Sarn Oliver and Friends to Perform String Quartets at Seabury

Ebb & Flow Arts presents (left to right) Mariko Smiley on violin, Margaret Tait on cello, Shinya Abe on viola nad Sarn Oliver on violin. Courtesy photo.

By Maui Now Staff

Ebb & Flow Arts will present Sarn Oliver and Friends, a free program of string quartets by Samuel Barber, Claude Debussy and Henri Dutilleux, on Sunday, July 19, at 5 p.m. at Aʻali’ikuhonua Creative Arts Center at Seabury Hall above Makawao.

A pre-concert discussion will begin at 4 p.m.

The program comprises great string quartets from the late 19th and 20th centuries. Samuel Barber’s string quartet contains the famous Adagio for Strings, “full of pathos and cathartic passion …rarely leaves a dry eye” (Alexander Morin, Classical Voice).

Claude Debussy’s only string quartet (1893) revolutionized the medium.

Henri Dutilleux, the recognized successor to composer Olivier Messiaen in French music, composed Ainsi La Nuit (Thus the Night) in 1976. It is one of the most difficult yet poignantly beautiful string quartets of the 20th century. Dutilleux spent five years composing it.

Sarn Oliver and his wife, Mariko Smiley, are first violinists in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

Margaret Tait is a cellist with SFSO.

Special guest violist/conductor Shinya Abe is from Tokyo. He is a much-sought chamber musician who recently conducted two Mahler symphonies in Japan.

On Saturday, July 18, Sarn Oliver will lead a free workshop, Introduction to Modern Music, for children (their parents and general public) from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Maui Music Conservatory on the second floor of Queen Kaʻahumanu Shopping Center in Kahului.

The event is suitable for children 5 and older and includes special magic tricks.

“This is Sarn Oliver’s fifth appearance in Hawaiʻi since 2007, care of Ebb & Flow Arts,” said E&FA Director Robert Pollock. “He always gathers superb musicians from San Francisco Symphony and elsewhere to grace our concert presentations.”

Oliver and Pollock have collaborated since 1985.

Makana Aloha Foundation provides major underwriting support for this program.

This event is part of E&FA’s annual, multi-day, multi-site, international NORTH SOUTH EAST WEST FESTIVAL 2015.

For more information go online, call (808) 876-1854, or send an email.