Dear Friends of SOR,

For the second concert of SOR’s 40th Anniversary season, we are thrilled to welcome our esteemed colleagues from Dolce Canto and their music director, David Edmonds, to share the stage with us for an exciting and memorable collaboration between two beloved Missoula musical institutions. The music of Peteris Vasks, with its unique semi-minimalist musical language, captures the magic that is found in pairing the human voice with strings, and the result is a deeply profound and moving world of sound.

The featured work on the second half of our program is a string orchestra arrangement of Luigi Cherubini’s third string quartet. An appealing and virtuosic work, it is almost programmatic in character, and reminds me of an opera buffa, full of lighthearted drama and lyrical melodies that could easily be sung by a coloratura soprano. A few added solos for the double bass add to the charm of this arrangement! Cherubini was primarily a composer of opera (he wrote almost 30!) and he also had a fondness for sacred music. His six string quartets were written late in his life, inspired by the middle and late quartets of his colleague and friend, Ludwig van Beethoven. These two contemporaries held each other in high esteem, and it is interesting to note that before composing his only opera Fidelio, Beethoven spent time studying the operas of Cherubini for inspiration.

As always—we thank each of you for your support of SOR. You all continue to inspire us to play our best!

Warm wishes to all for wonderful, healthy, and happy holidays.

Yours in music,
Maria Larionoff
Artistic Director, SOR