by Daniel Hathaway
A good sized crowd came out to hear the fruits of the labor of ENCORE Chamber Music Institute’s Young Artists on Saturday afternoon, June 20, packing the Gates Mills Community Hall with energy and enthusiasm.
The program began with York Bowen’s Fantasia for viola quartet and gradually added players and gathered momentum, ending with a confident performance of a complicated Benjamin Britten work plus an exuberant, infectious finale by Shelly Washington.
Violists Ilgyeong Shin, Vivienne Lucier, Mai Ikemura, and Ellis Peterson produced the kind of rich, dark blend you’d hope to hear from an ensemble of tenors of the string family. Based on a simple theme whose long lines were seamlessly passed from player to player, Bowen’s piece would be perfect for an English Garden Party.
The rest of the program featured works for large string ensembles, all played senza conductor.
English composer John Rutter is best known for his choral works and arrangements for the Cambridge Singers, but his Puccini-infused writing serves well as a vehicle for works like his Suite for Strings, four settings of British folk songs.
The spirited “A-Rovin” was hum-along music, while the charming “I Have a Bonnet Trimmed with Blue” was decorated by trills and pizzicati. Both were played with a fine sense of ensemble. “O Waly Waly,” probably best known as “The River is Wide,” included lovely solos by lead violinist Lisa An, lusciously backed up by her string colleagues.
The foot-tapping dance “Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron,” a bizarre celebration of a loved one’s prowess with domestic chores, neatly ended the suite, after which one large ensemble yielded the stage to another for Carl Reinecke’s six-movement Serenade for Strings in g.
The work, which bears the impressive opus number 242, gets underway with a Marcia with nicely-constructed phrases highlighted by bouncy accents. The Arioso features a slow, romantic melody, the brisk, lilting Scherzo a craggy second theme.
François Lamontagne contributed a handsome cello solo to the Cavatina, and Arina Ziegler a nuanced one to the Fughetta giojosa, a quick-paced movement with clean, blended lines that never lost tempo.
The ensemble kept the Finale moving forward, punctuated by accents. Every phrase led somewhere and tricky technical passages sounded easy in this splendid performance.
Benjamin Britten’s Prelude and Fugue for 18-Part String Orchestra was the composer’s response to a personnel shortage during World War II. His solution involved writing a piece for eighteen soloists, each with their own part to play in an intricate ensemble.
Led by violin principals Timothy Chooi and Brendan Shea, viola principals Jordan Bok and Eric Wong, and cello principal Tommy Mesa, the ensemble made an amazing sound that never lost track of the fugue subject.
Shelly Washington’s SAY — she wrote both its text and its music — made a grand finale, with its complex rhythms, body slapping, and foot stomping. It was the perfect way to involve teachers and students in celebrating three weeks of hard work together.
Published on ClevelandClassical.com July 1, 2026
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