Dear Friends –
Welcome to the 35th season of the Grand Canyon Music Festival!
We are pleased to bring you once again the exciting and always innovative Catalyst Quartet. Their performance on August 24 features music inspired by angels, including “The Named Angels,” by the young American composer Mohammed Fairouz, one of the most frequently performed, commissioned, and recorded composers of his generation, hailed by The New York Times as “an important new artistic voice” and by BBC World News as “one of the most talented composers of his generation.” “The Named Angels” refers to those angels that are named and recognized in the Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions: Michael, Israfel, Gabriel and Azrael, with each of the four movements representing a character portrait of each Angel. Also on the program will be music by the legendary, groundbreaking American composer Joan Tower, and Schubert’s monumental “Death and the Maiden.”
On August 25th, the Catalyst Quartet takes us on a trip throughout the American Northern Hemisphere, with music by Philip Glass, Caroline Shaw, Kevin Putz, the Catalyst’s own Jessie Montgomery, and Samuel Barber’s epic string Quartet in B Minor, Opus 11, with its haunting Adagio.
Our middle weekend once again features the Bonfiglio Group, School of Rock, and the Native American Composer Apprentice Project.
For our final weekend, we are pleased to bring you members of the Manhattan Chamber Players, a dynamic collective of young chamber musicians, the next generation of artists molded in the traditions forged at fabled festivals like Marlboro and Ravinia. On September 7 and 8 they will be performing works by Beethoven, Mozart and more.
We look forward to sharing with you all the experiences of the 35th season of the Grand Canyon Music Festival!
Robert Bonfiglio, Founding Director
Clare Hoffman, Artistic Director
– JW Powell
“Sunrise Showers, Grand Canyon” © 2015 Ed Mell