Music society's season sure to be crowd--pleaser

By Whitney Smith
whitney.smith@indystar.com

Ensemble Music Society's next season will feature the return of string, woodwind and classical guitar groups that have been local favorites in the past.

The Indianapolis chamber music presenter's 2006-07 season will bring back the Brazilian Guitar Quartet, the multicultural Imani Winds from New York and the veteran Vermeer String Quartet from Chicago.

Founded in 1944, Ensemble Music Society features several American and international chamber groups each season at the Indiana History Center. The society also has taken many of its visiting artists to local schools to give concerts and classes.

The guitar ensemble, which last performed in Indianapolis three years ago, will open the new season in October. Imani Winds, which gave a concert in town last year, will return in April. The Vermeer will perform in May, as part of the string quartet's final season.

Ensemble Music concerts are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays at the History Center's Basile Theater, 450 W. Ohio St. Subscriptions are $170, with discounts for students and seniors. Call (317) 254-8915 or visit www.ensemblemusic.org.

Here are more details about Ensemble Music's 2006-07 season:

• Oct. 4: Brazilian Guitar Quartet. The group often plays transcriptions by its members, Everton Gloeden, Edelton Gloeden, Tadeu do Amaral, Edson Lopes and Luiz Mantorini.

• Nov. 8: Vogler Quartet. Founded in Berlin more than 20 years ago, the Vogler continues with its original members: violinists Tim Vogler and Frank Reinecke, violist Stefan Fehlandt and cellist Stephan Forck.

• Jan. 31: Amernet String Quartet with pianist James Tocco, a former Indiana University School of Music professor. The quartet formed in 1991.

• March 21: Rossetti String Quartet, which was founded 10 years ago and named for poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

• April 25: Imani Winds, which takes its name from the Swahili for "faith," and plays a combination of classical standards, jazz, world music and spiritual settings by its flutist, Valerie Coleman.

• May 16: Vermeer String Quartet. The group has taught at Northern Illinois University for more 35 years and is associated with a college of music in Manchester, England.

Call Star reporter Whitney Smith at (317) 444-6226.

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