Trumpeter/vocalist Bria Skonberg is a remarkable force in the jazz scene—notorious for her “tradfusion” sound and steadily earning the reputation as Louis Armstrong’s modern-day counterpart.

And, thanks to the Easton-based non-profit Chesapeake Music, you can catch her in action, virtually, as part of their continuing series, “Jazz Is Alive.”

The free performance is available via Chesapeakemusic.org.

“We’re so delighted to have Bria join us on our virtual stage,” says Joe Fischer, Chairman of the Jazz Committee Chesapeake Music. “She’s got such an engaging personality and the musical talent to match!”

Skonberg’s specialty is old jazz—proven by her solid repertoire of 1900s to 1940s tunes—but her songs draw influence from a variety of genres, from blues to Dixieland to pop.

“I like to be influenced by what’s around me,” she said in a 2017 interview with Chesapeake Music. “That’s jazz. You listen and react.”

Described by Vanity Fair as “a millennial shaking up the jazz world,” Skonberg’s rising-star status was confirmed when she won the 2017 Juno Award for Jazz Vocal Album of the Year for her 2016 crowd-funded album, Bria.

“Basically, it’s a Canadian Grammy,” she explained. “It’s been a wild ride.”

The trailblazing trumpeter has performed at more than a hundred festivals around the world, including New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, and Montreal Jazz Festival—to name a few!

She graced the Avalon Theatre stage a few years ago, when she kicked off the 2017 Monty Alexander Jazz Festival with an expressive and lively performance. She fondly recalls her experience during her introduction to her virtual show.

“Driving into such a cute little city and having probably the best crab cakes I’ve ever had in my life,” she says, with a laugh. “And then taking that energy to the stage and meeting your fantastic, wonderful audience.”

Skonberg was slated to headline this year’s Monty Alexander Jazz Festival. Held annually over Labor Day weekend, the 2020 festival has been canceled. Still, she looks forward to her inevitable return—not only to meet with musicians and attendees alike, but, admittedly, for the crab cakes, too!

“We will undoubtedly be bringing Bria back to Easton for a live performance as soon as possible, but for now, let’s enjoy her wonderful music as best, and as safely, as we can,” Fischer says.

Skonberg takes the virtual stage with an introduction and engaging selection of songs that includes her newest music video “So Is The Day.“

To start listening, visit Chesapeakemusic.org.

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Jazz on the Chesapeake is bringing the sweet sounds of music to your home with its virtual stage at Chesapeakemusic.org.

First up, it’s the amazing Monty Alexander. Considered one of the top five jazz pianists ever, Alexander’s musical expression combines elements of the blues, gospel, calypso, and reggae.

In a week or so, trumpeter/vocalist Bria Skonberg will grace the virtual stage. The Canadian-songwriter is steadily earning the reputation as Louis Armstrong’s modern-day counterpart.

Skonberg was slated to join Alexander as a headliner at this year’s Monty Alexander Jazz Festival. Held annually over Labor Day weekend, the 2020 festival has been canceled.

“Though we may not be together physically, we can still enjoy the music together,” says Joe Fischer, Chairman of the Jazz Committee Chesapeake Music.

Through August and beyond,enjoy a curated selection of past festival favorites, including Dominick Farinacci, the Anderson Twins (Will and Peter), Chuck Redd, and many more. Patrons can sign up via Chesapeake Music to receive email notifications whenever a new artist performance is available to watch.

So, settle in on the couch and tune in today to Alexander’s lively show in Beloise, Switzerland.

“Believe me, you will be impressed with this 59-minute production,” Fischer says, referring to the musician’s performance. “We’re thankful for your patience and support during this challenging time for the performing arts.”

To start listening, visit Chesapeakemusic.org.

Jazz on the Chesapeake is a program of Chesapeake Music.

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By mid-April, it was clear that the June in-person Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival would not celebrate its 35th Anniversary.  The Coronavirus had put a hold on all community gatherings.  Knowing how much the audience looks forward to the Festival, Artistic Directors Marcy Rosen and Catherine Cho proposed a virtual festival, an undertaking that was new to them and to Chesapeake Music.

The Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival Committee, which had just completed all arrangements for the planned June Festival, shifted gears, joined with the artistic directors, and jumped into unknown territory to support plans for our first virtual productions.  Much to the delight of Chesapeake Music, Virtual Virtuosi! exceeded our expectations.  The five concerts were viewed on our web site and Facebook page by more than 5,000 households.

Working with the Violin Channel, the world’s leading classical music news source who advertised and live-streamed the five programs, the results are that over 120,000 viewed the Festival on the Violin Channel’s Facebook and Instagram sites.

The Festival Committee has received very positive comments from local viewers, from viewers in nearby states, from across the country, and from places as far away as Karachi, Pakistan.  An additional benefit of our virtual festival is that our audience could watch the programs with family and friends across the country.

The artistic directors and musicians worked creatively with Skillman Music, a boutique New York City recording studio, to produce five programs.  Virtual Virtuosi! more than lived up to its name.  Two concerts filmed and recorded at Queens College just before New York City shut down due to the pandemic book-ended the Festival.  Two other concerts from the homes of the Festival Artists with varied selections were well-received by the viewers.  A Young People’s Concert featuring four musicians from Carnegie Hall’s postgraduate program, Ensemble Connect, reached out to families with children ages six to twelve with a live and interactive program that was a big success.

We hope to be back with our usual face to face live concerts next June, but if that turns out to be still a problem we feel that this year’s success leaves us well equipped to go virtual again. For further information and to view Festival concerts, visit chesapeakemusic.org.

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Chesapeake Music celebrates the 35th Anniversary of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival this June with an exciting, virtual festival. Internationally-known Artistic Directors, Marcy Rosen and Catherine Cho have put together a wonderful series of concerts to bring extraordinary music to our audience, given stay-at-home restrictions caused by COVID-19.  It is a pleasure to welcome back the distinguished artists who have performed at the festival for years and to greet the outstanding new musicians participating in this year’s festival.

This year’s festival will be presented as five online concerts made available through the Chesapeake Music website, www.chesapeakemusic.org.  Concerts are free and will be available online for a 24-hour period, with 48 hours between concerts. All concerts will be posted at 5:30 p.m.

Two concerts, professionally filmed and recorded at Queens College, LeFrak Concert Hall, will bookend the festival.  The opening concert, scheduled for Thursday, June 4, features award-winning Steinway pianist Diane Walsh and cellist Marcy Rosen playing Sonatas by Beethoven and Chopin.  The closing concert on Tuesday, June 16 is a program of Haydn, Debussy and Dvořák  performed by violinist Catherine Cho, cellist Marcy Rosen, and acclaimed pianist Robert McDonald.

The second concert will highlight several of festival artists playing works recorded at home.  Ieva Jokubaviciute, much sought-after chamber musician, will perform solo piano works of Bach/Busoni and Schumann; pianist Diane Walsh will play the 4 Chopin Impromptus; outstanding violinist Todd Phillips will be joined by pianist Rachel Yunkyung Choo performing the Beethoven Violin Sonata No. 7 in C minor, and violinist Francesca de Pasquale and the wonderful pianist Adam Golka will share the Dvořák Romance in F minor.

In addition, there will be an evening with the fabulous flutist Tara Helen O’Connor and her equally fantastic husband violinist Daniel Phillips, performing from their New York City living room.

This year Chesapeake Music planned to inaugurate a Young People’s Concert Project as part of the Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival’s 35th year.  The mission was intended to engage students of all ages and families in a musical experience that would nurture a love of music and concert-going.  Catherine Cho’s vision was to “ignite the curiosity of children through a program engaging their senses and inspiring their interest and need for expression through musical experiences.”  This Young People’s Concert, designed specifically for young people but open to all, will be presented on Wednesday, June 10. The concert will feature four members of the Juilliard/Carnegie Hall sponsored Ensemble Connect, a two-year fellowship program that prepares extraordinary young professional classical musicians for careers that combine musical excellence with teaching, community engagement, advocacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership.  The young musicians offering this concert are violinist Jennifer Liu, Violinist Gergana Haralampievam, Violist Caeli Smith, and Cellist, Ari Evans.

Please visit the Chesapeake Music website for more information and be sure to tune in for Virtual Virtuosi, a Chesapeake Chamber Music Virtual Concert Series beginning Thursday, June 4, 2020.

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As you will have read, our all important and dynamic April 25^th Jazz on the Chesapeake fundraiser has been postponed due to the Covid19 virus.

We now have a new date – Saturday June 20^th, 5 to 7 PM at the Talbot Country Club!

You may have already completed the Response sheet we previously mailed to you; please let us know if you will not be able to join us on June 20.

It is through this fundraiser and your generous support that we are able to bring to Talbot County world renown jazz artists and the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival. For further information, please call Lois Campbell, Chesapeake Music at 410-819-0830.

(This is an approved socially distant mode of communication.  We look forward to jazzing together in June!)

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Following the recent public announcements of closures by federal, state and local government agencies as a preventative public health measure, Chesapeake Music must regrettably make changes to its presentations scheduled for the near term.  The International Chamber Music Competition to be held on April 4, 2020 is postponed, as well as the community concerts planned for April 5, 2020.  Also, the Sharel Cassity Quartet concert, at the Talbot Country Club, April 25, 2020 is postponed.

According to Barry Koh, President of Chesapeake Music, “Our Competition and Jazz Program committees are exploring alternate dates for these events and we will keep you informed as the plans are developed.”

Koh adds, “Presently, there is no clear indication when social and cultural activities will return to normal, however we are hoping that the annual Chamber Music Festival will be able to start on schedule, June 3, 2020. We are proceeding with the activities that lead to this opening date as we normally would.  Nevertheless, we are closely monitoring the advice and announcements from the government agencies and will advise you promptly of any change in plans.”

For further information, visit chesapeakemusic.org or call 410-819-0380.

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The 9th Biennial Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition for Young Professionals will be held on April 4, 2020 at 1 p.m. at The Avalon Theatre in Easton, Maryland. Five ensembles will compete for the $10,000 Lerman Gold Prize and the $5,000 Silver Prize.  Prizes are announced following the final performance after 9:00 pm.  This year’s finalist ensembles include AYA Piano Trio of Philadelphia, PA; Colores Trio of Zurich, Switzerland; Dior Quartet of Bloomington, IN; Iceberg String Quartet of Montreal, Canada; and Soma Quartet of Bloomington, IN.   The average age of an ensemble must be under 31, and some include members as young as 21.  The ensembles represent a wide range of instrumental combinations including winds, strings, and mixed instruments, including percussion.

Based in Philadelphia, the AYA Piano Trio was formed in 2013 by three students at the Curtis Institute of Music. The trio has performed extensively across the United States, and in 2018 they were semifinalists in both the M Prize Chamber Arts Competition and the Fischoff Competition. They were also winners of the 2018 Young Chamber Musicians Competition in North Carolina, where they were invited for a residency of recordings and concerts and made their New York City debut in 2019 at the Mannes New School Concert Series. Follow them on Facebook @AYAPianoTrio.

After meeting at Zurich University of the Arts, Colores Trio (colorestrio.ch) formed in 2017 to explore a rich and varied repertoire of both contemporary compositions and new arrangements of classical works, played with enthusiasm and joy. The musicians, who are from Switzerland and Austria, study under Klaus Schwaerzler (solo percussionist of the Tonhalle Orchestra in Zurich), Benjamin Forster (solo timpanist of the Berlin Philharmonic) and Raphael Christen (Yamaha marimba artist and soloist). They won the Jury and Audience Award at the 2019 Chamber Music Competition of the Migros-Kulturprozent in Zurich, received a Special Prize at the 2019 International Anton Rubinstein Competition in Dusseldorf, and were silver medal winners at the 3rd Berliner Competition in Berlin.

Hailing from Israel, Canada, Brazil, and the US, the members of Dior Quartet formed their ensemble at Indiana University in Fall 2018 and won the Bronze Medal at the 2019 Fischoff National Chamber Competition (Senior Division). They have also won first prize at the 9th Plowman Chamber Music Competition (Senior Strings), first prize at the 2019 Kuttner Quartet Competition, and runner-up at the Beethoven-Haus Competition at the Jacobs School of Music, as well as held the 2019 Fellowship String Quartet at Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in Virginia. They are currently the new Kuttner Quartet, the student string quartet-in-residence at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Follow them on Facebook @ diorquartet.

The Iceberg String Quartet (icebergstringquartet.com) was formed in September 2017 at the McGill University Schulich School of Music in Montreal, Quebec and won the grand prize at the McGill University Chamber Music Competition.  They were invited to study and perform at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands in April 2018, where they worked closely with Asdis Valdimarsdottir of the Miami String Quartet. In July 2018 they were chosen for the “Evolution of the String Quartet” study and performance program at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity in Alberta, Canada.

Based in Bloomington, IN, Soma Quartet (somaquartet.com) was formed at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the guidance of Otis Murphy. In addition to being the Grand Prize winners at the 2019 Plowman Chamber Music Competition, they were First Runner-Up in the 2018 Classic Alive Young Artist Competition; First Prize winners in the 2017 Chicago Woodwind Ensemble Competition; and were also finalists in the 2018 North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition. The ensemble is committed to performing new works to expand quartet repertoire and has collaborated with several composers from Indiana University.

This year’s Competition judges include J. Lawrie Bloom, Ieva Jokubaviciute, and Michael Kannen. Bloom, founding artistic co-director of Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival and the Chesapeake Chamber Music Competition, plays clarinet and bass clarinet with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), is a senior lecturer in clarinet at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, and presents master classes all over the world. Lithuanian pianist Jokubaviciute’s performances have earned her critical acclaim throughout the U.S. and Europe on major stages around the world, such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Her piano trio, Trio Cavatina, won the 2009 Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition and made its Carnegie Hall debut in 2010. Cellist Kannen has appeared at chamber music festivals across the country and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. He is currently a member of the Apollo Trio and is the Director of Chamber Music at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he holds the Sidney Friedberg Chair in Chamber Music.

There will be Sunday afternoon concerts on April 5 following the Competition. Christ Church in Cambridge will feature Soma Quartet at 4:00 p.m.; Church of the Holy Trinity in Oxford will feature Iceberg String Quartet at 2:00 p.m.; St. Marks United Methodist Church in Easton will feature Colores Trio at 3:00 p.m.; Temple B’nai Israel in Easton will feature AYA Piano Trio at 1:00 p.m.; and Trinity Cathedral in Easton will feature Dior Quartet at 4:00 p.m.

The Chesapeake International Chamber Music Competition, a program of Chesapeake Music, is underwritten by the Talbot County Arts Council, the Maryland State Arts Council, and private benefactors. The cost to attend the Competition on April 4 is $20 per person and it is free to students (with ID) and children. For further information about attending the Competition events, visit ChesapeakeMusic.org or call 410-819-0380.

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