Program Notes: Back to Spirit and FeelingWhen choosing music for the Sonata Series, I was imagining the vibrant sound space of the new performance hall in the CMW Center. In some ways, this could have been an opportunity for celebratory music. But the moment in our world and in this season called me toward the interiority of our experience. Music that draws on our rich lives of spirit and feeling, and that may bring us back to these places. Discovering that our friend and former CMW colleague Jessie Montgomery crafted the short work Peace as a response to grappling with sadness in 2020 was a lightbulb moment. It felt like a perfect opener to a set of pieces framed around the magisterial world that is Arvo Pärt’s Fratres. Fratres has always been one of those pieces that seems to stand outside the currents of other music—it is activity and stillness that makes you feel like bowing in reverence to something eternal. What could follow? The slow movement of the Vieuxtemps sonata emerges from stillness and goes into lush tender feeling, drawing us out of the reverence of Pärt, and into an emotional reverie that can carry us home. I’m excited to explore the arc of these three beautiful works as a set together at Thursday’s concert. –Sebastian Ruth, violist Join us Thursday, February 13 at 7 pm at the CMW Center to hear these pieces performed by Sebastian with guest pianist Ivan Tan, along with a performance by Walter Muelling with Ivan of Gilbert Galindo’s Sonata for Viola and Piano. Sonata Series Event #2 **SEATS IN THE PERFORMANCE HALL ARE SOLD OUT, BUT PLEASE JOIN US IN THE COZY CAFÉ AT THE CMW CENTER TO ENJOY A HIGH-QUALITY LIVESTREAM OF THE EVENT! NO RESERVATIONS ARE NECESSARY.**Make your reservation here
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