Chamber And Jazz Series To Be Held At Green Gables

The Festival at Sandpoint begins a series of chamber music and jazz concerts Wednesday at 8 p.m. in the lobby of The Green Gables hotel at Schweitzer Mountain Resort.

The concert includes classic chamber works by Robert Schumann and Charles Ive, along with Schweitzer Institute composers James Aikman and Robert Zimmerman.

Performers for the concert include members of the institute’s nine-member chamber ensemble and players from the Spokane Symphony, the festival’s orchestra-in-residence. Members of the Schweitzer Institute ensemble were selected from audition tapes by the festival’s artistic director, Gunther Schuller, and ensemble director, violinist Young-Nam Kim. They include young performers from six states, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

The players are coached by Schuller and Kim. For the new works being presented, they will also be coached by Schweitzer’s composerin-residence, Donald Erb, and the composers themselves.

Kim is professor of violin and chamber music at the University of Minnesota, and Erb is head of the composition program at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The composition program at the Schweitzer Institute includes nine young composers selected by Schuller and Erb.

Wednesday’s program will begin with Robert Schumann’s Quintet for Piano and Strings, Op. 44, performed by pianist Jen-Ling Huang, violinists Joseph Meyer and Juin-Ying Lee, violist Kurt Rohde and cellist Dieter Raztlef. The program also will include Charles Ives’ Largo for Violin, Clarinet and Piano played by Young-Nam Kim, Barnaby Palmer and Daniel J. Velicer.

Schweitzer Institute composers are represented by Aikman’s Sonata for Violin and Piano played by Jui-Ying Lee and violinist Daniel Velicar and Zimmerman’s “Stuart Suite” performed by flutist Carrie Rose and cellist Dieter Ratzlef as well as marimbist Bryan Bogue from the Spokane Symphony.

Idaho performances are free to the public.