There are a lot of reasons to attend the next performance of the Gold Coast Chamber Players. They’re playing in their new performance space, which violist Pamela Freund-Striplen calls “just wonderful.” They’re featuring a rising classical music star, soprano Leah Crocetto. Young musicians from the GCCP’s mentoring program will be joining the professionals onstage in rehearsals and the performance, and you’ll have a chance to hear some amazing talents and encourage them for future performances. The program is in honor of the 325th birthday of Bach. But first, and foremost, the heart of the performance will be a tribute to well-known and even more well-loved cellist Lawrence Granger, who passed away last spring.
Granger was, in the words of the Freund-Striplen, “the most generous person out there.” He was always willing to work for very little or even donate his time to help out groups that were just starting out, and as soon as his name was attached to a project, it garnered much more attention. She also adds that he was also the easiest person to work with, very flexible, and although he had his own ideas of how a work should be performed, he always listened to others, which made him very popular. He’d arrive early, and talk to everyone, no matter who they were. “He always gave his time, and he’s really missed.”
The program itself harks back to an earlier concert that Larry was part of. It’s mainly Bach, starting with his Chorale for cello quartet, followed by the Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 and the Double Violin Concert.
(lower right)
The concert ends with the Aria from Heitor Villa-Lobos’ Bachiana Brasileiras No. 5, a melding of Bach’s style with Brazilian melodies. For this final piece, eight cellists are joined by Crocetto. A second-year Adler fellow, she has just won a 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition, so it won’t be long before others in the classical music world discover what San Francisco audiences have already learned about her great musicianship.
The talented young musicians who will joining in the performance are all part of the GCCP’s mentoring program. Though this mentoring program is an ongoing tradition, in this case it is also a tribute to Granger, who was involved in musical education in the schools. As part of this tribute, the musicians and production personnel are donating their services so the proceeds can go to a music scholarship in Granger’s name at Cal State East Bay, a real plus for a school not known for its performance program.
The new venue (this is their second performance there) is part of the new library facility in Lafayette. It only holds about 160 people, but the GCCP finds that helps keep the concerts inviting and friendly, like a big family. The working relationship between the musicians and the staff at the library has been wonderful; Freund-Striplen is delighted to say that the people at the facility, while not experts in the performance, “really want it to go well.”
The concert will be held April 25 at 2 p.m. Tickets are selling quickly, but there will be standing room tickets available. And come early; it’s also Earth Day with programs at the library, so parking will be at a premium. But what better way to celebrate both spring and the life of a wonderful musician than with music?