MUSIC
River Rhapsodies lineup
The Arkansas Symphony is moving its River Rhapsodies chamber music series to its new Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, on the Heifer Project campus in Little Rock’s East Village, for the 2024-25 season, and adding performances.
Previous concerts at the nearby Clinton Presidential Center were on Tuesday nights. The orchestra will be adding Wednesday performances for four of the six concerts on the schedule.
The lineup (all concerts at 7 p.m.):
◼️ Oct. 1-2: The orchestra’s Rockefeller Quartet plays the String Quartet No. 2, “Intimate Letters,” by Leoš Janácek. The Quapaw Quartet plays String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, op.74, “Harp,” by Ludwig van Beethoven. And Andrew Stadler and Carl Mason, trumpets; David Renfro, horn; Michael Underwood, trombone; Ed Owen, tuba; and Alisa Coffey, harp, perform “Variations on the ‘Vysehrad’ Theme” (from Bedrich Smetena’s “Ma Vlast”) by Jan Koetsier.
◼️ Nov. 5: Cellist Andrei Ionita, one of the two season’s “Artists of Distinction,” joins Meredith Maddox Hicks and Katherine Williamson, violins; Katherine Reynolds and Timothy MacDuff, violas; and David Gerstein, cello, for the “Souvenir de Florence” sextet by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky. The program also includes two piano trios: “A Thousand Mornings” by Anna Clyne, with Geoffrey Robson, violin; Gerstein, cello; and Hee-Kyung Juhn, piano; and “Cafe Music” by Paul Schoenfield, with Lauren Pokorzynski, violin; Travis Scharer, cello; and Naoki Hakutani, piano.
◼️ Jan. 28: Pianist Zee Zee, the other “Artist of Distinction,” and the Rockefeller Quartet play the Piano Quintet, op.67, by Amy Beach. Also on the program: The Quapaw Quartet performs the String Quartet No. 3 by Béla Bartók and Leanna Renfro, oboe; David Renfro, horn; and May Tsao-Lim, piano, perform the Trio for Oboe, Horn and Piano, op.61, by Heinrich von Herzogenberg.
◼️ Feb. 25-26: The Quapaw Quartet plays Jennifer Higdon’s “Southern Harmony”; Tatiana Kotcherguina, viola, and Gjergji Gaqi, piano, perform “Pasodoblis” by Faustas Latenas; Alisa Coffey, harp; Carolyn Brown, flute; and Timothy MacDuff, viola, perform the “Elegiac Trio” by Arnold Bax; violinists Andrew Irvin, Algimantas Staskevicius and Linnaea Brophy play Capriccio No. 1 for Three Violins by Friedrich Herman; and Robson and violinist Katherine Williamson, MacDuff and Gerstein play the String Quartet No. 2 by Alberto Ginastera.
◼️ March 18-19: Mezzo-soprano Nisheedah Golden and bass player Sara Neilson perform “Baby Steps” by Sarian Sankoh. Mezzo-soprano Sarah Dailey and the Quapaw Quartet perform Samuel Barber’s “Dover Beach.” Mezzo-soprano JoAna Rusche sings the aria “Non ti lusinghi la crudeltade” from Antonio Vivaldi’s opera “Tito Manlia” with Lorraine Duso Kitts, oboe; Julian Pranata, viola de gamba; and Daniel Gibert, harpsichord. Soprano Stephanie Smittle and pianist Carl Anthony collaborate on Franz Schubert’s song “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”). And Kiril Laskarov and Katherine Williamson, violins; Gerstein, cello; Anthony, piano; and a double-bassist to be named later, perform Schubert’s Piano Quintet in A major, “The Trout,” which includes variations on the song in its fourth movement.
◼️ April 15-16: Violinist Andrew Irvin and pianist Jaeyeon Park play the Violin Sonata No. 3 in d minor, op.101, by Johannes Brahms. Magdalena Ryszkowski, violin, and Hee-Kyung Juhn, piano, play the Violin Sonata No. 1 in A major by Gabriel Fauré. And the Rockefeller Quartet plays the String Quartet No. 2 by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Tickets are $30; however, the orchestra employs “dynamic” pricing for its chamber series, based on demand; given the orchestra’s practice during its 2023-24 season, prices are likely to increase the closer you get to the concert. Call (501) 666-1761, Extension 1, or visit ArkansasSymphony.org.
Cory Mixdorf, principal trombone of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, solos with the orchestra Feb. 16 in the Trombone Concerto by Launy Grøndahl. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
SoNA season
The Symphony of Northwest Arkansas opens its 70th season, 7:30 p.m. Sept. 21 in Baum Walker Hall at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., with a concert titled “Oceans of Time: Orchestral Evolutions.”
The program includes the world premiere of Aldo Lopez-Gavilan’s “Oceans to Cross” with piano soloist Lara Downes, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Antonin Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8. Music Director Paul Haas conducts.
The rest of the lineup (except as noted, all concerts, 7:30 p.m. in Baum Walker Hall with Haas on the podium):
◼️ Nov 9: “Futuristic Fantasia: SoNA Goes Sci-Fi!,” pops concert featuring selections from science-fiction movie soundtracks, including “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Star Wars,” “Star Trek,” “E.T.” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.”
◼️ Dec. 7, 2 and 7:30 p.m.: “A Very SoNA Christmas,” sacred and secular holiday favorites with soloists, the SoNA Singers and college choruses.
◼️ Dec. 8, 2 p.m.: “The Snowman: A Family Concert,” annual screening of the animated movie “The Snowman” with live orchestral soundtrack (not part of the subscriber series).
◼️ Feb. 16, 2 p.m.: “Jupiter Rising.” Cory Mixdorf, trombone. Elena Kats-Chermin: “Russian Rag”; Osvaldo Golijov: “Tenebrae”; Launy Grøndahl: Trombone Concerto; Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No. 41 in C major, “Jupiter.”
◼️ April 19: “American Voices: Rhapsody in Blue.” Stewart Goodyear, piano. William Grant Still: Symphony No. 1 (“Afro-American Symphony”); George Gershwin: “Rhapsody in Blue”; Florence Price: Symphony No. 1 in e minor.
Season subscriptions, $158-$264 ($84 for students with valid ID), include all five MainStage concerts (but not “The Snowman: A Family Concert”). A sampler subscription, in which patrons can choose three or four of the five concerts, start at $99. Single tickets are $37-$62 ($10 for “The Snowman”) with discounts for students and free to children under 18 with the purchase of an adult ticket. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit sonamusic.org.
