Sept. 24, 2024
Contact Mary Ellen Haupert at 608-796-3770 or mehaupert@viterbo.edu
VITERBO UNIVERSITY OUT OF OUR MINDS CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES OPENS WITH BRAHMS OCT. 5
LA CROSSE, Wis. – The first concert of the 2024–25 Out of Our Minds Chamber Series, “Regenlied,” will be Saturday, Oct. 5 at 7:30 P.M. in the Viterbo University Fine Arts Center Nola Starling Recital Hall.
Violinist Michelle Elliott, soprano Ann Schoenecker, pianist Mary Ellen Haupert, and hornist Thomas Hunt are featured in an all-Brahms concert culminating with the great Trio for Violin, Horn, and Piano, Op. 40. The concert will open with two songs from Brahm’s Op. 59 set of eight songs (Regenlied and Nachtklang), which were the melodic inspiration for his Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Major, Op. 78.
The season is packed with great performers and exciting programing. Jonathan Borja returns to the series on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 3 p.m. in a concert titled “Three Lakes,” with works for flute and piano by Phillip Glass, Daniel Dorff, Amanda Harberg, Amy Beach, and Mary Ellen Haupert. Later that month on Saturday, Nov. 23 at 3 p.m., Harry Baechtel, baritone, will be joined by pianist David Richardson in a multi-media performance of Franz Schubert’s song cycle, Winterreise.
Artaria String Quartet will return with two back-to-back performances of the six quartets that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dedicated to his dear friend, Franz Joseph Haydn. The concerts on Saturday, Jan. 25 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. are titled “To My Dear Friend, Haydn” and feature Mozart’s String Quartets Nos. 14-19, which were published together as Mozart’s Opus 10 in Vienna in 1785. Haydn first heard the quartets at two gatherings at Mozart's home. After hearing them all, Haydn remarked to Mozart’s father Leopold: “Before God, and as an honest man, I tell you that your son is the greatest composer known to me either in person or by name. He has taste, and what is more, the most profound knowledge of composition.”
Druzhba Trio (Michelle Elliott, Busya Lugovier, and Derek Clark) join forces with pianist Mary Ellen Haupert on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. to perform two piano quartets written by dear friends in 1875, the Piano Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 23 by Antonin Dvořák and the Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor. Op. 60 by Johannes Brahms.
The final concert of the series on Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 p.m. features Jefferson Campbell, bassoonist, and soprano Jennifer Campbell in the performance Sea Smoke on Gitchigami by Jenni Brandon, which was written for the Campbells. The program also includes Sonnets from the Portuguese by Libby Larsen, Sonata for Bassoon and Piano by Nancy Galbraith, and Piano Trio by Libby Larsen, performed by the Two Sisters Trio, violinist Kristina Gullion, cellist Monika Sutherland, and pianist Mary Ellen Haupert.
All Chamber Music Series concerts are held in the Nola Starling Recital Hall at Viterbo University in La Crosse. The concerts are free, but there will be a free will offering to cover artist fees and marketing expenses.
-30-