Trinity Alps Musicians to Visit San Francisco

Ever since Director Ian Scarfe founded his Trinity Alps Chamber Music Festival, he has arranged performances in San Francisco featuring Festival musicians. In the past these performances have taken place during the winter months, allowing most of the musicians to make the most of their time “on retreat” from their usual urban life. However, this summer, there will be an intervening weekend between the two weekends scheduled for Festival concerts. During that weekend there will be a special performance for audiences in and near San Francisco.

Opening system of Mendelssohn’s Opus 20 octet (from IMSLP, public domain)

The major work on the program will be Felix Mendelssohn’s Opus 20 octet in E-flat major for double string quartet, which he composed at the age of sixteen in the fall of 1825. The performers will be violinists Emma Steele, Ellen McGehee, Otis Harriel, and Aniela Eddy, violists Paula Karolak and Stephen Fine, and cellists Karl Knapp and Joseph Howe. The program will also include a string quartet by Jessie Montgomery. Both of these compositions will have been performed during the first weekend of the Festival.

That weekend will also feature soprano Jamie-Rose Guarrine, when she will will perform “To Keep the Dark Away,” a new cycle of songs by Scott Gendel based on poems by Emily Dickinson. That performance will be revisited in San Francisco. Accompaniment will be provided by Scarfe at the piano and cellist Knapp, who is Guarrine’s husband. She will also sing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s K. 505 concert aria “Ch'io mi scordi di te?” (will I forget you), which includes an obbligato part for piano. They will be accompanied by the octet of strings, which will work around the pairs of clarinets, bassoons, and horns included in the original score.

As has been the case with Festival-related concerts in the past, the venue will be The Century Club of California, which is located at 1355 Franklin Street, between Post Street and Sutter Street. The performance will begin at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, August 2. Admission will be $25. The purchase of tickets online is being processed through a Groupmuse event page, and Supermusers will be able to pay only $20 for tickets. This will be part of the Massivemuse series of concerts, since most Groupmuse events are house concerts. Note that it will be necessary to register with Groupmuse before the site can process ticket purchases.