Spokane String Quartet

The Spokane String Quartet opens its 2025-26 season with an appearance by Julia Pyke, principal flute for the Spokane Symphony, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 28, at The Fox Theater.

All seats are general admission. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID. Tickets are available at this link or at the door.

Sunday’s program includes Gabriela Smith’s unconventional conteporary piece “Porcupine Wash,” Amy Beach’s Theme and Variations for Flute and Strings, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 1 in D Major, K.285, and Carl Nielsen’s String Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 13.

Last fall Pyke was featured soloist when the Symphony performed Christopher Rouse’s Flute Concerto. She has also performed with the Oregon Symphony, the New World Symphony and members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony. When she’s not playing the flute, Julia enjoys rock climbing, hiking, running, cooking and singing. In the spring of 2024, she made her theater debut as Grizabella in Spokane Civic Theater’s production of “Cats.”

About the program

With the acclaimed Boston Symphony Orchestra premieres of her “Gaelic” Symphony (1896) and Piano Concerto (1900), Amy Beach (1867-1944) became the first successful female American composer of large-scale symphonic music. During an age of gender bias and the woman’s suffrage movement, Beach became symbolic proof that women could creatively work and excel at the highest level in every field. The main theme from Beach’s “Theme and Variations for Flute and Strings” comes from her song “An Indian Lullaby” which depicts her romanticized impression of native life. Beach also studied authentic indigenous music, such as Inuit music collected in Labrador, to use in her musical exploration of “What is American Music?” 

For 33-year-old Gabriella Smith, her lifelong passion for music, ecology, and play have creatively merged to compose sonic landscapes inspired by nature. She has been described as an environmentalist composer. Although deeply aware of climate change impacts and biodiversity loss, she sees her music as a call to action and the joy of working within communities on climate solutions. She delights in exploring new instrumental sounds by using extended techniques. In “Porcupine Wash” she prepares the strings by inserting paper clips to create her desired sounds. 

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote that “Melody is the essence of music.” Mozart’s Flute Quartet No. 1, composed in 1777 at a youthful age 21, showcases his gift for creating music brimming with melodies of delightful beauty. The Flute Quartet is written in the “concertante” style, which features the flute taking a prominent solo role, with the strings providing vibrant accompaniment. 

Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) from Denmark was among the major Nordic composers gaining prominence at the turn of the 20th century, including Edvard Grieg (Norway) and Jean Sibelius (Finland). They all shared a deep attachment to their homeland and its folk traditions. Nielsen’s String Quartet No. 1 was the first of four string quartets he composed. Though considered a youthful work, the quartet’s spirited rhythms, melodies and Danish folk-influenced harmonies all foreshadow Nielsen’s emerging dynamic voice well on the path to becoming one of Denmark’s finest composers.

Season tickets are now on sale for the Spokane String Quartet’s 2025-26 season. Patrons on our mailing list should expect their season brochure in the mail the week of Aug. 4. Season tickets will be mailed to subscribers beginning in September.

All seats are general admission for the String Quartet’s 3 p.m. Sunday concerts. A season-ticket package costs $100 for adults and $80 for seniors and gives you five concerts for the price of four. Persons under 18 and students with ID are admitted free. Tickets for individual concerts will go on sale in September.

Season tickets may be purchased online here or you may download an order form here to be returned by mail.

The new season opens Sept. 28 at The Fox Theater with guest artist Julia Pyke, who plays principal flute for the Spokane Symphony. The season continues Nov. 2 at The Fox Theater with concert pianist Yoon-Wha Roh, who is on the faculty at Washington State University.

After a break for the holidays, the season continues Feb. 8 at The Fox Theater with a program of music by Haydn, Bartok and Schumann. Then, on March 8 at The Fox Theater, soprano Dawn Wolski will be guest performer for Jake Heggie’s “Camille Claudel: Into the Fire,” based on the life of the late 19th and early 20th century sculptor linked romantically with Auguste Rodin.

The season concludes May 17 at the Bing Crosby Theater with guest cellist Calvin Kung sitting in with the Quartet.

For season ticket questions, email spokanequartet@gmail.com or call marketing director Garry Matlow at 509-998-2261.

The dates are set for the five subscription concerts in the Spokane String Quartet’s 2025-26 season.

The season opens Sunday, Sept. 28, at The Fox Theater. Additional concerts at The Fox will be Nov. 2, 2025, and Feb. 8 and March 8, 2026. The season will conclude at the Bing Crosby Theater on May 17.

Look for the season brochure with concert details and ticket ordering information in the mail later this summer.

The Spokane String Quartet finishes its 2024-25 season with an appearance by Clinton Webb, principal horn for the Spokane Symphony, at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 18, at the Bing Crosby Theater.

All seats are general admission. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID. Tickets are available at this link or at the door.

Webb will join the Quartet for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat, K.407. He is in his second year in Spokane after stints in Tulsa and Flint, Michigan. Unlike a typical horn quintet, Mozart’s piece calls for a solo horn along with a violin, two violas and a cello. Replacing the second violin with a second viola fills out the middle range of the ensemble and melds with the horn.

Also on the program are Three Essays by contemporary Grammy-winning composer Caroline Shaw and String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 67, by Johannes Brahms.

Three centuries of chamber music, including the original setting of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” are on the program when the Spokane String Quartet takes the stage at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 16, at the Bing Crosby Theater.

All seats are general admission. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID. Tickets are available at this link or at the door.

Joseph Haydn’s Opus 20, No. 3 String Quartet utilizes many of the formal conventions and aesthetic values that coalesced into and defined “The Classical Era String Quartet.” The four-movement quartet form has fast outer movements, with a dance and adagio (slow) inner movements. Haydn recognized the perfect sound balance and clarity when a cello, viola, and two violins seamlessly play together in rich four-part harmony and counterpoint. Haydn’s quartets feature a more democratic intimate conversation among equals, often including Haydn’s musical wit and humor. Collectively, these characteristics are among the reasons why Haydn is known as “the Father of the String Quartet.”

Russian-born Polina Nazaykinskaya continues to be inspired by the Russian folk songs that she heard in childhood, filled with polyphonic melodies and harmonic dissonance. For Nazaykinskaya, “Each piece of music that I write comes from the depth of my heart, from the inner ocean of emotions and possibilities that are carried by the waves of memories.” She considers herself a Neo-Romantic, using juxtaposed melodies to achieve color and emotionality with sound.

When Samuel Barber was composing his Op. 11 String Quartet, he wrote to a colleague: “I have just finished the slow movement of my quartet today – it is a knockout! Now for a Finale.” Barber struggled to achieve the ultimate version of the third movement Finale. Meanwhile, he arranged a “stand alone” string orchestra version of the Quartet’s second movement Adagio. This string orchestra “Adagio for Strings” was premiered by the legendary conductor Arturo Toscanini with resounding success. Despite the universal reverence for Barber’s Adagio for Strings, there are those who prefer the transcendent intimacy of his Opus 11 String Quartet.

Three centuries of chamber music, including the original setting of Samuel Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” are on the program when the Spokane String Quartet takes the stage at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 16, at the Bing Crosby Theater.

All seats are general admission. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID. Tickets are available at this link or at the door.

From the 18th century comes Franz Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet No. 33 in G Minor; from the 20th century, Samuel Barber’s String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11; and from the 21st century, the world premiere of Polina Nazaykinskaya’s Adagio from Symphony for Strings.

Barber’s Adagio for Strings is frequently performed during periods of mourning, such as the funeral of John F. Kennedy and by the Spokane Symphony in their first concert after 9/11. The original piece was in the middle movement of Barber’s Op. 11 Quartet composed in 1935-36 and revised several times, including as a choral arrangement in 1967. The Quartet was last performed by the SSQ in November 2014.

Cellist Michal Palzewicz joins the Spokane String Quartet for Glazunov’s String Quintet in A Major at the SSQ’s next concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 9, at The Fox Theater.

Click here to buy tickets.

Palzewicz has performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, both as a soloist and ensemble player. He has performed to great acclaim at prestigious venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York City and Wigmore Hall in England. He attended Warsaw Conservatory of Music in Poland and then The Manhattan School of Music, where his quartet received full scholarships as well as artist-in-residence status. He currently teaches cello at Southern Oregon University. He joins the SSQ for this concert for a cello quintet by Alexander Glazunov. Also on the program are works by Shostakovich and Beethoven.

Program:
Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor, Op. 108

Ludwig van Beethoven
String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18, No. 3

Alexander Glazunov
String Quintet in A Major, Op. 39

All seats are general admission. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for under 18 and students with ID.

Pianist YunJung Park will perform with the Spokane String Quartet at its next concert Sunday, Nov. 10, at The Fox Theater.

The concert, which features music by Haydn, Brahms and Schumann, begins at 3 p.m. Click here to buy tickets.

YunJung Park opens the concert with Haydn’s Sonata in C Major No. 48 for solo piano, composed towards the end of Haydn’s nearly 30 years of service to the Esterhazy family as Court Composer and Conductor. Under Prince Nikolaus’ patronage, Haydn received an income, commissions, and musical resources (such as the Court Orchestra and Choir) to nurture his creativity. Besides performing at Esterhazy country estates, Haydn visited Vienna with the Prince’s retinue, where he became Mozart’s friend based on mutual esteem and supportive explorations of music. The opening andante of Sonata No. 48 highlights a defining musical characteristic of Haydn, in which larger structures are built from transformations of a simple melodic idea. 

The concert continues with Park and Mateusz Wolski performing Brahms’ Sonata for Violin and Piano, Op. 108. Brahms wrote this Sonata at the peak of his creative powers. He had achieved international recognition with his large-scale symphonies and concertos. Having successfully emerged from the long shadow of Beethoven’s legacy, Brahms decided to focus his last years composing songs, and chamber music. Opus 108 is Brahms’ third and final Sonata for Violin and Piano, elegantly balancing the lyrical nature of the violin with the powerful chordal harmony of the piano. 

The concert concludes with Robert Schumann’s Piano Quartet, Opus 47, the last work of a six-month creative outpouring that produced his finest chamber music. He prepared for this surge by studying Bach’s counterpoint (the art of combining many melodies simultaneously) with his beloved wife Clara. They also studied the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Opus 47 represents an homage combining Schumann’s Romantic spirit with the techniques pioneered by these earlier masters.

All seats are general admission and are available at foxtheaterspokane.com or at the door. Tickets are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and free for persons under 18 and students with ID.

Pianist YunJung Park will perform with the Spokane String Quartet at its next concert Sunday, Nov. 10, at The Fox Theater.

The concert, which features music by Haydn, Brahms and Schumann, begins at 3 p.m. Click here to buy tickets.

Yun has extensive experience in performance as a solo pianist, chamber musician and church musician, as well as in teaching and in research. She served on the piano faculty at Kyungpook National University and also worked as a research assistant at Seoul National University in South Korea. Yun has performed in numerous solo piano recitals and chamber music concerts in Frankfurt, Aachen, Kӧln, Düsseldorf (Germany), Maastricht (the Netherlands), Salzburg (Austria), Seoul and Daegu (South Korea) and in the Philadelphia, Baltimore and Spokane areas in the United States.

While serving as the music director at Swarthmore United Methodist Church, she frequently collaborated with professional local musicians. In 2020, upon relocating to Spokane, Yun performed multiple solo recitals and chamber concerts at Steinway Gallery in Spokane, Gonzaga University and St. John’s Cathedral. She has often been invited to perform live on KPBX radio. 

The Spokane String Quartet opens its 2024-25 season Sunday, Oct. 13, with a concert featuring music by Beethoven, Dvořák and Chickasaw classical composer Jerod Tate. The concert begins at 3 p.m. at The Fox Theater.

Click here to buy tickets.