Music	New Chamber Music Series Begins Wednesday by Jan Jezioro

JoAnn Falletta in a Gloria Croker painting

Just suppose that you were a newly arrived traveling musical impresario in town, and that you were looking for some classically trained musicians for a new series of chamber music concerts that you were interested in promoting. Where would you look first? The answer is obvious—your search would immediately lead to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the richest and deepest source of classical musical talent in Western New York.

Traveling impresarios being in short supply these days, a group of musicians from the BPO who love to play chamber music have recently decided to take the matter into their own hands. The newly formed group, the Buffalo Chamber Players, has just announced its inaugural concert to be held on Wednesday, November 7, at 7pm at the Buffalo Seminary, 205 Bidwell Parkway.

In a recent conversation, BPO violist Janz Castelo spoke about the genesis of the group. “We’ve been kicking around the idea of starting a new chamber group for the last few years. Most of the musicians in the orchestra love playing chamber music in public, but don’t have the opportunity, so this year we decided to take the plunge and start our own series.”

Needing a venue for the concerts, Castelo sought some advice from his neighbor, the well-known organist and pianist Roland Martin. One of the many hats that Martin wears is that of teacher at the Buffalo Seminary, and he suggested using the Seminary’s chapel for the first concert, offering his services as intermediary. Castelo checked out the chapel and immediately liked what he saw.

“With a seating capacity of around 350, the Buffalo Seminary chapel is an ideal size for chamber music concerts. Moving here from Boston to join the BPO in 2001, I’ve been continually impressed by the number of public spaces, many of them in places of worship, suitable for musical performance. A lot of them, however, are too large to convey the sense of intimacy necessary for the most successful chamber music performances. The chapel at Buffalo Seminary is just the right size.”

Castelo also mentioned that he, along with many of the musicians in the new ensemble, is a resident of the Elmwood Village. He feels that the new concert series will help contribute to the growing vibrancy of the area, which has received national recognition recently.

One of the impetuses behind the formation of the Buffalo Chamber Players is a commitment to exploring the less often heard masterworks of the chamber music repertoire, using a flexible mixed ensemble, mostly of BPO members, along with other musicians. Castelo, who serves as spokesperson for the new ensemble, is quick to point out that he is by no means its music director. “Decisions about which pieces to perform are made as a group, and different musicians will be performing in any particular concert, based on the type of instrument required by the program.” The new group plans to offer an additional pair of concerts this spring, eventually performing four concerts per year.

The Wednesday evening program begins and ends with works by Igor Stravinsky. The brief Fanfare for a New Theatre with trumpet players Alex Jokipii and Geoffrey Hardcastle is a very fitting choice for the first concert in a new series. The program will conclude with the Octet for wind instruments, a work that manages to combine classical forms with jazz and dance rhythms in a manner that still sounds very fresh. Betsy Reeds, flute, Patti Dilutis, clarinet, Glenn Einschlag and Ellen Barnum, bassoons, with Jonathan Lombardo and Jeffrey Dee, trombones, join Jokipii and Hardcastle for a rare performance of this work outside of a music conservatory. Catherine Estes will be the oboist in Benjamin Britten’s Phantasy Quartet, along with Antoine LeFebvre, violin, Kate Holzemer, viola and David Schmude, cello. Amy Glidden and Jacqueline Galluzzo, violins, will be joined by Holzemer and Castelo, violas, with Amelie Fradette, cello, for Mozart’s String Quintet No. 4 in g minor, K.516.

As a special guest, BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta, guitar, will join Shieh-Jian Tsai, violin, Castelo, viola, and Schmude, cello, in a performance of the Paganini Quartet No. 15. Falletta’s first love was the guitar, and she enjoys a mastery of the instrument that has allowed her to play at the level of such virtuosos of the guitar as Angel Romero, who she joined on the stage at Kleinhans Music Hall back in 2001 for a performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Guitars in G major. JoAnn Falletta has also played the guitar as part of a chamber music group on a couple of well-received major label CD releases, and the rare, local opportunity to hear her play the guitar makes this a concert event that you will not want to miss.

Tickets are $15, $5 for students and may be purchased at the door. For more information visit www.buffalochamberplayers.com or call 462-5659.