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Santa Cruz Chamber Players Concert 1

Christ Lutheran Church
Aptos, CA

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NEVER AGAIN
Powerful Musical Voices Bringing Light into Darkness
Music by Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alexander Scriabin, and Polina Nazaykinskaya

Rebecca Jackson, artistic director and violin
Moni Simeonov, violin; Tiffany Richardson, viola
Frederic Rosselet, cello; Christine McLeavey Payne, piano
Natalie Parker, clarinet

Music has long served to shed light that pierces darkness, even during moments in history so toxic that all sentient souls vow must NEVER AGAIN be repeated. The program opens with the simple but alluring Lark Ascending, a work written by Vaughan Williams just before the outbreak of World War I.

The 8th String Quartet of Dmitri Shostakovich deftly depicts suffering at the hands of the censors and other tormentors of the Soviet Union. Virtuoso pianist Alexander Scriabin, after receiving the tragic news that the damage to his right hand meant he would never play again, penned one of the most heartrending melodies, Prelude for Left Hand.

The program's centerpiece is Haim, a poignant work by Polina Nazaykinskaya (2012), inspired by Holocaust survivor and former associate concertmaster of Philadelphia Orchestra, David Arben. In his own words, "Before they might kill you and after they might kill you, but not during the music the greatest power of humanity."