Fall Foliage Concert: Haydn, Brahms & Mobius

Electric Earth Concerts presents its annual fall foliage concert with chamber music of Josef Haydn, Johannes Brahms, and featuring Mobius Percussion, a quartet that specializes in presenting fresh contemporary voices. The concert takes place on October 10 at 7:30 pm, at the First Church in Jaffrey, New Hampshire.

The concert begins with masterpieces of classic and romantic music: Haydn’s Piano Trio in D major Hob. XV: 16, followed by Brahms’s C minor Piano Quartet Op. 60. The program is animated at intermission by a dramatic musical shift with the presentation of “Paper Melodies (my music box)” by Mobius’s long-time collaborator and friend Jason Treuting. This fascinating juxtaposition of periods and styles allows the audience to hear each work through the contrasting lens of the others.

For the first half, performers Emilie-Anne Gendron, violinist, cellist Käthe Jarka, and pianist Marija Stroke join EEC directors Laura Gilbert, flute, and Jonathan Bagg, viola, for the Haydn and Brahms works.

Ms. Gendron is a member of the Momenta Quartet, which is now in its tenth year of residence at Temple University. Emilie-Anne is a frequent leader of the conductor-less Sejong Soloists, with which she recently recorded the Mendelssohn Octet with Gil Shaham, and is also a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and with the touring Musicians From Marlboro.

Käthe Jarka has been hailed as a cellist who proves that “the ‘old school’ concept of beautiful, controlled sound and vitality of phrasing is alive and well” and whose hallmark is “clarity of musical and dramatic insight.” An active recitalist and sought-after chamber musician, she has performed throughout the United States and abroad.   

Pianist Marija Stroke has performed in chamber music and solo recitals throughout the United  States, Canada, Europe, Russia, and Hong Kong, and at music festivals such  as Caramoor, the City of London Festival, Soirées des Junies in France, the Moab Festival in Utah, La Jolla Summerfest, and Chamber Music Northwest. She appears this fall in recital with violinists Joshua Bell and Mark Steinberg.

Mobius Percussion seeks to fuse their interest in fresh sounds with their commitment to high-quality performance and the promotion of new works by emerging composers. The group is composed of David Degge, Mika Godbole, Yumi Tamashiro,  and Frank Tyl, who formed the ensemble after working together at the first annual So Percussion Summer Institute in Princeton, NJ. Based in New York City, the ensemble made their debut at downtown multimedia art cabaret, (Le) Poisson Rouge, performing alongside other notable artists including So Percussion, Nexus, Meehan/Perkins Duo and Mantra Percussion. Since then they have performed at venues including the Firehouse Space, the Cell, Princeton Sound Kitchen, Good Child Music Studios, and Andrea Clearfield’s Salon.

Mobius’s appearance at Electric Earth Concerts is part of an ongoing collaboration with Avaloch Farm Music Institute in Boscawen, New Hampshire.