For the first concert of their 2024-25 season — at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12 in the First United Methodist Church, 305 E. Anapamu St. — our bright new music association, the Santa Barbara Chamber Players, will perform, under the direction of returning conductor Mary Beth Woodruff, a program of works by Bartók, Santa Barbara native Grace Fisher, and Beethoven.

We will hear the “Romanian Folk Dances for String Orchestra Sz. 56 BB 68” (1915, 1917) by Béla Bartók (1881-1945); “Waltz of the Waves” (2018) and “A Critter Fable” (2020), both composed as soundtracks for short films made by the composer Fisher; and Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 3 In Eb-Major, Opus 55 ‘Eroica,’ (1805).

While studying under István Thomán (piano) and János Koessler (composition) at the Royal Academy of Music in Budapest, Bartók met and became fast friends with Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967).

Beginning in 1909, and several times thereafter, Bartók and Kodály toured the countryside of the region (Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Transylvania) collecting folk music.

Their collecting bore fruit in many of the most popular works of the two composers, including these “Romania Dances,” which were written for solo piano in 1915, and orchestrated in 1917.

Grace Fisher was a rising star as a triple-threat instrumentalist (piano, cello, guitar) when, at age 17, she was stricken with a rare neurological condition that left her paralyzed from the neck down.

A career as a performer now out of the question, this very determined and heroic young woman turned her attention to composition, and to directing and producing films. In 2022 she graduated from UCSB with a B.A. in Music Composition.

Fisher’s is an inspiring story, but no matter how uplifting her biography, however majestic and worthy a human being she is, that is no guarantee we will like her music, once our admiration for her struggle leads us to give it a listen.

After all, some of the world’s greatest music was written by complete scoundrels. (As the great Patricia Highsmith warns us: “Art has nothing to do with morality.”)

Fortunately for us, Fisher’s music is beautifully crafted and perfectly lovely. She acknowledges that her “Waltz of the Waves” was inspired by Tchaikovsky‘s “Waltz of the Flowers,” but the Russian composer I hear in the work is closer to Rachmaninov.

The music for the animated short “A Critter Fable” suggests the influence of such fin de siècle giants as Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler, but not gloomy.

I know I am not alone in considering Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 3” the greatest ever written. Reluctant as I am to employ such an au courant cliché as “game changer,” I have to admit that the “Eroica” changed European music forever.

You may read whatever subtext you like into the symphony; once the first two chords sound the kick-off, all explanations and background go out the window. If there is such a thing as “absolute music,” then this work is the very definition of it.

Tickets for this concert are $20 for general admission, free for students 18 years and younger.

To purchase tickets online, or for more information about the concert and the entire season lineup, visit https://sbchamberplayers.org/.