An ensemble of five reed players — and entrepreneurs — Akropolis Reed Quintet is united by a shared passion: to make music that sparks joy and wonder.
Winner of seven national chamber music prizes — including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal, the largest chamber music competition in the world and one of the most prestigious — the quintet has delivered 120 concerts and educational events worldwide each year since its founding in 2009.
At 4:15 p.m. today in Elizabeth S. Lenna Hall — a later start to accommodate today’s Pillar Talk in the Hall of Philosophy — the Akropolis Reed Quintet will perform as part of the Chautauqua Chamber Music Guest Artist Series. Musicians include Kari Landry on clarinet, Andrew Koeppe on bass clarinet, Ryan Reynolds on bassoon, Matt Landry on saxophone and Tim Gocklin on oboe.
The group was formed when the musicians were studying at the University of Michigan, which is a bit of an oddity for musical groups.
“We’re a bit of an anomaly even at our own institution,” Landry told the Daily in advance of the quintet’s last appearance at Chautauqua, in 2017. “If you look at the wind groups that tour regularly, the chances of them all being from one place are pretty low.”
This afternoon’s program consists of Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides, arranged by Jelte Althuis; Augusta Read Thomas’ “Bebop Riddle IV”; Jeff Scott’s “Homage to Paradise Valley”; and the world premiere of Stephanie Ann Boyd’s “Lake of Muses.” Boyd will be in attendance in Lenna Hall for the performance.
“Lake of Muses” is about the history and future of the Great Lakes; as the composer and quintet come together to give life to the piece, Boyd hopes the piece “may serve as a connector between the bodies and minds of the people who hear it and these bodies of water whose influence and livelihoods are so connected to our own,” according to her website.
Of the pieces to be performed today, most are by living composers (the Mendelssohn being the only exception). Over the years, the Akropolis Reed Quintet has collaborated with not just composers, but poets, dancers, small business owners, and even a metal fabricator, as well.
“There is nothing tentative in their approach,” music magazine The Wire once wrote, “and that extends to their programming of multifariously challenging and imaginative new works.”
