Voted again Best Concert Series of the East Bay in 2022 by Diablo Magazine, Gold Coast Chamber Players present five live concerts with leading artists from throughout the US and Italy! Concerts will be recorded and ticket holders have access to this Digital Concert Hall, making it possible to enjoy recordings of these live performances anytime throughout the season. Each performance is held at the Don Tatzin Community Hall at the Lafayette Library, 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Lafayette. Concerts begin at 7:30 PM with a pre-concert talk at 7 PM.
Brahms Reunion on Friday, September 23, 2022, at 7:30 PM, kicks off the season with a powerful all-Brahms program with his Cello Sonata no. 2 in F Major and Piano Quintet in F minor. Principal cellist of Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, Luigi Piovano is featured performing with his 330-year-old Ruggeri cello. Joining him are violinists Grazia Raimondi and Livia Sohn, violist Pamela Freund-Striplen, and pianist Bernadene Blaha.
Folk Inspired on November 5, 2022, at 7:30 PM features the Naumburg-winning Telegraph Quartet with violist Pamela Freund-Striplen. The program included quartets by female composers “Folk Songs” by Florence Price and Quartet #4 by Grażyna Bacewicz along with Brahms’ String Quintet “Spring” in F Major, Op. 88.
Connections in Time on January 14, 2023, at 7:30 PM with the Horzsowski Trio and violist Pamela Freund-Striplen features bookends by two French composers and one work by young Russian Shostakovich. Louise Farrenc completed her Trio, Op. 33, just one year before Gabriel Fauré was born, and she died a year before he gave birth to his great Piano Quartet in C minor. In Russia in 1923, just one year before Fauré would pass away, 16-year-old Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his Trio No. 1 while in love, full of French-like colors and Romanticism.
Cello Extravaganza on March 11, 2023, at 7:30 PM with the Sakura Cello Quintet is presented in partnership with the Bay Area Music Consortium. Sakura has created arrangements for themselves of music by Britten, Fauré, Schubert, Dvořák, Manuel de Falla, and Debussy, as well as a world premiere by member Peter Myers titled Stratigraphy.
Completing the season is Souvenir on April 15, 2023, at 7:30 PM. This blockbuster program begins with Beethoven's humorous duo “Eyeglasses” and builds with Krummer’s Cello Duo #2 to Mozart’s Quintet k. 516, culminating with Tchaikovsky’s epic sextet Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70. Members of the Esher Quartet cellist Brook and violinist Brendan Speltz are joined by violinist Connie Kupka, cellist David Speltz, and violists Luke Fleming and Pamela Freund-Striplen.
Single tickets are $15/student; $40/senior; $45/general with discounted subscriptions available at www.gccpmusic.com or by calling (925) 283-3728.