Los Alamos Reporter

LAAC Brown Bag Performance Jan. 8 Features Stephen Redfield And Jeffrey Smith

Stephen Redfiled (1).JPGViolinist Stephen Redfield/Photo Courtesy LAAC

Jeffrey Smith Bio Photo (3).jpgViolist Jeffrey Smith/Photo Courtesy LAAC

LAAC NEWS

Stephen Redfield and Jeffrey Smith will join Los Alamos Arts Council for a Special Performance at noon Wednesday, Jan. 8 in the Pajarito Room of Fuller Lodge. This lovely violin/viola duo comes to Los Alamos from Santa Fe and will be playing pieces by Michael Hayden and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. 

The pieces have a very interesting history! Michael Haydn, the younger (and at the time, well-known) brother of Franz Joseph, was commissioned to write a set of six duos. After writing four of them, Haydn became too ill to finish, so he asked Mozart to fulfill the commission as a favor. Mozart obliged, writing the final two. Today, of course, the Mozart Duos are hailed as works of genius and the four Haydn sonatas have been completely forgotten! Certainly, they all deserve to be heard – it’s perfectly delightful music!

Violinist Stephen Redfield was recently awarded “Best Instrumentalist of 2018/19” by the Austin Critics Table. A prize-winner in the Colman and Monterrey Chamber Music Competitions, he has performed as a chamber musician throughout the United States and internationally, and just last season performed five concertos with orchestra, including the Mozart D Major with the Mississippi Symphony. Stephen is concertmaster of the Santa Fe Pro Musica, the Arizona Bach Festival, the Conspirare Company of Voices and La Follia Austin Baroque. He is Professor of Violin at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Violist Jeffrey Smith has performed baroque violin and viola with many baroque groups including Orchestra of New Spain, Boulder Bach Festival, Parish House Baroque, Austin Baroque Orchestra, Jeune Orchestre de l’Abbaye, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Bloomington Bach Cantata Project, and was viola soloist in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at La Petite Bande Summer Academy (2016, Italy). Jeffrey also plays modern violin in area groups, including Santa Fe Pro Musica, Santa Fe Symphony, New Mexico Philharmonic & Amarillo Symphony.

We invite the community to come during grab a sandwich, soup, or salad from Ruby K’s Bagel Café, come over to Fuller Lodge, and enjoy a superb performance.