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GSMF welcomes Sussman for Bach to Brazil program
The Greencastle Summer Music Festival continues on Wednesday with “New Friends, Part 4,” a musical journey from Bach to Brazil, as DePauw University’s new flute professor Leo Sussman joins the GSMF family of “friends making music for friends” for the first time. Also appearing is Toco Rio, the trio of Linda and Jeff Binder, and Greencastle’s own Ben Hogan, performing Brazilian choro music.
The 7:30 p.m. performance in Gobin Church is free and open to the public. The GSMF is made possible by donations from individuals and businesses. Doc’s Inn is the underwriter for this week’s concert. The festival is also supported by an endowment at the Putnam County Community Foundation and the Inn at DePauw, host for out-of-town performers.
The first half of this week’s program features Sussman, joined by GSMF director/cellist performing music of — and inspired by — Johann Sebastian Bach. The duo opens with their own arrangements of a set of the composer’s two-part inventions, followed by a collection of short flute solos assembled in homage to the Baroque dance suite. The first half closes with “The Jet Whistle” by Heitor Villa-Lobos, whose musical voice fuses his love of Bach and his home country of Brazil.
After intermission, Toco Rio plays Brazilian choro music, a bubbly and unique blend of African rhythm and European form, created in the early 20th century in Rio de Janeiro. Choro is widely considered to be the first style of metropolitan popular music to originate from Brazil and is a precursor to many other popular styles in the country, such as samba and bossa nova.
Toco Rio consists of the husband and wife duo of Jeff and Linda Binder on guitar and bandolim, and Greencastle-based percussionist Hogan on pandeiro. The three bonded over their shared love for the music in 2015. Members of Toco Rio have had the opportunity to study with Brazilian luminaries such as Hermeto Pasocal, Douglas Lora, Dudu Maia and Leander Motta.
Flutist Sussman grew up playing chamber music in living rooms and gigging with a salsa band in his hometown of San Francisco. An avid collaborator in the spheres of chamber and contemporary music, he has performed with groups including Alarm Will Sound, SEM Ensemble, and Metropolis Ensemble as well as held fellowships at the Norfolk, Bowdoin, and Atlantic summer music festivals.
Sussman teaches flute at DePauw, where he has co-directed the faculty chamber music ensemble and helps run the Electronics Experimentation Lab. He is an alum of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, a chamber music and teaching artistry fellowship. Leo studied flute and physics at Lawrence University before graduate work at Yale and Manhattan School of Music.
The GSMF will continue on Wednesday, July 19 with jazz keyboardist Steve Snyder and Cathie Malach and Friends.