Coming up in Philly music: Debussy lives with Dolce Suono

Claude Debussy created some of the most beautiful, haunting music ever composed for the flute and various kinds of chamber ensembles. It’s easy to understand why he’s one of the favorite composers of a musician like Mimi Stillman, who’s both a flutist and the guiding spirit behind a thriving chamber-music organization.

On March 26, Stillman’s Dolce Suono Ensemble will mark the hundredth anniversary of Debussy’s death with a crowded program that includes Stillman playing his tradition-shattering "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun," soprano Sarah Shafer singing the song suite Debussy labeled Fetes galantes, and works for clarinet, cello, violin, and piano. Debussy’s contemporaries will be represented by songs and trios by Saint-Saëns and Massenet. Philadelphia composer Jan Krzywicki will contribute a new trio for flute, cello, and piano: Arabesques de près et de loin.

Debussy said pleasure was the chief aim of French music. The concert will take place, appropriately, in one of the most pleasant (and least used) venues in the city, the Beaux-Arts lecture hall of the College of Physicians. In addition to Sarah Shafer (who just made her Met debut), Stillman’s collaborators will include two of the most popular chamber players in the city: pianist Charles Abramovic and the Philadelphia Orchestra’s principal clarinet, Ricardo Morales. The newcomer in the lineup, cellist Arlen Hlusko, is a recent Curtis graduate who started putting together a busy career while she was still a student.

Dolce Suono Ensemble will launch its Claude Debussy Centennial Festival with Pleasure is the Law on March 26 at 7pm at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia (19 S. 22nd Street). Tickets ($30; $25 for seniors and $10 for students) are available online and at the door.