Next month San Francisco State University (SFSU) will host the eighth Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Seminar and Festival. (The seventh took place three years ago.) The Festival was launched in 2003 to honor the late American violinist’s association with San Francisco (where he was first exposed to the performance of classical music and where he received his first violin lessons) and SFSU. The heart of the event will be a program of three concerts, while the accompanying seminar will cover intensive coaching for ensembles of all ages, public master classes, workshops, and lessons.
All proceedings will be chaired by the members of the Alexander String Quartet, which has an ongoing residency at SFSU. Other members of the faculty and performers will include Roger Woodward, Professor of Piano at SFSU, Toby Appel, Professor of Viola at The Juilliard School, cellist David Requiro, winner of both the Walter M. Naumburg Award and the Irving M. Klein International String Competition, and mezzo Kindra Scharich. More than 50 youth and college students are expected to attend the Seminar.
In addition four emerging ensembles have been selected by the Alexander String Quartet to receive intensive coaching, workshops, and lessons. These are the Arkadas String Quartet, the Allant Trio, the Aleron Trio, and Trio Consonare. They will join the faculty for the performances given on the final day of the Festival. As a result, the program for this final concert has not yet been set; but details for the first two Festival programs may be found on the event page for the Festival on the SFSU Creative State Web site.
The first two concerts will take place at 8 p.m. on February 1 and 2. The final concert will take place on February 3 and will begin at 7 p.m. In addition Seminar master classes will take place on February 2 from 10 a.m. through 3:15 p.m. and February 3 from 1 p.m. through 3:15 p.m. These will be open to the general public. All events will take place in Knuth Hall in the Creative Arts Building of the SFSU campus at 1600 Holloway Avenue near the corner of 19th Avenue. Admission is free for all events. Further information may be obtained by calling 415-338-2467 or by visiting the Festival Web site.
Comments