Hart Community Performing Arts Series announces star-studded season.

Seraph Brass Quintet

Hart Community Performing Arts Series announces star-studded season.

HART — The Hart Community Performing Arts Series has announced its schedule of visiting artists for the 2022–2023 concert season. 

The series is a project of the Hart Community Performing Arts Association in cooperation with the Hart Public Schools.

The season begins Friday, Sept. 23, with a performance by the members of the Yellow Room Gang. In December of 2005, a group of Michigan songwriters gathered in the brilliantly yellow living room of David Tamulevich’s Ann Arbor home for the first time. They’ve been meeting monthly ever since, to share dinner, conversation and the newest song they have in the process for critique. Each an accomplished songwriter and performer in their own right, they create a unique atmosphere of respect and support, friendship and generosity finding new and unexpected ways to explore beyond their previous personal boundaries. It wasn’t long before they began performing together and presenting workshops in various configurations. What began as a casual excuse to get together with friends has evolved into one of the most exciting ‘super groups’ to ever join forces on one stage.

The series continues Friday, Oct. 28, with a concert by the Galvin Cello Quartet. Composed of members from China, Brazil, South Korea, and the United States, Galvin Cello Quartet burst onto the scene after capturing the silver medal at the 2021 Fischoff Competition, followed shortly by winning the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and joining the Concert Artists Guild roster. Cellists Sihao He, Sydney Lee, Haddon Kay, and Luiz Fernando Venturelli met as students at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music in the studio of acclaimed pedagogue Hans Jørgen Jensen, and the quartet takes its name from the Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall at Bienen. The Galvin Quartet incorporates virtuosity and uniqueness through every individual bringing their own artistic nuance to the ensemble.

Benny Benack III

On Friday, Nov. 18, the series will celebrate the 150th concert over its 23-year history with a very special performance funded by a grant from the John Stites Jazz Awards. Benny Benack III will bring his quartet from New York City and be joined by award-winning vocalist Lauren Henderson. By age 30, trumpeter and singer Benny Benack III has proven to be that rarest of talents — not only a fiery trumpet player with a stirring command of the post-bop trumpet vernacular in the vein of Kenny Dorham and Freddie Hubbard, but also a singer with a sly, mature, naturally expressive delivery in the post-Sinatra mold, performing standards and his own astute songs with a thrilling sense of showmanship.

Lauren Henderson

Described as “somewhere between a comforting whisper and a cogent  declaration” by The New York Times, Lauren Henderson paints reflective and impassioned stories with her haunting voice and enchanting compositions. Henderson’s eclectic vocal influences spread across genres producing a distinct yet versatile sound. 

Starting out the New Year, the series will present the Frisson Ensemble Friday, Jan. 27. From New York City, Frisson features the best and brightest of classical music’s rising stars. Frisson showcases a myriad of rarely-performed masterworks, and the group expands and contracts into a variety of ensembles, including quintets, sextets, nonets, and a small chamber orchestra. Their performance in Hart will feature a woodwind quartet of oboe, bassoon, clarinet, and piano.

Frisson Ensemble

The Tom Knific Quartet will present a 3 p.m. concert Sunday, Feb. 19. The Knific Quartet featuring Rhea Olivacce is a joyful and exhilarating jazz ensemble that draws on a world of musical influences. The ensemble delivers highly interactive performances, ranging from intimate moments of stirring melodic beauty, deep groove and spectacular contemporary virtuoso turns. Influences and repertoire include music of the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. The ensemble features Caribbean singer Rhea Olivacce, European violinist Renata Artman Knific, and Korean pianist Lisa Sung.

The Seraph Brass Quintet will appear on the Hart stage Friday, March 3. Winners of the 2019 American

Prize in Chamber Music, Seraph Brass is a dynamic ensemble drawing from a roster of America’s top brass players. Committed to engaging audiences with captivating programming, Seraph Brass presents a diverse body of repertoire that includes original transcriptions, newly commissioned works and well-known classics. Seraph released their debut studio album, Asteria, on Summit Records in January of 2018, winning a Silver Medal Global Music Award.

Peter and Will Anderson

Peter and Will Anderson will come to Hart from New York City Friday, April 14. “Virtuosos on clarinet and saxophone” (New York Times), identical twins Peter and Will Anderson are two of the most extraordinary jazz woodwind players today. Born and raised in Washington DC, the

Rhea

Andersons moved to New York City to attend The Juilliard School. They’ve performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Wycliffe Gordon, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, and can be heard on the 2014 Grammy-winning soundtrack of HBO’s Boardwalk Empire with Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks. They’ve headlined at Carnegie Hall, The Blue Note, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, New Orleans Jazz Festival, Feinstein’s 54 Below, Blues Alley, Birdland, and live on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion Radio Program.  

The 2022–2023 season will conclude Monday, May 1, with a very special opportunity for West Michigan audiences. The series will proudly present the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, one of the most highly acclaimed ensembles in American music. The Grammy award-winning LAGQ is one of the most multifaceted groups in any genre. The LAGQ is comprised of four uniquely

Los Angeles Guitar Quartet

accomplished musicians bringing a new energy to the concert stage with programs ranging from Bluegrass to Bach. They consistently play to sold-out houses world-wide. Their inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. Programs including Latin, African, Far East, Irish, Folk and American Classics transport listeners around the world in a single concert experience.

All of the artists appearing this season will provide either performance or educational opportunities for students from area schools as part of their visit to Hart. These opportunities are provided by the HCPAA, in cooperation with the Hart Public Schools, at no cost to students or their families. All Friday night concerts begin at 7:30 p.m. and all concerts take place in the Hart Public Schools Auditorium, located at 308 W. Johnson St. Season tickets will go on sale Monday, Aug. 8. For ticket information, see the HCPAA website at hartseries.org or contact series Artistic Director, Tom Kirk, at tomkirk@hartseries.org.

Please consider helping to fund local news. Mason County Press and Oceana County Press are available for free thanks to the generous support of our advertisers and individuals. Three ways to help us: Venmo: @MasonCountyPress; Paypal: MasonCountyPress@gmail.com; Mail a check to PO BOX 21, Scottville, MI 49454. 

This story is copyrighted © 2022, all rights reserved by Media Group 31, LLC, PO Box 21, Scottville, MI 49454. No portion of this story or images may be reproduced in any way, including print or broadcast, without expressed written consent.

As the services of Media Group 31, LLC news services, the information posted within the sites are archivable for public record and historical posterity. For this reason it is the policy and practice of this company to not delete postings. It is the editor’s discretion to update or edit a story when/if new information becomes available. This may be done by editing the posted story or posting a new “follow-up” story. Media Group 31, LLC or any of its agents have the right to make any changes to this policy. Refer to Use Policy for more information.