We have talked with Sarn about playing a recital together and doing it on multiple violins, switching instruments in between movements for a long time and finally we are doing it! Sarn collects violins and owns multiple instruments from different periods from old 17th century Italian instruments to modern violins by great contemporary makers. We are going to perform some of the most beloved violin sonatas by Gabriel Faure and Cesar Franck with our friend and a great pianist Liz Dorman, as well as a violin duet written by Sarn. After we will discuss the differences in sound and timbre of the violins and talk about history of violin making in general.
Tickets online are $50, kids under 12 - $25. At the door $60/$30
Praised by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle for her “elegance and verve,” pianist Elizabeth Dorman enjoys performing music both new and old as a soloist and chamber musician.
A finalist of the 2018 Leipzig International Bach Competition, Elizabeth has been widely recognized as a leading performer for her inquisitive interpretations of Bach’s music on the modern piano. Elizabeth has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Louisville Orchestra, the Leipzig Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra,
the Santa Rosa Symphony, the California Symphony, the Vallejo Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Folsom Lake Symphony, the Stanford Summer Symphony, Symphony Parnassus, as a soloist for interdisciplinary projects at New World Symphony, and frequently performs as guest keyboard of the San Francisco Symphony. She can be heard on Delos records as a soloist with Santa Rosa Symphony featuring Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s work for piano and orchestra, “Peanuts Gallery,” and has also recorded the complete Brass chamber music of Andrew Lewinter for Navona Records. Her solo album featuring music of Bach, Scarlatti and Couperin is expected to be released in late 2025.
She has been presented as a soloist and chamber musician at venues including the Kennedy Center, Davies Symphony Hall, Herbst Theater, Merkin Hall, Carnegie’s Weill Hall, Leipzig’s Hochschule für Musik, and her live solo performances have been nationally broadcast on NPR and public radio. She has appeared at other festivals including Mendocino, Pacofic Crest, Tanglewood, Britt, Sarasota, Aspen, Toronto Summer Music, Icicle Creek, and the Banff Centre.
Working with the Bridge Arts Ensemble, Stony Brook University, and as a board member of the Ross McKee Foundation, Elizabeth has produced concerts, lectures, and workshops for music students and was honored with the Father Merlet Award from Pro Musicis for her work training high school music students in community engagement.
Elizabeth and was awarded a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University in 2019 where she studied with Gilbert Kalish and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is currently on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Pre-College and the Pacific Crest Music Festival.
Sarn Oliver
Violinist, Composer, Painter
Sarn Oliver studied at Juilliard with Ivan Galamian, Sally Thomas and others. He has performed as a chamber musician, soloist and orchestral musician in Asia, Europe, Russia and the United States.
He founded the Tilden Trio piano trio and Served on the board of the Contemporary Muisc group Ebb and Flow arts. Also a recording engineer, he created the SarnwWorks Label.
His Music Compositions are performed in Asia, the United States, Europe and Russia with most recent premiers of his Violin Concerto and Cat String Quartet in San Francisco.
As a painter, Mr. Oliver works in several mediums, including large paintings that he calls his "Singing Paintings." He creates these works along with a corresponding musical composition
and then records the music so that it is heard when viewing the paintings. Mr. Oliver has been a member of SanFrancisco Symphony for over thirty years.
David Cherniavsky is Co-Music Director and a founder of the Shkolnikova Academy. Since joining the San Francisco Symphony in 2009, he has performed extensively as both a soloist and chamber musician. A graduate of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and The Juilliard School, David trained under the famed pedagogue Nelli Shkolnikova and has released several solo and ensemble recordings. Alongside Irina Behrendt, he co‑founded the Gradus ad Parnassum Music Academy, where he currently leads the private violin studio and chamber music program.