Dear friends and lovers of chamber music,
As the new artistic director of the Morrison Artists Series, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to our 56th concert season. This extraordinary concert series, called “indispensable” by the San Francisco Chronicle, continues to reward Bay Area audiences with access to the world’s great chamber music ensembles in concert, free of charge.
The series, as many of you know, grew out of Edward Hohfeld’s visionary idea that music should be taught by providing students the opportunity to learn from master teachers while at the same time giving them a chance to hear chamber music performed by the finest contemporary practitioners. He believed, too, that attendance at concerts should not be a privilege of the few, but should be accessible to everyone, and he especially hoped that by presenting them free of charge, parents would be able to bring their children, introducing each new generation to the tradition of chamber music and to the dedicated musicians who perform it.
We are grateful for continued funding from the May Treat Morrison Trust and gifts from many of you, our individual patrons, to help us realize us Mr. Hohfeld’s vision of the Morrison Chamber Music Center at SF State.
Chamber music—music written and played with one performer to a part—encompasses some of the greatest works from the pens of our greatest composers. It has evolved a performance tradition of the most nuanced and expressive ensemble playing possible, giving audiences the thrill of hearing a small group of highly skilled musicians who think, breathe and emote as one.
Our 2011–12 season offers a cornucopia of riches from the renaissance, classical and romantic repertoires and extraordinary treasures of our own time. I know you will be captivated hearing it played by some of today’s premier chamber musicians.
Our season opens with the Borealis Wind Quintet’s wonderfully spicy potpourri of 19th- and 20th- century music from three continents. Chicago’s outstanding Lincoln Trio joins us in November with music of Beethoven, Smetana and some notable young American women. SF State’s redoubtable Alexander String Quartet returns in December to perform Haydn, Dvořák and Bartók, and February brings world-famous Chanticleer in a program of choral music on the theme of love. The dynamic, young, Grammy award-winning Parker Quartet will be our guests in March, and renowned violinist Ida Kavafian’s Trio Valtorna presents a program of horn trios in April. Please join me for a free talk an hour before each performance.
New this season, we are launching a series of master classes taught by the Morrison Artists Series’ featured ensembles. Part of the Morrison Center’s instructional program, the master classes give music students at SF State and around the bay an invaluable chance to work with premier artists on interpreting and performing chamber-music masterworks. Master classes will be open to the public, admission-free. As an active composer of chamber music myself, I can tell you that watching musicians at work in rehearsal and coaching sessions is among the most fascinating and illuminating experiences I know. Please accept my invitation to come and observe.
It’s hard for me to contain my enthusiasm for the coming season, and I want to get the word out and convey my excitement in the Bay Area and beyond. Please extend my personal invitation to your family and friends to join us and our superb guest ensembles in exhilarating performances of music of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Dvořák, Smetana, Tavener, Janequin, Duruflé, Strauss, Bartók, Dutilleux, Harbison, Villa-Lobos, Barber and the many other great composers on this season’s programs. I look forward to seeing you at our concerts, talks and master classes.
Sincerely,
Richard Festinger
Artistic Director
