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Night Pieces: Northern Third Piano Quartet

Saturday, September 9, 8:00pm

The Northern Third Piano Quartet returns to perform ‘Night Pieces’, a powerful program of music by Beethoven, Brahms and Martinů. Violinist Sofia Hirsch, violist Elizabeth Reid, cellist John Dunlop and pianist Alison Bruce Cerutti are among Vermont top professional instrumentalists, noted for their emotive musicality.

Martinů’s Three Madrigals for Violin and Viola is cheerful, and a homage to baroque and renaissance styles with its polyphonic textures in the two parts. The work by Beethoven is his Sonata No. 4 for Pianoforte and Cello in C major and is as playful as the Three Madrigals though more complex. Finally, the group will perform Brahms’ Piano Quartet in A major, a masterpiece of symphonic scope. The program comprises night pieces, music which expresses joy and respite from the day’s toil. Click to see the evening program.

Founded in 2013, the Northern Third Quartet performs throughout Vermont to both audience and critical acclaim. Recent venues include Norwich University, the Barre Opera House and the Brandon Music Concert Series. The Northern Third Piano Quartet has recently been heard on Vermont Public Radio, performing works of students from the Music-COMP program.

Sofia Hirsch, of Middlebury, began violin studies at the age of four in Waterloo, Ontario, and after moving to Vermont played for many years with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Currently, she performs as a guest artist with the New York Chamber Soloists Orchestra and Handel Society of Hanover and Boston, and as a member of the Vermont Symphony Orchestra.

Violist Elizabeth Reid is in high demand as a musician in Vermont with her playing described as having a “deep and expressive sound” and a “natural musicality” (Times Argus). She studied viola performance at Western University and the Glenn Gould School in her native Canada. Reid is principal violist of the Middlebury Opera Orchestra, as well as playing regularly with the VSO, BCO, and Arioso. She has premiered numerous solo and chamber works in Canada and the U.S.

John Dunlop, of Richmond, has been principal cellist of the VSO, Burlington Chamber Orchestra, Opera North and the Green Mountain Opera Festival. He has performed as soloist with both the VSO and BCO, as well as many chamber music performances with area musicians. Dunlop began his cello studies with Norman Fischer and continued under Richard Kapuscinski at Oberlin Conservatory and Bonnie Hampton at the San Francisco Conservatory. He has worked with Trey Anastasio, of Phish, on many of his solo albums, and played for such artists as Bernadette Peters and Lyle Lovett.

Alison Bruce Cerutti has performed as soloist and chamber musician throughout Vermont, and as a flute accompanist in the U.S. and France. For eight years, she studied with Louis Moyse and accompanied his flute master classes in Vermont and France, and in 2012 performed with his former students in St. Amour, France. Cerutti has played with TURNmusic for the 2015 production of A Fleeting Animal, Arioso, the Cerutti-Reid Duo, Veritas, and the Bruce Klavier Duo; and appeared as a soloist with the Burlington Civic Symphony Orchestra and the Vermont Philharmonic. She has premiered works by Vermont composers Lydia Busler, Erik Nielsen, David Gunn, Dennis Bathory-Kitsz, Michael Close, and Jacob Morton-Black. A Vermont native, she studied with Sylvia Parker and earned degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the Hartt School. She maintains an active piano studio and is an adjunct professor at Norwich University