Menu
Allison Edberg Nyquist returns as Vivaldi Project presents concert
The Vivaldi Project, including former Greencastle resident Allison Edberg Nyquist on violin and viola, brings "Antonio and the No-Hit Wonders" to town this week as the Greencastle Summer Music Festival continues Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
The festival's free concerts in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church are made possible by free-will offerings, donations and support from local businesses, including the Inn at DePauw.
Praised by the Washington Post for presenting a "storm of electrifying improvisation impelled by a throbbing metrical pulse" and for "buoyant spirit, expressive warmth and technical fluency" by the Baltimore Sun, the Vivaldi Project is committed to presenting interactive concerts.
The group explains, "It is the central belief of the Vivaldi Project that musical performances are events. Music from the 17th and 18th century was conceived at a time when its very existence depended on the personal and spontaneous expressions of live performers for live audiences.
"Highly rhetorical in nature, music was viewed as a language in its own right just as capable of communicating ideas and emotions, only through melody and harmony rather than words. It is interaction with the audience which renders each performance unique, and at a Vivaldi Project concert, the audience becomes an essential part of the music-making process."
"This week's program is a celebration of the string trio (violin, viola and cello), a wonderful combination for which surprisingly little music was composed," Eric Edberg, the DePauw music professor who founded the festival in 2005, explained.
"The concert title is tongue in cheek -- in addition to a trio by Antonio Vivaldi, one of the most famous classical composers, the performance includes music by wonderful composers who for one reason or another have not received as much public attention in recent years," Edberg added. "The group recently raised over $10,000 on Kickstarter to make a CD of this music, and I look forward to this concert very much."
The Vivaldi Project website explains the performers are "thrilled to be embarking upon our new venture to record on one CD a set of rarely performed and mostly unknown string trios from the Classical Period, works by C.A. Campioni, J.C.Bach, the famed Joseph Haydn, Luigi Boccherini, Giussepe Cambini, Christian Cannabich and Felice Giardini."
Performing on period instruments, Elizabeth Field, violin, Allison Edberg Nyquist, violin and viola, and Stephanie Vial, cello rediscover the extraordinary and delightful textures and sonorities these trios present.
"It is a curious fact that only a few trios survive as celebrated works to modern performers and audiences. These are Beethoven's op. 9 set of three string trios, the two youthful trios of Schubert (the first an unfinished work), and the extraordinary six-movement Divertimento in Eb by Mozart, notably the sole representative from the 18th century.
"These are six truly masterful works, often performed and recorded, but which naturally beg the question, 'Where did they come from?' And more eagerly, 'Are there more?' We set out to find out, and with just a little bit of digging quickly unearthed a whole history of string trio writing by many of the 18th century's most prolific and eminent composers. The string trio is revealed to be a flexible and exciting genre in its own right, highly popular in its day, and an important link between the baroque trio sonata and the classical string quartet."
The Vivaldi Project, under the leadership of violinist Elizabeth Field and cellist Stephanie Vial, has been gaining critical acclaim for its brilliant and expressive string playing, as well as its innovative programming which combines scholarship and performance to both educate and delight audiences.
Since it was founded by Field in 2006, the Vivaldi Project has performed throughout the DC area and the country, including live performances and interviews for Washington's WETA, North Carolina's WCPE and WUNC and Minnesota Public Radio.
The Vivaldi Project, and its educational arm, the Institute for Early Music on Modern Instruments, strive to build relationships with local arts organizations to bring a deeper appreciation for our classical music heritage to diverse metropolitan, rural, and underserved communities.
One of the preeminent performers on baroque and modern violin, Allison Edberg Nyquist has been praised by The Chicago Sun Times as "impeccable, with unerring intonation and an austere beauty." Currently the concertmaster of the Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra, a founding member of the early music ensemble Olde Friends, and the education director for the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra, she has performed throughout North America with Apollo's Fire, Chatham Baroque, Ensemble Galilei, the foundling Baroque Orchestra, La Monica, the Washington Bach Consort and the Vivaldi Project. Frequently featured at the Bloomington Early Music Festival and the Indianpolis Early Music Festival, Nyquist has served on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Camp as well as those of DePauw University, Indiana State University, Lawrence University and Ohio State University.
A student of Stanley Ritchie at the Indiana University Early Music Institute, she received a bachelor of music degree from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and a master of music degree from the University of Michigan.
The festival will continue Wednesday, July 1 with a recital by Japanese pianist Taka Kigawa and cellist Eric Edberg.