This week, we begin the first of a four-week series of workshops and performances as the chamber group in residence at Central Connecticut State University for the 2016-2017 academic year. After presenting workshops on writing for the harp and the horn this month, in addition to leading a panel on entrepreneurial chamber music, we will be workshopping and performing works by student composers at CCSU in January, and workshopping and performing CCSU faculty works in March. Here are some dates to put on your calendars if you live near New Britain, CT, and want to catch us in action:

• Thursday, Sept 22. Entrepreneurial Chamber Music in the 21st Century. 3:05pm in Welte Hall, Room 019.
• Thursday, Sept 23. Contemporary Writing for the Harp. 3:05pm in Founder’s Hall in Davidson.
• Thursday, Sept 29. Contemporary Writing for the Horn. 3:05pm in Founder’s Hall in Davidson.
• January 26-27. Workshop and performance of CCSU student pieces for horn and harp. 3:05pm.
• March 7 and 9. Workshop and performance of CCSU faculty pieces for horn and harp. 3:05pm.

We are excited to meet more talented young composers this week, and can’t wait to introduce them to the creative potential of the harp and the horn!

In a departure from our now-yearly tour of the mid-Atlantic in the middle of snowy wintertime, we are instead thrilled to partake of the balmy beach breezes of Fort Lauderdale in February. We will be presenting a concert of original works for horn and harp–most of them commissions–on Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church‘s concert series on Sunday, February 26 at 4pm. We can’t wait to bring our music to a new state and are grateful to concert series organizer and organist Chelsea Chen for the invitation to perform at Coral Ridge.

We were honored to be awarded a residency at Avaloch Farm in New Hampshire for a second year in a row. From June 1-6, we enjoyed unlimited free time to rehearse, plan, test-run pieces for other residents, and grow immeasurably as a duo in a compact amount of time. We returned to the Friendly Soup Kitchen in Concord NH for another fun concert, and made inspiring new musician friends too.

From June 9-15, we served as one of three chamber groups in residence for the inaugural season of Connecticut Summerfest at the Hartt School. Run by composers Aaron Price and Gala Flagello, the festival was the perfect blend of highly-crafted concerts of pre-existing works (we even got to play solos by Messiaen and Berio on our showcase concert!) and workshops, recording sessions, and a final performance of student composer pieces. We had a great time working with composers Sean Rodan, Dan Isgar, and Colin Minigan on three new pieces for horn and harp, and are excited to showcase them on some of our upcoming programs this season!

On June 17, we performed a recital at the International Horn Symposium at Ithaca College. It was a pleasure to share some of our favorite commissions with horn players from around the world. We shared our program with another horn player, Jennifer Brummett, who played with us for Nate Pawelek’s piece Under the Moon (and Colleen played with her for another new piece, William Berry’s Moonlight in a Chamber.)

We are delighted to be performing a featured recital at the International Horn Symposium‘s annual conference at Ithaca College this summer!

For something different, we will be joining forces with Jennifer Brummett, the principal horn player of the Spokane Symphony. Our joint program features various combinations of harp and two horns in works by Edstrom (Jennifer and her pianist), Nadel, Trapp, Schindler, Berry (Colleen and Jennifer), and Pawelek (Jennifer, Emily, and Colleen).

(As you can see, based on the horn-piano piece, our program is not entirely all works for horn and harp; thus, it is called “Mostly Music for Horn and Harp“!)

IHS horn players and those attending the conference can catch us at 2pm Friday, June 17, in Hockett Family Recital Hall.

We look forward to sharing this unique program with the wider horn community!

We are embarking on our second chamber music residency at Avaloch Farm in New Hampshire this week! From June 1-6, we will be intensively workshopping three new pieces by composers Colin Minigan, Dan Isgar, and Sean Rodan, in addition to preparing our free-choice recital for Connecticut Summerfest, where we will be performing as one of three ensembles in residence from June 9-15.

We are thankful to Deb Sherr and the staff of Avaloch for inviting us for a second season! We got so much done last year and can’t wait to see how much we accomplish this time around. (That said, we are also looking forward to the endless supply of cookies, coffee, and fizzy water!)