By Robert Croan Victor Santiago Asuncíon, himself a first-class pianist with a busy touring schedule, brings worthy and interesting guest collaborators to his splendid chamber music series in the Community Church at Lauderdale-By-the Sea. The fifth and last concert of his 2026 season, on May 23, featured Beijing-born Qing Li, principal second violin of the Baltimore Symphony … [Read more...]
Young violinist makes impressive showing in Lauderdale concert
By Robert Croan Featured guest soloist on Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the Sea’s April 11 concert was Sameer Agrawal, a 21-year-old violinist currently studying with Midori Goto at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music. Performing at The Community Church with the series’ founder and artistic director Victor Santiago Asunción at the piano, the Chicago native lent a … [Read more...]
Cellist Hersh stunning in Fauré sonatas
By Robert Croan Chamber music concerts are too infrequent in this area, cello recitals even rarer, and a program showcasing the two sonatas for cello and piano by French composer Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) is quite extraordinary. Just about everything in the March 7 concert of Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, at the Community Church on Bougainville Drive, was in … [Read more...]
Concert’s offering of Philippine chamber music proves absorbing
By Robert Croan The second half of the program offered Feb. 21 by Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the-Sea — a concert series at the Community Church on Bougainville Drive — was devoted to original Filipino music by composers whom most American music lovers have not heard of: Nicanor Abelardo, Lucio San Pedro, Rodolfo Cornejo, Manuel Velez — and not least, Ernesto Vallejo, a … [Read more...]
Pianist offers powerhouse Chopin recital to wrap Lauderdale-by-the-Sea chamber series
By Robert Croan Chamber Music at Lauderdale-by-the Sea is a valuable but underpublicized series presented by the FilAm Music Foundation, directed by Filipino-American pianist Victor Santiago Asunción, who funds it mostly with his own money but includes among his donors a few prominent performing artists as well as Filipino President Ferdinand “Bong Bong” Marcos Jr. and first … [Read more...]
Cellist Drachman superb in Brahms, Beethoven at FilAm
By Robert Croan An excellent series that has garnered too little attention is FilAm Music Foundation’s Chamber Music@ Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, at The Community Church on Bougainvillea Drive. The most recent event, on Feb. 22, was a superb recital by cellist Evan Drachman and pianist Victor Santiago Asunción, who is also FilAm’s founder and director. Drachman happens to be … [Read more...]