Chamber Music at Centrum

Cellist Desmond Hoebig to Appear at the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival

Cellist Desmond Hoebig, who will be in residence at the 2008 Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival, first appeared as a soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the age of eight. He went on to study, during the years of 1979-83, at the Juilliard School, while winning awards over that same time frame: the 1980 Canadian Music Competitions International Stepping Stones, the 1981 CBC Radio Talent Competition. He was a finalist in the 1982 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

Hoebig is equally accomplished as a solo, chamber, and orchestral player. He has appeared with multiple orchestras as a guest soloist, toured widely, and won first prize in the 1984 Munich International Competition. He is currently principal cellist of the Cleveland Symphony.

Hoebig will perform at the Joseph F. Wheeler Theater on both Friday, June 27; and Saturday, June 28. Tickets are available here or by calling Centrum at 800-733-3608 or 360-385-3102, x117. Tickets may be purchased in person in Port Townsend at the Centrum office at Fort Worden State Park; at Quimper Sound, 230 Taylor Street; and at The Food Co-op, 414 Kearney Street. Tickets may also be purchased at individual events, but availability is not guaranteed.

THE PORT TOWNSEND SUMMER CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
Helen Callus, Artistic Director

Friday, June 27
The Joseph F. Wheeler Theater – 7:30 pm
• Quartet in A minor, D. 804. Franz Schubert. Performed by the Tokyo String Quartet
• Primera Luz (written for the Tokyo String Quartet). Lera Auerbach. Performed by the Tokyo String Quartet.
• Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36. Johannes Brahms. Performed by the Attacca String Quartet with Helen Callus, viola; and Desmond Hoebig, cello.
Tickets: $29/25; youth 18 & under free with reservations

Saturday, June 28
The Joseph F. Wheeler Theater – 7:30 pm
• Quintet for Strings in Bb, K. 174. Wolfgang Mozart. Performed by the Tokyo String Quartet with Helen Callus, viola.
• Quartet in Eb for Piano and Strings, Op. 47. Robert Schumann. Performed by Martin Beaver, violin; Helen Callus, viola; Desmond Hoebig, cello; Robert Koenig, piano.
• Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. Ludwig van Beethoven. Performed by the Tokyo String Quartet.
Tickets: $29/25; youth 18 & under free with reservations

Getting Down to the Wire with Chamber

We're close...

The scholarship and audition deadlines for the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival are this Friday, April 12.

If you've been putting off registering for the workshop, don't delay. We'd especially like to invite violinists and cellists, as our early ensemble-balance projections indicate that we may be able accommodate more instrumentalists in these two categories.

Let us know how we can help--it is going to be a great week, and we want you here with the Tokyo String Quartet, and the rest of the artist faculty!

Chamber Audition/Financial Aid Deadline Moved

A quick note to let you know that we've moved some dates around on our audition and financial aid calendars for the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival.

Once you have registered online to spend a week with the Tokyo String Quartet (you have registered, haven't you?), your scholarship deadline AND audition deadline will be April 12.

Violinist Andrew Dawes

Andrew Dawes, who will be in residence at the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival is known as one of the most distinguished violinists Canada has ever produced. As a founding member and first violinist of Canada’s renowned Orford String Quartet, he has played over 2,000 concerts in more than 25 countries and won three Juno Awards and made more than 50 recordings.

In 1992 he was awarded the Order of Canada in recognition of his contribution to the musical life of Canada. In 1994, he received the prestigious Chalmers National Music Award for creativity and excellence in the arts. He first performed at the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival in 1996 as first violinist of the Tokyo Quartet and has performed here in many concerts since then. He now teaches at the University of British Columbia and is a member of the Eden Trio.

WANTED: Bloggers

When we redesigned this site last year, we had a vision that at some point, we could invite community members to post/write for the site, sharing their passion with other members of the Centrum community.

That time is NOW!

If you are passionate about chamber music, and would like to share your knowledge and a sense of discovery with others, we want YOU. Please contact Keven Elliff at keven at centrum dot org for more information.

The Attacca Quartet

The Attacca Quartet, along with the Tokyo String Quartet, will be in residence at the Port Townsend Chamber  Music Festival. The Attacca Quartet was formed at the Juilliard School in 2003, and is comprised of four second year-masters degree students—violinists Amy Schroeder and Keiko Tokunaga, violist Gillian Gallagher, and cellist Andrew Yee. The Quartet has already won multiple national and international awards in their short history and has collaborated with many internationally acclaimed artists.

"Razumovsky"

[The Tokyo String Quartet playing the fourth movement of Beethoven's string quartet op.59 no. 3.]

The Tokyo String Quartet--Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda (violins), Kazuhide Isomura (viola), and Clive Greensmith (cello)--will be in residence at Centrum June 22-29 as faculty members at the Port Townsend Chamber Music Festival.

Membership in the Tokyo String Quartet has changed over the decades, but the group’s trademark ensemble purity and dedication to the classical repertoire—as well as to contemporary work—remains the foundation for the group’s success.

The quartet’s current membership includes violinist Martin Beaver, violinist Kikuei Ikeda, violist Kazu Isomura, and cellist Clive Greensmith, who perform over one hundred concerts annually. And although the group registers tremendous sales, the quartet members don’t find relevancy in numbers, but in the music itself, and in giving back to the next generation of chamber music students. 

Playing and commissioning works by modern composers, such as Toshio Hosakawa and Lera Auerbach, are important to the quartet, as well.

“In the Romantic era, with support from the aristocracy, there was much communication between composers and performers. These days, there is often not that level of communication, and so we try to collaborate with composers and try and create new music,” Isomura says. “Obligation is not quite the right word, but it’s a musician’s duty to find wonderful new music and introduce it to the public.”