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Overview:
“Suk & Dvořák” was supposed to be Schuman’s retirement concert. After her death, it became a memorial.
In Antonin Dvořák’s “Piano Quintet No. 2,” two violinists, a violist, a cellist, and a pianist follow the Czech composer’s shifts, between a march-like dizzying pace to romantic lyricism carried by its two-violin theme.
Sharon Schuman was supposed to play one of those violins at a June 8 concert at the Richard E. Wildish Community Theater in Springfield. It would have been her retirement concert as a musician for Chamber Music Amici, the chamber music company that she co-founded in 2009.
Instead, it became a memorial. Schuman’s part in the Dvořák piece was played by the violinist Jessica Lambert. An empty chair sat to the side of the musicians as they played, next to a small table and a vase of flowers.
“She would be surprised to know how big of a persona she was,” said Marion Sweeney, a donor and volunteer for Chamber Music Amici, who was sitting in the audience.
Schuman, 79, was a co-founder of Chamber Music Amici and served as the organization’s artistic director for its first six years, in addition to her career as a literature professor at the University of Oregon. She was killed in April while jogging on the Amazon Trail after being struck by a car. The driver of the vehicle, 51-year-old Eugene resident Scott Shawn Stolarczyk, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and driving under the influence.
Her sudden death shook Chamber Music Amici, where she was still planning on being an active board member if not a performer, after her 80th birthday. Her death has left the organization without one of its central voices.
Before and after the “Suk & Dvořák” concert, a slideshow of pictures of Schuman showed her in action for the organization: teaching violin to schoolchildren, intently focused on her violin, laughing between photoshoot snaps. In one photo, she is smiling in the background of a selfie taken by Grace Choi, the artistic director for Chamber Music Amici.
Choi programmed “Suk & Dvořák” before she knew it was supposed to be Schuman’s last performance, interested in the play between the music of Antonin Dvořák and his most beloved student, Josef Suk. There was an unintentional echo of the organization’s beginnings when Schuman organized a concert of Dvořák’s “American” string quartet in the Wildish in 2008, the year before Chamber Music Amici was started.
Choi said Schuman was instrumental to her growth in the organization, both in recruiting her as a core musician in 2019 and then as artistic director one year later. At the concert, Choi announced the organization’s new executive director, Greg Hopper-Moore, and gave one of three speeches in Schuman’s honor, before she and pianist Brian Hsu played a piece together.
“She was a kind mentor and a friend with a dark sense of humor, and a fearless leader who absolutely made things happen, and above all, a very genuine human,” Choi said.
Steven Pologe, a cellist, founding member and core musician for the organization, was a close friend of Schuman’s and a frequent hiking companion in addition to running the Butte to Butte 10K race with her.
She was approaching 80 but was no shrinking violet, Pologe said, noting how she was a thoughtful and aggressive advocate of the arts from the organization’s early days, when she gathered musicians, board members and initial donors to make it a reality.
“It was really all hers from the start,” he said.
After the speeches and music, a post-show reception welcomed visitors to the stage for water and dark chocolates. Choi said they had bought extra. They were Schuman’s favorite.
