Reviews

Boston Globe

Boston Herald

Bay Windows

Musical Intelligencer

South End News

Stylus Magazine

Audience Reviews

Press Contact

Gabriel Langfur, Managing Director
phone: 617-427-8200
email: info@chameleonarts.org

Press Releases

download in pdf format

Chameleon Arts Ensemble Announces 2010-2011 chamber music season

August 1, 2010 – Boston, MA –The Chameleon Arts Ensemble is pleased to announce its 2010-2011 season of chamber music concerts at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay, one of the most beautiful and intimate music rooms in the city. All five of the diverse, engaging programs will be performed on Saturday evening at 8 PM and Sunday afternoon at 3 PM, beginning on October 16th and 17th and continuing with concerts on November 6th and 7th, February 12th and 13h, March 26th and 27th, and May 21st and 22nd.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents The Sounds of Song and Dance: an afternoon of chamber music for children and families

May 6, 2010 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, in partnership with the Forest Hills Educational Trust, will present a Family Concert on Sunday, June 6, 2010 at 2 PM, in Forsyth Chapel at historic Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain. The program is intended for children ages 6 and up and their families and will be interactive, with time for comments, questions, and answers. An instrument “Petting Zoo” and demonstration will follow the live performance. Children will be able to handle and play orchestral instruments as guided by members of Chameleon, and will be encouraged to touch, blow, pluck, bow, and strike.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents "flung on canvas like notes divine"

April 22, 2010 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble’s twelfth season comes to a close on Saturday, May 22, 8 PM and Sunday, May 23, 3 PM. Both concerts are at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. The program, entitled flung on canvas like notes divine, explores the inspirations composers find in the world all around them, as they paint portraits in sound of people, places and things that they love. New Zealander Gareth Farr’s Taheke for flute and harp evokes the breathtaking waterfalls of his homeland, Pierre Jalbert’s Visual Abstract for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussionis inspired by bells and church domes and the sounds associated with them, and Fauré’s La Chanson d'Ève for soprano and piano is an art nouveau meditation on the wonder of Creation, the mystical paradise of the Garden of Eden, and the feminine ideal. Finally, Tchaikovsky gave us a musical celebration of his “city of dreams” in the joyously exuberant Souvenir de Florence for string sextet, Op. 70. The Chameleons will be joined for Souvenir by cellist Joshua Gordon of the Lydian String Quartet and violist Marcus Thompson, Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents "of melody yet unknown"

February 24, 2010 – Boston, MA – The fourth program of the Chameleon Arts Ensemble’s 2009-2010 season is entitled of melody yet unknown, an exploration of the paths to and from the pivotal figure of Arnold Schoenberg. The concert is on Saturday, March 27, 8 PM at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. The program will include Beethoven’s Quintet in E-flat Major for piano & winds, Op. 16; Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major for viola & piano, Op. 120; Anton Webern’s Vier Lieder for soprano & piano, Op. 12; Leon Kirchner’s Piano Trio No. II; and Schoenberg’s Kammersymphonie No. 1, Op. 9 (1906) in Webern’s arrangement for flute, clarinet, violin, cello & piano.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents "for that transforming touch"

January 6, 2010 – Boston, MA – On the heels of three sold-out performances in October and November, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble opens the second half of its twelfth season on Saturday, February 6at 8 PM and Sunday, February 7 at 3 PM. Both concerts are at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. Chameleon’s member musicians will be joined by acclaimed pianist Spencer Myer, in his Boston debut. The program, entitled for that transforming touch, examines the art of borrowing existing music and transforming it into something new, a practice as old as music itself.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents "wordless, wondrous things"

October 7, 2009 – Boston, MA – Following the success of two sold out performances at its season opening concerts, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble continues its twelfth chamber music season on Saturday, November 7, 8 PM at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. wordless, wondrous things is a Chameleon-style evening of song—no words necessary. The program is inspired by Felix Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte, Op. 109 for cello & piano, and also includes August Klughardt’s Schilflieder (Reed Songs) for oboe, viola & piano, Op. 28; Estonian composer Ester Mägi’s Serenade for flute, violin & viola; Sebastian Currier’s Whispers for flute, cello, piano & percussion, and the Piano Trio No.1 in B-flat Major, Op. 99, D. 898 by perhaps the greatest composer of songs, Franz Schubert.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble opens 2009-2010 chamber music season with music and all silence held

September 2, 2009 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble will open its eleventh chamber music season with two performances of music and all silence held, on Saturday, October 3 at 8 PM and Sunday October 4 at 3 PM, both at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. The program centers on the world of Olivier Messiaen with his masterpiece Quatuor pour la fin du temps for clarinet, violin, cello & piano. Also on the concert are Mozart’s Duo for violin & viola in G Major, K. 423, Claude Debussy’s Sonata for cello & piano, and the great Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu’s And then I knew 'twas wind for flute, viola & harp.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble Announces 2009-2010 chamber music season

August 3, 2009 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble is pleased to announce its 12th season of chamber music concerts in Boston. All of the performances take place at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay, one of the most beautiful and intimate music rooms in the city. The series opens on Saturday and Sunday October 3rd and 4th, and continues with concerts on Saturday November 7th, Saturday and Sunday February 6th and 7th, Saturday March 27th, and Saturday and Sunday May 22nd and 23rd. Saturday concerts begin at 8 PM and Sunday concerts at 3 PM.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents “of spirits voices ecstatic”

April 17, 2009 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble will close its 2008-2009 subscription season with of spirits voices ecstatic, a concert of music that transports us to a mystical realm, a rapturous place of inner spirituality and otherworldly fantasy. The performances are on Saturday, May 16, 8 PM and Sunday, May 17, 3 PM, at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. The program includes Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke for cello & piano, Toru Takemitsu’s Rain Spell for flute, clarinet, piano, vibraphone & harp, Estonian composer Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel for clarinet & piano, and Fauré’s g minor Piano quartet, Op. 45, as well as the world premiere of a new work entitled Zhikr: Songs of Longing by Cambridge-based composer Shirish Korde. Mr. Korde will present “Word on Music” pre-concert talks about Zhikr thirty minutes before each performance.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents an afternoon of chamber music for children and families

April 3, 2009 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, in partnership with the Forest Hills Educational Trust, will present a Family Concert on Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 2 PM, in Forsyth Chapel at historic Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Avenue in Jamaica Plain. The program is intended for children ages 6 and up and their families and will be interactive, with time for comments, questions, and answers. An instrument “Petting Zoo” and demonstration will follow the live performance. Children will be able to handle and play orchestral instruments as guided by members of Chameleon, and will be encouraged to touch, blow, pluck, bow, and strike.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents “like woven sounds of streams”

February 27, 2009 – Boston, MA – On Saturday, March 28 at 8 PM, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble will present like woven sounds of streams, a program of music inspired by water, nature’s greatest force of regeneration and renewal. The concert is at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. Schubert’s Trout Quintet is featured, as well as two works inspired by the great Viennese composer: Dan Welcher’s Mill Songs: Four Metamorphoses after Schubert for oboe and bassoon, and Dominick Argento’s To Be Sung Upon the Water for soprano, clarinet/bass clarinet and piano. Notably, Chameleon will present a rarely heard but seminal work by the brilliant German exile Hanns Eisler, his Fourteen Ways to Describe Rain for flute, clarinet, string trio and piano.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble presents “a tale that’s told in ancient song”

January 15, 2009 – Boston, MA – The Chameleon Arts Ensemble will present its first concerts of 2009 on Saturday, February 14 at 8 PM and Sunday February 15 at 3 PM, at the Goethe-Institut Boston, 170 Beacon Street in the Back Bay. The program, entitled a tale that’s told in ancient song, includes: Maurice Ravel’s Tzigane, Rapsodie de Concert for violin & piano; Manuel de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populares Españolas for soprano & piano; Judith Weir’s Airs from Another Planet: Traditional Music from Outer Space for wind quintet & piano; Chen Yi’s Qi for flute, cello, percussion & piano; and Bedrich Smetana’s Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 15.

>>read more

Chameleon Arts Ensemble wins 2009 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming

December 16, 2008 - Boston, MA - For the second time in three years, the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston is being honored with a CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming in the Chamber Ensembles - Mixed Repertory category. Artistic Director Deborah Boldin will accept the award on Saturday, January 17, 2009 at the annual Chamber Music America national conference in New York City.

>>read more