Tekla Cunningham, violin and Sheila Weidendorf, piano will play the Brahms violin sonatas, works of great expansiveness and beauty that have provided a musical refuge during these pandemic years. Tekla and Sheila have spent the past year and more immersed in the violin sonatas of Johannes Brahms, meeting weekly during the pandemic to form a micro-music pod. The lockdown has forced all of us indoors and inwards, and this time of reflection and deepening has been transformative both personally and musically for this project. Brahms’ violin sonatas, full of depth and expanse, served a musical refuge from the contraction we were experiencing in the world around us. This program was part of the Whidbey Island Music Festival’s 2021 summer season. Here is one concertgoer’s account of the performance: “We not only heard the heartbeat of Brahms, and the sighing, and the dancing; we also were exposed to Brahms’ fierce grasp of nature, of a windstorm, in the thunder of the piano, and the lightening of the violin! One of the most memorable, the most unforgettable nights of my life. For my gratitude, words are inadequate”.