String Celebration brings together eight masterful performers for a program that showcases the breadth, beauty, and bravura of chamber music for strings.

The program opens with Shostakovich’s Two Pieces for String Octet, written when the composer was just eighteen. Sharp-edged and intense, these youthful works already reveal the emotional volatility and formal daring that would define his mature style.

Dvořák’s Terzetto in C Major offers a nostalgic shift in scale and timbre. Scored for two violins and viola, it was originally intended for informal “musicking” at home - though its technical demands soon surpassed its amateur origins. With graceful interplay and lyrical warmth, Terzetto weaves a heartfelt musical conversation.

For our grand Finale, all eight musicians join forces for Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major, a work of astonishing brilliance and youthful exuberance. Composed at just sixteen, the Octet merges symphonic grandeur with intricate precision, culminating in an electrifying fugue that brings Season Seventeen to a thrilling close.

Program

SHOSTAKOVICH Two Pieces for String Octet
DVOŘÁK Terzetto in C Major
MENDELSSOHN Octet in E-flat Major

Benjamin Beilman, Erin Keefe, Alexi Kenney & Arnaud Sussmann, violin
Misha Amory & Nicholas Cords, viola
Nina Lee & Edward Arron, cello