The magnificent production facility of Rôtie Cellars provides the stage to celebrate the initial events of the Tenth Anniversary Season of the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival in style.

The program, featuring Tina Dahl, Meta Weiss, Maria Sampen and Timothy Christie, explores the mature compositions of two child prodigies, Mozart and Chopin. Mozart and Chopin lived a combined 74 years. Both enjoyed fame and attention from the elite circles of Europe. While Mozart concluded his life anonymously in poverty, Chopin concluded his in comparative prosperity, or at least in the care of more prosperous patronage. Both made pilgrimages to Paris, and both won over the city’s cultural elite. Chopin stayed, taking French citizenship, while Mozart returned home to Austria. Though the two composers’ lives did not overlap, Mozart’s Requiem was sung at Chopin’s funeral, uniting the two consummate artists in one final musical communion.

The two composers are here united on happier terms as we explore the effervescent Piano Quartet in E flat, K. 493, of Mozart, and the heroic Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor, Op. 65, of Chopin. Both works demand much of the performers, and will have listeners jumping for joy. Here’s to ten great years of chamber music in the Walla Walla Valley!