Posted February 19, 2020
DAYTON, OH (February 18, 2020) – On Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 3 pm in the Mimi and Stuart Rose Auditorium of the Dayton Art Institute, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Principal String Quartet and Pianist Joshua Nemith will present Strings and Piano Salon, the first concert in the 2019-2020 Recital Series. The String Quartet comprises four incredibly talented members of the Dayton Philharmonic: Jessica Hung, DPO Concertmaster; Kirstin Greenlaw, Principal Second Violin; Sheridan Currie, Principal Viola; and Jonathan Lee, Principal Cello.
To open the afternoon recital, the DPO Principal Quartet is pleased to present the Pulitzer Prize–winning String Quartet No. 2 by one of America’s most decorated living composers, Aaron Jay Kernis. In addition to being awarded such a prestigious honor for this String Quartet in 1989, Kernis also won a Grammy Award in 2019 in the “Best Contemporary Classical Composition” category for his Violin Concerto. He currently serves on the faculty of Yale University School of Music.
“In choosing contemporary works to showcase on our Recital series, I always have a particular interest in music that is clearly of our time and yet has deep harmonic roots from within the classical tradition that we all know and love,” said DPO Concertmaster Jessica Hung. This quartet, nicknamed “musica instrumentalis,” certainly fits the bill; it is based on baroque dance forms and medieval dance rhythms, as well as the last movement from Beethoven’s Quartet in C major, Op. 59, No. 3. The piece combines familiar elements of classical writing, such as intricate fugal counterpoint, with richer neo-Romantic harmonies.
On the second half of the program, for a bona fide German Romantic work, the strings welcome good friend and colleague DPO Principal Keyboard Joshua Nemith to perform Brahms’ great Piano Quintet in F minor. Known as “the crown of chamber music,” it is a stormy work full of angst and emotional turbulence in the outer movements, while the inner movements, marked “Andante (walking pace)” and “Scherzo (joke),” provide some calm, lyrical respite from the work’s general intensity.
DPAA’s Innovation Partner for this 2019-2020 Titans Season is the DP&L Foundation: Powering Innovation in the Performing Arts.
Tickets for Strings and Piano Salon are $22 for adults and $14 for students, and all tickets are General Admission seating. Tickets are available at Ticket Center Stage (937) 228-3630 or online at www.daytonperformingarts.org. Senior, teacher and military discounts are available at the box office. For more information or to order subscriptions, including flexible subscription types that include performances by Dayton Philharmonic, Dayton Opera and Dayton Ballet, visit www.daytonperformingarts.org.
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About the Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was formed in July 2012 as the result of a groundbreaking and innovative merger between the Dayton Ballet, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra. Together, they are the largest performing arts organization in the community, offering a tremendous variety of performance and education programs and setting a new standard for artistic excellence. Dayton Performing Arts Alliance performances are made possible in part by Montgomery County and Culture Works, the single largest source of community funds for the arts and culture in the Miami Valley. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance also receives partial funding from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency created to foster and encourage the development of the arts and to preserve Ohio’s cultural heritage. Funding from the Ohio Arts Council is an investment of state tax dollars that promotes economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohio residents. In 2013, The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance was thrilled to be one of five performing arts organizations in the country selected to receive a three-year “Music Alive” grant from New Music USA and the League of American Orchestras. The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is the proud recipient of a 2017-2018 Art Works grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.