March 16, 2003
Director of Media Relations
413/542-8417

AMHERST, Mass.- In the final concert in this season's Music at Amherst series, the Concertante Chamber Players will perform the Sextet from "Capriccio" by Richard Strauss, "Verklärte Nacht" by Schoenberg, and the Sextet in B-flat, Op. 18 by Brahms, on Friday, April 11, at 8 p.m. in Buckley Recital Hall at Amherst College.

A repertory ensemble dedicated to performing chamber music for five or more players, Concertante was founded in 1995 by a group of Julliard School graduates intent on pursuing their musical interest in a wide array of repertoire, ranging from quintets by established masters to less commonly performed nonets and other varied combinations of instrumentalists. In the 2000-01 season, Concertante performed at the Library of Congress in Washington D.C., and held a series of five concerts at Merkin Hall in New York, among its 20 concerts throughout the United States. Concertante is resident chamber music ensemble of the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts.

A New York Times reviewer wrote of a Concertante interpretation, "They gave a sweet-toned, beautifully shaped performance." According to the Washington Post, "Concertante's energetic reading of Brahms's String Sextet No. 2 made the composer's thick harmonic textures seem almost ethereal."

Admission to the concert is $21, senior citizens $18, and students $5. Tickets may be reserved by calling 413/542-2195 on weekday mornings. The Amherst College Concert Office has a Website at http://www.amherst.edu/~concerts/. Concertante has a Website at http://www.concertante.com.

###