The Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia will present nine programs in its 2021-22 season, including five premieres and a number of works by female composers and contemporary composers of African, Latino and Asian descent.
Featured performers include violinists Johnny Gandelman and Njioma Grevious, flutist Mary Boodell, harpist Charles Overton and the Thalea String Quartet.
Bracketing the season’s programs are two chamber masterpieces by Schubert: the String Quartet in C major, D. 956, and Octet in F major, D. 803, for strings and winds. An ensemble also will play Dvořák’s “American” Quartet (the F major, Op. 96).
The society also will continue its baroque programming, with a 15-member orchestra of period instruments playing works by Vivaldi, Pachelbel and other composers of the late-17th and early 18th centuries.
Mid-20th-century works by Amy Beach and Florence Price, contemporary pieces by Angélica Negrón, David Bruce and Onuté Narbutaitė, and the premiere of a work by Shuying Li will be featured.
Four composers with Richmond roots – Antonio Garcia, Anthony Smith, Zachary Wadsworth and Donovan Williams – will introduce works inspired by Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition,” launching “Our Pictures,” a multi-year Chamber Music Society commissioning project, in one of three free concerts in the Gellman Room of the Richmond Public Library’s downtown main branch.
Other performances are scheduled at four Richmond area churches – Seventh Street Christian, Trinity Lutheran, First Unitarian Universalist and the Church of the Holy Comforter, Episcopal – and Historic Mankin Mansion.
Adult single tickets are $30; student tickets are $5. For more information, call (804) 304-6312 or visit http://cmscva.org
The Chamber Music Society’s 2021-22 artists and programs:
Sept. 18 (2 p.m., Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets) – Thalea String Quartet. Program TBA. Free.
Sept. 19 (4 p.m., Seventh Street Christian Church, Grove and Malvern avenues) – Thalea String Quartet; James Wilson, cello. Schubert: String Quintet in C major, D. 956; Daniel Bernard Roumain: Quartet No. 5 (“Parks”). $30.
Oct. 17 (4 p.m., Trinity Lutheran Church, 2915 N. Parham Road) – Johnny Gandelsman & Njioma Grevious, violins; Jordan Bak, viola; James Wilson, cello; Mary Boodell, flute. Amy Beach: Theme and Variations, Op. 80, for flute and string quartet; Florence Price: Quartet in A minor; Dvořák: Quartet in F major, Op. 96 (“American”). $30.
Oct. 18 (7 p.m., Historic Mankin Mansion, 4200 Oakleys Lane) – Johnny Gandelsman, violin. Angélica Negrón: “A través del manto luminoso;” other contemporary works TBA. $30.
March 5 (2 p.m., Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets) – Angela Lehman & Chioke l’Anson, writers/speakers; musicians TBA. “Our Flavors.” Program TBA. Free.
March 6 (4 p.m., Seventh Street Christian Church, Grove and Malvern avenues) – Charles Overton, harp; Mary Boodell, flute; Njioma Grevious, violin; Melissa Reardon, viola. Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp; Saint-Saëns: Fantaisie, Op. 124, for violin and harp; David Bruce: “Eye of Night” for flute, viola and harp; Onuté Narbutaitė: “Winterserenade” (after Schubert’s “Gute Nacht”) for flute, violin and viola. $30.
April 11 (7 p.m., Church of the Holy Comforter, Episcopal, Monument Avenue at Staples Mill Road) – period-instrument orchestra; musicians TBA. Works TBA by Pachelbel, Fasch, Pisendel, Vivaldi. $30.
May 14 (2 p.m., Gellman Room, Richmond Public Library, First and Franklin streets) – Musicians TBA. “Our Pictures,” premieres of works by Antonio Garcia, Anthony Smith, Zachary Wadsworth, Donovan Williams. Free.
May 15 (4 p.m., First Unitarian Universalist Church, 1000 Blanton Ave. at the Carillon) – Suliman Tekalli, violin; Celia Hatton, viola; Seth Parker Woods, cello; David Lemelin, clarinet; Kevin Newton, French horn; other musicians TBA. Schubert: Octet in F major, D. 803; Shuying Li: “The Eight Immortals and the Sea” (premiere). $30.
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