Tucson summer concert series spotlights international duo, local musicians

St. Andrew’s Bach Society returns for its 36th annual summer concert series with four events including the Tucson debut of two international artists and longtime collaborators performing a program of French works.

“It’s one of those things that we got really lucky and they were passing through the West Coast,” longtime Bach Society Director Ben Nisbet said of the June 23 “Musique Française” concert with violinist Arnaud Sussman and pianist Wi Qian. “That’s going to be very special.”

The concert follows the series opening “Baroque Delights” on June 2. After a break in July, the series returns Aug. 11 with pianist Fanya Lin performing “War and Peace,” a concert of works by Schubert and Scriabin, before concluding Aug. 25 with “Trio Masterpieces,” featuring series regular and Tucson Symphony Orchestra Concertmaster Lauren Roth with TSO cellist Juan David Mejia and Nogales pianist Evan Kory — both first-timers on the series — performing the music of Beethoven, Dvorâk and Pärt.

All concerts begin at 2 p.m. at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. Tickets are $16-$26 per concert or $55-$91 for a four-concert series pass through standrewsbach.org.

“I think where this concert series is at, and I’m really proud of this, is a combination of the very best of what we have in terms of local players and international level musicians,” Nisbet said of the lineup. “What happens is that these players who are based here ... they are getting out now and they are hitting the festival circuit not just nationally but internationally.”

Fanya Lin, who teaches at the University of Arizona School of Music, is an example of that. She will perform on the series not long after finishing a big tour in her native Taiwan this summer, said Nisbet, now in his 13th year curating the series.

“For anybody who has not seen her play, she is one of those people who can take a solo recital and make it feel every bit as explosive as a full orchestra and also give you the intimacy of a solo recital,” Nisbet said. “She is engaging and dramatic. The experience is just as important as the music you hear and with Lin, that’s on another level.”

The artists on “Baroque Delights” — soprano Margot Rood, mezzo-soprano Thea Lobo and violinist Freya Creech — approached him about doing a vocal concert of works by Bach, Handel and Monteverdi. Harpsichordist Sam Nelson will also be part of that recital. Rood and Lobo are regulars with True Concord Voices & Orchestra, Nisbet said.

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“It’s going to be sort of a delightful collection of Baroque arias” from two vocalists familiar in the style, he said. “We haven’t done tons of vocal music over the years but when we have it’s been pretty special.”

French-born, New York-based Sussman and China-born Qian add an international flair to the summer lineup with their concert of works by French composers Debussy, Boulanger, Saint-Saëns and Faure.

The finale will introduce the series to celebrated pianist Kory, who Nisbet said “is a legit, legit virtuoso.”

Raised in Nogales, Kory earned his doctoral degree in piano performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He also earned a second master’s degree from Juilliard.

Kory has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Russia, Australia and China, and is a regular soloist and chamber recitalist with the Benderly-Kendall Opera House in Patagonia.

“I’m really excited to get that group,” Nisbet said of the trio. “It puts a bow on this season that I think represents an incredible collection of the very, very best of what Southern Arizona has to offer with some international and national flair mixed in.”

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