Upcoming: Winter/Spring 2008-2009
Our 35th Season!

A Message From The Manager

Welcome to our 35th season! I hope you’ll agree we’ve got a thrilling line-up of early, romantic, contemporary, chamber, solo, vocal and instrumental music. Our kick-off event is an evening of Bach and Telemann featuring two stars of the Bay Area’s vibrant early music scene: Elizabeth Blumenstock and Janine Johnson. Other favorite early musicians performing this season include The King’s Trumpetts and Shalmes, Passamezzo Moderno, Her Majesty’s Noyse and Les grâces.

If you’re a fan of contemporary music, we’re proud to present composer and tubist Tom Heasley, composer/performers Annie Lewandowski and MaryClare Brzytwa, and Grosse Abfahrt, a group of top Bay Area creative musicians.

If your taste runs to the genres between the Baroque and now, we give you evenings of lovely classical and romantic fare like the Temescal String Quartet performing Haydn, Beethoven and Prokofiev, and cellist Amy Brodo with pianist LaDene Otsuki presenting works of Britten, Ginastera and Franck.

Whatever your musical taste, we hope to see you many times at Trinity Chapel this season to enjoy music and performers you already know or to be introduced to something new.

Enjoy!

Diane Grubbe
Manager, Trinity Chamber Concerts

Season Opener: Special Event!

Saturday, September 6, 2008, 8:00pm

Blumenstock/Johnson Duo

Baroque Sonatas and Fantasias

  • Elizabeth Blumenstock, violin
  • Janine Johnson, harpsichord

Celebrated violinist Elizabeth Blumenstock and harpsichordist Janine Johnson perform J.S. Bach’s Violin Sonatas 1, 2, 3, & 5, a Telemann Fantasia for solo violin, Bach’s Fantasia and Fugue in a minor for harpsichord, and original music. Don't miss this opportunity to hear these acclaimed musicians in this intimate recital setting.

Ticket prices for this special event:
$15 general
$12 SFEMS members
$10 seniors/students/disabled

Saturday, September 20, 2008, 8:00pm

Grosse Abfahrt

Large ensemble 21st-century improvisation

First launched in 2002, Grosse Abfahrt improvises over long distances (the name means “great departure” in German). This performance starts with a core group of five of the Bay Area’s finest creative musicians, adds some local spice, and fearless flyers Fred Frith and Chris Brown. Expect to depart for some far-off locales of unheard beauty.

Saturday, October 4 , 2008, 8:00pm

Her Majesty's Noyse

Early and Baroque music for plucked strings

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Her Majesty's Noyse is a unique plucked string ensemble combining classical guitar with the rarely heard liuto cantabile, a ten-string mandocello. Audiences will delight in the clarity and tonal palette brought to this program of early music including works attributed to King Alphonso X The Wise (1221-1284), John Dowland (1563-1626), J.S. Bach (1685-1750), and others.

Saturday, October 18, 2008, 8:00pm

Tree Talk

Two bassoons lead this modern ensemble

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Created by Alice Benjamin and David Granger in 1998, Tree Talk presents music for two bassoons, a combination often overlooked by today's composers and audiences, in a format the instruments so richly deserve–as soloists. They will perform Bohuslav Martinů's Sextet for piano, flute, oboe, clarinet and two bassoons, Paul Chihara's Branches for two bassoons and percussion, and works by Georges Bizet, Alan Hovhaness and others.

Saturday, November 1, 2008, 8:00pm

Amy Brodo & LaDene Otsuki

Romantic and post-romantic 'cello and piano music

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  • Amy Brodo, 'cello
  • LaDene Otsuki, piano

Colorful, rhythmic, passionate! Cellist Amy Brodo and pianist LaDene Otsuki perform Benjamin Britten’s Sonata in C, Op.65, full of twists and turns and the beginnings of extended techniques; Alberto Ginastera’s evocative Pampeana No.2, Rhapsody and César Franck’s sweet and passionate Sonata in A major.

Saturday, November 15, 2008, 8:00pm

Aaron Blumenfeld

Songs and sonatinas of a favorite Bay Area composer

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Aaron Blumenfeld's art songs have long been the favorite of concert goers throughout the Bay Area. His thirty-five songs on poems by Bay Area poets have made a profound impression. This concert, Songs of Remembrance and Farewell on poems by the composer, is sure to touch many hearts. Featuring soprano Pamela Hicks, tenor Ray Chavez and pianist Vicki Trimbach.

Saturday, December 13, 2008, 8:00pm

Elizabeth-Baptista Gaston

Telemann, Chocolate & Fantasy

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The Twelve Fantasias for flute by Georg Phillipp Telemann are miniature suites of highly charged and differentiated feelings. These pieces are so well known that most flutists could play them backwards while dancing the gigue. Flutist Elizabeth-Baptista Gaston brings a new and profoundly earthy humour to the whole… to entice the heart and mind, chocolate nibs will be served between ‘sweets’.

Saturday, December 27, 2008, 8:00pm

String Circle

There were Shepherds, abiding in the Fields...
Pastoral Music for Christmastide

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  • Joseph Edelberg, violin
  • Katherine Kyme, violin
  • Anthony Martin, viola
  • Thalia Moore, 'cello
  • with
  • Ian Swenson, violin

Join these celebrated Bay Area musicians for a special holiday concert of sonatas and pastorales by Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Heinrich Ignaz Biber, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Henry Purcell.

Saturday, January 10, 2009, 8:00pm

Les grâces

Vocal chamber music of the Baroque period

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This Baroque ensemble was formed in the spring of 2008 in order to explore 17th and 18th century music. The ensemble’s performances are equally inspired by the four young artists’ passionate musicianship and their collective study of historical performance practices at leading conservatories in Europe and the US.

Saturday, January 24, 2009, 8:00pm

Tom Heasley

21st-century tuba

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Composer/tubist Tom Heasley’s solo compositions for electro-acoustic tuba, didjeridu and voice veer toward the meditative and transporting side of contemporary music, being simultaneously avant-garde/experimental and very listenable for audiences as diverse as The Oberlin Conservatory and San Quentin Penitentiary.

“Tom Heasley’s mesmerizing bit of loop-based, ambient tuba playing brought an ethereal beauty from the underrated instrument.”– Joseph Woodard, L.A. Times

Saturday, February 7, 2009, 8:00pm

Tanya Plescia

Modern piano with an ear to the past

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Tanya Plescia is a concert pianist and composer who is described as sensitive and one who plays from her heart. Her interpretations of the classics are unique yet pure. Her original compositions are like nothing you’ve ever heard before – one reviewer described her piano solo Geary Street “like a musical trip through rush hour traffic, punctuated by moments of clarity and serenity.”

Saturday, February 21, 2009, 8:00pm

Classical Mandolin Ensembles

Baroque mandolin concertos

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  • Sarah Bell, mandolin
  • Joshua Bell, mandolin, mandola
  • Todd Billeci, mandocello
  • Eric Hamilton, guitar
  • Howard Kadis, mandolin, guitar, archlute
  • Tony Kaye, mandolin, guitar
  • Nicola Swinburne, mandolin
  • with special guest
  • Achille Bocus

This event brings together some of the Bay Area's best classical mandolinists with special guest Achille Bocus, Director of the Milan Plucked String Orchestra of Italy. Their exclusively baroque repertoire includes works of Antonio Vivaldi, Giuseppe Giuliano and Giovanni Battista Gervasio and features mandolin, mandola, mandocello, guitar and archlute.

Saturday, March 7, 2009, 8:00pm

The King's Trumpetts & Shalmes

Renaissance wind music on historical instruments

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  • David Hogan Smith, director
  • Robert H. Cronin
  • James Kafka
  • Alan Paul

The King's Trumpetts and Shalmes is pleased to present a program of Renaissance music for wind instruments performed on complete consorts of shawms with sackbuts, crumhorns and recorders. The group is particularly proud of its crumhorns, acquired and maintained by David Hogan Smith, which replicate the complete set on display in the Musée Instrumental in Brussels.

Saturday, March 21, 2009, 8:00pm

Two Cherries

Two soloists premiering original compositions

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  • MaryClare Brzytwa, flute, prepared piano, electronics
  • Annie Lewandowski, prepared piano, voice

Two Cherries presents an evening of original music created specifically for Trinity Chamber Concerts. Annie Lewandowski will perform the first set, presenting her works for voice and prepared piano. MaryClare Brzytwa will then perform the second set: compositions for flute, prepared piano and electronics.

Saturday, April 4, 2009, 8:00pm

Yolanda Rhodes

A unique journey through many eras of song

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With technical skill and musical grace, singer Yolanda Rhodes has a unique style that blends classical, improvisation, elements of jazz, and a touch of storytelling. Yolanda’s performance will include jazz standards, arias, Negro spirituals, art songs and original compositions.

Saturday, April 25, 2009, 8:00pm

Temescal String Quartet

Classical and neo-classical quartets

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The Temescal String Quartet offers, in its inaugural Trinity concert, a program of Haydn, Beethoven and Prokofiev. The compositions all derive from the question, "Muss es sein?" ("Must it be?") and its response "es muss sein" ("It must be").

Saturday, May 2, 2009, 8:00pm

The SFSU Flute Choir

Works for the flute family, Renaissance to Modern

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The San Francisco State University Flute Choir explores music drawn from Renaissance through modern works in settings specifically composed for flute choir as well as arrangements of many well-loved melodies. The group includes c flute, piccolo, alto, and bass flute in various combinations.

Saturday, May 16, 2009, 8:00pm

California Baroque Ensemble

Baroque vocal chamber music, rediscovered

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  • Ruth Onstadt, soprano
  • Maquette Kuper, flute
  • Robert Bloch, violin
  • Rejean Anderson, 'cello
  • Susan Erickson, harpsichord

The California Baroque Ensemble is known for its extensive and varied baroque repertoire including newly found manuscripts as well as traditional editions by composers of the period.

Saturday, June 6, 2009, 8:00pm

Maho Nabeshima

Versatile pianist makes her Trinity debut

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Pianist Maho Nabeshima has given solo and chamber music recitals in Japan, Germany and the United States, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory, and Hamarikyu Asahi Hall. She was a featured pianist on the Steinway Society Concert Series in Pittsburgh, PA, the Walden School Concert Series in Dublin, NH, as well as on the Liszt Gala Concert hosted by the American Liszt Society in San Francisco, CA. Her repertoire highlights colorful works from the past, from Bach to Messiaen, as well as the sounds and textures explored by composers of the present.

Saturday, June 27, 2009, 8:00pm

Passamezzo Moderno

Ostinato!: Pop bass, 17th-century style

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  • David Granger, dulcian
  • Andrew Fouts, violin
  • Edwin Huizinga, violin
  • Jonathan Davis, harpsichord and organ

Passamezzo Moderno is an early music ensemble committed to providing their audiences the highest caliber performances on period instruments in historically authentic style. They will be performing their program Ostinato! which features 17th century instrumental music based on popular tunes and bass lines of the time. Included are the tunes Ruggerio, La Monica, and La Bergamasca, as well as passamezzos, chaconnes, and passacaglias. Composers include Tarquinio Merula, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, Girolamo Frescobaldi, Biagio Marini, Salamone Rossi and others.

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