Violinist

Curated by SPCO violinist Daria Adams, this Express Concert celebrates Johann Sebastian Bach and his undying influence through centuries of music-making across the world. Works by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Maria Kaneko Millar feature the qualities of dance central to much of Bach’s work, and Bach’s own Double Violin Concerto will showcase the SPCO’s Eunice Kim and Daria Adams in a dynamic whirlwind accompanied by the full orchestra.

EPSG:4326

Express Concert: Bach's Double Violin Concerto

Benson Great Hall

Trinity Lutheran Church of Minnesota

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

Featuring SPCO violinist Maureen Nelson’s new arrangement of Medieval works, this program is a musical response to the poet Rumi who wrote: “The lamps are different, but the Light is the same. One matter, one energy, one Light, one Light-mind, endlessly emanating all things.” Opening with music of Hildegard von Bingen, this Express Concert is a journey of light through the eyes of different composers. At the heart lies Franz Joseph Haydn’s uplifting Midday Symphony and Osvaldo Golijov’s lush Tenebrae for String Quartet.

Express Concert: Haydn’s Midday Symphony

Ted Mann Concert Hall

Temple Israel

Saint Paul's United Church of Christ

This Express Concert features SPCO violinist Maureen Nelson as the soloist in Ernest Chausson’s beloved Poème. One moment brooding and mysterious, the next brilliant and sweeping, this work was inspired by “The Song of Triumphant Love,” a short story by the Russian novelist, Ivan Turgenev, about two young men who fall in love with the same woman — a perfect recipe for drama! This version has been arranged for the orchestra by SPCO Principal Horn James Ferree. When Pekka Kuusisto led Louis Farrenc’s Third Symphony a few years ago, the orchestra fell in love with it and has been eager to tackle this bold and exciting masterwork in its signature unconducted fashion.

Express Concert: Farrenc’s Third Symphony

Wooddale Church

Shepherd of The Valley Lutheran Church

This program features one of Franz Joseph Haydn’s famous “London” symphonies, Symphony No. 99, written in anticipation of his second trip to London and the first of three from this collection performed by the SPCO throughout the season. Also included on the program are the beautiful melodies of brother and sister Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet brings the depth and complexity of a symphony with only eight players, and three movements from Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s epic piano cycle, Das Jahr, depict the twelve months of the year, arranged for chamber orchestra by SPCO Principal Horn James Ferree.


Haydn’s Symphony No. 99

After a five-year hiatus, Festival Mozaic is proud to return to Mission San Miguel Arcángel for an afternoon showcasing chamber music for piano and strings. Pianists Stewart Goodyear and John Novacek will lead works by Fauré and Brahms. Opening the program is a unique piece by American composer Henry Cowell which features Iranian rhythms in the drum.

Chamber Concert 3: Mission San Miguel

Mission San Miguel Arcángel

This program celebrates the quintet in all of its forms. Pianist Stewart Goodyear joins forces with a string quartet for Hummel’s piano quintet; a string trio joins harp and flute for Francaix’s quintet; and we close with Beethoven’s only piece originally conceived for a string quintet. Also on the program is a rhythmic and lyrical duet for violin and soprano by Villa-Lobos.

Chamber Concert 1: Hummel, Françaix & Beethoven

Cuesta College

Fans of chamber music will delight in this concert featuring three quintets of winds and strings alike. Franz Hasenöhrl's arrangement of Richard Strauss’ immensely popular tone poem Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks cleverly distills the large-scale orchestral work to its essence. The work is based on medieval German folk tales about a practical joker whose exploits range from pranks in the marketplace to revenge on upper-class society. Closing out the program is Antonín Dvořák’s American Quintet, written during his summer in Spillville Iowa.

Dvořák, Haydn and Strauss

Humboldt High School Auditorium

Wayzata Community Church

Written during his summer in Spillville Iowa, Antonín Dvořák’s American Quintet draws on influences he saw as uniquely American — African-American spiritual melodies, taught to him by composer Henry T. Burleigh, and rhythms from Native American music, which he discovered through the traveling Kickapoo Medicine Show. Other pieces on this program reflect similar influence. David Bruce’s Gumboots is derived from the Apartheid-era South African dance, and Louis W. Ballard’s Ritmo Indio is a study in American Indian rhythms.

Ballard, Bruce and Dvořák

Capri Theater

Explore the interwoven musical traditions of Spain and Latin America in this program curated by SPCO violinist Maureen Nelson. The program opens with the only symphony by the legendary “Spanish Mozart,” Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, followed by Andean-inspired music for string orchestra by Gabriela Lena Frank, a wind quintet by Maurice Ravel inspired by Havana, and Renaissance works quoting a Quechua (South American Indigenous) melody arranged by Maureen Nelson.

Express Concert: Legends/Leyendas with Maureen Nelson

SPCO concertmaster Steven Copes takes audiences on a deep dive into masterworks by four early 20th century composers, each distilling late-Romantic musical traditions into something fresh and modern. Arnold Schoenberg’s dramatic Chamber Symphony No. 1 for fifteen musicians condenses the symphonic language of Richard Wagner and Gustav Mahler into a colorful, action-packed thrill-ride. Maurice Ravel’s celebrated String Quartet in F Major and Richard Strauss’s Capriccio for string sextet, though no less modern, are lush and sentimental in contrast to Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5 for solo flute played by SPCO flutist Alicia McQuerrey.

Express Concert: Musical Distillations with Steven Copes

Continuing our annual holiday tradition, the SPCO presents Johann Sebastian Bach’s most cherished set of orchestral works, the Brandenburg Concertos. The profound inventiveness and instrumental virtuosity of these enduring Baroque masterpieces are on full display as led by our own SPCO musicians and soloists.


Holiday Concerts: Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos

We celebrate the end of our 28th season with the string quintet Dvořák wrote in America, inspired by Native American drumming, African American melodies and infused with his Bohemian spirit. Afterwards, join our musicians for the Festival Finale Dinner around the magnificent Inglenook fountain.

Inglenook

Inglenook Winery

The Festival artists lead an exciting evening of chamber music at the Harold Miossi Cultural & Performing Arts Center, including the West Coast Premiere of George Tsontakis' Portraits by El Greco Book II.

Maureen Nelson

Violinist

Events

14 - 17 Mar, 2024

Express Concert: Bach's Double Violin Concerto · Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

1 - 4 Feb, 2024

Express Concert: Haydn’s Midday Symphony · Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

19 - 23 Jan, 2024

Express Concert: Farrenc’s Third Symphony · Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

22 - 26 Sep, 2023

Haydn’s Symphony No. 99 · Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Jul 26, 2023

Chamber Concert 3: Mission San Miguel · Festival Mozaic

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