(Enlarge) The classical string sextet Concertante performs live for Candlelight Concerts this Saturday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. in the Smith Theatre at Howard Community College. (Photo by Michael Ahearn)

The world of chamber music is populated with string quartets and piano trios. But you don't hear much about string sextets.

That's what sets the 12-year-old ensemble, Concertante, apart from its peers. The group -- which performs for the Candlelight Concert Society this Saturday, Nov. 12 at Howard Community College -- is a relative rarity in the chamber music world with its "six-pack" roster of musicians.

The group came about its original incarnation by accident, though, says New York-based violinist Xiao-Dong Wang, who co-founded Concertante. According to Wang, he began with the ambition of making it a small orchestra.

"We started out early in 1995 in the form of a chamber orchestra," Wang explains. "And over the years, we tried to find our own voice. So it just sort of shrunk and shrunk to today's form. This particular version of the group began in 1997."

Concertante is now comprised of Wang and Ittai Shapira on violins, Rachel Shapiro and Danielle Farina on violas and Sarah Carter and Alexis Pia Gerlach on cellos. Gerlach is also a member of Trio Solisti, which has performed on several previous Candlelight seasons.

All six current members boast extensive credentials. Wang himself started his music career at age 10, when he entered the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. From there, he won the first prize in the Menuhin International Violin Competition and eventually wound up at New York's Juilliard School of Music.

Over the past 12 years, Concertante has earned a reputation that has allowed it to perform around the world at a range of fine venues, including New York City's Carnegie Hall to London's Royal Festival Hall to Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The group has also earned accolades for mixing music by lesser-known composers with new works by modern composers. For the 2006-07 season, the musicians launched a series called "One Plus Five," in which they presented no less than six separate world premieres.

The group has also released four CDs. On its most recent, the players tackle works by modern composer Frank Bridge and well-known movie composer Erich Korngold.

According to Wang, Concertante's makeup gives it access to the best of two musical worlds. It can tackle music written specifically for sextets, or the group can be reconfigured to play works meant for smaller ensembles.

"We're not just a sextet," Wang explains. "We do primarily sextet works, but we contract and expand from there. Like this week, we're doing concerts in New York and Harrisburg, Pa., and we're doing all quintets, actually. So we can go from as small as string trios, or add people -- the biggest we've done is works for 10 people."

When it comes to playing pieces designed for ensembles larger than string quartets or quintets, Concertante's large design comes in handy, notes Wang.

"What usually happens when groups want to perform a string sextet is they have a quartet with two guests. So you get the two guests together and rehearse a couple of times, but it's never quite thoroughly rehearsed."

So far, critics have liked what they've heard. The BBC Music Magazine called the group's playing "superbly realized technically as to be almost beyond praise." The New York Times has given Concertante several positive reviews, and the New York Sun called its performance of Johannes Brahms' "String Sextet in G Major, Op. 36" a "powerful rendition" that was "achingly communicated."

That number will be one of the three pieces planned for the Candlelight concert. Also on the bill will be Arnold Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4" and John Novacek's "Three Rags for String Sextet."

Wang calls the Schoenberg composition "one of the best" and cites it as the kind of golden nugget that Concertante specializes in unearthing: "We keep finding pieces that were written that don't get done very often."

The compositions by Schoenberg and Brahms, adds Wang, "are really the two best pieces you could ever hear in the string sextet repertoire. That's my own opinion. I don't think there's anything better out there."

The work by contemporary composer Novacek wasn't originally meant for strings, but the composer changed that when Concertante entered the picture.

"It's an arrangement for string sextet that comes from three rags that Novacek wrote for himself on the piano," Wang says. "He actually transcribed that into a string sextet format for us. They're really fun little desserts, all three of them."

The weekend's program certainly seems designed to fit Wang's vision of a chamber group unlike most others today.

"What we wanted to do in the early days of this group is, we wanted to get a group together that does a lot of different things," Wang says. "I don't know if that makes us stand out; but I don't think there are many groups like us out there."

Concertante performs for Candlelight Concerts this Saturday, Nov. 21 at 8 p.m. in the Smith Theatre at Howard Community College. A free, pre-concert talk by Dr. Cathleen Jeffcoat of the college's music department will start at 7:15 p.m. Advance admission is $29 general, $26 for senior citizens and $12 for students. Tickets at the door are slightly more expensive. Those ages 9 to 17 are free when accompanied by a paying adult. Call 410-997-2324 or go to www.candlelightconcerts.org.

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