The Santa Barbara Chamber Players invites the community to an afternoon of chamber music during its Summer Fundraising Concert, 3 p.m. Saturday, July 18 at Trinity Lutheran Church, 909 N. La Cumbre Road.
The concert will feature four celebrated chamber works spanning more than a century of musical styles, from the elegance of the Romantic era to contemporary sounds inspired by folk traditions.
A suggested donation of $25 will support the Santa Barbara Chamber Players’ upcoming concert season and help continue the organization’s mission of bringing exceptional live classical music to the community, organizers said.
The program opens with Carl Reinecke’s “Trio for Oboe, Horn, and Piano in A Minor, Op. 188.” Written in 1886 when Reinecke was teaching at the Leipzig Conservatory, the trio reflects his mature musical craftsmanship.
Next is Gioachino Rossini’s “Duet for Cello and Double Bass in D Major.” Composed in 1824, the duet is one of the few of Rossini’s chamber music works regularly performed today. The unusual pairing of cello and double bass creates a surprising range of colors, from playful exchanges to richly lyrical passages.
The program continues with “Lullaby and Doina” by the contemporary Argentine-American composer Osvaldo Golijov. Drawing inspiration from Eastern European Jewish musical traditions, the work contrasts two distinct moods.
The gentle, reflective Lullaby evokes warmth and intimacy, while the Doina, based on an improvisatory Romanian folk style, builds with emotional intensity and expressive freedom.
The afternoon concludes with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Quintet in B-flat Major for Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, and Piano,” one of the composer’s early chamber works.
The quintet reveals both classical elegance and hints of the colorful orchestration that would later characterize masterpieces such as “Scheherazade” and “Capriccio Espagnol.”
Tickets are available at sbchamberplayers.org and at the door.

