Thurnauer Chamber Music Society
2nd Concert In Its 21st Season
Saturday, February 1st At 7:30pm
With “a Trio Of Trios”

Tenafly, N.J., January 23, 2014—The Thurnauer Chamber Music Society (TCMS), the professional ensemble in residence at the JCC Thurnauer School of Music since 1992, continues their concert series with a second performance in  its exciting 21st season with A Trio of Trios.  The performance will take place Saturday, February 1st at 7:30 p.m. in the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades (411 East Clinton Avenue, Tenafly NJ) Eric Brown Theater.

Featuring accomplished musical artists Sharon Roffman, violin (founding member); Yari Bond, cello; Richard Goldsmith, clarinet; and Max Mandel, viola, the Thurnauer Chamber Music Society has presented stimulating performances of music of a wide variety of composers and cultures. More information about the ensemble is available below. Individual artist bios are available upon request. Guest artist David Kaplan, Piano

A Trio of Trios, as its name suggests, features works in groups of three. The title, however, doesn't hint at the stylistic and coloristic contrasts that these three works provide. 

Gideon Klein lived only 25 years and perished in the Fürstengrube concentration camp in 1945. A gifted composer and pianist of Czech origin, Klein was sent to Theresienstadt when the Nazi's invaded Czechoslovakia, and it was there that he composed what was to be his final work, this folksy and vibrant string trio. Theresienstadt was originally designated as a model community for middle-class Jews from Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Austria. Many educated Jews were inmates of Theresienstadt. In a propaganda effort designed to fool the Western allies, the Nazis publicized the camp for its rich cultural life. In reality, according to a Holocaust survivor, "during the early period there were no [musical] instruments whatsoever, and the cultural life came to develop itself only ... when the whole management of Theresienstadt was steered into an organized course." At least four concert orchestras were organized in the camp, as well as chamber groups and jazz ensembles. Several stage performances were produced and attended by camp inmates. Many prominent artists from Czechoslovakia, Austria, and Germany were imprisoned at Theresienstadt, along with writers, scientists, jurists, diplomats, musicians, and scholars.

Mozart's E major piano trio is certainly the most traditional work on the program, both in its instrumentation and style. A rather late work, it exemplifies the Classical ideals of clarity and simplicity that pervade Mozart's work.

Carl Frühling , like Klein, is mainly unknown amongst concertgoers. While he composed over a hundred works in all forms and performed as a pianist with some of the most important musicians in Europe at the time his budding career was virtually destroyed by the onset of World War I and the fact that he was a Jew in Vienna during the rise of Nazism. In this richly Romantic work, one may hear distinct influences of Brahms as well as the later Romantics, Strauss and Mahler.       

Tickets ($16 JCC members, $20 non-members) may be purchased by calling 201.408.1465 or emailing thurnauer@jccotp.org. Subscriptions for the ensemble’s three-concert season (also including March 9, 2014 concert) may be purchased as well. ($42 JCC members, $52 non-members)

The Thurnauer Chamber Music Society is made possible by a generous contribution from Eva Holzer and the Konikow Chamber Music Endowment.

For more information, please visit http://www.jccotp.org/tcms.

About the Thurnauer Chamber Music Society

Since 1992, the artist-members of the Thurnauer Chamber Music Society (TCMS) have presented stimulating and provocative performances representing a wide range of eras, styles, and instrumentation. Each concert is preceded by an informal and entertaining discussion/demonstration of the evening’s program and is followed by a friendly “meet-the-artists” reception.

Members of the TCMS have performed with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; Musicians from Marlboro; New York Philomusica; North-South Consonance; Dorian Quartet; and the American Chamber Players. They have performed, collectively, at the Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Marlboro, New England Bach, Norfolk, Caramoor, Spoleto, and San Juan Islands festivals. They have appeared as soloists and as members of orchestras throughout the world, and have recorded for the RCA, Columbia, Sony, Koch International, Elektra, and CRI labels.

About the JCC Thurnauer School of Music

The JCC Thurnauer School of Music is one of the metropolitan area’s leading community music schools. Serving nearly 450 students from infancy through adulthood, it offers a comprehensive program similar to the finest pre-college conservatories. The Thurnauer experience includes instrumental lessons, ensembles, and classes, as well as the Gift of Music Gala Benefit Concert; master classes with world-renowned artists; a chamber music series; faculty recitals; and frequent student performances.

Thurnauer accepts all who wish to attend; there are no auditions. Thurnauer students have performed in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sesame Street, and with renowned artists including Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Bell, Pinchas Zukerman, Paquito d’Riviera and Itzhak.  [Add the standard sentence about TSM being part of the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, a…..serving over 20,000…..]

The JCC Thurnauer School of Music is a member of the National Guild for Community Arts Education and received an award for “excellence and high standards” from The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.