Aug. 24-Sept. 1: Composer Robert Sirota’s Muzzy Ridge Concerts Presents Fourth Season of Summer Performances in Searsmont, ME

L-R Larsen-Choi Duo (Cellist Benjamin Larsen, Pianist Hyungjin Choi);
Gossamer Trio (Flutist Carol Wincenc; Cellist Claire Marie Solomon, Harpist Nancy Allen),
Composer and Muzzy Ridge Founder, Robert Sirota

Composer Robert Sirota’s Muzzy Ridge Concerts Presents Fourth Season of Summer Performances in Searsmont, ME 

Saturday, August 24 and Sunday, August 25, 2024 at 3pm
Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1, 2024 at 3pm
More Information 

“A unique and intimate concert experience” – The Republican Journal

robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts

Searsmont, ME – Composer Robert Sirota’s annual Muzzy Ridge Concerts series returns for a fourth season in summer 2024. This year’s four performances are once again presented over two weekends on August 24-25 and August 31-September 1, all at 3pm.

On Saturday, August 24 and Sunday, August 25, 2024, the Larsen-Choi Duo – husband-and-wife-duo cellist Benjamin Larsen and pianist Hyungjin Choi – will perform a stylistically diverse program featuring music by Robert Sirota and Johannes Brahms, plus jazz improvisation by Choi. Over the following weekend – Saturday, August 31 and Sunday, September 1, 2024 – Muzzy Ridge Concerts will welcome the Gossamer Trio (GRAMMY®-nominated flutist Carol Wincenc; internationally-acclaimed cellist Claire Marie Solomon, and GRAMMY®- nominated New York Philharmonic principal harpist Nancy Allen). 

All the concerts will be presented in the Searsmont, Maine studio of series founder and Artistic Director Robert Sirota – the creative sanctuary where he has composed a great deal of his work throughout the past 35 years. Each of the concert programs performed on the two Saturdays will be repeated on the respective Sundays. Performances will run for approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 50 patrons with an additional 20 outdoor seats.

On August 24 and 25, the Larsen-Choi Duo will shine a light on music across different historical eras and musical genres, performing Sirota’s Cello Sonata No. 2; Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, Op. 99; plus an original jazz improvisation by Hyungjin Choi. Written in 1886, Brahms’ Cello Sonata No. 2 evokes a sense of feisty passion intertwined with dark drama and slower contemplation over four movements. Robert Sirota composed his Sonata No. 2 for Cello and Piano specifically for Larsen and Choi in 2018, and conceived it as a companion piece for his Sonata No. 1 (which he wrote in 1988 for another married duo, cellist Norman Fischer and pianist Jeanne Kierman). Sirota describes the second sonata as having “architecture [that] mirrors and refracts the earlier piece.” Though Choi was classically trained from a young age, her added experience and training as a jazz pianist allows her to join together the beauty of these two genres in her performances and compositions, as shown through her original and improvisatory work.

Presented over the series’ second weekend, August 31 and September 1, the Gossamer Trio will perform an extensive program showcasing the works of several different composers and highlighting music from throughout the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries including Promenade Sentimentale (1904) by Théodore Dubois; Sleepers Awake (2020) and Folksong Suite by William Healy; Assobio A Jato, (The Jet Whistle) (1950) by Heitor Villa-Lobos, Sonatine En Trio (between 1903 & 1905) by Maurice Ravel, Après Un Reve (1878) and Morceau De Concours (1898) by Gabriel Fauré; and Romanian Folk Dances (1915) by Béla Bartók.

Tickets for all Muzzy Ridge Concerts performances are now on sale at www.robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts.

About the Artists:

About Hyungjin Choi: A native of South Korea, Hyungjin Choi is a New York-based pianist covering a broad spectrum of genres. She has recorded and performed actively in many venues including Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Le Poisson Rouge. With her husband, cellist Benjamin Larsen, she has been actively performing worldwide in the Larsen-Choi duo, covering a wide range of repertoire, including world premieres by notable composers such as Robert Sirota and Ke-chia Chen. Choi's debut album, Tales Of A Dreamer, was released on PND Records in March 2014. Her arranging work can be found in many records, including the Korean Music Award nominated, Coffee Calls for a Cigarette, and Lara Downes’ album Holes in the Sky, which was released on Sony Masterworks, and ranked number one on the Billboard chart. After training as a classical pianist from an early age, Choi graduated from the Seoul Institute of the Arts in 2006, and moved to New York in 2008 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, where she earned a BFA degree. She also holds a Master’s degree for collaborative piano at Manhattan School of Music, where she currently works as a staff pianist.

About Benjamin Larsen: Cellist Benjamin Larsen made his solo debut in 1999 at the Merryall Center for the Arts, where critic for the Danbury News Times, Frank Merkling, called him “remarkably gifted,” with “a charming, warm tone.” He has performed in various venues in the Tri-State area, including concerto performances with the Hartford Symphony and Farmington Valley Symphony, and solo and chamber performances in Asia and Europe. He is an avid chamber musician, and is founder and artistic director of the Brooklyn chamber series, Concerts on the Slope.  He is on the faculty of the Music School of Westchester, Brooklyn Music School, Tian Song Musical Arts, has a private studio, and is an experienced chamber music coach. Larsen has performed at summer music festivals including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Castleman’s Quartet Program, Music@Menlo and Pacific Music Festival, and has won top prizes in several competitions. His chamber music mentors have included members of the Emerson, Tokyo, American and Keller String Quartets, as well as Robert Mann, Nicholas Mann, Peter Frankl, Andre Michel Schub, Daniel Epstein, and Sylvia Rosenberg.  Past teachers include Eric Dahlin, David Finckel, Julia Lichten, and Clive Greensmith, as well as lessons with Marta Casals Istomin and Bonnie Hampton. Larsen holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where he was the recipient of the Hans and Klara Bauer Scholarship and the 2011 Pablo Casals Award. He plays on an anonymous 19th century cello.

About Carol Wincenc: Hailed "queen of the flute" by New York Magazine, flutist Carol Wincenc has appeared as soloist with major orchestras worldwide, including the Chicago, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Detroit, and London symphonies, the BBC, Warsaw, and Buffalo Philharmonics, as well as the Los Angeles, Stuttgart, and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras. Ms. Wincenc has collaborated with such celebrated ensembles as the Emerson, Tokyo, Guarneri, Cleveland, Juilliard and Escher String Quartets, and performed with Jessye Norman, Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma. She plays with the New York Woodwind Quintet, Les Amies with New York Philharmonic Principals, harpist Nancy Allen and violist Cynthia Phelps, and The Gossamer Trio with cellist Claire Marie Solomon and harpist Nancy Allen. Her newest collaboration Duo Coquelicot is with the Boston-based cellist Velleda Miragias. Her solo career was launched in 1978 when she won the first prize at the prestigious Naumburg Competition for flute. Since that time she has garnered numerous awards including the Lifetime Achievement Awards from both the China and USA National Flute Associations, the National Society of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Lifetime Achievement in Music, and Distinguished Alumni Awards from Brevard Music Center and Manhattan School of Music. In addition, she received a GRAMMY® nomination and a Diapason d'Or Award for her recording of the Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto with the Houston Symphony, a Recording of Special Merit Award with pianist András Schiff, and Gramophone magazine's "Pick of the Month" with the Buffalo Philharmonic. 

About Claire Marie Solomon: Claire Marie Solomon, cellist, is a dynamic chamber, solo and orchestral musician based in Charleston, SC. She performs regularly with the Charleston Symphony and the Sarasota Orchestra in Florida. She has toured with the Staatskapelle Weimar, and spent many summers performing at the Aspen Music Festival. Solomon is a graduate of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where she won the 2017 Cello Competition performing Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No. 1. She earned a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Yale University, where she served as principal of the orchestra and played and toured with Yale’s famed all-cello rock ensemble, Low Strung. Solomon has taught for over ten years maintaining a private studio as well as her popular online course, Hello Cello!. Passionate about all musical genres, she has produced covers and original music under the handle Clairemarie.cello. She recently founded a folk trio, Summerauer, with mandolinist Ben Somerville and guitarist Katelyn Fajardo. She studied primarily with Eric Kim, Wolfram Koessel, and Richard Aaron as well as piano with Hélène Jeanney. Solomon performs on a 2021 William Whedbee cello, and a 1840s Knopf-Bausch bow. 

About Nancy Allen: Nancy Allen has a solo career spanning 50 years. Principal harpist of the New York Philharmonic since 1999, Allen was the first prize winner of Israel’s Fifth International Harp Competition. She was sponsored by a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Award, Affiliate Artists and the Pro Musicis Foundation. As an Angel/ EMI recording artist, her recording “The Music of Ravel and Debussy” earned a GRAMMY® nomination. A student in the last class of the legendary Marcel Grandjany, Allen also studied with Pearl Chertok, Lily Laskine, and with the renowned harpist Susann McDonald. Highlights of her career include performances for Music at the Supreme Court hosted by Justice Sandra Day O’Conner and for the 1986 opening of the Aspen Silverqueen Gondola at the top of Ajax Mountain along with singer John Denver. She has enjoyed close collaborations with soprano Kathleen Battle, guitarist Manuel Barrueco, flutists Carol Wincenc and Ransom Wilson, and with the Tokyo and American String Quartets. Nancy Allen has been head of the harp department of The Juilliard School since 1986. Her students hold major orchestral positions and prizes internationally. A veteran of summer music festivals, she has been a faculty/artist with the Aspen Music Festival since 1976.

About Robert Sirota: Over five decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”

Robert Sirota’s chamber works have been performed by Alarm Will Sound; Washington Square Contemporary Music Society; Sequitur; Sandbox Percussion; Yale Camerata; yMusic; pianist Jeffrey Kahane; TACTUS Ensemble; Chameleon Arts Ensemble; New Hudson Saxophone Quartet; Left Bank Concert Society; Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and the Fischer Duo, and at festivals including the Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Orchestral performances include the Seattle, Vermont, Virginia, East Texas, Lincoln (NE), Meridian (MS), New Haven, Greater Bridgeport, Oradea (Romania) and Saint Petersburg (Russia) symphonies, as well as conservatory orchestras of Oberlin, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music, Toronto, and Singapore. He is currently at work on Rising, a dance piece in collaboration with the Neave Trio, Pigeonwing Dance, and choreographer Gabrielle Lamb. 

In 2021, Sirota launched the Muzzy Ridge Concerts series at his studio in Searsmont, Maine. Held in August each year, Muzzy Ridge Concerts is committed to presenting intimate performances by world-class musicians. Featured musicians have included the Fischer Duo, the Neave Trio, flutist Carol Wincenc, composer/pianist Nico Muhly, violist Nadia Sirota, violist Jonah Sirota, oboist Regina (Gigi) Brady, organist/pianist Victoria Sirota, cellist Velléda Miragias, violinist Laurie Carney, pianist David Friend. 

Recipient of grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center, Sirota’s works are recorded on Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.

Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.

A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.

Robert Sirota: The String Quartets Presented by the Kaufman Music Center Featuring the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer

Photo by Ryuhei Shindo available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/robert-sirota

Robert Sirota: The String Quartets
Presented by the Kaufman Music Center

Featuring the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer

Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Merkin Hall at ​​Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St. | New York, NY

Tickets and Information

“Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.” – Allan Kozinn, The Portland Press Herald

www.robertsirota.com

New York, NY – On Sunday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30pm, Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets, featuring the American String Quartet and the Telegraph Quartet with soprano Abigail Fischer, performing Sirota’s complete works for string quartet thus far. For the first time ever, Sirota's four string quartets –– each of which he describes as “in essence a long journal entry reflecting a response to our times" –– will be heard together in one concert program: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016) Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019) with text by Stevan Cavalier.

Over five decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.

Robert Sirota's impressive catalog of composed work evokes a wide range of emotion that touches on several aspects of the human experience. He says of this collaborative performance and the highlighting of his string quartets:

“I am so looking forward to hearing this significant body of work performed in a single evening by great musicians I have worked with for many years.” .

In response to the calamitous events of September 11, 2001, Sirota wrote Triptych –– the first of what would become a trilogy of string quartets. The work is meant as a commemorative tribute to all those lost on the day of the attacks. The composition was written in conjunction with a painting of the same name by artist Deborah Patterson. Following the premiere of Triptych in September of 2002 at Trinity Church Wall Street, Lucid Culture called the performance "viscerally harrowing,” "impactful," and "riveting."

American Pilgrimage was written by Sirota for the American String Quartet. Though initially reluctant to write another string quartet following Triptych, Sirota found his inner vision for the new piece, calling American Pilgrimage “a true companion” to Triptych. The raw material of the work is derived from four sources: Protestant hymnody, Gospel music, Native American songs, and jazz. The Arts Fuse describes the American String Quartet's premiere recording of American Pilgrimage as “compelling and invigorating.”

Wave Upon Wave is the final piece in the trilogy of quartets that Sirota began with Triptych in 2002. Sirota explains that the quartet is about human hopes, and fears, as well as “prayers that we will triumph over the forces of darkness which threaten to overwhelm us.” Fittingly, The New York Music Daily describes the work as “a search for hope within the human soul.”

After several postponements of its 2020 premiere due to the pandemic, Contrapassos' long awaited debut was presented in July 2022 by the Sierra Chamber Society. With text by librettist Stevan Cavalier and vocals by soprano Abigail Fischer –– a dear, long-time friend of Sirota's –– the 24-minute work for string quartet and soprano reflects a seamless collaboration between poetry, vocal, and instrumental music, inspired by the imagery of Dante. This concert will mark its New York premiere.

More about Robert Sirota: Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; Concerts on the Slope; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, Blair and Telegraph String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent commissions include Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, and yMusic, Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis, Trinity Episcopal Church (Indianapolis), and Sierra Chamber Society, as well as arrangements for Paul Simon.

Since 2021, Sirota has presented Muzzy Ridge Concerts, an annual series featuring performances by world-class musicians, in his home studio in Searsmont, Maine. Robert Sirota has received grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, NEA, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His music is recorded on Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels, and is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore. For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com.

About Telegraph Quartet
About American String Quartet
About Soprano Abigail Fischer

For Calendar Editors:

Description: On April 11, 2024, The Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets, a performance featuring four of the composer’s works as performed by the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016), Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019), with text by Stevan Cavalier. The Portland Press Herald describes Sirota’s works, which encompass an array of emotions and experiences, as “personal and undogmatic.”

Short description: On April 11, 2024, The Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets. The American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and soprano Abigail Fischer will perform a program of Robert Sirota’s “personal and undogmatic” (Portland Press Herald) four string quartets: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016) Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York Premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019).

Concert details:

What: Robert Sirota: The String Quartets
Who: Telegraph Quartet, American String Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer
Presented by Kaufman Music Center
When: Thursday, April 11, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: ​​Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023
Tickets and Information: www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/robert-sirota-the-string-quartets

Divine Discourse - Organist Victoria Sirota and Composer Robert Sirota Presented by St. John’s Episcopal Church on November 12th

Photo by Ryuhei Shindo available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/robert-sirota

Divine Discourse

Victoria Sirota, Organist & Robert Sirota, Composer
Presented by St. John’s Episcopal Church

Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 3pm
St. John's Episcopal Church | 225 French St. | Bangor, ME
Suggested Free Will Offering of $10.00

www.stjohnsbangor.org

“a compelling musical voice of our time”
– The American Organist

www.robertsirota.com

Bangor, ME – On Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 3pm, organist Victoria R. Sirota and composer Robert Sirota will present Divine Discourse, a concert at St. John’s Episcopal Church (225 French St.) featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Robert Sirota.

Victoria Sirota says, “Bob and I have been each other’s primary muse since before we were married over 50 years ago. Over those years he has written more than a dozen works for organ. This one hour recital, which we are calling Divine Discourse, includes music by two composers who have had a strong influence on our musical and spiritual lives: J.S. Bach and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, as well as three Sirota works: Letters Abroad (1982), Celestial Wind (1987), and his most recent organ composition, Prayer (2020).”

Sharing a long history intertwined with family, faith, and music, Robert and Victoria will join together for the concert’s collaborative highlight, Letters Abroad for Piano and Organ –– a nine-movement work written by Robert Sirota in 1982. Around this extensive work, Victoria Sirota will perform J.S. Bach’s Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu dir, BWV 686, which references a Lutheran hymn of 1524 written by Martin Luther as a paraphrase of the Biblical Psalm 130; Fanny Mendelssohn’s Präludium für Orgel F-Dur, one of the last pieces Mendelssohn wrote before her marriage to Wilhelm Hensel; Robert Sirota’s 2020 composition Prayer for organ; and his 1987 work Celestial Wind –– a work also inspired by Biblical scripture which Victoria premiered in 1987.

The central piece of the program, Letters Abroad, is imbued with feelings Robert Sirota experienced during the summer of 1980 when Victoria traveled abroad to pursue research on Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel while he remained in Massachusetts with their young son, Jonah. The work reflects a collection of musical “postcards” Sirota composed in order to, as he says, “ease the pain of separation” from Victoria. Not only does the piece contain a climax that’s intended as an homage to Fanny Mendelssohn but when the Sirotas collaborated on the recording, Robert and Victoria needed to be physically separated by a distance of 100 feet to successfully capture each individual part. Robert Sirota explains that this divide embodies the central metaphor of the work: “The organ and the piano speak to each other over time and space, and create a sense of separation, and ultimately of being reunited.” In this way, both Letters Abroad and Divine Discourse as a whole reflect the kind of personal and artistic intuition for which Robert Sirota is known.

Over five decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.

More about Robert Sirota: Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; Concerts on the Slope; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, Blair and Telegraph String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent commissions include Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, and yMusic, Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis, Trinity Episcopal Church (Indianapolis), and Sierra Chamber Society, as well as arrangements for Paul Simon.

Since 2021, Sirota has presented Muzzy Ridge Concerts, an annual series featuring performances by world-class musicians, in his home studio in Searsmont, Maine. Robert Sirota has received grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, NEA, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His music is recorded on Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels, and is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore. For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com.

About Victoria R. Sirota: Victoria Sirota, organist, Episcopal priest and author, holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Boston University and Harvard Divinity School. She has studied organ with Andre Marchal in Paris and Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and has performed organ recitals in the United States, France and Germany. The Rev. Dr. Sirota has taught at Boston University, Yale Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music, and The Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University. Former National Chaplain for the American Guild of Organists and The Association of Anglican Musicians, she is the author of articles, reviews and texts for hymns, cantatas and song cycles. Her book Preaching to the Choir: Claiming the Role of Sacred Musician is available from Church Publishing, and, in addition to recordings on Northeastern and Gasparo labels, her recording of organ works by Robert Sirota Celestial Wind is available from Albany Records.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Searsmont, ME composer Robert Sirota, whose music is described by The Portland Press Herald as “personal and undogmatic,” and organist Victoria R. Sirota, are presented in concert by St. John’s Episcopal Church. The Sirotas will perform a program titled Divine Discourse, which features Robert Sirota on piano and Victoria Sirota on organ, playing the music of J.S. Bach, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Robert Sirota.

Short description: Composer Robert Sirota, whose music is described as “personal and undogmatic,” (Portland Press Herald), and organist Victoria R. Sirota are presented by St. John’s Episcopal Church, performing music by J.S. Bach, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Robert Sirota.

Concert details:
Who: Organist Victoria Sirota and Composer Robert Sirota Presented by St. John’s Episcopal Church
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Robert Sirota
When: Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 3pm
Where: ​​St. John's Episcopal Church, 225 French St., Bangor, ME
Information (Suggested free will offering $10): www.stjohnsbangor.org

Composer Robert Sirota’s Muzzy Ridge Concerts Returns for Third Season

Top: Neave Trio | Bottom Left: Fischer Duo | Bottom Right: Composer Robert Sirota

Robert Sirota’s Muzzy Ridge Concerts Returns for Third Season
with Fischer Duo and GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio

The Fischer Duo
Saturday, August 19, 2023 at 3pm
Sunday, August 20, 2023 at 3pm

The Neave Trio
Saturday, August 26, 2023 at 3pm
Sunday, August 27, 2023 at 3pm

Tickets and Information: www.robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts

Searsmont, ME – Composer Robert Sirota’s third annual Muzzy Ridge Concerts series brings the highly acclaimed Fischer Duo and GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio to Maine for performances presented over two weekends in August.

Each of the series’ four concerts will be held in the Searsmont, Maine studio where composer and series founder Robert Sirota has written much of his music over the past 35 years. The Sunday programs will be a repeat of the Saturday programs. Performances will run for approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 50 patrons with an additional 20 outdoor seats.

Featured in the first weekend of performances on August 19 and August 20, both at 3pm, are Norman and Jeanne Kierman Fischer of The Fischer Duo, performing works that span from the early 19th century to the present day, including Family Portraits, a new work composed by Robert Sirota and dedicated to the Fischer Duo. Sirota and the Fischer Duo, as well Norman and Jeanne’s two musician daughters Rebecca, and Abigail, share a history steeped in mutual appreciation for music and a meaningful relationship of more than 50 years. The Fischer Duo has embraced opportunities to perform Sirota’s work and with the recording of Family Portraits on the Fischer Duo’s 2022 album 2020 Visions comes a beautiful testament to the friendship these artists share with one another.

Performing on the series’ second weekend, August 26 and August 27 both at 3pm, is the Boston-based, GRAMMY-nominated Neave Trio. The Trio will perform a program showcasing all-women composers: Lili Boulanger, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Ethel Smyth. Though the Neave Trio will be making their Muzzy Ridge Concerts debut, the group has a strong bond of artistic camaraderie with Sirota. Most recently this connection has resulted in the development of Rising, a new collaborative work between the Neave Trio and Sirota, as well as choreographer Gabrielle Lamb and dance company Pigeonwing Dance. Weaving together music, text, and dance, Rising is a meditation not only on rising temperatures and sea levels, but also on humanity’s rising awareness of our connection to and dependence on the Earth’s oceans.

Tickets for all Muzzy Ridge Concerts performances are now on sale at www.robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts.

About the Artists:

The Fischer Duo –– GRAMMY-award winning cellist Norman Fischer and pianist Jeanne Kierman Fischer –– has performed on five continents in its over-50-year history. Founded in 1971 while students at Oberlin College, the Duo has developed a wide-ranging repertoire covering the traditional “canon” plus many forgotten or unknown works of the past. In addition, the Fischers have been very active with music of our own time, commissioning over 30 works and recording even more. The Duo’s extensive discography includes 18 albums from Beethoven, Brahms, 20th Century French Masters, Chopin and Liszt, to generations of American composers.These recordings have garnered rave reviews from The Strad, Gramophone, Strings Magazine, and BBC Music Magazine.

Since forming in 2010, Neave Trio has earned enormous praise for its engaging, cutting-edge performances. WQXR explains, "'Neave' is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." The Boston Musical Intelligencer included Neave in its "Best of 2014" and “Best of 2016” roundups, claiming, “their unanimity, communication, variety of touch, and expressive sensibility rate first tier.” Neave Trio strives to champion new works by living composers and reach wider audiences through innovative concert presentations, regularly collaborating with artists of all mediums. During the 2023-24 season, the Neave Trio will collaborate with Pigeonwing Dance, composer Robert Sirota, and choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, to perform Rising, a brand new evening-length work.

Neave Trio's latest album, Musical Remembrances, released in April 2022 on Chandos Records, was nominated for a 2022 GRAMMY Award in the category of Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance. Musical Remembrances features Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1, Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8, and Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 67, and is the Neave Trio’s fourth album with Chandos Records. It follows Her Voice (2019), French Moments (2018), and Neave’s Chandos debut, American Moments (2016). In 2018, Neave Trio also released its critically acclaimed album, Celebrating Piazzolla (Azica Records, 2018), featuring mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski. More information at: www.neavetrio.com.

During his fifty-year career, composer and Muzzy Ridge Concerts Artistic Director Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe by ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; by the Chiara, American, Telegraph, Ethel, Elmyr, and Blair String Quartets; and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Cooperstown festivals. His Recent commissions include music for the American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, yMusic, and arrangements for Paul Simon. Having served as chief executive of the Boston University School of Music, the NYU Music Department, and the Peabody Conservatory, Sirota retired as President of the Manhattan School of Music in 2012.