2019-20 ECHO Chamber Music Series at Cuyamaca College

Posted on: Sep 6, 2019 9:00:00 AM
In: District, Cuyamaca
Arts and Culture
Contact: Anne Krueger anne.krueger@gcccd.edu

The ECHO Chamber Music Series, now in its third year, is taking its 2019-2020 season at Cuyamaca College’s Samuel M. Ciccati Performing Arts Theatre to new heights with 14 concerts featuring performers such as Jason Vieaux, Bach Collegium, the Dalí Quartet, and members of the San Diego Symphony and other internationally acclaimed musicians who have performed across the globe.

The season kicks off Sept. 28,with members of the San Diego Symphony performing works from the Elbe to the Moldau. The concert will feature San Diego Symphony principal oboist Sarah Skuster; the Symphony’s English horn player Andrea Overturf; Symphony bassoonist Ryan Simmons; Symphony violinist Julia Pautz; Symphony’s principal bassist Jeremy Kurtz-Harris; Symphony violist Ethan Pernela; and UC San Diego lecturer and harpsichordist extraordinaire Takae Ohnishi.

The ECHO Chamber Music Series (ECHO is an acronym for East County Harmonics Organization) is underwritten by Sam Ersan, a vice chairman of the San Diego Symphony Board of Directors who has helped transform the chamber music landscape in San Diego County through his support of classical musical organizations, including the San Diego Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, The Colburn School, the Philharmonic Society and Mainly Mozart. Ersan also is the founder of the Camera Lucida piano quartet and the Myriad Trio, both of whom will perform this season.

The Samuel M. Ciccati Theatre, named in honor of Dr. Samuel M. Ciccati, former president, philanthropist and generous supporter of Cuyamaca College, is the only music venue in East County appropriately designed for musical performances of this caliber. Each year, Cuyamaca College presents concerts in a variety of genres that are open to the public for a nominal ticket price as part of a commitment to serving the East County community.

“Rarely will you find a concert series of this magnitude and star power anywhere but a leading concert hall, let alone a community college,” said Cuyamaca College President Julianna Barnes. “We are honored to present among the finest lineups of chamber music in San Diego County and we are grateful to Mr. Ersan for his generous and continuing support.”

 All performances will be held at the Samuel. Ciccati Theatre at Cuyamaca College at 7:30 p.m. Among them:

•  October 11 -- The Bach Collegium San Diego opens its season at the Samuel M. Ciccati Performing Arts Theatre  performing “Café Zimmerman.” The name is drawn from the historic Café Zimmerman in Leipzig, Germany, where members of Bach’s orchestra spent time and found inspiration.  Performing one cantata (soprano Clara Rottsolk), and four Brandenberg Concertos, featuring at least six members of the Bach Collegium.
•  Nov. 7 -- Paris-based Modigliani Quartet will perform works by Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms. The group comprises Amaury Coeytaux, who plays a 1773 violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini; Loic Rio, who plays a 1780 Guadagnini violin; P Laurent Marfaing, who plays a 1660 viola by Luigi Mariani; and Francois Kieffer, who plays a 1706 cello by Matteo Goffriller.
•  Nov. 20 -- The Horszowski Trio, which includes Grammy-nominated violinist Jesse Mills, cellist Raman Ramakrishnan and pianist Rieko Aizawa, performs works by Antonin Dvorak, Elliott Carter and Dmitri Shostakovich.
•  Dec. 8 -- Grammy Award-winning classical guitarist Jason Vieaux, described by NPR as perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation, performs in a program title “From Spain to the New World” and includes pieces such as Sonata in A Major by Domenico Scarlatti, Variations on a Theme of Handel, Op. 107, by Mauro Giuliani, and In a Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington.
•  Jan. 15, 2020 -- The Dalí Quartet – with Venezuelan violist Adriana Linares, first violinist Domenic Salerni, violinist Carlos Rubio and cellist Jesus A. Morales Matos – brings its signature mix of Latin American, classical and Romantic repertoire for a concert named “From Barcelona to Vienna.” Selections include pieces by Beethoven, Giacomo Puccini and Hugo Phillip Jacob Wolf.
•  Feb. 11, 2020 -- “Colburn Onstage: Young Artists from the Colburn School” is a performance from students of The Colburn School, originally established as a preparatory arm of the USC Thornton School of Music. The program includes works by Beethoven, Giovanni Bottesini and Antonin Dvorak.
•  Feb. 24, 2020 -- Reiko Uchida and Che-Yen Chen perform works by Mozart and Rachmaninoff. Uchida is a pianist who has performed extensively as a recitalist and chamber musician throughout the United States; violist Che-Yen Chen is a founding member of the Formosa Quartet and first-prize winner of the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition.
•  Mar. 13, 2020 -- “The Clarinet Through Time: Sheryl & Frank Renk and Friends” features San Diego Symphony Principal Clarinetist Sheryl Renk, San Diego Chamber Orchestra Principal Clarinetist (and San Diego Symphony clarinetist) Frank Renk, San Diego Symphony Viola Principal Chair Chi-Yuan Chen, and pianist Tina Chong performing pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Igor Stravinsky, Darius Milhaud, and Franz Krommer.
•  April 7, 2020 -- The Great Wall Quartet featuring violinist Wei Lu; violinist Qi Zhou; violist Chi-Yuan Chen, who holds the Karen and Warren Kessler Chair as Principal Viola of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra; and Cellist Yao Zhao’s, tenured Principal Cello for the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, perform with Jessie Chang “From Vienna to Paris” featuring works by Beethoven and Ernest Chausson.
•  April 23, 2020 -- Pianist Orion Weiss and violinist Tien-Hsin Cindy Wu return to the ECHO Chamber Music Series for a program titled “Mozart: Volume III” featuring a selection of Mozart sonatas for piano and violin.
•  May 5, 2020 -- San Diego Symphony violinist Julia Pautz and cellist Xian Zhuo of the San Diego Symphony will be joined by pianist Tina Chong to perform works by Mozart, Beethoven and Frederick Chopin.
•  May 19, 2020 -- Camera Lucida takes the stage for a concert titled “Debussy, Mendelssohn, Beethoven.” Camera Lucida includes cellist Charles Curtis, Che-Yen Chen of the Formosa Quartet, San Diego Symphony violinist Jeff Thayer, pianist Reiko Uchida, and clarinetist Anthony McGill.
•  June 4, 2020 -- The season concludes with the Myriad Trio, performing an encore of “A Paris Postcard.” The trio’s award-winning musicians include Che-Yen Chen, a professor of viola at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music; Demarre McGill, principal flutist at the Seattle Symphony; and Julie Smith Phillips, principal harpist at the San Diego Symphony.

 More information about each concert can be found and tickets can be purchased at EchoChamberMusic.org, or by calling (619) 660-4288.