Katie Lansdale, violin, shown here with pianist Donald Enos, performs music of Chickasaw composer Jarod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and others on July 19 as part of the Meeting House Chamber Music Festival. Janet Murphy Robertson photography
The Meeting House Chamber Music Festival was missed.
The festival’s 47th season was supposed to happen last summer, but 2020 was a no-go for all classical music performances.
This season’s six in-person concerts, which begin June 25 at the Church of the Holy Spirit Episcopal in Orleans, sold out almost immediately.
“Our core supporters really wanted to keep the festival going,” says founder, artistic director and pianist Donald Enos. “We decided just to sell the entire series, and we were limited by the restrictions. The church holds 200 people, but we’ve only got space now for 135.”
Enos has encouraged ticket-holders to pass along their seats, in case of cancellations. The popularity of the series seems straightforward to the festival’s founder—Meeting House is the Cape’s longest running series, after all.
“It’s summertime, it’s chamber music, and we bring along good people from different places,” he says. “I’ve always done it.”
Sticking with the Orleans venue was a necessity in pandemic-planning mode; in the past, the festival has traversed the Cape, building up a widespread following.
“We’ve played everywhere,” Enos says. “Falmouth, West Barnstable, Wellfleet—pretty much all the towns. Orleans has always had terrific audiences. Forty-seven years is a long time.”
Enos opens this summer’s concerts at the keyboard with violinist Irina Muresanu, a festival favorite. That program includes works by Beethoven, Bach, Biber and John Williams. Cellist Amit Peled, recipient of Pablo Casals’ historic 1733 Gofriller on a longterm performance loan, performs July 2.
“He’s going to be recording the Bach suites while he’s on the Cape,” Enos says of Peled. “He’ll play one of them during the concert, along with six or so smaller things. He’s taken a liking to a Cassado sonata, in the old Spanish style.”
Violinists Heather Goodchild Wade, Joyce Hammann and Katie Lansdale also return to this summer’s concerts, as do cellists Bo Ericsson, Matthias Naegele and Megan Koch.
Enos admits to the challenges of keeping a festival alive, well into its fifth decade—“It takes the entire spring and summer to pull it off,” he says—but has no intention of retiring soon.
“The time factor—that’s the only reason I would give it up,” he says.
Planning for this year’s concerts had to take into account the emotional toll of the last year.
“It’s not a summer to challenge,” Enos says about the repertory. “It’s time to create a comfortable musical atmosphere.
“The Beethoven year was lost,” he says, referring to many programs from 2020’s anticipated 250th birthday celebration of the composer. As a small nod to the missed anniversary, Enos and violinist Irina Muresanu will perform the composer’s Spring sonata on opening night, and the series will conclude with three of Beethoven’s most familiar trios, including the Ghost and the Archduke.
“We do have unfamiliar things as well,” Enos says, pointing out violinist Katie Lansdale’s July 19th recital in particular, which includes works not only by Kreisler and Telemann, but by Samuel Coleridge Taylor and Chickasaw composer Jarod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate as well.
Next summer, with restrictions presumably lifted entirely, Enos hopes for larger audiences—and more musicians onstage as well.
“This year we stuck to smaller ensembles,” Enos says. “Next year, I hope to have a little larger groups, at least one quartet.” And more tickets available.
The Meeting House Chamber Music Festival opens its 47th season with in-person concerts at the Church of the Holy Spirit Episcopal in Orleans on June 25. meetinghousemusic.org or 508 896-3344.
Keith Powers covers music and the arts for Gannett New England, Leonore Overture and Opera News. Follow @PowersKeith; email to keithmichaelpowers@gmail.com.