Essex Winter Series forecasts varied program

December 05, 2015 11:01 pm • Last Updated: December 07, 2015 9:50 am

By RITA CHRISTOPHER, Special to The Day

The Juilliard String Quartet (Courtesy Essex Winter Series)

Winter: Snow days, bags of ice melt, boots wading through slush, but, wait! Winter also has a softer side; the weather also brings the music of the Essex Winter Series.

This year, the four-concert series begins with one of the most famous of all-string groups, the Juilliard String Quartet. And the performance is even more significant because longtime cellist Joel Krosnick has announced that after more than 40 years as a member of the group, this will be his last season.

“This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity,” the series’ artistic director and pianist Mihae Lee says.

The Juilliard quartet will have a special addition for its Essex Winter Series performance: Lee, a chamber music specialist, will join the Juilliard group for Brahm’s F minor Piano Quintet. In addition, the concert will include string quartets by Mozart and Beethoven.

Other concerts in the series include an Essex resident with a reputation that extends far beyond this area — soprano Patricia Schuman, presenting a program she calls “Winter Romance” that features music drawn from classical sources as well as from the great American songbook. Schuman promises her March concert also will have a special addition, a performer she will only identify as a mystery guest.

The Stu Ingersoll Jazz Concert also brings back a local favorite, jazzman Jeff Barnhart, with a group that includes Vince Giordano, who has appeared many times on the winter series program playing bass, tuba and bass sax. The concert will feature jazz standards from the first half of the 20th century.

The final concert of the season pairs violinist Tessa Lark, a winner of the prestigious Naumberg International Violin Award, with the New Haven Symphony under the direction of William Boughton in Beethoven’s violin concerto in D major. Lark is this year’s Fenton Brown Emerging Artist. The late Fenton Brown was the founder and longtime director of the Essex Winter Series.

“I’ve had my eye on Tessa ever since she won the Naumberg competition,” says Lee.

Lee explained that her own experience as a longtime performer in the world of classical music enables her to reach out to distinguished artists to make up the winter series program. Sometimes the connections are very personal. Lee said she once lived on the same street in Westchester Country as Juilliard cellist Joel Krosnick. Lee also knew the first violin player of the Juilliard group, Joseph Lin, from his days at Harvard when Lee herself performed in the Boston area. She added that the region also helps attract artists.

“We’re midway between New York and Boston, and people love to come up here. That’s the beauty of the location,” she said.

In addition to its schedule of performances, the Essex Winter Series also sponsors three days of musical outreach to local schools and community centers. In response to increased demand for appearances, the outreach program was increased from two to three days last year. This year violinist Lark will visit schools in Middletown, New London, Deep River and Essex and will play at the Child & Family Agency in New London, the Community Music School in Essex and Essex Meadows Health Center.

“We want to bring music to the people at the health center. They are not mobile so this is important. Every time we go there, people ask us if we are going to come back next week,” Lee said. She noted that Lark, a native of Kentucky, can entertain audiences not only with her classical repertoire but with spirited bluegrass music as well.

Lee, a Deep River resident, is now in her sixth year as artistic director. In addition to the Essex Winter Series, Lee has just been named music director of a series that takes place in the summer in Maine, the Sebago-Long Lake Festival. That festival, she points out, has an all-chamber music program; in contrast, she described the Essex Winter Series concerts as a presentation series that features different kinds of music and different combinations of performers from solo artists to symphony orchestras.

While still keeping her eye on the programs this season, Lee is already anticipating what will happen next year, the 40th anniversary of the Essex Winter Series. She already has lined up one very special performer, known to millions from his long running hour on National Public Radio: Garrison Keillor of “A Prairie Home Companion.” Keillor’s wife is a violinist and Lee stayed with them when visiting in St. Paul, Minn. The Keillors had a grand piano but no one to play it.

“He loved to host pianists,” Lee recalls. She asked Keillor if he would do a program at the Essex Winter Series and he agreed. Keillor recently said that he would step down as host of “A Prairie Home Companion” after the 2015-16 season.

No matter what the season or what the program or who the guest, there is one constant on Lee’s schedule. It is something that every musician, amateur or professional, knows about: practice. She still does it every afternoon. And when she has a rare day off, Lee knows what she would like to do with her time.

“My dream,” she says, “is to go to three movies in a row.”

Essex Winter Series artistic director and pianist Mihae Lee (Courtesy Essex Winter Series)