Gallery Concerts

MUSIC IN INTIMATE SETTINGS

2008-2009 20th Anniversary Season

Celebration! A Musical Tour

Join Gallery Concerts for on a musical tour through Italy, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and England.

Saturday performances start at 8 p.m. and Sunday performances at 3 p.m. Join us for a pre-concert "conversation" beginning 45 minutes prior to each performance.

October 25th & 26th             Italia con Amore!

Ensemble Electra: Vicki Boeckman, recorder, Tekla Cunningham, violin, and Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord

Be wooed by the sizzling virtuosity and sensuous sounds of Seattle’s top Baroque touring group, Ensemble Electra, as they perform music from the land of love—works by Vivaldi, Corelli, and Scarlatti.  This concert should be on Valentine’s Day!  Bring along your favorite squeeze!

 November 15th – 30th         A Most Unusual Brahms Festival 

Gallery Concerts celebrates the 175th Anniversary of the Birth of Johannes Brahms—a fitting occasion to discover some of the lesser-known gems by this musical genius and his contemporaries, all performed with period instruments, including “The Governor’s Chickering.”

November 15th & 16th     Brahms Girls

Ya-Li Lee Cheng, soprano, Sarah Barratt Markovits, soprano, Sarra Sharif, mezzo soprano, Melanie Stevens, mezzo soprano,  Stacey Sunde, mezzo soprano, Nancy Zylstra, director

They all had crushes on the handsome young Brahms, and the feeling was mutual!  Recapture the poignant musical moment when the greatest joy in Brahms’s life was conducting his little choir of young ladies in Hamburg.  Brahms Girls, Seattle’s brand new  a cappella solo vocal women’s quartet, directed by Nancy Zylstra, will enchant you with Renaissance music, original pieces by Brahms, and lovely arrangements of German folksongs once sung by Brahms’s lovely little ensemble.  If you like Anonymous 4, you’ll love Brahms Girls!

November 22nd & 23rd  At Home with Clara Schumann & Brahms

Raluca Marinescu, soprano, Cecilia Archuleta, violin, and Shuann Chai, Tamara Friedman, and George Bozarth, 1867 Chickering grand piano

Welcome to a party at the Schumanns’ home, where Brahms is the favorite guest.  The musical fare today will be intimate songs and piano pieces by Robert, Clara, and Johannes, and Brahms’s beautiful A-major Violin Sonata, Op. 100.  A Hausmusik treat!

November 29th & 30th        Hungarica!

The Chickering Quartet: Cecilia Archuleta, violin; Laurel Wells, viola; Page Smith, violoncello, and Shuann Chai, 1867 Chickering grand piano

Journey to the land of rhapsodic Gypsy violinists and fiery cimbalom players to experience the unbridled piano and chamber music of Franz Liszt, Ernst von Dohnanyi, and Johannes Brahms.  The Chickering Quartet—last season’s big hit—returns for their second annual Seattle concert, this year performing Brahms’s beloved G-minor Piano Quartet (with its wild Gypsy finale!), played on period instruments like you’ve never heard it before.

January 17th & 18th         Viva Vienna!

Guest Artist Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin, Page Smith, violoncello, and Tamara Friedman, Viennese fortepiano

Next stop—Vienna, the city of dreams on the beautiful blue Danube that played host to all of Europe’s finest composers.  From the Esterhazy lands came Haydn, from Salzburg, Mozart, and from far-off Bonn, Beethoven—all to join native-son Schubert in creating a blossoming of music fully worthy of its magical environs.  Period instruments on this concert will include a 1680 Guarneri violin and a 1795 Viennese grand piano. 

March 7th & 8th             Iberia! 

Guest Artist Ellen Hargis, soprano, Margriet Tindemans, viola da gamba, and Jillon Stoppels Dupree, harpsichord

Experience the colorful, rhythmically vibrant Baroque vocal and instrumental music of Portugal, Spain, and Mexico, performed by guest artist Ellen Hargis, one of the world’s foremost early music singers, and two of Seattle’s own international stars.

April 4th & 5th               Mr. Haydn Comes to London

 The Classical Consort: Karen Urlie, soprano, Tekla Cunningham, violin, Meg Brennand, cello, and Tamara Friedman, English fortepiano.

Join The Classical Consort as they journey to Haydn’s London to commemorate the Haydn-Year (200th anniversary of his death).   Explore the impact of England’s musical haunts on the songs, sonatas, and chamber music of Europe’s most genial composer.  A colorful 1820 Broadwood pianoforte—the same model owned by Jane Austen—will be the featured guest at this celebration.