Old First Concerts: May, 2021

Old First Concerts (O1C) now has two performances scheduled for next month. Since that is the same as the number of concerts scheduled for the current month, this seems as good a time as any to document these plans “on the record.” Clearly, if there are any updates to these plans, readers will be informed through updates to this article and notification of those updates through the Facebook shadow site. The event pages for both of these concerts include hyperlinks to YouTube, meaning that both performances will be live-streamed. Presumably, program notes will be available for both concerts; but the hyperlinks tend to appear shortly before the performances. The best way to keep track of additional information will be through the O1C event pages. Hyperlinks to those pages will be attached to the date and time of performances as follows: [4/22, 12:45 p.m.: new event added:

Friday, May 14, 8 p.m.: Percussionist Ami Molinelli will survey the Brazilian genres of choro and samba. She will be assisted by Brian Moran on guitar and cavaco, Ricardo Peixoto on guitar, Harvey Wainapel on reeds, and vocalist Claudia Villela. The selections will highlight women composers such as Chicquinha Gonzaga and Dona Ivonne Lora.]

Hwayoung Shon playing her gayageum (courtesy of Old First Concerts)

Sunday, May 16, 4 p.m.: Korean musician Hwayoung Shon will give a solo performance on the gayageum, the Korean version of a plucked zither with twelve strings, closely related to the Japanese koto. The entire program will be devoted to a performance of “Scattered Melodies” by Kim Juk Pa. The title refers to a form of music in which an organized rhythmic progression of movements is performed on a solo instrument. That progression is relatively strictly defined: the sections begin with the slowest rhythm, taking up to half of the total performance time and followed by increasingly faster movements.

Sunday, May 23, 4 p.m.: The Ives Collective, led by Artistic Co-Directors Susan Freier and Stephen Harrison, will return to O1C, following up on their last recital on March 21. For that previous program they were joined by pianist Gwendolyn Mok. This time the pianist will be Keisuke Nakagoshi, and violinist Roy Malan will also perform. These four musicians will present two piano quartets, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 478 in G minor and Gabriel Fauré’s Opus 15 in C minor. Freier will play viola for both of these selections, and Harrison will be the cellist. [added 5/6, 2:30 p.m.: Late this morning O1C announced the possibility that a limited live audience will be admitted for this concert. Whether or not this happens will depend primarily on approval from Old First Presbyterian Church. The performers have indicated that they would welcome such an audience, even if it is limited in size. There will also be some technical details to resolve, and the current plan is to accept ticket sales by Saturday, May 15. Live streaming will continue until O1C is allow to have full capacity.]