Events

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Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival — Pop
Jul
28
4:00 PM16:00
Festival

Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival — Pop

For PCMF 2019’s closing concert, the one-of-a-kind talents for which our guest artists are known are on full display, while our program cheekily explores the meanings of “pop” music. The concert begins with a string quartet from the “pop” of the genre, Joseph Haydn, who first elevated the instrumentation into the refined art form we now know and love. Hindemith’s emotionally soaring Viola Sonata is among the most popular works for viola and piano, and rightfully so. As a fitting conclusion, cellist Clancy Newman and violinist Charles Yang present the unique ways they have found as individuals to combine their classical training and popular mainstream influences, and the festival ends with a bang as Paul Schoenfield’s Cafe Music throws every popular music tradition, including jazz and klezmer, into the kitchen sink — with rousing results.

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Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival — Not Classical
Jul
26
7:30 PM19:30
Festival

Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival — Not Classical

What we think of today as “classical music” is a tradition that originated in Western Europe, but later practitioners drew inspiration from outside of that cultural sphere. This concert highlights some of those influences, whether they are the flash of Mongolian horse hooves in Lei Liang’s Gobi Gloria, or the distinctly Andalusian sounds of Joaquín Turina’s lush Piano Quartet. The second half of the program presents gems in the Western tradition from outside the Classical period. Orlando Gibbons’s beautiful madrigals are exemplars of Renaissance polyphony, and 250 years later, we meet Brahms in the Romantic period, where he is labeled a conservative for holding fast to classical principles while his contemporaries sought to break down traditions in form and harmony.

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Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival — Classical
Jul
24
7:30 PM19:30
Festival

Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival — Classical

We think of Mozart as “Mister Classical,” the composer who embodies the balance, poise, and grace of the Classical period. But we also know about his impish, irreverent side, which provided the magic for his works. On PCMF 2019’s opening concert, we couple Mozart’s radiant Grande Sestetto Concertante with Francis Poulenc’s neo-classical Violin Sonata, as well as Behzad Ranjbaran’s poetic Shiraz, a piece inspired by classical Persian culture, for a classical journey that will expand and challenge what you know about classical music.

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Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival
Jul
22
to Jul 28
Festival

Piedmont, CA: Piedmont Chamber Music Festival

  • Piedmont Center for the Arts (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

This summer, PCMF presents a festival that explores the making of a classic, in all senses of the word. Breaking the boundaries of the classical music tradition, our programs explore music ranging from the Classical period, to non-Western traditions, to contemporary popular music. Come hear internationally-recognized chamber musicians with the charisma and show-stopping virtuosity to bring this exploration to life on stage!

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Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Prayers and Celebrations
Aug
5
4:00 PM16:00
Festival

Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Prayers and Celebrations

Dana Wilson: Hungarian Folk Songs
   Formosa Quartet

Wei-Chieh Lin: Pasibutbut
   Formosa Quartet

INTERMISSION

Dvorak: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87
   Jesse Mills, violin
   Ayane Kozasa, viola
   Paul Wiancko, cello
   Juliana Han, piano

 

Both life and art abound in dualities, whether as joys and sorrows or music and words. Dana Wilson’s Hungarian Folk Songs weaves gripping tales through feverish dance and quiet song. Wei-Chieh Lin’s Pasibutbut is the astonishing ritual song of an aboriginal Taiwanese tribe, sung to rally their annual millet harvest. Dvorak's E-Flat major Piano Quartet evokes rustic Czech bands and exotic lands, tranquil scenes and the exuberance that Dvorak felt as he was composing this masterpiece: "Melodies are coming to me in droves. Thanks be to God!"

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Piedmont, CA: PCMF's The Written Word
Aug
3
7:30 PM19:30
Festival

Piedmont, CA: PCMF's The Written Word

Korngold: Much Ado About Nothing Suite
   Jesse Mills, violin
   Juliana Han, piano

Paul Wiancko: American Haiku
   Ayane Kozasa, viola
   Paul Wiancko, cello

Dana Wilson: The Night of H's
   Formosa Quartet

INTERMISSION

Beethoven: String Quartet in C major, Op. 59 No. 3
   Formosa Quartet

 

PCMF celebrates the written word, starting with Korngold’s charming suite of incidental music to Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. American Haiku takes inspiration from the Japanese poetic form, throws in some Appalachian fiddling, and ends up with a musical language that’s all Paul Wiancko. Dana Wilson’s The Night of H’s sets Jasmine Lin’s whimsical poem for four actors doing double duty as a string quartet. Beethoven inscribed his Third Razumovsky Quartet with a statement refusing to cede to his growing deafness – and the music bears out his determination. 

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Piedmont, CA: PCMF's The Poetry Of Music
Aug
1
7:30 PM19:30
Festival

Piedmont, CA: PCMF's The Poetry Of Music

Richard Strauss: String Sextet from Capriccio
   Wayne Lee and Jesse Mills, violins
   Ayane Kozasa and Che-Yen Chen, violas
   Paul Wiancko and Deborah Pae, cellos

Gideon Klein: String Trio
   Jesse Mills, violin
   Ayane Kozasa, viola
   Paul Wiancko, cello

INTERMISSION

Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor
   Formosa Quartet
   Juliana Han, piano

 

In Richard Strauss’s 1942 opera Capriccio, a countess is torn between a poet and a musician who are both vying for her love, personifying an intriguing question: which is the greater art, poetry or music? The sumptuous string sextet that opens Capriccio makes a convincing case for the latter, as do the other pieces on the program: Gideon Klein’s String Trio, written two weeks before he died in a concentration camp during the Second World War, and César Franck’s supremely passionate Piano Quintet in F minor.

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Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Sunday concert
Aug
6
3:00 PM15:00
Festival

Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Sunday concert

PCMF's closing concert spans over two hundred years and traverses the globe. We begin in Vienna in 1816 with one of Schubert's most irrepressibly buoyant works. Almost a century later, Ravel's ethereal and kaleidoscopic Introduction and Allegro showcases what was then the newly invented double-action pedal harp. A new piece from Wei-Chieh Lin (PCMF co-director Wayne Lee's Juilliard roommate and one of today's foremost Taiwanese-American composers) is inspired by Taiwanese folk songs. To cap off the season, let your hair down for Thierry Pélicant's seductive, Argentinean-inspired Milonga, featuring seven of our eight musicians. It's guaranteed to raise the roof!

Schubert: Rondo in B minor, D. 895
     Wayne Lee, violin
     Juliana Han, piano

Ravel: Introduction and Allegro
     Julie Smith Phillips, harp
     Joshua Smith, flute
     Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
     Formosa Quartet

INTERMISSION

Wei-Chieh Lin: New Work (commissioned by the Formosa Quartet)
     Formosa Quartet

Thierry Pélicant: Milonga
     Joshua Smith, flute
     Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
     Formosa Quartet
     Juliana Han, piano

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Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Friday Concert
Aug
4
7:30 PM19:30
Festival

Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Friday Concert

The first half of this program features two trios of very different styles and instrumentation — and there's not a violinist to be found! To close, the Formosa Quartet and PCMF co-director Juliana Han team up for the first time for Dvorak's famous Piano Quintet, one of the best-loved pieces of Romantic chamber music.

Beethoven: Trio in B-flat major, Op. 11
     Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
     Deborah Pae, cello
     Juliana Han, piano

Debussy: Trio for flute, viola, and harp
     Joshua Smith, flute
     Che-Yen Chen, viola
     Julie Smith Phillips, harp

INTERMISSION

Dvorak: Piano Quintet in A major, Op. 81
     Formosa Quartet
     Juliana Han, piano

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Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Wednesday Concert
Aug
2
7:30 PM19:30
Festival

Piedmont, CA: PCMF's Wednesday Concert

The opening concert of PCMF's 2017 season begins with Mozart's effervescent and joyful Flute and Harp Concerto — music for a celebration as only Mozart could have written. The Brahms Clarinet Sonata in E-flat turns inward to plumb emotional depths, from turbulent passion to soaring romanticism. The program ends with one of the Formosa Quartet's best-loved pieces, arranged by none other than first violinist Jasmine Lin. Her take on well-loved Grappelli jazz tunes brings quartet playing to an entirely raucous, riotous, and rousing level.

Mozart: Flute and Harp Concerto in C major, K. 299
     Joshua Smith, flute
     Julie Smith Phillips, harp
     Formosa Quartet

Brahms: Clarinet Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 120 No. 1
     Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet
     Juliana Han, piano

INTERMISSION

Four Grappelli Jazz Tunes arranged by Jasmine Lin
     Formosa Quartet

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