The West Virginia University Chamber Players, a group of WVU School of Music virtuoso faculty performers, presents its fifth season concerts April 10 – 11.

The concerts, both free and open to the public, will be held at 8 p.m. April 10 in the Gladys G. Davis Theatre at WVU’s Creative Arts Center, and 8 p.m. April 11 in Kresge Theatre at Carnegie Mellon University.

The program consists of octets by Franz Schubert and Igor Stravinsky, composed nearly a century apart. Both are monuments of chamber music for different reasons.

“Schubert’s Octet is both delightful and profound,” said Mitchell Arnold, ensemble director and director of orchestral activities at WVU.  “It may have been composed as an evening’s entertainment for a gathering of friends and music lovers, but in the hands of this great master, it reaches levels of affecting beauty.”

Stravinsky’s Octet was first performed on the stage of the Paris Opéra in 1923.  “The concert producers put screens around the ensemble as the opera stage was so large it would have dwarfed the small group,” Arnold said.  “Ironically the impact of this piece, for winds and brass, is great as it practically started the neo-classicism movement in the 20th century.  Stravinsky took Bach and Mozart as his inspiration in crafting this intriguing piece.”

WVUCP was founded to bring together outstanding performing faculty members in the WVU School of Music. WVUCP has performed in Pittsburgh, State College, Morgantown and Charleston.  Previous programs have included the music of Copland, Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Milhaud, Varèse, Ravel and Bolcom, presented in a wide variety of instrumental combinations.