Diverse and engaging chamber music will echo through Rexburg and Idaho Falls with string quartet performances put on by BYU-Idaho faculty and members of the Idaho Falls Symphony.
With two performances, the quartet will first take the stage at BYU-Idaho and then again in Idaho Falls as part of the Idaho Falls Symphony’s Soundscapes Series that highlights its chamber musicians. Ariel Loveland plays one of the two violin parts in the quartet.
“When you come you will be immersed in some rich, beautiful music and we have music from several decades. It's going to transform and take you to a new place with every piece,” Loveland said.
The quartet will play modern pieces like Jessie Montgomery’s Strum, and pieces from Florence Price that were discovered in her attic 60 years after her passing. The quartet will also gain a fifth member, as BYU-Idaho music professor Adam Ballif joins in with clarinet to play Johannes Brahms.
“These are called clarinet quintet pieces, which is kind of interesting because there aren't five clarinets,” Ballif said. “There's one clarinet and a string quartet. The Brahms specifically is one of our greatest works for clarinet, and so it's an opportunity to hear it live.”
The first concert is Friday at 8 p.m. at the Snow Recital Hall on campus. It is a free event and no reservations are required. Loveland is a BYU-Idaho music education alumna, and she will take the BYU-Idaho stage again playing pieces she learned during her education.
“It was within those walls that I learned how to perform, how to play music from my heart, how to play Brahms for the first time, and now I get to perform Brahms often,” Loveland said.
The second concert is April 9 on the deck of the Downtown Events Center in Idaho Falls. It starts at 7 p.m., and food and drinks will be served.
“This is a more intimate concert, and the audience will be seated with tables around the performers,” Ballif said. “We get to talk to them more one-on-one before we play.”
Tickets are on sale now for the Idaho Falls Symphony concert at ifsymphony.org. The Rexburg concert is also available on live stream at byui.edu/music.