Serious composers inevitably spend years developing their unique voice. This program features music by three master composers from three different centuries, each of whom broke new musical ground. Arcangelo Corelli essentially invented the concerto grosso style, in which a small group of soloists are accompanied by a larger string group. His Concerto Grosso in F Major is the last in a group of 12 works that were influential when they were published in 1714. George Walker was the first African American composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1996. His glorious Lyric for Strings was composed in honor of his grandmother who was born a slave. Beethoven himself titled his Quartet in F Minor, Op. 95 “Quartetto Serioso”. Dedicated to a friend, he feared the work might be considered too intense and did not intend to publish it. Gustav Mahler thought otherwise and orchestrated the work for string orchestra in 1898.