Chamber music at Caltech

One of the pleasant surprises when arriving at Caltech was the existence of a chamber music program. Students, with any level of musical knowledge, could participate and join a chamber music group. You would get together once a week, practice, and at the end of the semester would perform in front of an audience. Well, I couldn’t let an opportunity like that go by! Here are some samples from then. Don’t be too critical! It shows that some of us (i.e. me) have gone without practice for years, and also the recording conditions were far from optimal. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed every musical moment, and I hope that some of that shows. (Note: if the links don't directly play music, download the files first on your hard disk, and play them from there)

 

First, some classical music:

 

L. v.Beethoven:

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (recorded January, 1998)

            Allegro  (click here, 9.3 MBytes)

            Adagio  (click here, 6.7 MBytes)

            Allegro  (click here, 9.2 MBytes)

 

 

Now some romantic and modern music:

 

J. Brahms:

Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano (recorded May, 1998)

            Allegro (1^st movement)  (click here, 10.4 MBytes)

            Allegro (4^th movement)  (click here, 5.9 MBytes)

J. Brahms:

Sonata no.1 for Cello and Piano (recorded August, 2000)

            Allegro (1^st movement)  (click here, 18.8 MBytes)

 

D. Shostakovich:

Sonata for Cello and Piano (recorded August, 2000)

            Allegro (2^rd movement)   (click here, 4.9 MBytes)

            Largo (3^rd movement)   (click here, 10.5 MBytes)

 

M. Neumann (contemporary composer and narrator):

Variations on a theme for Violin, Cello, Clarinet and Piano (recorded May, 2001)

            (click here, 32 MBytes)

 

 

And finally, some tango:

 

Piazzola: Le Grand Tango for Cello and Piano (recorded May, 2000)

             (click here, 15.1 MBytes)

 

Church Music

I was also lucky enough to be a church choir organist for almost two years. During that time, I met with alot of interesting people who commited to come on a weekly basis (once on Sunday morning, and once during a Wednesday rehearsl) and sing in a choir for Saint Anthony's Greek Orthodox Church in Pasadena, CA. Here is also where I met and became very close friends with Dr.Dimitrios Antsos (choir director), who among many things, is an avid collector and coinesseur of classical music.

Here is a picture of the organ with (from left to right) Ted Kapenekas (bass and retired Civil Engineer) and George Gavalas (tenor and Professor of Chemical Engineering at Caltech) :