Quad City Symphony Orchestra Masterworks VI: “Violins of Hope,” April 11 and 12

Saturday, April 11, 7:30 p.m.

Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA

Sunday, April 12, 2 p.m.

Augustana College's Centennial Hall, 3703 Seventh Avenue, Rock Island IL

With Masterworks' moving 2025-26 season finale presented in partnership with Violins of Hope, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra will present Johann Sebastian Bach’s beautiful Concerto for Two Violins and Gustav Mahler's gripping Sixth Symphony on April 11 and 12, the respective concerts at Davenport's Adler Theatre and Augustana College's Centennial Hall finding members of the QCSO – including soloists Emily Nash and Sabrina Tabby – performing on historic violins that serve as symbols of resilience, hope, and remembrance.

Emily Nash graduated with her MM in violin performance while studying with Almita and Roland Vamos at Northwestern University, graduating early and with high honors. She received her BM in violin performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while studying with Simin Ganatra, and she has has participated in master classes with the Silk Road Ensemble, the Turtle Island String Quartet, Wendy Sharp, Roland and Almita Vamos, John McGrosso, Kurt Baldwin, Rebecca Henry, and the Parker Quartet. Nash has spent years performing with both the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, where she serves as Associate Concertmaster and Assistant Principal Second, respectively. Nash also performs with the Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Chicago Philharmonic, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Illinois Philharmonic, Lake Forest Symphony, and the Midwest Mozart Festival.

Violinist Sabrina Tabby’s robust and wildly diverse career has taken her across four continents as concertmaster and soloist, in chamber groups as well as various pop and new music ensembles. Since performing at Carnegie Hall as a teenager, Tabby has gone on to perform in the world’s top venues, from Red Rocks Amphitheater to the Taormina Amphitheater in Sicily and beyond. She is a founding member of the genre-defying string quartet ATLYS with whom she represented NYC’s Lincoln Center performing on Holland America cruises at sea,and has released four original albums boasting more than 17 million streams. She is also a founding member of the NYC-based new music ensemble Contemporaneous, whose debut at Disney Hall was listed as among the year's "best classical music performances” by the New York Times. In addition to her position with the Owensboro Symphony, Tabby is the Concertmaster of Minnesota's Mankato Symphony and the acting Principal Second Violin of the QCSO, and since 2020, she has recorded on hundreds of remote sessions spanning albums to motion pictures.

Masterworks VI: Violins of Hope performances will be held at Davenport's Adler Theatre on April 11 at 7:30 p.m. and, in Rock Island, Augustana College's Centennial Hall on April 12 at 2 p.m. One hour prior to each performance, concert-goers are invited to attend informational "Concert Conversations" to learn about the works on the program, and on Saturday, "Afterglow" attendees can mingle with Maestro Mark Russell Smith, guest artists, and members of the QCSO in the lobby of the Hotel Blackhawk immediately following the performance.

Admission to the concerts is $8-70, and more information and tickets are available by contacting the Quad City Symphony Orchestra at (563)322-0931 and visiting QCSO.org.