Media Contact:
Celeste Hardester
215-518-1799
celeste@fineartmusiccompany.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fine Art Music Company presents Part II of Its Audience-Acclaimed Story-in-Concert, War of the Romantics, on March 30-31, 2019
Innovative Format Offers Insider’s View of 19th Century Revolution in Music
PHILADELPHIA, February 25, 2019— Fine Art Music Company is presenting Part II of its series, War of the Romantics, which portrays in story and music the most intense creative schism in the history of classical music that occurred in the mid-1800s. During this period—as fractious as it was fertile—the traditions of composition came up against new ways of viewing the purpose of music. Composers, musicians, and audiences alike took sides in a dispute that grew to surprising intensity as differences that started in the quiet of composition rooms turned into highly charged public demonstrations (not unlike the ones we are witnessing today in the world of politics!)
Salon-style performances are already a hallmark of Fine Art Music. This series goes several steps further with an innovative approach that marries classical music with theater. War of the Romantics, Part I introduced a fictional 19th century music critic, Gerhard Denhoff, who served as commentator and storyteller, trying to stay as open as possible as possible to the arguments presented by both sides of the musical divide. In Part II, his perspective evolves as he comes up against the very prickly character of real-life critic Eduard Hanslick. The two of them discuss, defend, and distill the beliefs of the two camps in an entertaining and enlightening way that brings our audience right into the passion of the times. Their debates weave throughout a program of strong Romantic works that epitomize the intense emotions and disparity of belief.
Part I of this series introduced the players, as it were, and provided the backstory to their lives and relationships. Part II goes even deeper into the story—both its musical and historical underpinnings, as well as the human side of the War of the Romantics, complete with some surprising elements that were known in those times but not in today’s concert world. The performance is a beautifully blended combination of music, history, humor and—as one would expect from the Romantics—drama. This is possible thanks to a unique collaboration among several Philadelphia-area artists: pianists Rollin Wilber and Katarzyna Salwinski, violinists Min-Young-Kim and Samuel Nebyu, violist Timothy Schwarz, cellist Michal Schmidt, playwright Ella Remmings, and actor/performers Robert Edwin and Joseph Barron.
“Our goal for designing this unique concert format is to offer something unexpected,” said Rollin Wilber, pianist and co-founder of Fine Art Music Company. “By illuminating the ideas, struggles, and beliefs of the composers, our listeners identify with their story and, in a new way, become involved with a greater feeling for the inspirations in these works.”
“Composers in the 19th century believed that music is the first, most immediate language of human emotions and a reflection of human existence, said Katarzyna Salwinski, pianist and co-founder of Fine Art Music Company. “They made it personal and perhaps this is why their music still stirs our emotions 200 years later.”
Fine Art Music Company follows in the tradition of closely shared music playing among musicians, composers and listeners that occurred routinely in 19th century drawing rooms, parlors, and salons. People could converse, respond openly and feel personally involved in the creative process of musical performance. Performing great music, closely shared.
TICKETS
To purchase tickets, please visit https://fineartmusiccompany.ticketleap.com/
Saturday concert admission $27/general; $22/seniors; $10/students
Sunday concert admission $27/general; $22/seniors; $15/members; $10/students
CONCERT INFORMATION
Part II of War of the Romantics
Battle! Mind Over Music
Piano, string quartet, baritone, and narration
Saturday, March 30, 2019, 7:30pm, Ivy Hall, International Institute for Culture
Sunday, March 31, 2019, 3:00 pm, The Ethical Society Building
Program:
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor
Brahms-Joachim: Hungarian Dances for violin
Liszt: Dante Sonata for piano
Wagner- Liszt Love-Death Scene from Tristan & Isolde
Liszt: Grand Galup Chromatique, arranged for six-hand piano
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Rollin Wilber, pianist and Artistic Director, Fine Art Music Company
Katarzyna Salwinski, pianist and Artistic Director, Fine Art Music Company
Min-Young Kim, violinist
Samuel Nebyu, violinist
Timothy Schwarz, violist
Michal Schmidt, cellist
Ella Remmings, author and playwright
Robert Edwin, actor and singer
Joseph Barron, actor
ABOUT FINE ART MUSIC COMPANY
Fine Art Music Company brings together exceptional Philadelphia-area musicians and listeners through creative concert programming held in the intimacy of smaller halls and salons. We feel the potency and depth of classical music is best experienced in settings that bring audiences and musicians nearer one another.
IVY HALL 6331 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151
PHILADELPHIA ETHICAL SOCIETY 1906 S. Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103
© Fine Art Music Company
Email: info@fineartmusiccompany.com; Tel: 215-803-9725