It is hard to believe that we are coming to the end of the 2008 Westport Arts Center's Composers Project series. The final concert will be Friday, August 15, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. at Westport Town Hall with this year's Artists in Residence, the Antares ensemble. These musicians were the creative masterminds behind this innovative seven concert sequence that invited the audience to experience and absorb new works by 21st century composers. Members of Antares will not only perform but will lead the pre-concert talk with composer Joel Puckett, whose piece Colloquial Stanzas (2008) was written specifically for this group. Additionally, this will be the world premiere of this composition.
Like its namesake which is the brightest star in the Scorpius constellation, Antares strives to mesh the old and the new by embracing change and giving traditional forms new looks. The group, made up of cellist Rebecca Patterson, pianist Eric Huebner, clarinetist Garrick Zoeter and violinist Jesse Mills, draws from an eclectic, sumptuous repertoire of music for clarinet, violin, cello and piano, as well as concomitant trio and duo combinations. This versatility permits them to explore unique and unusual chamber masterworks from the Classical, Romantic, 20th and 21st century periods. Among the accolades bestowed upon this quartet are two ASCAP/CMA Awards for Adventurous Programming in 1999 and 2004 and First Prize winner of the 2002 Concert Artists Guild International Competition. Antares has performed at the Bayview Music Festival (MI), the Huntington Summer Arts series (NY), the Chautauqua Institution, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, etc.
Joel Puckett, the son of a Dixieland jazz musician and a classical tuba player, grew up in Atlanta absorbing and playing different genres of music and received a DMA in composition from the University of Michigan. The Washington Chorus recently commissioned and premiered his choral piece This Mourning at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. His honors include a BMI Award, a grant from the department of humanities at the University of Michigan and a Rackham Dissertation Grant from the Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan.
Besides the world premiere, Antares will play Maurice Ravel's Ma Mère L’Oye, George Tsontakis' Eclipse and John Mackey's Breakdown Tango.