Sure, the Seattle Chamber Music Society has a menu of the usual star composers — Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák — for its Summer Festival running July 1-26. But this year, the festival is boasting an actual menu that will be designed onstage by Seattle star chefs.
On July 19, the Summer Festival will present “Tasting Notes,” a one-off special event (not part of any subscription package) that’s a new experiment in partnership with James Beard media award-winning cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt. The evening, inspired by SCMS Artistic Director James Ehnes’ conversations with López-Alt about his enthusiasm for chamber music, “will explore the similarities between cooking and making music,” Ehnes says. “Things like teamwork and balancing creativity with precision, and how the senses are so intertwined.”
As SCMS musicians present Schumann’s Piano Quintet, López-Alt and chefs from Canlis, Beast & Cleaver and Ltd Edition Sushi will discuss and demonstrate a culinary interpretation of its four movements as a meal in four courses. Though general ticket buyers will not be partaking of the meal, all audience members will be invited to take part in a tasting from Spinnaker Chocolate. “It’s a great way to introduce some of Kenji’s fans to a form of art that he loves very much and also to introduce our devoted fans to a different way of thinking about art and the way that we process it in our minds,” Ehnes said.
As for the musical fare on the Summer Festival’s 12 concerts — three per week (on alternating weekdays plus Sundays) — one focus will be on contemporary composers supported by SCMS through its commissioning program.
Take “Merge,” a piano trio from 2019 by Colorado-based composer and violist Kyle Rivera, which receives its West Coast premiere on a program (July 23) that includes music by Beethoven and Shostakovich as well as another contemporary piece (for piano and percussion) by Korean American composer Juri Seo.
Rivera found inspiration for “Merge” in a “narrative sculpture” by Nathalie Miebach, an artist acclaimed for translating weather data into woven sculptures and performance. The composer, who had been a student in Houston during Hurricane Harvey, became intrigued by how Miebach transformed scientific information recorded from the hurricane into an artistic structure.
“Basically, ‘Merge’ is art based upon art based upon tragedy,” according to Ehnes. “It’s an emotional experience, but it’s fascinating how Rivera works this into the methods of his musical construction.”
Rivera’s inclusion on the program marks the second year of SCMS’ commitment to the Emerging Voices collaboration with Chamber Music Northwest and the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival to support well-established young composers from communities that have generally been underrepresented, Ehnes said.
In addition, SCMS has been commissioning a new work of chamber music every year since 2007 through its Commissioning Club. The 2024 commission went to California-born composer and violinist Michi Wiancko, whose “Fantasia for Tomorrow” for violin and viola (to be unveiled July 18) embodies memories of playing violin-viola duos with her mother — and at the same time celebrates the “multitude of colorful, textural and dramatic ways for performers to connect with one another,” as Wiancko writes in her preface to the new score.
As a further reflection on SCMS’ commissioning work, Ehnes has programmed a reprise of the commission from 2018: “They have just arrived at this new level” for string quartet, flute and clarinet by James Newton Howard (on July 11). The unusual title for this score by the acclaimed film composer, who is best known for his music for “The Hunger Games” and “The Dark Knight,” also has a connection to the visual arts. A painting by that name by the Bay Area street artist Chris Johanson struck Howard as reflecting something of the uneasy energy of his piece.
“Organizations that commission new works often lament how certain pieces get just one performance, and that’s that. But Howard’s piece has had a nice life since we premiered it at SCMS,” says Ehnes, who will play first violin in the performance, which is being recorded this time around for commercial release. As with the other new works, a preconcert talk will introduce the composer. Ehnes will also join Howard to play some of his film themes in arrangements for violin and piano.
Along with new works, introducing new musicians is a way to reinvigorate the festival with fresh energy. Ehnes is particularly excited about introducing the cellist Sterling Elliott, a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient and winner of the Senior Division of the 2019 National Sphinx Competition. Elliott will perform in various formations on three programs (July 3, 5 and 7).
Whether someone plans to attend just one concert or is a die-hard eager to take in the whole festival, Ehnes hopes they will enjoy some other discoveries from the past as well, such as a piano trio by Arno Babajanian (July 3), a piano quintet by Josef Suk (July 21) or György Ligeti’s Horn Trio (July 11), a response to Brahms’ contribution to the genre (July 9) — both of which will feature the internationally renowned horn player Radovan Vlatković.
SCMS’ summer offerings also include free concerts around the region through June 30 via its Concert Truck, as well as Chamber Music in the Park concerts.
Said Ehnes: “I’d just like for people to enjoy whatever they do attend as a well-balanced, effective, dramatic, exciting performance.”