University of New England

UNE Hosts Portland Chamber Music Festival
Concert March 3rd

The Portland Chamber Music Festival’s spring concert features performances of works by Mozart, Kodály and Shostakovich on Friday, March 3, 2006, at 7:30 p.m. at Ludcke Auditorium at the University of New England’s Westbrook College Campus, 716 Stevens Ave., Portland.

Violinist Jennifer Elowitch

The concert is sponsored by the University of New England’s Richard F. Bond Enrichment Series. Admission is free for UNE students, faculty and staff members with I.D., as well as anyone age 21 and under. General Admission for all other adults is $10 at the door.

2006 celebrates the birth of two important composers - the 250th anniversary of Mozart's birth, as well as the 100th anniversary of Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich's birth. The PCMF marks this celebration with a program including: Trio in C Major, K.548,  W.A. Mozart and Quintet in G minor for Piano and Strings, Op. 57,  Dimitri Shostakovich; as well as the Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, Op.12, by Zoltán Kodály.

Performers include: PCMF artistic directors Jennifer Elowitch, violin (Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra/Boston Symphony) and Dena Levine, piano (faculty, Seton Hall University); Lydia Forbes, violin (DaPonte String Quartet); Andrew Mark, cello (chair, String Department, Boston Conservatory); and Carol Rodland, viola (Orpheus Chamber Orchestra).

For more information about the Portland Chamber Music Festival, you may view their website at www.pcmf.org

Performers

Pianist Dena Levine

PCMF Artistic Co-Director and pianist Dena Levine has appeared at the Marlboro and Tanglewood Festivals and at international music series and festivals in Germany, Holland, Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines. As a founding member of the Laurel Trio, she was a winner of the Concert Artists Guild Competition and the ProPiano Competition, and completed a two-year residency on New York's WQXR Radio. Ms. Levine has also been a guest on the People's Symphony Series at Town Hall in New York, the Premiere Performances Series in St. Louis, and recently gave her New York debut at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Levine has taught for the City University of New York and at Princeton University, and is currently assistant professor of piano at Seton Hall University where she also directs the school’s concert series.

Violinist Jennifer Elowitch, a Portland native, is the assistant principal second violinist of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra and performs regularly with the Boston Symphony. A committed performer of contemporary music, Elowitch has appeared with Boston Musica Viva, Collage New Music, the Fromm Players at Harvard, and the Wellesley Composers Conference. She is the artistic co-director and executive director of the Portland Chamber Music Festival, with whom she has appeared on WGBH radio in Boston and on NPR’s "Performance Today." She is currently on the faculty at Bowdoin College and the New England Conservatory Preparatory School, and has presented workshops and master classes at The Boston Conservatory, Community Musicworks in Providence, New England Conservatory, and Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis.

Violinist Lydia Forbes, who was born in Boston, is the newest member of the DaPonte String Quartet. Forbes graduated from Yale College and the New England Conservatory of Music. She also studied in Austria with the Alban Berg Quartet and in Amsterdam, on a Beebe fund Grant.  She was most recently a member of the new music Zephyr Kwartet in Amsterdam, and is a former member of the acclaimed early music group, L'Archibudelii.  Forbes participated in the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Sandpoint music festivals in the United States and in chamber music festivals throughout Europe.  In Canada she was a season-long artist-in-residence at the Banff Center for the Arts where she also performed as soloist with the Banff Festival Orchestra. 

Violist Carol Rodland made her solo debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 17. Recent performance highlights have included solo recitals at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall and Boston's Jordan Hall, concerto appearances with conductor Dennis Russell Davies and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, as well as chamber music concerts with the Borromeo, Colorado, and Henschel String Quartets. She also performs frequently with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and has been a member of Vermont's Craftsbury Chamber Players since 1995. During the summers, she has taught and performed at California Summer Music, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Heifetz Institute, the Killington Music Festival and the Portland Chamber Music Festival. Her debut cd of new American viola works will be released in 2006 on the Crystal Records Label. Prior to joining the New England Conservatory faculty in 2002, she held professorships at the Musikhochschule "Hanns Eisler" in Berlin and at Arizona State University.

Cellist Andrew Mark performs with such groups as the Boston Symphony and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra. From 1993 - 2000, Mark was the cellist of the critically acclaimed group The Core Ensemble, a nationally-touring trio of cello, piano, and percussion dedicated to the performance of contemporary music. He was also cellist of the Boston Composers String Quartet which performed throughout the United States and in Europe. He has appeared at the Portland Chamber Music Festival several times, most recently as a resident artist during the Festival's 2005 season. In 1988, Mark was the first place winner of the United States Artistic Ambassador Competition. He is a member of faculties of New England Conservatory Preparatory Division and The Boston Conservatory, where he serves as chair of the String Department.

PCMF
The Portland Chamber Music Festival celebrates its 13th summer season in August, 2006. Since its inception in 1994, PCMF has presented more than 60 concerts featuring nationally acclaimed performers and composers from the United States, Canada, Europe and Latin America.  Festival concerts have been featured on Maine Public Radio’s "Mainestage" and are recorded and broadcast annually by WGBH radio in Boston. PCMF has been featured on National Public Radio’s "Performance Today" and live in concert on WGBH radio’s "Classical Performances" program.

Strongly committed to the performance of new works, PCMF has received two grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music in recognition of its "contribution to furthering public interest and appreciation of contemporary American music." The Festival has also been awarded grants from the Hunt Foundation, the UNUM Foundation, the Margaret Burnham Charitable Trust, the Maine Community Foundation, RBC Dain Rauscher, and the Davis Family Foundation. 

The Festival’s 2005 concert season included current members of the Boston, St. Louis and Chicago Symphonies and the New York Philharmonic, along with nationally known soloists, chamber musicians, and members of university music faculties throughout the United States.

PCMF also has an expanding tradition of outreach and educational activities.  The Festival presents annual Free Family Concerts at the Children’s Museum of Maine in Portland, and has held two Adult Amateur Chamber Music Workshops in recent seasons.  In addition, PCMF has presented master classes for local students and a workshop for area senior citizens.