Brahms Bio-Musical to Premiere on Friday in Encinitas

The City of Encinitas Arts Division will host the San Diego debut of My Music, My Love, a biographical musical about the life of Johannes Brahms and his great love, Clara Schumann, on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Encinitas Library, 540 Cornish Drive, Encinitas, CA 92024. 

The performance is part of the Music by the Sea concert series, tickets are $13.

The one-act play, written by celebrated musician and educator, Dr. Eduard Schmieder, features award-winning actor Jonathan McMurtry as Johannes Brahms, Eduard Schmieder as Joseph Joachim, and Svetlana Smolina as Clara Schumann.  

Excerpts of the finest music of the Romantic Era including Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Dvorak and Bach, will be performed by Dr. Schmieder on violin and Dr. Smolina on piano.

“Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) is an ideal vehicle through which to portray the music of the Romantic Era; he lived through much of it and stands as one of the giants of the age, contributing vastly to the changes in music during the nineteenth century,” stated Dr. Schmieder. “He is a Janus-like figure, one face looking backward to the previous age, the other toward the future. The contradictions in his music and in his own personality mirror those of the Romantic tradition as a time of ‘human disquiet’—the yearning and striving for change, the desire for escape to other dimensions, the sensuality, the unbridled expression of emotions, the importance of the individual, art for all humankind.  Here, at the end of his life, he gradually comes to accept their place in himself and in his music.”

The pre-concert wine reception on the patio, overlooking the Pacific Ocean, is underwritten by Encinitas 101 Mainstreet Association; the post-concert dessert reception with the artists is underwritten by Starbucks, Cardiff. For tickets, call (760) 633-2740, online at EncinitasCA.gov/concerts, or purchase at the door. For more info, call 760-633-2746.

—City of Encinitas