More "E"s

Lots of "E"s!

Edward Elgar and Eric Ewazen! And the Eloquence String Quartet!

The quartet, made up of Peggy Brady and Rachelle Davis, violins, Beth Heid, viola and Gwyneth Davis can be checked out at Eloquencestringquartet.com. (pictures there too) They are playing the Elgar Quartet, a piece which isn't played nearly often enough.

But to crank up the volume a bit, Dan Norris will join them for a Quintet By Eric Ewazen, a composition teacher at Juilliard, who apparently went to Juilliard at the same time as Shinji.

about the "E" concert

Live composers are featured on the "E" concert!

San Francisco composer and bass player Shinji Eshima has written a very moving piece for bassoon, string quartet and optional buddhist monk. It's called Krapp's Endgame and refers to a Samuel Beckett play: Krapp's Last Tape, but also references an Allen Ginsberg's poem: Song.

It's a great poem. The beginning is:

The weight of the world

is love.

Under the burden

of solitude,

under the burden

of dissatisfaction

the weight,

The weight we carry

is love.

The players for this are; Greg Barber, bassoon, Peggy Brady and Rachelle David, violins, Beth Heid, viola and Judiyaba, cello.

Shinji also wrote a piece for Judiyaba and Gwyneth Davis called the Judiyabadabaduo, which we will play.

"D"....Again!

This Sunday, April 25th we will be repeating the "D" concert in San Francisco!

At 7:30 at the St. James church. A beautiful small church at 4620 California (between 8th and 9th Avenues) There is a suggested donation of $10 which also helps the church learning center.

"D"....a slavic romp

We visit the 1890's through the ears of Dohnanyi and Dvorak in this concert. The 2 main pieces were composed only 2 years apart. Dvorak wrote the American Quartet in 1893, while he was teaching in New York, and Dohnanyi wrote the Piano Quintet (his first published composition) in 1895. Both are big romantic pieces....great fun to play.

Nancy Hayashibara will be the pianist. Violinists are Heidi Wilcox and Beni Shinohara. Wayne Roden is the violist and Judiyaba the cellist.

This concert is a faculty concert at Sonoma State where Beni and Judiyaba are leading the string orchestra this semester. Tickets are $12 general, $8 seniors and students, and SSU students free.

The box office number is 664-2352.

C for Composers

Lots of composers!

Copland and Chopin are familiar to concert goers, but who are these other characters?

Cesar Cui is a name that might be familiar from music history courses. The "Russian Five" that we had to memorize were Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Balakirev and Cui. ( Mr. BBC when studying) But somehow we never heard any music by the last two! I still haven't heard any Balakirev but we found a lovely Barcarolle for cello and piano by Cui.

And Guillaume Connesson? The most modern composer on the program, he was born in 1970. Studied and now teaches in France and has commissions from major orchestras all over the world. Fortunately he also writes fun short chamber music pieces like the Disco Toccata. (probably too short to dance to)

Rebecca Clarke, American, born in 1886, and lived until 1979, composing, touring as a performer with a cellist, playing her own music and battling sexism. She once tied in a composition contest with Bloch but was not given the prize when it was known that she was a woman.

More coming about Henry Cowell, an early promoter of world music (born in Menlo Park 1897), prolific composer and mentor to John Cage, Lou Harrison, Charles Ives, and Harry Partch.

"C" is coming soon....

The "C" Concert is March 5...at 7:30 at the Glaser Center in Santa Rosa (also home of the UU Church)

Performers will be: Nancy Hayashibara, Judiyaba, Gwyneth Davis, Roy Zajac, Bonnie Lockett, David Abel, Julie Steinberg and Aja Gianola-Norris.

Performing Chopin, Clarke (Rebecca), Cell phones, Cui, Comedy, Connesson, Cookies, Cacophany, Cowell (Henry), and Copland.......

....most of the above.......

the Glaser Center is at 547 Mendocino Ave. and the suggested donation is $10-$25 (no more!)

the A Team in SF

This was taken after our January 25th concert at St. James church in SF......A repeat of the Sebastopol concert on january 10. The color matching was accidental! We had been working together rather intensely!