The Spokane String Quartet opens its 2023-24 season at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 24, at the Fox Theater with brilliant young pianist Evren Ozel and works by Brahms, Schumann and Chopin.
Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID. Click here to buy tickets. All seats are general admission.
American pianist Evren Ozel has established himself as a musician of “refined restraint” (Third Coast Review), combining fluent virtuosity with probing, thoughtful interpretations. Having performed extensively in the United States and abroad, Evren is the recipient of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and is currently represented by Concert Artists Guild as an Ambassador Prize Winner of their 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition. Since his debut at age 11 with the Minnesota Orchestra, Evren has gone on to be a featured soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony and the Boston Pops Orchestra. In the 2023-24 season, he will record Mozart Concertos with the Radio Symphonieorchester Wien and conductor Howard Griffiths for the Next Generation Mozart Soloists project based in Zurich, Switzerland.
Sunday’s program features:
- Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25
- Robert Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-Flat Major, Op. 44
- Frederic Chopin: Solo piano pieces
The concert features two masterpieces of chamber music – Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet No. 1, and Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet. In many ways, these compositions are united by Robert’s wife Clara, a brilliant pianist of the time who performed the piano part at the public premiere for both pieces. Much has been written about the depth of the friendship and artistic inspiration between Robert, Clara and Johannes. Robert dedicated his Quintet to Clara, and Brahms claimed that he thought of Clara in every measure while composing the Piano Quartet. Sunday’s concert explores the creativity and passion of these Romantic Era composers as they emerge from the shadow cast by Beethoven.