Open Air Chamber Music Series
Saturday and Sunday, May 30th and 31st, from 9:00AM-8:00PM
Rittenhouse Square | 210 W Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia, PA 19103
During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the decision has been made to continue the praised Open Air Chamber Music events during the months, June through August, in Philadelphia Center City in Rittenhouse Square, featuring professional musicians and artists. The artist of the month is the brilliant bassoonist, Dominic Panunto. Together, he will perform with the Director of Music and cellist, Steve Kramer, duo repertoire from the Renaissance and Classical periods. The unaccompanied cello suites by Johann Sebastian Bach will be portrayed on Saturday, May 30th. On Sunday, May 31st, the duo will perform highest-class chamber music, 11:00-3:00PM.
Admission is free. Bring your masks and enjoy from a safe distance!
For more information, contact the Director of Music, Steve Kramer at 610-710-6100.
Artist Biography – Dominic Panunto
Dominic Panunto is a freelance bassoonist performing in the Greater Philadelphia area. A student of William Short at Temple University, Dominic performs with the University Symphony Orchestra. He recently became a member of the York Symphony Orchestra as their contrabassoonist. He has performed with Rutgers Symphony, Drexel Symphony, Penn Symphony, PhilOperaCo, Thomas Jefferson University Choir, Swarthmore Symphony and regional orchestras such as Reading Symphony Orchestra, Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Bay Atlantic Symphony, and Symphony in C. Dominic has played with touring groups in live shows including Lindsey Stirling, Celtic Thunder, and Evanescence. Dominic is also active in the field of contemporary music. He is a permanent member or Arcana New Music Ensemble and played in large-scale productions of works by Stockhausen and Davidovsky.
Artist Biography – Steve Kramer
Born in Copenhagen, Denmark, Steve Kramer started playing the violin at the age of three with his grandfather, Vladimir Yeshayavitch Novak. Picking up the cello at age five, Steve Kramer soon continued his studies with his first formal cello teacher, Erling Blondal Bengtsson, pupil of the legendary Gregor Piatigorsky at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. It was with him that Steve Kramer perfected the unaccompanied suites by J. S. Bach. He made his debut at 12 years of age, playing as a soloist while touring with orchestras in Scandinavia. He further developed his musicianship under the supervision of five other giants of classical music: violinist Yehudi Menuhin and pianist and composer Peter Norris, with whom Steve Kramer studied chamber music at the Yehudi Menuhin School in London; cellist Karine Georgian at the Hochschule fur Musik-Detmold in Germany; and private lessons with cellist Boris Pergamentshikov in Berlin, Germany, and cellist Alexander Sinelnikov in Jerusalem, Israel. Steve Kramer has collaborated with composers from all over the world. Steve Kramer performs contemporary music by composers Jennifer Higdon, David Finko, Ben Steinberg, Daniel Dorff, Sidney Grolnic, Eleonor Sigal, Andrea Clearfield, Cynthia Folio, Nimrod Borenstein, Eugene Magalif, Michael Shingo Crawford, and Victor Frost as well as compositions by Scandinavian composers and composers who lost their lives in World Wars I & II
