Poet Rita Dove will be part of Emory Chamber Music Society’s 32nd season

The fall season launch also marks music director William Ransom’s 40th year at Emory.

Rita Dove will read her poem “The Bridgetower,” about the contentious relationship between Beethoven and Black violinist George Bridgetower, in an Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta program on Jan. 17, 2025.

By Jordan Owen – ArtsATL

Aug 15, 2024

The Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta launches its 32nd season this fall with celebratory overtones because it marks director William Ransom’s 40th year at Emory. The lineup also features Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove in the Sonata Mulattica program, named after her poetry collection of the same name.

The noon Sept. 6 concert and the evening concert on Sept. 14, both at the Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, will feature Ransom on piano. On Sept. 14, he will play works by Frederic Chopin and Claude Debussy, as well as George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” in honor of the piece’s 100th anniversary.

Tenor Timothy Miller will sing “Dichterliebe” in an Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta program on Nov. 16. (Hyosub Shin / Hyosub.Shin@ajc.com)

The ensemble’s schedule will continue with a smorgasbord of activity with its Emerson Evening series, joined by its daytime Bach’s Lunch and Cooke Noontime concert series, family events and master classes — 60 events in total. Highlights of the season include:

Nov. 16 at Emory’s Cannon Chapel: Eternal Love Triangle program. A selection of compositions will celebrate the work of Clara and Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms. The title is a reference to the trio’s legendary romantic entanglement. Tenor Timothy Miller will sing “Dichterliebe.”
Jan. 17, 2025, at Emerson Concert Hall: Sonata Mulattica program. In an unusual pairing, Rita Dove will read her poem “The Bridgetower,” which is about the contentious relationship between Beethoven and Black violinist George Bridgetower. Violinist Hannah White, in her Atlanta debut, will join Ransom for a performance of Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata,” tying in with Dove’s powerful poetry.
Jan. 31, 2025, at Emerson Concert Hall: World-renowned violinist Chee-Yun joins Ransom for a noontime concert featuring Ravel’s “Tzigane” and Franck’s Sonata.
March 22, 2025, at Cannon Chapel: The Old and the New program. The Vega Quartet premieres a new piece by violist and composer Paul Coletti, with a special guest appearance by former Vega violist Yinzi Kong.

Finally, the Vega Quartet will enjoy a career highlight performance April 25, 2025, at Carnegie Hall presenting “Beethoven and Bluegrass” with fiddle duo Mark and Maggie O’Connor. Although it’s unlikely to draw many Atlanta attendees, the concert will be the Vega’s first New York concert in roughly a decade.

“The Vega have played in Carnegie’s other two halls — Weill Recital Hall and the big one,” Ransom said. “But this is the first time they will play in Zankel, the middle-size hall at Carnegie, which holds 600.”

Jordan Owen began writing about music professionally at the age of 16 in Oxford, Mississippi. A 2006 graduate of the Berklee College of Music, he is a professional guitarist, bandleader and composer. He is currently the lead guitarist for the jazz group Other Strangers, the power metal band Axis of Empires and the melodic death/thrash metal band Century Spawn.