Board members have okayed a rebuilt website with Simple.Biz. If you notice our new style in late March, please comment. Your feedback is important to us.

It's an innocent question with a complicated answer.
When Bradley Brookshire performed in the Vocal Chamber Music concert on 5/26/2024, he arrived the day before to let the harpsichord acclimate to the space.
First, he had to select the harpsichord for the concert from his collection.
Brookshire explained "The national design styles of French, Flemish, German, and Italian harpsichords yield a distinctive sound that matches their respective repertoires well."

Once he chose the harpsichord for our concert, he had to carefully pack it in his car. It was a close fit from windshield to back window with no room for human passengers.

Brookshire spent several hours practicing and tuning Saturday evening, then did touch ups until the stage had to be cleared for the concert. I saw him trimming something and he explained that the plucking is done by a plectrum or quill (from a bird feather). As the quills wear out, they have to be replaced or adjusted ("voiced"). While he could use plastic quills, the feather quills, if maintained properly, last nearly as long. And being organic, they have a more natural, pleasing sound (would anybody really countenance a plastic violin?).

All went well with Bradley Brookshire and harpsichord holding their own in a lovely concert with Lucy Fitz Gibbon, Joseph Lin, William Frampton, and Michael Katz.

Time has a way of marching on. Here we are preparing our 17th season of concerts with returning groups Imani Winds, Escher Quartet, and Quintessential Quintets.
The board of Music at Bunker Hill works hard to present top notch performers to our discriminating audience, aiming for a variety of ensembles to appeal to different tastes. In a first for us, we have contracted Juilliard based American Brass Quintet, founded in 1960. We will all discover how a brass quintet sounds in our great little hall. We introduce the Golka-Park-Speltz Trio with works by Bloch, Beethoven, and Dvorak. Violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv and friends present works by Ukrainian composer Fedir Yakymenko and Cesar Franck.
We hope that patrons will appreciate their favorite works and hear some new music to expand their musical horizons.

Martha Frampton

The Harlem Chamber Players String Quartet graced our stage on Oct. 16, 2022 and played two outreach concerts the next day at Woodbury Jr/Sr High School and Rowan College of South Jersey/Deptford. Their music was lively and appreciated by our patrons and students. One of the HS students said the music was not what she expected, but she enjoyed it a lot. Local musicians Lourin Plant and Douglas Mapp added so much to the whole musical experience. Thanks for your energy and musicianship, group.

In a wonderful coincidence, we have a woman pianist who champions composer Florence Price and has programmed Price and her student Margaret Bonds plus the iconic composer Clara Schumann on March 13 during Women's History Month. To continue the connections, Clara and Robert Schumann were mentors and friends of Brahms, whose music is also on the program. And Chopin (Ballad 3 is on program) was a contemporary of the Schumanns.

Here are a few more interesting facts to know. Thank you to our Rowan Music Industry intern Xavion Collier for researching Ms. Cann for this email.

• Clara Wieck was a child prodigy on piano and also sang and played violin
• Clara was a superb performer and began a new trend of performing from memory at the age of 13 
• She fell in love with Robert Schumann and married him in opposition to her father
• Clara and Brahms had an especially close relationship, but she never remarried in the 40 years after Robert's early demise
• Florence Price taught Margaret Bonds composition
• Ms. Cann has degrees from Cleveland Institute of Music and Curtis
• On February 7, Ms. Cann received the 2022 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, a $25,000 award
• On March 17, Ms. Cann will be awarded the Sphinx Organization's Medal of Excellence, which comes with a $50,000 career grant
• Ms. Cann has directed children's choruses for Play on Philly  and directs music at First Baptist Church of Philadelphia
• Michelle Cann plays violin and trombone
  
  Are you ready for a fabulous concert on March 13? See you at 3:00.
  

Meet our team of digital marketing students from Université d'Angers, France: Lea, Malvina (Team Leader), Robin, Axel. These Masters students were assigned to us by Google Ad Grants Nonprofit Marketing Immersion to assist in improving our website ranking. We met virtually and they have issued a 16 page report assessing website and suggesting changes. If you notice any improvements, they deserve the credit. This is our farthest-flung partnership and it is fun to work with bright students who understand digital marketing.

Fall concerts are "falling into place." Tickets will go on sale in mid August.
We have moved onto a new Ticket/Donor/Communication system - Network for Good. Things will look different, but the good news is that our business will run smoother.
Spring concert tickets will go on sale in January.

The Escher Quartet concert at the Music Barn on Oct. 18 was a resounding success. The musicians stated that this was their first live performance during the pandemic and it felt so good to play for people and see real-time reaction and appreciation. They had just returned from a live-stream event in Massachusetts on Saturday night and the contrast between live-stream and live audience was enormous. The Beethoven and Debussy string quartets brought us back to the sublime experiences we have all been missing.
We had an audience of about 145, including MaBH regulars, Music Barn regulars, and some first-timers. With all of the masks, it was a little hard to recognize our patrons. There was plenty of room to spread out and the weather was exactly right for the concert.
Music Barn owner Jake Heil and his team made the event a pleasure for us all. Sound tech Tanner Freeman found just the right balance to amplify the quartet beyond the covered pavilion. Subscriber and volunteer  Mary Tortorici assisted in checking in patrons at ticket table.
Enjoy some of the photos from the event below. Click photo for caption. You can refer to the program and Escher Quartet bio here.
Stay tuned for more outdoor events in the spring and summer.
Please post a comment below so we can gather feedback. -- Martha Frampton