30 June 6 • 2019
jn

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
W

hen violinist Kate Dreyfuss 
appears at Temple Beth El in 
one of many concerts sched-
uled for the Great 
Lakes Chamber 
Music Festival, 
she knows she will 
recall a unique 
musical experi-
ence highlighting 
her bat mitzvah 
celebration.
One of her 
religious class-
mates had been 
soprano Marisa 
Karchin, whose 
father, composer 
Louis Karchin, wrote a piece for the girls 
to present together during services and 
joined them at piano.
“That probably was the first piece I 
premiered, and getting to play contem-
porary music in a similar setting will be 
very meaningful,
” says Dreyfuss, a mem-
ber of the F-PLUS trio that includes clar-
inetist Andy Hudson and percussionist 
Josh Graham championing the works of 
today’
s composers.
The trio will be part of eight concerts, 
among some 30, planned June 15-30 in 
different city and suburban venues as the 
festival spotlights award-winning musi-
cians as well as emerging talents. 
F-PLUS will be at Temple Beth El 
10:45 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday, June 21, as part 
of a program that includes pianist Alessio 

Bax, violinist Kimberly Kaloyanides 
Kennedy and cellist Paul Watkins, fes-
tival artistic director, with pieces by 
Beethoven, Marcello and Rachmaninov. 
A light luncheon after the concert will 
include a conversation with Paul Epstein, 
scholar and program notes annotator. 
Temple Beth El joined with St. Hugo 
of the Hills Catholic Church and Kirk in 
the Hills Presbyterian Church in 1994 to 
launch this annual secular event admin-
istered by Detroit Chamber Winds & 
Strings. 
“My trio will be performing as one of 
the Shouse Institute ensembles, which 
provides opportunities for young profes-
sional groups to work with festival artists 
and perform alongside our mentors,
” 
says Dreyfuss, 27, who began studying 
violin when she was 3, took a break from 
scholarly music to get 
a bachelor’
s degree 
in French literature 
from Princeton and 
returned to music, 
completing a master’
s 
degree and working 
on doctoral require-
ments at Stony Brook 
University.
“This festival is a 
unique opportunity 
to spend a significant amount of time 
among musicians of such a high caliber,
” 
she says. “Our group’
s situation is unique 
because we’
re a classical music ensemble 
in nontraditional instrumentation.
” 
F-PLUS instrumentalists, who met 
in 2016 at the Bang on a Can Summer 

Music Festival at the Massachusetts 
Museum of Contemporary Art, started 
out creating their own repertoire by ask-
ing composer friends to write music or 
adapt pre-existing works for their slightly 
different sound combinations. They 
went on to commission about 20 works 
by going to many concerts so they could 
listen to pieces by diverse composers.
“For the first time, we just ran a call 
for scores to discover music we might 
not know about otherwise,
” Dreyfuss 
says. “We learned about work by com-
posers from all over the world in a com-
petition of submitted scores. 
“We didn’
t ask for composers to write 
pieces to submit. They submitted previ-
ous works, and the winner will write a 
new piece [to be performed and record-
ed]. We’
re going to announce our winner 
June 15, once we get to 
Great Lakes.
”
In applying for the 
Great Lakes Festival, 
F-PLUS submitted a list 
of pieces they loved to 
play and will be per-
forming five of them. 
One existed before they 
started the ensemble, but 
the rest were either com-
missioned or adapted.
“There’
s actually a work being writ-
ten for us right now that we’
re going to 
premiere at the festival,
” says Dreyfuss, 
whose trio is making its Great Lakes 
premiere. “The piece is by Matthew 
Barnson, who teaches composition at 
Stony Brook.
”

F-PLUS also is doing some combined 
pieces with other festival artists and 
other Shouse ensembles, ultimately per-
forming about a dozen works over the 
two weeks. 
Dreyfuss has widened her inde-
pendent career by also playing solo 
and being a full-time member of 
Contemporaneous, a chamber orchestra 
of 22 musicians based in New York City. 
As a substitute in the chamber group 
ETHEL, she recently added her talents 
to string quartets by Julia Wolfe at the 
Jewish Museum in New York.
“I love all kinds of playing, but chamber 
music is the majority of what I do,
” the 
violinist explains. “It’
s the most rewarding 
because playing music with other people 
is a transcendent experience. 
“I think every musician should play in 
as many different contexts as they possi-
bly can because each kind of playing has 
its own challenges and inspiration.
” 
The trio, which has participated in 
concert and instructional programs at 
Central Michigan University and Grand 
Valley State University, welcomes the 
opportunity to return to Michigan stages 
to join many people prominent in the 
chamber music circuit. 
“Violinist Philip Seltzer is on the fac-
ulty at Stony Brook, where I have studied 
with him and worked on chamber music 
with him,
” Dreyfuss says. “I’
ve appeared 
with violinist Eugene Drucker at Stony 
Brook, and we’
ll be on the same program 
at Great Lakes.
“I’
ve never worked with Leila 
Josefowicz, but I have admired her 
for years. I’
m excited about the piec-
es she will be playing because one is 
Stravinsky’
s Concertante. I just per-
formed this piece on one of my doctoral 
recitals and gave a lecture on it. 
“I’
m thrilled we get to open for her 
recital. She is a champion for new works 
for the violin, and she performs a lot of 
contemporary works as well as classical 
works. That’
s something I aspire to do 
with my professional life.
” ■

arts&life

details 
The Great Lakes Chamber 
Music Festival will be presented 
June 15-30 at various venues. 
For a complete schedule and 
pricing information, call (248) 
559-2097 or visit
greatlakeschambermusic.org.

Great Lakes Chamber Fest

F-PLUS, a classical trio in nontraditional instrumentation, 
to play in eight concerts.

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Violinist Kate Dreyfuss

Kate Dreyfuss, Josh Graham and Andy Hudson

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