53rd Year

CONCERT SERIES

2011 - 2012

SPIRATI

October 30, 2011

Pictured ...

Virginia Figueiredo - Clarinet

Julia Barnett - Flute

April Cap - Oboe

Amy Gillick - Bassoon

Brian Shetland - French Horn

Spirati is a woodwind quintet group, composed of five LA-based wind players that hold degrees from UCLA, Rice University, USC, Lisbon Superior School of Music, University of Illinois, and Cal State Long Beach. Founded in 2009, the Spirati, are associated with the Clap and Tap Chamber Orchestra and School.

Spirati is a group quite different from other LA based ensembles because of its versatility and flexible repertoire, from an all South-American-Dance theme program, to storytelling programs for children, and more traditional standard woodwind quintet programs.

The ensemble has recently appeared at the Palos Verdes Botanical Gardens in a series of summer concerts.

IBERT

Trois Pieces Breves

PIAZOLLA

Milonga Sin Palavras

MILHAUD

La Cheminee du Roi Rene

BOZZA

Scherzo

LIGETI

Six Bagatelles

KLUGHARDT

Quintet, Op.79

JOPLIN

Selected Rags

AVIV QUARTET

December 4, 2011

Pictured  ...

Violin: Sergey Ostrovsky
Violin: Evgenia Epshtein
Viola: Shuli Waterman
Cello: Rachel Mercer

The Aviv String Quartet was founded in Israel in 1997, and has performed internationally for over ten years. Among the quartet's various awards is the Daimler-Chrysler Grand Prize at the 3rd Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the 2003 Bordeaux and Schubert Competitions.

The Aviv Quartet has recorded 3 discs of Shostakovich on Dalia Classics and Naxos discs of Hoffmeister and Schulhoff Quartets. Recent highlights include a complete Shostakovich cycle at the 2007 Verbier Festival in Switzerland, debuts at the Zurich Tonhalle and Brussels Palais des Beaux-Arts and return visits to Wigmore Hall in England.

SCHULHOFF

String Quartet No.1

MENDELSSOHN

String Quartet No. 6 in F Minor, Op. 80

TCHAIKOVSKY

String Quartet No. 3, Op. 30

CHAMBER MUSIC PALISADES

January 29, 2012

Pictured ...

Susan Greenberg, Flute
Dolores "Dee" Stevens, Piano

Founded in 1997 by four citizens of the Los Angeles coastal community of Pacific Palisades, including two professional musicians, Chamber Music Palisades is a non-profit, public benefit corporation dedicated to the promotion and support of classical music.

CMP produces professional chamber music concerts, commissions new works (more than ten to date) and provides educational opportunities for young people by performing free concerts in local schools and in local venues for community families.

Guest artists are largely drawn from the ranks of: The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, music faculties of regional universities and colleges, and the Hollywood recording industry.

CMP’s Artistic Directors, pianist Delores Stevens and flutist Susan Greenberg, have joined with distinguished guest artists to make a state-of-the-art audio/visual DVD recording of the Shostakovich Piano Quartet and the Debussy Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp for AIX Records.

MOZART

Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285

NOVAK

Sonata Tribus for Flute, Violin and Piano

SCHUBERT

Adagio and Allegro in F Major for Piano Quartet

BRAHMS

Piano Quartet No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 60

ALEXANDER STRING QUARTET with GARY GRAY

February 26, 2012

Pictured ...

Zakarias Grafilo, Violin
Frederick Lifsitz, Violin
Paul Yarbrough, Viola
Sandy Wilson, Cello

Pictured ...

Gary Gray, Clarinet

The Alexander String Quartet returns along with Clarinetest, Gary Gary, to perform a program of works by Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. The ASQ discography includes the critically acclaimed complete series of String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and Ludwig von Beethoven on the Foghorn Classics label. Free downloads of their performances are available on their web site. A recently completed recording project has the Alexander and Afiara String Quartet members joining forces in the Mendelssohn Octet, Op. 20 for Foghorn Classics.

The Alexander String Quartet is a major artistic presence in its home base of San Francisco, serving there as directors of the Morrison Chamber Music Center at the School of Music and Dance in the College of Creative Arts at San Francisco State University and Ensemble in Residence of San Francisco Performances.

Gary Gary, a member of the UCLA School of Music faculty, joins the Quartet for a performance of the Clarinet Quintet by Johannes Brahms. Mr. Gary and the ASQ last performed the Mozart Quintet with the ASQ for our 50th Anniversary Season back in 2009. We at FFM are looking forward to their musical collaboration this season.

““An unusually fine group-musically, technically, in just about any way one wants to view it.”

The New York Times

MOZART

String Quartet, K. 458 (The Hunt)

BEETHOVEN

String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95 (Serioso)

BRAHMS

Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115

NEWSTEAD PIANO TRIO

April 15, 2012

Pictured ...

Michael Jamanis, Violin
Sara Male, Cello
Xun Pan, Piano

The Newstead Trio has captivated audiences worldwide, from New York; London; Budapest; Lhasa, Tibet; Florence, Tuscany; Shanghai and Beijing. They gave their concerto debut performing Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Shenzhen Symphony Orchestra in Shenzhen, China. The Trio made its New York debut to a standing ovation at Carnegie Hall in 2000, has performed at Lincoln Center, and has been broadcast live worldwide on radio and television. Arnold Steinhardt, a founder of the Guarneri String Quartet observes, “They play with fine ensemble, youthful energy, and thoughtful musicality.”

“Clean and expressive. The glow on the surface of this ensemble’s playing goes well with this sweet rhapsodic music.”

The American Record Guide

MOZART

Piano Trio in B-flat, K. 502

BEETHOVEN

Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 1, No. 3

BRAHMS

Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 8