GREENSBORO – Summer Music from Greensboro (SMfG) will present four concerts at the Greensboro United Church of Christ this summer, beginning Tuesday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m.
“We have an outstanding lineup of performing artists for this summer, certainly one of the very best and most varied lineups we’ve ever had,” said Day Patterson, who has served as the head of SMfG and scheduled its concerts for the past 10 years. “We’ll be presenting classical music, jazz, folk and blues and each group is a well-known, widely acclaimed performer. Indeed, our final concert this summer, which has been specially underwritten by some of SMfG’s season subscribers, will present the Pacifica Quartet, generally recognized as one of the world’s foremost string quartets.”
SMfG’s initial concert this summer on July 14th will be performed by the Harlem Quartet from New York City, which has performed on four continents, in 47 states and at the White House. The quartet customarily performs a mix of classical, contemporary and Latin-infused music, and will perform two classical string quartets, one by Ludwig van Beethoven, one by Fanny Mendelsohn, as well as the Cuban piece, “Guaguancó” by Guido López-Gavilán and three modern Graceful Ghost ragtime pieces by the contemporary American composer William Bolcom.
SMfG’s July 21 concert will present The Ellington Collective, a seven-man group of jazz professionals from the Boston area who perform Duke Ellington’s music.
“We rarely invite a group to perform two summers in a row, but so many people loved that concert, we wanted to invite the Ellington Collective to return this summer,” said SMfG’s treasurer Rick Lovett. “Indeed, David Rodgers [the Gazette’s music critic] reviewed their concert last summer and described it as ‘phenomenal’ and expressed his hope that we would invite them to return soon. And we’ve done that.”
SMfG’s July 28 concert will also present a group that has performed in Greensboro previously, Chris Brubeck’s Triple Play. The three members of Triple Play are musicians who play a variety of different instruments, performing folk, blues and jazz. The trio’s musical roots go back nearly 40 years to when Chris Brubeck (bassist, trombonist, pianist and vocals) and Grammy Award-winner Peter “Madcat” Ruth (harmonica, jaw harp, guitar, percussion and vocals) toured the world as jazz musicians with Chris’ father, the jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck.
SMfG’s final concert this season will be Tuesday, August 4, and will be performed by the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet.
“I’ve tried for five years to book the Pacifica for SMfG, without success,” Patterson said, “but this year the stars just happened to align for us and several of our season subscribers volunteered to contribute to making that possible. To quote England’s leading newspaper, the Telegraph, the Pacifica is ‘Nothing short of phenomenal.’ So this should be quite a concert, and one that everyone will enjoy, as the Pacifica Quartet has solidly established itself as one of the essential voices in American chamber music.”
Tickets for all concerts are available at the door with students and children under 18 free. Further information about SMfG and its summer concerts is available at SMfG’s website, SummerMusicFromGreensboro.net
