Summer Concert: "Winds, Keys, and Cords" | Arts & Culture

By Cassandra Bendickson,

The St. Philip’s Friends of Music Summer Concert Series presents “Zephyrus Trio & Friends: Winds, Keys, and Cords!” on August 28, at 2 p.m. at St. Philip’s in the Hills Episcopal Church. 

As suggested by the title, this concert is a blend of chamber music featuring oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon, horn, piano, and guitar — Winds, Keys, and Cords! Come and listen to some of Tucson’s finest chamber and solo players present a group of works that are rarely performed in Tucson or heard on one great ticket.

The Zephyrus Trio, Cindy Behmer (oboe), Kevin Justus (clarinet), and Cassandra Bendickson (bassoon), will open the program with a lyrical one-movement work by French composer Paul Pierné. Pierné utilizes the lovely singing qualities of the bassoon at the beginning of Bucolique Variée, presenting a forlorn yet beautiful call by the solo bassoon to which the oboe and clarinet respond accordingly. Second on the program is a lovely and petite two-movement reed duo for clarinet and bassoon, written by 18th-century French composer and bassoonist François Rene Gebauer.

Closing the first half of the concert is an expressive, thematic, and tuneful trio by Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg, who was a close friend of Johannes Brahms. Winds and keys join forces as Cindy Behmer (oboe), Gregory Helseth (horn), and Michael Dauphinais (piano) perform one of the great Romantic-era compositions written for this instrumentation.

The second half of the concert brings in the Cords, featuring a new setting of Siete Canciones Populares Españolas, by Manuel de Falla. Originally written for voice and piano, the entire set of popular songs will be heard for the first time on guitar, played by Philip Hemmo, and English horn, played by Cindy Behmer. Next on the program, Gregory Helseth (horn) and Michael Dauphinais (piano) perform the dramatic Elégie by well-known composer Francis Poulenc, written to commemorate the death of a close friend. The Zephyrus Trio returns to close the concert with a staple of the French trio d’anche repertoire by Pierre Max Dubois. Energetic and animated outer movements contrast with a lyrical and reflective middle, typically delicious of the reed trio style.

The melodic winds of oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn; the delicate stroking of keys on piano; and the ring of plucked cords on guitar are the elements brought together by skilled musicians for this potpourri concert of Winds, Keys, and Cords. Add collaboration, passionate performance, and St. Philip's Friends of Music and you've a recipe for an afternoon of chamber music that is not to be missed – 2 p.m. on Sunday, August 28, at St. Philips In The Hills Episcopal Church!

Admission is by donation to St. Philip’s Friends of Music ($15 suggested). Friends of Music provides support to the music program at St. Philip’s, through sponsoring concerts, special musical events, commissions, scholarships, and community outreach programs.

St. Philip’s is located at 4440 N. Campbell Avenue at River Road. Ample parking is available in the north parking lot. The concert will be held in the Church. The office phone is 299-6421.