Unique 'Piano Windtet' ensemble 4.1 to Make Detroit Debut

Comprising four wind soloists from top German orchestras and the distinguished pianist Thomas Hoppe, ensemble 4.1 is the only "piano windtet" of its kind, devoting itself to the still undiscovered genre of quintets for piano and winds.

The group makes its first ever Detroit appearance on the Chamber Music Society of Detroit series Saturday, October 7 at Seligman Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills.

Mixing great masterpieces and hidden repertoire gems for this unique chamber music combination, ensemble 4.1 will perform quintets by Mozart, Verhey and Gieseking.

Tickets for the concert, priced at $25 - $65 ($12.50 - $32.50 for students) are available by phone at 313-335-3300 or online at www.CMSDetroit.org.

IF YOU GO:

ensemble 4.1

Saturday, October 7, 2017, 8 PM

A pre-Concert Conversation with the artists on stage begins at 6:45 and is free to ticket-holders.

Seligman Performing Arts Center, 22305 West 13 Mile Road (at Lahser), Beverly Hills

PROGRAM:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Quintet in E-flat major for Piano and Winds, K. 452

Theodor Verhey: Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 20

Walter Gieseking: Quintet in B-flat major for Piano and Winds

Tickets: $25 - $65; half price for students ($12.50 - $32.50) available at www.CMSDetroit.org or 313-335-3300.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS:

Ensemble 4.1 is a one-of-a kind chamber group featuring oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano with musicians from Germany's top orchestras.

The ensemble has earned critical praise for its communicative powers, tonal color and dynamic intensity. In addition to the original masterworks for this instrumentation by Mozart and Beethoven, the ensemble is devoted to discovering rarely played compositions from the Romantic and Modern periods. After many years of silence, the works of such composers as Walther Gieseking, Theodor Verhey, Herrmann Zilcher and Arne Oldberg are again being performed for an enthusiastic public.

Since its inception in 2013, Ensemble 4.1 has crisscrossed the globe and performed in China, Pakistan, Austria, Germany, Algeria, Canada and the United States, in such major cities as Berlin, Istanbul, New York City, Toronto, Ottawa, Karachi, Shanghai and Chengdu. It has appeared with great success at festivals in Denmark and on Malta, as well as at the Kotor Festival in Montenegro.

Thomas Hoppe is a collaborative pianist who has performed with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Tabea Zimmermann and Antje Weithaas. He is pianist of the ATOS Trio, winner of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award (created and managed by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit) and teaches at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Jörg Schneider is Principal Oboe at Jena Philharmonic. Alexander Glücksmann is Principal Clarinet at the Berlin Symphony Orchestra and was Academist at the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Fritz Pahlmann is Principal Horn at Staatskapelle Weimar. Christoph Knitt was bassonist at the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki before becoming Principal Bassoon at the Kammerakademie Potsdam.