This forthcoming sea­son, we celebrate the30th anniversary of the

Kingston Chamber MusicFestival. As a festival family,we’ve enjoyed three decadesof brilliant chamber musicperformances, thanks to ourgenerous patrons, enthusias­tic audiences, and world­class visiting artists. Now isour time to celebrate andsecure the festival’s future!

Preliminary plans to usherin our 30th include a returnof festival founder DavidKim, phenomenal visitingmusicians, imaginative pro­gramming, several communi­ty outreach events, and edu­cational performances for

Rhode Island school chil­dren. Take a moment to learnabout our exciting upcomingseason. We have program­med 10 unique concerts forMarch, May, July, andAugust 2018.

Up to 30 artists will bejoining us in Kingston for the2018 festival.

“Our new season will befilled with music that willtake you on a fascinating andrewarding journey,” promisespianist and festival ArtisticDirector Natalie Zhu, enter­ing her 10th year as head ofthe festival.

“Some moments will bethrilling; others will bring

peace. Each will treat you tothe extraordinary artistry youhave come to expect fromour Kingston chamber musi­cians.”

Violinst Kim, nowPhiladelphia OrchestraConcertmaster, will beanchoring the festival’s firstweek of concerts. “I’mbeyond excited to return forKCMF’s 30th anniversary,”reports Kim. “I am gratefulto the Board of Directors andto my successor Natalie Zhu,for stewarding all that wecreated during our first twodecades, and for continuingto grow the festival to such

FESTIVAL N TESO

Kingston Chamber Music

Fall / Winter 2017 Natalie Zhu, artistic director Vol. 20, No. 1

FALL/ WINTER EDITIONofFestival Notes

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND

NATALIE ZHU nARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Board of Directors

Kingston Chamber Music Festival

Natalie Zhu, artistic director

Elizabeth Marcotte, president

Shaughn Robinson, vice president

Harold Bibb, treasurer

Pat Moore, recording secretary

Sue Kermes, corresponding secretary

Eve Sadd, housing coordinator

Winifred Brownell

Emily Chen

Mark Conley

Joanne Hall Coombs

Deborah Grossman­Garber

Kathleen Peterson Hahn

Michelle Little

Susan Marcus

Angelo Mendillo III

Martin Sadd

One highlight

from 2017 festival

n Getting comfortableon stage before a per­formance of JenniferHigdon’s Piano Trio areviolinist Jasmine Lin,pianist and festivalArtistic Director NatalieZhu and cellist PriscillaLee. Lin and Lee willreturn for next summer’s30th anniversary season,along with a host ofother artists invited byZhu.

Photo by

Beth Einstein Casagrande

WE’RE CELEBRATING 30 YEARS!

Spring Outreach Concertsnn Friday, May 4, 7:30 pm, at URI Fine Arts Center

30th Summer Festival Concertsn July 25, 27, 29, Aug. 1, 3, 5 ­ at URI Fine Arts Centern July 28, at Lutheran Church of The Good Shepherd

2018 FESTIVAL DATES

Please Join Us For An Extraordinary Season Of Chamber Music

This Festival Is ‘In A Class By Itself’Greetings!

I am honored to be taking on the job as president ofthe Kingston Chamber Music Festival's Board ofDirectors. I am a relative newcomer to Rhode Island,having moved here in 2014 from the Washington, D.C.area, after a 40­year career developing energy and envi­ronmental policies and regulations for the Department ofEnergy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyand then by managing large international developmentprojects for the U.S. Agency for InternationalDevelopment, World Bank, and other clients.

I traveled extensively for work and did not have time get deeply involved incommunity activities. One of the delights of retirement has been having thetime to engage in projects closer to home. It did not take me long to discoverthe festival and appreciate what a unique offering it provides to the communi­ties of South County and beyond.

I feel particularly fortunate to be part of the festival as we celebrate its 30thyear. This is a big milestone, and it provides an opportunity for us to strengthenour connection with our audience and to begin looking at ways to increase ourpresence in the community. I look forward to meeting all of you in the monthsahead and hearing your ideas for raising the festival’s profile so that more peo­ple can experience the exceptional concerts we provide. You can help by bring­ing someone new to a concert this year. Let’s fill the seats for every concertand celebrate this amazing enterprise together!

See you soon – Betsy

n Betsy Marcotte

See LOOKING Page 2

Kingston Chamber Music Festival

P.O. Box 1733

Kingston, RI 02881

heights, with inspired ideas and innova­tions.”

Artists returning to the Kingston stagethis summer include internationallyacclaimed guitarist Jason Vieaux, thePhiladelphia Orchestra’s virtuosic first clar­inetist Ricardo Morales; principal cellistfor the Seattle Symphony, Efe Baltacigil;charismatic young oboist James AustinSmith; and celebrated flutist MimiStillman.

Also making return visits in 2018 willbe violinists Juliette Kang, Zachary DePue,Jasmine Lin, Noah Geller, Amy Oshiro andAyano Ninomiya; cellists Jonathan Karoly,

Priscilla Lee, Clancy Newman and RamanRamakrishnan; violists Che­Hung Chen,

Burchard Tang and MelissaReardon; and double bassistHarold Robinson.

Four award­winning musi­cians will be making Kingstondebuts in 2018: violinists Hye­Jin Kim and Ara Gregorian; per­cussionist Mari Yoshinaga, whodazzled a Kingston audience atthe 2017 winter concert inMarch; and pianists RonaldoRolim and Reiko Uchida.

Ms. Uchida has beendescribed by the New York Times

as “an extremely sensitive partner at thepiano,” and has performed with JenniferKoh, Jaime Laredo, and David Meyers.

To cap our second week of the festival,Natalie Zhu has programmed a gala cele­bration for the final performance of the2018 season. A full chamber orchestra willbring us favorite works from Mozart, Bach,and Tchaikovsky.

Ms. Uchida will be performingMozart’s Rondo in A Major for Piano andOrchestra, an enduring jewel of the cham­ber music canon.

A full schedule of our 2018 concertsand artists will be posted on our website inearly spring.

Page 2 Festival Notes Page 3

TWO SPRING OUTREACH CONCERTS

Looking Ahead To 30th Anniversary Season

Would you like to help by hosting a musician?

We are looking for local residents and music lovers to host our musicians whenthey are in Kingston for spring programs and the summer music festival.

Imagine being able to listen to one of our amazing musicians practice their instru­ment or talk about their path to becoming among the best in their field — this is awonderful opportunity to get to know a world­class musician up close and personal!

The 2018 festival housing needs occur over three separate weeks, beginningMondays, April 30, July 23 and July 30. If you have a spare bedroom with privatebathroom available during those weeks, you may be able to take advantage of thisincredible opportunity.

Hosts are expected to provide a light breakfast and snacks, have air conditioning,and live within a 20­minute drive of the URI concert hall. Most musicians come toKingston alone, but some bring their spouses and/or children and might need an extraroom. Lengths of stay range from three to seven days.

Please contact housing coordinator Eve Sadd: eve.sadd@kingstonchambermusic.org

From Page 1

“I am so grateful to the Board ofDirectors and to my successor asartistic director, Natalie Zhu, for notonly stewarding all that we created inour first two decades, but continuingto grow the festival to such heights,with inspired ideas and innovations.”

David Kim

“. . . nothing gives memore joy than to playMozart with an orches­tra ­ I will be burstingwith happiness!”

Pianist Reiko Uchida,

who performs in Mozart’s

Rondo in A Major for

Piano and Orchestra in

Kingston next summer

Four Kingston festival artists, includingpianist and Artistic Director Natalie

Zhu, will perform in Jamestown at a spe­cial outreach concert at 4:30 p.m., Sunday,March 18, in collaboration with theJamestown Arts Center.

Violinist Gabriela Diaz, violist MelissaReardon, and cellist Sophie Shao will joinZhu on stage for an afternoon that will fea­ture Robert Schumann’s beloved PianoQuartet, as well as works by Mozart andSchubert.

Award winning cellist Sophie Shao willmake her Kingston debut at the Jamestownconcert. She is an Avery Fisher CareerGrant winner and has won top prizes at theRostropovich and Tchaikovsky competi­tions. Additionally, she has performed withthe Chamber Music Society of LincolnCenter, Chamber Music Northwest, and thePhiladelphia Chamber Music Society.

Tickets for the Jamestown Arts Centerconcert will go on sale in early 2018.Seating is limited so keep your eye on thefestival website, www.kingstonchambermu­sic.org, to reserve your tickets before thisconcert is sold out. If you subscribe to ourfestival emails, we will send you an emailannouncement the day before tickets go onsale. Not an email subscriber? See noticebelow on how to become one.

Those of you who regularly attendfestival concerts appreciate theintimacy and freshness of the per­

formances, along with the stellar musi­cianship displayed by our performers.Natalie Zhu has proven to be a giftedartistic director, setting new standards ofexcellence with each season.

The festival could not deliver thisoutstanding music without your gener­ous support. Like most arts organiza­tions, ticket revenue covers only about athird of our annual festival costs.Grants and sponsorships account foranother third. Donations from ourpatrons remain critical to our ongoingfinancial well­being.

As we look forward to our 30th sea­

son and beyond, the Board of Directorshas taken steps to ensure that future gen­erations can experience the same mag­nificent concerts we all enjoy today.

Thanks to generous leadership giftsfrom Margaret G. Leeson and SusanMarcus, we have established the KCMFSustainability Endowment Fund withinthe Rhode Island Foundation. Susan’sgift honors her late father, Paul Douglas,who was an early supporter of theKingston Chamber Music Festival.

We encourage you to contribute tothis fund as you consider gifts to the fes­tival this year. The enclosed remittanceenvelope will assist you.

Our goal is to grow the endowmentto $350,000 by the festival’s 35th

anniversary in 2023!If you are interested in making a

planned gift, we would be happy to dis­cuss this with you. Please contactdevelopment chair, Dr. WinifredBrownell at: winnie.brownell@kingston­chambermusic.org or visit our website atwww.kingstonchambermusic.org/sup­port/contribute for more information.

In 2015, former URI professor Dr.Natalie "Tally" Kampen left a wonderfulbequest to our festival through her estate.We established a fund in her name at theRhode Island Foundation. Her gift willsupport the festival in perpetuity. It isthis kind of generosity that the festivalhopes to build on with the SustainabilityEndowment Fund.

FESTIVAL LAUNCHES NEW ENDOWMENT FUND

Help preserve the festival’s brilliant music making for future generations

If you are interested in keeping abreastof festival news as it develops, we

invite you to join our digital and postalmailing lists. We send print newsletterstwice per year. We issue electronicnews releases more frequently, witheach upcoming concert and breakingnews story.

Our 30th season will be filled withupcoming news highlights and interest­ing profiles of our artists. To join us,visit www.kingstonchambermusic.organd click the “mailing list” tab on thehomepage. You will be among the firstto hear of festival news as it happens.

You may also follow us onFacebook.

n Cellist Sophie Shao, top; violinistGabriela Diaz; and pianist Natalie Zhu

Keep up with our latest news

Aspecial performance at 7:30 p.m.,Friday, May 4, at the URI Fine Arts

Center Concert Hall will feature festivalArtistic Director Natalie Zhu together withtwo members of the Formosa StringQuartet – festival favorite Jasmine Lin onviolin and, making her Kingston debut,Deborah Pae on cello.

And we are pleased to announce a festi­val debut performance at this concert bythe URI Faculty Brass Quintet.

The concert will follow two full weeksof educational outreach performances forRhode Island students – one week provid­ed by URI faculty musicians, and one bythe festival’s Formosa Quartet musicians.

Tickets for the May 4 performance willbe available through the festival’s websitein early April.

Violinist Lin’s appearance in theschools outreach program will be a firstfor her in Kingston. She has traveledextensively recently with the FormosaQuartet and is a longtime favorite withKingston audiences, particularly for herexuberant and precise playing and colorfulconcert attire.

In the past, the festival has visited 10 to12 schools during a week. This year, wewill be doubling our efforts by visiting 20schools over a two­week period.

May 4 program at URIfollows festival’s annualschools outreach program