This program is inspiring, heart-rending, vivacious, captivating, and life-affirming. Sakari Vanderveer is one of the leading female black composers of our time and an inspiring leader in bringing young children to embrace playing string instruments. Mel Bonis (who used the masculine form of her name to gain acceptance) fought great odds to become one of France’s esteemed composers alongside classmates Debussy and Gabriel Pierné. Nineteenth century Hungarian icon Ernst von Dohnanyi fled the Nazis and then the communists before emigrating to the U.S. A virtuoso pianist and composer, his Sextet is poignant and exhilarating in its cosmopolitan alure.

Obsidian, rippled moonlight, gleams (2019) • Sakari Dixon Vanderveer
Piano and String Quartet

Quartet No. 2 in D Major, Op. 124 • Mélanie Bonis
Piano, Violin, Viola, and Cello

Sextet in C Major, Op. 37 (1935) • Ernst von Dohnányi
Clarinet, Horn, Violin, Viola, Cello, and Piano