Tucson violin-viola duo opens St. Andrew's Bach Society series

It will be the couple's second performance in the span of four days. They were among Tucson clarinetist Dario Brignoli's "friends" who performed the opening concert Wednesday for the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music's summer series.

Both chamber series spotlight local musicians, so it's not surprising to see some cross-pollination.

The Davises played a complementary role in the Arizona Friends concert. On Sunday, the stage at Grace St. Paul’s Episcopal Church is all theirs. 

They will be accompanied by Chernova-Davis's University of Arizona colleague pianist Rie Tanaka.

About the musicians: Chernova-Davis, who joined the U of A School of Music in 2024, has performed as an orchestra soloist and concertmaster in her native Uzbekistan and throughout her adopted United States. She has worked with notable conductors including Esa Pekka-Salonen and Gerard Schwarz, and has collaborated with a number of New York ensembles including musicians from the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra in venues that include Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Madison Square Garden, Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall. 

• Davis's résumé includes being a founding member of the conductorless string orchestra Shattered Glass, an ensemble that the online music cooperative Groupmuse said "fuses the beauty and precision of an orchestra with the raw energy of a punk rock band." Davis has been a member of several ensembles, including being featured as principal viola with NOVUS NYC for the world premiere performance and recording of Benedict Sheehan’s "Akathist" (Bright Shiny Things). These days you can see him in the viola section of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra.
• In addition to teaching piano at the U of A, Tanaka maintains an active soloist and chamber music schedule, including performing with ensembles in her native Osaka, Japan.  

The program: The concert opens with Mozart's Duo in B-flat major, composed in 1783 to complete Michael Haydn's set of six for the Archbishop Colloredo. Haydn, younger brother of the more famous Joseph Haydn, had been commissioned by the archbishop to write six works for viola and violin. When he fell ill before he finished, Mozart, in an act of kindness and friendship, ghost-wrote the final two works.

In his 1959 book "Mozart and His Music," musicologist and author John N. Burk said the archbishop was unable to "detect in them Mozart's obvious workmanship." Mozart was not credited in Haydn's scores, but the true authorship came out later when the Viennese copyist and music dealer Johann Traeg took out a newspaper ad.

Sonoros Duo also will perform Bruch's "From 8 Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano"; Mexican composer Ponce's "Sonata en duo"; Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho's "Aure," a duet for viola and violin; and Nashville composer George Meyer's duo for violin and viola composed in 2020. 

The where, when and how much: Sunday's concert at Grace St. Paul, 2331 E. Adams St., begins at 2 p.m. Premium seats are sold out, but general admission tickets are $16 through standrewsbach.org.