Muzzy Ridge Concerts - Laurie Carney and David Friend

Searsmont’s Muzzy Ridge Concerts Concludes Milestone Fifth Season August 16 and 17 with Performances by Laurie Carney and David Friend

Muzzy Ridge Concerts, the annual series of summer chamber music, founded by composer Robert Sirota, finishes its fifth milestone season with performances on Saturday, Aug. 16 and Sunday, Aug. 17. The concerts will feature world renowned violinist Laurie Carney and outstanding pianist David Carney. Each will take place at 3 p.m., and last approximately 60 minutes with no intermission. Indoor seating is limited to 50 patrons with an additional 20 outdoor seats. Tickets are “going fast” and are now on sale at robertsirota.com/muzzy-ridge-concerts.

The concerts will be presented in Robert Sirota’s Searsmont studio. Bob says this is “the creative sanctuary where I’ve composed a great deal of my work over the past 35 years. Muzzy Ridge Concerts were born in August of 2021 when my wife Vicki and I invited a few friends to our house to spend a couple of weekends performing chamber music. Five years later it has become a mainstay of the Maine summer concert calendar. To celebrate this milestone we are asking Laurie and David to return for this special weekend of concerts. We invite you to join us!”

Violinist Laurie Carney and pianist David Friend are extraordinary players who last visited Searsmont as part of Muzzy Ridge Concerts’ first chamber music season in 2021. The duo will perform Mozart’s “Violin Sonata No. 32” in B-flat major (K454), Robert Sirota’s “Sonata No. 2” for violin and piano, Lili Boulanger’s “Three Pieces” and Claude Debussy’s “Sonata” for violin and piano.

Laurie Carney is a founding member of the American String Quartet. She began her studies at home and at age eight became the youngest violinist ever to be admitted to the Preparatory Division of the Juilliard School. At 15 she was the youngest to be accepted into the College Division, where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She has shared the stage with many of the world’s leading artists, including Isaac Stern, Yefim Bronfman, Pinchas Zukerman, and Frederica von Stade, and has been featured in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Bournemouth Symphony, in the New York premiere of Giampaolo Bracali’s “Fantasia” .and the Basque (Spain) Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Carney frequently performs duo recitals with Guarneri Quartet violist Michael Tree. Her violin is by Carlo Tononi, who created it in Venice in 1720.

Ms. Carney is a member of the faculty of both the Manhattan School of Music and Aspen Music School. She has taught at the Mannes College of Music, Peabody Conservatory, the University of Nebraska, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. Her frequent master classes have taken her to California, Colorado, Indiana, Michigan, and New Mexico. She performs the duo repertory with her husband, cellist William Grubb.

The New York Times describes David Friend as one of the “finest, busiest pianists active in New York’s contemporary-classical scene.” He has performed at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Disney Hall, Londo’s Royal Festival Hall, Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofia, the Chan Centre in Vancouver and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing. He has also played extensively in alternative, underground, and DIY venues including New York City’s Poisson Rouge, Issue Project Room, Roulette Intermedia, National Sawdust and MoMA P.S.1, Constellation in Chicago and the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, as well as Copenhagen’s LiteraturHaus and the

Music Gallery in Toronto. He has appeared in the Lincoln Center, Mostly Mozart, Aspen Music, Gilmore International Keyboard, Beijing Modern Music and Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Next on Grand Festivals. He also performed at the Whitney Biennial, and the Venice Biennale. He has recorded for the New Amsterdam, Harmonia Mundi, Albany, Cedille, Dacapo, Innova, a wave press, Naxos, and New World labels. His playing has been heard on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, WQXR’s Hammered!, and WNYC’s New Sounds. He is featured on Third Coast Percussion’s album of music by Steve Reich, which won the Grammy Award for best chamber music performance. Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe, by the Chiara, American, Blair and Telegraph String Quartets, and by the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios. His works have been heard at the Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, Cooperstown, Bowdoin International Music and Mizzou International Composers festivals. His works have been commissioned by many soloists, the Neave Trio, Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, and yMusic. He has also prepared musical arrangements for Paul Simon. Bob has received grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and American Music Center. His works are on Navona Records, Legacy Recordings, and Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels.