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Community Corner

Eos Ensemble

Del Valle
Fine Arts concludes their 2013-2014 season by presenting the Eos Ensemble at
the Bankhead Theater on Saturday, April 26 at 8:00 pm. Their program consists
of works by Mozart, Turina and Brahms.



Formed 10
years ago by violinist Craig Reiss, this piano, violin, viola and cello ensemble is an exciting chamber music
group from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.  



The Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat, K. 493 by Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart, as a
chamber music ensemble, is for some reason less often heard, and composed for,
than the piano trio or quintet.  In the
37 years of Del Valle Fine Arts concerts, a piano quartet has only performed
once before, in 1989.  This second rare
appearance of four talented performers thus deployed will bring exceptional
music to the Bankhead Theater. The Mozart quartet dates from the earliest days
of the invention of the pianoforte, and the keyboard instrument (played by
Mozart himself at the piece’s debut) is certainly the featured star.  This piece has the flavor of a chamber
version of the many path-breaking concerti for piano and orchestra he would soon
begin writing.

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 The 20th
century Piano Quartet in A minor, Op.67 by Joaquin
Turina is a more balanced conversation among the four voices, and it is Spanish
to its core – intense and romantic, then bubbling with lively folk tunes.



 In any
survey of the piano quartet literature, the Piano
Quartet No.1 in G minor by Brahms would rank at or near the top.  It is a big, serious and imaginative
masterwork.  Arnold Schoenberg thought so
highly of it that he referred to it as “Brahms’ Fifth Symphony”. He backed his
opinion by producing a highly-regarded full orchestration of the piece,
outraging purists by including a very un-Brahmsian xylophone in the last
movement, an exciting Gypsy rondo. This was an early use by Brahms of Hungarian
folk melodies, a source of inspiration that would years later give birth to his
much-loved Hungarian Dances.

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Mr. Reiss is
a member of the SF Opera Symphony and Associate Principal Second Violin of the
SF Ballet Orchestra. After receiving his BA at Boston University, working under Rafael Druian, he became an Associate of London’s
Royal College of Music studying under Trevor Williams. He has been a featured
soloist with the SF Ballet Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra and the
Carmel Bach Festival.



 Currently the Coordinator of Keyboard Studies at San Jose
State University School of Music and Dance, pianist Gwendolyn Mok began her
career at the Juilliard School of Music. She attended Yale University, where
she completed her undergraduate studies, and State University of New York at
Stony Brook, where she gained her Doctorate. From there she went on to win
several piano competitions. Born in New York, Ms. Mok has appeared in many of
the world's leading concert halls including 
Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall and The Hong Kong Performing Arts Center. 



 



Violist Caroline Lee has performed
throughout the US and Canada as an orchestral player as well as a chamber
musician and recitalist. Currently a member of the SF Ballet orchestra and a
regular sub of the SF Opera Orchestra, she has been a member of the Kansas City
Symphony for eight years and has performed regularly with the Chicago symphony
and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Ms. Lee
received her bachelor in music degree at the University of Michigan and her
masters and Artist Diploma at Yale School of Music and has studied with
Heiichiro Ohyama, Donald McInnes, Yizhak Schotten, and Jesse Levine.



Thalia Moore, cellist, began her cello
studies with Robert Hofmekler, and after only 5 years appeared as soloist with
the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington at the Kennedy Center. She
attended Juilliard School of Music. While there, she was the recipient of the
Walter and Elsie Naumberg Scholarship and won first prize in the National Arts
and Letters String Competition. Since
1982, Ms. Moore has been Associate Principal Cellist of the SF Opera Orchestra,
and in 1989 joined the cello section of the SF Ballet Orchestra. She has
continued to concertize extensively, appearing as soloist at Avery Fisher Hall,
Carnegie Recital Hall, Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Herbst Theater and the
San Francisco Legion of Honor. 



San Francisco Classical Voice
noted that “…the group’s collective momentum was thrilling....  Every little detail was perfectly in place
and meticulously balanced….  They played with
genuine depth and power….  “ .  Recently
Eos was featured on the radio program West
Coast Live
.



Tickets are $35/$29/$23 and are available at
the Bankhead box office, 2400 First Street in Livermore, by phone at (925)
373-6800 or online at www.mylvpac.org.  High school students are free but tickets
must be arranged by calling or going to the box office. College students are
$10 on the day of the performance.



 

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