Image: Johannes Brahms | Public Domain
Note: This concert was originally scheduled for January 13.
On SATURDAY, JANUARY 20 AT 3 PM, the Santa Barbara Music Club will present another program in its popular series of concerts of beautiful Classical music. This concert will be held at the Faulkner Gallery of the Santa Barbara Public Library, 40 E. Anapamu Street. Admission is free.
The original concert was to be held on January 13, but after the deadly Thomas debris flow, some of the musicians were unable to make it into town. The concert was postponed to January 20 and the Trio in G minor of Aram Khachaturian was moved to January 27. Pieces by Vivaldi and Lussier, originally scheduled for the January 27th concert, were moved to today’s concert.
Program Details
(b. 1973)
Andrea Lárez and Mirah Ray, violins
Erik Fauss, viola
Timothy Beccue, cello
(1833-1897)
- Allegro con brio
- Scherzo: Allegro molto
- Adagio
- Allegro
Elizabeth Olson, cello
Robert Hale, piano
Notes on the Program
Bassoon soloist Paul Mori and a string quartet composed of violinists Andrea Lárez and Mirah Ray, violist Erik Fauss, and cellist Timothy Beccue will perform Antonio Vivaldi’s sparkling Bassoon Concerto No. 23 in G minor, F. VIII and Mathieu Lussier’s lyrical Spring Lullaby (2005).
Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) was an Italian composer and violinist who made a major contribution to the form of the concerto and the style of late Baroque instrumental music. Of the roughly 500 instrumental concerti that survive, more than 300 are scored for a solo instrument with string orchestra and continuo. While the majority of those are for solo violin, he wrote 40 for bassoon. Like many of his concertos, the Bassoon Concerto No. 23 in G minor, F. VIII is in three movements, the outer ones fast and rhythmic and the middle slow movement lyrical, almost aria-like.
A versatile musician with an inquiring mind, bassoonist-composer-conductor Mathieu Lussier (b. 1973) energetically and passionately promotes the modern and baroque bassoon as solo instruments throughout North America and Europe. His works are heard regularly in concert halls in North America, Europe and Australia. In August 2009, his Bassango, in its version for bassoon and string orchestra, was a prizewinner in the category Contemporary Classical Song at the Just Plain Folks Awards in Nashville, Tennessee. Spring Lullaby (2005) is melodically driven, highlighting the bassoon’s capacity for sweetly tender lyricism.
Marie Hébert, violin, Elizabeth Olson, cello, and Robert Hale, piano close the program with the effusive Piano Trio #1 in B major, Op. 8 by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897). This piece is romantically expansive and lyrical. It was completed in January 1854, when the composer was only twenty years old, then substantially revised in 1889. Curiously enough, for a composer who is known to have destroyed early manuscripts of his works if they no longer met his standards, he allowed both versions of the work to stay in publication, offering a fascinating look into his thought processes as a composer.
The Performers
Timothy Beccue, cellist, has won numerous awards for his performances spanning North America and Europe, including First Place in the 2018 SB Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation Competition. He graduated with a physics degree from Westmont College, where he studied cello with Trevor Handy, has been soloist with the Westmont Orchestra and West Coast Symphony, and contracts as substitute cellist with the SB Symphony. In addition to his musical pursuits, he works with robotic telescopes at Las Cumbres Observatory.
Erik Fauss is a freelance violist and singer/songwriter. He is currently finishing his Masters at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Juan-Miguel Hernandez and Helene Clement. Before moving to London, Fauss completed his Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. In the Fall of 2016, he studied with Matthias Maurer and Thomas Selditz in Vienna and Yuta Nishiyama at the University of Arts in Berlin.
Robert Hale, pianist, holds a degree in piano performance from Southern Illinois University. After working in arts administration, including Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, he changed careers to software development. Robert studies piano with Zeynep Ucbasaran and plays chamber music with friends and colleagues in the Santa Barbara area.
Marie Hébert, violin, is active as soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A former SB Music Club Scholarship awardee, she earned her BM and MM Degrees at UCSB, has performed with the Montecito International Music Festival, and toured in China with the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. Marie is currently Teaching Artist and Youth Ensembles Personnel Manager with the SB Symphony, Teaching Artist for SB Strings, violinist with the Folk Orchestra of SB, and maintains a private violin/viola teaching studio.
Andrea Lárez, violinist, graduated from Westmont College in 2017. She is currently a member of the Camerata Internacional de Barcelona.
Paul Mori, bassoon, received his earliest start in music through school music programs here in his native Santa Barbara and continued his musical education at Westmont College. From here, he relocated to Baltimore to study at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, earning a master’s degree in bassoon performance with Phillip Kolker and later completing a doctorate in orchestral conducting, studying with the legendary Frederik Prausnitz. He served as music director of orchestras in the Pacific Northwest and Baltimore before returning to Santa Barbara. Currently, he conducts the Santa Barbara Reading Orchestra and is on the music faculty at Westmont College.
Elizabeth Olson, cellist, began music studies through public school music programs; continuing with private lessons, she currently studies with Geoffrey Rutkowski. She earned her BS Degree in Chemistry from Loma Linda University and her MS Degree in Accountancy from CSU San Bernardino. For the past ten years her passion has been chamber music, with performances including concerts at Loma Linda University and the Santa Barbara Music Club. Elizabeth is currently a CPA at Nasif, Hicks, Harris & Co. in Santa Barbara.
Mirah Ray, violinist, is a recent music performance graduate of Westmont College. She is currently pursuing graduate level education and an orchestral career. She is an instructor of violin at San Ramon Music and Fine Art School, Vallejo, California.
This concert in the Faulkner Gallery is being presented through a partnership with the Santa Barbara Public Library.
