Performance Listing

University Chamber Music III features the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble, co-presented with the Center For the Arts at Virginia Tech. The eight musician chamber ensemble will perform Brahms’ Sextet in G-Major, Op 36; Shostakovich’s Prelude and Scherzo for String Octet, Op. 11; and Mendelssohn’s Octet for strings in Eb-Major, Op. 20. Tickets are $40 General Public, $32 Faculty/Staff/Seniors, and $10 students and youth under 18 years old.  Tickets for the concert at the Lyric Theatre may be purchased at the Lyric Theatre online or by stopping by Monday through Friday 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., or by calling 540.951.4771. 

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble was created in 1967 to perform the larger chamber works—from quintets to octets—with players who customarily work together, instead of the usual string quartet with additional guests. Drawn from the principal players of the orchestra, the Chamber Ensemble tours as a string octet, string sextet, and in other configurations including winds. Its touring commitments are extensive, with annual visits to France, Germany, and Spain, and frequent tours to North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Taiwan.

In 2011, two critically acclaimed tours saw the Ensemble perform in cities across the USA and Canada. They also visited venues throughout the UK with a program featuring two of the most important works written for octet. In 2012 the Ensemble will perform in London at Kings Place and St Martin-in-the-Fields, with a US tour scheduled for the Autumn.

Contracts with Philips Classics, Hyperion, and Chandos have led to the release of over thirty CDs by the Chamber Ensemble.

“The performance was also exemplary chamber playing…acutely responsive and rich in nuanced details. While they often offered big, thick sound and expressive intensity…they were also capable of fleet delicacy and quiet lyricism”

Feb 2011, The Oregonian