Music by a King Highlights Community Chamber Concert

Music fit for a king might describe many classical pieces, especially those commissioned by monarchs and other high officials. But music actually composed by a king is rarely heard. On Friday June 6 at HSU, it will be, as performed by one of three chamber music groups of North Coast commoners to play that evening.

A trio, a string quartet and a brass quintet take the Fulkerson Recital Hall stage on the HSU campus in Arcata, for the third in a series of concerts featuring community chamber music groups.

These groups are composed of North Coast citizens, most of them with jobs and careers unrelated to music, who rehearse and perform for the love of music.

For example, the members of TriMusica are a retired English/French teacher, a physician who is the principal oboist for the Eureka Symphony, and a truck driver and former principal cellist for the Eureka Symphony.

And while the idea of community chamber music groups may suggest programs dominated by safe and familiar music, this concert highlights seldom-performed works and composers.

The TriMuisica trio is oboist (and physician) Ellen Weiss, pianist (and retired teacher) Betty Creaghe, and cellist (and truck driver) Mark Creaghe. They will perform a sonata composed by the “soldier-king” of 18th century Prussia, known as Frederick the Great. Novelist and composer Rupert Hughes called him a “flute player and composer of remarkable skill—for a king.” He wrote some 100 sonatas, though they are rarely heard today.

TriMusica will also perform a sonata by Frederick the Great’s court composer when he was still a crown prince, Johann Gottlieb Graun. Graun was also a violinist (he taught J.S. Bach’s son) and became Konzertmeister of the Berlin Opera.

In addition, TriMusica plays a rare work by contemporary English composer John Rutter. Mostly a choral composer, Rutter’s “Suite Antique” is one of his few instrumental pieces. The trio’s program concludes with “Tango” by late 19th/early 20th century Spanish composer Issac Albeniz, and an Etude by Frederic Chopin.

The Meadowood Quartet makes its second appearance in the community chamber music series: they played in the first one last spring. Members of the string quartet are Betty Bliss (violin) from Redway; Marilyn Page (violin) from Arcata; Stefan Vaughan (viola) from Eureka, and Eric Jones (cello) from McKinleyville. They will perform one of Beethoven’s celebrated early Quartets (Opus 18, Number 4 in C minor), in four movements.

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