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The 20th anniversary of Avery Ensemble’s founding marks a significant step into the future and a major transformation of the group as it welcomes two new members. Beginning in the 2019-2020 season, renowned violinist Anthea Kreston, until 2019 a member of the Artemis String Quartet based in Berlin, joins Avery Ensemble following the departure of founding member Annie Trèpanier. Violinist/violist Laura Anne Bossert, a Silver Medalist in the Henryk Szeryng International Violin Competition, brings her wealth of experience to the Ensemble as she replaces Steve Larson. The new lineup’s first concerts have surpassed the expectations of some of the Ensemble’s most loyal fans while displaying a synergy commensurate with an expansion of the group’s activities, coinciding with an offer of European management.
It is interesting to note that the members of the renewed Avery Ensemble have known each other even longer than has the original lineup. At the same time the original members met each other at the Hartt School in Connecticut, founders Adriana Jarvis and Hans Twitchell, who already knew Laura Anne Bossert, became acquainted with Anthea Kreston. This is only one reason, perhaps, for the ease of the transition. With such an ionized infusion of musical energy, the Ensemble’s character is certainly evolving, but the former identity is still visible in the new Avery, which is building upon the immense contribution of its former members.
Greater than the sum of its parts, Avery Ensemble's 20 years of dedication and "outside the box" programming have been praised by New London's The Day as "designed to shake the cobwebs of chamber music. . . the best concert of this, or any season." Frequent guests, new music, historically-informed early music, an emphasis on American music, thematic unity and diversity in instrumental configuration lend a compelling versatility and variety to Avery's performances, praised by Audiophile Audition as "marvelous," and by the Classical Voice of New England as "committed. . . excellent. . .amazing and persuasive. . . simply outstanding." Recent engagements include appearances as guests of the Chamber Music Society of Central Kentucky, the Rossmoor Music Association in New Jersey, Coe Hall in New York, and the Teatro São Pedro in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Avery Ensemble was First Prize Winner of the 2016 American Prize in Chamber Music and the focus of an article in the Summer 2016 issue of Chamber Music America's Chamber Music Magazine.
In 2017, Avery Ensemble released a CD of works by Biber, Schoenfield, Creston and W.A. Mozart, which showcases the group’s attention to stylistic contrast in its interpretation of these works from four distinct historical periods. Further Avery recordings include piano trios by Felix Mendelssohn and Copland (2000), Re: Moon in the Afternoon by Ken Steen (2001) and piano quartets by Johannes Brahms, Gustav Mahler and Schnittke (Zephyr, 2007). Avery recently published the only extant recording of Rubin Goldmark's Piano Quartet, available on youtube.com.
Avery Ensemble has been sought out for premiere recordings of music by living composers, and commercial recordings of Avery premieres are available on Ablaze Records (2011) and Parma Records (2014). Avery's 2018 new music activity included the Hartt School New Music Recording Residency, as well as performing the premiere of We are Making a New World, for piano quartet and narrator, a work written in 2018 for Avery Ensemble by composer David MacBride. |
