Quitslund calls it quits as chamber series organizer

Published 3:09 pm Thursday, March 24, 2011

Taking a bow

Bainbridge Performing Arts presents “Masterpieces of the Chamber Music Repertoire: Bach, Mozart and Brahms” at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 27. This is the final in the multi-year chamber series organized by pianist Jim Quitslund.

Tickets are $16 for adults, and $12 for seniors, students, youth, military and teachers.

For more information or to purchase tickets, call 842-8569 or visit  www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.

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After a decade of organizing the chamber music series at Bainbridge Performing Arts, Jim Quitslund is taking a break.

“I still hope my phone rings,” he said from his Bainbridge home Wednesday. “We certainly hope the series will continue.”

Quitslund is “in conversation with BPA staff about the prospect of forming a committee to organize the concerts,” which began in the 1990s when Darden Burns arranged private concerts in people’s homes. Quitslund, as the new manager of Bainbridge Symphony Orchestra at the time, asked Burns if she minded if he sprinkled a few chamber perfomances into the orchestra’s season. Burns passed the baton to Quitslund who has been organizing two or three concerts a year ever since.

At first, they performed in BPA’s lobby, pleased to draw a small, but loyal audience. Within a year or so, they moved to the main hall and have been performing two or three concerts per year ever since.

On Sunday Quitslund will be joined by some of the musicians who have played in the concerts over the years:  Thomas Monk, Mary Foster Grant, Lara Moore and Barbara Deppe, Amy Duerr-Day, Patti Beasley, Ron Gilbert and Judy Lawrence.

The program features masterpieces by Bach, Mozart and Brahms.

For detailed information about the selected pieces, as well as biographies of the perfomers, visit www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org.