Tanya Tomkins plays Bach for solo cello February 25, 2011

Barefoot Chamber Concerts continues its mission to help you start the weekend right. This Friday evening concert series offers great music in a relaxed setting. The series is committed to musical excellence without the formality of the conventional concert setting. Concerts start at 6 p.m. and last 60-75 minutes without intermission. Light refreshments are available, and there will be ample time to move on to other evening entertainments.

On Friday February 25, 2011, Barefoot will present Tanya Tomkins playing Bach's incomparable music for solo cello.

Bach wrote 6 suites for unaccompanied cello at a time when the cello was hardly developed as a solo instrument. The music, among Bach's finest for any instrument, made radically new technical demands on the player of Bach's time. Even today, the pieces represent a technical and musical bench mark, and although almost every cellist learns them because they are such a high point of the repertoire, very few players can perform them fluently.

Tanya Tomkins is one of those players. She is well known as a soloist and as co-principal of Philharmonia Baroque and Portland Baroque, and has recorded Schumann and Mendelsohn with Eric Zivian and Monica Huggett. She also plays contemporary chamber music, notably with the San Francisco String Trio and the Left Coast Ensemble. She studied with Anner Byslma in Amsterdam and played in Holland for 14 years before moving to the Bay Area.

This year Ms. Tomkins is recording all 6 suites and is playing the music nationwide, culminating in a performance of all 6 at the Library of Congress in March. We are lucky to catch her at a time when she is so immersed in this very special music. The gorgeous wooden acoustic of St. Mark's Episcopal Church Parish Hall will provide the perfect sound for this magnificent music.
Details at www.barefootchamberconcerts.com.

Official Website: http://barefootchamberconcerts.com