March 7: Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases Debut Solo Album Fantasie on Sony Classical
March 7: Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases Debut Solo Album Fantasie on Sony Classical
Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Releases Debut Solo Album on Sony Classical
Fantasie
New Single: Summerland by William Grant Still
Listen Here | Watch the Music Video
Album Release Date: March 7, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has a passion for curating programmes that cross diverse musical landscapes, and on her debut solo album Fantasie, she takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced each other, or simply existed in resonance.
From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba presents a programme which is also very personal to her as an artist. “I’ve always loved coming up with quite complex programmes which flow really nicely from one piece to the other and all these works mean a lot to me” she says. “By gathering them here for my debut album, I am not only revealing more of myself as a musician, but also sharing the very different styles of music I grew up listening to.”
William Grant Still’s 1935 Summerland - released today alongside album launch, listen here and watch the music video - perfectly illustrates Jeneba’s sense of the composers and their inter-connecting soundworlds. “I hear a lot of similarity between Still & Debussy” she explains. “I think that they occupy a similar sound world. ‘Summerland’ is very beautiful and it’s about a soul reaching heaven, and you can definitely hear that in the music. Like the Debussy Preludes, it’s very tranquil, but also harmonically complex… when you listen to it, you’re transported.”
Frédéric Chopin is central to Jeneba’s repertoire, and she opens with his Second Piano Sonata in B flat minor, Op 35, one of his most powerful works, celebrated for its emotional depth and technical brilliance. This is followed by The Nocturnes, Op 27, two contrasting pieces that illustrate Chopin’s mastery in evoking complex emotions in music. “These pieces need to feel as if they’re being improvised” she reveals. “I’ve had to know the notes inside out, so that when I come to perform it, I can see what happens. With Chopin, I don’t feel like I do the same thing every time.”
From Chopin she takes us into the sound world of Claude Debussy and his Préludes - ‘La fille aux cheveux de lin’ (‘The girl with flaxen hair’ from Book 1) and ‘Bruyères’ (‘Mists’ from Book 2), both of which evoke delicate, atmospheric worlds, where simplicity belies harmonic depth.
Then in a nod to the Russian tradition, Jeneba plays three works by Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915), who, like Chopin, expanded the piano’s expressive capacity. Two of his Op 11 Preludes, youthful works, and his Sonata No 2 offer her a canvas of harmonic daring and rhythmic freedom. “They both have a beautiful way of making the piano sing” she comments on Chopin & Scriabin. “You can hear Chopin’s influence in Scriabin’s music as he sometimes has these Chopin-esque decorations over the melodies. What I also really love about Scriabin’s music is that it’s very colourful. When he goes to a specific key, it’s important for him that it’s that key, and not any other key.”
Anchoring her programme’s central section are three African-American composers dear to Jeneba’s heart – Florence Price (1887-1953), Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) and William Grant Still (1895-1978) – each in their way pioneering new modes of musical expression. Jeneba’s affinity for Florence Price is palpable, dating back to her 2021 BBC Proms debut with Price’s Piano Concerto. Jeneba notes “I was very grateful to be able to perform Florence Price’s music at the BBC Proms and I am delighted to have her on my album as well. In lots of concerts when I have played her Fantasie in E Minor, people have come to me after the performance and said: ‘that was my favourite piece; that’s what I really loved’. I think it’s because her music is very vulnerable and instantly speaks to the heart. She has such a distinct style to which a lot of people can relate. Maybe it’s the passion and her direct connection to the Spirituals that she uses that makes her music so emotional and easy to connect to.”
Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds – who was a pupil and friend of Florence Price and a champion of her music and who played Price’s Concerto at its premiere in 1934 – is based on the Spiritual ‘Wade in the Water’ and combines syncopations, jazz influences and virtuoso demands. “The Spiritual in ‘Troubled Water’ is ‘Wade in the Water’ and I grew up listening to that when I was very young, so it’s nice to have a piece where you can really hear the pianistic side of Margaret Bonds’ playing and how she’s managed to weave in the Spiritual. There’s this sense of rhythm which follows through the whole piece and it’s a constant pulse underneath the Spiritual. It was an easy choice for me to include Margaret Bonds’ ‘Troubled Water’ on my debut album” Jeneba remarks, emphasizing the rhythmic intensity Bonds brings to her work.
William Grant Still’s Summerland’is a vision of paradise, and it suggests to Jeneba a similar musical world to the Debussy Préludes. It offers a delicate, rising hymn to transcendence and is the central movement of his Three Visions. “It's so beautiful and visual, yet delicate and intimate as well. It starts very simply, and then even though it grows in the left hand and the accompaniment becomes more harmonically complex, it stays in this peaceful Paradise world. Then the pitch gets higher and higher, as if the soul is lifting to heaven”.
The third youngest of the prodigiously musical Kanneh-Mason family, 22-year-old Jeneba knows instinctively who she is as a musician. “We are a very close-knit family and yet we all have very individual personalities” she explains. “We constantly influence each other, and I have learned a lot from my siblings - and still do. We all have our own voices yet can always turn to each other for support. Isata is six years older than me and she gave me a lot of lessons when I was younger. She’s always been a massive inspiration for me, and she’s already released many albums, so I feel like I’m following in her footsteps.”
Jeneba Kanneh-Mason is a musician deeply committed to her craft, relishing the challenges of performance and recording and dedicated to her audience, whether in the concert hall or via her recordings and is a talented young artist for whom mastery isn’t just technical but emotional too.
Fantasie will be released internationally on March 7, 2025 on Sony Classical.
Tracklist
Chopin: Piano Sonata No.2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35
1. I. Grave - Doppio movimento
2. II. Scherzo
3. III. Marche funèbre (Lento)
4. IV. Finale (Presto)
5. Chopin: Nocturne No. 7 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 1
6. Chopin: Nocturne No. 8 in D-Flat Major, Op. 27, No. 2
7. Price: Fantasie Nègre No. 1 in E Minor
8. Bonds: Troubled Water
9. Still: Three Visions: II. Summerland
10. Debussy: La fille aux cheveux de lin
11. Debussy: Bruyères
12. Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11: No. 1 in C Major
13. Scriabin: 24 Preludes, Op. 11: No. 11 in B Major - Allegro assai
Scriabin: Piano Sonata No. 2 in G-Sharp Minor, Op. 19 "Sonata Fantasy"
14. I. Andante
15. II. Presto
Newport Classical presents Valentine's Day Concert with Married Duo Boyd Meets Girl on Feb 14 and Trio Karénine from France on Feb 28
Newport Classical presents Valentine's Day Concert with Married Duo Boyd Meets Girl on Feb 14 and Trio Karénine from France on Feb 28
L-R: Boyd Meets Girl & Trio Karénine. Photos available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Presents Two Chamber Series Concerts in February
Valentine’s Day with Boyd Meets Girl
Friday, February 14, 2025 at 7:30pm
Trio Karénine performs Schubert and Dvořák
Friday, February 28, 2025 at 7:30pm
Newport Classical Recital Hall | 42 Dearborn St | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information
Newport, RI – Newport Classical continues its fourth full-season Chamber Series, featuring twelve concerts held on select Fridays at 7:30pm at the organization’s home venue the Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn St.), with two performances in February. Spend a perfect Valentine’s Day, February 14, with the impressive married duo Boyd Meets Girl – classical guitarist Rupert Boyd and cellist Laura Metcalf – who have toured the world sharing their eclectic mix of music from Debussy and Bach to Radiohead and Beyoncé. Trio Karénine, an established group on the French and international scene lauded for its musical integrity and joie de vivre, takes the stage on February 28.
Boyd Meets Girl pairs Australian guitarist Rupert Boyd with American cellist Laura Metcalf. The duo’s two studio albums have received over 4 million streams on Spotify alone. Both acclaimed soloists in their own right, Boyd has been described as “truly evocative” by The Washington Post, and as "a player who deserves to be heard" by Classical Guitar Magazine, while Metcalf, who has also toured as a member of the popular chamber ensembles Eighth Blackbird, Break of Reality and Sybarite5, has been called "brilliant" by Gramophone. Boyd Meets Girl has toured throughout the USA, India, Nepal, New Zealand, and every state and territory in Australia, including engagements at Caramoor, Festival Napa Valley, Austin Classical Guitar, Moab Music Festival and many others. The duo arranges much of their repertoire themselves, drawing inspiration from artists across all genres, and often speak from the stage about the works to create an engaging, conversational concert experience that breaks down boundaries not only between musical genres but between audience and performer. Boyd Meets Girls brings music ranging from Bach, Elgar and Ravel to the Beatles and Radiohead to Newport for a memorable Valentine’s Day concert on February 14.
Founded in Paris in 2009, Trio Karénine bears the name of Tolstoy’s beautiful and emotionally honest heroine. The trio of Julien Dieudegard (violin), Louis Rodde (cello) and Paloma Kouider (piano) is acclaimed by critics and audiences for its musical integrity and passionate interpretation. The group has performed in the world’s most prestigious halls, including the Philharmonie and Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Frick Collection in New York, Salle Bourgie in Montréal, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater in Münich, the Leiszhalle in Hamburg, and Sydney Opera House. In a true celebration of the piano trio, Trio Karénine’s program in Newport on February 28 opens with Schubert’s second piano trio – one of the very last compositions completed during his lifetime – and concludes with Dvořák’s rarely programmed second piano trio which is filled with color, warmth, lively dance, and Slavic folk elements.
Newport Classical's Chamber Series takes place at Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport, known for its striking architecture and excellent acoustics. The Chamber Series, newly expanded to twelve concerts held between September and June, reaffirms Newport Classical’s commitment to offer year-round classical music programming. Audiences are invited to enjoy performances by world-class classical musicians in a relaxed setting, with a complimentary glass of wine from Greenvale Vineyards and homemade treats by Newport Classical volunteers.
As part of Newport Classical’s desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series also visit Newport-area schools to perform for, speak with, and inspire students, through Newport Classical’s Music Education and Engagement Initiative.
Up next, the Newport Classical Chamber Series continues with oboist James Austin Smith, hailed by The New York Times as “virtuosic,” and for his “dazzling” and “brilliant” performances, who joins forces with acclaimed pianist Gloria Chien in music by William Grant Still, Clara Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, and more, on March 21. On April 25, Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova, who has won international acclaim for her “expressive nuance and rich tone” (The New York Times) presents the music of Bach and Messiaen, alongside works by Grieg and Indian-American composer Reena Esmail, with pianist Anna Polonsky. Pianist Orion Weiss, known for his “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post), returns to Newport for a solo recital of Bach’s beloved Goldberg Variations on May 16. On June 13, the GRAMMY®-nominated Norwegian Trio Mediaeval, who captivate audiences with their crystalline voices, closes the 2024-2025 Newport Classical Chamber Series with an enchanting evening of Norwegian and Swedish traditional songs, hymns, fiddle tunes, and ballads.
The 2025 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 4-22, 2025, with programming to be announced at the end of March.
About Newport Classical
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.
Feb. 4: Jupiter Quartet Performs with David & Phillip Ying at Krannert Center
Jupiter Quartet Performs with David & Phillip Ying at Krannert Center
L-R David and Phillip Ying, Jupiter Quartet
The Jupiter Quartet
with Cellist David Ying and Violist Phillip Ying
Presented by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Performing Music by
Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, and Johannes Brahms
Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 7:30pm
University of Illinois | Krannert Center | Foellinger Great Hall | 500 S Goodwin Ave. | Urbana, IL
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Urbana, IL – On Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet –– whose playing The Washington Post describes as “characterful, illuminating and utterly committed” –– gives its third concert of the season at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts’s Foellinger Great Hall (500 S. Goodwin Ave). Alongside cellist David Ying and violist Phillip Ying of the Ying Quartet, the collaborative sextet of musicians will perform a program of lively and intense music, featuring the String Sextet from Capriccio, Op. 85 by Richard Strauss, Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4,by Arnold Schoenberg, and the String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36, by Johannes Brahms.
The Jupiter and Ying Quartets share a close bond as friends and musical colleagues. The two groups have collaborated many times over the years, including frequently at the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine, where David and Phillip Ying serve as Artistic Directors
Of their program at the Krannert Center, the Jupiter Quartet says:
“We are incredibly pleased to welcome our good friends, David and Phillip Ying, to the UIUC campus. We have spent the past eight summers at their wonderful Bowdoin International Music Festival in Brunswick, Maine, and one of the highlights for us every year is the chance to collaborate in concert with them and their fantastic colleagues in the Ying Quartet. It is a joy to combine with them on this exciting program made up completely of string sextets. This particular chamber music formation provides both the intimacy inherent in smaller ensembles, as well as a rich, orchestral lushness provided by an additional cello and viola.”
About the Music
Strauss’ final opera, Capriccio, is a highly Romantic work. Presenting an opera within an opera, the story poses and attempts to answer the question of, “What is more important – music or poetry?” In their performance of a string sextet excerpt from the opera, the musicians embody the argument between music and poetry, and the texture alternates between beautiful lyricism and dramatic articulation.
Continuing in the vein of hyper-Romanticism, Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night) is one of Schoenberg’s most popular and accessible works. It is inspired by a poem of the same name, written by Richard Dehmel and published in the collection Weib und Welt (1896; “Woman and World”). The work is full of extreme drama and extraordinary beauty, and reflects vividly the struggle between despair and acceptance featured in the underlying poem. The journey leads gradually to a transformation from darkness into light. .
Brahms wrote his second sextet (in G Major) roughly five years after the first (in B-flat Major). The work is a sublime example of his extreme range of expression, containing both great subtlety and extreme brilliance. It starts with a hazy oscillation and slow unfolding of the melody in the first movement, and ends at the other end of the spectrum in the last movement, with a bright, ecstatic close. Throughout the work, Brahms weaves the six voices around each other with a deft and ingenious touch.
About the Artists
Violist Phillip Ying is a frequent speaker, panelist and outside evaluator on subjects such as arts-in-education, advocacy through performance, and chamber music residencies. He served a six-year term as President of Chamber Music America, a national service organization for chamber music ensembles, presenters, and artist managers. Cellist David Ying and his wife, pianist Elinor Freer, are artistic directors of the Skaneateles Festival where their imaginative view of music has earned the festival national recognition including a special ASCAP award for adventurous programming.
The Ying Quartet first came to professional prominence in the early 1990s during their years as resident quartet of Jesup, Iowa, a farm town of 2000 people. Now quartet-in-residence at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, the Ying Quartet members have private teaching studios and lead a rigorous, sequentially designed chamber music program. The Ying Quartet’s enterprising view of concert performance has taken it to celebrated music venues of the world as well as the White House, correctional facilities, business schools, and hospitals, not to mention Grammy Award-winning musical collaborations.
Founded in 2001, the Jupiter Quartet is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music, and exudes an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous. The New Yorker states, “The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.”
The Quartet has been in residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program. This season, they will perform one more concert at the Krannert Center, including a concert of octets including the Mendelssohn Octet in E-flat Major with the Aris Quartet on March 13, 2025.
Based in Urbana, IL and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). The Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall, and more.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, which The New Yorker describes as “an ensemble of eloquent intensity,” continues its season series presented by at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, performing with cellist David Ying and violist Phillip Ying of the Ying Quartet. The six esteemed musicians will combine their expressive musicality and shrewd technical skills to perform a program that includes: String Sextet from Capriccio, Op. 85 by Richard Strauss, Verklarte Nacht by Arnold Schoenberg, and String Sextet No. 2 in G Major by Johannes Brahms.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet, Cellist David Ying, and Violist Phillip Ying
What: Music by Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, and Johannes Brahms
When: Tuesday, February 4, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: University of Illinois; Krannert Center for the Performing Arts; Foellinger Great Hall
500 S Goodwin Ave.; Urbana, IL
Tickets and information: www.krannertcenter.com/events/jupiter-string-quartet-david-ying-cello-and-phillip-ying-viola
Feb. 28-Mar. 1: Dreamers’ Circus Returns to Emerald City Music
Feb. 28-Mar. 1: Dreamers’ Circus Returns to Emerald City Music
Emerald City Music Season 09
The Return of Dreamers’ Circus
Friday, February 28, 2025 at 8:00pm
415 Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets: bit.ly/EmeraldDreamers2025Seattle
Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets: bit.ly/EmeraldDreamers2025Olympia
“[Emerald City Music and] artistic director Kristin Lee, a renowned violinist and member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, shows a flair for attracting younger audiences.” – Strings Magazine
Seattle & Olympia WA – Emerald City Music (ECM) and founding Artistic Director Kristin Lee embrace an even bolder appreciation of Season 09’s Global Resonance theme with the next season program, set for Friday, February 28 and Saturday, March 1, 2025: the long-awaited and highly anticipated return of acclaimed trio, Dreamers Circus.
The Danish folk ensemble made both its U.S. West Coast and Emerald City Music debuts in 2019. Known for their innovative and fantastical approaches to folk music inspired by several different Nordic cultures and traditions, the members of Dreamers Circus – Niokolaj Busk (piano, keyboards, accordion), Ale Carr (cittern, guitar, keyboards), and Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, also of Danish String Quartet (violin, fiddle, kannel) will bring their rich musical artistry and lively spirit back to the Pacific Northwest, enchanting audiences with a thrilling program of works that will be announced directly from the stage.
These two special performances will take place on Friday, February 28, 2025 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N), and Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd. SW). During the concert at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians.
Contemporary and endlessly innovative in their approach, Dreamers Circus draws inspiration from the deep traditions of folk music in the Nordic region and reshapes them into something bright, shiny, and new. Dreamers’ Circus display inventiveness and talent in their approach to performances that include music from Denmark and Sweden as well as Finland, Norway, and the far reaches of the windswept Faroe Islands. The ensemble has won five prestigious Danish Music Awards and were named 2023 Artist of the Year by the Danish national classical radio channel P2, becoming the first non-classical group to earn that honor.
“Emerald City Music is so thrilled to be welcoming back Dreamers' Circus.” says ECM Artistic Director Kristin Lee.
”Since their smashing West Coast debut in 2019 on the ECM stage, Dreamers' Circus has gone to build fans all over the US and beyond. We are eager to welcome them back this spring and experience their new works they have built over the past 5 years. Knowing their immaculate technique, ability to intimately draw the audience with their unique sound, and tell a story through their music, this is definitely going to be the highlight of our 9th season!”
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed “a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making” (The Seattle Times), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting venues including Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
About the Artists: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/team/kristin-lee
About ECM: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/about
Follow ECM on Social Media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic
Jan. 31: Sony Classical Releases The World Of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension – New Single Dune II Suite Out Today
Jan. 31: Sony Classical Releases The World Of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension – New Single Dune II Suite Out Today
Sony Classical Releases
The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension
Out Today: Dune II Suite
Listen Here
Featuring Composer’s Acclaimed Film Music In Captivating Orchestral Suites Includes New Arrangements Of Iconic Themes From
Dune II, No Time To Die, The Rock, The Prince Of Egypt
New Album Release Date: January 31, 2025
Pre-Order Now
Sony Classical announces the release of Dune II Suite from the forthcoming double album, The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension available January 31, 2025 - pre-order here. The highly anticipated sequel to the acclaimed 2019 album The World of Hans Zimmer – A Symphonic Celebration features over 2 hours of music, reimagining 17 of the legendary composer’s most iconic film scores. Melding the grandeur of symphonic music with the dynamic power of Zimmer’s cinematic compositions, this album transforms more of his most successful soundtracks into epic new orchestral suites. Highlights include a short, captivating “cello-concerto-like” version of Final Ascent from No Time to Die, a tranquil rendition of A Time of Quiet Between the Storms from Dune II, and a new romantic suite from The Prince of Egypt. Additionally, Zimmer revisits one of his classic 90s soundtracks with a newly crafted suite of The Rock.
The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension features Zimmer accompanied by a stellar ensemble of soloists and collaborators, including singers Lebo M, Lisa Gerrard, Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod, and Nokukhanya Dlamini; multi-woodwind wizard Pedro Eustache; bass player Juan García-Herreros; guitarist Alexios Anest; pianist Eliane Correa; cellist Mariko Muranaka; violinist Rusanda Panfili; and percussionists Aleksandra Šuklar, Luis Ribeiro, and Lucy Landymore. Together, they perform alongside the Odessa Orchestra & Friends and the Nairobi Chamber Choir, under the baton of conductor Gavin Greenaway.
Hans Zimmer says: “We’re taking music that fans know and love and presenting it with a renewed sense of energy, scale, and emotion. These new orchestral suites are a testament to the incredible musicians I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and the magic that happens when we come together with the orchestra and choir. It’s about capturing those transformative moments in performance.”
The World of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension is available for streaming and digital download in stereo and the immersive format Dolby Atmos. The album will also be released as a 2-CD set and a limited-edition 3 x 180g audiophile vinyl box – preorder here.
US Version: Hans Zimmer fans can experience the magic of his music live in January 2025 in five additional concerts of the hugely successful HANS ZIMMER LIVE tour:
Friday, January 31 Austin, Texas - Moody Center
Sunday, February 2 Nashville, Tennessee - Bridgestone Arena
Tuesday, February 4 Columbus, Ohio - Nationwide Arena
Thursday, February 6 Brooklyn, New York - Barclays Arena
Friday, February 7 Baltimore, Maryland - CFG Arena
For tickets and more information, visit:
www.hanszimmerlive.com.
HANS ZIMMER – THE WORLD OF HANS ZIMMER – PART II: A NEW DIMENSION
SUITES ON THE ALBUM:
Part 1
Man of Steel Suite: Part 1 "What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving The World?
Driving (Miss Daisy)
The Rock: Two Parts Suite
James Bond: Two Parts Suite
Interstellar: Two Parts Suite
Dune II - Part 1: Intro + Part 2: "A Time of Quiet…"
The Prince of Egypt: Three Parts Suite
Wonder Woman: Two Parts Suite
Sherlock Holmes: Three Parts Suite
Inception: Part 1: Dream Is Collapsing + Part 2: Time
Part 2
The Dark Knight
Gladiator: Four Parts Suite
Pearl Harbor: Two Parts Suite
Kung Fu Panda: Two Parts Suite
Power of One: Mother Africa
The Lion King: Four Parts Suite
Pirates of the Caribbean: Two Parts Suite
ABOUT HANS ZIMMER
Hans Zimmer has scored more than 500 projects across all mediums, which combined have grossed more than 28 billion dollars at the worldwide box office. Zimmer has been honored with two Academy Awards®, three Golden Globe® Awards, five Grammy® Awards, an American Music Award, and a Tony® Award, as well as six Emmy® nominations.
Upcoming, Zimmer scored Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated Blitz, set for release in November, and Joseph Kosinski’s F1, which will premiere in June 2025.
Most recently, Zimmer scored Denis Villeneuve’s critically acclaimed sequel, Dune: Part Two, which premiered in March 2024. The film is the follow-up to the 2021 Hollywood blockbuster Dune, which earned Zimmer his second Academy Award® in the category of Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures. He was recently nominated for his three Emmy® Awards on behalf of his work on Planet Earth III and The Tattooist of Auschwitz.
Zimmer’s additional work highlights include No Time to Die, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, As Good as It Gets, Rain Man, The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, Thelma and Louise, The Last Samurai, 12 Years A Slave, Blade Runner 2049 (co-scored w/ Benjamin Wallfisch) and Dunkirk, as well as recent film scores including Top Gun: Maverick, Wonder Woman 1984 and The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run.
In 1994, Zimmer won his first Academy Award® for the Best Original Score of Disney animated film The Lion King. Additionally in 2019, he scored the live-action remake of the iconic film and received a Grammy® nomination for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.
Beyond his award-winning compositions and globally recognizable achievements, Zimmer has gone on to complete highly successful Hans Zimmer Live tours around the world. After sold-out European runs, he is gearing up to bring the tour to North America for his first performances in the region since his 2017 Coachella performance. Previously, he performed in the Middle East at Dubai’s renowned Coca-Cola Arena for two consecutive nights as well as Formula 1’s Singapore Grand Prix.
Hans Zimmer Approved Image (Credit Lee Kirby): Download
Connect With Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer Live | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Emerald City Music Appoints Sean Campbell as Executive Director
Emerald City Music Appoints Sean Campbell as Executive Director
Emerald City Music Appoints Sean Campbell as Executive Director
“Emerald City Music [is] known for its innovative approaches to presenting classical music.”
– Cascade PBS
Seattle & Olympia, WA – Today, January 9, 2025, Emerald City Music (ECM) announces the appointment of Sean Campbell as its new Executive Director. Campbell comes to ECM from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he worked as its Artistic Planning Manager. Campbell will join ECM’s founding Artistic Director, Kristin Lee, in bringing ECM’s inventive programming to audiences in the Pacific Northwest and beyond.
As Executive Director, Campbell will provide administrative leadership and support to ECM’s Board of Directors, assist Artistic Director Kristin Lee in developing and executing engagement events and educational programs, work with the ECM Board and staff to develop partnerships and collaborations with community organizations and local businesses, serve as a community ambassador, and develop a forward-thinking, strategic plan for the organization, among other key duties and responsibilities. Campbell will begin his tenure with ECM on February 3, 2025.
“I am absolutely thrilled to join the Emerald City Music team as its next Executive Director,” Campbell says. “ECM’s ability to combine exceptional performances with inviting, social concert experiences is an extraordinary benefit to the Puget Sound Region. Having grown up in Portland, Oregon, I’m so excited to return to the Pacific Northwest and support this wonderful organization’s growth as it continues to serve its thriving arts communities.”
Artistic Director Kristin Lee says, “I am thrilled to begin this exciting new chapter of Emerald City Music alongside Sean Campbell as our new Executive Director! Sean's extensive experience with various arts organizations and his deep passion for chamber music gives me confidence in the future of ECM. Together, I’m eager to bring this unique organization to even greater heights, continuing to bring meaningful musical experiences to our community.
On behalf of everyone at Emerald City Music, I want to extend our gratitude to the dedicated members of the Search Committee—Lynn Grant, Hsing-Hui Hsu, Sam Paris, Van Pham, John C. Robinson, and Shiva Shafii—whose collective efforts led to the selection of our new Executive Director. We also express our sincere thanks to Interim Executive Director Thom Mayes for his guidance throughout this process.”
“We are delighted to welcome Sean Campbell to Emerald City Music as our new Executive Director. His passion and experience as an arts administrator at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center set him apart from a field of candidates for the position,” says Hsing-Hui Hsu, President of Emerald City Music’s Board of Directors. “I am looking forward to working with him – and our fabulous Artistic Director, Kristin Lee – to bring intimate, eclectic chamber music experiences for the coming seasons."
Sean Campbell is an innovative and results-driven arts administrator and producer, with experience in managing programming, operations, and production for some of the nation's most respected performing arts organizations. With a deep passion for many styles of music, Campbell is skilled at building dynamic, inclusive environments that elevate artistic expression and enhance audience engagement.
Through his work at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Campbell planned and produced hundreds of events, digital partnerships, and film productions. Campbell led the programming and delivery of a premier partnership between CMS and Apple Music Classical, which launched in November 2024. This first-of-its-kind initiative accumulated more than 50,000 listeners in the first month. Other notable projects include producing the Emerson String Quartet’s final concerts, a two-part film for PBS, and a documentary on composer George Crumb.
Before moving to New York City in 2019, Campbell lived in Baltimore, Maryland, where he performed as a saxophonist, taught saxophone at the Baltimore School for the Arts, and taught woodwinds for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s OrchKids program. Campbell also founded a contemporary music series that connected artists and audiences from disparate corners of Baltimore’s music communities.
Campbell holds a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, where he held a teaching assistantship in Ethnomusicology, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Denver. Campbell will be relocating to Seattle with his wife Swetha, and their dog Inji.
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest’s home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed “a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making” (The Seattle Times), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces seven programs annually, with each program visiting venues including Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), and a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival.
About ECM: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/about
Follow ECM on Social Media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic
Feb. 28: The Jupiter Quartet Returns to Adelphi University
The Jupiter Quartet Returns to Adelphi University
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution here.
The Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by Adelphi University
Performing Music by
Carlos Simon, Shulamit Ran, and Ludwig van Beethoven
February 28, 2025 at 7:30pm
Adelphi University Performing Arts Center
1 South Ave. | Garden City, NY
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Garden City, NY. – On Friday, February 28, 2025 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet – internationally acclaimed winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) – will be presented in concert by Adelphi University at the Adelphi University Performing Arts Center, (1 South Ave.). The Jupiter Quartet last performed at Adelphi University in February 2022.
Based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Brought together by ties both familial and musical, the Jupiter Quartet has been performing together since 2001. Exuding an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, the Quartet celebrates every opportunity to bring their close-knit and lively style to audiences. Their connections to each other and the length of time they’ve shared the stage always shine through in their intuitive performances.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed musical chemistry to three works shaped by bold musicality and deeply meaningful thematic inspirations, written between the early 19th century and the present day, including Warmth from Other Suns by Carlos Simon (2020); String Quartet No. 3, Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory by Shulamit Ran (2013); and String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge by Ludwig van Beethoven (1825).
Carlos Simon, currently Composer-in-Residence at The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington, D.C., writes in his program note for Warmth from Other Suns, “Between 1916 and 1970, the mass exodus of African-Americans leaving the rural South, seeking homes in the urban West, Midwest, and Northeast became known as the Great Migration. Inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s book The Warmth of Other Suns, I chose to bring these stories to life through the voice of a string quartet.”
Shulamit Ran’s third string quartet, Glitter, Shards, Doom, Memory is a tribute to the Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum and other victims of the Holocaust. The work’s name is tied to “Glitter and Doom,” the title of an exhibition of German art from 1919-1933, which was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006-07. Ran writes in her program note: “[T]his is my way of saying, ‘Do not forget,’ something that I believe can be done through music with special power and poignancy.”
Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 130 has the epic scope and startling originality that characterized many of his works from the final years of his life. Completely deaf at this point, he entered a period of sustained creativity, which often found voice through the intimate vehicle of the string quartet. The Op. 130 quartet contains six movements. The first five are of traditional length—a standard first movement followed by a series of dance movements. The fifth movement, Cavatina, is one of the most famously sublime works ever written, after which Beethoven shocked premiere audiences by launching directly into an enormous and strident grand fugue (Grosse Fugue). Audiences were so upset by this that Beethoven’s publisher convinced him to write an alternative dance-like finale, which became the official final movement. However, many quartets have since decided to return to the original ending in order to honor Beethoven’s intentions—and therefore the Jupiter Quartet will conclude the program with the Grosse Fugue (now filed under its own opus number, 133).
Of performing this program and returning to Adelphi University, the Jupiter Quartet says:
“It is always a joy to return to Adelphi University, which we have visited numerous times over the course of our career. We always relish the chance to work with student musicians while there, and look forward to playing again in Adelphi’s beautiful Performing Arts Center. The program we have prepared features multiple perspectives on the struggle to surmount powerful forces of darkness—an effort that is unfortunately still acutely relevant today.”
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented in concert by Adelphi University. The award-winning ensemble will perform a program of music from the 19th and 21st centuries, each shaped by bold musicality and different deeply thematic inspirations. Featured works on the concert program will include Warmth from Other Suns by Carlos Simon (2020); String Quartet No. 3, Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory by Shulamit Ran (2013); and String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge by Ludwig van Beethoven (1825).
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by Adelphi University
What: Music by Carlos Simon, Shulamit Ran, Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Friday, February 28, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: Adelphi University Performing Arts Center, 1 South Ave., Garden City, NY 11530
Tickets and information: www.adelphi.edu/events/jupiter-string-quartet
Jan. 10: Sony Classical Releases 2025 New Year’s Concert with Vienna Philharmonic & Riccardo Muti
Jan. 10: Sony Classical Releases 2025 New Year’s Concert with Vienna Philharmonic & Riccardo Muti
Sony Classical Releases The 2025 New Year’s Concert
with The Vienna Philharmonic and Riccardo Muti
The World’s Most Famous Classical Music Event Released on Audio and Video
Celebrating the 200th Birthday of Johann Strauss II
Album Release Dates:
Digital - January 10, 2025
CD - February 14, 2025
DVD and Blu-Ray - March 7, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
The Vienna Philharmonic’s 2025 New Year’s Concert will be released by Sony Classical in both audio and video formats. On January 1, 2025, Maestro Riccardo Muti will take the stage to conduct the New Year’s Concert for the seventh time in the world-renowned Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein.
Available for preorder and pre-save now, the live recording of the 2025 New Year’s Concert is set for digital release on January 10, 2025, with the physical CD release on February 14, and both the DVD and Blu-ray arriving March 7.
There are few concerts in the world that are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna. This year, it will be broadcast to over 90 countries around the world, reaching an audience of millions of people. The program will feature a repertoire from the Strauss family and their
contemporaries, with a unique addition: for the first time, a work by a female composer, and a friend of Johann Strauss II, will be performed. The Ferdinandus-Walzer, composed by the twelve-year-old Constanze Geiger in 1848, will be part of this year’s program.
The artistic collaboration with Maestro Muti that began in 1971 has given rise to more than 500 mutual concerts, including six New Year’s Concerts, Philharmonic subscription concerts, memorial concerts, guest performances and tours, as well as numerous opera productions. A special highlight of the 2024 season will be the concert celebrating the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony under Muti’s baton.
Daniel Froschauer, Chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, emphasizes the conductor’s special significance for the orchestra: “Riccardo Muti has held an exceptional position in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic for over fifty years. An honorary member of the orchestra since 2011, Muti has helped shape the repertoire and specific sound of the ensemble in a unique manner.”
Riccardo Muti first came to public attention in 1967, when he won the Guido Cantelli Conducting Competition in Milan. From 1968 to 1980, he served as Principal Conductor of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 1971, Herbert von Karajan invited him to conduct at the Salzburg Festival, which in 2020 marked fifty years of collaboration with the Austrian festival. During the 1970s, he was Chief Conductor of London’s Philharmonia Orchestra (1972–1982), and later served as Music Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra (1980–1992). From 1986 to 2005, he was Music Director of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Muti also became Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 2010, a position he held until 2023, whereupon he was named Music Director Emeritus for Life.
Throughout his career, Riccardo Muti has conducted the most important orchestras in the world, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France, and Vienna Philharmonic – an orchestra to which he has particularly close ties.
When Muti was invited to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic’s 150th anniversary concert in 1992, he was presented by the orchestra with the Golden Ring, awarded only to a few chosen conductors. After presiding over New Year’s Concerts in 1993, 1997, 2000, 2004 and 2018, Riccardo Muti conducted the Vienna Philharmonic in this annual celebration for the sixth time in 2021.
The story of the Vienna Philharmonic can be traced back to 1842, when Otto Nicolai conducted a “grand concert” with “all the members of the Orchestra of the Imperial and Royal Court Opera Theatre”. This event is generally regarded as marking the birth of the orchestra. Ever since it was founded, the orchestra has been run by a democratically elected committee and is artistically, organisationally and financially independent. In the twentieth century its artistic profile has been shaped by such leading musicians as Richard Strauss, Arturo Toscanini, Wilhelm Furtwängler and, after 1945, by three emeritus conductors, Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. Since it was formed, the orchestra has given around 9,000 concerts in every part of the world. Since 1989 it has presented a Vienna Philharmonic Week in New York. A similar series of concerts has been held in Tokyo since 1993.
The tradition of presenting New Year’s Concerts began in 1941. The first concert marking the New Year was given in 1939, albeit on 31 December. The first conductor was Clemens Krauss. Willi Boskovsky took over in 1955 and conducted no fewer than twenty-five New Year’s Concerts between then and 1979. The list of musicians who have conducted New Year’s Concerts reads like a who’s who of leading maestros. The New Year’s Concert was first broadcast live on television in 1959. The Vienna Philharmonic regards this now traditional event as a way of wishing the world a Happy New Year through the medium of music in a spirit of hope, friendship and peace.
2025 New Year’s Concert Program
Johann Strauss I Freiheits-Marsch op. 226
Josef Strauss Dorfschwalben aus Österreich Waltz op. 164
Johann Strauss II Demolirer-Polka Polka française op. 269
Johann Strauss II Lagunen-Walzer op. 411
Eduard Strauss Luftig und duftig Polka schnell op. 206
Johann Strauss II Overture to Der Zigeunerbaron
Johann Strauss II Accelerationen Waltz op. 234
Joseph Hellmesberger II Fidele Brüder* March from Das Veilchenmädel
Constanze Geiger Ferdinandus-Walzer* (arr. Wolfgang Dörner)
Johann Strauss II Entweder – oder! Polka schnell op. 403
Josef Strauss Transactionen Waltz op. 184
Johann Strauss II Annen-Polka op. 117
Johann Strauss II Tritsch-Tratsch Polka schnell op. 214
Johann Strauss II Wein, Weib und Gesang Waltz op. 333
Encores will be announced at a later date.
*First performance at a New Year’s Concert
Feb. 13: The Jupiter & Jasper Quartets Presented by BIG ARTS
Feb. 13: The Jupiter & Jasper Quartets Presented by BIG ARTS
The Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper Quartet
Presented by BIG ARTS
Performing Music by
Joseph Haydn, Grażyna Bacewicz and Felix Mendelssohn
Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Christensen Performance Hall | 900 Dunlop Road | Sanibel Island, FL
Tickets and Information
“This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” – The Arts Fuse
www.jasperquartet.com | www.jupiterquartet.com
Sanibel Island, FL – On Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet, the internationally acclaimed winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Banff International String Quartet Competition who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine), and the Jasper String Quartet, who The Strad describes as “sonically delightful,” will be presented together in concert by BIG ARTS at the Christensen Performance Hall (900 Dunlop Road).
For this concert, the two award-winning ensembles will perform works which display both their individual and collaborative artistries, featuring quartets by Franz Joseph Haydn, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Felix Mendelssohn, which span the dawn of the 19th century and mid-20th century.
The Jupiter and Jasper quartets celebrate many years of deep connections that go beyond simply enjoying playing music together. There are siblings – J Freivogel from the Jasper is the younger brother of Jupiter members Meg and Liz Freivogel; spouses – Rachel Henderson Freivogel and J are married in the Jasper, and Daniel McDonough and Meg are married in the Jupiter; and longtime friends – Nelson Lee and Karen Kim were apartment mates while they were college students in Boston. In 2021, the two quartets celebrated the release of a collaborative album on Marquis Classics, produced by GRAMMY Award-winner Judith Sherman, which features Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, which they will perform on Sanibel Island.
Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2 (1799) is the last of his many works in this genre. Considered by many to be the “grandfather of the string quartet”, Haydn developed the form over many years, experimenting with more dramatic structures and particularly with a more equal treatment of the four voices, instead of the first-violin dominated texture often heard earlier. Grażyna Bacewicz’s striking String Quartet No. 4 was composed in 1951, several years after the end of World War II, during which Bacewicz lived through theNazi occupation of Warsaw. The quartet unfolds with an air of sorrow-tinged hope that rises up to a happy conclusion in the third movement. Felix Mendelssohn composed his String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, an intricate masterpiece, in 1825, at the age of sixteen. The work is known for its joyous energy. Rather than treating the two quartets as separate entities, Mendelssohn weaves all kinds of deft and subtle conversations among the eight musicians, in every possible combination.
About the Jasper Quartet: Celebrated as one of the preeminent American string quartets of the twenty-first century, the prizewinning Jasper String Quartet is hailed as being “flawless in ensemble and intonation, expressively assured and beautifully balanced” (Gramophone). The Quartet is highly regarded for its “programming savvy” (ClevelandClassical.com), which strives to evocatively connect the music of underrepresented and living composers to the canonical repertoire through thoughtful programs that appeal to a wide variety of audiences.
A recipient of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award (2012), the Quartet’s playing has been described as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad). The ensemble has released eight albums, including its most recent release, Insects and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung (2023) which Strings Magazine praised as being “intensely dramatic throughout demonstrating both their advocacy of new music and their transcendent mastery.” The Quartet’s 2017release, Unbound, was named by The New York Times as one of the year’s 25 Best Classical Recordings.
The Quartet will release new recordings in 2024 and 2025, including Reinaldo Moya’s Pájaros Garabatos with soprano Maria Brea in 2024, works by Tina Davidson with pianist Natalie Zhu in 2024, and Richard Festinger’s Quartet No. 5 in 2025. In celebration of its twentieth anniversary in 2026-27, the Quartet has commissioned new works from composers Patrick Castillo, Brittany J. Green, Reinaldo Moya, and Michelle Ross.
The Jasper String Quartet is passionate about connecting with audiences beyond the concert hall and is the Professional Quartet-in-Residence at Temple University’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians and Director of the annual Saint Paul Chamber Music Institute. The Quartet is Artistic Director of Jasper Chamber Concerts, a series in Philadelphia dedicated to encouraging curiosity, community, and inclusivity through world-class chamber performances. The Jasper String Quartet is named after Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada and is represented by Suòno Artist Management.
For more information, please visit www.jasperquartet.com.
About the Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by GRAMMY-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as “an ensemble of eloquent intensity,” and the Jasper String Quartet, which The Strad describes as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling,” are presented in concert together by BIG ARTS. The two award-winning ensembles will perform a concert that highlights their individual and collaborative quartet chemistries with emotive and intricate quartets written between the dawn of the 19th century and mid-20th century. Featured works include: Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, Hob.III: 82, performed by Jupiter Quartet, Bacewicz’s Quartet No. 4 performed by Jasper String Quartet, and Felix Mendelssohn’s iconic Octet, performing together by both ensembles.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet
Presented by BIG ARTS
What: Music by Joseph Haydn, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Felix Mendelssohn
When: Thursday, February 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: Christensen Performance Hall, 900 Dunlop Road, Sanibel Island, FL 33957
Tickets and information: www.bigarts.org/event/jupiter-and-jasper-quartets
Feb. 16: Violinist Kristin Lee Performs American Sketches in Cincinnati
Feb. 16: Violinist Kristin Lee Performs American Sketches in Cincinnati
(l to r): Kristin Lee and Michael Chertock
Violinist Kristin Lee and Pianist Michael Chertock
Perform American Sketches in Cincinnati
Presented by the Linton Chamber Music Series
Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 4pm
First Unitarian Church | 536 Linton Street | Cincinnati, OH
Tickets & Information
Kristin Lee: www.violinistkristinlee.com
Cincinnati, OH – On Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 7:30pm, violinist Kristin Lee – hailed in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy” – will perform with pianist Michael Chertock presented by the Linton Chamber Music Series at First Unitarian Church (536 Linton Street). Their concert follows the release of Kristin Lee’s debut solo album, American Sketches, which was released on First Hand Records on November 15. American Sketches reflects the distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history, encompassing both Lee’s journey as an American, as well as the journeys of the composers she selected. Although this is Lee’s debut on the Linton Chamber Music Series, she is well-known in the Cincinnati community through her work on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin.
For her performance in Cincinnati, Kristin Lee has taken inspiration from the concept of her new album and will perform works including Praeludium and Allegro by Fritz Kreisler; Sonata No. 4, Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting by Charles Ives; Sonata No. 2, Poeme Mystique by Ernst Bloch; Road Movies by John Adams; Porgy and Bess Suite by George Gershwin (arranged by. Frolov), and Romance Op. 23 by Amy Beach, which can be found on Lee’s new album.
A violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique, Kristin Lee enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
American Sketches has a personal resonance for Lee. A native of Seoul, Korea, she emigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven. During her childhood, playing the violin was a refuge from bullying and racism for Kristin – she moved to the U.S. not speaking any English, and felt the violin became her voice. As a foreign-born citizen of the U.S., Lee was compelled to select repertoire for her album American Sketches, which would express her pride in the country she now calls her own. On it, Lee has recorded works by American composers that have a distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history.
Of performing her American Sketches program in Cincinnati, Lee says:
“It's an honor to give a recital at the historic Linton Series this spring. Having lived in Cincinnati for the past few years, I've always admired the first class musicians that come through the Linton Series, allowing the opportunities for the audience to be up and close to experience extraordinary performances. I'm especially excited to be sharing the stage with Michael Chertock, the eminent pianist who is an ambassador to Cincinnati, and give this performance that celebrates the diverse sounds of American composers.”
About Kristin Lee:
As a soloist, Kristin Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Tacoma Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and many others.
She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Steinway Hall’s Salon de Virtuosi, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Ravinia Festival, Philadelphia’s World Cafe Live, (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York, the Louvre Museum in Paris, Washington, D.C.’s Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery.
An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after winning The Bowers Program audition and completing the program's three-year residency. Kristin performs at Lincoln Center in New York and on tour with CMS throughout each season. For seven years, she was a principal artist of Camerata Pacifica in Santa Barbara, sitting as The Bernard Gondos Chair. Lee has also appeared in chamber music programs at Music@Menlo, La Jolla Festival, Medellín Festicámara of Colombia, Moab Music Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, Chamber Music Sedona, Music in the Vineyards, Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern of Germany, the Hong Kong Chamber Music Festival and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, among many others.
In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is also a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. She has also been in residence with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, the El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and is a summer faculty member at Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute.
Lee is the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State. Since 2015, she has crafted unconventional and captivating programs that have led to Emerald City Music’s renown for its eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. The series was recently deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts).
An advocate for living composers, Kristin Lee has collaborated with many of today’s prominent composers, including Vivian Fung, Andy Akiho, Patrick Castillo, Jakub Ciupiński, Shobana Raghavan, Steve Coleman, Jeremy Jordan, and more. She made the world premiere recording of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto, written for her, which won a Juno Award and is available on Naxos.
Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation. Her performances have been broadcast on PBS’s “Live from Lincoln Center,” the Kennedy Center Honors, WFMT Chicago’s “Rising Stars” series, WRTI in Philadelphia, and on WQXR in New York. She also appeared on Perlman in Shanghai, a nationally broadcast PBS documentary that chronicled a historic cross-cultural exchange between the Perlman Music Program and Shanghai Conservatory.
Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Kristin Lee, praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy,” will perform with pianist Michael Chertock in American Sketches, a concert inspired by Lee’s new album of the same title, which reflects the distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history, encompassing both Lee’s journey as an American, as well as the journeys of the composers she selected. The concert, presented by the Linton Chamber Music Series, will include works by Fritz Kreisler, Charles Ives, Ernst Bloch, John Adams, George Gershwin, and Amy Beach.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Kristin Lee and Pianist Michael Chertock, presented by the Linton Chamber Music Series
What: American Sketches
When: Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 4pm
Where: First Unitarian Church, 536 Linton Street, Cincinnati, OH 45219
Tickets and information: https://lintonmusic.org/linton-chamber-music/
Feb. 11: Jupiter Quartet Performs in Palm Beach in February
Jupiter Quartet Presented by the Flagler Museum Music Series
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution here.
The Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by the Flagler Museum Music Series
Performing Music by
Franz Joseph Haydn, Anton Webern, and Johannes Brahms
Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 7:00pm
Flagler Museum | 1 Whitehall Way | Palm Beach, FL
Tickets and Information
“technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” – The New Yorker
Palm Beach, FL – On Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 7:00pm, the Jupiter String Quartet – the internationally acclaimed winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Banff International String Quartet Competition who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) – will be presented in concert by the Flagler Museum Music Series at the Flagler Museum (1 Whitehall Way).
Based at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and performing all across the nation, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Brought together by ties both familial and musical, the Jupiter Quartet has been performing together since 2001. Exuding an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, the Quartet celebrates every opportunity to bring their close-knit and lively style to audiences. Their connections to each other and the length of time they’ve shared the stage always shine through in their intuitive performances.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its deeply refined, interconnected musical chemistry to three works composed from the turn of the 19th to the early 20th century. Each is steeped in dramatic musicality and leans into conjuring fervent emotions. The program includes: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, Hob.III: 82 by Franz Joseph Haydn; Langsamer Satz by Anton Weber; and String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms.The Jupiter Quartet’s lively and expressive playing style will showcase the dramatic tensions and strong emotions driving the music of this program.
“The quartet is so pleased to return to the lovely Flagler Museum for this performance, and is excited to share some of our favorite works—the sparkling Haydn Op. 77 No. 2 quartet, the lyrically gorgeous Langsamer Satz, and of course the fantastically dramatic C minor string quartet from Brahms.”
Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2 is the last of his many works in this genre. Considered by many to be the “grandfather of the string quartet”, Haydn developed the form over many years, experimenting with more dramatic structures and particularly with a more equal treatment of the four voices, instead of the first-violin dominated texture often heard earlier.. Next on the program, the Langsamer Satz is a single movement of a what was intended to be a larger work, composed in 1905. It features the lush, lyrical textures of late Romanticism, and was likely written after a getaway to the mountains that Webern took with his future wife. Continuing in the same key of C minor but spreading over a more epic scope, Brahms’s first string quartet was composed in a painstaking process over the course of several years.The work’s four movements are presented in the form of two outer movements fueled by torment and anxiety, and two inner movements framed by a more delicate and calm musical aesthetic.
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by GRAMMY-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as “an ensemble of eloquent intensity,” is presented in concert by the Flagler Museum Music Series. The ensemble will perform a concert program that reflects music shaped by dramatic musical aesthetics and strong emotions. Featured works on the concert program will include: String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, Hob.III: 82 by Franz Joseph Haydn; Langsamer Satz by Anton Weber; and String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1 by Johannes Brahms.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by the Flagler Museum Music Series
What: Music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Anton Webern, and Johannes Brahms
When: Tuesday, February 11, 2025 at 7:00pm
Where: Flagler Museum, 1 Whitehall Way, Palm Beach, FL 33480
Tickets and information: www.flaglermuseum.us/programs/music-series/2025-music-series
Feb. 6-8: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Returns to Emerald City Music
Feb. 6-8: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Returns to Emerald City Music
Emerald City Music Season 09
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in:
Spanish Journey
Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 7:00pm
Lairmont Manor | 405 Fieldston Rd | Bellingham, WA
Tickets: bit.ly/EmeraldFeb2025Bellingham
Friday, February 7, 2025 at 8:00pm
415 Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets: bit.ly/EmeraldFeb2025Seattle
Saturday, February 8, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets: bit.ly/EmeraldFeb2025Olympia
“[Emerald City Music and] artistic director Kristin Lee, a renowned violinist and member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, shows a flair for attracting younger audiences.” – Strings Magazine
Seattle, Olympia, & Bellingham WA – Beginning the second half of its 2024-2025 season of Global Resonance, Emerald City Music (ECM) and founding Artistic Director Kristin Lee present a culturally immersive and musically colorful program titled Spanish Journey, featuring the esteemed talents of several artists from New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMSLC), which returns to the Emerald City Music, bringing a vibrant celebration of Spanish music to Bellingham, Seattle, and Olympia. This month’s exciting program features Emerald City Music Artistic Director and CMSLC member, Kristin Lee, alongside GRAMMY® Award–winning guitarist Jason Vieaux, who returns to the ECM stage. Additional featured CMSLC artists include soprano Vanessa Becerra, cellist Clive Greensmith, and pianist Soyeon Kate Lee.
The three performances of Spanish Journey will take place on Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 7pm as part of the Bellingham Festival of Music at Lairmont Manor (405 Fieldston Rd.), Friday, February 7, 2025 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N), and Saturday, February 8, 2025 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd. SW). During the concert at 415 Westlake, audiences can enjoy ECM’s flagship “date-night experience,” which combines vibrant classical performance with an open bar, and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians.
Spend a musical evening in Spain, a country of enchanting colors, rhythms, and textures, in a program imaginatively created by violinist Kristin Lee. The distinctive Spanish style is beautifully expressed in piano trios of Falla and Turina, while guitar – an instrument deeply associated with Spain – is also featured, played by Jason Vieaux. Song complements the balance of the program with vocal works by Sarasate, Rodrigo, and Obradors, the texts of which beautifully express the flair and passion of the Spanish language. The combination of the guitar’s intoxicating sounds, the language’s seductive tones, and the trios’ vivid style illustrates the richness of this culture.
Audiences can look forward to hearing music that includes: Canciones Clásicas Españolas by Fernando Obradors (1921); Mallorca, Op. 202 by Isaac Albéniz (1891); Tres Piezas Originales en Estilo Español, Op. 1 by Enrique Arbós (1886); Siete Canciones Populares Españolas by Manuel De Falla (1914); “Romanza Andaluza” from Spanish Dances by Pablo De Sarasate Op. 22 (1878); Tres Canciones Españolas by Joaquín Rodrigo (1951); and Trio No. 2 In B Minor by Joaquín Turina (1933).
“Spring Season at ECM is going to kick off on a high note with a night of Spanish Music!” says Artistic Director Kristin Lee.
”We are thrilled to welcome back The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and this time, you will notice new faces like soprano Vanessa Becerra, cellist Clive Greensmith, and pianist Soyeon Kate Lee who have not joined the ECM stage before. On the other hand, I'm excited to be bringing back to our stage, guitarist Jason Vieaux, and myself on the violin, representing The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Spanish music is less familiar in the "classical" realm, but incredibly festive and powerful to experience- it's a night not to be missed, and you will have 3 chances to hear it in Bellingham, Seattle, and Olympia!
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed “a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making” (The Seattle Times), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting venues including Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
About the Artists: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/team/kristin-lee
About ECM: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/about
Follow ECM on Social Media:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic
Feb. 19: Jupiter Quartet Presented by the Library of Congress
Jupiter Quartet Presented by the Library of Congress
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution here.
The Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by the Library of Congress
Performing Music by
Carlos Simon, Shulamit Ran, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 8:00pm
Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium
10 1st Street SE | Washington D.C.
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Washington D.C. – On Wednesday, February 19, 2025, the Jupiter String Quartet – internationally acclaimed winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) – will be presented in concert by the Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium (10 1st Street SE) Washington D.C. There will be a pre-concert talk with the artists beginning at 6:30pm.
Based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Brought together by ties both familial and musical, the Jupiter Quartet has been performing together since 2001. Exuding an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, the Quartet celebrates every opportunity to bring their close-knit and lively style to audiences. Their connections to each other and the length of time they’ve shared the stage always shine through in their intuitive performances.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed musical chemistry to three works shaped by bold musicality and deeply meaningful thematic inspirations, written between the early 19th century and the present day, including Warmth from Other Suns by Carlos Simon (2020); String Quartet No. 3, Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory by Shulamit Ran (2013); and String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge by Ludwig van Beethoven (1825).
Carlos Simon, currently Composer-in-Residence at The Kennedy Center, writes in his program note for Warmth from Other Suns, “Between 1916 and 1970, the mass exodus of African-Americans leaving the rural South, seeking homes in the urban West, Midwest, and Northeast became known as the Great Migration. Inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s book The Warmth of Other Suns, I chose to bring these stories to life through the voice of a string quartet.”
Shulamit Ran’s third string quartet, Glitter, Shards, Doom, Memory is a tribute to the Jewish artist Felix Nussbaum and other victims of the Holocaust. The work’s name is tied to “Glitter and Doom,” the title of an exhibition of German art from 1919-1933, which was on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006-07. Ran writes in her program note: [T]his is my way of saying, ‘Do not forget,’ something that I believe can be done through music with special power and poignancy.”
Beethoven’s Quartet Op. 130 has the epic scope and startling originality that characterized many of his works from the final years of his life. Completely deaf at this point, he entered a period of sustained creativity, which often found voice through the intimate vehicle of the string quartet. The Op. 130 quartet contains six movements. The first five are of traditional length—a standard first movement followed by a series of dance movements. The fifth movement, Cavatina, is one of the most famously sublime works ever written, after which Beethoven shocked premiere audiences by launching directly into an enormous and strident grand fugue (Grosse Fugue). Audiences were so upset by this that Beethoven’s publisher convinced him to write an alternative dance-like finale, which became the official final movement. However, many quartets have since decided to return to the original ending in order to honor Beethoven’s intentions—and therefore the Jupiter Quartet will conclude the program with the Grosse Fugue (now filed under its own opus number, 133).
Of performing this program and making their Library of Congress debut, the Jupiter Quartet says:
”We are immensely excited to return to the Library of Congress after many years, and particularly happy to get the privilege of playing on the library’s quartet of Stradivarius instruments again. Meg and Liz spent much of their childhood and early musical years in the Washington, DC area, and look forward to returning to the site of so many fond memories. The program we have prepared features multiple perspectives on the struggle to surmount powerful forces of darkness—an effort that is unfortunately still acutely relevant today.”
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented in concert by the Library of Congress. The award-winning ensemble will perform a program of music from the 19th and 21st centuries, each shaped by bold musicality and different deeply thematic inspirations. Featured works on the concert program will include: Warmth from Other Suns by Carlos Simon (2020); String Quartet No. 3, Glitter, Doom, Shards, Memory by Shulamit Ran (2013); and String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge by Ludwig van Beethoven (1825). There will be a pre-concert talk with the artists beginning at 6:30pm.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by the Library of Congress
What: Music by Carlos Simon, Shulamit Ran, Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 8:00pm with pre-concert talk with the artists from 6:30-7:00pm
Where: Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium (LJG45E), 10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC 20540
Tickets and information: www.loc.gov/item/event-415276/jupiter-quartet/2025-02-19
Feb 28: Sono Luminus Releases UBIQUE by Anna Thorvaldsdottir Featuring Flutist Claire Chase - Part of Chase’s Density 2036 Project
Feb 28: Sono Luminus Releases UBIQUE by Anna Thorvaldsdottir Featuring Flutist Claire Chase - Part of Chase’s Density 2036 Project
Sono Luminus Releases
World Premiere Recording of UBIQUE by Anna Thorvaldsdottir
Featuring Flutist Claire Chase
with Pianist Cory Smythe and Cellists Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods
Commissioned as Part of Claire Chase’s Density 2036 Project
Worldwide Release Date: February 28, 2025
“[Anna Thorvaldsdottir's music] feels both otherworldly and elemental, as if forces of nature, from massive galaxies to tiny granules, are regenerating themselves to create new, unknown structures, essential for life.” – NPR Music
"The North star of her instrument's ever- expanding universe.” – The New York Times on Claire Chase
Review CDs and downloads available upon request.
www.annathorvalds.com | www.clairechase.net | www.sonoluminus.com
On Friday, February 28, 2025, Sono Luminus releases the world premiere recording of UBIQUE, a new evening-length chamber work by Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir. The 50-minute piece was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Cheswatyr Foundation, Kurt Chauviere, and Density Arts for Claire Chase’s Density 2036 project. The world premiere was given in May 2023 at Carnegie Hall, performed by Claire Chase, flutes; Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, cellos; and Cory Smythe, piano; with Levy Lorenzo, live sound. The same musicians have recorded the new album, and will perform its West Coast premiere at the Ojai Festival in California on June 7.
Anna writes of the piece, “UBIQUE lives on the border between enigmatic lyricism and atmospheric distortion. Through a combination of sounds, pitches, and textural nuances, low deep drones envelop lyrical materials and harmonies that breathe in and out of focus throughout the progress of the piece. The flow of the music is primarily guided by continuous expansion and contraction – of various kinds and durations – as it streams with subtle interruptions and frictions but ever moving forward in the overall structure. The work is inspired by the notion of being everywhere at the same time, an enveloping omnipresence, while simultaneously focusing on details within the density of each particle, echoed in various forms of fragmentation and interruption and in the sustain of certain elements of a sound beyond their natural resonance – throughout the piece, sounds are both reduced to their smallest particles and their atmospheric presence expanded towards the Infinite. As with my music generally, the inspiration is not something I am trying to describe through the music as such – it is a way to intuitively approach and work with the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the piece.”
UBIQUE continues Sono Luminus’ commitment to releasing Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music. All of her orchestral music and many of her other works are available on Sono Luminus, and featured on Apple Music’s Anna Thorvaldsdottir Essentials Playlist.
UBIQUE was commissioned for the tenth cycle of Claire Chase’s Density 2036 project, a 24-year initiative to create a new repertory for the flute leading up to the centennial of Edgard Varèse’s groundbreaking 1936 flute solo, Density 21.5. Each year until 2036, Chase will commission, premiere, and record an adventurous new program of flute music. Chase, who the New York Times describes as having “dizzying technical facility across the flute family,” and who The Wall Street Journal writes as having “a rare combination of grace and guts,” is a musician, interdisciplinary artist, and educator. Passionately dedicated to the creation of new ecosystems for the music of our time, Chase has given the world premieres of hundreds of new works by a new generation of artists. She was the first flutist to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2012, and in 2017 was the first flutist to be awarded the Avery Fisher Prize for Classical Music from Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Chase was the Richard and Barbara Debs Creative Chair at Carnegie Hall in the 2022-23 season, only the second time in that organization’s history that the position has been given to a performing artist. Chase’s discography includes eight solo albums of world premiere recordings and dozens of collaborative recordings with ensembles, composers, and sound artists from a wide range of musical genres.
Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (The New York Times) and striking sound world has made her “one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary music” (NPR). Her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow. The Guardian reports, “Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s natural instrument is the symphony orchestra, but in her hands it is reborn as a natural organism.”
Anna’s 2024-2025 season (September 2024 to June 2025) includes performances of her music across at least seventeen countries including Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. She is currently the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich’s Creative Chair. Since 2015, the orchestra has invited a composer to hold this position each season, including, formerly, Arvo Pärt, Esa-Pekka Salonen, John Adams, and Toshio Hosokawa, among others. From September 2024 to June 2025, a wide variety of Anna’s music will be performed, ranging from string quartets to large orchestral pieces. Additionally, Anna continues her two-year period as one of ten CHANEL Next Prize winners. The biennial prize is awarded to ten international contemporary artists who are redefining their chosen discipline. Another major highlight of this concert season is the world premiere of Anna’s new cello concerto by the San Francisco Symphony and conductor Dalia Stasevska from May 15 to 17. Written for Johannes Moser and titled Before we fall, the new concerto is co-commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Odense Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Proms. Additional country premieres will be announced.
Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music is frequently performed internationally and has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and arts organizations, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Danish String Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. Her “detailed and powerful” (The Guardian) orchestral writing has garnered her awards from the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, the Nordic Council, and the UK’s Ivors Academy. Anna was Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra from 2018-2023, and was in 2023 also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD from the University of California in San Diego, and is currently based in the London area. The music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir is published by Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: www.annathorvalds.com
Claire Chase: www.clairechase.net/about
Cory Smythe: www.corysmythe.com/bio
Katinka Kleijn: www.katinkakleijn.com
Seth Parker Woods: www.sethparkerwoods.com/About
ALBUM TRACK LISTING:
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: UBIQUE
Claire Chase, flute; Cory Smythe, piano; Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, cello
Sono Luminus | Release date: February 28, 2025
[1] part I [5:34]
[2] part II [10:33]
[3] part III [1:48]
[4] part IV [1:28]
[5] part V [3:58]
[6] part VI [6:19]
[7] part VII [0:39]
[8] part VIII [2:05]
[9] part IX [5:35]
[10] part X [1:24]
[11] part XI [6:45]
Total Time: 45:00
Claire Chase, flute / bass flute / contrabass flute
Cory Smythe, piano
Katinka Kleijn, cello
Seth Parker Woods, cello
Anna Thorvaldsdottir, composer
A MEYER SOUND PRODUCTION
Recorded at Studio 9, The Porches, North Adams, MA, October 19, 2023
Producer and Session Engineer: Rick Jacobsohn
Executive Producers: Helen Meyer and John Meyer
Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae
Mixing and Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores
Cover Photography: Hrafn Asgeirsson
Performance Photography: Jennifer Taylor
Design & Layout: Joshua Frey
Jan. 18: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes his Las Vegas Philharmonic Debut
Jan. 18: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Makes his Las Vegas Philharmonic Debut
Photo by Corey Hayes available in high resolution at: https://www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/yevgeny-kutik
Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Makes his Debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic
Conducted by Michelle Merrill
Performing Violin Concerto No. 2 – The American Four Seasons
by Philip Glass
Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm
The Smith Center | 361 Symphony Park Ave. | Las Vegas, NV
Tickets and More Information
“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm”
– WQXR
Las Vegas, NV — On Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm, violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who is described by The New York Times as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” will be a guest soloist with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, conducted by Michelle Merrill in his debut with the orchestra Kutik will perform Violin Concerto No.2, The American Four Seasons, by Philip Glass. The concert program will also include Gioachino Rossini’s Williams Tell Overture and Antonín Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony No. 9.
Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire.
Kutik says of making his debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, collaborating with conductor Michelle Merrill, and performing Philip Glass’s “American Four Seasons.”
“I am thrilled to be collaborating with the Las Vegas Philharmonic and Michelle Merrill to perform Philip Glass's Violin Concerto No. 2. This work is a masterpiece of emotional depth and minimalist beauty, and I can't wait to share this incredible musical journey with the audience. What a wonderful musical companion to the Four Seasons we all know and love.”
Known as The American Four Seasons, Philip Glass composed his Violin Concerto No. 2 in the summer and autumn of 2009, for violinist Robert McDuffie. Glass wrote the work with the intent that it would serve as a companion to Antonio Vivaldi's iconic work The Four Seasons. At the same time, Glass ultimately decided to design his work to be more open-ended, particularly as it relates to the audience’s experience. In his program notes about the work, he says he saw it as “an opportunity, then, for the listener to make his/her own interpretation. Therefore, there will be no instructions for the audience, no clues as to where Spring, Summer, Winter, and Fall might appear in the new concerto – an interesting, though not worrisome, problem for the listener.”
More about Yevgeny Kutik: Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers. In 2022 at the Tanglewood Music Festival, he gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he debuted with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, written for him. The concerto is based on Schwantner’s earlier work, The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin, which Kutik recorded on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS.
A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. His 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures (Marquis Classics), features music he found in his family’s suitcase after immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990, and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. The album garnered critical acclaim and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in The New York Times. Kutik’s recent releases on Marquis include The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021) and Meditations on Family (2019), for which he commissioned eight composers to translate a personal family photo into a short musical miniature – a project featured on the cover of Strings magazine. Kutik’s other recordings include his debut album, Sounds of Defiance (2012), and Words Fail (2016), both released to critical acclaim.
Other recent performance highlights include debuts at the Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival, as well as recital appearances as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concerts Chicago; at UCLA; Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Kaufman Music Center, and National Sawdust in New York City; the Embassy Series and The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; and at the Lobkowicz Collections Prague presented by Prince William Lobkowicz. Festival performances have included the Tanglewood Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in Germany, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.
Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, and has since performed with orchestras throughout the country including the Rochester and Dayton Philharmonics; the Detroit, New Haven, Asheville, and Wyoming symphony orchestras; and more. Abroad, he has appeared with Germany’s Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and WDR Rundfunk Orchestra Köln, Montenegro’s Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Japan’s Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble, and the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa.
Passionate about his heritage and its influence on his artistry, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the United States, and regularly speaks and performs across the United States to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refugees from around the world.
Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and went on to study with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory. Kutik is the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival – a festival built around connecting and integrating leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. His violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella. For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, described as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) is the featured soloist in a performance with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, conducted by Michelle Merrill, on Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm. In his debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, Kutik will perform Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2, known as The American Four Seasons. A piece composed for violinist Robert McDuffie, Glass wrote it with the idea that it would serve as a companion to Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. The concert program will also include major works by Gioachino Rossini and Antonín Dvořák.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by Las Vegas Philharmonic
Conducted by Michelle Merrill
What: Music by Philip Glass, Gioachino Rossini, and Antonín Dvořák
When: Saturday, January 18, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: The Smith Center, 361 Symphony Park Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89106
Tickets and information: www.lvphil.org/events/dvoraks-new-world-symphony
Feb 1 & 2: California Symphony led by Donato Cabrera presents Mozart Serenity featuring Guitarist Meng Su - Music by Carlos Simon, Rodrigo, Mozart
Feb 1 & 2: California Symphony led by Donato Cabrera presents Mozart Serenity featuring Guitarist Meng Su - Music by Carlos Simon, Rodrigo, Mozart
Photo of Meng Su courtesy of the artist and of Donato Cabrera by Kristen Loken; high resolution photos available here.
California Symphony Continues its 2024-2025 Season with
MOZART SERENITY
Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director
In Concert February 1 at 7:30pm & February 2 at 4:00pm
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts
Featuring Guitar Soloist Meng Su in Rodrigo's iconic Concierto de Aranjuez
Watch Meng Su in Performance
California Symphony’s 2024-2025 Season Showcases the Crowning Achievements of
Composers at the Peak of Their Powers: Watch Donato Cabrera’s Introduction
Tickets & Information: www.californiasymphony.org
WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony and Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera continue the 2024-2025 season, showcasing the crowning achievements of composers at the peak of their powers, with MOZART SERENITY – two concerts combining a calming meditation by composer Carlos Simon, a world-famous Spanish guitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo, and Mozart’s classical grandeur on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 7:30pm and Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 4:00pm at Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek).
Inspired by the words of theologian and former San Francisco resident Howard Thurman, Carlos Simons’ Breathe is a serene appeal to “stay put for a while.” For music lovers and guitar enthusiasts alike, Rodrigo's iconic Concierto de Aranjuez, performed with the stunningly virtuosic San Francisco-based guitarist Meng Su, features evocative melodies and distinctive Spanish guitar solos, designed to transport listeners to another time and place. A majestic, intricate, exuberant masterpiece, Mozart's final symphony, his Symphony No. 41, is one of his most celebrated and frequently performed works, showcasing a genius at the height of his powers. The work is commonly known as the “Jupiter” Symphony for the Roman god because of its grand scale.
“In choosing music to precede a great milestone such as Mozart’s final symphony, I decided that it was best to showcase music of a completely different and opposing style and aesthetic,” Donato Cabrera says. “Simon’s Breathe is contemplative and meditative, music that speaks softly but carries a big stick! Like the music of Arvo Pärt, Simon’s Breathe also has a natural forthrightness to it that is beguiling and gently invites one to just be present in the moment. With everyone in a heightened state of mind, the beginning of Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez should be particularly magical and poignant. I know to many guitarist’s chagrin, this is the only guitar concerto that is typically asked of them, but it’s hard to pass up each movement’s iconic melodies, sentiment, and deep emotion, and I know that our soloist, Meng Su, is the ideal soloist. There are many reasons why Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 has been considered one of the greatest achievements of Western Classical Music, but most of these reasons are best left in the textbooks. For me, and I believe for the listener, the magic that this piece possesses is that it somehow contains a facet of every aspect of human existence and experience.”
A deeply contemplative work, Carlos Simon's Breathe was inspired by Howard Thurman's Meditations of the Heart, a collection of meditations on the beauty of humility. Simon writes, “I was deeply inspired by one section entitled 'Still Dews of Quietness,' which urges one to 'stay put for a spell.' Through his words, I wanted to take the gesture further by writing a piece that encourages others to simply reflect and breathe.” The piece was commissioned by Bay Area-based Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music for the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Simon, who is Composer-in-Residence at The Kennedy Center, was recently profiled in The New York Times, saying of his work, “If this music is done in the right way, if it’s being honest, it doesn’t matter whatever your language, whatever your background, whether you’re white, Black, whoever – it goes straight to you. And that’s what I always strive for, honesty, in my music.”
Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez was inspired by the gardens at the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, rebuilt in the 18th century. Rodrigo wrote that the concerto captures “the fragrance of magnolias, the singing of birds, and the gushing of fountains.” The piece has been performed and recorded numerous times in many forms since its premiere in 1940 – including as part of Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain and by jazz pianist Chick Corea as part of his composition Spain. California Symphony’s featured guitar soloist, Meng Su, has performed in over 30 countries and is on the faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Classical Guitar Magazine reports that she has the “star potential to serve as inspiration for new generations of guitarists to come.”
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 41 in C Major is his final symphony, and his longest and grandest. Mozart completed the monumental piece in a brief, two-month period over the summer of 1788, along with his Symphonies Nos. 39 and 40, creating a final trilogy of works that has puzzled scholars – we don't know for what occasion he wrote them, since they were not commissioned by any patron for any specific performance, an anomaly in Mozart’s career. Mozart and his Jupiter Symphony were praised in a German lexicon of music in 1814 as, “. . . overpoweringly great, fiery, artistic, pathetic, sublime, Symphony in C. . . we would already have to perceive him as one of the first[-ranked] geniuses of modern times and the century just past.”
Illustrating California Symphony’s signature approach to creating vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers, the 2024-2025 season features the iconic final symphonies of titans of classical music Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; the unfinished masterpieces of Anton Bruckner and Franz Schubert; a Grammy-winning Disney Fantasia-esque concerto for film and orchestra by Bay Area composer Mason Bates paired with Benjamin Britten’s lively introduction to the ensemble; a world premiere by the orchestra’s 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad; a recent work by Grammy-nominated composer and Kennedy Center composer-in-residence Carlos Simon; Joaquín Rodrigo’s famous tour-de-force guitar concerto Concierto de Aranjuez; and rarely performed music by 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc and 20th-century Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicz.
Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Donato Cabrera since 2013. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area. California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.
Three-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under. A 30-minute pre-concert talk by lecturer Scott Fogelsong will begin one hour before each performance. More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org.
FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:
WHAT: California Symphony presents Mozart Serenity
California Symphony’s first concerts of 2025, conducted by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, combine a calming meditation by composer Carlos Simon, a world-famous Spanish guitar concerto by Joaquín Rodrigo, and Mozart’s classical grandeur. Inspired by the words of theologian and former San Francisco resident Howard Thurman, Simons’ Breathe is a serene appeal to “stay put for a while.” For music lovers and guitar enthusiasts alike, Rodrigo's iconic Concierto de Aranjuez, performed with the stunningly virtuosic San Francisco-based guitarist Meng Su, features evocative melodies and distinctive Spanish guitar solos, designed to transport listeners to another time and place. A majestic, intricate, exuberant masterpiece, Mozart's final symphony, his Symphony No. 41, is one of his most celebrated and frequently performed works, showcasing a genius at the height of his powers. The work is commonly known as the “Jupiter” Symphony for the Roman god because of its grand scale.
California Symphony takes the stuffiness out of the concert experience: Take selfies at the photo booth, order a signature cocktail, and sip at your seat. Tickets include a free 30-minute pre-concert talk by award-winning instructor Scott Foglesong, starting one hour before the show.
WHEN: Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 7:30pm
Sunday, February 2, 2025 at 4:00pm
WHERE: Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek
CONCERT:
Mozart Serenity
7:30pm, Saturday, February 1
4:00pm, Sunday, February 2
Donato Cabrera, conductor
Meng Su, guitar soloist
California Symphony
PROGRAM:
Carlos Simon: Breathe
Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Meng Su, guitar
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Symphony No.41, K.551, C Major (“Jupiter”)
TICKETS: Three-concert subscriptions start at $120 and are available now. Single tickets start at $50 and at $25 for students 25 and under.
INFO: For more information or to purchase tickets, the public may visit CaliforniaSymphony.org or call the Lesher Center Ticket Office at (925) 943-7469 (open Wed – Sun, noon to 6pm).
PHOTOS: Available here.
About the California Symphony:
Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera since 2013. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area.
California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.
Since 1991, California Symphony's three-year Young American Composer-in-Residence program has provided a composer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with the orchestra over three consecutive years to create, rehearse, premiere, and record three major orchestra compositions, one each season. Every Composer-in-Residence has gone on to win top honors and accolades in the field, including the Rome Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Awards, and more.
The orchestra's nationally recognized educational initiative Sound Minds impacts students' trajectories by providing instruction for violin or cello and musicianship skills. Sound Minds has proven to contribute directly to improved reading and math proficiencies and character development, as students set and achieve goals, learn communication and problem-solving skills, and gain self-confidence. Inspired by the El Sistema program of Venezuela, the program is offered completely free of charge to the students and families of Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, California.
Through its innovative adult education program Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed, California Symphony provides lifelong learners a fun-filled introduction to the orchestra and classical music. Led by celebrated educator and California Symphony program annotator Scott Foglesong, these live classes are held over four weeks in the summer annually and are available to stream online year-round.
In 2017, California Symphony became the first orchestra with a public statement of a commitment to diversity. Its website is available in both Spanish and English.
Reaching far beyond the performance hall, since 2020 the orchestra's concerts have been broadcast nationally on multiple radio series through Classical California (KUSC/KDFC) and the WFMT Radio Network, reaching over 1.5 million listeners across the country.
For more information, visit CaliforniaSymphony.org.
California Symphony’s 2024-25 season is sponsored by the Lesher Foundation.
Jan 24: Newport Classical Presents the Telegraph Quartet in Next Chamber Series Concert
Jan 24: Newport Classical Presents the Telegraph Quartet in Next Chamber Series Concert
Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Newport Classical Presents
Telegraph Quartet Performs Beethoven
Next Chamber Series Concert
Friday, January 24, 2025 at 7:30pm
Newport Classical Recital Hall | 42 Dearborn St | Newport, RI
Tickets and Information
Newport, RI – Newport Classical continues its fourth full-season Chamber Series, featuring twelve concerts held on select Fridays at 7:30pm at the organization’s home venue the Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn St.), with a performance on Friday, January 24, 2025 by the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group praised by The New York Times for being, “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” and the San Francisco Chronicle for its, “soulfulness [and] tonal beauty.”
For its Newport debut, the Telegraph Quartet presents music rarely experienced by its creators: Rebecca Clarke’s Poem for String Quartet; Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major, Op. 74 (“Harp”); and Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, From My Life. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet has received the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The ensemble has performed across the country including at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Interlochen Arts Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival, and is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance.
Rebecca Clarke wrote her Poem for String Quartet – a serene work rooted in rhythmic and melodic repetition – in 1926. However, she would never see the work published and disseminated before her passing in 1979. Beethoven had begun losing his hearing by his late 20s and by the time the good-natured “Harp” Quartet was composed in 1809, its cheery quality belied the composer’s 11-year-long struggle with hearing loss that inevitably kept him from fully experiencing this work. Similarly, Smetana would not have been able to even hear his own first string quartet at all, as he fell victim to severe hearing loss in 1874. His own autobiographical string quartet, for all its joy and enthusiasm, ends with a piercing e-string note that denotes the onset of that hearing loss two years prior to the quartet’s creation.
Newport Classical's Chamber Series takes place at Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport, known for its striking architecture and excellent acoustics. The Chamber Series, newly expanded to twelve concerts held between September and June, reaffirms Newport Classical’s commitment to offer year-round classical music programming. Audiences are invited to enjoy performances by world-class classical musicians in a relaxed setting, with a complimentary glass of wine from Greenvale Vineyards and homemade treats by Newport Classical volunteers.
As part of Newport Classical’s desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series also visit Newport-area schools to perform for, speak with, and inspire students, through Newport Classical’s Music Education and Engagement Initiative.
Up next, the Newport Classical Chamber Series continues with Boyd Meets Girl coming to Newport for a performance on Valentine’s Day, February 14 – the impressive husband-and-wife guitar and cello duo has toured the world sharing their eclectic mix of music from Debussy and Bach to Radiohead and Beyoncé. On February 28, the acclaimed Trio Karénine, which has established itself in recent years as a key group on the French and international stage, pairs Schubert’s second piano trio with Dvořák’s rarely programmed second piano trio, filled with color, warmth, lively dance, and Slavic folk elements. Oboist James Austin Smith, hailed by The New York Times as “virtuosic,” and for his “dazzling” and “brilliant” performances, joins forces with acclaimed pianist Gloria Chien in music by William Grant Still, Clara Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, and more, on March 21. On April 25, Bulgarian-American violinist Bella Hristova, who has won international acclaim for her “expressive nuance and rich tone” (The New York Times) presents the music of Bach and Messiaen, alongside works by Grieg and Indian-American composer Reena Esmail, with pianist Anna Polonsky. Pianist Orion Weiss, known for his “powerful technique and exceptional insight” (The Washington Post), returns to Newport for a solo recital of Bach’s beloved Goldberg Variations on May 16. On June 13, the GRAMMY®-nominated Norwegian Trio Mediaeval, who captivate audiences with their crystalline voices, closes the 2024-2025 Newport Classical Chamber Series with an enchanting evening of Norwegian and Swedish traditional songs, hymns, fiddle tunes, and ballads.
The 2025 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 4-22, 2025, with programming to be announced at the end of March.
About Newport Classical
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.
Feb 14: Islandia Music Records Releases Composer Lei Liang’s New Album Dui Featuring Maya Beiser, Wu Man, Steven Schick, Mark Dresser, and more
Feb 14: Islandia Music Records Releases Composer Lei Liang’s New Album Dui Featuring Maya Beiser, Wu Man, Steven Schick, Mark Dresser, and more
Islandia Music Records Releases
Composer Lei Liang’s Dui
Featuring Performances by Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion; Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang ensemble
Worldwide Release Date: February 14, 2025
CDs or press downloads, including album booklet, available upon request.
bit.ly/ComposerLeiLiang | www.islandiamusic.com
New York, NY – Islandia Music Records announces the release of Dui, a portrait album of the music of Lei Liang, available worldwide on February 14, 2025. The new album features performances by Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion; Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang (Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; and Jeffrey Gavett, baritone). The album’s title Dui, 對, means “to face.” Lei Liang is a Chinese-born American composer whose works have been described as "hauntingly beautiful and sonically colorful" by The New York Times, and as, "far, far out of the ordinary, brilliantly original and inarguably gorgeous" by The Washington Post.
Dui stages instruments and performance as elements of surprise from distant worlds. Collaborations between the pipa virtuoso Wu Man and the great percussionist Steven Schick offer a musical face-off through an unlikely combination of instruments, revealing a playfulness in their inherent tensions. The innovative techniques of Mark Dresser on the contrabass embody a rich spectrum of extreme opposites – lightness and darkness, angels and ghosts, paradise and inferno – in a singular vibrating body. Cellist Maya Beiser renders songs of the Mongolian steppe in a trancelike elegance, portraying notions of home that resonate over time and space. The ensemble loadbang conveys the tranquil image of a beaver swimming under the moonlight, disturbed by showers of phonetic particles drawn from poetry as the piece traverses through different states of mind. Cho-Liang Lin and Zhe Lin weave together the sonic characteristics of violin and percussion, transforming sound into infinite possibilities.
Liang writes about the music on this album, “Composing offers me a chance to explore and foster deeply personal relationships, including the relationship with my own cultural and spiritual heritage. It also presents me the opportunity to face seemingly insurmountable challenges. Who am I without my cultural heritage and without my friendships? I like to think of my music as the ultimate tribute to the past and present bonds that have shaped my life and given it meaning. All of the works on this album were written for and performed by artists who have inspired me. The challenge in composing each piece, however, is unique.”
Read the complete program notes for the album and artist biographies in the album’s liner notes, available here.
About Lei Liang:
The winner of the 2011 Rome Prize, Lei Liang (b. November 28, 1972) is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Award, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a Creative Capital Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His concerto for saxophone and orchestra, Xiaoxiang, was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Music in 2015. His orchestral work, A Thousand Mountains, A Million Streams, won the prestigious 2021 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. As a scholar and conservationist of cultural traditions, he edited and co-edited eight books and editions, and published more than fifty articles.
Lei Liang’s work has received global recognition, with commissions including the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert for the inaugural concert of the CONTACT! new music series. Other commissions and performances come from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fromm Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, Chamber Music America, MAP Fund, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Taipei Chinese Orchestra, the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Arditti Quartet, the Shanghai Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the New York New Music Ensemble, and pipa virtuoso Wu Man. Lei Liang’s fourteen portrait discs are released on Naxos, New World, Mode, New Focus, BMOP/sound, Encounter, Albany and Bridge Records.
With interest in our sonic world, Lei Liang’s recent works address issues of sex trafficking across the US-Mexican border (Cuatro Corridos), America's complex relationship with gun and violence (Inheritance), and environmental awareness through the sonification of coral reefs. Lei Liang served as Composer-in-Residence from 2013 through 2016 at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology where his multimedia works preserve and reimagine cultural heritage through combining scientific research and advanced technology. In 2023, the Institute launched "Lei Lab" where he continues to collaborate with engineers, geologists, oceanographers and software developers, to explore what he calls "the unique potential for learning offered by creative listening."
Lei Liang studied composition with Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Robert Cogan, Chaya Czernowin and Mario Davidovsky, and received degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music (B.M. and M.M.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). A Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum, he held fellowships from the Harvard Society of Fellows and the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships. Lei Liang serves as the Chancellor's Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of California, San Diego. His catalogue of more than a hundred compositions is published exclusively by Schott Music.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS:
Maya Beiser: www.mayabeiser.com
Wu Man: www.wumanpipa.org
Steven Schick: www.stevenschick.com
Cho-Liang Lin: www.cholianglin.com
Zhe Lin: www.onepointfm.com/en/zhelin
Mark Dresser: www.mark-dresser.com
loadbang: www.loadbang.com/bios.html
ALBUM TRACK LISTING:
Lei Liang: Dui
Islandia Music Records | Release Date: February 14, 2025
Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion;
Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang: Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; Jeffrey Gavett, baritone
1. Vis-à-vis [12:28]
Wu Man, pipa • Steven Schick, percussion
2. Mongolian Suite I: Tongliao Mountain [1:59]
3. Mongolian Suite II: Where Is Home? [2:46]
4. Mongolian Suite III: Chifeng Mountain [1:40]
5. Mongolian Suite IV: Mother and Daughter [4:05]
6. Mongolian Suite V: Yin Shan Dance [1:58]
7. Mongolian Suite VI: Feng [4:04]
Maya Beiser, cello
8. déjà vu [14:31]
Cho-Liang Lin, violin • Zhe Lin, percussion
9. Luminosity [18:00]
Mark Dresser, contrabass
10. Lakescape V [10:14]
loadbang: Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; Jeffrey Gavett, baritone
Total Time: [72:43]
Produced by Lei Liang and Maya Beiser
Engineering by Andrew Munsey (vis-à-vis and Lakescape V)
Engineering by by Andy Bradley (déjà vu)
Engineering by Dave Cook (Mongolian Suite)
Engineering by by Mark Dresser (Luminosity)
Editing by by Andrew Munsey at UC San Diego, Studio A (vis-à-vis, déjà vu, Luminosity, and Lakescape V)
Editing by Dave Cook at Area 52 Studios, Saugerties, NY (Mongolian Suite)
Mastering by Andrew Munsey
Art direction by Denise Burt | elevator-design.dk
Creative direction by Kristen Loring Brennan
All music by Lei Liang is published by Schott Music Corporation, New York (ASCAP).
About Islandia Music Records:
Islandia Music Records is an independent record label founded and spearheaded by cellist and producer Maya Beiser, one of the foremost soloists and avant-garde artists of her generation. Maya Beiser’s desire to be the driving force behind her artistic expression led her to concentrate on an intensely rich and innovative solo career. She has engaged composers, choreographers, dancers, visual artists, filmmakers, sound designers, and technology innovators to create works written for her or by her and interpreted through her singular artistic lens. The freedom to chart her own course made it possible to become a game changer in the contemporary creative landscape. A platform for self-expression and daring artistic adventures, Islandia Music Records allows for a broad palette of collaborative patterns: between the old and the new, the brazen and the subtle, the dark and the hopeful.
Feb 28: Sono Luminus Releases Aequora from Pianist Mina Gajić and Violinist Zachary Carrettin - Music by Icelandic Composers
Feb 28: Sono Luminus Releases Aequora from Pianist Mina Gajić and Violinist Zachary Carrettin - Music by Icelandic Composers
Pianist Mina Gajić and Violinist Zachary Carrettin
Release New Album Aequora on Sono Luminus
The Duo’s First Recording as Mystery Sonata
Featuring Music by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Worldwide Release Date: February 28, 2025
CDs or press downloads, including album booklet, available upon request.
www.minagajic.com | Zachary Carrettin | www.sonoluminus.com
On February 28, 2025, pianist Mina Gajić and violinist Zachary Carrettin will release Aequora on Sono Luminus. The album is inspired by Iceland and the cultural legacy of its music, featuring works by several prominent Icelandic composers, including Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson.
Until the present recording, Mina Gajić and Zachary Carrettin have recorded under their given names, occasionally performing live under the duo’s moniker, especially in non-classical settings presenting a diversity of repertoire and styles. Aequora is the first recording the married duo will release under the name Mystery Sonata, embracing the inherent mystery in presenting contemporary music and new arrangements for the first time. The new album builds on Gajić and Carrettin’s strong recording history with Sono Luminus. The duo’s 2020 album, Boundless featuring Schubert’s Sonatinas, made the Top 10 on The Billboard Classical Chart. In 2022, they released Confluence featuring Balkan dances and Tango Nuevo, described by The Whole Note as “a merging of two different compositional languages, coming from regions that are geographically distanced but complementary with their distinct rhythmicity and melodic flavour.” In April 2024, they released Bach Uncaged alternating the Sonatas of J.S. Bach and John Cage.
Gajić writes, “In our years recording seven albums for Sono Luminus, Zachary and I have marveled at the label’s releases of new orchestral and chamber music composed by Icelanders. Collectively, this music seems to offer an alternate reality, a sound space that is distinct in each work and with each composer, and yet shared, almost as a collective consciousness, or at least a community with similar ideals expressed in music. Zachary and I traveled to Iceland to experience the landscapes and to meet with several composers, exploring their work and observing where the connections between their interests and ours as a duo seemed congruous. María had been wanting to rework her Aequora, adding a violin to the piano and electronics, and Páll had been imagining adapting the harp part for piano in his work Notre Dame. Both turned out to be remarkably successful, and rewarding to study and perform. In exploring works to program alongside these, Anna’s Reminiscence and Daníel’s First Escape worked beautifully – solos complementing the other works while providing refreshing contrast to the duo works. We asked María to create an entirely new work for us with the goal of providing a contemplative environment for the audience, as a shared meditation, a community-building ritual. She composed an utterly gorgeous work, Re/fractions, casting light on what is possible when the intention is, as she so eloquently stated when we first met, ‘to refrain from adding noise to an already noisy world.’”
Aequora for grand piano and electronics by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir was originally commissioned for the Iceland Arts Festival in 2015 by the pianist Árni Heiðar Karlsson. The work is inspired by a text of Anne Carson from her book Nox. In meeting Sigfusdottir, she expressed to Gajić and Carrettin that she had been thinking about adding a texture, an element, a new voice to the composition. She and Carrettin connected in sharing stories of their violin studies and they came to find that many years ago, they both studied with the same great violinist at a summer festival. Not only did Sigfúsdóttir successfully and beautifully create and integrate the violin into this work, she also composed a coda of new material, a melody that seems to exist without pulse and beyond time; it is extraordinarily effective and magical.
Sigfusdottir writes, “The manuscript is hand-written without time signature. The electronic part creates a certain atmosphere and a frame over which the instruments play. The piano part is more fixed and the violin is written as a counterpoint to the other layers, creating tension and release. The piece evolves from uncertainty towards a clearer structure and demands from the performers a close listening and attention to delicate nuances.”
First Escape for solo violin by Daníel Bjarnason was commissioned and first performed by violinist Jennifer Koh in 2018. The composer informed Carrettin of his plan to write a series of “Escapes,” this having been the first. Carrettin writes in the liner notes for First Escape, “Daníel’s piece is brilliantly composed for the violin, utilizing the natural harmonics of the string in the most virtuosic ways. It’s a wonderful contrast to Páll Ragnar Pálsson’s Notre Dame, which explores the expressivity of intonation across the harmonic series in a slow context. In contrast, Daníel uses the harmonics more in the way Paganini is rumored to have used them in the early 19th Century in his performances, achieving large leaps of pitch within a fast sequence. There is a manic quality to the work and yet a clear and intelligible form.”
Notre Dame was originally written in 2021 for an Icelandic duo, Elísabet Waage on harp and Laufey Jónsdóttir on violin. The work explores the many distinct timbres and intonations of a unison pitch as played in various places on the strings, and on various lengths of string. The composer, Páll Ragnar Pálsson wrote, “I was thinking a lot about Notre Dame after the fire. There is a feminine connotation in the name of the church and I perceive the religiousness of it from a motherly aspect. It was a deep shock for the Occident when Notre Dame of Paris burned in 2019. As a joint effort of foresters, carpenters, engineers and benefactors, the roof is now being restored to its original state using materials and methods from the 13th century. The urgency and devotion of this act indicates the significance a building can have for a vast group of people.”
Reminiscence by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir was composed in 2017 in recognition of Democracy 25. This pan-European political movement explores alter-globalization, social ecology, ecofeminism, post-growth, post-capitalism, and universal basic income. Carrettin writes in the liner notes, “In this work for solo piano, Thorvaldsdottir uses specific notation to achieve the most captivating and moving resonances from the instrument, often conjuring mental images and memories of witnessing and experiencing natural phenomena, such as a volcanic eruption, an earthquake, or a storm over the ocean.” However, although Thorvaldsdottir finds inspiration in the musical qualities of nature, as she explained in an interview with NPR, “This has to do with energy and the flow and structure, the nuances and perspectives you can take to zoom into the tiniest detail and zoom out. It's much more about the flow and the energy rather than specific landscapes. It's also not about romanticizing it at all, because nature is also brutal.” Reminiscence is composed in seven short sections, delineated by textural changes requiring different extended techniques on the piano.
Re/fractions, composed in 2023/24 by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, was commissioned by Mystery Sonata and the Boulder Bach Festival in Colorado, where Gajić and Carrettin gave the world premiere in February 2024. Sigfúsdóttir writes, “The piece is inspired by a few different things – space (in the register of the instruments and the actual space between sounds), time (actual tempo and sense of time), and textures. The textures in the piece are often felt by changes of light or color in the tonal quality and chords. The terminology of the word refraction is: the bending of light as it passes from one transparent substance into another. This bending of light by refraction makes it possible for us to have lenses, magnifying glasses, prisms and rainbows. The piece is loosely divided into two parts, fraction 1 and 2, but is at the same time one whole arc of music. The second half of the piece gravitates around the note D and d-minor, which is also referred to as Re.”
About the Artists
Mina Gajić has garnered an international reputation for insightful and dynamic performances of a vast and ever-evolving repertoire including many new works by living composers, concertos and recitals performed on historic Romantic Era pianos, and collaborations on harpsichord and fortepiano. She started her education and music career in Yugoslavia and subsequently performed as concerto soloist and recitalist in Italy, France, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Montenegro, China, Bolivia, and across the United States. As duo partner with violinist Zachary Carrettin, she has appeared on four continents, focusing on a diverse repertoire spanning the centuries and various styles – on historic period pianos in addition to modern concert instruments, and including new works composed for the duo. Gajić currently serves as Artistic Director of Boulder Bach Festival and COmpass REsonance.
Zachary Carrettin has performed as violinist, violist, cellist da spalla, and conductor in more than twenty-five countries on four continents and has established a reputation for presenting diverse programs which feature repertory from the sixteenth to the twenty-first centuries – on period, modern, and electric instruments. He has conducted orchestras across the United States, Europe, and South America, resurrecting works from manuscript and presenting world premiere performances of contemporary music. As soloist and music director with Project Bandaloop, he appeared at Wolf Trap Center for the Performing Arts Face of America Series, the Stavanger Festival (Norway), and in a private concert for the Sultan and Royal Family of Oman, in Muscat, performing original music on electric violin. Carrettin currently serves as Music Director of Boulder Bach Festival and COmpass REsonance.
Track List:
Aequora
Mystery Sonata: Pianist Mina Gajić and Violinist Zachary Carrettin
Recorded at Sono Luminus Studios, Boyce VA
August 6-9, 2023 & February 26-29, 2024
[1] Aequora [10:01]
Composed by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir
[2] First Escape [4:26]
Composed by Daníel Bjarnason
[3-4] Notre Dame
1. La Tour Nord [5:49]
2. La Tour Sud [3:52]
Composed by Páll Ragnar Pálsson
[5] Reminiscence [7:53]
Composed by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir
[6-7] Re/fractions
I. [5:38]
II. [4:24]
Composed by María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir
Total Time: 42:08
Executive Producer: Collin J. Rae
Producer: Dan Merceruio
Recording Engineer: Daniel Shores
Mixing & Mastering Engineer: Daniel Shores
Editing Engineer: Dan Merceruio
Piano Technician: John Veitch
Cover/Bio Photography: Heather Gray
Textural Photography: Collin J. Rae
Liner Notes: Zachary Carrettin
Design & Layout: Joshua Frey
Jan-Feb: GatherNYC Presents Four Mindful Musical Mornings - Emi Ferguson + Dan Tepfer, Gabriel Cabezas, ensemble 132, Sarah Elizabeth Charles + Jarrett Cherner
Jan-Feb: GatherNYC Presents Four Mindful Musical Mornings - Emi Ferguson + Dan Tepfer, Gabriel Cabezas, ensemble 132, Sarah Elizabeth Charles + Jarrett Cherner
Press photos available here.
GatherNYC Continues 2024-2025 Season in NYC
at Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle
Every Other Sunday Morning at 11AM
Mindful Musical Mornings Include Spoken Word and Brief Celebration of Silence
Coming Up in January and February
1/5 Emi Ferguson + Dan Tepfer
1/19 Gabriel Cabezas
2/2 ensemble 132
2/16 Sarah Elizabeth Charles + Jarrett Cherner
Spring 2025 GatherNYC Concerts:
3/2 Toomai Quintet
3/16 Daedalus Quartet
3/30 MATA
4/13 Deborah Buck + Orli Shaham
4/27 ETHEL + Layale Chaker
5/11 Solomiya Ivakhiv + Friends: Music from Ukraine
5/25 Rupert Boyd, guitar
6/8 Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl
“thoughtful, intimate events curated with refreshing eclecticism by its founders, the cellist Laura Metcalf and the guitarist Rupert Boyd, complete with pastries and coffee”
– The New Yorker
“A sweet chamber music series”
– The New York Times
“Impressive Aussie/American led concert series proves music can be a religion.”
– Limelight Magazine
Museum of Arts and Design | The Theater at MAD | 2 Columbus Circle | NYC
Tickets & Information: www.gathernyc.org
New York, NY – GatherNYC, a revolutionary concert experience founded in 2018 by cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, continues its 2024-2025 season at the series’ home venue, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) (2 Columbus Circle) with four upcoming concerts in January and February - Emi Ferguson (flute) + Dan Tepfer (clavichord) on January 5, cellist Gabriel Cabezas on January 19, ensemble 132 on February 2, and Sarah Elizabeth Charles + Jarrett Cherner on February 16. The season runs through June 2025, with concerts held every other Sunday at 11am in The Theater at MAD. Coffee and pastries are served before each performance at 10:30am. Admission for children under 12 is free.
Guests at GatherNYC are served exquisite live classical music performed by New York’s immensely talented artists, artisanal coffee and pastries, a taste of the spoken word, and a brief celebration of silence. The entire experience lasts one hour and evokes the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service – but the religion is music, and all are welcome.
Spoken word artists perform briefly at the midpoint of each concert, many of whom are winners of The Moth StorySLAM events. “It’s an interesting moment of something completely different from the music, and it often connects with the audience,” Metcalf told Strings magazine in a feature about the series last year. “Then we have a two-minute celebration of silence when we turn the lights down, centering ourselves in the center of the city. Then the lights come back on, and the music starts again out of the silence. We find that the listening and the feeling in the room changes after that.”
Metcalf and Boyd say, “We are thrilled to be returning to the beautiful Museum of Arts and Design, offering 17 concerts throughout our 2024-25 season, our largest lineup yet. We look forward to inviting audiences to join us for these mindful, musical mornings with world-class artists in an intimate, unique setting – complete with spoken word, silence, coffee and a communal, welcoming environment.”
Up Next, Sundays at 11AM:
Dec. 22: Excelsis Percussion Quartet
Hailed as, "one of the most innovative and exciting percussion ensembles to emerge in the golden age of chamber music" (Jonathan Haas, New York University) for their immersive sound world, this international group of women with a multilingual combination of five languages join together to speak the universal language of rhythm, rooted in their belief that music possesses an ability to unite us all. Excelsis brings vibrancy to its audiences through eclectic programming, innovative storytelling, and embracing their intersectional identities.
Jan. 5: Emi Ferguson (flute) + Dan Tepfer (clavichord)
Two of NYC’s most acclaimed and versatile artists come together for a program of baroque delights by Bach, Bonporti and more. Tepfer is a #1 Billboard-charting keyboard player who is equally at home in classical and jazz realms, while Ferguson is a 2023 recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, known for her performances alongside the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Simon. The pair brings the spirit of their far-reaching musical practices to breathe new life into ancient music.
Jan. 19: Gabriel Cabezas
Acclaimed cello soloist and chamber musician Gabriel Cabezas shares a creatively constructed solo cello program that explores a wide range of timbral possibilities on the instrument. Bringing his thoughtful virtuosity to music by some of the most important compositional voices of his generation including Jessie Montgomery, Allison Loggins-Hull, Paul Wiancko, Alyssa Weinberg and more, Cabezas masterfully takes listeners on a journey through the world of the cello alone.
Feb. 2: ensemble132
ensemble132 presents a genre-bending program honoring the expansive legacy of two musical icons for their joint 150th birthday: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Maurice Ravel. This group of all-star chamber musicians drawn from the rosters of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Marlboro Music Festival, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and more, explores these composers’ influence on other visionaries through the 20th and 21st centuries. ensemble132 traces these connections in a program featuring movements from Ravel’s and Coleridge-Taylor’s string quartets along with special e132 arrangements and a rollicking finale by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson.
Feb. 16: Sarah Elizabeth Charles + Jarrett Cherner
Vocalist and composer Sarah Elizabeth Charles, hailed as “soulfully articulate” by The New York Times, and acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Jarrett Cherner will present music from their debut album as a duo. The album, called Tone, centers its concept on the magical, fleeting and delicate nature of life as well as the need to take care of ourselves and the world around us as best as we possibly can.
GatherNYC's Spring 2025 Schedule – All Concerts Take Place at 11AM:
Mar. 2: Toomai Quintet + Maria Brea
Toomai String Quintet, an ensemble dedicated to expanding the Latin American chamber music repertoire, presents this family-friendly concert of music from Cuba, Brazil, and Mexico. The program features Cuban composer Keyla Orozco’s The Song of the Cicada (2024) for narrator and quintet, inspired by Onelio Jorge Cardoso’s vivid children’s story of the same title. Also on the program are Toomai’s original arrangements of works by Hermeto Pascoal, Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Léa Freire, and Manuel Ponce.
Mar. 16: Daedalus Quartet
Winners of the highest honor in string quartet playing, the Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Daedalus Quartet will perform the visceral, folk-inspired sixth string quartet by Béla Bartók, alongside the atmospheric, pop-influenced Space Between by acclaimed composer and Guggenheim fellow Anna Weesner.
Mar. 30: MATA
Music at the Anthology (MATA), an incubator for adventurous emerging artists in the early stages of their careers, presents, supports, and commissions composers, regardless of their stylistic views or aesthetic inclinations. Founded by Philip Glass, Eleonor Sandresky, and Lisa Bielawa in 1996 as a way to address the lack of presentation opportunities for unaffiliated composers, MATA composers have since emanated to include future Rome, Alpert, Takemitsu, Siemens, and Pulitzer Prize-winners, Guggenheim Fellows, and MacArthur “Geniuses.” In 2010 MATA was awarded ASCAP’s prestigious Aaron Copland award in recognition of its work. For its first collaboration with GatherNYC, MATA will showcase highlights from previous festivals as well as selected works from its global Call for Submissions. The New Yorker has hailed MATA as, “the most exciting showcase for outstanding young composers from around the world.” The New York Times has called it “nondogmatic, even antidogmatic;” and The Wall Street Journal said that it “tells us a lot about how composers are thinking now.”
Apr. 13: Deborah Buck + Orli Shaham
Violinist Deborah Buck, praised by The Strad as having a “surpassing degree of imagination and vibrant sound,” and Orli Shaham, described as a “brilliant pianist” by The New York Times, present a program to celebrate Clara Schumann's legacy. In addition to works by Robert and Clara Schumann, the program features the couple's circle of friends, including the music of Amanda Maier.
Apr. 27: ETHEL + Layale Chaker
From their beginnings in 1998, the members of ETHEL have prized collaboration. In recent years, the quartet has struck up a particularly fruitful collaboration with the Lebanese-born, Brooklyn-based violinist and composer Layale Chaker. Their album Vigil offers a chance to document some of that collective work, with each member of ETHEL contributing a piece and Chaker contributing two works, one of which is the remarkable work that gives the project its name.
May 11: Solomiya Ivakhiv + Friends: Music from Ukraine
Acclaimed violinist Solomiya Ivakhiv is known for channeling her award-winning virtuosity as a means of championing worthy music by lesser or unknown composers from her native Ukraine. For her first appearance at GatherNYC, Solomiya is joined by violist William Frampton and cellist Laura Metcalf to present a forgotten masterwork by Fedir Yakymenko, a colorful and rhapsodic piece written around the turn of the 20th century. Ukrainian by birth and spending his life in Russia and France, Yakymenko deftly blends French and Ukrainian sounds and styles into this delightful piece, which deserves to be heard and remembered.
May 25: Rupert Boyd, guitar
GatherNYC artistic director and classical guitar virtuoso Rupert Boyd takes listeners on a journey across centuries and continents on the six strings of his guitar. From Malian kora music to atmospheric sounds from Japan to contemporary music from his home country of Australia to classic works for the Spanish guitar, Boyd’s riveting program has something for everyone.
June 8: Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl
Building on a highly successful collaboration during the 2023-24 season, GatherNYC artistic directors Laura Metcalf and Rupert Boyd in their duo formation of Boyd Meets Girl once again team up with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for an expanded collaborative program featuring classical favorites and creative, virtuosic takes on popular tunes.
For tickets and information, visit www.gathernyc.org.
Press photos available here.