Musicians Of The Springfield Symphony Orchestra Launch Their Second Westfield Concert Season Next Month

The Westfield Athenaeum will present a three-concert chamber music series beginning Thursday, February 23, 2023 at 7:00PM with MOSSO (Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra) performing. This is the second year of this partnership. Guy McLain, Executive Director of the Westfield Athenaeum, will offer a pre-performance talk at 6PM, which is free to ticket holders.

The Westfield Athenaeum series opens with MOSSO and Friends on February 23. Violinist Beth Welty, horn player Sarah Sutherland, and pianist Elizabeth Skavish will perform Frédéric Duvernoy's Trio No. 1 for Violin, Horn, and Piano; Trygve Madsen's Trio, Op. 110 for Violin, Horn; and Johannes Brahms' Trio in Eb Major for Violin, Horn, and Piano.

Violinist Beth Welty received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in violin performance from Indiana University, where she was a student of Yuval Yaron. She has performed with numerous groups in the Boston area: the Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms Society; the Handel and Haydn Society; and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. She has performed abroad with various organizations, including a tour of Italy with the Chorus of Westerly and of South Africa with the London Chamber Players. She toured Spain twice as concertmaster of the Massachusetts Symphony. In 2014, she traveled to Switzerland to perform a solo recital, and in 2015, she toured with the Aryaloka String Quartet to perform five concerts in England. Beth is the Assistant Principal Second Violin with the Springfield (MA) Symphony Orchestra, Principal Second Violin with the New Hampshire Philharmonic, and has served as Concertmaster of the Nashua Chamber Orchestra since 2005. An avid chamber musician, Beth is a founding member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble. In 1991 she made her Lincoln Center debut in New York with the Boston Quartet, of which she was also a founding member. She maintains a private teaching studio at her home in Waltham, and is a teacher at the Upbeat NH Strings program in Nashua, NH. Beth is currently Chair of MOSSO.

Sarah Sutherland is a Boston-based musician who performs and teaches throughout the Northeast. She is currently the third horn in the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, hornist in the Back Bay Brass Quintet, and the Finance Officer for the Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (MOSSO). Ms. Sutherland has performed and recorded with many ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Boston Ballet, Boston Lyric Opera, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, and was a Tanglewood Music Center Fellow for two summers. She teaches privately, at Powers Music School in Belmont, and at Wellesley Public Schools. Ms. Sutherland graduated from Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester, and New England Conservatory, where she studied with James Sommerville and Jason Snider. She holds degrees in music, mathematics, and statistics.

Elizabeth Skavish is a pianist of striking versatility. Her performance credits include solo recitals, concertos, chamber music, contemporary music, and orchestral piano in venues including Symphony Hall, the Wang Theatre, Jordan Hall, Shalin Liu Performance Center, and the French Library of Boston. Ms. Skavish's concerto performances have included appearances with the Collegium Musicum Schloss Pommersfelden in Germany, and the Ocean State Chamber Orchestra in Rhode Island. Ms. Skavish performs frequently with the Portland Symphony Orchestra and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra as an orchestral pianist. She has had chamber music residencies at the Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory with Trio Capriccio, of which she was a founding member, and has collaborated with members of the Boston, Pittsburgh, and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. She is also a member of the Kaleidoscope Chamber Ensemble. Ms. Skavish was invited to give a lecture recital by the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston in Sanders Theatre on "Beethoven and the Development of the Piano," and by the European Listening and Health Care Conference in Nijmegen, Netherlands on "Listening for Emotion in Music and Human Interaction." Ms. Skavish is on the piano faculty of the New England Conservatory Preparatory School and is a recipient of the University of Chicago Outstanding Educator Award. She earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Oberlin Conservatory and a Master of Music in Piano Performance from New England Conservatory. Her principal teachers have been Randall Hodgkinson, Joseph Schwartz, Eugene List, Peter Takács, and Maria Caruso.

The chamber music series continues on Thursday, March 23, with a performance by the Vermont-based Champlain Trio, which includes MOSSO and SSO Principal Cello Emily Taubl. The Champlain Trio will perform Brilliant Colors, a program featuring music by Tchaikovsky, Erik Neilsen (Trio No. 2 written for the ensemble), Jennifer Higdon, Amy Beach, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite. For information on the Champlain Trio: https://www.champlaintrio.com/

The chamber music series concludes on April 20, with MOSSO and SSO horn player Robert Hoyle's quintet, the Connecticut-based Harmonia V. The quintet will celebrate April in Paris with an all-French program, featuring pieces by Barthe, Fauré, Ravel, Poulenc, Debussy, Pierné, and Lefebvre. For information on Harmonia V: http://www.harmoniav.com/

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