Ogunquit Performing Arts presents 27th Chamber Music Festival

OGUNQUIT, Maine — Ogunquit Performing Arts salutes the life and career of master cellist Bruck Coppock with performances by Boston Chamber Music piano quartet on Friday, June 2, and The New Hampshire Trio’s piano trio on Friday, June 9.

The concerts will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Dunaway Center, 23 School St., Ogunquit; free parking is available for ticketed concertgoers behind the Dunaway Center.

Since its inception, the Chamber Music Festival has always been a very special occasion for OPA, and in recent years, has been an on-going partnership with Boston Chamber Music. The Boston-based players were selected and led by international cellist Bruck Coppock, who every year put together a special ensemble for the Ogunquit concerts, unique to OPA. This year, pianist Randall Hodgkinson is continuing the tradition by leading Boston Chamber Music in a concert dedicated to Coppock, who died in November 2022. Thoughts about Coppock will be delivered at the concert by his life-long friend and colleague, clarinetist Tom Hill.

On Friday, June 2, the Boston Chamber Music Piano Quartet will play the Mozart Quartet in Eb, K.493, the Mel Bonis Sonata pour Piano et Violoncelle, and the Fauré Quatour in c, opus 15.

The players will include:

Omar Chen Guey, violin, a Brazilian violinist who has been a soloist with the Brazilian, Campinas, Goiania, Minas Gerais, Claudio Santoro National Theater, Sao Paulo University, Sao Paulo Municipal, State of Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestras, the Amazonas Philharmonic, Petrobras Pro-Musica, Experimental Repertoire, Manhattan School of Music, Stony Brook University Symphony, Maidstone Symphony, Qatar Philharmonic and the Seychelles International Music Festival Orchestras.

Peter Sulski, viola, has performed in over 30 countries as a member of the Apple Hill Chamber Players, London Symphony Orchestra, Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, Cyprus Chamber Orchestra, and Al Kamandjati Baroque Ensemble (Palestine). He returned to his native Worcester in 2002, after holding the position of Head of Strings of the Edward Said National Palestinian Conservatory.

David Russell, cello, was hailed as a “superb cellist” in the Boston Globe, and maintains a vigorous schedule both as soloist and as collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Director of Chamber Music. He is a regular performer with several Boston-area ensembles such as Emmanuel Music and Cantata Singers and Ensemble and served as Principal Cello with Opera Boston from 2005-2011.

Randall Hodgkinson, piano, won the International American Music Competition in 1981 and his October 1986 formal New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall under the competition’s auspices was greeted with critical acclaim. Mr. Hodgkinson has, in recent years, performed with orchestras including those of Philadelphia, Atlanta, Albany, Buffalo, Westchester, Oakland, and Caramoor and has collaborated with such conductors as Leonard Bernstein and Gunther Schuller. He is a featured artist on the Bosendorfer Concert Series aired over WNYC – FM in New York City and has recorded for the Nonesuch, CRI and New World labels.

On Friday, June 9, The New Hampshire Trio will play Rachmaninoff Trio Elégiaque No. 1 in G minor, Charles Ives Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano, and Amy Beach Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 150.

Headed by pianist Mathilde Handelsman, the Trio was recently founded in 2021, and is the resident faculty chamber ensemble at the University of New Hampshire in Durham.

The players will include:

Karl Orvik, violin, has been featured in solo and chamber recitals throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Norway and South Korea. An enthusiastic chamber musician, he is the founding violinist of Trio Klaritas, which has appeared on concert series in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, and at the Tanglewood Music Center, as well as in a 2010 concert tour of South Korea. Most recently, the trio made their Carnegie Hall debut in 2018 performing a program of works by living composers.

Jacques Lee Wood, cello, is an avid chamber musician and orchestral musician, a member of the Pedroia String Quartet and recently appointed principal cello of the Cape Symphony. He is a frequent guest artist with A Far Cry, House of Time, Yale Schola Cantorum, Trinity Baroque Orchestra, Bachsolisten Seoul, Bach Collegium Japan, Juilliard 415, Firebird Ensemble, and the Handel and Haydn Society. A recognized pedagogue, Wood is an Artist-in-Residence at the University of New Hampshire and holds faculty positions at Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra (Intensive Community Program) and Milton Academy.

Mathilde Handelsman, piano, is a concert pianist, poet, and educator from Paris, France. She is recognized as an imaginative and unusual performer with refined interpretations, for her calm technical mastery, immediate understanding of balance, as well as extraordinary vigor, and flawless musicality. Highlights from recent and current seasons include chamber performances alongside Yo-Yo Ma, Nicolas Namoradze, and Stephen Drury at the Tanglewood Music Festival, as well as a solo debut at Carnegie Hall in May 2022.

Free parking for ticketed audience members is available behind the venue.

Tickets are $20 in advance; $25 at the door; $5 student; and may be purchased at the Dunaway Center, Cricket's Corner Beach and Toy, and Ogunquit Welcome Center, or online at www.ogunquitperformingarts.org.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Ogunquit Performing Arts presents 27th Chamber Music Festival