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The Smithsonian Chamber Music Society celebrates its 38th season with another marvelously eclectic repast from the Elizabethan period to the early 20th century, played on some of the world’s most highly prized musical instruments. One hour prior to each program, Kenneth Slowik, SCMS artistic director and recipient of the 2011 Smithsonian Secretary’s Distinguished Research Lecture Award, continues his popular pre-concert lectures, shedding light on the glorious music and the life and times of the featured composers.

For tickets and subscription information, visit: ResidentAssociates.org/Chamber (no handling fee), or call 202-633-3030 ($3 nonrefundable handling fee per phone order)

The Axelrod Quartet Series

Axelrod Quartet Series

The Axelrod String Quartet
Marc Destrubé, violin
Marilyn McDonald, violin
James Dunham, viola
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello

To celebrate their return to the new Music Hall in the American History Museum during the course of the season, the Axelrod String Quartet has chosen to go back to its roots and present three programs of Viennese works. Each concert will begin with one of Joseph Haydn's Op. 76 quartets, followed by one of the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn. The works chosen for the after-intermission slots reflect some of the many ways in which later-19th-century composers expanded on the broad and solid foundations established by Haydn and Mozart. The October concert offers the pithiest of Beethoven's 16 quartets—the self-consciously introspective Quartetto serioso. In January, the Axelrod members invite two advanced students to join them for the second of the two Brahms sextets, mixing the voices of Stradivarius and Amati instruments to create an unsurpassed sonic experience. For the final concert pair, the Quartet has chosen Alexander Zemlinsky's voluptuously romantic A Major String Quartet of 1896.

Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 October 2014 at 7:30 pm

Warner Bros. Theater, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 31 January & Sunday 1 February 2015 at 7:30 pm
Music Hall, American History Museum

Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 7 & Sunday 8 March 2015 at 7:30 pm

Music Hall, American History Museum

Lecture one hour before the concert

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Axelrod Quartet Series.

The Masterworks Series

Masterworks Series

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Vera Beths, violin
Steven Dann, viola

John Feeney, bass

Mark Fewer, violin

Lucas Harris, lute

Colin Jacobson, violin

Christopher Krueger, Renaissance flute

Myron Lutzke, violoncello

Max Mandel, viola
Marilyn McDonald, violin

Robert Mealy, violin

Sandra Miller, flauto traverso

Lambert Orkis, fortepiano

Cynthia Roberts, violin
Kenneth Slowik, violoncello, viol, baryton, harpsichord, fortepiano
Catherine Slowik, viol

Daniel Swenberg, bandora

David Walker, cittern

In November, Juilliard Historical Performance graduate program leader Robert Mealy joins Kenneth Slowik to conclude their survey, begun last season, of Johann Sebastian Bach's six sonatas for harpsichord and violin. They also celebrate Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's 300th birthday, performing two of hisempfindsamer Stil ("sensitive style") duos. In early December, the members of the Esterhazy Machine (Steven Dann, Myron Lutzke, and Slowik) with flautist Sandra Miller, present a diverse program of Haydn trios illustrating that composer’s ever-fertile genius. A Schubertiade in January brings back Mark Fewer and John Feeney who join Dann, Lutzke, and Slowik in two of Schubert’s best-loved works. The Castle Trio tests the acoustics of the American History Museum’s new Music Hall’s acoustics in March with a complete reading of Beethoven’s Op. 1 piano trios. Two weeks later, Vera Beths, Cynthia Roberts, and Max Mandel join Dann and Slowik for Beethoven’s two viola quintets in C: the pellucid C-major, Op. 29, and the dark C-minor, Op.104, Beethoven’s own transcription of his Op.1, No. 1 trio. The season concludes in mid-May with music from Shakespeare’s time. The program is built around the sensuous sounds of the broken consort, which includes a woodwind, two bowed stringed instruments, the gut-strung lute, and the wire-strung cittern and bandora.

Saturday 22 & Sunday 23 November 2014 at 7:30 pm

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Works of J.S. and CPE Bach

Location tba

Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 6 & Sunday 7 December 2014 at 7:30 pm
The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Haydn and Lidl: Trios featuring the flute and the baryton

Smithsonian Castle Commons

Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 10 & Sunday 11 January 2015 at 7:30 pm

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Chamber music of Franz Schubert

Music Hall, American History Museum
Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 28 & Sunday 29 March 2015 at 7:30 pm

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Beethoven: Three Trios of Op. 1
Music Hall, American History Museum

Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 11 & Sunday 12 April 2015 at 7:30 pm

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

Beethoven: String Quintets

Music Hall, American History Museum

Lecture one hour before the concert

Saturday 16 & Sunday 17 May 2015 7:30 pm

The Smithsonian Chamber Players

English Music from Shakespeare's Time
Music Hall, American History Museum

Lecture one hour before the concert

See the individual listings in the Concert Schedule for complete program information for the Masterworks Series. Some of these concerts may also be heard in Washington, Virginia, at The Theatre at Little Washington. To check the schedule, visit www.theatre-washington-va.com

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