Saturday night was the performance at The Seasons performance hall in Yakima, Washington. It was a great chance to play wonderful music with great friends and colleagues, especially violinist Denise Dillenbeck (nee Huizenga), who was formerly a violinist with the Oregon Symphony and founding violinist of the Ethos Quartet with Lisa Hansen, myself, and Heather Blackburn. It was a joy to share chamber music making with Denise again!
There was an audience of about 100 at the hall for the concert, and they were a great audience – listening intently to everything, and giving wonderful and warm receptions to each of the pieces. There was even a good-sized contingent of violists from Central Washington University – nice!
Making the entire experience even better, the hall (a former Christian Science church) is acoustically excellent – it made me wish that we had such a wonderful chamber music sized hall for both audience and performers in Portland.
What’s next? The Oregon Symphony begins rehearsals for next weekend’s classical subscription series concert. It’s a biggie. Elgar’s sprawling tone poem Falstaff, along with Mozart’s ‘Prague’ Symphony, Ravel’s Menuet Antique, and music from Walton’s Henry V Suite.