

A Winter Journey: Reflections of the Soul’s Despair and Desolation
Featuring and curated by violist Ettore Causa with Fellows of the Piano & Strings Program
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DateJuly 23, 2025
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VenueBennett Gordon Hall
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Event Starts1:30 PM
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Public Gates12:30 PM
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Ticket Prices$15
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About the Performance
Violist Ettore Causa, a member of the esteemed Steans Institute faculty, joins Steans Piano & Strings Program Fellows for a program that bridges centuries of musical expression.
The evening opens with Purcell’s Chacony in G minor, a masterful exercise in Baroque elegance, followed by an arrangement of “Dido’s Lament” from Dido and Aeneas for string quintet, capturing the Baroque opera’s heart-wrenching sorrow. Bartók’s String Quartet No. 1, a deeply personal work reflecting the composer’s early influences and evolving modernist voice, follows with fiery intensity and raw emotion.
After intermission, an all-string arrangement of a passage from Bach’s Goldberg Variations offers a moment of sublime introspection, setting the stage for Arvo Pärt’s meditative Fratres, a work of hypnotic simplicity, in celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday.
The concert culminates with Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen, performed in a rarely heard version for seven strings. This powerful work, written in the final days of World War II, is a poignant meditation on loss and rebirth.
Performers
Ettore Causa, curator and viola (faculty)
Sameer Agrawal, violin
Leah Amory, violin
Daniel Dastoor, violin
Zi Yang Low, violin
Boha Moon, violin
Aoi Saito, violin
Muyan Yang, violin
Isabella Bignasca, viola
Wanxinyi Huang, viola
Zechariah Mo, viola
Danielle Akta, cello
Hun Choi, cello
Joan Herget, cello
Jakob Giovanni Taylor, cello
Jiaxun Yao, cello
Program
Henry Purcell: Chacony for String Quartet in G minor Muyan Yang, violin; Aoi Saito, violin; Zechariah Mo, viola; Hun Choi, cello Henry Purcell: “When I am Laid in Earth” (Dido’s Lament), arr. for string quintet Muyan Yang, violin; Aoi Saito, violin; Zechariah Mo, viola; Ettore Causa, viola; Hun Choi, cello Bela Bartók: String Quartet No. 1, BB 52 Daniel Dastoor, violin; Sameer Agrawal, violin; Isabella Bignasca, viola; Danielle Akta, cello –Intermission– Johann Sebastian Bach: Var. 25 from Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, arr. for string trio Boha Moon, violin; Wanxinyi Huang, viola; Jakob Giovanni Taylor, cello Arvo Pärt: Fratres for String Quartet Leah Amory, violin; Boha Moon, violin; Wanxinyi Huang, viola; Jakob Giovanni Taylor, cello Richard Strauss: Metamorphosen for String Septet Sameer Agrawal, violin; Zi Yang Low, violin; Ettore Causa, viola; Wanxinyi Huang, viola; Hun Choi, cello; Joan Herget, cello; Jiaxun Yao, cello
Program and featured artists are subject to change.