Violinst Bin Huang and pianist Frank Lévy perform all three of the sonatas for piano and violin of Johannes Brahms, which are among the most intense and emotionally penetrating works ever composed for the violin and piano. They provide a journey to the deepest regions of the soul, filled with tenderness, autumnal light, yearning, dramatic drive and passion.
The “riveting and dynamic” Irrera Brothers Duo come to Old First Concerts with a program of music for violin and piano by Vitali, C. Schumann, Stravinsky, and Beethoven.
YuEun Kim and Ines Thomé, winners of the Beverly Hills National Audition who perform extensively throughout Southern California, bring their charisma and virtuosity to the Bay Area with their program “Cinematic Scenes”, featuring music for violin and guitar by Giuliani, Paganini, Morricone, de Falla, Myers, and Piazzolla.
The Circadian String Quartet’s original reimagination of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring centers Mystic Circles, an evening of wonder and sublime beauty with Russian folk songs and music by Aminikia and Vali.
With a libretto that draws on Hegel, Nietzsche and Sun Ra, “goth-postpunk-diva” (KQED) M. Lamar’s song cycle Lordship and Bondage: The Birth of the Negro Superman synthesizes the Negro spiritual, black and doom metal, and contemporary classical opera to engage African Americans’ experiences of enslaved and liberated consciousness. Commissioned and performed with The Living Earth Show, this is the song cycle’s World Premiere.
