DCMI/Quartet Winneshiek @ Eastern Star Assisted Living Facility

Quartet Winneshiek, which produces the Driftless Chamber Music Institute, will play on Saturday the 13th at 10 a.m. at Eastern Star Assisted Living Facility. The quartet is comprised of Jonathon Winter and Nicole Cody – violins, Angela Kratchmer – viola, and Craig Hultgren – cello. QW will be performing one of the most serious compositions of twentieth-century chamber music, Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8. This work was written in the Soviet era and is dedicated to the victims of fascism and war. Soviet authorities believed that Shostakovich was referring to the Nazis; however, in secret he actually meant Josef Stalin. The work features Shostakovich’s initials literally carved into the music pitches of the piece and the dreaded “KBG knock on the door in the middle of the night.” The performance will open with the Quartet No. 1 in D minor by Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, the “Spanish Mozart.” Also on the program is Strum by New York violinist and composer Jessie Montgomery. Admission to the performances are free and open to the public. The Driftless Chamber Music Institute is supported by Candace and David Arp, Jamie Adair, Dennis Pottratz  and Kate Narveson, the Depot Outlet and the Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School.