As the new music director of the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival, I'm excited to present this year's roster of musicians and the programs that we've assembled for your enjoyment.

The Parker Quartet, one of the most exciting young quartets on today's music scene, will be with us this summer; and I'm very pleased to welcome back Tanya Ell and her trio, to inaugurate what we are calling The Frank Ell Concert, in gratitude to the man who guided our summer festival for so many years.

Our programs will feature some old favorites as well as some new sounds sprinkled in which we hope will become new favorites.

Quite a few people responded to our questionnaire and asked us to play the “Trout” Quintet by Schubert again—which has to be one of the world's most beloved pieces by one of the world's most beloved composers—and so we'll perform that on our final program.

When I asked Tanya Ell what her trio wanted to play for us on the first program, she told us that the trio will be treating us to the epic Schubert Trio in E♭—And so, our 2009 season of the Swannanoa Chamber Music Festival has become a Schubert “Dagwood sandwich”, which we'll pile high with Brahms, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorak, Piazzolla, and Zaretsky, and a few other surprises and goodies!

At our festivals, you get to savor chamber-music as it is meant to be enjoyed: by intimate, familiar, close contact with the performers. As we have always done, we offer our audiences, through our pre-concert classes and our post-concert receptions, a chance to rub shoulders with fine music, and partake of it as the personal experience it is meant to be.

And, as we have done for years, we continue to admit students under 25 years of age free of charge.

I'm looking forward to this exciting new season and to seeing all of you again—and to welcoming new friends to our festival.

—Bill Hoyt
Music Director