‘All about being a team’: Music From Land’s End opens season in Marion

Jul 28, 2024

MARION — Orlando Pandolfi got a call the night before the first rehearsal of the season for the Music From Land’s End chamber music series.

The program’s horn player, Clark Matthews, was ill. A replacement was needed.

About a week later, the Marion native joined the seven other musicians inside St. Gabriel’s Church to perform what founder and violinist Ariadne Daskalakis called a “very challenging horn part.”

Music From Land’s End performed the “Schubert Octet” at the Marion church Saturday, July 27.

The program collaborated with members of the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra for the performance.

“A lot of us have just met each other four days ago,” Daskalakis said. “We’ve been working hard and having a wonderful time. And it’s just a great example of how through music, you make new friends on a very deep and visceral level.”

Pandolfi said he went to The Juilliard School with Daskalakis and violist Sebastian Gottschick. It was the first time Pandolfi, Music Program Director at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire, had seen them in 40 years.

The part Pandolfi had to learn for Music From Land’s End’s first performance of the year included “a few passages that just needed tender loving care,” he said.

“It’s a real easy group to play with,” Pandolfi said.

Daskalakis said the Schubert Octet, with six movements, was a “huge piece” with “special instrumentation.”

“Each of the movements has a very specific, unique character and form,” she said.

The five strings — two violins, viola, cello and bass — and three winds — horn, bassoon and clarinet — each formed a “team,” according to Daskalakis.

“But of course, it’s all about being a team altogether, and each instrument really has a very unique role,” she said.

Music From Land’s End’s will continue its season with “Songs and Ballads Across the Centuries.”

The program will be performed Saturday, Aug. 10 at St. Gabriel’s Church in Marion at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 11 at Church of the Good Shepherd in Wareham at 5 p.m. Entrance is by donation with free seating.