This concert is for the residents and guests of Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge.

Cari Shipp, flute, and Jeremy Thompson, piano, bring a program of beautiful, expansive works for flute and piano. Featuring the music of Bach, Gieseking, Asimov, and Esmail.

Program:

Johann Sebastian Bach - Sonata in E minor
Fikret Amirov - Six Pieces
Reena Esmail - Sonata, mvt II
Walter Gieseking - Sonatine

This program includes familiar names like JS Bach and famed pianist Walter Gieseking, as well as the wonderfully successful young composer Reena Esmail (currently the Los Angeles Master Chorale’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence among other accolades), and the seldom performed but electrifying music of Azerbaijani composer Fikret Amirov.

This program features enchanting, mysterious music for flute and piano. The Bach Sonata in e minor opens with the most emotionally evocative movement of his seven flute sonatas, followed by riveting technical movements. The Six Pieces by Amirov is joyful music filled with the rich harmonies of Eastern European folk music. Gieseking's Sonatine is haunting with its twisting melodies, peaceful in the gentle barcarolle-esque second movement, and dazzling with the twinkling tessitura of the finale. Reena Esmail's unfinished Sonata is unlike anything we've ever played - I'll quote the composer's own words: "The second movement of my Sonata for Flute and Piano begins in a Hindustani (north Indian) raga called Ahir Bhairav. I love the dark, yearning nature of Ahir Bhairav — the way it feels so otherworldly, and seems to long for a place that is just out of reach."