Media Contact:
Celeste Hardester
215-518-1799
celeste@fineartmusiccompany.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Fine Art Music Company presents a Two-Part Story-in-Concert on the 19th Century Revolution in Music in its series, War of the Romantics, January 26-27 and March 30-31, 2019
Innovative Concert Gives an Inside View to This Period of Enormous Creativity and Disruption
PHILADELPHIA, December 31, 2018— Fine Art Music Company is presenting a two-part concert series (January 26-27 and March 30-31, 2019) to portray a view of classical music’s most fertile and fractious period. In the mid-1800s, this music virtually exploded with creativity and popularity. Composers became the entertainment stars of their era, and many of them were friends, colleagues, and perhaps even intimates. Over time, their diverging beliefs about the meaning and purity of music caused a rift that affected professional and personal lives. It became known as the War of the Romantics.
Salon-style performances are already a hallmark of Fine Art Music. This series will go one step further with an innovative approach that marries classical music with theater. An on-stage 19th century music critic, Gerhard Denhoff, serves as commentator, critic, and story-teller. He will provide a vibrant account of how key musical events unfolded before his very eyes, in a way that is both profound and entertaining, surprising and reflective.
Part I of this series introduces the players, as it were, and provides the backstory to their lives and relationships, embedded in a musical program that sets the stage for this “War.” Part II goes into the thick of the story, with robust Romantic music, and dramatic elements unique to those times. Each performance weaves music with history, humor and pathos. This project is the result of a collaboration of Philadelphia-area artists: pianists Rollin Wilber and Katarzyna Salwinski, violinist/violist Adelya Shagidullina, playwright Ella Remmings, and actor/performer Robert Edwin.
“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 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. Their motto is: “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
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CONCERT INFORMATION
Part I of War of the Romantics – “Musical Raptures”
Saturday, January 26, 2019, Ivy Hall, International Institute for Culture
Sunday, January 27, 2019, The Ethical Society Building
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Program: Piano, violin, viola, baritone and narration
Beethoven: Movements from the Spring Sonata for violin & piano; Symphony #7 for piano 4-hand
Robert Schumann: from Piano Fantasy in C; Dedication for baritone; selections from Dichterliebe for violin
Chopin: Scherzo #1 for piano
Brahms: “Edward” Ballade for piano; movements from 3rd Symphony and 2nd Piano Concerto for piano four-hand
Liszt: Vallee d’Obermann for solo piano
Clara Schumann: Romance for violin & piano
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Part II of War of the Romantics – “Battle! Mind Over Music”
Saturday, March 30, 2019, Ivy Hall, International Institute for Culture
Sunday, March 31, 2019, The Ethical Society Building
Program: with piano, string quartet, baritone, and narration
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor
Brahms-Joachim: Hungarian Dances for violin
Liszt: Wagner’s Love-Death Scene from Tristan & Isolde; Dante Sonata for piano
Works by Schumann, Wolf, Berlioz and others
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Rollin Wilber, pianist and Artistic Director, Fine Art Music Company
Katarzyna Salwinski, pianist and Artistic Director, Fine Art Music Company
Adelya Shagidullina, violist/violinist
Ella Remmings, author and playwright
Robert Edwin, actor and singer
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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 – International Institute for Culture
6331 Lancaster Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151
PHILADELPHIA ETHICAL SOCIETY
1906 S. Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103
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© Fine Art Music Company
Email: info@fineartmusiccompany.com; Tel: 215-803-9725
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