Friday June 30th, 7:30pm

Germaine Tailleferre was a French composer and the only female member of the group of composers known as Les Six.  Fellow Les Six member Darius Milhaud remarked with affectionate awe, the constantly energetic Tailleferre “was always 20 years old.”  This is epitomized in her piano trio which was originally written in 1916/17 when she was only 24 and revised 60 years later!  The program opens with a duo by the Czech composer Martinu, written while he was living in Paris.  Franck’s sonata for violin and piano is a staple of the violin repertoire.  The evening in Paris rounds out with a composer who was first presented to the Court of Versailles at age 7, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in a performance of his G Minor Piano Quartet.

Thursday July 6th, 7:30pm

After the premiere of one of his works in Paris, the Spanish composer Joaquin Turina went to a cafe with fellow composers de Falla and Albeniz. “We were three Spaniards,” Turina subsequently recalled, “gathered together in that corner of Paris, and it was our duty to fight for the national music of our country.”  Turina’s piano quartet epitomizes Spanish music of this time.  The audience will also be treated to Spanish influenced virtuosity in Boccherini’s Fandango Quintet for Guitar and Strings and Sarasate’s Navarra.  The Navarra will feature Ascent faculty, Ilya Kaler, the only violinist to win Gold Medal in Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow (1986), the Sibelius Competition in Helsinki (1985), and the Paganini Competition in Genoa (1981) and Catalyst Quartet’s own Karla Donohew Perez.

Wednesday July 12th, 7:30pm

The Ascent Summer Concert Series comes to a close with an evening of rollicking Gypsy music.  The program opens with the virtuosic Concert Piece by George Enescu for viola and piano and closes with Brahms Piano Quartet in G minor with it’s thrilling Rondo alla Zingarese finale.  Also on the program are the Two Pieces by Lili Boulanger, a piano trio that will surprise and delight.