Chamber

Sonoma State's resident Trio Navarro has a well-earned reputation for eclectic programming, and in their Easter Sunday concert in Weill Hall, they chose the familiar, the rare and the new. The new was SSU faculty composer Brian Wilson's "And Ezra the Scribe Stood Upon a Pulpit," a trio for horn, vi...

Chamber

Santa Rosa has been blessed with three superlative chamber music concerts during the past month, beginning with the Calder String Quartet in late January, followed by the Alexander String Quartet with violist Toby Appel in early February, and culminating with the Parker String Quartet one day after ...

Chamber

Two more disparate chamber works could not be imagined in Weill Hall Feb. 3 when the Trio Navarro presented the Shostakovich Trio in E Minor and Dvorak’s “Dumky,” also in E minor. Both masterpieces have riveting audience interest but are worlds apart in structure and harmonic language. Dvorak’s tri...

Chamber

The West County’s Amaryllis Trio began their winter concert season Jan. 26 in a charming Sebastopol home. Led by the ubiquitous pianist Sonia Tubridy, the Amaryllis programmed the entire first half with Schumann’s late third Piano Trio, Op. 110. A passionate and wild work, the trio demands an aggres...

Chamber

Violinist Nigel Armstrong is becoming a virtuoso staple for North Bay concerts, having played locally over the past three years in private homes, with symphonic groups and in several formal recitals. January 5 found him giving a benefit recital for the Sonoma Classical Music Society in his Sonoma ho...

Chamber

Sonoma State’s estimable Trio Navarro, long at the center of the North Bay chamber music scene, morphed into the Navarro Chamber Players on Nov. 18 in a Weill Hall concert that was both exhilarating and puzzling. The trio’s violinist Roy Malan and cellist Jill Rachuy Brindel were absent. Taking thei...

Chamber

The Calder Quartet saved the day Nov. 4 by stepping in at last minute to play for the Mill Valley Chamber Music Society’s second concert of this season. Originally set to appear was the Prague-based Prazak Quartet which cancelled due to an ill violinist. The Calder Quartet had performed the previous...

Chamber

A nearly full house attended an inaugural chamber concert October 12 in the Carole Ellis Auditorium of SRJC’s Petaluma campus, the first time a formal chamber music concert was heard in the newly refurbished hall. The musicians were four San Francisco Opera Center’s Adler Fellows with pianist and...

Chamber

Cellist Jennifer Culp brought a surprise to her Oakmont Concert Series performance on Sept. 13 when she opened with Barber’s early Cello Sonata, Op. 6. Beginning with a tonal yet difficult to assimilate work was a good choice, as mostly familiar pieces filled out the recital before about 125 patrons...

Chamber

Movies have subtitles and operas have supertitles, but the Borromeo String Quartet has metatitles--titles so substantial that they replicate the entire performance, just within sight of the actual performers. Instead of words, the “metatitles” (i.e., the musical score projected on a screen) contain ...

3/31/2013 - THE FAMILIAR, THE RARE AND THE NEW - Terry McNeill
Green Music Center / Trio Navarro and Friends. Roy Malan, violin; Jill Rachuy Brindel,cello, William Klingelhoffer, horn; Natalie Parker, clarinet; Marilyn Thompson, piano
Sonoma State's resident Trio Navarro has a well-earned reputation for eclectic programming, and in their Easter Sunday concert in Weill Hall, they chose the familiar, the rare and the new. The new was SSU faculty composer Brian Wilson's "And Ezra the Scribe Stood Upon a Pulpit," a trio for horn, vi...

2/15/2013 - SOLID GOLD FROM THE PARKER STRING QUARTET - Steve Osborn
Parker Quartet / Daniel Chong and David McCarroll, violin; Jessica Bodner, viola; Kee-Hyun Kim, cello
Santa Rosa has been blessed with three superlative chamber music concerts during the past month, beginning with the Calder String Quartet in late January, followed by the Alexander String Quartet with violist Toby Appel in early February, and culminating with the Parker String Quartet one day after ...

2/3/2013 - FROM THE MAGISTERIAL TO THE MACABRE - Terry McNeill
Trio Navarro / Marilyn Thompson, piano; Jill Rachuy Brindel, cello; Roy Malan, violin.
Two more disparate chamber works could not be imagined in Weill Hall Feb. 3 when the Trio Navarro presented the Shostakovich Trio in E Minor and Dvorak’s “Dumky,” also in E minor. Both masterpieces have riveting audience interest but are worlds apart in structure and harmonic language. Dvorak’s tri...

1/26/2013 - AMARYLLIS TRIO IN FULL FLOWER - Terry McNeill
River Choir / Amaryllis Trio. Lisa Doyle, violin; Wendy Reynolds, cello; Sonia Tubridy, piano.
The West County’s Amaryllis Trio began their winter concert season Jan. 26 in a charming Sebastopol home. Led by the ubiquitous pianist Sonia Tubridy, the Amaryllis programmed the entire first half with Schumann’s late third Piano Trio, Op. 110. A passionate and wild work, the trio demands an aggres...

1/5/2013 - NATIVE VIRTUOSITY - Terry McNeill
Sonoma Classical Music Society / Nigel Armstrong, violin. Elizabeth Dorman, piano
Violinist Nigel Armstrong is becoming a virtuoso staple for North Bay concerts, having played locally over the past three years in private homes, with symphonic groups and in several formal recitals. January 5 found him giving a benefit recital for the Sonoma Classical Music Society in his Sonoma ho...