Friends of Music at Dumbarton Oaks

Season Schedule 2007–2008

Recent Events

April 13 & 14, 2008

A favorite with Friends of Music audiences, The Altenberg Trio of Vienna is one of the few full-time piano trios in the world of chamber music, and has earned a reputation as one of the most daring and consistent ensembles in this category. Respected teachers as well as accomplished performers with impeccable musical taste, the trio concludes our celebratory "season of return" to the Music Room with a program of works by Beethoven, Schumann, and Brahms.

March 9 & 10, 2008

No strangers to the greater Washington, D.C. area, both The Fine Arts Quartet and pianist Cristina Ortiz are making their Dumbarton Oaks debut! Founded in 1946, the Fine Arts Quartet is one of the most distinguished ensembles in chamber music today. Brazilian-born pianist Cristina Ortiz has enjoyed sustained public and critical acclaim for her interpretation of a wealth of the most significant piano literature. The FAQ and Ms. Ortiz collaborate in piano quintets by Fauré and Franck, with a string quartet by Shostakovich rounding out the program.

February 24 & 25, 2008

The award-winning fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout returns to Dumbarton Oaks to play music of Benda, Hertel, Haydn, and Mozart. The New York Times calls Bezuidenhout superb, and the Boston Globe characterizes his playing as extraordinary . . . and immensely expressive. A recipient of international accolades, the young fortepianist won this praise from the Netherlands press: He played Mozart so purely, so heroically, with so much nuance . . . like an inspired conductor of opera he brought each . . . character of Mozart's score to life: a performance of vast emotional scale told directly from the heart.

January 27 & 28, 2008

Amit Peled, cello, and Alon Goldstein, piano join forces to make their Dumbarton Oaks debut. Both musicians perform regularly in the world's great concert halls and as soloists with major orchestras. Amit Peled-professor of cello at the Peabody Conservatory-is noted for the beautiful sound, secure intonation, and depth of feeling that he brings to his music-making. Alon Goldstein has been praised by conductor Zubin Mehta as an extraordinarily gifted young pianist. Peled and Goldstein perform an all-Beethoven program.

December 9 & 10, 2007

The venerable fourteen-voice a cappella ensemble Pomerium offers a stunning program called Creator of the Stars: Christmas Music from the Old World. Lauded by The New York Times as one of the finest early-music ensembles in the country, and perhaps the world, Pomerium will captivate you with music from the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries by Guillaume Dufay, William Byrd, Josquin Desprez, Cipriano de Rore, Adrian Willaert, Orlando de Lassus, and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.

November 4 & 5, 2007

In its Dumbarton Oaks debut, Time For Three, a charismatic ensemble of two violins and double bass, performs a variety of musical genres with virtuosity and inventiveness. The renowned conductor Sir Simon Rattle says of these recent graduates of Philadelphia's prestigious Curtis Institute, Simply put, they're a knockout! … conveyers of an infectious joy that I find both touching and moving. I would recommend them not only for entertainment value, but also for anyone looking to see how all types of American Music can develop, when life and passion such as this are breathed into it.

October 14 & 15, 2007

The dynamic Baroque ensemble Rebel returns to the Music Room to open the season. Praised by The New York Times as sophisticated and beguiling, this virtuosic eleven-member ensemble promises to delight with an extravaganza of works for trumpet, strings, lute, and harpsichord by Telemann, Vivaldi, Ragazzi, Torelli, Valentini, and Stradella.