Strings Attached

Rendezvous Arts kicks off Season 7 with an audience favorite. But this time, we’re adding strings!

Our beloved Woodwind Octet returns—and it’s bigger than ever. Eleven musicians take the stage, bringing even more color, warmth, and energy. The program blends familiar favorites with something completely new.

And we mean completely new.

Local composer Scott Stevenson is creating a piece just for this ensemble. Nice Fresh will receive its world premiere at these performances. Rendezvous audiences will be among the first to hear this brand-new work, written specifically for the musicians onstage.

Next, the program takes a playful turn with Jonathan Dove’s Figures in the Garden. This lively serenade for wind octet draws inspiration from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. The program also gets up close and personal with intimate performances by horn trio and cello and bass duo.

Then comes a piece we’ve dreamed of bringing to Rendezvous for years: Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for Winds in D Minor, Op. 44. It’s warm, lyrical, joyful, and full of personality. And with our expanded ensemble, it’s the perfect way to launch a new season.

A world premiere. Eleven musicians. Mozart reimagined. Dvořák at his most irresistible.

Strings attached? Absolutely.

Featured Visual Artist: Fred Draper

Adding another dimension to the program is featured visual artist Fred Draper, whose work invites us to look more closely at the world around us.

A perceptual artist drawn to the landscape and natural world, Fred works across pastel, drypoint printmaking, drawing, and painting. His work is rooted in careful observation, exploring how the same subject can reveal something entirely different through a change in medium, material, or point of view.

Fred holds a BFA with a concentration in painting from Wright State University, and his work has been exhibited in galleries across the country.

It’s a perfect fit for a program all about hearing familiar sounds in new ways.