Valley of the Moon Music Festival to Offer Trio of Winter Concerts

The Green Music Center's intimate 240-seat Schroeder Hall at Sonoma State University is the venue for three winter concerts by artists with Valley of the Moon Music Festival (VMMF). Alongside Festival Founding Directors Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivian, VMMF artists to perform include Elizabeth Blumenstock, Christine Brandes,Monica Huggett, Jodi Levitz, Carla Moore, Axel Straussand Michel Taddei. Each of the concerts concentrates on chamber music by a single composer, performed on period instruments. The concert on January 30 is devoted to Schumann, on February 13 to Schubert, and on March 5 to Beethoven. Each concert in this series falls on a Saturday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are $30 each and may be purchased online at gmc.sonoma.edu.

VMMF's winter concerts belong to one of three event series presented by the Green Music Center this year. "When planning the 2015/16 season, it seemed a natural fit to bring some of the finest presenters of historically-informed performances to play in the intimate setting of Schroeder Hall," said Green Music Center Co-Executive Director Zarin Mehta. "It's a fine partnership, and I look forward to their upcoming performances."

Under the direction of cellist Tomkins and fortepianist Zivian, VMMF will offer three related programs, all devoted to Classical and Romantic music played on the instruments for which it was written, including a Viennese fortepiano from 1841 made by Franz Rausch and restored by Edwin Beunk in the Netherlands.

The concert presented on January 30, titled Schumann, the Intimate Conversationalist, "journeys through several different voices of Schumann," said Tomkins. "To hear his 'Kinderszenen', one of the most popular pieces in the piano repertory, performed on the Franz Rausch fortepiano is a revelation." The other works on the program include Schumann's Piano Trio in G minor and his Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44.

"This is my dream opportunity: playing Schumann with outstanding historically informed performers, on instruments just as Schumann would have heard," said Levitz, former principal viola and soloist with I Solisti Veneti.

"This collaboration of musicians is like a melting pot of stylistic approaches," added violinist Huggett, "the goal being to conjure up the original sound world of Schumann." Huggett is currently artist-in-residence and artistic advisor at The Juilliard School's graduate program in Historical Performance.

The artists performing on January 30 are scheduled to record Schumann's Piano Quintet, among several other works of the composer, at Schroeder Hall later this month. The recording will complete a series of recordings for the Avie label that shed new light onto some beloved chamber music performed on historic instruments. The CD is scheduled for release in time for VMMF's summer season.

The concert on February 13, titled Schubertiade, features a selection of the composer's Lieder featuring soprano Christine Brandes. Other works on the program include Schubert's Sonatina for violin and piano in D major, D. 384, as well as his Trout Quintet.

Finally, the concert on March 5 will feature Tomkins and Zivian performing Beethoven Sonatas for Cello and Piano: the Sonatas in G minor, D major and A major, and Variations in E flat major on "Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen" from Mozart's The Magic Flute.

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