Dove of Peace Lutheran Church is jumping into Beethoven’s 250th birthday celebration with a party of its own.
The church, which for 15 years has hosted a free community concert series with some of Tucson’s most popular musicians, is devoting its 16th season to Beethoven’s chamber works.
“I’m pretty excited that we’re going to highlight Beethoven’s chamber pieces,” said Eric Holtan, who curates the Dove of Peace series and is the church’s music director.
The season kicks off with the church’s annual New Year’s Day concert on Wednesday, Jan. 1, with Beethoven’s Piano Trio in D major, “Ghost,” with guest artists Freya Creech on violin, Wesley Skinner on cello and Alison Hsieh on piano.
Dove of Peace could very well have the Tucson lock on Beethoven’s chamber works, something the church unofficially launched in 2010 with the start of its ambitious Beethoven Sonata Project.
The 10-year project’s goal was to perform all 32 of Beethoven’s piano sonatas; it has checked the boxes on 29 and will perform the remaining three in February.
The Tucson Symphony Orchestra is focused on Beethoven’s symphonies — it will perform eight of the nine throughout the 2019-20 season.
And True Concord Voices & Orchestra, the professional choir that Holtan also leads, is revisiting Beethoven’s choral works including his Mass in C major in February.
That leaves plenty of room for Dove of Peace to explore Beethoven’s smaller chamber works.
In its four-concert series that runs through mid-April, Dove of Peace will perform Beethoven’s “Kruetzer” Violin Sonata and his Horn Sonata, as well as journey through the composer’s string quartets from his early, middle and late composing periods. Violinist Ben Nisbet, True Concord’s co-concertmaster, will curate and narrate that program on April 19.
Admission to Wednesday’s concert and all Dove of Peace events is free, a gift from the church to the community. A freewill offering will be collected to benefit Interfaith Community Services; the church picks a different charity to help for each concert.
