Emerald City Music to offer fall classical music season live and online

Emerald City Music is once again presenting live chamber concerts beginning Saturday, Oct. 23 in Olympia — and its fall season will also be available online.

“It’s a hybrid model,” said Kristin Lee, the series’ artistic director, an acclaimed violinist who’ll perform in Saturday’s program. “Digital content is essential at this point.

“Things are a little bit more complicated, for obvious reasons,” she told The Olympian. “But it’s so important to us to reconnect with our community in person. The whole world needs more contact and human connection.”

The series is adapting to the realities of the pandemic by scheduling two performances at each venue and limiting audiences to 50 percent capacity as well as requiring proof of vaccination or a negative test result.

Saturday’s “What You Are to Me,” originally scheduled for May 2020, features Erich Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Left Hand Piano, Op. 23, and “Winter’s Light,” by Patrick Castillo, a new piece co-commissioned by Emerald City.

Korngold wrote the piece for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War II. “This work embodies the perseverance of the arts, similar to what we’ve dealt with this past year and coming back with live concerts,” according to a press release from Emerald City spokesperson Maggie Stapleton.

The other musicians on the program — all highly regarded and all friends of Lee’s — are violinist Sean Lee, cellist Dmitri Atapine and pianists Gloria Chien and Hyeyon Park.

The musicians connected while playing at the Music@Menlo chamber festival. “I’ve known them for many, many years,” Kristin Lee said.

The group has taken “What You Are” on a mini tour of chamber series put together by the members of the group; Chien is artistic director of String Theory in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Atapine and Park direct Apex Concerts in Reno, Nevada.

Recordings of Emerald City’s “What You Are to Me” and the series’ November and December concerts will be available on the new Emerald TV platform along with a library of the Wine Down Monday concerts and talks the series has been presenting throughout the pandemic.

Wine Down Mondays are continuing monthly in both a live and online format; the next one, featuring Erika Dohi in a program including voice, piano and synthesizer, is at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 25. The in-person events, held at Seattle’s 415 Westlake, are open only to Emerald TV subscribers, but it’s free to attend online.

‘What You Are to Me’

• What: Emerald City Music launches its fall season with a program featuring Erich Korngold’s Suite for Two Violins, Cello and Left Hand Piano, Op. 23. Also on the program are Patrick Castillo’s “Winter Light,” a new piece co-commissioned by the Seattle-based chamber series, and Bohuslav Martinů’s “Variations on a Theme of Rossini.”
• When: 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23
• Where: The Minnaert Center for the Arts, 2011 Mottman Road SW, Olympia
• Tickets: $10-$55, with a discount for subscribers to Emerald TV, the series’ new digital platform
• More information: 360-753-8586, http://emeraldcitymusic.org

The rest of the season

• The Castalian String Quartet — 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Nov. 13, The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, Olympia
• Sandbox Percussion: “Seven Pillars” — 5 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14, The Black Box at The Washington Center for the Performing Arts, 512 Washington St. SE, Olympia