The Ciompi share the season’s second concert with the Amernet String Quartet, an ensemble praised by the New York Times as “immensely satisfying.” The Amernet is Quartet in Residence at Florida International University; its founding violinist, Juilliard graduate Marcia Littley, is a native of Greenville, NC. The concert begins with Mozart’s homage to Bach, the Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546, and continues with Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, op. 11, featuring a haunting Andante Cantabile that moved Tolstoy to tears. In the second half, the Ciompi join forces with the Amernet for the premiere of a new work for double string quartet by Carl Schimell, a 2008 Duke Ph.D. and professor at Illinois State University. The Ciompi and the Amernet round out the evening together with the brashly modern Octet for Strings, Op. 11, composed by a nineteen-year-old Shostakovich.

Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546
Tchaikovsky: String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, op. 11
Carl Schimell: Premiere of a new octet for strings
Shostakovich: Octet for Strings, op. 11