The Montreal-based early music ensemble Ximenez Quartet brings its “Transatlantic Salon” recital to Tucson on Sunday, Dec. 17.
The concert, presented by Arizona Early Music, will include early string quartets from Europe and South America by Haydn, Sirmen, Bologne, Mozart and Peruvian composer Pedro Ximenez Abril Tirado — the 4-year-old ensemble’s namesake.
The quartet — Montreal-based violinist Karin Cuéllar, Canadians Simon Alexandre on violin and violist Jimin Dobson, and American cellist Jessica Korotkin — got together in fall 2019 out of their love for exploring music by lesser-known composers. The quartet’s mission is to bring this repertoire to the “concert platform in a sensitive, historically informed and contextualized manner that seeks to place this music on equal terms with that of the canonic, mostly Euro-centered repertoire,” according to press materials.
To do that, the ensemble, which debuted at the Montreal Baroque Festival and has participated in a number of early music festivals since, performs on period instruments and draws its repertoire from composers who aren’t on a lot of ensembles’ setlists.
Their recital on Sunday begins at 3 p.m., with a preconcert talk at 2:30 at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 2331 E. Adams St. Tickets are $30.90 through azearlymusic.org.
Also on Tucson’s classical music stage this week:
Tucson Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of the young Australian conductor Katharina Wincor and a quartet of guest vocal soloists, will perform “Messiah and Baroque Favorites” on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 16-17, at Catalina Foothills High School, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive.
The young Australian conductor Katharina Wincor will lead the Tucson Symphony Orchestra in its special “Messiah and Baroque Favorites” concert this weekend.
The TSO Chorus will join voices with soprano Chelsea Helm, contralto Sara Couden, tenor Steven Soph and baritone Edward Vogel to perform selections from Handel’s “Messiah” on a program that also includes works by a trio of Bachs: Wilhelm Friedemann Bach’s Sinfonia in D minor; C.P.E. Bach’s Symphony in B minor; and Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 3.
Wincor, making her TSO debut, is assistant conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and has won a number of prestigious prizes including third place at the 2020 Mahler Competition and the Neeme Järvi Prize at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in 2017.
Performances are at 2 p.m. each day and tickets are $45-$91 through tucsonsymphony.org.
