To Our Friends and Supporters
The 2012 season of the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival marks the start of our second decade, which finds us today recognized as one of the nation’s premier classical musical events. For our growing national stature, we owe our heartfelt thanks to our dedicated volunteers, our loyal financial supporters, the many extraordinary musicians who have performed here, and, most of all, to you and the thousands of other music lovers who have attended our concerts over the years.
We will launch our 2012 season on February 12 with an extraordinary benefit concert by The Zukerman ChamberEnsemble. Pinchas Zukerman, the founder of this renowned group, is one of the greatest violinists on the world stage, and this performance promises to be one of the year’s premier musical events in the Southeast. For our Spring season, which will run from May 17 through June 8, we will present a galaxy of international stars and outstanding emerging talent, including: cellist Lynn Harrell, violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, pianists Orli Shaham and Natasha Peremski, the Four Nations chamber ensemble, the Linden String Quartet, violinist David Coucheron and his sister, pianist Julie Coucheron. On the lighter side, fiddler and composer April Verch and her band will present an old fashioned hoedown. In addition, you will have fun at three of our popular Beer & G Strings performances, including a French cabaret, as well as a series of free community concerts. And as part of our education outreach, we will present a performance by the Beth Newdome Resident Festival Artists, composed of promising music students from Philadelphia’s internationally famous Curtis Institute.
L’invitation au Voyage: A Journey through the Art and Music of France will be a thematic component of our eleventh season. These performances will encompass French chamber music of the 17th and 18th centuries, the Romantic Age, Impressionism and the 20th century. French paintings will be presented at some of these programs to demonstrate the relationship between the music being performed and the visual art of the times.
This is your Festival and we sincerely appreciate your support. We look forward to seeing you in February for the very special performance of the Zukerman ChamberEnsemble and then in May and June for our Spring season.
Christopher Rex
General and Artistic Director
