January 11, 2007

Winter Chamber Music Festival brings Vermeer Quartet on final tour

For the 11th consecutive year, the School of Music’s Winter Chamber Music Festival will provide chamber repertoire to warm the senses and lift the spirit amid the intimate setting and acoustically superior confines of Pick-Staiger Concert Hall.

The festival continues tomorrow (Jan. 12) with a program that features numerous musicians, including several Northwestern faculty members. Various combinations of instrumentalists will play Mozart’s Serenade No. 12 in C Minor, K. 388 (K384a); Lutoslawski’s Partita for Violin and Piano; and Beethoven’s Piano Trio No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Op. 97 (“Archduke”). Performing that evening will be pianists Ursula Oppens and Andrea Swan, oboists Michael Henoch and Scott Hostetler, clarinetists J. Lawrie Bloom and Steven Cohen, bassoonists Lewis Kirk and Dennis Michel, hornists William Barnewitz and Gail Williams, violinists Blair Milton and Mathias Tacke, and cellist Stephen Balderston.

Sunday, Jan. 14, the Lincoln Quartet — comprised of four members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (violinists Lei Hou and Qing Jou, violist Lawrence Neuman and cellist Brant Taylor) — will be joined by pianists Alan Chow and James Giles, hornist Gail Williams and cellist Marc Johnson. The program will feature Arensky’s Quartet in A Minor for Violin, Viola and Two Cellos, Op. 35; Schumann’s Andante and Variations for Two Pianos, Two Cellos and Horn in B-flat Major, Op. 46, and Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, Op. 131.

On its final tour, the 37-year-old Vermeer Quartet will grace the Pick-Staiger stage on Friday, Jan. 19. Featuring violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi and Mathias Tacke, violist Richard Young and cellist Marc Johnson, the quartet members will be joined by guest pianist Andrea Swan. The quartet will play Mozart’s String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499, Chopin’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in G Minor, Op. 65 and Schumann’s String Quartet No. 3 in A Major, Op. 41, No. 3.

The festival’s Sunday, Jan. 21 finale is a grand performance featuring Eastern and cross-cultural works performed by members of the Silk Road Ensemble, comprised of distinguished musicians from around the world. The ensemble is collaborating with cultural institutions throughout the Chicago area as part of a yearlong Silk Road Project residency in Chicago.

> To order tickets or for more information, call (847) 467-4000 or go to www.pickstaiger.com