concerts

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Welcome to our 57th year of chamber music concerts in Reading! All concerts are free and open to the public. Patron-subscribers are asked to contribute $80 for the series. Most performances are held at the WCR Center for the Arts, 140 North Fifth Street, Reading, PA.

The AEOLUS STRING QUARTET

Friday, October 23, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. (WCRCA)

Returning for its 22nd appearance in Reading, The Mendelssohn String Quartet is now in its 27th season as a performing ensemble. The Quartet was for nine years the Blodgett Artists in Residence at Harvard University, and has performed at such distinguished venues as Carnegie Hall in New York City, Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Wigmore Hall in London, and the Tonhalle in Zurich. The resident quartet of the Eastern Shore Chamber Music Festival and formerly resident quartet of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Mendelssohn Quartet has performed at the Caramoor Festival, the Festival Pablo Casals in Prades, France, and makes frequent appearances at New York's Mostly Mozart Festival as well as the Ravinia, Aspen, and Saratoga Music Festivals. They were the first American ensemble invited to appear at the International Dialogues Festival in Kiev, Ukraine. The Mendelssohn String Quartet established a reputation as one of the most imaginative, vital and exciting quartets of its generation. The Quartet has announced that this season will be its last as a performing ensemble. They have blessed and thrilled us with their performances for these many years and have chosen a very special program for this, their final concert in Reading.

THE PROGRAM

Haydn: String Quartet in B Minor,

Op. 64, No. 2

Alexandra Bryant: Quartet No. 2 “The Still Point” (World Premiere)

Schubert: Quartet in D Minor,

D. 810 “Death and the Maiden”

The MENDELSSOHN STRING QUARTET

Saturday, November 21, 2009 - 8:00 p.m. (WCRCA)

This concert marks the 12th appearance of The Los Angeles Piano Quartet in Reading. The Quartet made its debut in Los Angeles in 1977, and soon earned recognition as America’s premier piano quartet. In 1986 the Quartet made its European debut to great acclaim at the Cheltenham Festival, and has subsequently toured Europe and the United States extensively. In recent seasons, the Los Angeles Piano Quartet appeared at both the Library of Congress and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and on concert series and campuses throughout the country. The Quartet has been an active force in the creation of new works for piano quartet, commissioning numerous compositions from composers of note, including Stephen Hartke, Steven Stuckey and Gerard Schurmann. This concert introduces their new violinist, Yehonatan Berick, prizewinner of the 1993 Naumberg Competition and recipient of the 1996-97 Prix Opus.

The LOS ANGELES PIANO QUARTET

Saturday, December 12, 2009 - 8:00 (WCRCA)

THE PROGRAM

Haydn: Quartet in G Minor, Op. 74, No. 3 “The Rider”

Ravel: String Quartet in F Major

Beethoven: String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 18, No. 4

Friday, January 22, 2010, 8:00 p.m. (WCRCA)

The APOLLO TRIO

Friday, February 19, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (WCRCA)

Appearing for the fifth time on our series, The Apollo Trio was formed in 1997 after playing together in the Soirees des Junies Music Festival in Southern France, and in the ensuing years has performed widely throughout the United States and Europe. Playing a wide range of standard and new repertoire, the members of the Apollo Trio have been critically acclaimed and praised for their “vitality and poetic fire.” Curtis Macomber is former first violinist of the New World String Quartet and serves on the faculties of the Juilliard School and the Manhatten School of Music. Marija Stroke has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the City of London Festival, and in recital in the former Soviet Union. Michael Kannen is currently Chairman of the Dept. of Chamber Music of the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore.

THE PROGRAM

Haydn: Piano Trio in D Minor,

Hob. XV:23

R. Schumann: Piano Trio in

D minor, Op. 63

Beethoven: Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 70, No. 2

The BRENTANO STRING QUARTET

Two Concerts! Saturday & Sunday, May 22 and 23, 2010

The Brentano String Quartet appears this season for the 13th time on our series. Since its inception in 1992, this fine ensemble has been praised for its elegance, technical brilliance, and musical insight. The Brentano Quartet has won numerous awards, including the prestigious 1995 Naumberg Chamber Music Award, the 10th Annual Martin E. Segal Award, and the First Cleveland Quartet Award. The Quartet has toured extensively in the United States and Europe, with their first tour of Australia in 1998. They serve as Quartet-in-Residence at Princeton University. The Brentano String Quartet has made appearances in the major musical centers in North America, including New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, La Jolla, Detroit, Toronto, Washington DC, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Houston, New Orleans and Kansas City. In Europe, venues include the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Accademia de Santa Cecilia in Rome, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, AlterOper in Frankfurt, Philharmonie in Cologne, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Beethovenhaus in Bonn and Casino in Basel.

THE PROGRAM

SATURDAY, MAY 22, 8 PM

WCRCA

Schubert: Quartettsatz in

C Minor, D. 703

Hartke: Commissioned new

string quartet

Schubert: String Quartet in G

Major, Op. 161, D. 887

SUNDAY, MAY 23, 7 PM

TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH

527 WASHINGTON STREET

R. Schumann: String Quartet

in F Major, Op. 41, No. 2

Britten: String Quartet No. 3

Beethoven: String Quartet in

C-sharp Minor, Op. 131

Brother and sister Nicolas and Yumi Kendall, their cousin Daniel Foster, and Nurit Bar-Josef founded the Dryden String Quartet in Washington, D.C. in 2002. The Dryden Quartet distinguishes itself by combining its members’ remarkably accomplished and varied musical lives into a vibrant and unified ensemble, which has received critical praise for its “spectacular” and “thrilling” performances. Ms. Bar-Josef has been concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra since 2001. Mr. Foster has been Principal Violist of the National Symphony since 1995. Ms. Kendall is the recently appointed Assistant Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Kendall has embarked on a solo career on the roster of Young Concert Artists. Local concert-goers have thrilled to his artistry on several occasions in his trio ensemble Time for Three. This concert marks their first appearance as a quartet in Reading.

The DRYDEN STRING QUARTET

THE PROGRAM

Mozart: Arrangements of Bach’s

Preludes and Fugues for String

Trio, K. 404a

Mendelssohn: Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1

R. Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47

Support for the Brentano Quartet's

concerts is provided by

Trinity Lutheran Church.

This concert series receives

generous financial support from

the Reading Musical Foundation;

we enthusiastically encourage

contributions to the RMF.

THE PROGRAM

Mendelssohn: String Quartet in

A Minor, Op. 13, “Ist Es Wahr?”

Bartok: String Quartet No. 2,

Op. 17

Beethoven: String Quartet in

A Minor, Op. 132

Saturday, March 1, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. (Woman's Club)

The Bard College Conservatory of Music is one of the most unique and distinguished in the United States. From its inaugural year in 2005 to the present, the Conservatory has attracted gifted music students from around the world. Encouraged by Bard College President Leon Botstein, Directors Robert Martin and Melvin Chen have assembled a gifted faculty, which includes some of the most illustrious names in American music. Each summer Bard presents a festival featuring the works and world of a chosen composer, this summer dedicated to Richard Wagner. We are honored to present the Bard Conservatory Ensemble for the second time on our series. Robert Martin graduated from the Curtis Institute in 1961 with a B. Music degree, and from Haverford College in the same year with a B.A. He received a PhD. in Philosophy from Yale University. He was cellist in the Sequoia Quartet from 1975 to 1985 and is currently cellist in the Bard Festival String Quartet. Melvin Chen was granted a B.S. from Yale University in chemistry and physics and a PhD. in chemistry from Harvard University, and holds a double Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School in piano and violin. He is a member of the Bard piano faculty.

The BARD CONSERVATORY ENSEMBLE

THE PROGRAM

Mozart: String Quartet in

B-flat Major, K. 589

Poulenc: Trio for Oboe,

Bassoon and Piano

Dohnanyi: Quintet for Piano

and Strings

Friday, March 19, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. (WCRCA)

Formed in 2006 at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Aeolus Quartet is one of the most exciting and talented of America’s young quartet ensembles. Recently awarded the Coleman-Barstow Prize for Strings at the 2009 Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Aeolus Quartet was selected for a residency at the Center for Advanced String Quartet Studies at the 2009 Aspen Music Festival. They have been mentored by members of the Juilliard and Cleveland Quartets, and have worked extensively with members of the Takacs, American, Jupiter, Tokyo and Borromeo Quartets. In the fall of 2008 they participated in the Jeunesses Musicales Festival in Weikersheim, Germany, during which their performance of the Fifth Bartok Quartet was broadcast nationally on German public radio. We are especially proud to have this wonderful ensemble inaugurate our season because violinist Rachel Shapiro of Wyomissing is one of our community’s very special talents. The Quartet is named for the Greek God Aeolus, keeper of the four winds.