuals.