Story submitted by Clarksville Community Concert Association
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The dynamic, youthful Toomai String Quintet will perform a program titled “Songs without Words” on Friday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m. at Austin Peay State University’s George and Sharon Mabry Concert Hall.
The quintet is comprised of violinists Emilie-Anne Gendron and Pala García, violist Erin Wright, and double bassist Andrew Roitstein. Austin Peay State University’s own Assistant Professor of Music Eli Lara will join the quintet as guest cellist on the September 27 program, which is the first concert of the 2013-14 Clarksville Community Concert Series and is also a component of the University’s annual Honors Orchestra Festival.
Based in New York, the Toomai Quintet formed in 2007 at The Juilliard School. In the years since, the ensemble has played at Lincoln Center, the 92nd St. Y, the Philadelphia Arts Alliance, and the Miami Civic Music Association, and has presented interactive concerts with the California Institute of the Arts, among others. Praised for their innovative outreach programs, the Toomai Quintet performs concert music from the classical and contemporary repertoire while exploring and arranging music from around the world.
The Toomai Quintet’s varied Clarksville program features arrangements of Renaissance madrigals, suites by Luigi Boccherini and Manuel Ponce, and a substantial portion of J.S. Bach’s famous Goldberg Variations, arranged by Dmitri Sitkovestky. The evening promises to be tuneful, surprising, and a delight for all, including the nearly one hundred young string players who will attend the Quintet’s concert and a workshop with the Toomai Quintet on Saturday as part of Austin Peay’s annual Honors Orchestra Festival.
The Toomai Quintet’s program is the first in a series of five superlative concerts presented by the Clarksville Community Concert Association on its 2013-14 season. The subscription series continues in mid-November, with the renowned Los Angeles Guitar Quartet. 2014 concerts include a recital by the “impeccable recitalist” baritone Andrew Garland in January, an evening of solo piano music performed by the brilliant young American Conrad Tao scheduled for early February, and an exclusive appearance by the Grégoire Maret jazz quintet, which will highlight the fifty-third Mid-South Jazz Festival in early April. Be sure to reserve your tickets for the entire series, which includes complimentary admission to the entire Live at the Alhambra series of performances presented by the Pennyroyal (Kentucky) Arts Council. Visit www.clarksvillemusic.org or call 877 811 0200 to purchase tickets. Austin Peay State University students are admitted to all Clarksville Community Concerts free with identification.