Chamber music in Cedar
By Veronica Gregory
Sun contributor
Even if Carl Donakowski wasn’t scheduled to perform as a cellist for the Leelanau Summer Music Festival, his thinking fingers would hint that he’s a musician. His faintly summer-tan hands curve around his coffee cup, tap the table in syncopation, and pause above the tabletop, like a conductor about to lead his orchestra into a piece. Donakowski plays chamber music, though. Chamber music has no conductors. The genre is an elegant deviant in the musical world, and it will soon be heard in Leelanau.
Donakowski is the artistic director of the Leelanau Summer Music Festival, a concert series presented in the Sala Koncertowa Concert Hall next to Holy Rosary Church near Cedar. The upcoming classical chamber performances will feature visiting harpist Sivan Magen on July 9, and both pianist Zhihua Tang and cellist Donakowski on July 20. The performances are at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for students with ID and $20 for general admission, and are available through MyNorthTickets.com. The festival is in its sixth season, and in past years has hosted choral, Celtic, Brazilian choro, and other culturally-themed concerts.
To the musical layperson, the term ‘chamber music’ might be unfamiliar. Donakowski explains, “classical chamber music is music where there’s one player per part, and there’s no conductor, so all the decisions are made as a group, both in rehearsal and during the concert.” He also defines this type of music through the special player-to-player link in the music, and subsequently the player-audience relationship. “You [the performers] play off each other, and like a great conversation, you change what you do or say based on how someone else plays. And the performers play off the audience, too. There’s a vibe from the audience that is part of the experience.”
In a way, there wouldn’t be a Sala Koncertowa Concert Hall without the Leelanau Summer Music Festival, and vice versa. Donakowski has been part of the rebirth of the old schoolhouse into a concert hall since his father Conrad’s “pie in the sky” idea. He says that all it took was one time performing in the Holy Rosary church, and he knew that the community would benefit from a standing musical series. “I really believe in the power of music to not only entertain, but also make people’s lives richer and to bring people together in a wonderful experience.” He notes that it has been a pleasure practicing in this region where nature adds its own interlude to his practice sessions. “I think there is something really special about this place, Leelanau County, and nearby.”
Part of the unique nature of classical chamber music is that it is, in a sense, an audience-participation sport. The more the audience gives, the better the performers play, and the audience receives a piece of the action. Even after the musical performance, there’s a “talk-back” session to strengthen this bond between performer and audience, and Donakowski reports that this has been a huge success. As artistic director, he also works with incoming artists on their musical selections, and has shaped past concerts around the salutation of different cultures, such as French, German and Native American, to acknowledge the varied backgrounds of the citizens of Leelanau. This year, Donakowski and Tang will perform “Polonaise Brilliante” by Frédéric Chopin, a piece with a dance rhythm by a Polish composer and pianist. Donakowski says that this piece is the featured performance of their concert in order “to celebrate the Polish heritage of Cedar.”
July 9 will find Sivan Magen onstage at Sala Koncertowa with his harp, and Donakowski has high respect for the famous artist. “I heard him play at a festival in Virginia a few years ago, and I was just blown away by his artistry and intensity.” Magen has previously performed at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House, and learned about his craft in his hometown of Jerusalem, as well as Paris and New York. He has released several CDs, one with his trio Tre Voci, and taught classes at institutions such as the Julliard School, the Paris Conservatory, the Utrecht Conservatory, and the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music. The harpist will perform both classical and contemporary works, some of which he transcribed from piano to harp form himself. Not surprisingly, the Israeli maestro plays the actual piano, as well. With Sivan Magen, the Leelanau Summer Music Festival once again follows through with its mission: “World Class Music in America’s most beautiful place!”
On July 20, Zhihua Tang and Donakowski, himself, will play a series of selections from Chopin, David Popper, Franz Schubert and a contemporary artist named Joan Tower. Donakowski calls his pianist collaborator Tang a “Chopin specialist,” who has won Chicago’s Chopin Competition. She has also appeared in the International Chopin Competition during her career, earning an honorable mention. Donakowski has recorded CDs and performed with the Arcos Piano Trio in places such as Korea, South America and Leelanau, as part of past Leelanau Summer Music Festivals. Born in Michigan, he was inspired by chamber music from the likes of the Julliard String Quartet to pick up the cello at six years of age. He currently teaches at James Madison University in Virginia. The musical menu for their concert promises a dynamic range of themes for every palate, from “melancholy” to “swashbuckling,” and will most definitely have the audience enchanted by the final piece.
