A Note from the Music Director – February 2024

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Welcome to our 15th season, our first full season since the pandemic shut down concert halls in March 2020. We were so happy to share music with all who joined us for our concerts on November 4 and January 13.

 

Our final series concert of the season will be on Saturday evening March 9. Violinist Renée Jolles and violist Ramón Carrero-Martínez will return to join me, and we will welcome our friend cellist Nathan Whittaker for an evening of string quartets.

 

As always, our program will include beloved standards of the repertoire as well as wonderful yet lesser-known works. We will open with Mozart’s sublime string quartet in B-flat major K. 589, the second of his three “Prussian Quartets” which feature radiant melodies in the cello part. This was very unusual in quartets of that time; apparently Mozart hoped to thereby gain patronage from the King of Prussia, an avid amateur cellist! Next, we will play Five Pieces for String Quartet, a wryly satiric dance suite by Erwin Schulhoff, an eclectic and inventive composer born in Prague in 1894. Schulhoff’s successful career in Europe and abroad was cut off by the Nazi regime and he died in the terrible conditions of a Nazi work camp in 1942. Schulhoff’s works are finally being rediscovered and we are delighted to share this lively 1924 quartet with our Intimate Voices audience. After intermission, the program will close with the passionate, intense, and lyrical quartet in A Minor, Op. 51 No. 2 by Brahms, a masterpiece of late Romantic quartet writing.

 

Tickets may be purchased online or at the door by check or cash. Admission includes wine and light refreshments, and doors will open at 7:30 for wine, tea, and coffee. 

 

And mark your calendars for our annual free Family Program at CSAIR on Sunday afternoon, March 10, from 3 - 4 pm, once again designed in a sensory/autism-friendly format to include all families. Kids and adults alike will enjoy this interactive 1-hour exploration of some great chamber music with experienced Intimate Voices musicians who love working with kids! So plan to bring a favorite kid or two to experience great music up close in an informal and welcoming atmosphere.

 

This Family Program, as well as our upcoming visits to area nursing homes, the VA, and a special-needs pre-school, are all offered free to the community. Our thanks to everyone -- our audiences, our advertisers, and our Corporate Community Partner, NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital -- whose many years of support have made all this possible!

 

We hope to see you at our concert on Saturday evening March 9th and at our Family Program on Sunday afternoon March 10th.