Orchestra Of St. Luke's Begins 2018-19 Chamber Music Series In December At Merkin Hall, Morgan Library, And Brooklyn Museum

Orchestra of St. Luke's (OSL's) 2018-19 Chamber Music Series opens this December with Vivaldi, Venice, and the Influence of Italy. The Chamber Music Series features intimate concerts performed by the virtuosic musicians of St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the core group of artists at the nucleus of OSL, at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn. The opening program will highlight the parallels between the music of Italian Baroque composers and masters of the Italian Renaissance, while celebrating the influence of Venice and Venetian composers on the classical canon.

The Vivaldi, Venice, and the Influence of Italy performances take place Tuesday, December 4 at Merkin Hall, Wednesday, December 5 at The Morgan Library & Museum, and on Sunday afternoon, December 9 at Brooklyn Museum. The program was developed by musicians of the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, and was inspired by the subject matter of two exhibitions at The Morgan Library & Museum running through January 6, 2019: Pontormo: Miraculous Encounters, featuring the artist's magnificent Visitation altarpiece for the church of San Michele Arcangelo in Carmignano, Italy, a masterpiece of Florentine Mannerist art displayed for the first time in the U.S., andDrawing in Tintoretto's Venice, which celebrates the Venetian artist's 500th birth anniversary and rarely seen drawings.

Mozart is the focus of the winter 2019 Chamber Music Series programs scheduled for Tuesday, February 5, at Merkin Hall, Wednesday, February 6 at The Morgan Library & Museum, and Sunday, February 10 at Brooklyn Museum, pairing one of his late work's Clarinet Quintet in A Major, K. 581, with his rarely-heard Grande sestetto concertante, an anonymous 1808 string sextet setting of his Sinfonia Concertante for violin and viola and orchestra, K. 364.

The series' spring program, Mendelssohn the Prodigy, with concerts taking place on Sunday, April 28 at The Brooklyn Museum, Tuesday, April 30 at Merkin Hall, andWednesday, May 1 at The Morgan Library & Museum, showcases the composer's youthful genius with his recently rediscovered Violin Concerto in D Minor, and his beloved Octet for Strings, Op. 20, composed when he was 13 and 16 respectively.

For a schedule of all Orchestra of St. Luke's performances through June 2019, visit OSLmusic.org.