Saturday, January 4, 7:30 p.m.
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Quad Cities, 3707 Eastern Avenue, Davenport IA
Held in celebration of the legendary German composer born in 1770, Chamber Music Quad Cities' Beethoven Year will honor Ludwig van's accomplishments in a January 4 concert performed at Davenport's Unitarian Universalist Church of the Quad Cities, its quartet of musicians composed of the organization's artistic directors Gregory and Thomas Sauer and guest violinists Lee Taylor and Serena Canin.
Cellist Gregory Sauer has appeared in recital at the Old First Concert Series in San Francisco, Vanderbilt University, Rice University, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, and the Brightmusic Concert Series in Oklahoma City, among many other venues throughout the United States. He has also performed concertos with orchestras such as the Houston Symphony, the Columbus (GA) Symphony, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Missoula Symphony, and our area's Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and as a member of Trio Solis, he performed in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall. Gregory's pianist brother Thomas, meanwhile, is highly sought after as soloist and chamber musician in a wide range of repertoire. Recent appearances include Carnegie Hall, St. John’s College, Oxford, and the Chamber Music Societies of Lincoln Center, Boston, and Philadelphia. With his long-time duo partner Colin Carr, Thomas has appeared at London's Wigmore Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, and Houston's Da Camera. He has also performed with members of the Juilliard String Quartet at the Library of Congress and has given numerous concerts with the Brentano String Quartet.
Gregory Saucer's wife, violinist Lee Taylor, is currently a member of the Atlanta Ballet and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestras and is a founding member of Amati Chamber Music. She was a long-time member of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and has played with the Alabama Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, and Colorado Music Festival. As a teacher, Taylor maintains an active home studio and is on the music faculties of The Westminster Schools and Perimeter College of Georgia State University. And as an administrator, she has been on staff at the Cincinnati Young Artists Chamber Music Festival and Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival and, for several years, ran her own summer music camp for elementary violin students in Atlanta.
Rounding out the Chamber Music Quad Cities quartet, violinist Serena Canin was born into a family of professional musicians in New York City and has been a member of the Brentano String Quartet since its founding in 1992, performing to critical acclaim across the world. The group has received many honors since its inception, notably the first Cleveland Quartet Award and the 1995 Naumburg Chamber Music Award, and has held residencies at New York University, Princeton University and London’s Wigmore Hall. With the Quartet, Canin is currently in residence at the Yale School of Music, and has made appearances at El Paso Pro Musica, the Salt Bay Chamberfest, and the Festival Internacional de Cartagena.
In keeping with the spirit of the New Year, Chamber Music Quad Cities' Beethoven Year will feature two of Beethoven’s lighter works: the Variations for Piano Trio, Op. 44, and Cello Sonata, Op. 102, No. 1. Completing the evening's program will be Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's joyous Piano Trio, K. 502, as well as a pair of charming duets by Russian composers Reinhold Glière and Dmitri Shostakovich.
Chamber Music Quad Cities' Beethoven Year will be performed at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Quad Cities on January 4, admission to the 7:30 p.m. concert is $5-20, and more information is available by visiting ChamberMusicQC.org.
