The chamber music season starts off with a triple crown performance by the dynamic young Chiara String Quartet as the sole group for this year's September Prelude, an event co-sponsored by the three main Triangle chamber music presenters. The quartet has made a name for itself in both traditional classical works and in contemporary compositions. The name is the Italian word for "clear" or "pure."

Tonight, in UNC's Memorial Hall on the Newman Artists Series, the four put their name to the test with Chinese composer Zhou Long's "Song of the Ch'in," Prokofiev's first quartet, and the Brahms Sextet No. 1 (with assistance from violist Anton Jivaev and cellist Bonnie Thron, both principals in the N.C. Symphony).

Saturday night, in Duke's Nelson Music Room for the Chamber Arts Society series, the four play two Mozart quartets (K. 428 and 465, "Dissonant") as well as works by Prokofiev and Bartók.

Sunday afternoon in Fletcher Opera Theater on the Raleigh Chamber Music Guild series, the quartet brings a wide-ranging mix of works by composers who are influenced by more than one culture, from Gabriela Lena Frank's "Leyendas - An Andean Walkabout" and Osvaldo Golijov's "Yiddishbbuk" to the Zhou Long piece and Bártok's String Quartet No. 2.

On Thursday, in celebration of the "El Greco to Velázquez" exhibit at Duke's Nasher Museum of Art, Robert Parkins gives a harpsichord recital of early Spanish works by Antonio Cabezón and Juan Bautista José Cabanilles (sometimes called the Spanish Bach). The free program is held in the museum's auditorium.

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