Parrish Spring Salon Series Begins Ninth Year

Just as daffodils spring up on front yards and the traffic builds on Montauk Highway, the Parrish Art Museum’s Salon Series, now in its ninth year, has become a local institution and a harbinger of the spring season.The Friday evening series offers a rare and up-close experience with multi-award-winning, world-class artists, who intersperse their performances with personal anecdotes and insights, and meet and greet their audiences after curtain. The series is modeled after the salons of Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries—warm and intimate. It’s an opportunity to discover the incredible musical interpretations of these artists through their instruments, and also listen to what they have to say.

This year’s lineup of stellar artists opens with clarinetist Yoonah Kim on April 28, and continues on May 5 with the seven-piece Israeli Chamber Project. May 12 and May 19 each feature an internationally acclaimed pianist, Tanya Bannister and Nicholas King, respectively.

Stepping off the stage, these young artists exemplify the growing need for involvement in the world around them. The music will be uplifting. The conversation should be lively indeed.

Take the Israeli Chamber Project.

“A significant part of our mission is in reaching across boundaries of nationality, ethnicity and socioeconomic status, and fostering connections through music. We do this on our tours of Israel by offering lessons to students of diverse backgrounds, Jewish, Arab, and Christian alike, and by bringing the ensemble to perform on the periphery of the country, where access to live chamber music is often rare,” said Assaff Weisman, the pianist for the Israeli Chamber Project. “That same philosophy guides our concerts outside of Israel, where educational outreach and making great music accessible to as wide an audience as possible are important parts of our activity.”

The ensemble works with disadvantaged school children in New York’s outer boroughs and college students who have not had any contact with classical music.

Pianist Nicholas King’s desire to give back started early and inspired him to form a charity. “As a child, I raised $35,000 for Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles by performing in a local grocery store during the holiday season,” he recalled. “This philanthropic experience inspired me to create Art of Giving Back, a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to supporting young classical musicians and giving back to the community.”

Pianist Tanya Bannister is effecting change as well.

“I am very involved in an organization that I co-founded called Breaking Borders with Music and Art,” she explained. “It focuses on programs that include artists, musicians and speakers from countries where we need to gain more understanding.”

Ms. Bannister was involved in organizing a fundraiser for the International Rescue Committee, which responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive, recover and gain control of their future. The recent fundraiser in New York showcased musicians from Syria, Iran and other Islamic countries. After Hurricane Katrina, Ms. Barrister co-founded Pianists for New Orleans with three others, performing together across the country to raise $100,000 to support the classical music community of New Orleans.

And clarinetist Yoonah Kim is an education ambassador for Carnegie Hall.

The artists in this year’s series are once again selected by renowned art dealer, author and champion of the arts Louis K. Meisel, who—along with his wife, Susan P. Meisel, and the Concert Artists Guild, of which he is vice chair—hosts Salon Series.

The Meisels present concerts and recitals in their New York City home, the Louis K. Meisel Gallery and other venues. Sandy and Stephen Perlbinder, Pro Musicis, and Yamaha Artists Services, Inc. are also supporters. Since its inception, Salon Series has been very successful, both in drawing large audiences for the performances and new members for the museum.

The Parrish, Mr. Meisel said, is a little bigger and can accommodate a larger audience.

“But the idea is the same: having the artists in a more intimate situation, communicating verbally with the attendees,” he said. And he loves the space at the Parrish, both from a visual and audio perspective.

“I realized that every art museum—700 in small towns without access to classical music—has a lecture hall that can be a concert hall,” he said.

Mr. Meisel sees the Parrish Salon Series as a great example for other small-town museums to follow and host their own musical performances.

Mr. King added, “I am grateful for the chance to perform in such an inspiring venue.”

He also talked about what he’d like audiences to come away with. “I would feel that the concert was a success if the audience had a strong emotional response. In a world where things move so quickly, meaningful and transcending events are hard to come by,” he said.

Mr. Weisman gets a little more political: “I think the arts are a great equalizer. While it’s a sad reality that too few people have the luxury of practicing or partaking in dance, drama, music, film, or the visual arts, I believe that all humans have artistic impulses and that this is what makes them such an effective means of communication. In today’s hyper-divided society, when simply the ability to listen to one another is a rare commodity, I think the lessons that the arts teach us are more important than ever.”

Ms. Barrister added, “I think by standing up for what you believe in and actually doing something positive … rather than just be depressed about the world and only talking about it … is already an encouragement for people to do the same.”

She also said, “I think music and art is an incredibly moving and effective way for people to communicate culture, emotion, point of view and present it in a non-threatening and open way.”

Mr. Weisman said, “Most of all, I want the audience to leave the concert as excited about the music performed as we are. There will be some familiar works and composers on the program, as well as a few that might be new to them, and I hope people will discover their new favorite composer, or find a fresh and intriguing perspective on the more familiar pieces.”

Tickets for Salon Series, which include museum admission, are $20; $10 for Parrish Members. For more information, visit parrishart.org.