There will be cellos a’plenty at Woods Hole Community Hall on Sunday, November 3, at 4 PM, when six young professional cellists coached Rhonda Rider are joined by eight young student cellist of Nikki Patton to present an all-cello concert of solo and ensemble classical and contemporary music.
It will be a great event for everyone who loves the sound of the cello—and who doesn’t?
The young students, all residents of Falmouth and Woods Hole will collaborate with the older cellists on only one piece, “Bach’s Air on the G String,” but it should be a memorable event.
The rest of the concert will feature the professional cellists in solo and ensemble pieces. Solo works include three movements from Johann Sebastian Bach’s G Major Cello Suite, “Julie-O” by Mark Summer, “Curve with Plateau” by Jonathan Harvey, and “Hanjale” by Kareem Roustom. The ensemble will play a movement from Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1” and Kaija Saariaho’s “Neiges.”
Rhonda Rider is the cellist for the celebrated piano trio Triple Helix and was a founding member of the Lydian Quartet. She is Chair of Chamber Music and on the cello faculty of The Boston Conservatory. During the summer she is cello coach for the Asian Youth Orchestra in Hong Kong.
Rider has also served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts and for Chamber Music America, and she has appeared as guest artist with such groups as the Boston Chamber Music Society and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Chamber Music Series.
The Boston cellists, all accomplished graduate and postgraduate students, are members of the Cello Seminar, which is part of Rider’s Music from Salem program. Since 1986, this summer festival has attracted young professional cellists from all over the world to the Brown Farm in rural Washington County, New York. They are coached in solo and ensemble playing by Rider, cellist David Russell, and pianist Judith Gordon as they explore contemporary cello repertoire.
Rider’s students share a love of new music and each of them brings his or her own special talents.
Javier Caballero, from Puerto Rico, is a Boston Conservatory alumnus whose wide-ranging interests include Baroque cello, world music, string quartets, rafting down the Colorado, and working at Project STEP, a classical string instrument education program for minority students.
Bryan Hayslett is from Dallas. He is a graduate student at Boston Conservatory who has been cited for his “superb musicianship and rich, sonorous playing.”
Originally from Florida, grad student Byron Hogan performs in diverse musical styles from Beethoven quartets to Frank Zappa.
Also from Florida is Sara Wilkins, a doctoral student at Boston University, whom Rider describes as “an intrepid new music person.”
Lucian Nicolescu, from Romania, is a grad student at Boston Conservatory who is known for his sense of humor. He has performed with the Bucharest National Opera.
Jill Chronister, from Texas, where she performed with the Waco Symphony Orchestra, is also a grad student at Boston Conservatory.
Nikki Patton’s students study with her at her Chappaquoit Cello Studio in West Falmouth. Ranging in age from 10 to 17, they are Kurran Singh, Qianlong Xu, Celeste Newman, Ava Warner, Sofia Hauser, Nell Bowen, Clara Preisig, and Erin Furey.
Tickets are available at the door. Admission is a minimum donation of $10 for adults and $5 for children under 12 years old. Community Hall is at 68 Water Street in Woods Hole.
Notes on The Arts 