Chamber Music Hamilton - Special Feature

Event Details

Event type: All Ages / Licensed

We finish the season on June 10 with the annual Special Feature.  As usual, it has strings at the core and a twist.  Renowned Canadian composer, Dundas native and my CMH co-director, Abigail Richardson-Schulte, wrote a competition-winning quintet in memory of Amy Doolittle that involves flute and piano.  With outstanding flutist Leslie Newman on hand, we can offer the Beethoven D-major Serenade.  The ‘twist’ then goes outright esoteric as we add theremin into the mix–the unique instrument invented in 1919 whereby tones are manipulated in thin air using electrostatic fields.  Bohuslav Martinů, known to many as the Czech Republic’s greatest 20th-century composer, wrote a Fantasia for string quartet, piano, oboe and theremin upon immigrating to the United States in 1944.  What a piece it is, and too rarely heard!  With theremin on hand, how can we not play the original Star Trek theme by Alexander Courage?…with string quartet, bien sûr.  Continuing in the esoteric vein, the Toronto Symphony’s long-time Associate Principal Cellist, David Hetherington, will switch up cello for his well-practiced musical saw–an instrument known to be played for 300 years (just 300, scoffs the violin).