Sarasa Ensemble: The Muse

The Sarasa Ensemble will present a program of works inspired by the written word.

Writers Charles Baudelaire, Yukio Mishima and Anna Akhmatova all pushed the boundaries of their respective eras and countries with their writings, and 20th-century composers Henri Pousseur, Philip Glass and John Tavener brought their poetry and spirits alive in music for soprano and strings.

In addition, Sarasa will explore string quartets by two prolific female composers who, though extremely talented and highly regarded in their day, have only recently been brought back to the concert stage: 19th-century German composer Emilie Mayer, a contemporary of Robert and Clara Schumann, and 20th-century American composer Florence Price, a contemporary of George Gershwin.

Performing will be Mara Reilly, soprano; Elise Kuder, Amy Galluzzo, violins; Mike Kelley, viola; and Jennifer Morsches and Timothy Merton, cellos. Kelley and Kuder are members of the Apple Hill String Quartet, based in E. Sullivan, NH and attended Apple Hill Chamber Music Festival as teenagers in the late 1980’s and 1990’s along with Morsches.

The Sarasa Ensemble is a collective of extraordinary international instrumentalists and vocalists who perform classical music of outstanding quality, spanning the 17th to the 21st centuries, on both period and modern instruments, and bring this music to diverse communities.