Alexander String Quartet
Friday, October 3, 2008, 8pm

Program-Beethoven: StringQuartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1, Wayne Peterson: "Jazz Play," and Beethoven: String Quartet No 14 in C sharp minor, Op. 131`

Perennial audience favorites, the Alexander String Quartet is known as one of the world’s premiere ensembles. Formed in New York City in 1981, the quartet became the first string quartet to win the Concert Artists Guild Competition and in 1985 became the first American quartet to win the London International String Quartet Competition. Widely admired for its interpretations of Beethoven, Mozart, and Shostakovich, the quartet has also established itself as an important advocate of new music. At home in San Francisco, the Alexander String Quartet is a major artistic presence, serving as Ensemble in Residence of San Francisco Performances. Performances. Quartet members, Zakarias Grafilo, violin; Frederick Lifsitz, violin; Paul Yarbrough, viola; and Sandy Wilson, cello, are directors of the Morrison Chamber Music Center at San Francisco State University.

Buy tickets online: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/41478

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Calder Quartet
Friday, October 31, 2008 8pm

Program: Terry Riley:  Mythic Birds Waltz, Mozart:  Dissonance' Quartet, K. 465, and Bartok:  String Quartet No. 5

Inspired by the innovative American visual artist Alexander Calder, the Calder Quartet continues to expand the boundaries of chamber music by creating insightful pairings of the traditional and the contemporary. Formed at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, the group also studied at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and was a part of the institution's first graduating class. Quartet members, who also attended the Juilliard School and served as the school’s graduate resident quartet, are: Benjamin Jacobson, violin; Andrew Bulbrook, violin; Jonathan Moerschel, viola; and Eric Byers, cello.

Buy tickets online:: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/42147

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Barbara Nissman, Pianist
Friday, November 21, 2008, 8pm
Special Randolph Newman Concert

Program: Bach-Liszt: Prelude and Fugue in A minor; Prokofiev: Sonata No. 6; Rachmaninoff: Three Preludes, Three Etudes-Tableaus; and Liszt: Sonata in b minor.

Well known for her definitive recordings of the complete piano sonatas of Sergei Prokofiev, Barbara Nissman’s roots remain within the nineteenth century. Hailed by a New York critic as "one of the last pianists in the grand Romantic tradition of Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and Rubinstein" her connection to romantic pianism reaffirms her approach to the twentieth-century pianism of Prokofiev. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she received her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan. She received the Stanley Medal upon graduating from the School of Music in 1966. She has performed with the leading orchestras of Europe and America and has toured and given master classes throughout the United States, Europe, the Far East, New Zealand, Russia and South America. This concert was made possible through the proceeds of the Santa Rosa Junior College Foundation Randolph Newman Chamber Concert Fund.

Buy tickets: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/42176

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Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio
Sunday, January 11, 2009, 3pm (please note different concert time)

Program: Benjamin Lees: Piano Trio No. 2 “Silent Voices,” Smetana: Piano Trio in g minor, Op. 15, and Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in c minor, Op. 66

The Weiss-Kaplan-Newman Trio is a blending of soloists, featuring three of the finest musicians on the concert stage -- pianist Yael Weiss, violinist Mark Kaplan and cellist Clancy Newman. The ensemble embraces the repertoire of the future while paying tribute to three centuries of masterworks, with great performances exploring the repertoire from the first piano trios to exciting newly commissioned works. Their innovative programming offers not only piano trios, but options on mixed repertoire for other instrumental combinations -- both from within the group and with the addition of guest artists on special programs. The trio has been uniformly praised for imaginative programming and exciting performances.

Buy tickets online: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/42177

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Trio con Brio Copenhagen
Friday, February 20, 2009, 8pm

Program: Mendelssohn: Songs without Words (for Cello/Piano) (in celebration of the "Mendelssohn Year"!), Beethoven: "Archduke" Trio, and Dvorak: Trio op.65

Back by popular demand! Trio con Brio Copenhagen - the Korean sisters Soo-Jin Hong and Soo-Kyung Hong and the Danish pianist Jens Elvekjaer – first appeared on our stage in spring 2006 on its first US tour. Founded in Vienna in 1999, the trio first drew attention with a sensational performance that took the highest prize at Germany's prestigious ARD-Munich Competition in 2002. Since then, they won first prize in several more competitions, and in 2005 received the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, one of the most coveted in the world of chamber music. Trio con Brio Copenhagen belongs unquestionably to the upper echelons of young chamber ensembles performing today.

Buy tickets online: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/42178

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David Korevaar
Friday, March 27, 2009, 8pm

Program: Brahms: Variations on a Hungarian Song,Op. 21, No.2, Ernst von Dohnanyi: Variations on a Hungarian Folk Song,Op. 29, Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Piedigrotta 1924 (Rapsodia Napoletana),and Schubert: Sonata in B-flat major,D.960

Pianist David Korevaar began his piano studies at age six in San Diego with Sherman Storr, and at age 13 he became a student of the great American virtuoso Earl Wind. By age 20 he had earned his Bachelor of Music (1982) and Master of Music (1983) degrees from the Juilliard School, where he continued his studies with Earl Wild and studied composition with David Diamond. In 1998 he returned to Juilliard School of Music to complete his Doctor of Musical Arts with Abbey Simon. He has performed throughout the USA, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician, and successfully balances an active performing career as a soloist and chamber musician with teaching at the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he is Associate Professor of Piano.

Buy tickets online: www.brownpapertickets.com/event/42179

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