Vento Chiaro 2011-2012 Residency Continues at Rivers Conservatory in Weston

Vento Chiaro, one of the country’s foremost woodwind quintets, continues its run as Ensemble in Residence at The Rivers School Conservatory with a performance tonight at 7 p.m. in Rivera Recital Hall, 333 Winter St., Weston.

The program will include a variety of works from the classical-era Quintet Op. 53 in F major by Danzi to the neo-Renaissance suite Sciarada Spagnuola by Dutch composer Jurrian Andriessen. The performance will round out with a theme by Nino Rota and the seminal Kleine Kammermusik by Paul Hindemith.

The Rivers School Conservatory is honored and proud to have Vento Chiaro, one of the most dynamic and artistic wind quintets in the United States, in residence for the 2011- 2012 academic and concert season. During the yearlong residency, the quintet is collaborating with the Rivers Symphony Orchestra, teaching, and helping to develop the Conservatory’s growing wind program, while also mentoring RSC students in private and group lessons, as well as in master classes.

Tonight's performance is the second of four on-campus recitals the quintet will
deliver this academic year. The remaining two performances will take place March 11 and May 12, 2012. The highlight of Vento Chiaro’s residency will be a concert at Jordan Hall on May 6, 2012, a performance that will feature ‘Concerto for Wind Quintet and String Orchestra’ by Walter Ross with the Rivers Symphony Orchestra.

Since 2002, Vento Chiaro has been the woodwind quintet in residence at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, one of the world’s most renowned summer festivals for talented high school music students. Vento Chiaro has also been the ensemble in residence at the Long School of Music (1999-2006), and has held residencies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Providence College, and secondary schools throughout the United States. The ensemble recently received a grant from the Free For All Concert Fund to present free public recitals in diverse venues in the Greater Boston area.

Formed in 1997 at the Peabody Conservatory, Vento Chiaro brings an unusual breadth of stage and classroom experience to audiences and music students of all ages and levels, placing a strong emphasis on removing the traditional barriers that exist between performers and audience members. Vento Chiaro is comprised of Joanna Goldstein of Jamaica Plain (flute), Ana-Sofia Campesino of Boston’s South End (oboe), Chi-Ju Juliet Lai of Hyde Park (clarinet), Alexandra Berndt of Somerville (bassoon), and Anne Howarth of Somerville (horn).

The Rivers School Conservatory was established in 1975 and is widely considered one of the nation’s leading community music conservatories. During the past three and a half decades, the Conservatory has grown to more than 750 students, offering a dynamic student orchestra program, jazz and chamber ensembles, music theory and composition, its critically acclaimed Marimba Magic Program, choruses, master classes, workshops, and private lessons on every orchestral and jazz instrument, piano, and voice.