Sequim, PA concerts feature viola d’amore and a world premiere this week

Two highly unusual experiences are coming to the stage, promised Jonathan Pasternack, artistic director and conductor of the Port Angeles Symphony Chamber Orchestra.

For one, a daughter of Clallam County who lives in Europe is returning home to play an instrument called the viola d’amore — in both Sequim and Port Angeles.

Vivaldi’s Concerto in D major for viola d’amore is the centerpiece of the orchestra’s concert at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 Lopez Ave. in Port Angeles on Friday, Jan. 19, and at Trinity United Methodist Church, 100 S. Blake Ave. in Sequim, on Saturday, Jan. 20. Both performances will start at 7 p.m.

“Playing a concert [in Clallam County] has always meant the world to me,” said violist Cheryl Landry Swoboda, who grew up in Port Angeles and now lives in Germany.

Along with the chamber orchestra, Swoboda will play Vivaldi’s concerto, not on her usual viola but on the viola d’amore, a Baroque-era instrument with sympathetic strings and “a huge range,” as she puts it.

“I feel like I am bowing a harp. It’s not an easy instrument to learn, but I just feel happy when I play it,” said Swoboda, who began her musical career in the fourth-grade strings program at Port Angeles’ Hamilton Elementary School.

She continued playing through graduation from high school in 1987, then went to Johns Hopkins University’s Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, then went to study and build her musical career in Germany in 1991.

Also part of the two concerts this week: the world premiere of “Dark to Light,” composed by Port Angeles cellist Jesse Ahmann. It’s the opening piece in the two concerts this week.

These performances are especially intimate, Pasternack said.

“The acoustics of the two churches are excellent for this kind of music, while they are different in interesting ways,” he said.

Hearing the viola d’amore live in these venues — or any setting — is an exceedingly rare thing, Pasternack said.

Tickets are $20 for adults and free for those 18 and younger accompanied by a ticketed patron.

They are available at portangelessymphony.org, Port Book and News in Port Angeles, and at the door on concert night.

For information, contact the Symphony office at 360-457-5579 or pasymphony@olypen.com.

Ahmann, who graduated from Port Angeles High School in 1997 and then lived in Montana for two decades, has come back to reside in his hometown.

Like Swoboda, he is an alumnus of the Port Angeles School District’s fourth-grade strings program. Also like her, Ahmann has created a successful musical career.

He composes meditative music for his YouTube channel, titled Montanacellist; it has tens of thousands of subscribers.

Ahmann, whose mother Jo Dee played for many years with the Port Angeles Symphony as concertmaster, also performed with the orchestra during and after high school.

He rejoined upon his return to the North Olympic Peninsula three years ago: He can live anywhere, and he chose here.

When Ahmann set out to compose “Dark to Light” for the chamber orchestra, he sought to shape a lush, melodic piece, music to bring listeners from a melancholy feeling into an uplifted place. The composer wants to give them an “oh, wow” sensation, he said, so “they’re caught in that moment.”

“Dark to Light” also describes the whole musical program, said Pasternack. Following the Ahmann premiere, the orchestra will play the Sonata da Chiesa, a beautiful and plaintive piece by Frank Martin, whom Pasternack sees as one of the most important composers of the 20th century.

“He has a very individual voice, combined with an exceptional skill in composition,” said the conductor.

Then comes Vivaldi, featuring violinist Jory Noble, flutist Tamara Meredith, and Swoboda’s viola d’amore.

“Cheryl is a fiercely expressive performer,” Pasternack said, “one who has traveled a long distance — in miles and career wise — to arrive here.”

The evening’s finale: Johann Sebastian Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.

“It’s quintessential Bach, perfection from beginning to end,” said Pasternack; “full of melodic, contrapuntal invention.”

Together in concert, Swoboda, Ahmann, Pasternack and the orchestra have one hope. Swoboda, after arriving in her hometown for rehearsals last week, summed it up. She wishes to give her listeners “joy, wonder, timelessness.”