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Frozen in Time: Wintrous Tempests of Shostakovich and Grieg

  • Arts Club of Washington 2017 I Street Northwest Washington, DC, 20006 United States (map)
Frozen in Time: Wintrous Tempests of Shostakovich and Grieg
$55.00
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Frozen in Time: Wintrous Tempests of Shostakovich and Grieg

Arts Club of Washington

2017 I Street Northwest,
Washington, DC, 20006

Saturday, January 25, 2024

Reception begins at 6:30pm
Concert begins at 7:15pm

EVENT DETAILS

The music of Dmitry Shostakovich represents an outpouring of emotional intensity amidst the suppression and terror of living in a Stalinist dictatorship. Although Shostakovich was never arrested for his compositional output, he was formally denounced by his authoritarian government multiple times for his art, and lived in a state of fear that he would be exiled, just as his grandfather had been decades before. This sense of deep sensitivity, expressed in such a restrained context, lends his music a certain desperation, all the more poignant because it is often found below the surface of an icy exterior. Edvard Grieg expressed his Norwegian heritage through a love of folk music, set in the harmonies and structures of Western musical tradition. More direct in its passionate Romanticism, Grieg’s music nonetheless possesses a certain textural clarity and cool precision, betraying its Scandinavian origin and accentuating its beauty. Like the northern lights themselves, some of the most sublime moments in music can only appear when enveloped by a frigid darkness. 

PLEASE NOTE

The price of your ticket includes hors d’oeuvres and drinks from the open wine and beer bar.

PROGRAM

Shostakovich - Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor, Op. 40

Grieg - Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 36

FEATURED ARTISTS
Featured
Loewi Lin, Cello
Loewi Lin, Cello

Taiwanese-Canadian cellist Loewi Lin grew up in Taiwan and moved to Calgary when he was seven. A graduate of the Cleveland Institute, the University of Ottawa, and New England Conservatory, he has appeared at Carnegie Hall in the New York String Orchestra as well as the Taos School of Music, Tanglewood Music Festival, and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. Loewi lived in Boston for 11 years where he helped found the unique conductor-less chamber orchestra A Far Cry. The group is now an established institution in the music fabric of Boston, with residencies at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the New England Conservatory. In the past, he has played with the Toronto Symphony, Canadian Opera Company, and the Boston Symphony, in addition to teaching at Phillips Exeter Academy. Currently, Loewi is the principal cellist of the Boston Lyric Opera and a member of the National Symphony Orchestra.

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Christopher Schmitt, Piano
Christopher Schmitt, Piano

Described as "carefully colored" and "sensitive" by The Washington Post, pianist Christopher Schmitt was also hailed as a “formidable talent” and “mature beyond his years” by The Santa Barbara News-Press, regarding his performance of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Having completed his doctorate at The Juilliard School in 2016, he has been sponsored for concerts by The Chopin Foundation of the United States, The Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, and The Embassy Series. He performs at the festival Málaga Clasica in Spain, as well as in July of 2016 in his own concert series in Barcelona, Classics in Catalan. A collaborator with cellist Kian Soltani on NPR's Tiny Desk Concerts in March 2019. Dr. Schmitt currently resides in Washington DC, and as pianist of “The President's Own" US Marine Chamber Orchestra, performs regularly in the White House and in concert halls across the Washington DC metropolitan area, leading a multifaceted career as chamber musician, pedagogue, and soloist. In 2024, he founded the Classical Arts Society of Washington, where he hopes to share the Beauty of classical music with the world through engaging public concerts, educational outreach initiatives, and the cultivation of a core community of classical music lovers.

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