Dear Friends:

One of the questions that I am asked most frequently is “What is the difference between chamber music and a chamber orchestra?” In the broadest sense, chamber music is music written for a small group with individual musicians each playing a unique single part. The string quartet is often considered the “quintessential,” perfect, chamber music group. A chamber orchestra is simply a small orchestra – a body of strings to which can be added any number of wind, brass, and percussion instruments. But the key difference is that an orchestra, whether large or small, has sections of strings – multiple players performing the same part in the string sections . . . first violins, second violins, violas, cellos, and bass. The string sections of ProMusica are comprised of 6/4/4/4/1 players respectively. All of the wind, brass, and percussion players do, in fact, play their own solo parts. Mind you, chamber orchestras can play chamber music.

I offer these definitions as the basis for what you will see and hear at our concluding subscription programs of the 29th season. STRICTLY CHAMBER features the world-renowned Borromeo String Quartet as our guests. Check out their website at

www.borromeoquartet.org

You will discover that they are . . .
Winner of the 2007 Avery Fisher Career Grant
Winner of Lincoln Center's Martin E. Segal Award (2001)
Winner of the Cleveland Quartet Award (1998)
Ensemble-in-Residence for National Public Radio's Performance Today (1998-99)
Top Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France (1990)

Considered "Simply the best there is" by the Boston Globe, the critically acclaimed Borromeo String Quartet is one of the most sought after string quartets in the world, performing over 100 concerts of classical and contemporary literature across three continents each season.

The Chicago Tribune calls the Borromeo "a remarkably accomplished string quartet, not simply for its high technical polish and refined tone, but more importantly for the searching musical insights it brings." The San Diego Reader calls their performances "a musical experience of luminous beauty," and the Boston Globe says "Each of the greatest string quartets has redefined what the possibilities of the medium are: through the perfection of its ensemble and intonation, through its poise and its passion, the Borromeos are recreating the medium anew and we are lucky to be here to hear it.”

The quartet will join ProMusica not simply for one, or even two, works . . . but three, including the world premiere of award-winning composer Lera Auerbach’s Fragile Solitudes, Shadowbox for String Quartet and Orchestra.

You can read a brief bio of our visiting composer on Wikipedia. Check out
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lera_Auerbach

In part, you will read the following:
Lera Auerbach was born in 1973 in Chelyabinsk, Russia and is one of the most widely performed composers of her generation.
She was born in Chelyabinsk, a city in the Urals bordering Siberia. Auerbach continues the tradition of virtuoso pianist-composers of the 19th and 20th centuries. She is the youngest composer on the roster of the international music publishing company Hans Sikorski well-known as a home to Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Schnittke, Gubaidulina and Kancheli. Auerbach's music is characterized by stylistic freedom and juxtaposition of tonal and atonal musical language.
Auerbach made her Carnegie Hall debut in May 2002 performing her own Suite for Violin, Piano and Orchestra with Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica. Ms. Auerbach's music has been presented at Carnegie Hall each season since then. In 2005, she was awarded the Hindemith Prize by the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in Germany.
Auerbach's compositions have been commissioned and performed by a wide array of artists, orchestras and ballet companies including Gidon Kremer, the Kremerata Baltica, David Finckel, Wu Han, Vadim Gluzman, the Tokyo, Kuss, Parker and Petersen String Quartets, the SWR and NDR (Hannover) Symphony Orchestras, NDR Hamburg and the Royal Danish Ballet. Auerbach’s music has also been commissioned and performed by leading Festivals throughout the world including Caramoor, Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein.
These concerts promise to be memorable, for many reasons. Yes, the Borromeo Quartet and Lera Auerbach’s new work will make the programs special . . . but there is more. On Saturday evening, we showcase a very important part of ProMusica’s ever-growing educational program. Our program will open with a performance by one of our Musicians in the Schools partners, the Hilliard Davidson High School Orchestra. Then, some two dozen high school string players will join the strings of ProMusica and the Borromeo Quartet in a “side-by-side” performance of Elgar’s luscious Introduction and Allegro.

On both Saturday and Sunday evening’s concerts you will next hear an astonishing arrangement of Beethoven’s remarkable Grosse Fugue – again featuring the Borremeo Quartet in concert with ProMusica. Each program will conclude with Respighi’s charming Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite I.

For those of you wanting to hear even more of the Borromeo Quartet, attend Friday evening’s Artist Circle recital. In this setting you will have the opportunity to hear this chamber group play chamber music, the quartet alone.

As our season winds down, make sure to also plan to attend both our final Baroque series concert at the Pontifical College Josephinum as well as our May Gala with the breathtaking virtuosity of the platinum recording artist flamenco guitarist Robert Michaels.

In concluding, let me say that it is also about time for you to subscribe for our 30th anniversary season!

Thanks for taking the time to read this year-end preview of upcoming concerts. Thanks also for your continuing interest in and support of ProMusica, your chamber orchestra. Please help spread the news of what we do. ProMusica has many goals, which begin with offering outstanding concerts comprised of interesting repertoire. With your help, we hope to play these concerts to bigger and bigger audiences. Please invite your friends to the concerts!

ProMusica means “for music” and “forward music.” Ever onward and upward!

My colleagues in the orchestra and I look forward to seeing you soon, and seeing you often. Until then, be well.

Cheers,

Timothy Russell
Music Director