Free Chamber concert in Tarentum to provide 'backyard arts'

A Tarentum church will offer a free chamber music concert Sunday to “build community” and provide arts in “our own backyard,” organizers said.

Central Presbyterian Church will partner with the Academy String Quartet and special guest Linda Fisher on bassoon. The concert is at 2 p.m.

“The minute you say classical music, people think they have to dress up and be quiet,” said Fisher, principal bassoonist with the Pittsburgh CLO.

“This is pop music from a certain time. It’s entertainment. It’s OK to stand or move around and enjoy the music.”

The concert is among the 10^th annual series presented at Central Presbyterian. The program includes chamber music favorites, rarely heard works and a world premiere.

Joseph Haydn’s “The Rider” will open the program. The name comes from the rollicking final movement that sounds like a mad dash on horseback, according to Warren Davidson, Academy artistic director.

Fisher will join a trio of strings for an Allegro by Bernard Garfield, the former principal bassoon of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a quartet by Francois Devienne, sometimes called “the French Mozart.”

There will be the premiere of “Bulgarian Suite, Part 2,” by Pittsburgher Thomas Roncevic.

Church executive Dave Rankin said the arts are crucial to a vibrant community.

“Giving people access to them is a proven benefit to health and vitality,” Rankin said.

“The Manos Gallery here in Tarentum is a good example of that. The audience listens to and enjoys beautiful music, just as they would go to an art gallery to see beautiful artwork and paintings.”

Fisher, who is also a principal of The Westmoreland Symphony and Lancaster Festival Orchestra, said people might be surprised at the concert atmosphere.

“It isn’t dimmed lights and stuffy,” she said. “The musicians love doing this, as it is so personal. People are always amazed that it’s not what they think it is.”