ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Our Music Director Michael Sachs takes you inside quintessential performances from Strings Music Festival. Principal players from across the nation join Michael and their conversations and commentary add depth and personal experience to each piece. Each performance has been impeccably recorded and mixed from the Strings Pavilion stage in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Episode 6: Premiered August 26, 2020
THE VERSATILITY OF MOZART
If Beethoven is our mad genius, the moody but brilliant choir kid who gets all of the solos, then Mozart is his opposite: the all-around jock who letters in every sport, is student council president, and on the honor roll. A versatile composer, he wrote sonatas, symphonies, masses, chamber music, concertos, and operas. This episode explores serenades, a string quartet, and a piano concerto, as well as highlights his contemporary, Chevalier de Saint Georges: Mozart’s archrival, or the guy who won homecoming king.
This episode features chamber ensembles and orchestra. Music Director Michael Sachs is joined by concert commentator Jamey Lamar, violist Mark Jackobs, and oboist Elizabeth Koch Tiscione. The episode is live Wednesday, August 26 at 6 p.m. MDT. Click here to read full program notes.
Enhance your listening experience with a delectable home-made meal! Strings Guild has prepared menus perfectly paired to this episode: Click for Mozart Recipes
Episode 5: Premiered August 19, 2020
FEMALE ENERGY
The classical music world is full of powerhouse female musicians; in our newest episode, meet soloists and concertmasters who regularly lead ensembles at the Strings Pavilion with talent and grace.
This episode features chamber ensembles and orchestra. Music Director Michael Sachs is joined by concert commentator Jamey Lamar, violinists Nurit Bar-Josef, Laura Albers, and Chee-Yun. The episode is live at 6 p.m. MDT. Click here to read full program notes.
Enhance your listening experience with a delectable home-made meal! Strings Guild has prepared menus perfectly paired to this episode: Click for “Female Energy” Recipes
Episode 4: Premiered August 12, 2020
SOUNDSCAPES OF BEYOND
In this week’s program, Strings Music Director Michael Sachs has curated past Strings Music Festival performances to expand your mind and soothe your weary soul. Selections range from spine-tingling piano solos to a meditative composition for percussion performed at The Tank, Northwest Colorado’s one-of-a-kind sound space.
This episode features chamber ensembles and orchestra. Music Director Michael Sachs is joined by concert commentator Jamey Lamar, violinist Vijay Gupta and percussionist and composer Joe Tompkins. The episode is live at 6 p.m. MDT. Click here to read full program notes.
Enhance your listening experience with a delectable home-made meal! Strings Guild has prepared menus perfectly paired to this episode: Click for “Soundscapes of Beyond” Recipes
Episode 3: Premiered July 29, 2020
CONNECTIONS ACROSS CENTURIES
Relationships are how we understand the past and bring it into our future. In episode three, travel over one hundred and fifty years of musical relationships between composers. How have the greats, Mozart and Haydn, inspired the more modern composers Stravinsky and Prokofiev?
This episode features chamber ensembles and orchestra. Music Director Michael Sachs is joined by concert commentator Jamey Lamar, violinists Nancy Wu and Ellen Pendleton Troyer, and bassist Leigh Mesh. Click here to read full program notes.
Enhance your listening experience with a delectable home-made meal! Strings Guild has prepared menus perfectly paired to this episode: Click for “Connections Across Centuries” Recipes
Episode 2: Premiered July 22, 2020
DREAMY FRENCH COMPOSERS
Our second episode will transport you to a cafe in Paris, a romantic wine country château, and other French locales that inspired this week’s four featured composers: Debussy, Fauré, Franck, and Saint-Saëns.
This episode features solo piano and several string ensembles. Music Director Michael Sachs is joined by concert commentator Jamey Lamar, violinist Martin Chalifour, and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin. Click here to read full program notes.
Enhance your listening experience with a delectable home-made meal! Strings Guild has prepared menus perfectly paired to this episode: Click for Dreamy French Recipes
Episode 1: Premiered July 15, 2020
BEETHOVEN’S 250th BIRTHDAY
Our premiere episode celebrates the 250th birthday of the mad genius composer Ludwig Van Beethoven.
This episode features a string quartet, a cello and piano duo, and two chamber orchestras performing Beethoven’s Symphonies No. 2 and 4. Our host, Strings Music Director Michael Sachs, is joined in this celebration by concert commentator Jamey Lamar, violinist John Macfarlane, bassoonist William Short, and cellist Joel Noyes. Click here to read full program notes.
Enhance your listening experience with a delectable home-made meal! Strings Guild has prepared menus perfectly paired to this episode. For Beethoven, the Guild considered as he was losing his hearing that some of his other senses might have become more pronounced:
“I would imagine Beethoven would really enjoy the tastes and textures of his birthday meal. His music was layered and textured in musical ways so I bet his taste buds became more refined and nuanced too.”