Steeple Concerts announces lineup for the 2021-2022 season
Steeple Concerts at St. Paul’s is proud to announce its program for the 2021-2022 season. We are excited to return to providing in-person concert experiences in Westfield and to welcome our audience to share the joy of live music in a beautiful setting. The season includes five concerts featuring a varied mix of instrumental and vocal music. During these unusual times, we are planning to offer the season in the safest possible way for our audience and musicians. All concerts are scheduled at 5:00 on Sunday afternoons at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 414 East Broad Street, Westfield, NJ.
The season opens on Sunday, September 26, with the Tesla Quartet, a string quartet praised for their “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play, regardless of era, style, or technical demand” (The International Review of Music). Now entering its second decade, the quartet performs regularly across North America and Europe, with recent highlights including their debut at New York’s Lincoln Center, a return to London’s Wigmore Hall, and performances at Stanford University’s Bing Concert Hall as winners of the prestigious John Lad Prize. Formed at The Juilliard School in 2008, the quartet quickly established itself as one of the most promising young ensembles in New York and has released two albums on the Orchid Classics label.
On Sunday, November 14, Steeple Concerts will present Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon in a solo recital. Dr. Kwon is Professor of Piano at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and has appeared as soloist with distinguished orchestras across the US and around the world. In addition, she has been acclaimed for her solo recital and chamber music performances, with The New York Concert Review praising her “impassioned performance, in full technical command.”
The concert on January 23 brings the duo of Shirley Hunt, cellist, and Sylvia Berry, keyboardist, to Westfield. Internationally respected baroque cellist and violist da gamba Shirley Hunt brings fierce imagination and integrity to the music of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Contemporary eras. Praised by The Strad as “stylish and accomplished,” she embraces an eclectic musical life as a multi-instrumental soloist and collaborator. Ms. Berry is one of North America's leading exponents of the fortepiano (a late 18th-century and early 19th-century predecessor of the modern concert grand piano), as well as other historical keyboard instruments, including the harpsichord, virginal, and clavichord. The concert will feature Ms. Berry on music performed on both harpsichord and fortepiano.
Sunday, March 27, showcases The Westerlies, a brass quartet. Based in New York, the group is made up of four childhood friends from Seattle and features music for two trumpets and two trombones. Their programs explore jazz, roots and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both "folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along. Starting in Fall 2021, The Westerlies will be the first small ensemble-in-residence at the School of Jazz and Contemporary Music at The New School.
The season concludes on Sunday, May 15, with the traditional Masterworks Concert featuring the choir of St. Paul’s Church with orchestra. The concert is always a highlight of the season and offers an opportunity to hear major works for chorus and orchestra in a live setting.
Following State of NJ and Diocesan guidelines, we are currently shortening our concerts to approximately 60 minutes in length with no intermission. According to current guidelines, all concertgoers must wear a mask at all times while in the building and audience members will be asked to remain seated in their assigned pew for the duration of the concert. These guidelines and concert programs are subject to revision, and concerts may be streamed online in lieu of in-person attendance depending on updated state guidelines. More information about the season is available on the Steeple Concerts website at www.steepleconcerts.org.
Season subscriptions, as well as tickets to individual concerts, are also available on the Steeple Concerts website. Adult subscriptions to the full season are priced at $100 (a savings of $35 off the individual ticket prices), with student subscriptions at $40. Individual tickets to the first four concerts are $25 for adults and $10 for students, with tickets for the Masterworks Concert priced at $35 for adults and $15 for students.