Concert highlights historic Cape Cod author’s book, bids farewell to inaugural Composer-in-Residence
image by Jean Kirby Photography
McGRATHPR.com – Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra (CCCO), the region’s newest professional orchestra, presents its debut season finale concert Folk and Gorey, on Sunday, April 14, 3 pm, at Pilgrim Congregational Church, 533 Main Street, Rt. 28, Harwich Port. The orchestra is conducted by Music Director Matthew Scinto. A reception follows the concert with an opportunity to meet the musicians. Conductor Scinto, Edward Gorey House Curator Gregory Hischak and Composer-in-Residence Francis Snyder offer a pre-concert discussion at 2:15 pm.
The triumphant bookend on its celebrated inaugural season, CCCO’s concert Folk and Gorey features Composer-in-Residence Francis Snyder’s final commission with the orchestra during his tenure. The work is a collaborative project with the Edward Gorey House, a Cape Cod house museum celebrating the American author, illustrator, playwright, set and costume designer. Snyder’s commission features Gorey’s short story The Doubtful Guest, a collection of fourteen rhyming couplets – short two-line poems penned in the same meter.
Gorey’s The Doubtful Guest collection, a vaguely sinister “comedy of manners” expressing the story of a solemn, mysterious, outdoor creature. The being is dressed rather ordinarily in sneakers and a scarf, appearing on a winter night at a family’s Victorian home, never to leave again! Gorey’s eerie and charming illustrations accompany the verses, making for an enjoyably strange read that entertains all ages. The iconic book published in 1957, the same year as Dr. Seuss’s The Cat in the Hat, and was influential in altering the future texture of children’s books. Though it really isn’t a children’s book, it implies a theme of adolescence versus adulthood, and is vaguely autobiographical.
“We are very excited to be closing our first season with a celebration of Edward Gorey, an individual that contributed much to the culture of Yarmouth and Cape Cod at large. My only regret is that he is not here to experience this new piece,” shares Scinto. “Francis Snyder has truly captured the essence and hilarious nature of The Doubtful Guest, I know our audience will find this to be true as well. We all are proud of Francis’ incredible imagination and the fervor he instilled into our commissioned projects this past year. He exceeded my expectations for our vision and the cultivation of the residency program. This concert will truly be a great sendoff!”
The Edward Gorey House celebrates and preserves the life and works of Edward Gorey, a home he purchased in 1979. The 200-year-old sea captain’s home, inhabited by Gorey himself, displays his diverse and extraordinary talents and reflects his distinct personality on Yarmouth Port Common, Cape Cod. After Gorey’s death in 2000, the house was converted into a museum dedicated to Gorey’s life and works, as well as his devotion to animal welfare, raising awareness about local and national animal advocacy issues. The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust supports organizations for which Gorey expressed a fondness in his lifetime, including funding for numerous animal welfare organizations. The house and its annual exhibits open to the public for the 2019 season just prior to this performance on April 11 and remain accessible through December annually.
Celebrated Tenor Joshua Collier, hailed as a “great Italian tenor on the make” by The Boston Musical Intelligencer, is highlighted in Britten’s stirring Les Illuminations. Folk music flows through the rest of the program, with works by 20th century composer, performer, educator, and ethnomusicologist Béla Bartók and leading Romantic era Norwegian composer and pianist Edvard Grieg.
CCCO’s first season Navigations is inspired by Scinto’s vision for the future of classical music on Cape Cod. He is fulfilling his mission to collaborate with local Cape individuals, arts organizations, and causes to create a unique concert experience of high quality, enriching, and memorable orchestral music. Featuring living composers is at the forefront of his plans; bringing audiences closer to music and the beauty found across Cape Cod communities.
Tickets to Folk and Gorey are$30 advance purchase general admission, $35 at the door, $15 for students ages 12 through college age, children under 12 are admitted for free. Tickets are available at capecodchamberorchestra.org, by calling 508-432-1668, or at the door by cash or credit card.
For more information visit capecodchamberorchestra.org, email info@capecodchamberorchestra.org, or follow Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra on Facebook and Instagram.
Program:
GRIEG: Two Nordic Songs
BRITTEN: Les Illuminations
Featuring Joshua Collier, tenor
SNYDER: The Doubtful Guest
BARTÓK: Romanian Folk Dances
About Dr. Matthew Scinto, Conductor
Matthew Scinto is an emerging conductor based in Cape Cod, where he currently serves as the Founder and Conductor of the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Boston Civic Symphony under Music Director Francisco Noya. Mr. Scinto received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Conducting from Boston University, where he was a student of Stefan Asbury and David Hoose and twice received the Conducting Department Award for Excellence in Conducting. Mr. Scinto has studied conducting at the prestigious Tanglewood Music Center, and was invited back again in July 2018. While at Boston University, Mr. Scinto served as the Assistant Conductor of the Boston University Symphony, Chamber, and Opera Orchestras where he covered and conducted in numerous concerts and opera productions, including Boston University’s recent production of Le Nozze di Figaro in 2017. Matthew Scinto has worked with conductors Bramwell Tovey, Ken-David Masur, Stefan Asbury, Diane Wittry, Daniel Hege, Marin Alsop, David Effron, and Markand Thakar. He has conducted such orchestras as the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, Symphoria, the New Haven Civic Orchestra, the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra, the Greater Bridgeport Youth Orchestras, the Indian Hill Sinfonia, the Miami Music Festival Orchestra, the Syracuse University Symphony, and the Boston University Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.
About Francis Snyder, Composer
Francis Snyder is a Boston based composer and conductor and holds a Bachelor of Music Theory and Composition degree from Boston University where he studied with Professors John Wallace, Jason Yust, and Ann Howard Jones. His compositions have been performed by members of many of Boston’s music conservatories and he has conducted many of them himself. Since 2014, he has been the composer in residence at the Acadia Repertory Theater in Somesville, Maine, and composes music for their productions each summer. In 2016, his piece Parks and Ponds was commissioned and premiered by the Blue Hill, Maine group The Bagaduce Choral to celebrate the centennial of Acadia National Park. In the spring of 2017, he was chosen as the 2016/17 winner of the Boston University Orchestral Composition Competition. His piece Organic Appreciations was subsequently premiered by the Boston University Symphony in April of that year. He has also worked with many musical pit orchestras and has conducted performances of ‘The Wedding Singer’, ‘Anything Goes’, ‘Les Miserables’, and others.
About Joshua Collier, Tenor
American tenor Joshua Collier, praised for his “thrilling high range” and “passionate commitment to character”, is a graduate of New England Conservatory (Masters in Music – Vocal Performance), he has performed throughout New England and beyond in roles including: Rodolfo (La Boheme – Southern Vermont Lyric Theatre), Nemorino (L’Elisir D’Amore – Opera Company of Middlebury), Chevalier de La Force (Dialogues of the Carmelites – Sarasota Opera), Calaf (Turandot – Opera Company of Middlebury), Macduff (Macbeth – Raylynmor Opera) B. F. Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly – BARN OPERA), Camille (The Merry Widow – Opera Wilmington), Tamino (Die Zauberflote – Opera New Hampshire), Tony (West Side Story – Asheville Lyric Opera), Lysander (A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Lowell House Opera), Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia – Opera Brittenica), Frederic (The Pirates of Penzance – Opera Providence), Fabrizio (The Light in the Piazza – Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre), among others.
In addition to the lyric stage, Collier has performed the tenor solos in much of the symphonic and oratorio repertoire including Requiem by both Verdi and Mozart, Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings (op.31), Rejoice in the Lamb, Abraham and Isaac – All by Benjamin Britten, Elijah and Paulus of Mendelssohn, Handel’s Messiah, as well as Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and the Coronation Mass of Mozart. Throughout his career he has been fortunate to work with such conductors as Stephen Lord, Lidiya Yankovskaya, John Moriarty, Emmanuel Plasson, Andy Anderson, and Michael Sakir, among others. Collier founded the Bostonian opera company, Opera Brittenica, championing the works of Benjamin Britten, in 2013, and is currently is the Artistic Director of BARN OPERA based in Brandon, Vermont, and is represented world-wide by Berger Artist Management.
About Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra
Committed to artistic integrity and excellence, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra’s mission is to connect the diverse arts communities and individuals of Cape Cod inclusively. By collaborating with other disciplines of art and culture, the Orchestra aims to create unique concert experiences while providing exciting, enriching and memorable orchestral music. Featuring living composers is at the forefront of the orchestra’s mission; bringing audiences closer to the music of modern time, positioned as an essential and educational element to each performance program. Other repertoire champions the works of living composers, as well as the music of the classical canon. For more information visit www.capecodchamberorchestra.org, email info@capecodchamberorchestra.org, or follow Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra on Facebook and Instagram.
