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Smithsonian Chamber Music Society audiences are privy to the unparalleled experience of being able to hear two magnificent quartets of instruments—one made by Antonio Stradivari, the other by his teacher Nicoló Amati—in this popular three-concert series on Saturdays.

With the retirement of Marilyn McDonald, long-serving member of both the Smithson and Axelrod quartets, the three remaining ASQ members—Marc Destrubé, James Dunham, and Kenneth Slowik—are using this season to perform with a number of violinists in programs that illustrate the breadth of the quartet repertoire while being unified through the inclusion of a Beethoven quartet in F Major on each program. For this pair of concerts, the guest violinist is the Amsterdam-based Joseph Puglia, who has appeared as guest concertmaster with most of the major Dutch orchestras, as well as with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Ensemble Resonanz.  As concertmaster of the Asko|Schoenberg ensemble, the leading ensemble for contemporary music in The Netherlands, he curates “…and Beyond”, an unconducted concert series connecting classical and contemporary music. He is also involved in discovering historical approaches to Brahms’ orchestral music, with Johannes Leertouwer and Clive Brown.  

Concert Program:

Haydn: Quartet in D Minor, Op. 76, No. 2, “Fifths”

Britten: Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36

Beethoven: Quartet in F Major, Op. 135