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The Phoenix Chamber Music Society, the Valley’s only professional music organization dedicated to the art of chamber music presents its popular Winter Festival from March 2-9, 2017. The weeklong festival showcases seven distinct concerts, featuring a different musical line-up nightly, with each performance at varying venues throughout the Valley. Chamber music lovers can enjoy the combined talents of world-renowned artists and acclaimed touring groups, performing works by Brahms, Shostakovich, Beethoven, Mozart, and Dvořák, including a unique musical theatre production featuring the last years of Brahms in music and words.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call 602-252-0095 or visit www.PhoenixChamberMusicSociety.org.

Winter Festival Schedule:

Thursday, March 2 at 7:30 p.m. – “An Unlikely Muse”

A musical theatre production featuring the last years of Brahms in music and words. Written by Harry Clark and directed by Troy Hollar, featuring Actor, Jack Gilpin, and musicians Melvin Chen on piano, David Shifrin on clarinet, and the Miró Quartet.

Nearing his 60th birthday, Brahms announces he’s done composing, time to relax, take it easy. In a chance encounter, meeting and hearing clarinetist Mühlfeld, his contemplated retirement is shattered, and with renewed zeal he dispatches four seminal works for the instrument, and in so doing the composer simultaneously lays claim to this woodwind as a primary musical voice, and propels its proponent into the rarest musical firmament. This last muse, unanticipated, unassuming in manner, is nonetheless destined to enter Brahms’ most select company of Robert and Clara Schumann, violinist Joseph Joachim, kindred spirits all. Recollecting that fateful first meeting and his eventual ordination into the composer’s inner sanctum, the storyteller never misses the tale’s fundamental truth of the unlikely, felicitous confluence of creator and muse—the indelible creations left us—to enjoy, to savor, to ponder, a last, and lasting testament.

Location: Veritas Preparatory Academy: 3102 N. 56th St., Ste. 100, Phoenix, Ariz. 85018. Tickets are $60.

Friday, March 3 at 7:30 p.m. – Brahms String Sextets

Brahms: String Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18 Brahms String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36

Artists: Martin Beaver on viola, Clive Greensmith on cello, the Miró Quartet featuring Daniel Ching on violin, William Fedkenheuer on violin, John Largess on violin, and Joshua Gindele on cello.

Location: ASU Kerr Cultural Center: 6110 N. Scottsdale Rd., Scottsdale, Ariz. 85253. Tickets are $50.

Saturday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. – Shostakovich, Beethoven and Brahms Piano Trios

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 8 Beethoven: Piano Trio in G Major, Op. 1, No. 2 Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major, Op. 8

Artists: Montrose Trio featuring Jon Kimura Parker on piano, Martin Beaver on violin, and Clive Greensmith on cello.

Location: Camelback Bible Church: 3900 E. Stanford Dr., Paradise Valley, Ariz. 85253. Tickets are $50

Sunday, March 5 at 4 p.m. – Brahms for Violin, Viola and Piano

Brahms: Sonata No. 1 in E Major for Violin and Piano, Op. 78 Brahms: Sonata No. 2 in E-flat Major for Viola and Piano, Op. 120

Artists: Nokuthula Ngwenyama on violin and viola and Sandra Rivers on piano.

Location: Private West Valley home (the address of the venue is revealed upon purchase of the tickets). Tickets are $65 and include wine and hors d’oeuvres with the artists.

Monday, March 6 at 6 p.m. – Brahms for Clarinet and Piano

Brahms: Op. 119 for Piano Brahms: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in F minor, Op. 120, No. 1

Artists: Sandra Rivers on piano and David Shifrin on clarinet.

Location: Private Central Phoenix home (the address of the venue is revealed upon the purchase of the tickets). Tickets are $100 and include a dinner and the concert.

Wednesday, March 8 at 6 p.m. – Beethoven and Mozart for Piano and Winds

Beethoven: Octet for Winds, Op. 103 Mozart: Quintet for Piano and Winds, K. 452 Beethoven: Rondino for Wind Octet, Wo025 Mozart: Serenade for Wind Octet in C. minor, K. 388

Artists: Sandra Rivers on piano, Stephen Taylor on oboe, David Shifrin on clarinet, Julie Feves on bassoon, Frank Morelli on bassoon, William Purvis on horn, and Yale Fellowship Musicians.

Taliesin West: 12621 N. Frank Lloyd Wright Blvd, Scottsdale, Ariz. 85259. Tickets are $75 and include a pre-concert reception with hors d’oeuvres and wine.

Thursday, March 9 at 6 p.m. - “Winds in the Garden”

Beethoven: Sextet for Winds, Op. 71

Poulenc Sonata for clarinet and bassoon

Music for bassoon quartet:

            Prokofiev Scherzo

            Schickele “Last Tango in Bayreuth”

            Gounod “Marche funebre d’une marionette

Dvořák: Serenade for Winds, Op. 44

Artists: Stephen Taylor on oboe, David Shifrin on clarinet, Julie Feves on bassoon, Frank Morelli on bassoon, William Purvis on horn, and Fellowship Students from the Yale School of Music.

Location: Desert Botanical Garden - 1201 N. Galvin Pkwy., Phoenix, Ariz. 85008. Tickets are $80 and include hors d’oeuvres and wine.