Adding It Up: Four Players, Four Eras in Four Presentations

Four distinguished local string musicians present a solo, a duet, a trio and finally a quartet in a concert that begins with the Baroque and ends with a 21st century work by one of the participants, on Monday, May 5 at 8 PM in the Fulkerson Recital Hall on the HSU campus in Arcata.

The players are Cindy Moyer, HSU Professor of Violin, Viola and Music Theory (violin); Karen Davy, who teaches strings at HSU and North Coast Preparatory Academy of the Arts (viola); Halim Beere, concertmaster of the Eureka Symphony (violin); and David Davis, principal cellist of the Eureka Symphony (cello.)

Cindy Moyer begins with the Partita #2 in D Minor, a composition for solo violin by the Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach. Moyer is joined by Karen Davy on viola for Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola by 20th century composer Bohuslav Martinu. Born in Czechoslovakia, Martinu was exiled to the U.S. during World War II, where he wrote this piece in 1947.

Then violinist Halim Beere joins Moyer and Davy for a work by Antonin Dvorak: Terzetto in C Major for Two Violins and Viola. Another Czech composer who came to America but in the late 19th century, Dvorak is known as an exemplar of the Romantic era. This terzetto (a trio for stringed instruments) was also written in the U.S., in 1887.

Cellist David Davis completes the quartet for two selections. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s String Quartet #23 in F Major exemplifies the classical era, while a new work brings the concert into the 21st century: Octogon by violinst Halim Beere. Beere is a recent HSU graduate in composition and violin performance. He will begin graduate studies in composition at the University of Illinois in the fall.

Tickets for the May 5 concert are $8 general, $3 students and seniors, from HSU Ticket Office (826-3928) or at the door.

Media: Eureka Reporter E Magazine May 2-8.