Music on the Strait: Grieg's String Quartet
$40 ($10 students age 25 & under)
- Noah Geller, violin
- James Garlick, violin
- Richard Yongjae O'Neill, viola
- Ani Aznavoorian, cello
- Mari Yoshinaga, marimba
Anton Prischepa — Based on Actual Events for Violin and Marimba
Edvard Grieg — String Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 27
Noah Geller, the dynamic Concertmaster of the Seattle Symphony makes his Music on the Strait debut leading Grieg's bold and energetic String Quartet in G minor. Before intermission, Geller shares the stage with Mari Yoshinaga, the internationally acclaimed percussionist and his frequent duo partner. We open this program with a string quartet by Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate, a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma. Tate uses Hopi and Pueblo rhythms and forms as musical inspiration. For instance, the opening viola solo, which recurs throughout the work, is a paraphrase of a Pueblo Buffalo Dance.
6:15pm pre-concert talk with Classic KING FM 98.1's Lisa Bergman.
About Music on the Strait
Music on the Strait celebrates chamber music in the singularly beautiful environment of the Olympic Peninsula and Salish Sea. Founded in Port Angeles in 2018 by locally-raised musicians James Garlick and Richard O'Neill in partnership with the Port Angeles Symphony, Music on the Strait aims to share chamber music, both its traditions and its emerging voices, through community programming and educational outreach.
https://www.musiconthestrait.com/About Noah Geller, violin
Noah Geller is the David and Amy Fulton Concertmaster of the Grammy- and Gramophone-winning Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Named to that post at the conclusion of a multi-year search, Mr. Geller is among a small cadre of elite violinists who serve as both leaders and featured performers for the nation’s acclaimed orchestras. He will perform the Saint-Saëns la muse et le poète double concerto with Principal Cello Efe Baltacigil for the symphony’s 2022-23 opening night concert in September and the Bartók Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Seattle Symphony in March 2023. He has previously brought to life the Glazunov and Mendelssohn concerti, Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending, Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherezade, and Mozart Requiem in Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.
In addition to serving as SSO concertmaster, Mr. Geller has performed as guest concertmaster with the Symphony Orchestras of Pittsburgh, Houston, and Beijing (China National Symphony) and as acting assistant concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. An in-demand chamber musician, he has performed in the Marlboro, Kingston, Saratoga, Seattle, and Taos festivals and has appeared in numerous concert series including those of Lyon & Healy Hall, Dolce Suono Ensemble, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Lyric Chamber Music Society. A student of Jennifer Cappelli, Geller received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the Juilliard School where he studied with Hyo Kang, Cho-Liang Lin, and Donald Weilerstein. He now resides in Seattle with his wife, percussionist Mari Yoshinaga, and their canine companion, Monkey.
An enthusiastic supporter of contemporary makers, Mr. Geller performs on a c. 2020 violin by Philadelphia luthier Justin Hess, from whom he has commissioned a second instrument, using a c. 1830 bow by Claude Joseph Fonclause for Etienne Pajeot.
https://seattlesymphony.org/en/about/meetthemusicians/theorchestra/artists/first-violin/geller-noahAbout Richard Yongjae O'Neill, viola
About Ani Aznavoorian, cello
Cellist Ani Aznavoorian has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Philharmonic, the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the Boston Pops. Aznavoorian is an avid chamber musician and teacher. She is the principal cellist of Camerata Pacifica, and she appears regularly at chamber music festivals around the globe. She has also served on the music faculty at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, and has spent summers as faculty of the Great Mountains Music Festival and School in South Korea. She is the recipient of the Bunkamura Orchard Hall Award for her playing and artistry, has been named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts, and is a prize winner of the International Paulo Cello Competition. She is a proponent of new music and has premiered concertos by Auerbach and Laderman and the chamber music repertoire by Harbison, Bruce, and Sheng. Aznavoorian records for Cedille Records and she proudly performs on a cello made by her father Peter Aznavoorian in Chicago.
https://www.aniaznavoorian.com/Peninsula College Maier Performance Hall
1502 East Lauridsen BlvdPort Angeles, WA 98362
United States