A month of great music at CCM, mostly free

Dror Biran and friends delivered a ravishing reading of the Schuman Piano Quartet on Sunday.

I admit I haven’t been to many concerts lately at CCM, so I decided to check the February calendar. What a wonderful wealth of music is in store this month! Off the bat, I jumped in the car and ran down to hear piano faculty member Dror Biran and friends for a lovely 90 minutes or so of some of my favorite music, Feb. 4.

Biran anchored the FREE concert with the Schumann Piano Quartet, joined by three members of the CSO,  Gabe Napoli, viola; Charles Morey, violin; and Dan Culnan, cello. The other selection was Rachmaninoff’s Suite No. 2 for Two Pianos. This was a reading that was lush and romantic, but also bold, even muscular at times. At the other Steinway was another wonderful pianist, Timothy Lovelace, a CCM graduate, who holds the chair in collaborative piano and coaching at the University of Minnesota.

Dror Biran, CCM piano faculty member, and Timothy Lovelace, faculty member at University of Minnesota, were duo pianists.

Some concerts are ticketed, but much of it is free. You won’t be sorry! Here’s a link to the offerings by month — ccm.uc.edu/onstage.

See some of my suggestions coming soon, below.

Tonight: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 6
• Faculty Artist Series •
Kurt Sassmannshaus, violin
Featuring faculty artists Jan Grüning, viola; and Dror Biran, piano
Sassmannshaus performs the beautiful G-major violin and viola duo by W.A. Mozart with Grüning. He also performs two violin and piano masterworks with CCM pianist Dror Biran: Beethoven’s “Spring” Sonata and the Debussy Sonata.
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall. FREE.

7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13
•CCM String Quartet-in-Residence Series•
CETERA DESUNT: THE REST IS MISSING
Ariel Quartet
Featuring guest artist Lera Auerbach, piano; and Rafael DeStella, double bass
A renaissance artist for modern times, Lera Auerbach is a widely recognized conductor, pianist and composer. She is also an award-winning poet and an exhibited visual artist. This performance features Auerbach’s String Quartet No. 10, “Frozen Dreams” and String Quartet No. 3, “Cetera Desunt.” Auerbach and DeStella will also join the Ariel Quartet on piano for Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet.
Estimated run time: 90 minutes
Location: Robert J. Werner Recital Hall
Tickets: $29.50 adult, $15 student, $19.75 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.

8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15
8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 16
8 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17
• Undergraduate Opera Series •
THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte
Amy Johnson, stage director
Brett Scott, music director and conductor
Cory Battey, assistant conductor
Kenneth Shaw, producer and set designer

Location: Cohen Family Studio Theater
Tickets: $15 adult, $15 student, $15 UC faculty/staff, $10 UC student, $5 CCM student; group discounts available.