Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Left Coast Chamber Ensemble
The Sierra Chamber Society and Left Coast Chamber Ensemble are pleased to announce an extraordinary program of chamber music. Tanya Tomkins, cellist with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble and principal cellist of Philharmonia Baroque, will join Stevan Cavalier, pianist and director of the Sierra Chamber Society, in Claude Debussy’s magical Sonata for Cello and Piano. Then, an epic musical event, Olivier Messaien's mysterious, spiritual and virtuosic Quartet for the End of Time will be heard with SF Symphony clarinetist, Jerome Simas, Left Coast violinist Anna Presler, Tanya Tomkins on cello, and Eric Zivian on piano.
$25 General Admission
$22 Senior/Youth Admission
Founded in 1992, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (leftcoastensemble.org) communicates with audiences through inspiring performances of new and old chamber music. By embracing music of many eras, we enrich the audience’s experience — we reawaken a feeling of immediacy in performances of familiar masterpieces and we reveal the powerful expressive intentions in the music of our time. The ensemble’s fourteen musicians, many of whom have played together since the 1980s, perform in different combinations, using strings, winds, guitar and piano to present a wide range of repertoire.
The group has commissioned over 55 new works, sponsors an annual composition contest that draws over 150 applicants each year, and carries on a tradition of performing the very best that the composers of today (whether established or emerging) have to offer.
The Sierra Chamber Society (sierrachamber.com), a professional chamber ensemble of SF Symphony musicians and distinguished guests, is now in its 33rd concert season. The Sierra Chamber Society whose home base is in Walnut Creek, is noted for its innovative and polished performances. The SCS is especially excited to present an important new work it has commissioned from eminent American composer, Robert Sirota (robertsirota.com), past president of the Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music, in the 4th program of its current season on March 15. The work is entitled Contrapassos for Soprano and String Quartet with lyrics by Sierra Chamber Society Director and Pianist Stevan Cavalier. The commission will be performed by the Telegraph String Quartet (telegraphquartet.com), winner of the Naumburg International Chamber Music Competition with rising the stellar soprano Abigail Fischer (abigailfischer.com), described by the NY Times as "Luminous!" Time Out New York as "Spellbinding!" and the Boston Globe as "Sumptuous!" Also on the program will be Arnold Schoenberg's last tonal work, his second string quartet, also featuring Ms. Fischer in its last two movements, and Beethoven's own favorite among his sixteen string quartets, the Opus 131, which Franz Schubert requested to hear on his deathbed and about which he famously remarked, "After that, what is there left for the rest of us to write?"