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Fall Chamber Series 2022

Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Brian Rust

Oct. 16 Chamber Concert

12 Oct 2022 | Gunnery Sgt. Brian Rust United States Marine Band

The 2022 Fall Chamber Series continues with a string-focused program at 2 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 16. The performance, coordinated by violinist Staff Sgt. Sara Matayoshi, will take place in John Philip Sousa Band Hall at the Marine Barracks Annex in southeast Washington, D.C., and will be livestreamed on YouTube. Matayoshi offered the following on the program:

When creating this program, I was most interested in finding music that both inspired me musically and also covered a variety of styles and genres. Being a string player myself (and with a lot of the band on tour), I found myself most interested in exploring this diversity of voices primarily within the context of string playing. With the exception of the piece by Louise Farrenc, all the music is from the 20th or 21st century.

Program & Notes

Livestream

The program opens with a jovial fiddle duo by Mark O’Connor. The lively flowing rhythms and virtuosic interplay between the violin and cello might give you the urge to break into dance! I chose to open the program this way to warmly welcome and celebrate the opportunity to share music. Caroline Shaw, the composer of the next piece on the program, reflects on this topic in a similar way: “I love thinking about music as a gift for someone – as a form of conversation.” Her string quartet, Third Essay: Ruby, reflects this approach. The music begins with a set of harmonious chords, but from there, an unraveling into fragmented pieces of a puzzle occur.  Shaw uses a variety of string techniques to capture different sounds with these fragments (pizzicato, glissando, ponticello, etc.) and also explores a variety of rhythms which the instruments freely bounce off one another with a dance-like choreography. 

The concert’s first half will close with a beautiful romantic clarinet trio by Farrenc. Farrenc’s works have been gaining more attention in recent times and this trio will speak for itself as to why that is. The long lyrical, melodic lines and moments of pure virtuosity will be deeply satisfying to almost any listener.

The second half of the program opens with the brilliant and virtuosic Sonata No. 6 by Eugene Ysaye and performed by Master Sgt. Erika Sato. The Ysaye Sonatas are notorious for pushing the boundaries of violin technique, yet they still contain a deeply expressive nature. Ysaye believed that a violinist must be “a thinker, a poet, a human being, he must have known hope, love, passion and despair, he must have run the gamut of the emotions in order to express them all in his playing.” The next piece on the program is a string quintet by Brian Nabors, which has elements of Jazz Funk, R&B, Gospel, and contemporary classical music. It invites listeners to “let loose” and for these moments of music, let go of the tragedies around the COVID-19 pandemic. After the wild ending from Nabor’s work, Alexina Louie’s quartet, Echoes of Time, takes listeners in a different direction. Like the Nabors, Louie also uses art as a method to transcend darkness, however, in quite a different context.  The emotional darkness is established in the beginning with the low rumblings of the cello and piano. This is interrupted by dramatic outbursts from the pianist striking the inside of the piano with their fingernails. Listeners acquainted with The Quartet for the End of Time will recognize Louie paying homage to Messiaen with familiar fragments and gestures throughout the work. Many of these gestures have a fervor to them when first introduced but as the music unwinds, the fragments slow, and the heart-beat rhythm of the piano and long harmonics in the violin create a meditative quality. By the end of the piece, the listener is left suspended in a state of timelessness.  

My hope is that this music will give listeners an experience that lifts them out of daily concerns into a place of nourishment for the spirit. 

The concert is free and open to the public; no tickets required. The Marine Barracks Annex is located at 1053 7th Street SE in Washington, DC, and free parking is available in the gated lot beneath the bridge on 7th Street. Please allow extra time for ID checks and security at the gate.

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