Cascade Quartet Opens Its Season with Guest Philip Aaberg

The Cascade Quartet, resident quartet of the Great Falls Symphony, kicks off its season with a pair of concerts featuring Grammy-nominated pianist Philip Aaberg. Aaberg will perform a quintet he composed for the Cascade Quartet and first performed with them in 2007. Concerts are on Friday evening, November 1, at 7:00, and Sunday afternoon at 2:00. Both performances will be held at First Congregational Church, 2900 9th Ave. S. in Great Falls.

The concert will begin with a brief and humorous Scherzo by American musical pioneer Charles Ives. Filling out the first half will be a Quartet by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, his Quartet in G Major, often called the “Spring” quartet owing to its cheerful mood and high energy.

The second half of the program will open with “A Day at the Fair”, by Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. This piece, which has all the fun and hurly-burly of a Mexican fair, will be introduced by the Quartet’s newest member, violinist Luis Salazar, who was born in Mexico. Salazar is filling in for the Quartet’s longtime violinist, Mary Papoulis, who is on sabbatical.

The concert concludes with the Aaberg Quintet, which the composer describes as having “the influences of African-American music, Native American language, machine rhythms, and West Coast contemporary music.” In particular, there are frequent references to the sounds of trains (Aaberg grew up in Chester and loved to hear their sound), as well as tips of the hat to such diverse sources as jazz great Charlie Parker and traditional cowboy songs.

Tickets are available at the door or by visiting chambermusicseries.org.