Earplay will Conclude Season with Five Premieres

Earplayers conductor Mary Chun, cellist Thalia Moore, violist Ellen Ruth Rose, pianist Brenda Tom, and violinist Terrie Baune (standing) and flutist Tod Brody and clarinetist Peter Josheff (seated) (courtesy of Earplay)

At the end of this month, Earplay will conclude its 33rd season, entitled music without beginning or end, with the last of its three concerts. As in the first two programs, Richard Festinger will again be the featured composer; and all five of the pieces to be offered will be given a premiere of one form or another. That includes Festinger’s contribution, “The Way Things Go,” which will also be the title of the program. Festinger composed this piece in 2006 for flute and piano; but the Earplay performance by Tod Brody and Brenda Tom, respectively, will mark its first performance on the West Coast.

The final work on the program will also be the newest. Jon Yu’s “Pnema,” scored for clarinet and violin, was completed earlier this year and is the latest piece to be written on an Earplay commission. It will be one of two world premiere performances, the other being that of “Night-Voiced,” composed in 2011 for viola and piano by Mark Winges. Finally, there will be two United States premieres. The program will begin with the second piece by Turkish composer Turgut Erçetin to be given the title “Resonances.” This one has the subtitle “Tella.” The earlier piece was scored for three wind players and two brass players, while “Tella” was written for clarinet and string trio. The other United States premiere was composed only for string trio in 2009 by Pablo Ortiz, given the title “and all the phonies go mad with joy.”

This concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, April 30. The venue will be Herbst Theatre, whose entrance is located on the ground floor of the Veterans Building at 401 Van Ness Avenue on the southwest corner of McAllister Street. General admission will be $25 with a $10 rate for students. There will also be a premium rate of $35 for preferred seating in the first two rows. Tickets may be purchased in advance online through a Brown Paper Tickets event page.