2022 Chamber Music Concerts
West Stockbridge Chamber Players Offer a Powerful and Uplifting Concert
in Support of Ukraine
By Liza Bennett
On a lovely Sunday afternoon in late June, West Stockbridge Historical Society President Robert Salerno welcomed an eager audience to the Old Town Hall, announcing it would be the West Stockbridge Chamber Player’s 33rd benefit concert for the Campaign to Restore the Old Town Hall. He mentioned that the event, also organized to help raise money for Ukraine, would be followed by a guided tour of TurnPark Art Space that has led a donation drive for much needed relief funds for that besieged country.
Catherine Hudgins, the Chamber Players’ artistic director, took the stage and explained that, as in all the programs she curates for the group, she likes to explore connections and themes in the music to be performed. In putting together this concert for Ukraine, she found that Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus’s son, had settled in Lemberg (now Lviv), where he founded the first music school in that city. This was also the first Chamber Players concert to feature a father and son; Franz Mozart's Quartet in G minor, Op. 1, which Hudgins had arranged for clarinet, would be followed by W.A. Mozart's Larghetto from the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581.
Arvo Pärt’s Psalom for String Quartet was next on the program. Pärt, an Estonian, had broadcast his support for Ukraine in a powerful speech that included “We bow before your bravery, bravery in the face of nearly unbearable suffering.” The Ukrainian composer Evgeni Orkin’s Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet, Op. 43, with a second movement that echoed W.A. Mozart’s Larghetto, concluded the concert.
This inspiring program was beautifully performed by clarinetist Catherine Hudgins, violinists Sarah Atwood and Amy Sims, violist Nathaniel Farny, and cellist William Rounds. Before the final piece by Evgeni Orkin, Ms. Hudgins said that she had been in touch with the composer, who told her how he hoped his music would help give the people of Ukraine a voice. His three-part quintet opened with music interspersed with poetry from the Japanese poet Shōtetsu. Historical Society board member Sybil Pollet supplied moving translations, as well as a dramatic reading of the poems.
Photo by Robert Salerno.jpeg
Catherine Hudgins, the Chamber Players’ artistic director, took the stage and explained that, as in all the programs she curates for the group, she likes to explore connections and themes in the music to be performed. In putting together this concert for Ukraine, she found that Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus’s son, had settled in Lemberg (now Lviv), where he founded the first music school in that city. This was also the first Chamber Players concert to feature a father and son; Franz Mozart's Quartet in G minor, Op. 1, which Hudgins had arranged for clarinet, would be followed by W.A. Mozart's Larghetto from the Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581.
Arvo Pärt’s Psalom for String Quartet was next on the program. Pärt, an Estonian, had broadcast his support for Ukraine in a powerful speech that included “We bow before your bravery, bravery in the face of nearly unbearable suffering.” The Ukrainian composer Evgeni Orkin’s Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet, Op. 43, with a second movement that echoed W.A. Mozart’s Larghetto, concluded the concert.
This inspiring program was beautifully performed by clarinetist Catherine Hudgins, violinists Sarah Atwood and Amy Sims, violist Nathaniel Farny, and cellist William Rounds. Before the final piece by Evgeni Orkin, Ms. Hudgins said that she had been in touch with the composer, who told her how he hoped his music would help give the people of Ukraine a voice. His three-part quintet opened with music interspersed with poetry from the Japanese poet Shōtetsu. Historical Society board member Sybil Pollet supplied moving translations, as well as a dramatic reading of the poems.
Photo by Robert Salerno.jpeg
This program is supported in part by a grant from the West Stockbridge Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.
Please consider making a donation to support Ukraine through "Cash for Refugees"
We are working with TurnPark Art Space, which has led a donation campaign to support Ukraine, to raise much-needed relief funds. “Cash for Refuges” is an NGO founded by refugees, for refugees, they give cash directly to people displaced by the war in Ukraine. They are focused on the most vulnerable: women with children, the elderly and the disabled. No bureaucracy, no overhead, no delays. This organization gives them the means to buy what they need to survive their ordeal. It gives them dignity, it gives them hope. To make your contribution please go to: https://www.cashforrefugees.org/