Susan Dewitt Smith

Coming up on Wednesday, December 8th at 12 Noon, we’ll be playing on the OHSU Noontime Series at the OHSU Auditorium at the top of the Marquam Hill campus.

It’s a short, one-hour program of just two great master works of the chamber music repertoire.  In honor of the 200th anniversary of Robert Schumann’s birth, we’ll be performing his great Quintet for piano and strings in E-flat major, Op. 44.  Joining us will be Portland pianist Susan Dewitt Smith, who does just about everything you can do as a pianist.  She teaches at Lewis and Clark College, has played with Third Angle New Music Ensemble, has been a soloist with the Oregon Symphony, and collaborates with many local musicians.  The second piece on the program is Beethoven’s String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 “Serioso”.  One of Beethoven’s most compact and thematically tight compositions, it’s a bridge from the middle to late string quartets that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Admission is free.

The OHSU Auditorium is easy to get to, but parking is hard to come by. So it’s best to take the Portland Streetcar to the OHSU center at South Waterfront and take the aerial tram up the hill.  It’s just a short five minute walk up the hill to the auditorium.

Trevor Fitzpatrick/Photo: Absolute Images

We’ll be presenting another lunchtime concert at the OHSU Auditorium as part of their annual concert series.  Replacing Heather Blackburn temporarily for this concert will be our guest cellist from the Oregon Symphony, Trevor Fitzpatrick.  We’re thankful that he’s able to join us!

Two great Classical works will be played on this concert – the first, a late work by Franz Joseph “Papa” Haydn, the father of the modern string quartet form, the Op. 76 no. 4 in B-flat major “Sunrise”.  The second is part of a collection of six late string quartets that were famously dedicated to Haydn, by his successor in string quartet mastery, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – in this case the K. 565 C major “Dissonant” quartet.

Complete information and directions available here.

We had a great time introducing two rarely-heard chamber works to the enthusiastic OHSU Auditorium audience during the noon-hour today.  The OHSU Auditorium is one of our favorite venues to play in the city, and we’re so thankful to Mark Kemball and Susan Smith for asking us to play on the series for the second straight season!

Next comes our piano quartet concert on the Camerata Northwest series up in Seattle on March 21st, featuring the Ravel Duo for violin and cello, the Vieuxtemps Elegie for Viola and Piano, and the Saint-Saëns Piano Quartet; and our quartet concert at the Salem Camerata Musica series at the Salem Public Library on April 26th, featuring the fierce and wonderful Fourth Quartet by Bela Bartok!

We’re also waiting to see if we’ll be performing on this year’s Oregon Symphony Evelyn Nagel Donor Concert at the Newmark Theater on March 31st – stay tuned for that information.

OHSU Noon Concert Series: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 at 12 Noon
OHSU Auditorium
Mozart – Adagio and Fugue, K. 546
Prokofiev – Quartet No. 2, Op. 92

Camerata Northwest Series: Saturday, March 21, 2009 at 1:00 p.m.
Ravel – Duo for Violin and Cello
Vieuxtemps – Elegie for Viola and Piano
Saint-Säens – Piano Quartet w/ Cary Lewis, piano

Camerata Musica Series:  Sunday, April 26, 2009 at 3:00 p.m.
Salem Library Auditorium
Program TBA.