Classical Concerts Consume Campus

Classical music performances will dominate the proceedings this Arts First weekend. The onslaught begins tomorrow, when the Harvard Early Music Society and Currier House will both have afternoon recitals.

In particular, the program for the Performance Fair on Saturday, May 6—a three-hour sprawl beginning at 1 p.m. and featuring over a hundred events in and around Harvard Yard—is heavy on classical performances. There are 37 listed classical music performances and dozens of venues; those in attendance will have five or six options every half-hour. For those who miss certain performances, some will be repeated on Sunday, May 7.

It is also possible for audiences to spend the whole afternoon watching early music performances in Adolphus Busch Hall, chamber music by students from “Music 180r: Performance and Analysis” and “Music 93r: Supervised Reading and Research,” or solo piano performances in both Paine Hall and the Calderwood Courtyard in the Fogg Art Museum.

One of the largest groups in the Performance Fair is the Mozart Society Orchestra (MSO), which is playing Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto in E minor.” MSO—which will feature soloist Sandy M. Cameron ’09, the winner of the organization’s Freshman Concerto Competition—will take the stage in Sanders Theatre at 1 p.m. At the same time, Yoko S. Wakabayashi ’07 will perform Chopin’s “Ballade No. 4” in Paine Hall and Paul L. Kolb ’08 will conduct the Choir of the Catholic Student Association in Memorial Church.

“It’s overwhelming because there are so many performances,” says Surajit Saha ’06. “It’s a tremendous exhibition of talent.” Saha, a biology concentrator and pianist who has not yet performed at Harvard, will play Beethoven’s “Third Piano Concerto in C Minor” at 3:30 p.m. in Paine Hall, with pianist Katherine Chen ’06 accompanying.

Although the performances—which are open to the public—do attract families and general audiences, everyone involved in the fair stresses that there is no room for mediocrity or pandering. “Musicians at Harvard prepare for a concert in a way that’s very spontaneous,” says Arielle A. Hansen ’07. She adds that “People are very last-minute, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the quality is last-minute.” Hansen is planning on performing Hindemith’s “Flute Sonata” with pianist Alexis M. Kusy ’07 although she says that might change.

Julia I. Bertelsmann ’09 is part of another similarly assembled group which will perform the folk-inspired “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 1 for Eight Celli” by Brazilian composer Hector Villa-Lobos. “We’ve only rehearsed six or seven times,” Bertelsmann says cheerfully. “We’re just a bunch of eager cellists.” The group will perform at 3 p.m. in Paine Hall.

But not everyone is so casual. At 2:30 p.m. in Busch Hall, Emily C. Zazulia ’06, a music concentrator who is planning to pursue graduate studies in music, will conduct members of the Collegium Musicum in a concert of 15th century vocal music, which the group has been preparing since February.

Brendan J. Gillis ’06, a violist who has performed in Arts First every year since coming to Harvard, said that his chamber group’s performance of a late Beethoven string quartet inside the brilliant acoustics of Busch Hall during last year’s Arts First was nothing less than a “spiritual experience.”

This year, he and other members of the Brattle Street Chamber players will play the String Quartet No. 1 by John H. Harbison ’60. Six years ago, Harbison—who is one the leaders in contemporary classical music—was a recipient of the Arts First Medal. “I wouldn’t say he looms over the campus, but he has a big presence,” says Gillis, who is one of many hoping that Harbison, now a professor at MIT, might attend this weekend.

Finally, members of the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert & Sullivan Players (HRGSP) and of the Dunster House Opera are reprising some of their previous performances in a more informal setting.

“It’s a great way to wrap the year up,” says Charlie I. Miller ’08, a board member of HRGSP, adding that the performances usually draw 50-100 people. The reprise will contain six Gilbert and Sullivan favorites, including a couple from “Ruddigore” and “The Yeomen Of the Guard.” Instead of an orchestra, Pedro Kaawaloa ’05 will accompany on piano.

“Arts First is totally amazing because you don’t really realize how much art is on this campus until you cram it into one insane weekend,” says Miller, mirroring the widely held belief that the weekend is perhaps the best of the year, and not just for classical music.

—Staff writer J. Samuel Abbott can be reached at abbott@fas.harvard.edu