The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) wraps up its 2023 Ward Virts Concert Series with a live performance by ensemble132 – an American collective of 11 soloists and chamber musicians of the highest caliber, uniting with a shared mission to reimagine the chamber music landscape. The free, two-hour concert will be held at the college’s Prince Frederick Campus Saturday, Dec. 9, starting at 3 p.m. and will feature ensemble132 members Stephanie Zyzak, violin, Zachary Mowitz, cello, and Sahun Sam Hong, piano, in “A Tale of Three Trios: Masterworks by Liszt, Saint-Saëns, and Mendelssohn.”
The only group of its kind to continually create and premiere new standards in the chamber music repertoire with its artist-crafted arrangements, ensemble132 excites the imagination of audiences across the country with its uniquely genre-defying programs. Their versatile artistry enables limitless programming possibilities, including chamber ballets, transcriptions of symphonies and jazz standards, orchestrations of solo works, and beloved chamber masterworks.
The Ward Virts Concert Series celebrates the life and talent of Ward Virts, a talented Southern Maryland pianist who died suddenly in 1993. A group of Ward’s friends and classmates conceived the Ward Virts Piano Project to bring the love of life, beauty and music that Ward embodied to a new generation of Southern Maryland students, performers and appreciative audiences. The concerts are performed on a world-class handcrafted Bosendorfer Grand Piano, a gift to CSM’s Prince Frederick Campus from the Ward Virts Piano Project.
The Ward Virts Concert Series is presented by sponsors CSM Foundation, Dr. and Mrs. Henry Virts, George 'Stovy' and Anne Brown. The series is also supported by the Arts Council of Calvert County.
The concert will be held at CSM's Prince Frederick Campus, Building B Multipurpose Room, 115 J W Williams Rd in Prince Frederick, Maryland. For more information about this free event, visit https://www.csmd.edu/calendar/2023/12/ward-virts-ensemble132-dec9.html.