By Jessica Davis, JTNews Correspondent
Belle Arte Concerts, in its 21st season of presenting professional classical chamber music concerts on the Eastside, is branching out.
From 7:30-9:30 p.m. on Nov. 17, at Kirkland Performance Center, Belle Arte Concerts will present Sandra Layman on violin and Alexander Eppler on cimbalom.
Their program will be drawn from folk music-inspired works from Southeastern Europe and the Balkans: Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary as well as gypsy and klezmer
elements. This will be the first time since the ‘80s that Eppler and Layman have performed a full concert together.
“I like to hope that people will really enjoy it,” said Layman. She added that audience members should expect a surprising variety of music that will make them cry one minute and laugh the next.
Layman started playing the violin at age 10. She started playing klezmer music in 1978.
From 1980-1982, she was co-founder of Seattle’s first klezmer band, the Mazel Tov Klezmer Band. Layman started performing with Eppler in the early ‘80s, until she went to Romania to study music in 1985.
Upon her return to Seattle in 1991, Layman found that there had been a boom of klezmer music popularity.
Recently, she performed with pianist/accordionist Laurie Andres at a Sept. 11 memorial. In January, she released her own CD, “Little Blackbird.”
Eppler performed a few tunes on the cimbalom with Layman at her CD release party.
“You might describe it as a hammer dolcimer on steroids,” said Layman about the cimbalom. It is an instrument that is commonly associated with Romanian and Hungarian music.
Eppler, a West Seattle native, studied in Bulgaria as a child and later went on to tour there as an adult. He currently makes and repairs flutes, violins and violas, and occasionally composes film scores.
General-admission tickets to the Nov. 17 concert are $20 and can be ordered in advance from the Kirkland Performance Center box office at 425-893-9900. Group rates also available. Ages 25 and younger, tickets are half-price.
For more information about Sandra Layman, visit www.sandralayman.com