290 years… that is how many years we traveled with the music we heard in our first four concerts this season: featuring Chaeyoung Park, piano; Ziggy and Miles, guitar duo; and the Jupiter Quartet. Local students from the Buffalo Academy of Visual Performing Arts came and performed in one of our Sunday pre-recitals and at the end of our first Jupiter Quartet concert, we all gathered to celebrate the retirement of our memorable executive director of 43 years, Clementina Fleshler.
After the last note of a lovingly passionate Beethoven’s “Tempest”, performed by YCA artist, Chaeyoung Park.
Written around the time Beethoven began experiencing hearing loss, as documented in his profound “Heiligenstadt Testament” (on October 6, 1802), the Tempest was part of his “New Path” in compositions that came later on. This personal crisis of Beethoven - one of grief, isolation, and resilience - spurred on a intensified sense of artistic expression, gifting us pieces such as the this sonata, the Eroica Symphony, Beethoven’s Quartet No. 15 in A minor (recall the shimmering ‘Heiliger Dankgesang’…) and the Missa Solemnis (Mass in D). Pieces that yearn to connect with all who experience valleys of adversity and take those moments to carve a deeper well of hope and joy for all - all through music.
[Born with a passionate and excitable temperament, keenly susceptible to the pleasures of society, I was yet obliged early in life to isolate myself, and to pass my existence in solitude. If I at any time resolved to surmount all this, oh! how cruelly was I again repelled by the experience, sadder than ever, of my defective hearing! — and yet I found it impossible to say to others: Speak louder; shout! for I am deaf! Alas! how could I proclaim the deficiency of a sense which ought to have been more perfect with me than with other men, — a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, to an extent, indeed, that few of my profession ever enjoyed! Alas, I cannot do this! Forgive me therefore when you see me withdraw from you with whom I would so gladly mingle. My misfortune is doubly severe from causing me to be misunderstood. No longer can I enjoy recreation in social intercourse, refined conversation, or mutual outpourings of thought. Completely isolated, I only enter society when compelled to do so. I must live like art exile….]
- excerpts from Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament
photo credit: KZ
An intimate moment during a piece written by Michael Grebla (from Western Australia, based in NYC) and commissioned by Ziggy and Miles - titled ‘Long Roads’ (2025)
[Long roads is about the journey and the search, the discovery. The excitement of leaving the familiar and trying to find the new familiar. The search for meaning, belonging, and purpose. The search for home, or a new home. Venturing into the unknown. Reaching for what comes next.
We go places. We wander. The roads are long. Maybe we find home.
Maybe finding home was about finding ourselves.
That can be a long road.]
- program notes by Michael Grebla
photo credit: KZ
Snapshots of students from BAVPA (Buffalo Academy of Visual Performing Arts) performing during one of our Gift Community pre-recitals led by the fiery Randy Leon - an incredible opportunity for BCMS to showcase and support local talent.
photo credit: KZ
(Click to enlarge)
