Name: Sounding Point
Start: 2026-02-20T19:00:00-05:00
Location: St. Peter's Beverly

What’s this program about?
Music is often called a universal language but it can also be deeply rooted in the place it was written. Is it possible for a musical work to be a representative of the culture, customs, and people of the place it was written? And how do those elements affect the way the piece sounds? All of the composers on this program wrote music with a special connection to the place it was created giving us three examples of vastly different cultures united in one concert.
More About the Music:
Jean Marie Leclair was a French composer long before 20th century nationalism was popular. Nevertheless, regional styles of composition made for recognizably French qualities in his music compared to his Spanish or German neighbors. Guadalupe Olmedo was a Mexican composer and well respected in her time but largely forgotten once she left school to get married. Her only surviving string quartet paints a picture of life in Mexico City during her time. Sergey Prokofiev wrote his second quartet while spending a summer in the Kabardinian region (think Southern Russia close to the Black Sea). The piece is a result of a challenge by a colleague who prodded him to write something uniquely Kabardinian. After a lot of study of folk music, instruments, and local customs, the second string quartet was born.
Come ready to…
hear how a change in position affects the music, discover origin stories of music and musicians, and find the link between music and culture around the world.