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Chesapeake Chamber Music Celebrates 30th Festival and Debuts NASA-Inspired Composition by Roger Zare

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: JUNE 15, 2015
Contact: Don Buxton 410 819-0380
or Bill Geoghegan at 410-822-6554

Roger Zare
Pictured is Award-winning composer Roger Zare, whose new composition, “New Horizons,” is stirring up interest this week when it will have its world premiere at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, Maryland on Friday, June 19 at 8 p.m. The composition, commissioned by the Festival’s artistic directors J. Lawrie Bloom and Marcy Rosen for the 30th anniversary of Chesapeake Chamber Music, is dedicated to NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s scheduled encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto on July 14, 2015.
New Horizons
Pictured is an artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, in July 2015. (Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)

Award-winning composer Roger Zare has written works for a variety of ensembles including solo, chamber, choral and full orchestra works. His most recent work, “New Horizons,” is stirring up interest this week when it will have its world premiere at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, Maryland on Friday, June 19 at 8 p.m. The composition, commissioned by the Festival’s artistic directors J. Lawrie Bloom and Marcy Rosen for the 30th anniversary of Chesapeake Chamber Music, is dedicated to NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s scheduled encounter with Pluto on July 14, 2015.  The work brings together the classical music of the last three centuries with the scientific discoveries of the 21stcentury.

Thirty-year old Zare, born in Sarasota, Florida, has always been inspired by science and astronomy. He has vivid memories of seeing the space shuttle launch from his home, despite being over 150 miles away from Cape Canaveral. Each of the three movements of his work, composed for a quartet of oboe, clarinet, cello and piano, is about a key event in the probe’s journey. The first movement, January 19, 2006, represents the probe’s launch from Cape Canaveral. The second movement, February 28, 2007, describes the probe’s encounter with Jupiter. Flying by the largest and by far the most massive planet, New Horizons gained an incredible burst of speed. The third movement, titled July 14, 2015, represents the flyby of Pluto, the mission’s primary goal, which occurs less than a month from now.

Zare began playing the piano at the age of five and violin at the age of 11; he started composing at age 14. Roger holds a doctorate of musical arts (2012) from the University of Michigan, a master of music (2009) from the Peabody Conservatory of music at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland; and a bachelor of music (2007) from the University of Southern California. Embracing his love of science, in July 2014, Zare participated in a workshop presented by CERN at the Montreux International Jazz Festival, The Physics of Music and the Music of Physics.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory states that New Horizons remains healthy and on course to make its closest approach to Pluto and its system of moons. This is a cosmic coincidence that will occur 50 years to the day after the historic first flyby of Mars by Mariner IV on July 14, 1965.

The second week of the 30th Annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival kicks off with an Artist Showcase at Trinity Cathedral in Easton, MD, featuring the music of Mozart, Schumann, Ludwig and Bruch and the artistry of clarinetist J. Lawrie Bloom, violist Steven Tenenbom, and pianist Diane Walsh. The week’s finale is the Festival’s Angels Concert at Halcyon, an early 18th century estate in Talbot County. A reception on the lawn, catered by Gourmet by the Bay, will follow the performance.

In between, there will be an Artist Showcase at the Academy Art Museum featuring the regional premiere of an oboe quartet by composer James Primosch. The quartet will feature Peggy Pearson, founder of Winsor Music, who commissioned the piece, Catherine Cho, Steven Tenenbom, and Marcy Rosen. This oboe quartet had its world premiere in Boston in April 2015.

Finally, a concert at the St. Michaels High School Theater, “A Celebration in C,” opens with Mozart’s Viola Quintet in C Major, known as one of the most dramatic selections of chamber music for cello, violin, and viola voices. It is followed by Shubert’s Cello Quintet in C Major, his final chamber music work.  Featured artists include Todd Phillips, Catherine Cho, Steven Tenenbom, Rebecca Albers, Edward Arron, and Marcy Rosen.

The 30th Annual Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival is being held in Easton, MD and other Mid-Shore locations through June 21, 2015. Generous financial support from corporate, public and private benefactors enables Chesapeake Chamber Music to offer affordable tickets for Festival concerts and recitals; open rehearsals are free to the general public. For tickets and additional information on the Festival, visit www.ChesapeakeChamberMusic.org or call 410 819-0380.

Captions:

#1: Pictured is Award-winning composer Roger Zare, whose new composition, “New Horizons,”  is stirring up interest this week when it will have its world premiere at the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival at the Avalon Theatre in Easton, Maryland on Friday, June 19 at 8 p.m. The composition, commissioned by the Festival’s artistic directors J. Lawrie Bloom and Marcy Rosen for the 30th anniversary of Chesapeake Chamber Music, is dedicated to NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft’s scheduled encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto on July 14, 2015.

#2: Pictured is an artist’s concept of the New Horizons spacecraft encountering Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, in July 2015. (Credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute (JHUAPL/SwRI)

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