Festival continues Wednesday with 'The More the Merrier'

Sunday, June 14, 2015
Making his Greencastle Summer Music Festival, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra Associate Concertmaster Philip Palermo (foreground) will perform at Gobin United Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday alongside (from left) Claude Cymerman, Nicole Brokmann and Eric Edberg. (Courtesy photo)

Indianapolis Symphony Associate Concertmaster Philip Palermo makes his Greencastle Summer Music Festival debut this week in "The More the Merrier," a free Wednesday 7:30 p.m. concert in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church celebrating the joys of classical chamber music.

Also performing are violist Nicole Brockmann and cellist Eric Edberg, both DePauw music faculty, and French pianist Claude Cymerman, who retired one year ago from the School of Music.

"The interactivity and emotional intensity are what musicians love about this kind of small ensemble, one-on-a-part music making," said Edberg, who is also the founding artistic director of the festival, now in its 11th summer. "My dad used to say he found good chamber music playing more emotionally engaging than large symphony concerts, because of the intensity of the personal connections.

"These are some of the most imaginative and creative players I've ever made music with," he added. "Phil plays with the widest range of sound colors of any violinist I've ever worked with. Nicole's playing is so full of life and imagination that Yo-Yo Ma once said she 'oozes musicality.' And everyone in Greencastle knows how lucky we are to have a world-class pianist like Claude in our midst.

"Even audience members who aren't familiar with classical music will find this a truly enlivening experience -- we'll all leave feeling more alive, I promise!"

The concert begins with a short duet by Beethoven, who played the viola and wrote it to play with a close friend who played the cello.

"It's called the 'Eyeglasses Duet,' because they both wore glasses to read music, and Beethoven jokingly wrote in the score that two pairs of glasses were required.," Edberg explained.

"A Serenade for String Trio" by the Hungarian composer Ern Dohnanyi follows.

"This piece is made up of five short movements. It's full of rhythmic excitement, lyrical singing melodies and moments of passionate drama. Then after a brief intermission, we'll add Claude into the mix for the lush, colorful and at times humorously playful 'Quartet for Piano and Strings' by Gabriel Fauré, the great French composer who was one of Debussy's teachers."

The Greencastle Summer Music Festival is supported solely by free-will offerings and donations from individuals and businesses, including the Inn at DePauw.

Next week, the festival continues with The Vivaldi Project, a string trio led by Allison Edberg Nyquist, performing their lively program, "Antonio and the No Hit Wonders."

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