02/05/2024
By Charles Gabriel

The award-winning Radius Ensemble comes to Lowell this February for a ravishing program that showcases a variety of "Perspectives" that bridge cultures, span centuries and feature the artistic diversity, explosive virtuosity and warm approachability that have made the group a pillar of the Boston-area music scene for 25 years. Join us on Friday, Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. for this free concert at UMass Lowell’s Durgin Recital Hall, or via livestream. The concert includes the Ensemble’s signature “live liner notes,” brief remarks that enlighten and entertain.

The program includes:

  • Roumain - Filter for solo violin
  • Ruehr - Erinnerung (Remembrance) for solo piano
  • San Martin - Etude .75 for solo piano
  • Mays - A Bee in the Hollow for solo piano
  • Chevalier de Saint Georges - Sonata for Two Violins in B-Flat Major, Op. Posth
  • Rota - Petite Offrande for wind quintet
  • Beach - Pastorale for wind quintet
  • Coleman - Umoja for wind quintet

About Radius Ensemble

Named Boston’s Best Classical Ensemble 2016 by the Improper Bostonian, and winner of a 2013 CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, Radius Ensemble’s thoughtfully curated programs balance old and new, with repertoire ranging from beloved masterworks to riveting new music – brilliantly performed by some of the best musicians in Boston. Radius’s go-for-broke performances are interspersed with “live liner notes,” brief remarks that enlighten and entertain.

A chamber music ensemble of winds, strings, and piano, Radius Ensemble was founded in 1999 by oboist and impresario Jennifer Montbach. Radius' subscription season includes a four-concert series at Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, where the group has been Ensemble in Residence since 2011. Radius has also appeared on concert series throughout New England, including Rockport Music and Clark University. Radius has commissioned and premiered numerous works by Boston-area composers and has won several Meet the Composer grants. Committed to community engagement, Radius presents a free Saturday-morning family concert in Harvard Square, donates free tickets to disadvantaged children and their parents or mentors through local community service agencies, and works with students at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School.

Eight core members comprise Radius Ensemble. They are joined by additional musicians as repertoire warrants, including (but not limited to) harp, percussion, and double bass. The group has also collaborated with a thereminist, several narrators, and dancers; and has appeared with film, live and recorded electronics, and other multimedia.

The concert is hosted by the Music Department and made possible by support from the Howard and Katherine Aibel Foundation.

For additional information, contact Charles_Gabriel@uml.edu