Santa Barbara Music Club Free Concert May 4, 2024

The Santa Barbara Music Club presents more exquisite classical music on Saturday, May 4, at 3:00 pm, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Dr., Santa Barbara. For details and directions, see www.SBMusicClub.org.  Admission is free and parking is ample and convenient.

The program will feature five pieces by Ukrainian composers for piano quartet performed by Gulia Gurevich, violin; Alexander Gurevich, viola; Virginia Kron, cello; and Myroslava Kisilevitch, piano.  The pieces include Mykola Lysenko’s “Sorrow” Elegy for viola and piano, Vasy Barvinsky’s
Lyrist Song, Variation III from Piano Sextet, Victor Kosenko’s Courante in E minor from Eleven Etudes in the Form of Old Dances, “Dreams” for violin and piano, Stanislav Lyudkevych’s Chabavarashka for violin and piano, and Myroslav Skoryk’s Dance from Hutsul Triptych for violin and piano, Burlesque for piano and Melody for violin, viola, ‘cello and piano.

The program will also include Virginia Kron, ‘cello, and Leslie Hogan, piano, performing Air on Seurat (The Grand Canal) by Stephen Paulus, Cool Front, written for Virginia Kron by Leslie Hogan, and Lament (premiere) by Jimmy Calire.  Of Air on Seurat, Stephen Paulus writes:

Air on Seurat originally began as a song cycle.  In 1983 the Schubert Club of St. Paul celebrated their 100th anniversary by commissioning my Artsongs, a seven movement cycle for tenor and piano on poems about famous works of art.  The middle song is entitled Seurat.  In 1991 I was contacted by the National Society of Arts and Letters and commissioned to write a work for their ‘cello composition to be held in May, 1992.  They specifically requested that the work be about seven minutes in duration, lyrical, and of no more than medium difficulty. With the ‘cello being the “tenor” of string instruments, I chose to adapt Seurat for  ‘cello and piano.  The original poem by Ira Sadoff is entitled Seurat: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Le Grand Jette in which he muses on the famous painting by Seurat.  It is a moving, nostalgic poem which inspired me to make the musical setting not only lyrical in style, but also somewhat haunting and impressionistic.

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Santa Barbara Music Club concerts display a wonderful diversity of historical musical periods and compositional styles, including beloved masterworks and exciting new and seldom-heard repertoire. Of the series, the Santa Barbara Independent exclaimed: “A beautiful day, a beautiful room, beautiful music … who could ask for more?” and Gerald Carpenter in Noozhawk.com declared, “Every Santa Barbara Music Club concert that I have ever attended has been a sensory joy as well as a consciousness expansion.”

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A valued cultural resource in the community since 1969, the Music Club’s mission is threefold:

(1) Presentation of an annual series of concerts, free to the public.

(2) Aiding and encouraging musical education by the disbursement of scholarships to talented local music students.

(3) Presentation of community outreach activities, including bringing great music to residents of area retirement homes.

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DIRECTIONS TO ST. ANDREW’S PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

101 – exit Turnpike.

From north -turn RIGHT.

From south – turn LEFT.

Turn LEFT onto Hollister.

Stay in RIGHT LANE & go 3 streets.  Auhay is after PUENTE.

Turn RIGHT onto Auhay, then turn RIGHT onto Arroyo.

Church parking lot is on LEFT.

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All are welcome.  Admission and parking are free.  For information on this and other Santa Barbara Music Club programs and performing artists, visit  www.SBMusicClub.org.