An Evening at Queen Marie's Salon Concert

Queen Marie of Romania(1875–1938) was one of the most devoted patrons of the arts and an accomplished artist in her own right—painter, writer, and musician. Although her love for music is well known and extensively documented in her diaries, memoirs, and correspondence, the fact that she was a skilled violinist and singer is less widely recognized. As much as she enjoyed making music, she took even greater pleasure in listening to George Enescu’s recitals; whenever he performed in Romania, she welcomed him as a guest of the Royal Family at both Peleș Castle and Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest.

A close friend of the celebrated violinist and composer George Enescu and his wife, Queen Marie was deeply familiar with the violin repertoire, which included works by Fritz Kreisler, Johannes Brahms, Edvard Grieg, and Jules Massenet. Above all, she cherished Enescu’s virtuosic compositions inspired by Romanian folk tunes, dances, and old melodies.

This recital presents several of Queen Marie’s favorite pieces, featuring three iconic works of Romanian classical music: Ciprian Porumbescu’s Balada, Grigoraș Dinicu’s Hora Marțișorului, and George Enescu’s Sonata No. 3 “in Romanian Folk Character,” as inscribed by the composer. Affectionately nicknamed “Pinx” by the Queen, Enescu impressed her with the sound of his violin, the “extraordinary beauty of his art,” as she wrote in her diary on November 25, 1928, and with the magic that awakened “the music of our souls”—a dedication she inscribed on the photograph she offered him in gratitude.

“An Evening at Queen Marie’s Salon Concert” will evoke the atmosphere of an exquisite early‑20th‑century music salon within the modern, elegant Auditorium of the Seattle Public Library, featuring violinist Kevin Matheson and pianist Tim Fuller.

Enjoy a glimpse of them at a recent George Enescu concert.

Growing up in Beirut, Lebanon, Tim Fuller was exposed at an early age to Arabic, Turkish and Balkan music. At twelve he presented a full-length piano recital at Amman's Goethe Institute. At Oberlin and at Wesleyan University he studied the South Indian and Javanese music traditions, while presenting solo and chamber music concerts in the Middle East and the U.S. Tim currently is a collaborative pianist based in Seattle, Washington.

Violinist Kevin Matheson, was awarded first prize in the Charleston International Music Competition, is a winner of Sound Espressivo’s ColOrchestra Auditions and performed as soloist with Orchestra Manhattan, at Carnegie Weil Recital Hall. Kevin is a regular soloist with the Tahoe Philharmonic Orchestra and has recorded with the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra, in the Czech Republic, for the Cicerone Music and Arts label. Kevin and his brother, as a violin-viola duo, received critical acclaim at their Carnegie Weill Recital Hall début as part of the Ibla Grand Prize competition winners’ tour. Their two successful tours to Japan included recorded performances at Yamaha Hall in Tokyo. Kevin is concertmaster of the Orchestra of Virginia’s Blue Ridge, an Adjunct Instructor at Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia and is on the roster of Price Attractions artist management.

This concert is organized by the American Romanian Cultural Society in honor of Queen Marie's historic tour of the US in 1926.