Camerata Pacifica Presents Libby Larsen World Premiere, Works By Pärt, Rachmaninoff, Taktakishvili, and More

Camerata Pacifica, hailed as one of the nation's most musically adventurous chamber ensembles, continues its season with the world premiere of Land by Grammy Award-winning composer Libby Larsen, commissioned for Camerata Pacifica by Joan Davidson in memory of her late husband, John Schnittker. A portrait in six movements for French horn, cello and piano, Larsen's work is grounded in community and a sense of place.

With additional music by Korean, Georgian, Armenian, Estonian, and Russian composers, the program reflects a multi-cultural wonder of virtuosity, romanticism, beauty, and exhilaration. Flutist Sooyun Kim performs two works for solo flute, including Isang Yun's stunning Etude No. 5 and the mysterious and curious The hint only... by Ukrainian composer Julia Gomelskaya. Pianist Irina Zahharenkova is showcased in Partita, Op. 2 for Piano, one of Estonian composer Arvo Pärt's early works extolling the virtues of baroque form, then joined by Kim to perform the unapologetically romantic C Major Flute Sonata by Otar Taktakishvili, the most prominent composer of his generation from Soviet Georgia. As a tonal prelude to Land, Zahharenkova and hornist Benjamin Goldscheider perform his own arrangement of the stunningly beautiful Andante, from Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata.

The program is presented in four locations across Southern California, from the San Gabriel Valley to Santa Barbara, with performances on Sunday, April 16, 3 pm, at Museum of Ventura County in Ventura; Tuesday, April 18, 7:30 pm, at The Huntington's Rothenberg Hall in San Marino; Thursday, April 20, 2023, 8 pm, at Zipper Hall, The Colburn School in Downtown Los Angeles; and Friday, April 21, 7:30 pm, at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Camerata Pacifica members featured on Larsen's Land include Jonathan Swensen, cello, as well as Goldscheider on horn and Zahharenkova on piano. Regarding her new work, Larsen says, "The circumstances of John Schnittker's life is the impetus for the character of the music. But I consider the whole of the piece to evoke a larger cultural arc - a certain time, sense of place and recognition of human beings in community - to which John Schnittker belonged and in which his life's work flourished."

According to Camerata Pacifica Executive Director Adrian Spence, "John Schnittker was a Mid-Westerner, a Great Plains man. Libby Larsen's composition and the instrumentation, particularly the French Horn, reflect the expansive, lyricism that lies behind the memory of John's life."

For tickets ($68) and information, visit www.cameratapacifica.org.

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