Musica Maestrale opens its concert season this weekend (October 6, 2012, 7:30PM) at the Community Music Center in Portland, Oregon.

From Musica Maestrale’s website:

Musica Maestrale’s premier concert! For this special occasion, we will be joined by Adaiha Macadam-Somer (‘cello) and Noah Strick (violin), pictured left, two young, emerging stars in the San Francisco Bay Area early music scene. Both are alumni of the San Francisco Conservatory; Adaiha is a winner of the 2012 Voices of Music Young Artists’ Bach Competition (see video up, right), and Noah is the concertmaster of Berkeley Symphony and also plays with some very prestigious early music ensembles including Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, and Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra. We are very fortunate to have them for their Portland debut!

This concert explores the sonata in 17th-century Italy. Wild and unrestrained, the music of this era has a flavor distinctly different from that of the later Baroque. Come experience the calculated madness of the music of Castello, Marini, and Stradella!

Community Music Center
3350 SE Francis St
Portland, Or. 97202

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Hideki Yamaya, the group’s founder:

“The first concert is me and two young hotshot from the SF Bay area. We met at the Astoria Music Festival; they are Noah Strick who plays in a number of symphony orchestras in the Bay area including the Philharmonia Baroque, and Adahia Macadam-Somer is a wonderful cellist. So it will be the three of us, and we’ll be doing 17th-century Italian music, from the early Italian baroque, which is what I love to play the most so it’s kind of fitting that we start with that. We’re going to play a bunch of Castello, and a sonata by Stradella. It rocks pretty hard,” he said laughing.”

“So we’re dealing with some composers here who aren’t household names like your Handels or your Vivaldis,” I prodded him.

“Exactly. But the music nerds will certainly recognize some of the names. Expect some fireworks from it. These guys (Strick and Macadam-Somer) are up-and-coming young talent in the early music scene so it’ll be pretty exciting to have them up here.”