SSQ season finale has Mexican flair
The Spokane String Quartet ends its season Sunday with a musical trip to Mexico – not a spot usually considered central to the string quartet repertoire.
The quartet’s guest artist, guitarist Steven Novacek, will perform Michael Zearott’s “Concierto Mariachi” along with several works for solo guitar.
The quartet – violinists Kelly Farris and Tana Bland, violist Jeanette Wee-Yang and cellist Helen Byrne – will open Sunday’s program with Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F major.
Novacek will perform works that survey Spanish and Latin American guitar music: Isaac Albeniz’ “Granada” from Spain, Dilermando Reis’ waltz “Se ela Preguntar” from Brazil, Gentil Montana’s “Porro” from Colombia, and Leo Brouwer’s “Hika” from Cuba.
The Seattle-based Novacek, who last performed with the quartet in 2002, grew up in Southern California, the son of a professional singer and guitarist. As a teenager, he played in Hollywood clubs before becoming a studio musician for records and films.
He graduated from the University of California at Northridge, where he studied with Vince Macaduso and the Australian virtuoso John Williams. After living in Spain and playing with three different flamenco troupes, Novacek returned to the U.S. where he directs the guitar and lute program department at the University of Washington and heads the classical guitar department at Seattle’s Cornish School of the Arts.
Novaceck and the quartet will be joined by three Spokane Symphony musicians, trumpeters Larry Jess and Chris Cook and bassist Kim Plewniak, as well as composer-pianist Zearott for “Concierto Mariachi.”
Zearott, who lives in Clarkston, was pianist for the Heifetz Master Classes at the University of Southern California and toured with choral ensembles conducted by Robert Shaw and Roger Wagner. He won first prize in the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition and has conducted the New York Philharmonic and served as music director of the Ojai Music Festival and the Los Angeles Opera Guild.
“Concierto Mariachi” was premiered in 1990 by guitarist Pepe Romero with the New Haven (Conn.) Symphony. Zearott composed the work as a homage to the mariachi music that dominates the urban folk music of Mexico with its mixed ensembles of bowed and plucked strings and trumpets, sometimes with percussion or harp, sometimes not.
“I can think of no music better to brighten your day with its brilliance, whimsy, soulfulness and spirit of alegria (happiness),” Zearott says.