• Loud Shirt Quartet - myself and three OSO colleagues played Beethoven 18/6 and Haydn 76/5 at Portland’s Old Church noontime series on November 19th - wearing loud shirts, of course!
• OSO principal violist and I played George Benjamin’s Viola, viola twice this fall, first on a Free Marz concert in September, and at University of Portland in October.
• The Arnica Quartet plays on the OHSU noon series on January 28th - program TBA
• I, along with violinist Shin-young Kwon, cellist Heather Blackburn, and pianist Cary Lewis will perform on the Camerata Northwest concert in Seattle on March 21st - a program of french music TBA
• The Arnica Quartet plays a concert on the Camerata Musica series in Salem, Oregon on April 26th.

The program will include works by Shostakovich (Viola Sonata), Schumann (Adagio and Allegro), Piazzolla (Grand Tango), and a world premiere of a new piece - Concilience for viola and piano by Sara Carina Graef.

The esteemed pianist Cary Lewis will lend legitimacy to the whole affair.

Admission is free.

Click here for more information.

I’ll also be playing the Mendelssohn Octet with colleagues from the Oregon Symphony (including our new concertmaster Jun Iwasaki) at the Portland Community Music Center on April 4th at 7:30 p.m.

More info here.

I’m also planning a recital for June 1, 2008. The program will include the Shostakovich Sonata and Joan Tower’s Wild Purple for solo viola. The recital will be at 2 p.m. and take place at the Portland Community Music Center. More details to follow.

What’s next? I’m working on Daniel Ott’s Parting for solo viola, as well as Dorothy Chang’s Streams, and will finally premiere Sara Carina Graef’s viola/piano piece this spring as well (I promise!). Also, Joan Tower’s Wild Purple and the Shostakovich Sonata for the Max Aronoff Viola Institute concert series this June.

Recitals:  I’d like to do a recital of the three pieces that I commissioned back in 04-05, in preparation for recording them.  In addition, I’m interested in exploring a couple established pieces from my repertoire, and maybe adding a couple more, on a separate recital.

Chamber Music:  Arnica will be back - we did a concert at the Salem Library again this year - it was September 16th.  We played the Haydn Op. 20 no. 4, the Debussy Quartet, and the Brahms Piano Quintet with guest artist Cary Lewis.  We’ll be repeating the Brahms on the Old Church noontime concert series on January 23rd, 2008.  We’re also planning on learning the Janacek 2nd Quartet “Intimate Letters” along with perhaps Brahms 2nd Quartet and some Beethoven.  Stay tuned.

I’m also planning on doing some sort of Brahms “marathon” concert - with the sonatas for strings, some quintets, trios and other assorted goodies (maybe some piano music?).  I’m hoping that this can happen in February - most likely as a benefit for the Portland Community Music Center - so watch this space for more info!

Admission will be by donation to benefit the Community Music Center.

Without further ado, here are my guest artists and what we’ll be playing:

David Buck, flute
Shin-young Kwon, violin
Karen Wagner, oboe
Cary Lewis, piano

Ludwig van Beethoven Serenade, op. 25 for flute, violin and viola
Henri Vieuxtemps Capriccio, op. posth. for solo viola
Charles Martin Loeffler - Two Rhapsodies for oboe, viola and piano
Zoltan Kodaly - Adagio for viola and piano
Henri Vieuxtemps - Elegy, op. 30 for viola and piano

Here I am (lower left corner) with Itzhak Perlman conducting Saturday night - what fun!

We’ll be presenting the Debussy quartet and Beethoven’s Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 18 no. 6.

It is part of a project to present classical music in unconventional settings for people that aren’t normally concertgoers. As soon as I get word of a performance time, I’ll post an update.