Intimate Music Series springs forth March 20th (WU-242)

The Intimate Music Series will be performing its eighth concert of chamber music at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church at 7pm on Sunday, March 20th. The five instrumentalists call the evening: “String Quartet + One”. Tickets are available at the door.

They will play a program including Francois Couperin, Dimitri Shostakovich, Malcolm Forsyth, and Claude Debussy, all for string quartets except for the quintet by Forsyth. This concert will differ a bit from previous concerts that often had a variety of genres in addition to classical. This time, the concert will feature the “Beau” string quartet plus Jonathan Green on bass.

In this fascinating 13-minute podcast interview with series coordinator Amy Duerr-Day and Seattle Symphony violinist Stephen Bryant, we learn something of the history of string quartets originating with Haydn, then Beethoven and Mozart , and subsequently proliferating.

Chamber music, originally performed mostly in elegant homes as after-dinner entertainment in Europe, has widely become a delightful way to appreciate music written for and played by a small number of instruments, often strings. Playing chamber music requires special skills different from those required for solos or symphonic works. Often, chamber music musicians play for the sheer enjoyment of the music, and want to share the lovely music with others. This is very true of the Beau Quartet, a group of professional musicians, who generously share their love of chamber music with music lovers on Bainbridge Island.

The Beau Quartet features distinguished professional musicians: Stephen Bryant (violin); Rachel Pearson (violin); Sue Jane Bryant (viola); and Joy Payton (cello).
Plus one: Jonathan Green (bass).

This podcast includes a musical interlude: a 90-second segment of the Shostakovich piece that Stephen Bryant and Joy Payton performed for prison inmates when they voluntarily brought their music to two Puget Sound area prisons.

The fifth instrumentalist on March 20th is Jonathan Green. He joined the Seattle Symphony as Assistant Principal Bass in 1998. Jonathan says: “The life of a symphony musician is very busy. A regular week will often have three concerts, four rehearsals and a recording session. When you add in other gigs, driving to soccer practices, gymnastics and horseback riding lessons, walking the dog, cooking and practicing, there isn’t much time left in the day. In my world, my family comes first, my job comes second, and my personal pursuits come third.”

He adds: “When we started our family, my wife Brenda and I made an agreement that we would take no outside responsibilities until the youngest of our three children made it to elementary school. When our son Mason, now 11, was in the 2nd grade, I figured I was ready to become more active in my community on Bainbridge Island. The question was, where should I put my energies: from the arts to education, social services to the environment, there was no shortage of non-profit organizations that needed volunteers. That’s when I got a call from a friend asking me to join the board of One Call for All, a Bainbridge Island non-profit organization that, for more than fifty years, has raised money for more than 80 other non-profit agencies that serve our island community. At One Call I found the answer to my question; instead of choosing one organization for which to volunteer, I chose one that helped lots of organizations.”

Jonathan continues: “I’ve met scores of people committed to making our community a better place by maintaining parks, supporting farms, helping senior citizens and providing services for troubled teenagers. The passion of these volunteers is contagious.” Next year will be Jonathan’s 5th year on the board, and his 2nd year as president.

Credits: BCB host: Channie Peters; BCB audio editor and social media publisher: Barry Peters.