Camerata Pacifica Showcases Diverse and Deeply Creative Works for Oboe and Viola

Camerata Pacifica, the international chamber music collective renowned for its musical versatility and bold programming, continues it season with five wide-ranging and deeply creative works highlighting the oboe and viola, including three for solo instrument, November 10-15, 2024, at four Southern California venues.

The performances are Sunday, November 10, 3:00 pm, at Thousand Oaks’ Janet and Ray Scherr Forum; Tuesday, November 12, 7:30 pm, The Huntington in San Marino; Thursday, November 14, 8:00 pm, Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles; and Friday, November 15, 2024, 7:00 pm, at Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West.

The program opens with Camille Saint-Saëns’ Sonata for Oboe and Piano in D Major, Op. 166, a brilliant three-movement piece performed by Principal Oboe Nicholas Daniel, whose playing “bursts with exuberant charisma and optimistic allure” (MusicalCriticism.com), and Principal Piano Irina Zahharenkova, heralded for her “impressive…musical colour” (Bachtrack), in her second appearance of the season.

Daniel also reprises Helen Grime’s rhapsodic Two Birthday Fragments, which she composed for him in celebration of his 60^th birthday, and was premiered by him at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2022.

British violist Timothy Ridout, “that rare kind of musician who could play a cardboard box and make it sing” (Guardian) takes centerstage for two solo works, including York Bowen’s vivacious Viola Sonata No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 18, and Iranian composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s impassioned Veiled for Solo Viola and Live Electronics with Fixed Media. Nourbakhsh explains the piece has a message of empowerment, “It takes a lot of courage to stand up against something that everyone has accepted as normal. Personally, as an Iranian woman, I carry a lot of anger with me: the anger that comes from things I’ve witnessed happen to the women in my personal life, to larger scale growing up in a country that actively veils women’s presence — be it through compulsory hijab or banning solo female singers from pursuing a professional career. For me it’s important to transform this anger into a collective force that is both beautiful and resilient. Veiled is a tribute to Iranian women who made such transformations possible.”

Both Ridout and Daniel join Zahharenkova on the finale, Thomas Oboe Lee’s dazzlingly lyrical trio Parodia Schumanniana, titled after a species of cactus.

Camerata Pacifica Artistic Director Adrian Spence says, “The November program has been constructed to highlight the performers themselves. Nicholas Daniel is considered one of the best oboists in the history of the instrument and has a tone that has redefined the oboe. While American audiences may not be familiar with Timothy Ridout, a review in France’s Le Monde sums up his exceptional talent, ‘In a few bow strokes, the Briton Timothy Ridout carved out a place for himself in the very closed circle of great violists.’ And Irina Zahharenkova consistently thrills Camerata Pacifica audiences with her elegant and compelling performances delivered with extraordinary technique, whether playing solo or with other artists.”

Spence also notes that the most unusual piece on the program is Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s Veiled for Solo Viola and Live Electronics. “This young Iranian composer is a remarkable and unique musical voice. So much do we believe in her, that we’ve secured a major new work from her to premiere in the fall of 2026, generously commissioned by Gretl Stephens in memory of her husband George.”

For tickets ($75 at The Huntington, Music Academy of the West, and Zipper Hall; $91 at Janet and Ray Scherr Forum) and information, visit www.cameratapacifica.org.