Chamber Festival Puts Spring in Its Step

The Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, which has been a zenith of classical music on the East End every summer since it started with a small series of concerts in 1984, has, over the years, found various innovative ways of programming. Now the festival will inaugurate a new venture, called BCMF Spring, with two Sunday concerts on March 22 and April 26.

The first concert of this budding undertaking will feature music of Mozart and Mendelssohn, both of whom were child prodigies. On the March 22 program are Mozart’s Flute Quartet and Piano Quartet in G minor, considered the first piano quartet ever written, selections from Mendelssohn’s “Songs Without Words” for cello and piano, and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor.

Mozart and Mendelssohn have an affinity and work beautifully together on a program, said Marya Martin, the festival’s founder and artistic director, because “Mendelssohn admired Mozart so much and you can hear it in the trio’s transparency and clarity.”

Following its well-known mix of established and newer artists, the concert will bring to the stage Ms. Martin as flutist, a Naumburg Competition winner; Gilles Vonsattel as pianist; Cynthia Phelps on violin, and Carter Brey on cello, both principals with the New York Philharmonic and festival veterans, and Sean Lee, a rising violinist who appeared with the festival last summer for the first time.

On April 26, the renowned Miro Quartet will perform Haydn’s Quartet in D minor, nicknamed “The Fifths” because its first theme uses the interval of a fifth in a descending figure that resembles the ringing of clock towers, Schubert’s monumental G major quartet, which was his last, and Copland’s Rondino from Two Pieces for String Quartet.

This is the first time the Miro Quartet is appearing with the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. “I’ve admired them for a long time and am so happy to have them on board,” Ms. Martin said.

The Miro Quartet, formed in 1995, won first prizes at several national and international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. In 2005, the string quartet became the first ensemble to be awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant. The Miro Quartet is the faculty string quartet in residence at the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.

“We are so excited to open our doors to music lovers from around the region for our new spring series,” Ms. Martin said. “Widening the scope of the festival while continuing to offer the community the finest repertoire interpreted by some of the best chamber musicians performing today is a dream come true.”

“I’ve always had this idea in the back of my mind,” Ms. Martin said, speaking from her house on the East End earlier this week. Since the two concerts will take place at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, the usual main venue for the summer series, “I had to take a picture of the snow around the church, which was so beautiful and pristine, and compare it to our usual summer photo.”

“We are thrilled to make this next step in BCMF’s history by expanding our season beyond the summer,” said Michael Lawrence, the festival’s executive director. “Because these performances will take place during the school year, we are particularly happy to offer a $10 ticket for students, as well as offer even lower-priced tickets to local students through their schools — hoping to help along our next generation of music lovers.” In fact, Mr. Lawrence himself went to about 12 schools last week, talking with music and arts teachers to encourage students to attend the concerts, an opportunity he doesn’t have for the summer concerts.

In addition, a parent accompanying a student with a lower-price ticket from a school will be admitted for half price.

“It’s also a little scary; it’s not an inexpensive undertaking. But we’re doing our darndest to make a great presentation and get a full audience,” said Ms. Martin.

Both events will take place at 5 p.m. at the Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church.

Tickets are $40 and $50, $10 for students. The summer season, the 32nd for the festival, will be announced in April. More information is at bcmf.org or 212-741-9403.