Violinist Agostini featured in 'Music for Mary's Field'

Friday, May 26, 2006

Internationally renowned concert violinist and recording artist Federico Agostini, who has toured the world as soloist with "I Musici," and serves on the faculty of IU's Jacobs School of Music, will perform at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 31 on the second concert of the 2006 Greencastle Summer Music Festival at Gobin United Memorial Church in Greencastle, Indiana.

"We're calling this concert 'Music for Mary's Field: A Night in Vienna'," says series director Eric Edberg, Professor of Music at DePauw University. "The costs of the concert have been underwritten by family and friends of the late Mary Field. So we decided to make this concert a benefit for the 'Mary's Field' project." The Friends of the Park of Putnam County are raising funds to turn the vacant lot just east of Greencastle's City Hall into a park honoring Field, who led the effort to preserve the property as open space. All donations received at the concert, unless otherwise specified, will go to the park project.

The program features Schubert's classic Piano Trio in E-flat Major, in which Agostini will be joined by DePauw School of Music professors Claude Cymerman and cellist Eric Edberg, the series director. The three musicians will also perform an arrangement by legendary Viennese violinist Fritz Kreisler, and a Tango by the Argentinean composer Astor Piazzola. "Our idea is to play one of the great classical masterpieces written in Vienna, and then some of the lighter, more entertaining music that one might hear in a Viennese cafˇ."

"I'm absolutely thrilled that Maestro Agostini has agreed to play here in Greencastle," says Edberg. Agostini is now based in Bloomington, but continues to perform around the world in major concert halls and music festival, Edberg explained. "He and Claude Cymerman met in France many years ago and became good friends and frequent musical collaborators, touring in Italy, Germany, France, and Japan. It's due to his friendship with Claude that he's coming. As a concert organizer and a musician, it's a dream come true that he has agreed to play not just this concert, and one two weeks later, here in Greencastle." The next concert will be on June 14, again featuring Agostini, Cymerman, and Edberg, in works by Mozart and Paul Schoenfeld as well as a number of tango arrangements.

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival presents concerts of classical chamber music throughout the summer, and has received major financial support from Fine Print Books, York Chrysler Jeep Dodge of Greencastle, and the Walden Inn and Conference Center, as well donations from many individuals and local businesses.

More information on the series can be found at www.ericedberg.com/summer2006.htm or by calling Edberg at 653-0847.

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