Camerata Pacifica’s January program will feature Cameratans Jose Franch Ballester, clarinet; YuEun Kim, violin; Ani Aznavoorian, cello; Ji Hye Jung, percussion; and Gilles Vonsattel, piano, performing in various combinations:

Felix Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Opus 49 (1839)”; Johannes Brahms’s “Clarinet Sonata in E-flat Major, Opus 120, No. 2” (1894); Vinko Globokar’s “Corporel” (1985); and Christos Hatzis’s “Fertility Rites” (1997) — Commissioned by Beverley Johnston.

The Santa Barbara performance will be Friday, Jan. 19, at the Music Academy of the West.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) was the grandson of a famous philosopher, Moses Mendelssohn. The composer’s father, Abraham Mendelssohn, was a prominent banker who had renounced Judaism before Felix was born. Until he was seven, Felix was raised without any religion. Then, in 1816, his father had him and his sister, Fanny, baptised as Lutherans. (Abraham and his wife were baptized in 1822. Most public careers at the time being open only to Christians, Felix’s baptism opened up for him the wider world of European culture: he was young, handsome, rich, and a genius—what’s not to like? In 1829, aged 20 years, he and the actor Eduard Devrient organized the first performance of the “St. Matthew’s Passion” since Bach’s death. “It is an actor and a young Jew,” Felix said, “who are restoring to Europe its greatest Christian music.” Bach had been in deep eclipse until then, and Mendelssohn brought him back to the center stage, where he has reigned supreme ever since.

After his “String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Opus 111” (1890) was a hit at its Vienna premiere, Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) was planning to retire from composing. Then, he attended a performance of the Weber Clarinet Concerto by the Meiningen Orchestra and their principal clarinetist, Richard Mühlfeld. He was enraptured by Mühlfeld’s playing, became friends with the musician, and ultimately wrote four masterpieces for him: the “Clarinet Trio in A minor, Opus 114” (1891), the “Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Opus 115” (1891), and the two “Clarinet Sonatas (No. 1 in F minor; No. 2 in E-flat Major) of Opus 120” (1894), the sonatas being among the very last of his completed works.

Vinko Globokar (b. 1934) is a French-Slovenian composer and trombonist. Having listened to—and mostly enjoyed—a number of his works, I am at a loss to detect any influences. Wikipedia describes “Corporel” as a “musical performance piece by composer Vinko Globokar. It calls for the performer to use their body as instrument, often by striking the body.” I hope that helps.

Christos Hatzis (b. 1953) was born in Greece, received his musical education in the United States (SUNY, Eastman School), and moved to Canada, where he became a citizen in 1985. The published score of “Fertility Rites” (Promethean Editions) has the following information about the work: “Inspired by Inuit throat singing, ‘Fertility Rites (1997)’ for marimba and digital audio is a haunting and highly expressive work. It is innovative for the way it combines live percussion with the digital audio part, consisting of prerecorded marimba sounds and Inuit throat singing. The katajjaq (vocal games) used in this work are used to evoke the sounds of the fertility ritual, a shamanistic mating call, which makes it particularly engaging for performers and listeners.”

This program plays in Santa Barbara at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 19, at the Music Academy of the West; it will also play at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 16, at The Huntington Museum, in San Marino; and at 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Colburn School, in Los Angeles (part of “The Warner Henry Family Chamber Music Series at Zipper Hall”).

Admission to all venues is $35-$75. For tickets and other information, show up at the box office, call the Camerata Pacifica at (805) 884-8410, email tickets@cameratapacifica.org, or go online to www.cameratapacifica.org.

Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributor.