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11/28/2018 08:00 AMYou can tell winter by calendar, by temperature, or by concert tickets, so if the days are getting shorter and the mornings chillier, it is time to think about the Essex Winter Series.
The season starts on Sunday, Jan. 13, 2019, with the New York Philharmonic String quartet with pianist Mihae Lee, artistic director of the series, playing Shuman’s Piano Quintet in E Flat for Piano and Strings. The Midiri brothers bring their jazz sextet with the addition of Essex Winter Series (EWS) jazz advisor Jeff Barnhart on Sunday, Feb. 17. The New Haven Symphony with guest soloist, violinist Tai Murray, appears on Sunday, March 17. Chanticleer, the 16-man a cappella singing group that describes itself as an orchestra of voices, performs on Sunday, April 7.
Lee, who is now in her ninth year as artistic director, has during her tenure been able to draw on her own friendships in the world of classical music to bring noted performers like singers Frederica von Stade and Dawn Upshaw and guitarist Jason Vieaux to the series, as well as celebrated ensembles like the Tokyo and Julliard string quartets. She says she is regularly approached by artists’ managers who would like their clients to be engaged for a concert.
“This series is getting very big now in the eyes of musicians. They want to appear here,” Lee said.
In fact, it was the manager of Chanticleer who contacted her about a return appearance for the group, which has performed in the series previously on two occasions.
“They love our audience. They say it is really sophisticated,” Lee said, explaining the singers explained they had heard chuckles in the EWS audience at some of the more subtle humor in their song lyrics.
The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is another return engagement, but this is the last time conductor William Boughton will lead the orchestra at the in an EWS program. He is retiring at the end of this concert season. Fenton Brown Emerging Artist Tai Murray, will appear with the symphony, playing Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto in G Minor.
The emerging artist program brings outstanding individual musicians or ensembles relatively early in their professional careers to EWS. Murray, a Chicago native became interested in violin, according to her biography, when her parents gave her a pencil case with a toy violin in it at the age of five.
Lee noted that Murray’s reputation has grown at a rapid pace.
“I don’t really think she is emerging anymore. I think she has emerged,” she said.
Lee is particularly pleased that Murray will be able to participate in the outreach program that she began when she took over as artistic director. The program has grown from one day to three full days.
“It’s morning to late afternoon, and very personal,” Lee said.
Murray will visit elementary schools in Deep River, Essex, and Chester; St. John’s School in Old Saybrook; and both Jennings Elementary School and Nathan Hale Arts Magnet School in New London. She will also go to Valley Regional High School and Middletown High School and do a master violin class for students of the Community Music school. The outreach program also covers Essex Meadows Health Center and Covenant Village in Cromwell.
The New York Philharmonic String quartet, made up of principal musicians from the orchestra, includes some familiar faces from different settings: violist Cindy Phelps and philharmonic concertmaster Frank Huang. Both have performed at the Chestnut Hill concerts in the summer. Phelps, who is married to Chestnut Hill artistic director Ron Thomas, has played in a number concerts over the years; Huang appeared for the first time this past summer.
The string quartet just formed in 2017 and Lee felt lucky to get them this year.
“If I don’t catch them now, we won’t be able to,” she said.
The Midiri brothers, twins Joe and Paul, cover a wide range of instruments themselves, before even adding guest pianist Jeff Barnhart and the other members of their sextet. Joe Midiri plays clarinet and saxophone; Paul Midiri plays vibraphone, drums, and trombone. Their group tours regularly and appears at jazz festivals throughout the country. Their concert will include the music of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, along with a selection of big band and swing classics.
Another familiar name associated with the EWS has had a part in this year’s program: Vincent Oneppo, the retired administrator of the series. Now living outside Seattle, Oneppo, a fine photographer and graphic designer in addition to being a musician himself, redid the Essex Winter Series brochure.
“It is a complete change,” said Lee, of the boldly colored pamphlet. “We really needed something new.”
In addition to EWS, Lee is also music director of a summer music series, the Sebago-Long Lake Music Festival in Maine. And she says the pressure of putting together the two series, plus her own concertizing, left her ill over the summer. She recovered but with new resolve about lifestyle changes.
“I’m not giving up sleeping anymore; I’m not going to bed at 3 a.m. and scheduling no time off,” she says. “I take naps now. I’m going to bed early. I’m taking care of myself.”
There is only one thing that can regularly disrupt her new schedule: grandchildren. She has two. Her husband, William Purvis, has one and one on the way.
“I’m a major doting grandmother. I drop everything to see the kids,” she said.
Essex Winter Series
Sunday, Jan. 13, New York Philharmonic String Quartet, Valley Regional High School,
Sunday, Feb. 17, Midiri Brothers Jazz Sextet, John Winthrop Middle School
Sunday, March 17, New Haven Symphony, Valley Regional High School
Sunday, April 7, Chanticleer, Old Saybrook High School
All concerts begin at 3 p.m. For tickets and information, visit www:essexwinterseries.com or call 860-272-4572.