We relate our work to the history and social realities of our time:
OCTOBER 2022 – Season 10 anniversary celebrations opened with an invitation for audiences to participate in a fresh musical experience. Antonio Vivaldi’s beloved “Four Seasons,” was interspersed with stories from the Yakama tradition by scholar and master storyteller Dr. Michelle Jacob of the Yakama Nation for “Vivaldi and the (Forty) Four Seasons.”
ONLINE NOVEMBER 2022 – Luise Adolpha Le Beau (18500-1927) was an accomplished composer of operas, choral music, large-scale orchestral works, and chamber music. One of Clara Schumann’s most successful students, Le Beau also enjoyed a distinguished career as pianist and music critic. Our portrait of Le Beau features her cello sonata, a gorgeously romantic work, alongside more intimate pieces for violin and piano.
DECEMBER 2022 – Ludwig van Beethoven’s magnificent and monumental “Archduke” Trio as well as the deeply beautiful “be still and know” for piano trio by 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence winner Dr. Carlos Simon. Filipino-African American vocalist Martin Bakari, a recent Seattle Opera soloist joins this program to perform pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert which explore meaning and connection in life, tranquility, joy and love.
ONLINE FEBRUARY 2023 – Violinist Ingrid Matthews contributed to the rediscovery of Jacquet de la Guerre’s music when she made one of the first recordings of the composer’s complete violin sonatas with harpsichordist Byron Schenkman 30 years ago. Now Matthews returns to play two of these extraordinary sonatas for this virtual concert. Our portrait also includes Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s Cantata No.1 “Esther,” with vocalist Katherine Goforth making her BS&F debut.
MARCH 2023 – The WORLD PREMIERE of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer Caroline Shaw’s ‘Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings’ commissioned in honor of Byron. Offered alongside harpsichord concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, Henry Purcell’s Suite from “The Gordian Knot Untied” and Damien Geter’s “Buh-roke for harpsichord and strings.”
ONLINE APRIL 2023 – Guest Artistic Director Joseph Williams presents A Contemporary Portrait: Brian Raphael Nabors. Join cellist Sterling Elliot, violinist Caitlin Edwards, and pianist Jessica Evotia Andrews-Hall for an emotionally rich program featuring Nabor’s Piano Trio, Theme & Variations for Solo Violin, and Sonata for Cello & Piano.
MAY 2023 – Byron Schenkman joins the “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” Jasper String Quartet in a program of Romantic gems by Antonin Dvorak, Alexander Glazunov, and Florence Beatrice Price.