Downtown Music Presents: Rachel Blumenthal, flute, Laura Sacks, viola & Steve Beck, piano

A program featuring:

Durufle: Prelude, recitatif et variations, op. 3

Haydn: Flute sonata in G major, op. 90

Henri Vieuxtemps: Elegie for viola and piano, op. 30

CPE Bach: Trio for keyboard, flute, and viola in a minor, Wq 93

Rachel Blumenthal is Associate Principal Flute of the New York City Ballet and Second Flute/Piccolo of Santa Fe Opera. She has been a frequent guest musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera, and Washington National Opera. She has also performed as a chamber musician at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and Chicago’s Music of the Baroque.

Laura Sacks is a New York City-based violist who enjoys a multifaceted career. This season she looks forward to performances with the Knights, New York City Ballet, NOVUS, Experiential Orchestra, Harlem Chamber Players, Albany Symphony and Vermont Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of New York and chamber music at Brightmusic Society of Oklahoma. She has recently performed a season with the Sarasota Opera, and a summer at June in Buffalo. Laura holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University, a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and most recently completed her doctorate at Stony Brook University.

Steven Beck was described as “exemplary” and “deeply satisfying” by Anthony Tommasini in the New York Times. He made his concerto debut with the National Symphony Orchestra and his annual Christmas Eve performance of Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Bargemusic has become a New York institution. As an orchestral musician he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and Orpheus. He is a graduate of the Juilliard School.

This concert is made possible with the generous support of Catherine Toolin.