Chesapeake Chamber Music Festival 2025
This year’s Festival is generously sponsored by
Maxine Whalen Millar
Norman and Ellen Plummer
Dr. Joseph and Dixie Schulman
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
All program selections are subject to change.
REFLECTION AND CELEBRATION
Week 1
Wednesday, June 4 at 10:00 am
Free Open Rehearsal!
Click the “Buy Tickets” button above to register. Registration required.
Friday, June 6 at 7:30 pm
Doors open at 6:45 pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours including intermission
Price: $70. Click “Tickets” below to purchase.
Free Student and new Chesapeake Music patron BOGO tickets available.
Light reception following the concert
Festival Opening Extravaganza!
Enjoy the elegance and warmth of Boccherini’s Quintet in D Minor, arranged for the oboe by Peggy Pearson and featuring cellists Marcy Rosen and Sterling Elliott. Delight in Schumann’s late trio, Märchenerzählungen (“Fairy Tales”), featuring the unusual combination of clarinet, viola, and piano and described by the composer as “picturesque and fanciful” and “highly romantic.” Discover Amy Beach’s small gem for cello and piano, the song-like “Dreaming,” featuring Sterling Elliott and Albert Cano Smit. The concert closes with Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, a vibrant work filled with rich melodies.
Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805)
Quintet in D Minor, Op. 13, No. 4; G. 280 (arr. Peggy Pearson)
Peggy Pearson, Catherine Cho, Todd Phillips, Marcy Rosen, Sterling Elliott
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Märchenerzählungen (“Fairy Tales”): Four Pieces for Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Op. 132
J. Lawrie Bloom, Zhanbo Zheng, Albert Cano Smit
Amy Beach (1867-1944)
Dreaming for Violoncello & Piano, Op. 15, No. 3
Sterling Elliott, Albert Cano Smit
INTERMISSION
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Piano Trio No. 2 in C Major, Op. 87
Robert McDonald, Catherine Cho, Marcy Rosen
This concert is generously sponsored by
Anonymous
Dede and Marvin Lang
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
Saturday, June 7 at 7:30 pm
Doors open at 6:45 pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours including intermission
Price: $70. Click “Tickets” below to purchase.
Free Student and new Chesapeake Music patron BOGO tickets available.
Hope and Drama
Experience Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, which pays homage to both Mozart and Haydn and offers a study of Mozartian Classical elegance and nascent Beethovian Romanticism. Delight in two short pieces by French pianist and composer Cécile Chaminade, “Automne” and “Autrefois,” featuring Rising Star Albert Cano Smit, and Dvořák’s Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, a work demonstrating the composer’s gift for lyricism, romantic sweep, and exquisite tone.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5
Carmit Zori, Catherine Cho, Todd Phillips, Marcy Rosen
Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944)
Étude de concert, Op. 35, No. 2 “Automne”
Pièce humoristique, Op. 87, No. 4 “Autrefois”
Albert Cano Smit
INTERMISSION
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87; B. 162
Robert McDonald, Carmit Zori, Zhanbo Zheng, Sterling Elliott
This concert is generously sponsored by
Benson and Mangold Real Estate
Maria Grant and John Dean
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
Sunday, June 8 at 5:00 pm
Doors open at 4:15 pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours including intermission
Price: $70. Click “Tickets” below to purchase.
Free Student and new Chesapeake Music patron BOGO tickets available
Masters at Work
Discover Haydn’s Quartet in F Major “Apponyi,” arranged by Peggy Pearson for oboe in place of a violin, a work that is in turn virtuosic, elegant, and lyrical. Experience the art of clarinetist Lawrie Bloom in Mozart’s sublime Clarinet Quintet in A Major, although written in a particularly unhappy period in Mozart’s life. The concert closes with Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, which has become one of his most popular chamber works and was declared by Robert Schumann as “the master trio of our time.”
Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809)
Quartet in F Major, Op. 74, No. 2; Hob. III: 73 “Apponyi” (arr. Peggy Pearson)
Peggy Pearson, Catherine Cho, Zhanbo Zheng, Marcy Rosen
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581
J. Lawrie Bloom, Todd Phillips, Carmit Zori, Zhanbo Zheng, Sterling Elliott
INTERMISSION
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49
Albert Cano Smit, Todd Phillips, Sterling Elliott
This concert is generously sponsored by
Lyn and Andy McCormick
Cecilia and Robert Nobel
Susan and Gillian Silver
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
Week 2
Wednesday, June 11 at 10:00 am
Free Open Rehearsal!
Click the “Buy Tickets” button above to register. Registration required.
Welcome the Juilliard String Quartet at each concert this week!
Thursday, June 12 at 7:30 pm
Doors open at 6:45 pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours including intermission
Price: $70. Click “Tickets” below to purchase.
Free Student and new Chesapeake Music patron BOGO tickets available.
From My Life
The concert opens with Mendelssohn’s moving String Quintet No. 1 in A Major, a tribute to his teacher and friend, violinist Eduard Rietz. Next comes the stunning Trio in E Minor for Flute, Cello and Piano by Louise Farrenc, one of the most celebrated piano virtuosos and composers of her era, and the only woman to work for the Paris Conservatory in the 19th century. The Juilliard String Quartet will close the concert with a captivating rendition of Smetana’s highly autobiographical String Quartet No. 1 “From My Life,” a work capturing in turns his youthful love of dance, Czech culture, the girl he would marry, and ultimately the health tragedy that would overtake him.
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
String Quintet No. 1 in A Major, Op. 18
Catherine Cho, Areta Zhulla, Molly Carr, Daniel Phillips, Astrid Schween
Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)
Trio in E Minor for Flute, Cello and Piano, Op. 45
Tara Helen O’Connor, Marcy Rosen, Evren Ozel
INTERMISSION
Bedřich Smetana (1824-1884)
String Quartet No. 1 in E Minor “From My Life”
The Juilliard String Quartet
This concert is generously sponsored by
Elizabeth Koprowski
Hanna and Peter Woicke
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
Photo courtesy of Colbert Artists Management
Friday, June 13 at 7:30 pm
Doors open at 6:45 pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours including intermission
Price: $70. Click “Tickets” below to purchase.
Free Student and new Chesapeake Music patron BOGO tickets available.
Quartets Old and New
Delight in Mozart’s brilliant Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, written shortly after he completed Le Nozze de Figaro. Discover Jörg Widmann’s String Quartet No. 8 “Study on Beethoven III,” the third in a series of five “Studies on Beethoven” begun in 2019. Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major follows the intermission and includes the original final movement, the Grosse Fuge. It is a profoundly personal work, rich in emotional content, humor, and beauty.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, K. 493
Evren Ozel, Catherine Cho, Daniel Phillips, Marcy Rosen
Jörg Widmann (b. 1973)
String Quartet No. 8 “Study on Beethoven III”
The Juilliard String Quartet
INTERMISSION
String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 and 133
This concert is generously sponsored by
Maria Grant and John Dean
Joyce and Ben Schlesinger
C. Craig Bester and C. Frances Weems
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
Photo courtesy of Colbert Artists Management
Saturday, June 14 at 7:30 pm
Doors open at 6:45 pm
Duration: approx. 2 hours including intermission
Price: $70. Click “Tickets” below to purchase.
Free Student and new Chesapeake Music patron BOGO tickets available.
Festival Finale
Discover the virtuosic Sonata in C-sharp Minor for Flute and Piano by Mel Bonis, a prolific French female composer in the early modern period. The Juilliard String Quartet, Catherine Cho, and Marcy Rosen will surprise you in Arnold Schoenberg’s 1899 Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), an early tonal string sextet, inspired both by a poem of the same name and Schoenberg’s nascent love for his future wife. The Festival closes with an overlooked masterpiece – the energetic and beautiful Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor by French composer Gabriel Fauré.
Mélanie Hélène “Mel” Bonis (1858-1937)
Sonata in C-sharp Minor for Flute and Piano, Op. 64
Tara Helen O’Connor, Evren Ozel
Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), Op. 4
Areta Zhulla, Ronald Copes, Molly Carr, Catherine Cho, Astrid Schween, Marcy Rosen
INTERMISSION
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924)
Piano Quartet No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 45
Evren Ozel, Daniel Phillips, Molly Carr, Marcy Rosen
This concert is generously sponsored by
Anna and Gilbert Snow
Wolf Group Capital Advisors
Chesapeake Music is grateful for their support.
