FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Seattle’s newest chamber music society ‘Nightjar’ launches Mar. 28
By Zachary C. Person
SEATTLE, Wash. – Nightjar, the newest chamber music society in Seattle, in collaboration with 10 Degrees Arts + Events presents an intimate evening of evoking dreams, prayers and mystery at 7:00 p.m. on Monday, March 28 at 10 Degrees (6009 12th Ave. S.) in the heart of the historic Georgetown neighborhood.
Caroline Shaw’s “Entr’acte” for string quartet opens the program. Penned in 2011 and later adapted for string orchestra, the quartet was inspired by Josef Haydn’s Op. 77, No. 2. Shaw’s work plays off her inspiration from what she called the “spare and soulful shift” to D-flat major in the trio of the Haydn quartet and is structured like a minuet and trio which the composer playfully describes as “riffing on that classical form and taking it a bit further.”
Violinist Elizabeth Phelps continues with the Passacaglia for Solo Violin by Heinrich Biber, one of the earliest known pieces for solo violin. Biber’s passacaglia (a typically serious musical form written in a triple-meter) is the final section of his “Rosary Sonatas” (a.k.a. “Mystery Sonatas”), a collection of 15 solo works each titled after a Christian rosary practice. The virtuosic works were largely forgotten after their composition in 1676, but after being ‘rediscovered’ in the early 20th century, have become a cornerstone of the solo violin repertoire.
“The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind is a kind of epic, a history of Judaism,” says Golijov. “It has Abraham, exile, and redemption. The movements sound like they are in three of the languages spoken in almost 6,000 years of Jewish history: the first in Aramaic; the second in Yiddish; and the third in Hebrew. I never wrote it with this idea in mind, and only understood it when the work was finished.”
Performers for the evening include: Elizabeth Phelps (solo violin); Caitlyn Kelley (violin); Blayne Barnes (violin); Kayleigh Miller (viola); Emily Hu (cello); and Angelique Poteat (clarinet).
Audience members are welcome to arrive early at 6:00 p.m. for a pre-concert cocktail hour featuring locally made Oola Distillery spirits and stay late for a post-concert after-party with the artists.
Tickets $30. To learn more or purchase tickets, visit: nightjarseattle.org.
The Nightjar season continues May 23 at 7:00 p.m. at 10 Degrees Arts + Events with a program featuring works by Jesse Montgomery, Gioachino Rossini, Zoltán Kodály and Robert Schumann.
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