South Coast Chamber Music Society's exciting 2008-09 season features acclaimed harpist Mary Jane Rupert

The first concert in the South Coast Chamber Music Society's exciting 2008-09 season features acclaimed harpist Mary Jane Rupert in a program of special interest not only to lovers of classical chamber music, but also to anyone who appreciates the beauty of the South Coast in particular.

The concert, which will be performed at St. Gabriel's Church in Marion at 5 p.m. on November 22, and then again the following day, Sunday, November 23, at 3 p.m., in New Bedford's Grace Episcopal Church, brings together four 20th century composers--Nino Rota, Toru Takemitsu,Benjamin Britten, and Arthur Foote. Audiences will be treated to a delightful range of instrumentation highlighted by Mary Jane Rupert's harp. Ms. Rupert, who has performed from Carnegie Hall to Beijing Concert Hall and is on the faculty at Tufts University and Wellesley College, brings her acclaimed sound to several of the program's diverse works.

The alto flute and the harp play central roles in Toru Takemitsu's "Toward the Sea," a piece that was commissioned by the Greenpeace Foundation for its "Save the Whales" campaign. Takemitsu uses its three movements, "The Night," "Moby Dick," and Cape Cod," to suggest the shimmering fluidity of the ocean that the composer knew so well from his native Japan and from visits along the South Coast of Massachusetts. In an interview, Mr. Takemitsu related the second section to a passage from Melville's great novel: "Let the most absent-minded of men be plunged in his deepest reveries...and he will infallibly lead you to water...Yes, as everyone knows, meditation and water are wedded together."

Mr. Takemitsu, who also was a novelist (he published 22 books) and wrote music for film, is joined on the program by Nino Rota, who wrote the music for films as familiar as Fellini's "La Strada" and "La Dolce Vita," Francis Ford Coppola's "The Godfather," and Franco Zeffirelli's "Romeo and Juliet." On the November program, however, it is Mr. Rota's "Quintetto" for flute, oboe, viola, cello, and harp which will thrill the audience with its captivating melodies.

Benjamin Britten's "Six Metamorphoses after Ovid," the most widely performed and popular piece for solo oboe, is a fascinating exploration of the theme of change which lies at the heart of the Roman poet's long poem, "Metamorphoses." SCCMS oboist Donna Marie Cobert is very excited about this piece, which describes the gods' shifting and changing like water in sunlight. Perhaps Britten was drawn to the subject because he had just finished his opera, "Billy Budd," based on Melville's novella about an innocent who takes a life on board a ship at sea.

The November program is rounded out with a viola sonata by Arthur Foote, who was born in Salem and spent his adult life in Boston. Foote, who was one of the first native-born American composers to earn international respect, earned a master's degree in music from Harvard, the first such degree granted by an American university. His sonata, influenced in part by Schumann and Brahms, is sure to delight South Coast audiences.

The South Coast Chamber Music Society's first concert of the season, featuring harpist Mary Jane Rupert and oboist Donna Cobert, promises to be as invigorating and colorful as the Massachusetts Autumn itself. The South Coast Chamber Music Society is happy to once again offer a lecture one half hour before each concert begins, at 4:30 p.m. in Marion, and at 2:30 p.m. in New Bedford. The talk, entitled "The Massachusetts Connection," will explore the ways in which the Bay State (and New Bedford!) helped to inspire the composers on the program.

Tickets may be purchased for $18 at the Bookstall on Front Street in Marion, at the Symphony Music Shop on Route 6 in Dartmouth, ordered through our website at www.southcoastchambermusic.org, or at the door on the day of the concert. Persons aged 16 and under are encouraged and admitted free of charge. Both concert venues are wheelchair accessible. For more information, please call Heather Zine, Executive Director, at 508-295-2968 or email sccms@comcast.net.

These concerts are sponsored in part by the Marion and New Bedford Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.