Tucson weekend packed with classical concerts

Tucson classical music stages will be hopping this weekend.

In addition to the Tucson Symphony Orchestra's all-American concert at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, we'll see the return of a world-class guitarist and close friend of Tucson at the University of Arizona, and a pair of UA music profs teaming up in midtown for a popular concert series that's celebrating its 22nd season.

Then early next week at Leo Rich Theater, we get the Juilliard String Quartet, which has a long history with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music going back to 1967.

First up is classical guitarist David Russell, making his annual winter residency with Tucson Guitar Society. 

Russell has been an artist-in-residence with the UA School of Music since fall 2007, spending a few winter weeks here teaching classes and performing. In 2014, the UA gave him an honorary doctorate, and for the past dozen years or more, the UA Bolton Guitar Studies program has awarded an annual David Russell Bach Prize in his honor.

Expect the Grammy- and award-winning artist to perform flamenco and classical repertoire when he takes the stage at Holsclaw Hall, 1017 N. Olive Road on the UA campus, at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 14, and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 15. Tickets are $38.50, $35 for Guitar Society members and $11 for students through tucsonguitarsociety.org. 

Also coming up:

•  Piano-clarinet duo at Dove of Peace: Dove of Peace Lutheran Church continues its 22nd Concerts for Charity series on Sunday, Feb. 15, with the duo of clarinetist Jackie Glazier and pianist Fanya Lin.

The pair, colleagues at the University of Arizona School of Music, will perform a program that includes two works by 20th-century French composers: Fernande Decruck's sublime "Cantilène" and Olivier Messiaen's "Abyss of the Birds" from "Quartet for the End of Time" that Messiaen composed while he was in a German prison camp.

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That work for solo clarinet was a spiritual reflection drawn from Messiaen's dire captivity and was meant to bring him and his fellow prisoners solace. The quartet became one of Messiaen's most famous works and is largely regarded as one of the most emotionally and technically challenging in the clarinet repertoire.

Also on Sunday's program: French composer Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano; and American composer Jenni Brandon's "Fin de la Tierra."

The concert begins at 2 p.m. at Dove of Peace, 665 W. Roller Coaster Road. Admission is free, but donations collected during the concert will benefit TIHAN: Tucson Interfaith HIV/AIDS Network.

• Juilliard String Quartet returns: It's only been two years since we last saw the famous Juilliard String Quartet here, but the ensemble, whose history goes back to 1946, returns with a new face in the lineup.

Ronald Fu joined the ensemble last summer, replacing longtime second violinist Ronald Copes. The new configuration made its New York debut early last December; we get them two months later with Arizona Friends of Chamber Music on Wednesday, Feb. 18.

The quartet — Fu, first violin Areta Zhulla (joined in 2018), violist Molly Carr (2022) and cellist Astrid Schween (2016) — will perform Shostakovich's String Quartet No. 7 in F-sharp Minor; Bach's Prelude in E-flat Major arranged by Michelle Barzel Ross; Ross's "Birds on the Moon"; and Beethoven's String Quartet No. 15 in A minor.

Wednesday's concert begins at 7:30 p.m. at Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $45, $12 for students with ID, through arizonachambermusic.org.