PORT TOWNSEND — Julio Elizalde, Olympic Music Festival artistic director, this weekend will perform two concerts with three artists in a program of chamber music masterworks.
Joining Elizalde on stage will be violinist Mark Steinberg, viola player Ayane Kozasa and cellist Jean-Michel Fonteneau.
The quartet will perform Johannes Brahms’ “Viola Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 120 No. 1,” Ludwig Von Beethoven’s “Piano Trio in E-flat major, Op. 70 No. 2,” and Antonín Dvorák’s “Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 87.”
The first performance will be at 2 p.m. Saturday while the second performance is at 2 p.m. Sunday.
Both performances will be at Fort Worden’s Joseph F. Wheeler Theater, 25 Eisenhower Ave.
Tickets for both performances are $33 or $40, depending on section, and free for youths ages 7 to 12, although their seats must be reserved in advance.
Tickets are available online at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-OMF-Tickets.
Elizalde tours internationally with world-renowned violinists Sarah Chang and Ray Chen and has performed alongside conductors Itzhak Perlman, Teddy Abrams and Anne Manson, according to a news release.
Elizalde has collaborated with artists such as violinist Pamela Frank, composers Osvaldo Golijov and Stephen Hough, baritone William Sharp, and members of the Juilliard, Cleveland, Kronos and Brentano string quartets.
Steinberg is the founding first violinist of the Brentano String Quartet, which serves as quartet-in-residence at the Yale School of Music, according to the release.
He has taught at Juilliard’s pre-college division, at Princeton University and New York University, and is currently on the violin faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York City.
Kozasa is a violinist turned violist, who said she was inspired to dedicate herself to the alto clef when she discovered the beauty of playing the viola part in string quartets during her undergraduate studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music, according to the release.
Her commitment to pursue a life in viola led to a graduate degree from the Curtis Institute of Music as well as a masters degree from the Kronberg Academy Masters school in Germany.
Ayane’s solo career took off when she won the 2011 Primrose International Viola Competition, where she also captured awards for best chamber music and commissioned work performances, according to the release.
Fonteneau serves on the cello faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and is a founding member of the Ravel String Quartet.
He performs frequently with such renowned artists as Leon Fleisher, Menahem Pressler, Gilbert Kalish, Claude Frank, Peter Frankl and Kim Kashkashian, according to the release.
A passionate and devoted teacher, Fonteneau served on the faculty of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Lyon, France, until 1999, when he moved to the United States to join the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
For more information, visit www.olympicmusic festival.org.
