Strange Interlude

“Pardon me while I have a strange interlude…”
-Groucho Marx, Animal Crackers
Currently based in the Los Angeles area, Strange Interlude was founded by harpist Lily Press and cellist Simon Linn-Gerstein who have been performing as a harp and cello duo since 2007. As both a duo and larger ensemble Press and Linn-Gerstein design intimate salon-style concerts with programs that are carefully curated to include seldom-performed works, pieces by contemporary composers and transcriptions and arrangements for their unique instrumentation.
Strange Interlude’s performances combine their love of chamber music with their passion for crafting non-traditional concert experiences that incorporate story-telling to bring the audience further inside the works they play and the technical, artistic and personal process of making a piece of music come alive.
Strange Interlude has performed as part of the Advent Library Chamber Series, the Nave Music Series, the Salem Arts Festival, the Candlelight Concert Series, and at ArtShare LA, Monk Space, the Los Angeles Public Library, Spectrum NYC, The Norton Simon Museum and The Chapel Performance Space in Seattle, WA. The ensemble has also created music for performances by Monkeyhouse, a Boston-based dance company, and for the Dance Department at Endicott College. They have collaborated with numerous composers to premiere new works for harp and cello, including Daniel Lemer’s “Lone Tree Music,” Mike Frengel’s “On Thin Ice,” and Kaley Lane Eaton’s “subtle energy.”
“…in the fingers of harpist Lily Press and cellist Simon Linn-Gerstein,
the notes fit together as cozily as a dance by Astaire and Rogers.”
-Constance Gorfinkel, Hingham Journal
Click here to learn more about Strange Interlude’s Upcoming Performances
You can listen to and purchase music by Strange Interlude here:
Strange Interlude and DieDieMaoMao present…
(Long live the fantasy / This is not a fantasy)
Wonder where we got our name? Check out this Marx Brother’s clip