Opal Ensemble Presents Free Lunchtime Concert

Opal Ensemble, a trio of local professional musicians that aims to surprise and delight audiences with performances of an array of different musical works, presents “March Thaw: Dreaming of Spring,” a free one-hour lunchtime concert. Founded two years ago by Arlington residents Todd Brunel (clarinet) and Anne Black (viola) and Watertown resident Paul Carlson (piano), Opal Ensemble has a rich collective experience playing diverse music with the most prominent classical and jazz ensembles in the Boston area. Thanks to a 2014 grant from the Arlington Cultural Council (a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council), the group will perform an exciting program featuring four virtuosic works of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. Excerpts from Eight Pieces, Op. 83 by Max Bruch, whose musical style embodies the ideals of 19th-century Romantic classicism, will be followed by two compositions by living composers. Libby Larsen’s Black Birds, Red Hills draws inspiration from Georgia O’Keeffe paintings of the American southwest, while Focal Point — a piece composed for Opal Ensemble by Pamela Marshall of Lexington, Massachusetts — provokes a colorful, energetic interplay between the trio’s instruments. The final offering on the program is a charming, emotional, humorous, and exuberant piece by French composer Jean Françaix.