The San Francisco Early Music Society Presents Musicians From Valley Of The Moon Music Festival

The San Francisco Early Music Society (SFEMS) is pleased to welcome back Musicians from Valley of the Moon Music Festival in an all-Brahms program featuring Boston-based contralto Emily Marvosh. This concert will take place at 7:30 p.m., March 16, at St. John's Presbyterian Church in Berkeley. Individual tickets, $12 to $45, are available for purchase online at sfems.org.

As the first and only organization in the U.S. devoted to presenting the chamber music of the Classical and Romantic eras performed on period instruments, Valley of the Moon Music Festival aims to bring to light the radical difference of this repertoire when played on the instruments for which it was written. Founded in 2014 by cellist Tanya Tomkins and fortepianist Eric Zivian, Valley of the Moon Music Festival presents a concert series in Sonoma each July. Musicians with Valley of the Moon Music Festival also regularly perform at the Green Music Center. Last year the Musicians made a thrilling debut at the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition presented by SFEMS.

Marvosh has earned wide recognition for her sterling voice and graceful allure, performing at Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Disney Hall, Lincoln Center, Prague's Smetana Hall and Vienna's Stefansdom, among many others. Following her solo debut at Boston's Symphony Hall in 2011, she has been a frequent soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society. Her awards include the prestigious Adams Fellowship at the Carmel Bach Festival, the American Prize in the Oratorio and Art Song divisions, and second place in the New England Regional NATSAA competition. Marvosh can be heard on two recent Grammy-nominated recordings: Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem with Seraphic Fire, and Prayers and Remembrances with True Concord Voices and Orchestra.

Marvosh will take the stage alongside Zivian and violist Jodi Levitz in Brahms' Two Songs for alto, viola and piano. Also on the program is Brahms' Horn Trio featuring Sadie Glass on the natural horn, Owen Dalby on violin and Zivian on fortepiano. The concert concludes with Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor with violinist Bettina Mussumeli joining Levitz, Tomkins and Zivian.

For more information about Musicians from Valley of the Moon Music Festival, visit valleyofthemoonmusicfestival.org.

Founded in 1975, SFEMS is one of the nation's leading organizations for the advancement of historically informed performance of early music. Through its concert series, publications, outreach activities, affiliate support and educational programs SFEMS encourages the development of amateurs, supports professionals, and increases public involvement and participation in early music. SFEMS is the lead presenter of the Berkeley Festival & Exhibition of early music.

Among the hundreds of ensembles and solo artists SFEMS has supported over four-plus decades are many whose national or regional debuts occurred under its auspices: Anonymous 4, Benjamin Bagby, Frans Br ggen, Concerto Palatino, Fretwork, Laurette Goldberg, Hilliard Ensemble, John Holloway, Emma Kirkby & Anthony Rooley, Wieland Kuijken, Gustav Leonhardt, PAN, Joshua Rifkin, Jordi Savall, Max Van Egmond and Vox Luminis, to name a few.