ECMS Summer Music Festival Opening Night Concert
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The Eureka Chamber Music Series presents its first-ever Summer Music Festival from Saturday, July 18th through Sunday, July 26th, featuring world-stage musicians and world premiere compositions by the celebrated American composer Elena Ruehr. Familiar faces will include two Avery Fisher Career Grant winners—the Balourdet Quartet and cellist Sophie Shao—as well as ECMS artistic director and violinist Tom Stone and violist Ethan Filner. Stone and Filner were one-half of the Cypress String Quartet, an early ECMS favorite ensemble. Newcomers include violinist Iris Stone, pianist Amy I-Lin Cheng, and the festival's composer-in-residence Elena Ruehr.
The festival will feature four Mainstage Concerts and two Concert and Conversation events over nine days. Rarely heard chamber works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Webern, Schoenberg, and Brahms will contrast with intriguing, contemporary pieces by Elena Ruehr, whose work has been described as "unspeakably gorgeous" by Gramophone magazine. Additionally, there will be two free outdoor "Bach Under the Canopy" concerts, the first at the Sequoia Park Gazebo in Eureka on Sunday, July 19th at 11:00 a.m. and the second at Fieldbrook Winery on Sunday, July 26th, also at 11:00 a.m.
ECMS is offering a Summer Musical Festival Pass that includes admission to all six formal concerts for the discounted price of $180. Individual Mainstage Concert tickets are $40 general and $10 for students. Concert and Conversation tickets are $20 general and $5 for students. Please visit eurekachambermusic.org and follow the "purchase tickets" link. There are no added fees or service charges when ordering tickets online. Tickets will also be available at the door.
The Summer Music Festival kicks off with a Mainstage Concert on Saturday, July 18th at 7:30 p.m. at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka. Repertoire for the evening includes Elena Ruehr's "Prelude Variations" for viola and cello, performed by Ethan Filner and Sophie Shao; a Balourdet Quartet performance of "String Quartet No. 1 in E minor (From My Life)" by Bedřich Smetana; and the famous String Octet in E flat Major, Op. 20, composed by Felix Mendelssohn when he was just sixteen years old, and performed by the Balourdet, Filner and Shao, and violinists Tom and Iris Stone.
On Sunday, July 19th at 7:30 p.m. at The Lutheran Church of Arcata, the Mainstage Concert begins with Tom Stone, Filner, and Shao performing "String Trio No. 1 in E flat Major, Op. 3" by Ludwig van Beethoven and ends with Filner, Shao, and the Balourdet Quartet playing the romantic "String Sextet No. 1 in B flat Major, Op. 18" by Johannes Brahms. Between these traditional chamber works, the Balourdet will share a performance of "Galaxy Back to You" by the Korean American composer Nicky Sohn, who wrote the quartet expressly for them. "The Balourdet Quartet is an ensemble I have admired for years, and it was an absolute delight to finally write for them. All four of them are ecstatic players with so much character and depth, and every performance of theirs has been electric. I wanted to write a piece that showcases their powerful dynamic as a group but also highlights their individuality, with a variety of textures, moods, and energy," writes Sohn.
The first Concert and Conversation of the festival will be held on Thursday, July 23rd at 7:30 at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka. The event will feature the work of composer-in-residence Elena Ruehr, an award-winning faculty member emerita at MIT, a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, and a composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. This is a rare opportunity to interact with a composer of her stature and to hear not only her viola and cello sonatas performed by the artists they were composed for, Filner and Shao respectively, but to hear the world premiere of her new "Violin Sonata," written for and performed by Tom Stone and pianist Amy I-Lin Cheng. There will be plenty of time allotted for conversation between artists and the audience.
Next up is another Concert and Conversation presentation, "The Golden Age of Violin Making," on Friday, July 24th at 7:30. This will be a unique opportunity to learn about the history of the kinds of rare, centuries-old instruments played by many of the ECMS featured artists. Hear the difference between a Stradivari, an Amati, and a Guarneri violin in person, all the while surrounded by the beauty and tranquility of The Lutheran Church of Arcata campus.
The festival's final weekend puts the music itself back in the spotlight. The Mainstage Concert on Saturday, July 25th will feature the world premiere of Ruehr's "Sixth Piano Trio," plus a selection of early 20th-century Viennese music that explores romanticism and inspirations from early studies of the subconscious. Ruehr's new piano trio was co-commissioned by the Eureka Chamber Music Series and the San Francisco based Ensemble for These Times. Stone, Shao, and Cheng will perform the premiere. The lyrical and poetic works of Anton Webern will also be featured, including his "Langsamer Satz" string quartet and his "Five Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5," both performed by the Balourdet Quartet. The evening closes with the powerful "Transfigured Night for String Sextet, Op. 4" by Arnold Schoenberg, a deeply expressive "symphonic poem" actually composed in 1899 and inspired by the poem "Verklärte Nacht" by the German symbolist and expressionist writer Richard Dehmel. The concert will be presented at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka at 7:30 p.m.
The finale of the Summer Music Festival will be presented at The Lutheran Church of Arcata on Sunday, July 26th at 7:30 p.m. The world premiere of Ruehr's "Four Bird Songs" will be performed by Stone and Shao. Using actual birdsong as the source material, Ruehr composed this four-movement work for the performers and for the Eureka Chamber Music Series. Rounding out the program is the boundary-breaking "String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95," the last of the "middle quartets" by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by the Balourdet Quartet. The concert closes with "String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36" by Johannes Brahms, composed just five years after his first sextet, which the festival program featured a week earlier. This pairing offers an interesting comparison between the earlier work's lyricism and the later work's greater textural complexity and expressiveness.
The Eureka Chamber Music Series was born from a labor of love, started decades ago by Pearl and Bob Micheli, a conservatory trained pianist and voice teacher, and a fine amateur violinist, respectively. The Michelis moved to Eureka in the early nineteen-nineties and began hiring classical musicians to travel to Humboldt County and play concerts for a small but dedicated audience.
Incorporated as a non-profit in 2019, the Eureka Chamber Music Series continues to enrich the cultural landscape of the north coast by bringing world-class musicians to Humboldt County and by ensuring that the mission of ECMS is community supported and sustainable. Public concerts presented in Eureka and Arcata, as well as county-wide educational outreach programs, are funded through the generosity of local businesses, individuals, and foundations, as well as by subscription and individual ticket sales. Local support makes these music programs possible.
The festival will feature four Mainstage Concerts and two Concert and Conversation events over nine days. Rarely heard chamber works by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Webern, Schoenberg, and Brahms will contrast with intriguing, contemporary pieces by Elena Ruehr, whose work has been described as "unspeakably gorgeous" by Gramophone magazine. Additionally, there will be two free outdoor "Bach Under the Canopy" concerts, the first at the Sequoia Park Gazebo in Eureka on Sunday, July 19th at 11:00 a.m. and the second at Fieldbrook Winery on Sunday, July 26th, also at 11:00 a.m.
ECMS is offering a Summer Musical Festival Pass that includes admission to all six formal concerts for the discounted price of $180. Individual Mainstage Concert tickets are $40 general and $10 for students. Concert and Conversation tickets are $20 general and $5 for students. Please visit eurekachambermusic.org and follow the "purchase tickets" link. There are no added fees or service charges when ordering tickets online. Tickets will also be available at the door.
The Summer Music Festival kicks off with a Mainstage Concert on Saturday, July 18th at 7:30 p.m. at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka. Repertoire for the evening includes Elena Ruehr's "Prelude Variations" for viola and cello, performed by Ethan Filner and Sophie Shao; a Balourdet Quartet performance of "String Quartet No. 1 in E minor (From My Life)" by Bedřich Smetana; and the famous String Octet in E flat Major, Op. 20, composed by Felix Mendelssohn when he was just sixteen years old, and performed by the Balourdet, Filner and Shao, and violinists Tom and Iris Stone.
On Sunday, July 19th at 7:30 p.m. at The Lutheran Church of Arcata, the Mainstage Concert begins with Tom Stone, Filner, and Shao performing "String Trio No. 1 in E flat Major, Op. 3" by Ludwig van Beethoven and ends with Filner, Shao, and the Balourdet Quartet playing the romantic "String Sextet No. 1 in B flat Major, Op. 18" by Johannes Brahms. Between these traditional chamber works, the Balourdet will share a performance of "Galaxy Back to You" by the Korean American composer Nicky Sohn, who wrote the quartet expressly for them. "The Balourdet Quartet is an ensemble I have admired for years, and it was an absolute delight to finally write for them. All four of them are ecstatic players with so much character and depth, and every performance of theirs has been electric. I wanted to write a piece that showcases their powerful dynamic as a group but also highlights their individuality, with a variety of textures, moods, and energy," writes Sohn.
The first Concert and Conversation of the festival will be held on Thursday, July 23rd at 7:30 at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka. The event will feature the work of composer-in-residence Elena Ruehr, an award-winning faculty member emerita at MIT, a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute, and a composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. This is a rare opportunity to interact with a composer of her stature and to hear not only her viola and cello sonatas performed by the artists they were composed for, Filner and Shao respectively, but to hear the world premiere of her new "Violin Sonata," written for and performed by Tom Stone and pianist Amy I-Lin Cheng. There will be plenty of time allotted for conversation between artists and the audience.
Next up is another Concert and Conversation presentation, "The Golden Age of Violin Making," on Friday, July 24th at 7:30. This will be a unique opportunity to learn about the history of the kinds of rare, centuries-old instruments played by many of the ECMS featured artists. Hear the difference between a Stradivari, an Amati, and a Guarneri violin in person, all the while surrounded by the beauty and tranquility of The Lutheran Church of Arcata campus.
The festival's final weekend puts the music itself back in the spotlight. The Mainstage Concert on Saturday, July 25th will feature the world premiere of Ruehr's "Sixth Piano Trio," plus a selection of early 20th-century Viennese music that explores romanticism and inspirations from early studies of the subconscious. Ruehr's new piano trio was co-commissioned by the Eureka Chamber Music Series and the San Francisco based Ensemble for These Times. Stone, Shao, and Cheng will perform the premiere. The lyrical and poetic works of Anton Webern will also be featured, including his "Langsamer Satz" string quartet and his "Five Pieces for String Quartet, Op. 5," both performed by the Balourdet Quartet. The evening closes with the powerful "Transfigured Night for String Sextet, Op. 4" by Arnold Schoenberg, a deeply expressive "symphonic poem" actually composed in 1899 and inspired by the poem "Verklärte Nacht" by the German symbolist and expressionist writer Richard Dehmel. The concert will be presented at Calvary Lutheran Church in Eureka at 7:30 p.m.
The finale of the Summer Music Festival will be presented at The Lutheran Church of Arcata on Sunday, July 26th at 7:30 p.m. The world premiere of Ruehr's "Four Bird Songs" will be performed by Stone and Shao. Using actual birdsong as the source material, Ruehr composed this four-movement work for the performers and for the Eureka Chamber Music Series. Rounding out the program is the boundary-breaking "String Quartet No. 11, Op. 95," the last of the "middle quartets" by Ludwig van Beethoven, performed by the Balourdet Quartet. The concert closes with "String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36" by Johannes Brahms, composed just five years after his first sextet, which the festival program featured a week earlier. This pairing offers an interesting comparison between the earlier work's lyricism and the later work's greater textural complexity and expressiveness.
The Eureka Chamber Music Series was born from a labor of love, started decades ago by Pearl and Bob Micheli, a conservatory trained pianist and voice teacher, and a fine amateur violinist, respectively. The Michelis moved to Eureka in the early nineteen-nineties and began hiring classical musicians to travel to Humboldt County and play concerts for a small but dedicated audience.
Incorporated as a non-profit in 2019, the Eureka Chamber Music Series continues to enrich the cultural landscape of the north coast by bringing world-class musicians to Humboldt County and by ensuring that the mission of ECMS is community supported and sustainable. Public concerts presented in Eureka and Arcata, as well as county-wide educational outreach programs, are funded through the generosity of local businesses, individuals, and foundations, as well as by subscription and individual ticket sales. Local support makes these music programs possible.
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Where is it happening?
Calvary Lutheran Church, 716 South Ave, Eureka, CA 95503-5042, United States
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Host or PublisherEureka Chamber Music Series
