#CloseEncountersWithMusic #TheBerkshireSchool #RecentlyAnnounced #SpotlightNews
SHEFFIELD, Mass. — Close Encounters With Music, an organization artistically headed by internationally acclaimed cellist and educator Yehuda Hanani, is making history this summer by moving its High Peaks Festival to The Berkshire School campus.
Previous editions of the festival have taken place in the Catskill Mountains, most recently at the Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville, and in Hunter and Tannersville. Now, the pull of the Berkshires, home of Close Encounters With Music, ultimately has drawn the festival back to where audiences and supporters have enjoyed 26 seasons of outstanding concerts and other events featuring today’s most brilliant musical performers.
“It has been our goal to make great music approachable and to relate it to other artistic disciplines so that it can receive the love and sense of wonder it merits,” said Hanani. “Music students today are often cut off from inner life and the artistry of the material as they focus on careers, on digital perfection, and on the more pragmatic aspects of the profession. The relaxed atmosphere of the countryside — away from pressures of the conservatory —makes for a perfect point of departure to explore the magic and mysteries that inhabit the works of the greatest composers.”
During the ten-day festival, fifty students from around the globe will work with faculty members on music that they will later perform for the community.
Each year’s Festival has a theme and this summer it’s “The French-Russian Connection.” While audience members enjoy the diverse themes from year to year, they also appreciate the top-tier musicians performing.
The 2018 faculty includes: pianists Alexander Shtarkman (Peabody Conservatory) and Mikael Darmanie (SUNY Stony Brook); violinists Irina Muresanu (University of Maryland) and Peter Zazofsky (Boston University); violists Pierre-Henri Xuereb (Paris Conservatoire) Michael Strauss (Oberlin) and Su Zhen (Beijing Conservatory); cellists Yehuda Hanani (University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory), Chagit Glaser (Rubin Academy of Music, Tel Aviv University), as well as Baroque experts Paul Dwyer (cello, Acronym, Chicago Lyric Opera) and Adriane Post (violin, Apollo’s Fire, Handel and Haydn Society).
Festival passes and tickets to individual concerts go on sale in May. For tickets and information, visit www.berkshirehighpeaksmusic.org
