Friday, October 6, 2023 @ 8:00pm – 10:00pm (PDT)
Tagney Jones Hall at the Opera Center, Seattle, WA, United States
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$15-$150 sliding scale

Join us on Friday October 6th 2023, at 8pm, to kick off SCO's Second Season with a great program of chamber music by Franz Schubert, performed by members of the Seattle Chamber Orchestra.

The program begins with Schubert's Nocturne in E-flat, a relatively neglected piece that has affinities with other works by Schubert (not on the program) including the slow movements of both the String Quintet in C major D. 956, and the Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat, D. 898. The piece, which is scored for piano trio (violin, cello, and piano) was completed in the Autumn of 1827, the year before Schubert's death. It has the sublime slowness of the string quintet movement. The main thematic idea has a characteristic common to a number of Schubert's most celebrated melodic ideas, that of not going anywhere but revolving round a single note.

The Piano Quintet known as the "Trout" Quintet takes its name because its fourth movement is a set of variations on one of Schubert's earlier songs, Die Forelle ("The Trout"). The quintet was written for a wealthy music patron and amateur cellist Sylvester Paumgartner, from Steyr, Upper Austria, who also suggested that Schubert include a set of variations on the song. Sets of variations on melodies from Schubert's Lieder are found in four other of his works: the "Death and the Maiden" String Quartet, the Trockne Blumen ("Dried Flowers") Variations for Flute and Piano, the "Wanderer" Fantasy, and the Fantasia for Violin and Piano in C major.

The works on the program will be performed by members of the Seattle Chamber Orchestra, including Violinist Brendan Shea, Violist Alexander Grimes, Cellist Christine Lee, double bassist Will Langlie-Miletich, and SCO Music Director/pianist Lorenzo Marasso.

Concert will be held at Tagney Jones Hall at the Seattle Opera (363 Mercer Street, Seattle, 98109). Join us at 7:15pm for a pre-concert talk. Concert begins at 8pm. Admission includes the pre-concert talk, the performance, accompanied by fines wines and appetizers.

About Seattle Chamber Orchestra

Founded in 2021, Seattle Chamber Orchestra seeks to bring music lovers tantalizing combinations of the traditional and modern, performed by world-class professional musicians. Brought to life through thoughtful programming that educates as much as it inspires, SCO seeks to reinvigorate live classical music, which has suffered most of all during the pandemic, by providing opportunities musicians and audiences to explore new music and challenge established boundaries.

https://www.seattlechamberorchestra.org/

About Christina Wu, violin

Currently serving as concertmaster in Cascade Symphony Orchestra, Christina also appears
frequently with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. She is a recurring artist at the AIMS Festival Orchestra in Graz, Austria. Her past affiliations include first violin with Washington Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, and Wheeling Symphony Orchestra. Her notable collaborations feature legends such as Leon Fleisher, Kiri Te Kanawa, the Vienna Boys' Choir, Jose Carreras, Claus Peter Flor, Joseph Silverstein, and Alan Gilbert.

Christina started playing the violin at the age of five, receiving her early training at the Wuhan
Conservatory of Music. She obtained her Bachelor's Degree in violin performance with honors under Zuo Jun and Alexandra Souptel at the National University of Singapore, and later was granted a full scholarship to pursue her Master's Degree and Performance Certificate from Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied with the renowned violinist Cyrus Forough who himself was the student of the legendary violinist David Oistrakh.

About Lorenzo Marasso, piano

Lorenzo Marasso is an impassioned and sympathetic conductor, concert pianist, chamber musician, educator and radio host. Dubbed the "king of repertoire," Lorenzo's creative programming reveals lesser known masterpieces and rarely performed arrangements. Lorenzo's performances have been broadcast in numerous media outlets, including Seattle's 98.1 Classical King FM and NPR. In 2021 Lorenzo founded the Seattle Chamber Orchestra and is serving now as the ensemble's music director. In the same year he also started hosting a weekly radio program called Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle. Equally inspired by contemporary music, Lorenzo has commissioned and performed world premieres of new works by several international composers who have written and dedicated pieces to him. In July 2020 he completed the Invention Project, a commission of new pieces for piano inspired by J.S. Bach's Inventions and Sinfonias. Further commissions included works composed by Michael Finnissy, Edward Cowie and Bernhard Lang.

https://www.lorenzomarasso.com