Frautschi, Manasse and Nakamatsu Trio

The Colorado College Summer Music Festival presents its spring Intermezzo Season featuring the Frautschi, Manasse, Nakamatsu Trio.

The spring Intermezzo concert program includes works by Mendelssohn, Debussy, and Stravinsky, as well as select movements from "Two Rags for Violin, Clarinet and Piano," composed by SMF pianist John Novacek. The Frautschi, Manasse, Nakamatsu Trio includes some well-known names to the CC Summer Music Festival community.

Jennifer Frautschi, violin, is a two-time Grammy nominee and Avery Fisher career grant recipient. She has garnered worldwide acclaim as a deeply expressive, musically adventurous violinist with impeccable technique and a wide-ranging repertoire. Frautschi has performed with numerous orchestras and at virtually all of the premier chamber music series and festivals in the U.S. Her extensive discography includes several discs for Naxos, and she is an Artist Member of the Boston Chamber Music Society. She currently teaches in the graduate program at Stony Brook University. Her sister, violinist Laura Frautschi, is currently a member of the CC Summer Music Festival Faculty.

Jon Manasse, clarinet, is internationally recognized for his inspiring artistry, uniquely glorious sound, and charismatic performing style. He has recorded six critically acclaimed CDs on the XLNT label, performed as a soloist and chamber musicians with ensembles all over the world, and he serves as principal clarinetist of the American Ballet Theater Orchestra, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York City. Manasse is currently on the faculties of The Juilliard School, The Lynn Conservatory, and The Mannes School of Music.

Jon Nakamatsu, piano, is now in his third decade of touring worldwide, and he continues to draw critical and public acclaim for his intensity, elegance and electrifying solo, concerto and chamber music performances. Catapulted to international attention in 1997 as the Gold Medalist of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition — the only American to achieve this distinction since 1981 — he subsequently developed a multi-faceted career that encompasses recording, education, arts administration and public speaking in addition to his vast concert schedule. In 2015, he joined the piano faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Manasse is currently on the CC Summer Music Faculty and Nakamatsu is a former CC SMF Faculty member. The pair also serve as Artistic Directors of the Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, and they tour and perform together as the Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo. Following its Boston debut in 2004, the Duo released its first CD for Harmonia Mundi USA, "Brahms Sonatas for Clarinet and Piano," which received the highest praise from The New York Times classical music editor James Oestreich, who named it among the “Best of the Year” for 2008.

The Colorado College Summer Music Festival, led by music director Susan Grace and now entering its 41st season, is an annual three-week festival in June that invites more than 50 pre-professional musicians to study with preeminent performance artists and present a variety of chamber and orchestral concerts to the Colorado Springs community. The CC Summer Music Festival's Intermezzo Season concerts keep the music alive in between summer seasons.

The CC Summer Music Festival is made possible by the generous support of many foundations, corporations and lovers of chamber music. For more information about the CC Summer Music Festival, Intermezzo Season, or how to become a donor, visit www.coloradocollege.edu/musicfestival.