by Nicholas Stevens
As any brass, woodwind, or low-string player in an orchestra may confess under mild pressure, it can feel profoundly liberating to play music that draws the spotlight away from their colleagues in the violin section, especially for extended periods. Rare though this repertoire may be — Stravinsky favored winds and percussion, and Glass wrote a whole opera without violins — pieces that foreground these parts of the classical instrumentarium do appear at the heart of the canon. Filling the stage for its 60th-Anniversary Gala concert, the Rocky River Chamber Music Society placed conductor James Feddeck at the helm for an event featuring 21 musicians — violists, cellists, bassists, and wind players.
The plucky concert presenters at Arts Renaissance Tremont continued their excellent 25th Season on Sunday afternoon, November 22 at Pilgrim Church with a complete performance of Igor Stravinsky’s 1918 theater piece, L’Histoire du soldat, as well as the first performance of a new work by ART’s guest composer-in-residence, David Conte, who was present to conduct his own work. 
Is there any better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than listening to great classical chamber music performed by fantastic musicians— who are also donating their talents on behalf of a humanitarian cause? On Sunday, April 19 beginning at 3:00 pm in the Meeting House of First Church Oberlin, the Amici String Quartet will perform a benefit concert for 