New name and line-up for chamber music group

Summer music series kicks off in one week

The summer of 2008 brings a new season and a new name for the Tahoe Chamber Music Society — formerly the Incline Chamber Music Society.

The new name is meant to reflect a broader reach than just Incline, said member Aaron Paxson.

“I’ve received phone calls from people in Fernley asking when the program was,” Paxson said. “If you’re getting people as far away as Fernley, it’s more than just local.”

The society has a long history of providing the North Lake Tahoe area with classical music. In 1974, the North Lake Tahoe Symphony Society was formed and continued with varying degrees of success until 1998, when the organization reconstituted itself and changed its name to Incline Chamber Music Society.

Its mission became a more limited one: to provide live classical chamber music programs on mid-summer Sunday afternoons.

Summer 2008 will be the eleventh season using the chamber music format.

“We do put on very good concerts,” Paxson said. “The repertoire is good and we pay a lot of attention to getting quality performers and how we can make it a better experience.”

The next big change for the summer will be a change in venue — from the Donald W. Reynolds Community Non-Profit Center to St. Francis of Assisi Roman Catholic Church. The venue change will allow more people to attend the concerts, Paxson said.

“Filling our newly renovated church with the beauty of chamber music, while welcoming those who seek the joy of live music, is a most fitting way to share our sacred environment,” said Father William Nadeau, Pastor of St. Francis of Assisi. “We are especially pleased to partner with the Tahoe Chamber Music Society who has been offering free concerts of the highest quality to locals and visitors alike for over 10 years.”

In the Parasol building the society could only seat 170 people, now the concerts can welcome as many as 300 people.

“We never turned anyone away but time to time people ended up standing or even sitting on the stairway to hear the music,” Paxson said.

This year’s season begins July 13 with A Trio of Lenz. Three members of the Lenz family of Reno, Ruth Lenz, violin, Peter Lenz, cello, and Andrea Lenz, piano, will include the Trio in G minor by Bedrich Smetana and the Trio in c minor of Felix Mendelssohn on their program.

On July 20, the SONOS Handbell Ensemble will present Music of Three Worlds. The professional ensemble, with James Meredith as Artistic director and Conductor combines handbells with other musical instruments to provide a wide-ranging set of timbres as well as musical styles.

“They are good,” Paxson said. “You can listen to them for an entire concert and go away wanting more.”

Works on their program include arrangements of Wm Billings, Bach, Mozart, Traditional Japanese tunes, American folk songs, Gershwin, Charles Ives, Edward MacDowell, and spirituals.

Back by popular demand, July 27 features Kay Stern, violin, concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, and Joan Nagano, piano. They have been regulars on the series since 2003. The program will include sonatas by Boccherini, Beethoven, and Poulenc.

On August 3, the Ariel Ensemble (string quartet plus oboe) from the Sacramento area will appear. The ensemble is led by William Barbini, violin, and includes Kineko Okumura, violin, Paul Ehrlich, viola, Victoria Ehrlich, cello, and Shea Scruggs, oboe. Scruggs is principal oboist of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. They will perform two oboe quartets, the Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio by Benjamin Britten and a quartet by Franz Krommer, a Czech composer. Krommer was a contemporary of Mozart and Haydn, and his chamber music was as popular in his day as that of his more famous contemporaries. The String Quartet, Op. 59, No. 2, by Beethoven will close the concert.

Departing a bit from concert form August 10 will feature the Great Basin Brass Quintet. The ensemble makes appearances regularly at the Reno Artown Festival every July.

“I try to get a variety of instruments and combinations and quality performances,” Paxson said.

The final concert of the season on August 17 features Richard Cionco, piano. Mr. Cionco will include the Beethoven piano Sonata No. 32, as well as some Beethoven Bagatelles, and a 2007 composition by the young American composer Sunny Knable.

Most of the guest artists over the years in the chamber music concerts have been on the music faculties of universities and colleges, and/or perform regularly with symphony orchestras. The programs strive for a variety of instruments and instrumental combinations in the concerts, as well as an element of music education through program notes, written as well as delivered orally by the performers.

These concerts have been funded, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.

For information call 775-831-2298. Admission to the concerts is free, but society does accept donations.