
We had a discussion the other night about High Season. Specifically, how do you know when it begins?
Somebody suggested you know when you can’t get a table at a restaurant you’ve been walking into for the past five months. Someone else thought Dia de los Muertos was the line of demarcation. Perhaps it’s when you can get an Uber every day of the week.
I decided that today officially marks the beginning of the “busy season.”
And the marker is the Pro Musica classical music concert series.
It began tonight in typically stunning style. Adam Sadberry has been here before, two years ago. About a quarter of the people there tonight saw him then. And came back for more. In fact, Sadberry and pianist Chloe de Souza played to a nearly full St. Paul’s Church.
Pro Musica starts with a single concert each month through the end of the year, ramping up to week performances starting in mid-January. Full houses are usually a January phenomenon. The people are here and they are scooping up the tickets.
Sadberry’s reputation helps, I’m sure. His two-hour-plus concert puts him in the Bruce Springsteen Class — high energy, emotional depth, engaging performance, and endurance.
Mind you, that’s the classical music division — not rock ‘n’ roll.
But think about what it takes to play complicated pieces on a flute for two hours. And to retain that drive and emotional commitment all the way through.
Sadberry’s repertoire included three pieces each with several movements — a Bach Sonata, Bela Bartok’s Suite Paysanne Hongroise, and Three Romances by Clara Schumann.
Sadberry did not shy from the personal. There was “Mother and Child” from William Grant Still and “Amazing Grace” from Coleridge Taylor-Perkinson. The most personal and visually gripping was saved for last, “Wish” from Valerie Coleman. While barely a year old, the composition follows the fraught and tragic “Middle Passage” of black slaves from Africa to the Americas. Powerful indeed. And perhaps because of its contemporariness, “Wish” ends in a powerful confluence of hope.
Sadberry and de Souza’s perform like old souls, although this is nearly their first time as a duet.
Sadberry and de Souza seta high mark for the rest of the season.
Find out what’s ahead at the Pro Musica website.
I can feel your love for this music in your writing. A concert I wish I hadn’t missed. I am especially drawn to classical flute music. Can hardly wait for our return. Thank you Bob
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