By Jonathan Blumhofer

Jonathan Blumhofer

Late last year I was awarded a grant from the Worcester Arts Council to support a concert of my music at Clark University in Worcester, and, on October 19th, the Worcester Chamber Music Society (WCMS) presented that concert at Razzo Hall. Part of the grant went towards funding a high-quality recording of the performance and I am pleased to announce that excerpts are now available for streaming on SoundCloud.

As you can hear, the program spans quite the stylistic range and includes a set of drinking songs (“To Anacreon in Heaven…”) plus some Italian folksong arrangements, all sung by Jan Zimmerman; a solo piano piece, Cloches, performed by Brett Maguire; a string quartet, Semper Dowland, semper dolens; and a piece for mixed quartet (flute, violin, cello, piano), The Maiden Pearl.

It was my great pleasure to work with the WCMS on this – they’re a top-notch group of professionals and I couldn’t have asked for more committed performers or a more focused performance. You can hear individual member playing in ensembles all over the Boston area (in Boston Musica Viva, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Lydian Quartet, and with the Handel and Haydn Society, to name but a few), and I encourage you to do so. Also, if you live west of Boston, I’d encourage you to check out the WCMS: in addition to their main concert calendar, they’re doing great work providing music education in the greater Worcester area.