Donald T. Foster  is one of Southern California’s most in-demand clarinetists, serving as Principal Clarinet of both the Pasadena and Santa Barbara Symphonies and Assistant Principal Clarinet of the New West Symphony. He is a frequent substitute musician with the San Diego Symphony and the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and is active in the motion picture and television studios, performing on numerous soundtracks for feature films and television commercials

The afternoon concert will include Phantasiestücke, Op. 73 for cello and piano by Robert Schumann, Violin Sonata in G Major by Maurice Ravel, and Quatuor pour la fin du temps (Quartet for the End of Time) by Olivier Messiaen.

“Imagine yourself at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, home of the Grammy Award winning Los Angeles Philharmonic,” said CMS President Edward Ingraham. “The afternoon concert will be as close as that but better, because patrons won’t need to travel 450 miles to enjoy what promises to be one remarkable concert,” said Ingraham."The combination of the intimacy of the Sedona Creative Life Center, and four truly world-class artists is the recipe for an afternoon of incredible music making."

Ravel labored on his final chamber work—the Sonata for Violin and Piano—over a four-year period, 1923-27. His discomfort with this particular grouping of instruments compounded the compositional process. While visiting the United States the following year, Ravel occasionally performed as accompanist in the violin sonata.A three movement work, the second movement is entitled Blues Moderato. His most detailed explanation of the Blues movement appeared in an article entitled “Contemporary Music” in the Rice Institute Pamphlet (1928): “To my mind, the ‘blues’ is one of your greatest musical assets, truly American despite earlier contributory influences from Africa and Spain. Ravel became one of the first European musicians to incorporate American vernacular styles in a concert work.

Schumann began a series of chamber duos featuring various solo instruments with piano during his miraculous year of composition, 1848-49. Four collections sprang from his still-teeming imagination between February and December: the Phantasiestücke, Op. 73, for clarinet; Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70, for horn; the Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Op. 102, for cello; and the Drei Romanzen, Op. 94, for oboe. These reflected the composer’s experimentation with instrumental combinations and his effort to produce lighter works that might appeal to the music-buying public.

The Quartet for the End of Time by Olivier Messiaen testifies to his indomitable spirit and spirituality during his incarceration at Gölitz. Inhumane conditions at the camp dictated the quartet’s apocalyptic subject matter and its unusual instrumentation. The quartet received its premiere on January 15, 1941 before a motley audience of prisoners. Messiaen reflected in his memoirs, "The Stalag was shrouded in snow. We were 30,000 prisoners (mostly French, with a few Poles and Belgians). The four instrumentalists played on broken instruments. Etienne Pasquier’s cello had only three strings, the keys of my piano would stick. Our clothes were unbelievable; they had given me a green coat all torn, and I was wearing wooden shoes. The audience was composed of members from every social class: priests, doctors, shop-keepers, professional soldiers, workers, and peasants.

A pre-concert will take place from 1:15-1:55pm presented by Edward Ingraham free to all ticket holders. The 2:30pm concert will be presented at the intimate Sedona Creative Life Center, 333 Schnebly Hill Road and is sponsored by the Chamber Music Sedona Board of Trustees. Due to extremely limited seating, all tickets are reserved and are $40, available by calling Chamber Music Sedona at 204.2415. For additional information visit www.chambermusicsedona.org or www.laphil.com.

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