Around 1788, while he was ambassador to France from the new United States, Benjamin Franklin wrote a string quartet. Music was among Franklin’s many talents; a number of his compositions survive. 
The quartet, though, was and remains a curiosity, because all its parts are for open strings – the pitches of the strings are not altered by the players’ left hands. That, Franklin thought, would make it easier for unschooled musicians to play.
For pros, the piece is challenging for its peculiarities. So that the four instruments can produce enough notes, each is tuned differently; none is tuned in the usual manner. The score is for three violins and cello, omitting the usual viola. And, as left hands never touch strings, notes cannot be played with vibrato.
The traditional division of labor in the string quartet, in which the first violin usually takes the melodic lead with other strings weaving between supporting roles and cameos in the spotlight, doesn’t apply here. Melodies take shape with the participation of all four fiddles, which may contribute just a few notes at a time to the tune.
It’s more like singing a catch, glee or one of the other varieties of part-song sung by the 18th-century English (the most popular example is “To Anacreon in Heaven,” whose tune was borrowed for “The Star Spangled Banner”), not much like the string quartet as it was known then and since.
Molly Sharp, principal violist of the Richmond Symphony and a charter member of the Oberon Quartet, resident ensemble at St. Catherine’s and St. Christopher’s schools, got hold of a facsimile score of the Franklin quartet a few years ago. After playing the piece, she recalls, “we wondered what a 21st-century take on this would sound like.”
So, with support from St. Catherine’s, the Oberon launched an international competion, offering a $500 prize. The only conditions composers had to meet was to use only open strings in their submissions and to keep them short – five minutes or less in length.
“We got a number of pieces that were folkish in quality, as Franklin’s quartet is, only with references to folk musics from all sorts of places” from Bulgaria to Brazil, says William Comita, the Oberon’s cellist. “A number of submissions were kind of minimalist in style. There was even one with a narration from one of Franklin’s letters, along with singing and a pennywhistle.”
In its spring concert this week, the Oberon will play the five finalist works in the competition, along with a movement from the Franklin quartet. The program also will feature “Don’t Tread on Me or My String Quartet” (1986) by Russell Peck.
* * *
UPDATE (Feb. 27): “To the New World” by the Dutch composer Paul Gelsing won in balloting of the musicians and audience in the finals concert of the Oberon Quartet Composition Competition. Gelsing’s piece is a succession of fragmented tunes and figures that frequently give way to silences, giving the impression of accompaniment of and pauses in an unheard tune.
Second place went to “Autumn Dreams,” a miniature nature tonescape by the Spanish composer Rafael Gutierrez Gandia. In third place was a Gavotte by the Texas composer Brian DeLaney, who attended the concert. DeLaney’s little dance movement was the finalist work that most resembled Franklin’s quartet in its dance-derived “antique” style.
Other finalists were “Franklin’s Whistle,” a piece with narration of a Franklin letter counseling thrift and with two penny whistles joining the strings in climactic moments, by Alisher Latif-Zade, a composer from Tajikistan now based in New York; and “Dancing Icicles,” an abstracted nature evocation by the Bulgarian composer Emelina Gorcheva.
Feb. 23, Virginia Commonwealth University
New York Polyphony – countertenor Geoffrey Williams, tenor Steven Caldicott Wilson, baritone Christopher Dylan Herbert and bass Craig Phillips – has become a leading American ensemble in the daunting realm of high medieval and Renaissance vocal music.
This repertory is daunting not just for the challenge of negotiating intricate and delicately balanced vocalizations, but also in making this music a consistently engaging listening experience.
This may be especially true of English vocal music of the 15th and 16th centuries. More than most continental Europeans, the English sound to have been hesitant to depart from the period’s accepted formulas of musical or poetic-expressive styles. Their liturgical music is almost always moderate in tempo and solemnly reverent in tone. Their love songs take about the same andante pace as the church music, and their lyrics usually conform to courtly conventions. Even the racier romances – the ones that, as Williams noted, like to compare intimate body parts with ripe fruit – wrap the euphemism in musical decorousness.
A couple of songs or one Mass or liturgical piece can be sublime. In a full program, though, each piece risks sounding like the ones that precede and follow it. Bliss soon becomes bliss-out.
The escape from this seeming sameness, for New York Polyphony and a number of other younger groups, is to let individual voices contrast with one another, rather than aiming for a smoothly homogenized vocal texture. That approach carries with it the risk of sounding unbalanced or ragged.
Williams, Wilson, Herbert and Phillips prepare their performances with enough care and contrast their voices with enough sensitivity to avoid raggedness; but their voices have such pronounced and different characters that their ensemble is not the vocal equivalent of a string quartet.
They harmonize, literally and figuratively, by reconciling their individual vocal traits, not by sublimating them. They create expressive variety by manipulating dynamics and the colors of their voices. And they connect with the audience through entertaining but pertinent spoken introductions to the music.
In their weekend date at VCU, part of the Rennolds Chamber Concerts series, the foursome sang one masterpiece of Renaissance polyphony, William Byrd’s “Mass for Four Voices,” with relatively exuberant reverence, and sampled a variety of other sacred and secular music heard in England from the 13th through 16th centuries.
The best samples, to my ears, were two quite different works from the 16th century: “Quid petis, o fili,” a pleasantly meandering romance by Richard Pygott, and “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” one of the livelier scripture settings of Thomas Tallis.
James Wilson, cello
Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord
Feb. 22, First Unitarian Universalist Church, Richmond
James Wilson, the cellist and artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia, is one of those musicians who thinks aloud as he performs. His little gray 
cells got quite a workout in performances of three rarely heard works for solo cello: Benjamin Britten’s Second Suite, Op. 80; William Walton’s Passacaglia and Julius Klengel’s “Caprice in the Form of a Chaconne, Based on a Theme by Robert Schumann.”
All three are showcases of cello technique. The Britten and Walton were written for Mstislav Rostropovich, and play to the great Russian cellist’s strengths, not least his concentration and stamina. The Klengel is of late romantic vintage (1905), a rhetorically florid and portentous piece by the longtime principal cellist of the Gewandhaus Orchestra of Leipzig and a noted teacher (of Emmanuel Feuermann and Gregor Piatigorsky, among others).
Wilson, playing in a candle-lit church sanctuary, drew listeners deep into these pieces with performances of weight, intensity and spontaneity. His reading of the Klengel was perhaps too serious; it neither sounded nor felt capricious. His treatments of the British works, especially the closing chaconne of Britten’s epic suite, were spot-on.
The program’s theme was the chaconne, a racy dance form that curiously became the vehicle for some of the most profound and expressive musical utterances of the baroque period (Bach’s Chaconne in D minor is the best-known example) and subsequently of late romantics and moderns.
Harpsichordist Carsten Schmidt supplemented Wilson’s solo efforts with a sampling of baroque keyboard works, most from composers of the generation before Bach – Louis Couperin, Georg Böhm, Johann Adam Reincken, Johann Pachelbel, Johann Jakob Froberger – and accompanied Wilson’s baroque cello in Marin Marais’ Suite in A minor from Book 3 of “Pieces de Viole,” originally scored for viola da gamba.
Steven Smith conducting
with Ellen Cockerham, violin
Feb, 21, Richmond CenterStage
It looks like the Richmond Symphony has a hit on its hands in the Rush-Hour Concerts, a casual concert series whose second installment in its tryout season drew a capacity crowd to Richmond CenterStage’s Gottwald Playhouse. Instead of waiting till fall for a third go, the symphony should consider exploiting the buzz by adding one or more spring dates.
Ellen Cockerham, the orchestra’s principal second violinist, was featured soloist in Henri Vieuxtemps’ Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor, a compact but action-packed showcase for solo fiddle by one of the instrument’s leading 19th-century virtuosos. Cockerham made sparkling, at times soulful, work of the piece, to especially good effect in its brilliant finale.
For this abridged version of a Metro Collection program to be staged over the weekend in Ashland, symphony Music Director Steven Smith and a chamber-scaled contingent of the orchestra played the first and last movements of Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1 in F major, Steven Hartke’s “A Brandenburg Autumn” and Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances” Suite No. 1.
The Hartke piece was introduced in 2006 as part of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra’s Brandenburg Project, in which contemporary composers wrote companion pieces to Bach’s six “Brandenburg” concertos. Hartke employs the same forces that Bach did in the First Concerto – three oboes, two French horns and strings with harpsichord continuo – and, like Bach, based his music in dance rhythms; but while Bach’s music stresses elegance, Hartke’s is more animated, at times jittery, with frequent humorous asides.
Smith and the symphony players, joined by harpsichordist Joanne Kong, not surprisingly sounded more focused in the unfamiliar Hartke than in the Bach, which received a straightforward, rather mellow reading.
Some extra engagement was audible, too, in the Respighi, which, as Smith observed in introductory remarks, is the least performed of the three “Ancient Airs and Dances” suites. The woodwinds, paced by oboist Gustav Highstein, sparkled in this perrformances, as they had in the Bach and Hartke.
The program, with complete performances of the Bach, Hartke and Respighi works, will begin at 3 p.m. Feb. 23 in Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 205 Henry St., Ashland. Tickets: $20. Details: (800) 514-3849 (ETIX); www.richmondsymphony.com
Erin R. Freeman conducting
with Joseph Conyers, double-bass
and Richmond Symphony Chorus
Feb. 16, Richmond CenterStage
A lot of music is written with some virtuoso soloist in mind, but surprisingly little is “biographical,” touching on the performer’s life, personality or spirit. 
John B Hedges’ “Prayers of Rain and Wind” is one such rarity, having been written for and about Joseph Conyers, a Savannah, GA, native who is now assistant principal double-bassist of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Conyers is a self-professed weather freak. (This is not unusual among people who grow up along the southeast coast of the U.S., living in the path of hurricanes and other violent storms.) Composer Hedges parlays that interest into a concerto-cum-suite full of atmospheric effects, the most memorable of which is a stormy finale.
Hedges gives Conyers a couple of extended unaccompanied solos, more soliloquies than cadenzas, that provide the bassist prime opportunities to show off advanced technique and, more importantly, ability to make a bull fiddle sing.
Performing with Erin R. Freeman, associate conductor of the Richmond Symphony, added another biographical layer to the occasion. When Conyers was a student at a Savannah prep school, Freeman was one of his teachers.
The conductor and musicians, including an offstage chorus intoning a Southern gospel melody, reveled in the colorful score Hedges crafts for the orchestra. A bit more string density was needed to convey the “humidity” of the first movement.
“Prayers of Rain and Wind” shared the program with two staples of Mozart: The “Magic Flute” Overture and the Requiem.
Freeman and the orchestra gave a solid but propulsive reading of the overture, especially effective in its treatment of silences following fanfares. The Symphony Chorus, which Freeman directs, brought a welcome combination of heft and sensitivity to detail in the Mass.
The four vocal soloists featured in the Requiem, soprano Melissa Wimbish, mezzo-soprano Janna Elesia Critz, tenor Peter Scott Drackley and baritone Jeffrey Gates, are winners of the Peabody Singers Program of Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. Critz’s straightfoward tone proved more suited to Mozart than the more 19th-century-style “operatic” vocalizations of her colleagues.
The new-music sextet eighth blackbird, currently in its ninth year in residence at the University of Richmond, 
has won its third Grammy Award, in the chamber music category, for “Meanwhile,” its Cedille recording of music by Stephen Hartke.
The Hartke work also won a Grammy for best contemporary composition. “Meanwhile,” subtitled
“Incidental music to imaginary puppet plays,” was first performed by the ’birds at UR in 2007. They reprised the piece several times here and played it frequently on tour before recording it.
The group’s next Richmond performance will be on March 20 at the Modlin Arts Center. Composer Nico Muhly will join the ’birds in a program featuring his works.
Classical performances in and around Richmond, with selected events elsewhere in Virginia and the Washington area. Program information, provided by presenters, is updated as details become available. Adult single-ticket prices are listed; senior, student/youth, group and other discounts may be offered.
SCOUTING REPORT
* In and around Richmond: Pianist Richard Becker plays Schumann, Chopin and Liszt in his annual Super Bowl Sunday concert, Feb. 3 at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Arts Center. . . . Pianist Charles Staples and friends perform on Feb. 4 at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Singleton Arts Center. . . . Baritone James Weaver and pianist Joanne Kong perform Schubert’s song cycle “Die Winterreise” (“Winter Journey”), Feb. 4 at UR’s Modlin Center. . . . Baritone Matthew Worth, a UR alumnus, returns to his alma mater for a program of American art-song, Feb. 11 at the Modlin Center. . . . Erin R. Freeman conducts the Richmond Symphony, Symphony Chorus and soloists in Mozart’s Requiem, 
on a program with John B. Hedges’ “Prayers of Wind and Rain,” featuring double-bassist Joseph Conyers, Feb. 16-17 at Richmond CenterStage. . . . Cellist James Wilson, the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia’s artistic director, gives a free lecture-recital on Feb. 21 at the Richmond Public Library and music on modern and baroque cellos with harpsichordist-pianist Carsten Schmidt, Feb. 22 at First Unitarian Universalist Church. . . . The male vocal quartet New York Polyphony performs music from the medieval to the modern, Feb. 23 at VCU. . . . Steven Smith conducts the Richmond Symphony, with violin soloist Ellen Cockerham, in a program taking off from Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1, Feb. 24 at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland. (A one-hour condensation of the program, part of the Symphony Rush-Hour Concerts series, will be staged on Feb. 21 at Richmond CenterStage.) . . . The Shanghai Quartet is joined by violist Paul Neubauer in a Feb. 24 program at UR’s Modlin Center. (Not quite a conflict there: The symphony performs at 3 p.m., the Shanghai at 7:30 p.m.) . . . The Oberon Quartet introduces the winning work in its Composer Composition Competition in a Feb. 26 recital at St. Catherine’s School.
* Noteworthy elsewhere: University of Virginia ensembles perform in the UVa Chamber Music Festival, Feb. 1-10 in Old Cabell Hall on the Charlottesville campus. . . . Pianist Stephen Hough joins the Baltimore 
Symphony in Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Feb. 7 at Strathmore in the Maryland suburbs of DC. . . . Pianist Angela Hewitt plays Bach, Debussy and Ravel, Feb. 8 at the Kennedy Center in Washington. . . . The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam visits the Kennedy Center on Feb. 12 with a program of Bartók and Mahler. . . . Virginia Opera launches its production of “A Streetcar Named Desire,” André Previn’s opera based on Tennessee Williams’ play, Feb. 16-24 at the Harrison Opera House in Norfolk. . . . Violinist Hilary Hahn plays Bach, Fauré, Corelli and selections from her “Hilary Hahn Encores Project,” Feb. 16 at the Kennedy Center. . . . The Kennedy Center’s Nordic Cool 2013 Festival opens on Feb. 19 with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic playing, among other music, Sibelius’ “Finlandia” and Nielsen’s “Inextinguishable” Symphony (No. 4). . . . The Tokyo String Quartet plays Beethoven, Webern and Schubert, Feb. 20 at the Paramount Theater in Charlottesville. . . . Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra are joined by vocalist Ann Hampton Calloway in “The Streisand Songbook,” Feb. 24 at the Ferguson Arts Center of Christopher Newport University in Newport News. . . . Pianist Simone Dinnerstein plays Bach’s “Goldberg Variations,” Feb. 24 at Strathmore. . . . Violinist Jennifer Koh plays part 2 of her “Bach and Beyond” venture, Feb. 28 at Strathmore.
Feb. 1 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Presbyterian Church, 215 Richmond Road
Feb. 2 (8 p.m.)
First Presbyterian Church, 300 36th St., Virginia Beach
Feb. 3 (3 p.m.)
Christ & St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 560 W. Olney Road, Norfolk
Virginia Chorale
Charles Woodward directing
“Let My People Go!” Black History Month program
spirituals and songs arranged by Moses Hogan, Hall Johnson, Michael Tippett, Tarik O’Regan, Stephen Coxe
$25
(757) 627-8375
www.vachorale.org
Feb. 1 (8 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
Miles Hoffman, viola
Reiko Uchida, piano
works by Bach, Brahms, Bloch
$25-$30
(757) 722-2787
www.hamptonarts.net
Feb. 1 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa Chamber Music Festival:
Rivanna String Quartet
Mimi Tung, piano
Mozart: Quartet in D minor, K. 421
John Adams: “Book of Alleged Dances” (excerpts)
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
$20
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html
Feb. 1 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
China National Symphony Orchestra
Li Xincao conducting
Xia Guan: “Earth Requiem” (first movement)
Chengzong Yin-Zhuang Liu: “Yellow River” Piano Concerto
Peng-Peng Gong, piano
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7
$25-$65
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org
Feb. 2 (11 a.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Feb. 2 (6 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Richmond Symphony LolliPops
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Charlotte Blake Alston, storyteller
“Scheherazade”
pre-concert family activities at 10 a.m.
$12-$17 (Richmond), $10.50-$15.50 (Charlottesville)
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX) (Richmond)
(434) 979-1333 (Charlottesville)
www.richmondsymphony.com
Feb. 2 (8 p.m.)
Regent University Theater, Virginia Beach
Virginia Symphony
George Hanson conducting
Ravel: “Le Tombeau de Couperin”
Haydn: Trumpet Concerto
David Vonderheide, trumpet
Christopher Theofandis: “Muse”
Haydn: Symphony No. 104 (“London”)
$20-$60
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org
Feb. 2 (8 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
China National Symphony Orchestra
Li Xincao conducting
Guan Xia: “Earth Requiem” (first movement)
Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Yang Xu, violin
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
$30-$60
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.cfa.gmu.edu
Feb. 2 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Yan Pascal Tortelier conducting
Hindemith: “Concert Music” for strings and brass
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major, K. 595
Orion Weiss, piano
Mussorgsky-Ravel: “Pictures at an Exhibition”
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org
Feb. 3 (3 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Richard Becker, piano
works by Schumann, Chopin, Liszt
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu
Feb. 3 (1:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa Chamber Music Festival:
Rob Patterson, clarinet
Elizabeth Roberts, bassoon
John Mayhood, piano
Mendelssohn: Konzertstück No. 1, Op. 113
Allard: “Variations on a Theme of Paganini” for solo bassoon
Francaix: “Tema con Variazioni” for clarinet and piano
Glinka: “Trio Pathetique” for clarinet bassoon and piano
Poulenc: Sonata for clarinet and bassoon
Davidovsky: “Synchronisms” No. 12 for clarinet and electronics
Villa-Lobos: “Ciranda das Sete Notas” for bassoon and piano
Mendelssohn: Konzertstück No. 2, Op. 114
$20
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html
Feb. 4 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Charles Staples, piano
other artists TBA
program TBA
$7 in advance, $10 day of event
(803) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org
Feb. 4 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
James Weaver, baritone
Joanne Kong, piano
Schubert: “Die Winterreise”
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu
Feb. 4 (7 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Patricia Racette, soprano
Master class
$12
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 5 (5:30 p.m.)
Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, Seminary and Walton avenues, Richmond
City Singers Children’s Choirs
Leslie Dripps directing
“Wintertide Concert”
program TBA
(rescheduled from Jan. 26)
donation requested
(804) 359-5049
www.citysingerschoir.org
Feb. 5 (8 p.m.)
Williamsburg Library Theater, 515 Scotland St.
Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg:
Daedalus String Quartet
Haydn: Quartet in E flat major, Op. 33, No. 2 (“Joke”)
Mendelssohn: Quartet in E flat major, Op. 12
Beethoven: Quartet in E flat major, Op. 127
$15 (waiting list)
(757) 258-4814
www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org
Feb. 5 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Young Concert Artists:
Veit Hertenstein, viola
Pei-Yao Wang, piano
Schumann: Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
Prokofiev-Borislovsky: “Selections from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ ”
Rota: Intermezzo
Shostoakovich-Hertenstein: Preludes, Op. 34, Nos. 10, 15, 16, 24
Piazzolla: “Le Grand Tango”
$35
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 6 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Fortas Chamber Music Concerts:
Misha Dichter, piano
Harlem String Quartet
Shostakovich: Piano Quintet
Chick Corea: “Adventures of Hippocrates”
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44
$45
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 7 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Hannu Lintu conducting
Tchaikovsky: “Francesca da Rimini”
Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 2
Stephen Hough, piano
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org
Feb. 8 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
China National Symphony Orchestra
Li Xincao conducting
Xia Guan: “Earth Requiem” (first movement)
Zhanhao He-Gang Chen: “Butterfly Lovers” Violin Concerto
Yang Xu, violin
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2
$37-$67
(757) 594-8752
www.fergusoncenter.cnu.edu
Feb. 8 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa Chamber Music Festival:
Albemarle Ensemble
Frederic Duvernoy: Trio No. 1 for flute, horn, and piano
Auric: Trio for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon
Mozart: Quintet in E flat major, K. 452, for piano and winds
Ginastera: Duo for flute and oboe, Op. 13
Nielsen: Wind Quintet
$20
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html
Feb. 8 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Angela Hewitt, piano
Bach: “French” suites Nos. 5-6
Bach: Toccata in D major, BWV 912
Debussy: “Pour le Piano” Suite
Ravel: “Le Tombeau de Couperin”
$55 (waiting list)
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org
Feb. 9 (2 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Belle Isle Strings
works by Mozart, Shostakovich, others
free
(804) 646-7223
www.richmondpubliclibrary.org
Feb. 9 (3 p.m.)
Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, First Street at Independence Avenue S.E., Washington
U.S. Marine Band (“The President’s Own”)
Col. Michael J. Coburn directing
“Music in the Lincoln White House”
works by Francis Maria Scala
book-signing and panel discussion at 1 p.m.
Free; tickets required
(703) 573-7328 (Ticketmaster)
http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1213-schedule.html
Feb. 9 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
National Philharmonic
Piotr Gajewski conducting
Ravel: “Bolero”
Poulenc: Gloria
Danielle Talamantes, soprano
National Philharmonic Chorale
Rimsky-Korsakov: “Scheherazade”
$37-$84
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org
Feb. 10 (4 p.m.)
Bon Air Presbyterian Church, 9201 W. Huguenot Road, Richmond
Second Sunday South of the James:
vocalists and instrumentalists TBA
program TBA
donation requested
(804) 272-7514
Feb. 10 (2 p.m.)
American Theatre, 125 E. Mellen St., Hampton
USAF Langley Winds
Black History Month chamber-music program TBA
free
(757) 722-2787
www.hamptonarts.net
Feb. 10 (1:30 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
UVa Chamber Music Festival:
Paul Neebe, trumpet
Daniel Sender, violin
Tracy Cowden & Shelby Sender, piano
Jason Crafton, trumpet
Kenneth Slowik, harpsichord
Joseph Turrin: Arabesque
Carl Roskott: Concerto for two trumpets
David Macbride: “Echo Canon”
Kent Holliday: “Double Entendre”
Delibes: Duet from “Lakme”
Herbert L. Clarke: “Side Partners”
Jean-Marie Leclair: Sonata in D Major, Op. 9, No. 3, for violin and continuo
Bach: Sonata No.1 in B minor, BWV 1014, for violin and harpsichord
Elgar: Violin Sonata in E minor
$20
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html
Feb. 10 (3 p.m.)
Feb. 11 (8 p.m.)
Jefferson Center, 541 Luck Ave., Roanoke
Roanoke Symphony
David Stewart Wiley conducting
Pachelbel: Canon
Biber: “Battaglia”
Beethoven: Romance No. 1 for violin and orchestra
Akemi Takayama, violin
Mozart: Symphony No. 1
Vivaldi: “The Four Seasons”
Akemi Takayama, violin
$22-$52
(540) 343-9127
www.rso.com
Feb. 11 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Matthew Worth, baritone
pianist TBA
works by Barber, Blitzstein, Bernstein, others
$34
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu
Feb. 12 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam
Mariss Jansons conducting
Bartók: Violin Concerto No. 2
Leonidas Kavakos, violin
Mahler: Symphony No. 1
$45-$115
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org
Feb. 15 (8 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Feb. 17 (2:30 p.m.)
Sandler Arts Center, 201 S. Market St., Virginia Beach
Feb. 23 (8 p.m.)
Chrysler Hall, 201 Brambleton Ave., Norfolk
Virginia Symphony
JoAnn Falleta conducting (Feb. 15, 17)
Benjamin Rous conducting (Feb. 23)
Shostakovich: “The Gadfly” Suite
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2
Terrence Wilson, piano
Kodály: “Peacock Variations”
Brahms: Hungarian dances Nos. 1, 4, 5
$20-$70
(757) 892-6366
www.virginiasymphony.org
Feb. 16 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 17 (3 p.m.)
Carpenter Theatre, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Erin R. Freeman conducting
Mozart: “The Magic Flute” Overture
John B. Hedges: “Prayers of Wind and Rain”
Joseph Conyers, double-bass
Mozart: Requiem
Melissa Wimbish, soprano
Janna Elesia Critz, mezzo-soprano
Peter Scott Drackley, tenor
Jeffrey Gates, baritone
Richmond Symphony Chorus
$10-$73
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com
Feb. 16 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 20 (7:30 p.m.)
Feb. 22 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 24 (2:30 p.m.)
Harrison Opera House, 160 E. Virginia Beach Boulevard, Norfolk
Virginia Opera
Ari Pelto conducting
André Previn: “A Streetcar Named Desire”
Kelly Cae Hogan (Blanche DuBois)
David Adam Moore (Stanley Kowalski)
Julia Ebner (Stella Kowalski)
Scott Ramsay (Harold Mitchell)
Margaret Gawrysiak (Eunice Hubbell)
Matthew DiBattista (Steve Hubbell)
Sam Helfrich, stage director
in English, English captions
$32-$114
(866) 673-7282
www.vaopera.org
Feb. 16 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Feb. 17 (3 p.m.)
Monticello High School, 1400 Independence Way, Charlottesville
Charlottesville & University Symphony Orchestra
Kate Tamarkin conducting
Borodin: “Polovtsian Dances”
UVa University Singers
Oratorio Society of Virginia members
Bach: Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor
Kelly Sulick, flute
Prokofiev: “Alexander Nevsky”
UVa University Singers
Oratorio Society of Virginia members
$10-$38
(434) 924-3376
http://artsandsciences.virginia.edu/music/concertsevents/index.html
Feb. 16 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Hilary Hahn, volin
Valentina Lisitsa, piano
Fauré: Sonata No. 1 in A major, Op. 13
Corelli: Sonata in F major, Op. 5, No. 4
Bach: Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004, for solo violin
selections from “In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores Project”
$35-$95
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org
Feb. 16 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Marin Alsop conducting
Wagner: “Die Meistersinger” Act 1 Prelude
Wagner: Prelude and “Liebestod” from “Tristan und Isolde”
Wagner: “Die Walküre” (Act 1)
Heidi Melton, soprano (Sieglinde)
Brandon Jovanovich, tenor (Siegmund)
Eric Owens, bass-baritone (Hunding)
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org
Feb. 17 (7:30 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Faculty Wind Quintet
program TBA
$7 in advance, $10 day of event
(803) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org
Feb. 18 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Neumann Lecture on Music:
Craig Wright
“Music and the Brain”
free
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu
Feb. 19 (7:30 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
Nordic Cool 2013 Festival:
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic
Sakari Oramo conducting
Sibelius: “Finlandia”
Grieg: “Solveig’s Song” from “Peer Gynt” incidental music
Alfven: “Så tag mit hjerte”
Inger Dam-Jensen, soprano
Leifs: “Njáls saga” (scherzo from Symphony No. 1, Op. 26)
Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 (“Inextinguishable”)
$10-$64
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 20 (7 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
VCU Symphonic Wind Ensemble
Terry Austin directing
program TBA
$7 in advance, $10 day of event
(803) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org
Feb. 20 (8 p.m.)
Paramount Theater, 215 E. Main St., Charlottesville
Tokyo String Quartet
Beethoven: Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 (“Quartteto Serioso”)
Webern: String Quartet
Schubert: Quartet in G major, D. 887
$24.50-$39.50
(434) 979-1333
www.theparamount.net
Feb. 21 (5:30 p.m.)
Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
James Wilson, cello
Talk and performance of Bach’s Suite in G major, performed on period and modern cellos
free
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org
Feb. 21 (6:30 p.m.)
Gottwald Playhouse, Richmond CenterStage, Sixth and Grace streets
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Ellen Cockerham, violin
“A Brandenburg Afternoon”
works by Bach, Hartke, others
$20
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com
Feb. 21 (7 p.m.)
Feb. 22 (8 p.m.)
Feb. 23 (8 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Hans Werner Henze: Adagio, Fugue and “Maenads’ Dance” from “The Bassards”
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor
Renaud Capuçon, violin
Brahms: Symphony No. 4
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Ninth and Grace streets, Richmond
American Guild of Organists Repertoire Recital Series:
Stefan Engels, organ
program TBA
donation requested
(804) 643-3589
www.richmondago.org
Feb. 22 (7:30 p.m.)
First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon, Richmond
Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia:
James Wilson, baroque & modern cellos
Carsten Schmidt, piano & harpsichord
Britten: Chaconne
works by Marais, Couperin, Pachelbel
$25
(804) 519-2098
www.cmscva.org
Feb. 23 (8 p.m.)
Vlahcevic Concert Hall, Singleton Arts Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Park Avenue at Harrison Street, Richmond
Rennolds Chamber Concerts:
New York Polyphony
program TBA
$34
(803) 828-6776
www.vcumusic.org
Feb. 23 (8 p.m.)
Christ Episcopal Church, 120 W. High St., Charlottesville
Staunton Music Festival:
Carsten Schmidt, harpsichord
“Just Before Bach,” works by Buxtehude, Froberger, Pachelbel, others
$20
(540) 569-0267
www.stauntonmusicfestival.com
Feb. 24 (3 p.m.)
Blackwell Auditorium, Randolph-Macon College, 201 Henry St., Ashland
Richmond Symphony
Steven Smith conducting
Bach: “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 1
Stephen Hartke: “A Brandenburg Autumn”
Vieuxtemps: Violin Concerto No. 5
Ellen Cockerham, violin
Respighi: “Ancient Airs and Dances” Suite No. 1
$20
(800) 514-3849 (ETIX)
www.richmondsymphony.com
Feb. 24 (7:30 p.m.)
Camp Concert Hall, Modlin Arts Center, University of Richmond
Shanghai Quartet
Paul Neubauer, viola
Brahms: Viola Quintet G major, Op. 111
other works TBA
$34
(804) 289-8980
www.modlin.richmond.edu
Feb. 24 (7 p.m.)
Ferguson Arts Center, Christopher Newport University, Newport News
Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra
Keith Lockhart conducting
Ann Hampton Calloway, vocalist
“The Streisand Songbook”
$71-$131
(757) 594-8752
www.fergusoncenter.cnu.edu
Feb. 24 (7 p.m.)
Center for the Arts, George Mason University, Fairfax
Jeffrey Siegel, piano
“Keyboard Conversations: Schubert in the Age of the Sound-Byte”
$19-$38
(888) 945-2468 (Tickets.com)
www.cfa.gmu.edu
Feb. 24 (5 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
The Washington Chorus & orchestra
Julian Wachner conducting
Mendelssohn: “Elijah”
Janice Chandler-Eteme, soprano
Laura Vlasak Nolen, mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Butterfield, tenor
Stephen Salters, baritone
Children’s Chorus of Washington
$15-$65
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 24 (7 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Bach: “Goldberg Variations”
$28-$85
(202) 785-9727 (Washington Performing Arts Society)
www.wpas.org
Feb. 25 (7:30 p.m.)
Terrace Theater, Kennedy Center, Washington
Nordic Cool 2013 Festival:
Vikingur Ólafsson, piano
works by Brahms, Sibelius, Wagner, Debussy, Grieg, Tómasson, Ísólfsson, Kaldalóns, Snorri Sigfús Birgisson
$29
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 26 (7:30 p.m.)
Bannard Chapel, St. Catherine’s School, 6001 Grove Ave., Richmond
Oberon Quartet
winning work in Composer Composition Competition
other works TBA
free
(804) 288-2804
www.stcatherines.org
Feb. 26 (8 p.m.)
Old Cabell Hall, University of Virginia, Charlottesville
Tuesday Evening Concert Series:
Amit Peled, cello
Noreen Polera, piano
Beethoven: “ ‘Magic Flute’ Variations”
Brahms: Sonata in F minor, Op. 99
Popper: Tarantella
Glazunov: “Chant du Menestrel”
Davidoff: “At the Fountain”
Bloch: “Jewish Prayer”
works by Mendelssohn, Schubert, Haydn, Eccles, Granados, John Williams
(434) 924-3376
www.tecs.org
Feb. 28 (7 p.m.)
Kennedy Center Concert Hall, Washington
National Symphony Orchestra
Christoph Eschenbach conducting
Sibelius: “Night-Ride and Sunrise”
Lindberg: Violin Concerto
Pekka Kuusisto, violin
Saariaho: “Orion”
Sibelius: Symphony No. 7
$10-$85
(800) 444-1324
www.kennedy-center.org
Feb. 28 (7:30 p.m.)
Mansion at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Jennifer Koh, violin
“Bach and Beyond,” Part 2
Bach: Partita No. 1 in B minor
Phil Kline: Partita for solo violin
Bach: Sonata No. 1 in G minor
Bartok: Sonata for solo violin
$30
(301) 581-5100
www.strathmore.org
Feb. 28 (8 p.m.)
Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, MD
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
Ignat Solzhenitsyn conducting
Arvo Pärt: “Tabula Rasa”
Mozart: Requiem
Susanna Philips, soprano
Marietta Simpson, mezzo-soprano
Norman Reinhardt, tenor
Robert Gleadow, bass-baritone
Baltimore Choral Arts Society
$30-$90
(877) 276-1444 (Baltimore Symphony box office)
www.strathmore.org
battle with bone cancer.