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Vedrana Subotic and Rachel Varat-Navarro can hardly believe it, but Intermezzo, the summer concert series they helped cook up over a friendly dinner, opens its 15th season this week.

"I hadn't been counting," said Subotic, a prominent pianist who is the series' music director.

"It's been quite a journey these 15 years," Varat-Navarro said. "It started with a simple idea and it's just grown."

Varat-Navarro explained that she and her husband, Rocco Navarro, really just wanted more opportunities to hear their friends Subotic and her then-husband, violinist David Porter, play together. "They thought it was a great idea, and the next day Rocky made all the calls," Varat-Navarro said. Rocco Navarro died of cancer later that year and never got to hear an Intermezzo concert, though several of the players performed for him at his home.

Monday's opening concert will feature some of the Navarros' favorite composers: Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann. "I'm an absolute groupie for Brahms," Varat-Navarro confessed. Fortunately for her, "I've found out a lot of musicians feel that way too."

The lineup includes four musicians who played on Intermezzo's inaugural season — violinists Joseph Evans and Lun Jiang, cellist Pegsoon Whang and pianist Karlyn Bond — as well as two violists who have joined the Utah Symphony in the interim, Carl Johansen and Whittney Thomas. The mix of Utah Symphony veterans and newcomers is typical of the series, which has shaped up as the place to get a close listen to the new players. "It forms a wonderful community," Subotic said.

There will be more Brahms on the season finale, when Subotic joins violinist Alex Martin and cellist Matthew Johnson in the composer's Trio No. 1. That concert also features one of the greatest hits in the chamber-music canon, Dvorak's Piano Quintet. "We're framing the season with trusted, well-loved masterworks that we have played before," Subotic said.

The second concert, July 11, brings "the three B's" – Benjamin Britten, Arnold Bax and J.S. Bach. Subotic said the concert will be a showcase for oboist Titus Underwood, who has done stellar work as a long-term substitute during Utah Symphony players' sabbaticals the past two seasons, and baritone Michael Chipman, head of the Westminster College vocal-performance program. The Britten Phantasy and Bax Oboe Quintet are "two of the big pieces for oboe and chamber ensemble," Subotic noted. Also making an appearance will be Jeff Olpin, a Salt Lake City radiologist who's also an accomplished harpsichordist, performing on a replica he built of a 1769 double-manual harpsichord.

Utah Symphony principal cellist Rainer Eudeikis will feature prominently on the third concert, performing Bach's Suite No. 3 in C Major and teaming with Subotic for Sergei Prokofiev's Cello Sonata in C Major. Eudeikis also will be in the lineup for Franz Schubert's Cello Quintet.

The season's blockbuster is the Aug. 1 concert, a collaboration with Salt Lake Acting Company and Ballet West. "We had such success last year with poetry [recited by SLAC actors] and music, the audience wanted more," Subotic said.

Igor Stravinsky's "L'histoire du soldat (The Soldier's Tale)," an acerbic take on the Faustian legend, will be the centerpiece of the concert; it will feature actors Jay Perry, Tito Livas and Justin Ivie and Ballet West principal artist Emily Adams.

The rest of the evening won't lack for drama, either. It includes Sebastian Currier's "Verge," a clarinet trio inspired by Robert Schumann's "Scenes From Childhood" that Subotic said will offer "extreme contrast"; Dmitri Shostakovich's "Four Verses by Captain Lebyadkin," a deeply sarcastic setting of dark poems by Dostoevsky; and Krzysztof Penderecki's Duo Concertante for Violin and Bass, which Subotic noted offers "everything you would expect from Penderecki." And if you don't know what to expect from Penderecki? "Come and be surprised," the pianist said. "It's the kind of work that makes you say, 'I didn't know a string instrument could do that.' "

"The Aug. 1 concert should be extraordinary — if people don't walk out," Varat-Navarro quipped. She's not overly worried after seeing concertgoers take the series' more adventurous programming (and the occasional wacky stunt, such as a staged pratfall and a mid-performance onstage pizza delivery) in stride over the years. —

Chamber-music season heats up

The Intermezzo Chamber Music Series celebrates its 15th season of performances by local musicians.

Where • Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College, 1250 E. 1700 South, Salt Lake City

When • All concerts begin at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets • $18; $16 for seniors and free for students with ID; season tickets for the five-concert series are $80; $65 for seniors

Information • intermezzoconcerts.org

The lineup

Monday, June 27 • Clara Schumann, Piano Trio in G Minor; Ludwig van Beethoven, Quartet No. 16; Johannes Brahms, String Quartet No 2. Lun Jiang and Joseph Evans, violin; Whittney Thomas and Carl Johansen, viola; Pegsoon Whang, cello; Karlyn Bond, piano.

July 11 • Benjamin Britten, Phantasy Quartet; Arnold Bax, Quintet for Oboe and Strings; J.S. Bach, "Ich habe genug." Claude Halter and Julie Wunderle, violin; Whittney Thomas, viola; Anne Lee, cello; Jens TenBroek, bass; Titus Underwood, oboe; Jeff Olpin, harpsichord; Michael Chipman, baritone.

July 18 • Louis Chiappetta, "Circle Limit" for Solo Cello; J.S. Bach, Suite No. 3 for Unaccompanied Cello; Sergei Prokofiev, Cello Sonata in C Major; Franz Schubert, Cello Quintet. Kathryn Eberle and Claude Halter, violin; Brant Bayless, viola; Rainer Eudeikis and Joyce Yang, cello; Vedrana Subotic, piano.

Aug. 1 • Sebastian Currier, "Verge"; Krzysztof Penderecki, Duo Concertante for Violin and Bass; Dmitri Shostakovich, "The Four Verses by Captain Lebyadkin"; Igor Stravinsky, "L'histoire du soldat." Yuki MacQueen, Alex Martin and Karen Wyatt, violin; Ted Merritt, bass; Erin Svoboda, clarinet; Lori Wike, bassoon; Travis Peterson, cornet; Mark Davidson, trombone; Michael Pape, percussion; Ubeeng Kueq and Vedrana Subotic, piano; Seth Keeton, bass-baritone; Jay Perry, Tito Livas and Justin Ivie, actors; Emily Pearson Adams, dancer.

Aug. 1 • Johannes Brahms, Trio No. 1 in B Major; Antonín Dvorák, Piano Quintet No. 2. Alex Martin and Tina Johnson, violin; Scott Lewis, viola; Matthew Johnson, cello; Vedrana Subotic, piano.