Toledo Symphony Begins Season With Toledo Premiere Of Four Sacred Places

TOLEDO, OH. (Top40 Charts) The Toledo Symphony will begin its season at 7:30 p.m. this Sunday evening, September 14, in the Centennial Room at the Toledo Club. This Chamber Series concert will feature the Toledo premiere of Evan Chamber's new work Four Sacred Places commissioned by the Toledo Symphony with funding support from the National Endowment of the Arts.

The concert will begin with Benjamin Britten's ethereal String Quartet No. 1 performed by Rita Lammers, Tea Prokes, Tim Zeithamel, and Martha Reikow. Next, the Chamber Players, led by Guest Conductor Elim Chan, will present Four Sacred Places. The concert will conclude with the first of Beethoven's late quartets, String Quartet No. 12 performed by Kirk Toth, Merwin Siu, Valentin Ragusitu, and Martha Reikow.

Chambers, currently Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan completed Four Sacred Places this summer as part of the Toledo Symphony and Black Swamp Conservancy's Simple Gifts Series.

In describing the Simple Gifts Project, Chambers says, "So much of our Earth has been torn up and turned into rectangular tracts of concrete. Few areas are left that embody a spontaneous flowering of earth, air, water, and light, of plant and animal lives in balance. A conservancy sets aside such parcels of land, dedicating them to the purpose of simply being what they are. A trust: a remnant of what was, a reminder of what should be."

Of his piece he says, "Each movement of this piece was inspired by places in Northwest Ohio that have been set aside. None are utterly pristine wilderness, but instead signify our attempts to save and restore some of the native beauty and living ecology of the region."

For Tickets
Visit the Toledo Symphony Box Office at 1838 Parkwood Ave, Toledo (M-F 9-5), call (419) 246-8000, or click https://www.toledosymphony.com for online purchases. Tickets are also available at the door the evening of the concert. Tickets start at $30.