Cellist Chas Barnard. Photo by Bryon DeVore
Rogue Valley Symphony presents the PROFESSIONAL DEBUT by Local Cellist CHAS BARNARD
The Rogue Valley Symphony will present its second concert in the 2011-12 season with a very special professional debut by cellist Chas Barnard playing Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No. 1. Music Director Martin Majkut will lead the orchestra performing works presenting two faces of German Romanticism inspired by the German Rhineland region: Wagner’s “Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” from his opera Götterdämmerung and Schumann’s Symphony No. 3 “Rhenish.” Concerts for this series will be presented at 7:30 pm on Friday, November 4 in Ashland; 7:30pm on Saturday, November 5 in Medford; and 3pm on Sunday, November 6 in Grants Pass. Majkut will be giving pre-concert talks beginning one hour before each performance.
We are proud to present the professional solo debut of seventeen-year-old cellist Chas Barnard. As Martin Majkut reminds us, “It is a privilege to launch a new career. It is one of the most rewarding things that we in the world of music can experience. It is also a necessity. Chas is an extraordinary cellist, and this is how we pass along the heritage.” This has been a season of winning for Chas. In July he won the Marrowstone Music Festival Concerto Competition. An avid chamber musician, he formed the Schoenard Trio with pianist Ashley Hoe and violinist Eleanora Schaer. They were the only junior division semi-finalists selected from the west coast to perform at the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, and they were named the 2011 Artists-in-Residence at the Britt Festivals.
In 2010, he and violinst Ashley Hoe paired to win the local Youth Symphony of Southern Oregon (YSSO) Concerto Competition with their performance of Saint-Saëns’ La muse et le poète. Also in 2010, he was the winner of the American String Teachers Oregon Solo Music Competition and took first place at the OSAA Oregon Solo Music Competition, earning judges’ comments, “Fabulous, exciting performance,” and “From the first notes you grabbed my attention and didn’t let go.”
Chas has played with the Symphony since he was fourteen, sitting just a few stands away from his father, Mark, who plays in the bass section. He began studying cello when he was eleven, and only one year later performed for a televised master class with Cleveland Orchestra cellist Brian Thornton. Chas has played principal cellist at the Marrowstone Music Festival, the Symphony Orchestra Academy of the Pacific in British Columbia, and the Oregon All-State Orchestra, and has played in the section of the All-Northwest Orchestra and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra.
He studies with Thomas Stauffer in Ashland and is currently enrolled at SOU. His first “instrument” was a tennis racket. He began playing at two. In 2010, he and his doubles partner, Jeff Laskos, won silver for Ashland High School at the state finals.
The other two works on this concert portray the heart of Germany, the Rhineland, and Romantic’s esthetics. Wagner’s “Dawn and Siegfried’s Rhine Journey” from his mature work, Götterdämmerung, will present his masterful command of orchestration and motivic development. The full lush tones of this piece will offer a grand beginning to this concert. Schumann’s roots in Beethovenian tradition began to be more daring and adventurous within the early Romantic symphony. His “Rhenish” Symphony No. 3 includes an unusual five movement form and is bold in his harmonic language.
For tickets please call the Box Office at (541) 552-6398, open in the Music Building of Southern Oregon University from 9am to 1pm, Monday through Friday.
Ashland ticket prices are $44, $38, & $33; Medford tickets are $38, $33, and $28; Grants Pass tickets are $34, $28, and $20. A limited number of $10 economy seats are available in Medford through the Craterian Box Office (541-779-3000) beginning on October 26. $10 tickets are also available for Grants Pass through the RVS Box office beginning on October 24. In addition, the RVS is offering up to two $5 tickets to anyone presenting an Oregon Trail card from the SNAP program. These tickets can be bought at the door to our Grants Pass performances. There is more information about this program at www.performingartsaccess.org. Student tickets are $5 at each venue. Please visit the website at www.rvsymphony.org for further details about the orchestra’s season of concerts.