Sony Classical Announces Jonas Kaufmann in Parsifal – Wagner’s Complete Opera Recorded Live From Vienna State Opera’s Hit 2021 Production

Sony Classical Announces Jonas Kaufmann in Parsifal
Wagner’s Complete Opera Recorded Live From
Vienna State Opera’s Hit 2021 Production

Album Release Date: March 1, 2024
Preorder Now

Stellar cast and musicians includes Jonas Kaufmann, Ludovic Tézier, Elīna Garanča and Wolfgang Koch, as well as Wagner-specialist Philippe Jordan conducting the Vienna State Opera orchestra and chorus

Jonas Kaufmann sings the title role in a new live recording of Wagner’s Parsifal that Sony Classical will release on March 1, 2024. It derives from performances at the Vienna State Opera under conductor Philippe Jordan with Elīna Garanča as Kundry, Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz and Ludovic Tézier as Amfortas.

Press reactions following the first night in the spring of 2021 were unanimously positive. Der Standard spoke of “a feast of fine singing” and even of “a sensational cast”, while Die Zeit hailed the achievements of “a luxurious ensemble”. Time and again the critics mentioned the wealth of nuance in the musical interpretation. As the “innocent fool” Parsifal, Jonas Kaufmann was praised for his ability to modulate between a bewitching mezza voce and the most thrilling dramatic outbursts. Two singers were tackling their roles for the very first time: Elīna Garanča was making her long-awaited debut as Kundry, to which she brought sovereign authority, while Ludovic Tézier was singing his first Amfortas. Both Tézier and Georg Zeppenfeld as Gurnemanz brought a bel canto beauty to their roles in the spirit that Wagner himself had always valued. Internationally acclaimed as Hans Sachs in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Wolfgang Koch gave a riveting performance as Klingsor.

The production had been eagerly awaited but had to be presented – and recorded – without an audience when it was finally unveiled in April 2021 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic. The director Kirill Serebrennikov took his cue from the line “Here time becomes space” and set the work in a prison. Serebrennikov had spent a number of years under house arrest and on probation and at the time in question was banned from leaving his homeland with the result that he had to direct his new production from a distance, while a team of associates worked on the staging in Vienna. His concept of the work as what the Süddeutsche Zeitung called an “opera on the theme of liberation” and as what Der Standard described as “a multilayered drama about human relationships” proved convincing. Die Welt spoke of a compelling “futuristic dystopia”.

It is unsurprising that Wagner’s final music drama continues to fascinate audiences to this day thanks to its Grail-related mysticism, its Christian symbolism, and its underlying questions about guilt and atonement. Nor should we forget its harmonically dense narrative vein, its complex use of tonality and tone colors, its psychoanalytical advance on Wagner’s earlier works, its highly metaphorical and detailed symbolism and, last but not least, its duration. All of these elements represent a tremendous musical challenge for both the orchestra and the soloists.

Philippe Jordan had already conducted a whole series of other productions of the work elsewhere, including the 2012 Bayreuth Festival, and so he was intimately familiar with the score’s musical demands. But, as the Swiss-born conductor has observed, “Every Parsifal conductor must do more than simply guide the performance, he must also allow certain aspects to run their own course if he is to do justice to a work of such monumental proportions.”

Wagner’s Parsifal with Jonas Kaufmann, Elīna Garanča, Georg Zeppenfeld, Ludovic Tézier, Wolfgang Koch, the Chorus and Orchestra of the Vienna State Opera under the direction of Philippe Jordan will be released by Sony Classical on CD and digital formats on March 1, 2024.

ECM New Series releases Gidon Kremer's Songs of Fate

ECM New Series Releases

Gidon Kremer: Songs of Fate

Vida Miknevičiūtė, Soprano
Gidon Kremer, Violin
Magdalena Ceple, Violoncello
Andrei Pushkarev, Vibraphone
Kremerata Baltica

Barcode: CD 0028948598502
Catalogue number: ECM 2745
Release Date: January 19, 2024

Weinberg's Aria, Op 9
First Single Available Now: https://ecm.lnk.to/SongsOfFateFP

Press downloads available upon request.

"Gidon Kremer has perhaps never before revealed himself as intimately and as existentially focused as on this recording," observes Wolfgang Sandner in his liner note accompanying the Latvian violinist's new album Songs of Fate, recorded in July 2019 and July 2022 and set for release by ECM New Series on January 19, 2024. The first single, Weinberg's Aria, Op. 9, is available now. 

Together with his Kremerata Baltica chamber ensemble and soprano Vida Mikneviciüte, Kremer approaches scores by Baltic composers Raminta Serksnyte, Giedrius Kuprevitius, Jekabs Janevskis and the Polish-Jewish composer Mieczysiaw Weinberg. 

In a performer's note, Kremer explains how, reflecting on the different threads that create the fabric of this programme, "I realise - to my own surprise - that in many ways, this project revolves around the notion of 'Jewishness'." 

Poignant deliveries of excerpts from the chamber symphony The Star of David and Kaddish by Giedrius Kuprevitius as well as the Jewish Songs by Mieczyslaw Weinberg emphasize this connotation. Bookending Songs of Fate are premiere recordings of Raminta Serksnyte's This too shall pass and Jekabs Janevskis's Lignum, bringing the voices of a younger generation of composers to the fore.

Feb. 2: Sony Classical to Release Winter The New Album from Lavinia Meijer

Sony Releases Winter
The New Album from Lavinia Meijer
One of the World’s Most Critically Acclaimed Harpists

Album Release Date: February 2, 2024
Preorder Now

Featuring original compositions and interpretations of works by the likes of
Max Richter, Philip Glass, and Nils Frahm

The album is the culmination of a year long project dissecting the seasons

Sony Classical is proud to announce the release of a brand-new album from Lavinia Meijer, a pioneering and exciting musician and composer, and one of the most important harpists of her generation. Winter is the culmination of a year-long project taking inspiration from the changing of the seasons, and the effect climate change is having on them. The album, to be released on February 2, 2024, features two new compositions by Meijer alongside interpretations of works by, among others, Max Richter, Philip Glass, and Nils Frahm, and collaborations with violinist Nadia Sirota, the Wishful Singing ensemble, and Alma Quartet.

The idea for Winter crystallized over a year ago, with a piece of music left over from Meijer’s last record Are You Still Somewhere? Titled “Open Window” and written during the pandemic, it provided, she says, fresh inspiration; about winter, coldness, and those special days you spend with your family. “I wrote it hoping I could ‘travel’ myself, but also so that listeners could travel in their own minds to other places. Places they could not physically be. It became very symbolic of that whole time.”

The “coldness” of pandemic lockdowns, and the winters they occurred in, became a theme; so did the idea of people being physically separated, and the “suffocating” nature of alienation in society. Linking this to changing of the seasons, and the effect of climate change, was a natural extension, and so Meijer began intuitively researching and gathering works. Some, she’d never heard before; others, she’d struggled to adapt for the harp. Connecting the titles and moods with a season, the result was a neat, conceptual, full circle of releases: two “winter” singles a year ago, followed by three, four-track EPs for spring, summer, and fall. And now Winter, a full-length record of 18 works.

“Winter for me isn’t just about the cold – it’s also about long stretches of endurance. So the songs I composed for this record have long lines, and go deeper down into this season,” she says. They’re also deeply personal; the second movement of “Open Window” is based on a well-known folk song from Korea, the country of her birth. Elsewhere, works by other famous composers proved a great fit: Philip Glass’ “Freezing”, wonderfully augmented by the acapella singing ensemble Wishful Singing and “Amethyst” by Dutch composer Reyer Zwart and featuring Alma Quartet, concerning a metaphorical transformation into the precious stone.

Even with the tone and subject matter of the featured works and compositions – and with the way Meijer wanted to open up “the dark tones of the harp, because without them, you cannot hear the lighter ones as clearly” – Winter is not sad or melancholic. In fact, quite the opposite. “I want the listener to feel alive, and that the music triggers more awareness of everything around them and the beauty that exists in the world,” she says. “I want them to feel inspired.”

Feb. 3: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle Makes her Harriman-Jewell Series Debut

Photo by Maria Baranova available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein

Simone Dinnerstein in The Eye is The First Circle
Makes her Harriman-Jewell Series Debut

Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 7 pm
Folly Theater | 300 West 12th Street | Kansas City, MO
Tickets & Information

Excerpts from The Eye is the First Circle: Watch Now

Featured on NPR’s All Things Considered: Listen Now

www.simonedinnerstein.com

Kansas City, MO – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series in the multimedia production that she performs, conceived, and directs – The Eye is the First Circle – on February 3, 2024 at the Folly Theater (300 West 12th Street). This performance of The Eye is the First Circle will mark Dinnerstein’s Harriman-Jewell Series debut.

With The Eye Is the First Circle, which was premiered at Montclair State University in October 2021, Simone Dinnerstein ventures into bold interdisciplinary artistic territory in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett. Conceived and directed by Dinnerstein, this dynamic production deconstructs and collages elements from two iconic works of art – her father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2 (Concord).

The Fulbright Triptych places a family portrait (including an infant Simone) within the tradition of Medieval altar paintings, against a wall teeming with art historical references, and the Concord Sonata expresses the imaginative and natural world of the Transcendentalists through an ecstatic and fractured musical lens. Olinder pulls visuals including animated elements of the painting and real-time video to all points of the stage, and Scandrett’s lighting gives them breathtaking theatricality.

Dinnerstein’s searching performance sits within this disorientingly immersive visual space. The piece asks: How do our origin stories mold us? How can a sense of self come from the musical and visual fragments we remember from childhood? The Eye Is the First Circle shows us what it is to draw a new circle around the one we stand in, at the edge of what we can see.

Dinnerstein says, “The Eye is the First Circle is a very personal piece that, at its core, explores how my family’s world shaped my relationship to art. I devised it using my father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. My intellectual, emotional and artistic response to each work, and to the connections I saw between them, is what formed the larger circle I drew. . . While creating this production, I discovered that I had an aptitude for visual composition and for directing. It was as if I discovered a sixth sense that I had never used before, and I felt the joy of generating an artistic experience that expanded beyond music, the area where I am most used to expressing myself. When I began, I did not know what the end point would be. As Emerson wrote, ‘The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory, and to do something without knowing how or why; in short, to draw a new circle.’”

About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.

The Eye Is the First Circle is one of the projects Dinnerstein has created in recent years that express her broad musical interests. In addition, she premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.

www.simonedinnerstein.com

About the Harriman-Jewell Series: More than 1,000 performances have come to Kansas City by way of the Harriman-Jewell Series, including 25 American recital debuts by prominent artists. With the addition of our free Educational Events that allow interaction with musicians and dancers, and our free Discovery Concerts that eliminate the barrier of cost, the Harriman-Jewell Series offers even more life-enriching opportunities for our community's youth and lifelong learners. Since the inception of the Harriman-Jewell Series, we have sought to bring the best of the performing arts to Kansas City, and to bring them to local audiences first. We continue to seek new voices and emerging artists alongside artists and ensembles who are leaders in their craft. Artistic programming follows our core tenets - Quality, Variety, Diversity, and Discovery.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series in The Eye is the First Circle. A multimedia production conceived, directed, and performed by Dinnerstein in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett, this production highlights elements from two iconic works of art: Dinnerstein’s father Simon Dinnerstein’s Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. Dinnerstein describes the production as “a very personal piece that, at its core, explores how my family’s world shaped my relationship to art.”

Short Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” (The Washington Post) is presented by the Harriman-Jewell Series in her multimedia production The Eye is the First Circle, in collaboration with projection designer Laurie Olinder and lighting designer Davison Scandrett.

Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by Harriman-Jewell Series
What: A performance of multimedia production, The Eye is the First Circle
When: Saturday, February 3, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Folly Theater, 300 West 12th Street, Kansas City, MO, 64105
Tickets and information: www.hjseries.org/events/2324simone-dinnerstein

California Symphony presents Gershwin in New York featuring the Marcus Roberts Trio

CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY PRESENTS GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK

Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director

In Concert January 27 & 28, 2024
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring the Marcus Roberts Trio celebrating the 100th Birthday of George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

Plus William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony & Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1

Continuing a season of performances honoring trailblazing composers and unique artists

Tickets & Information: www.californiasymphony.org

Meet the Trailblazers of Gershwin in New York

WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony and Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera continue the 2023-24 season, featuring concerts that honor trailblazing composers and unique artists, with Gershwin in New York, a program that spotlights the promise of the American Dream, on Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 4pm, at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek).

Gershwin in New York features famed jazz combo the Marcus Roberts Trio – jazz pianist Marcus Roberts, NEA Jazz Master drummer Jason Marsalis, and bassist Marty Jaffe – in a modern interpretation to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which celebrates its 100th birthday in 2024. The trio comes to the California Symphony directly after their Carnegie Hall performance of this work with the Philadelphia Orchestra. The program opens with Symphony No. 1 by Samuel Barber, most famously known for his Adagio for Strings. Barber’s symphony takes the major elements of a traditional four-movement symphony and condenses them into one. William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony takes its themes from traditional spirituals. The piece enjoyed a rapturous reception at its Carnegie Hall debut in 1934. A New York Times critic called it “the most distinctive and promising American symphonic proclamation which has so far been achieved," while the New York World-Telegram praised the work for its “imagination, warmth, drama – (and) sumptuous orchestration.” Despite its early success, it soon disappeared into obscurity and is only now being rediscovered and celebrated almost a century later. 

“In celebrating the centennial of Gershwin’s extraordinary Rhapsody in Blue, I wanted to showcase other pieces that had also received momentous performances in New York City, performances that not only changed the trajectory of the composition itself, but also the career of the composer who wrote it,” says Cabrera. “Alongside his Adagio for Strings, the initial performances of Samuel Barber’s Symphony No. 1, especially the March 24, 1937 Carnegie Hall performance with Artur Rodzinski and the New York Philharmonic, firmly established Barber’s presence as a new voice for American music. I can’t think of another composition with such a lauded premiere as William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony to then fall into such absolute obscurity. After its November 1934 Carnegie Hall premiere by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, a performance that was enthusiastically received by the audience and lauded by the critics, the Negro Folk Symphony became an unfortunate tragedy of racism. Dawson couldn’t entice a single publisher to publish it, or a single conductor to program it. With a new edition finally available just this year, I am very excited to offer this masterpiece to the California Symphony audience!” 

Marcus Roberts and his trio first performed Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue with orchestra in Chicago in 1995. Jazz critic Howard Reich wrote, “To say that Roberts ‘improvised’ this Rhapsody actually may be an understatement, for it implies that he simply embellished Gershwin’s score. In fact, Roberts radically reconceived the piano part, using Gershwin’s basic melodic material to create new themes, unexpected harmonies and bracing, utterly modern dissonances. ... By offering sections of stride piano, steeped-in-blue chord progressions and plaintive countermelodies of his own, Roberts made this his Rhapsody as much as Gershwin’s.”

William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony is only now widely being recognized as an American masterpiece, 90 years after its premiere, with orchestras across the country performing it over the last three years. In a feature about the piece, NPR reported, “The three-movement piece is emotionally charged and rigorously constructed. Dawson said he wasn't out to imitate Beethoven or Brahms, but wanted those who heard it to know that it was ‘unmistakably not the work of a white man.’ He found inspiration for the piece in traditional spirituals, which he preferred to call ‘Negro folk-music.’”

Composed when he was 25 years old, Samuel Barber wrote his Symphony No. 1 (In One Movement) in 1934 while studying at the American Academy in Rome, later revising it in 1942. In it, he combines the elements of a four-movement symphony, capturing the lyricism, drama, and intensity of a full symphony, all within one movement. “Probably no other American composer has ever enjoyed such early, such persistent and such long-lasting acclaim,” wrote The New York Times about Barber.

Founded in 1986, California Symphony is in its eleventh season under the leadership of Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that combine classics alongside American repertoire and works by living composers and for making the symphony welcoming and accessible. The orchestra includes musicians who perform with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, and others. Committed to developing new talent, California Symphony has launched the careers of some of today’s most well-known artists, including violinist Anne Akiko Meyers, cellists Alisa Weilerstein and Joshua Roman, pianist Kirill Gerstein, and composers Mason Bates, Christopher Theofanidis, and Kevin Puts.

California Symphony’s 2023-24 season is sponsored by the Lesher Foundation. The November concerts are sponsored by the Heller Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Three-concert subscriptions start at $99 and are available now, along with single tickets ($45-90, and $20 for students 25 and under). More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org. A 30-minute pre-concert talk and Q&A led by lecturer Scott Fogelsong will begin one hour before each performance.

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS:

WHAT: California Symphony presents Gershwin in New York

The California Symphony conducted by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera presents Gershwin in New York, a program that spotlights the promise of the American Dream. Famed jazz combo the Marcus Roberts Trio – jazz pianist Marcus Roberts, NEA Jazz Master drummer Jason Marsalis, and bassist Marty Jaffe – brings a modern interpretation to George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, which celebrates its 100th birthday in 2024. The concert opens with Symphony No. 1 by Samuel Barber, most famously known for his Adagio for Strings. Barber’s symphony takes the major elements of a traditional four-movement symphony and condenses them into one. William Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony takes its themes from traditional spirituals. The piece enjoyed a rapturous reception at its Carnegie Hall debut in 1934, and a New York Times critic called it “the most distinctive and promising American symphonic proclamation which has so far been achieved." Despite its early success, it soon disappeared into obscurity and is only now being rediscovered and celebrated almost a century later.

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, January 27, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sunday, January 28, 2024 at 4:00pm

WHERE: Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek

TICKETS: Capacity is limited and free tickets, which are available at californiasymphony.org/festival, are required for entry.

WHAT: California Symphony presents Handel–Rivers of Inspiration

California Symphony presents Rivers of Inspiration, a concert featuring the music of George Frideric Handel, Viet Cuong, and Robert Schumann. Opening the program is the highly anticipated world premiere of California Symphony’s 2020-2023 composer-in-residence Viet Cuong’s Chance of Rain. Robert Schumann’s exuberant Symphony No. 3 and Handel’s spectacular Water Music, Suites No. 1 and No. 2 accompany Viet Cuong’s world premiere. These concerts are part of the statewide California Festival, showcasing the most compelling and forward-looking voices in performances of works written in the past five years.

WHEN: Saturday, November 11, 2023 at 7:30 pm   
Sunday, November 12, 2023 at 4:00 pm

WHERE: Hofmann Theatre at the Lesher Center for the Arts
1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek

CONCERT:
GERSHWIN IN NEW YORK
7:30pm, Saturday, Jan. 27
4:00pm, Sunday, Jan. 28
Donato Cabrera, conductor
California Symphony
The Marcus Roberts Trio
PROGRAM:
Samuel Barber: Symphony No. 1, in One Movement
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony

TICKETS: Three-concert subscriptions start at $99 and are available now. Single tickets are $45-90 and $20 (for students 25 and under with valid Student ID).

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.

Jan. 7: Pianist Sarah Cahill Presented by Old First Concerts

Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill

Pianist Sarah Cahill Presented by Old First Concerts

Performing Music by
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford,
Terry Riley, Ann Southam, Evan Ziporyn

Friday, January 7, 2024 at 2pm
Old First Church | 1751 Sacramento Street | San Francisco, CA

General Admission In-Person Tickets: $25
Senior (65+): $20
Full-time student w/ ID: $5
Livestream Suggested Donation: $20

More information:
www.oldfirstconcerts.org/performance/sarah-cahill-sunday-january-7-at-2-pm/

“Pianist Sarah Cahill commands a near-godlike status among fans of contemporary classical music”
– NPR Music

Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR TIny Desk Concert

Sarah Cahill: www.sarahcahill.com

San Francisco, CA – On Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 2pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, commences 2024 with a performance presented by Old First Concerts. Cahill will celebrate the beginning of a new year performing an extensive program of works from the 20th and 21st centuries, including Forest Scenes, Op. 66 by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1907); Hermit Thrush at Eve, Op.92 No. 1 (1921) by Amy Beach; Preludes 5, 6, 7, and 9 (1924) by Ruth Crawford; The Walrus in Memoriam (1993) by Terry Riley; Commotion Creek (2007) and Rivers Series 1 No. 1 (1979) by Ann Southam; and You Are Getting Sleepy (2015) by Evan Ziporyn.

The concert will be held at Old First Church (1751 Sacramento Street). General admission is $25. The concert will also be available to watch online as a livestream with a suggested donation of $20.

Praised by Time Out New York as “A brilliant and charismatic advocate for modern and contemporary composers,” Cahill is highlighting several composers on this program who are not only known for their pioneering work but are deeply respected musical figures who have impacted Cahill as a musician. Cahill has performed and recorded several works by Terry Riley, working with the esteemed composer/pianist since 1997. In 2015, Cahill commissioned several new solo piano works from many other accomplished composers and artists –– including Evan Ziporyn –– all of which she performed at a tribute concert honoring Riley for his eightieth birthday. Works by Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Ann Southam are all highlighted as part of Cahill’s project, The Future is Female. Cahill and Evan Ziporyn have collaborated on many occasions, including on a critically acclaimed recording of Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan released in 2021 and made commercially available through the CMA’s Recorded Archive Editions.

Cahill says of starting the new year with a return to Old First Concerts and the music on this adventurous, contrast driven program:

"Old First Concerts is a Bay Area treasure, and I've been fortunate to play regularly on the series for the past 25 years. They have always encouraged exploration, innovation, and creative programming. Over the years I've enjoyed combining early 20th century compositions and newer works, which speak to each other across the decades, and also revisiting favorites while learning new repertoire. I'm obsessed with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Forest Scenes, with its love story of a Forest Maiden and a Phantom. Ruth Crawford and Ann Southam have been favorites for thirty years now. Pianist Matt Bengtson recently introduced me to Amy Beach's Hermit Thrush at Eve -- every pianist who hears it immediately wants to play it. Terry Riley and Evan Ziporyn are two composers I've been very lucky to work with, and always love revisiting their music. This program has a lot of stylistic contrast, and yet each work resonates with the possibilities of past and future."

About Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).

Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, an investigation and reframing of the piano literature featuring more than seventy compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival. Cahill also performed music from The Future is Female for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings

Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 8 to 10 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.

About Old First Concerts: Since its founding in 1970, Old First Concerts has grown to be an important part of the San Francisco cultural landscape. In a beautiful historic space with excellent acoustics, Old First Concerts presents rich and diverse high-quality concert experiences of classical music, jazz and world music. We feature eclectic and adventurous programming including works and performances by women, people of color, and members of the LGBTQ community alongside more established classical music repertoire. Our audiences discover a like-minded community of music lovers eager to explore the energy and excitement of the new music and performers of today, re-engage with old favorites, and help build the musical culture in San Francisco by supporting local musicians. Many of our concerts include our Hamburg Steinway concert grand piano, a favorite of local pianists. The piano is meticulously maintained by David Love (www.davidlovepianos.com).

All concerts are held at the Old First Church, home to an affirming and welcoming congregation with a long history of social activism, located on the corner of Sacramento Street and Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. Please note that Old First Concerts is a completely separate 501(c)3 organization with no religious affiliation and we strive to feature music that is welcoming and inclusive to all people regardless of their race, culture, gender identity, sexuality, age or any other identifying characteristic.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianists Sarah Cahill, described by The New York Times as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde,” is presented by Old First Concerts in a performance of music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Cahill will commemorate the start of 2024 with a concert program featuring Forest Scenes, Op. 66 by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1907); Hermit Thrush at Eve, Op.92 No. 1 (1921) by Amy Beach; Preludes 5, 6, 7, and 9 (1924) by Ruth Crawford; The Walrus in Memoriam (1993) by Terry Riley; Commotion Creek (2007) and Rivers Series 1 No. 1 (1979) by Ann Southam; and You Are Getting Sleepy (2015) by Evan Ziporyn. In addition to an in-person performance, the concert will be available for live stream.

Short description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” (The New York Times), is presented by Old First Concerts in a performance featuring music of the 20th and 21st centuries. The program includes works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford, Terry Riley, Ann Southan, and Evan Ziporyn.

Concert details:

Who: Pianists Sarah Cahill, Adam Sherkin, and Adrienne Kim
Presented by Old First Concerts
What: Music by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford, Terry Riley, Ann Southam, and Evan Ziporyn
When: Sunday, January 7, 2024 at 2pm
Where: Old First Church, 1751 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, CA 94109
Tickets and information: www.oldfirstconcerts.org/performance/sarah-cahill-sunday-january-7-at-2-pm/

Jan 24-25: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Major Orchestral Work ARCHORA in French Premiere by the Orchestre de Paris Conducted by Klaus Mäkelä

Photo by Saga Sigurdardottir available in high resolution at www.annathorvalds.com/photos

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Major Orchestral Work ARCHORA
in French Premiere Performances by the Orchestre de Paris
Conducted by Klaus Mäkelä at Philharmonie de Paris

“Thorvaldsdottir a vraiment un style à elle, reconnaissable et renouvelé” – Le Monde

“Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s natural instrument is the symphony orchestra, but in her hands it is reborn as a natural organism.”
– The Guardian

January 24 and 25, 2024 at 8pm
Philharmonie de Paris | 221 Av. Jean Jaurès, 75019, Paris
Tickets & Information

First Commercial Recording of ARCHORA is Available Now on Sono Luminus
Press downloads available upon request.

Schedule: www.annathorvalds.com/performances 

Read a Q&A with Anna about ARCHORA from Wise Music Classical

Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s latest major orchestral work, ARCHORA, will receive its French premiere performances by the Orchestre de Paris (a co-commissioner of the work) conducted by Klaus Mäkelä in concerts on January 24 and 25, 2024 at 8pm, at the Philharmonie de Paris. The program also includes Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with guest soloist Daniil Trifonov and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (The New York Times) and “riveting” (The Times) sound world has made her “a leading voice in contemporary music” (The Guardian). 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. “Thorvaldsdottir is incapable of writing music that doesn’t immediately transfix an open-eared listener,” reports The New York Times in its review of ARCHORA.

ARCHORA was commissioned by the BBC Proms and co-commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and Klangspuren Schwaz. Of the world premiere, The Guardian reported, “Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music is about mass and density, how different planes of sounds collide and combine, and how intricately detailed textures evolve over time. Those qualities make the orchestra the obvious medium for her work, and it has largely been through her sequence of strikingly effective orchestral scores that the Iceland-born composer has become recognised as one of the most distinctive voices in European music today." The premiere was selected as among The Guardian’s Classical Highlights of 2022.

ARCHORA is featured on Anna’s latest portrait album, ARCHORA / AIŌN, which was recorded by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eva Ollikainen and released on the Sono Luminus label. (Press downloads available upon request).

Anna writes of ARCHORA:

The core inspiration behind ARCHORA centres around the notion of a primordial energy and the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm – a world both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The piece revolves around the extremes on the spectrum between the Primordia and its resulting afterglow – and the conflict between these elements that are nevertheless fundamentally one and the same. The halo emerges from the Primordia but they have both lost perspective and the connection to one another, experiencing themselves individually as opposing forces rather than one and the same. 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.

All of Anna’s orchestral music is now available on Sono Luminus. In addition to ARCHORA / AIŌN, in spring 2023 the label released Anna’s major orchestral work CATAMORPHOSIS as part of the album Atmospheriques, conducted by Daníel Bjarnason. Sono Luminus’s previous releases include METACOSMOS in 2019; AERIALITY, originally released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2014 and re-released in a remastered version on Sono Luminus in 2022; and Dreaming, originally released on a portrait album by Innova Recordings in 2011 and re-released on Sono Luminus in 2020.

Anna’s 2023-2024 season (September 2023 to June 2024) includes performances of her music across at least sixteen countries, including Iceland, England, Ireland, China, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, and Slovenia. Her current schedule is available on her website.

More about Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “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, as well as commissions by many of the world’s top orchestras. CATAMORPHOSIS was premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko in January 2021, following the orchestra’s European premiere of METACOSMOS with Alan Gilbert in 2019. CATAMORPHOSIS received its UK premiere by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Ludovic Morlot in June 2022, with the US premiere with the New York Philharmonic and Santtu-Matias Rouvali taking place in January 2023. ARCHORA - the latest addition to Anna’s “ever-growing and ever more essential catalogue of orchestral pieces” (BBC Radio 3) - was premiered at the BBC Proms in August 2022, by the BBC Philharmonic and Eva Ollikainen. The work received its US premiere with the LA Philharmonic and Eva Ollikainen in May 2023. And “while [she] has made the symphony orchestra her own,” according to Gramophone magazine, “her chamber music is cut from the same cloth and somehow sounds with much the same combination of immensity and intimacy.” Anna’s recent string quartet Enigma was recorded and released by Sono Luminus in August 2021, performed by the Spektral Quartet, and was one of the New York Times’s recordings of the year (“a masterly entrance to the genre”). Portrait albums with Anna’s works have appeared on Deutsche Grammophon, Sono Luminus, and Innova.

Anna’s music is widely performed internationally and has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and arts organizations – such as the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, International Contemporary Ensemble, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Danish String Quartet, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. Among the many other orchestras and ensembles that have performed her music include the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Quatuor Bozzini, BBC Singers, The Crossing, the Bavarian Radio Choir, Münchener Kammerorchester, Avanti Chamber Ensemble, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Portrait concerts with Anna’s music have been featured at several major venues and music festivals, including Wigmore Hall, Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival in NYC, London’s Spitalfields Music Festival, Münchener Kammerorchester’s Nachtmusic der Moderne series, the Composer Portraits Series at NYC’s Miller Theatre, the Leading International Composers series at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, Knoxville’s Big Ears Festival, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s Point Festival. Other prominent venues and festivals include the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh Festival, London’s Royal Opera House, Southbank Centre, Lucerne Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Darmstadt Summer Course, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin, ISCM World Music Days, Nordic Music Days, Ultima Festival, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Reykjavik Arts Festival, Tectonics, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Helsinki’s Musica Nova Festival, and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. 

Anna is currently based in the London area. She regularly teaches and gives presentations on composition, in academic settings, as part of residencies, and in private lessons. Invited lectures and presentations include Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Sibelius Academy, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Anna is currently Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra - in 2023, she is also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and at the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD (2011) from the University of California in San Diego.

For more information: www.annathorvalds.com

Jan. 12-13: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra Performing Concertos of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass Conducted by Michael Butterman

Photo by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein

GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as Soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra

In the Piano Concertos of J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
Conducted by Michael Butterman

Friday, January 12, 2024 at 7:30pm
Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 2:30pm
Saturday, January 13, 2024 at 7:30pm

Gardner Theatre in Lancaster Country Day School
725 Hamilton Rd. | Lancaster, PA

Tickets: www.lancastersymphony.org/concert-calendar/bach-and-glass

“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation”
– The New York Times

www.simonedinnerstein.com | www.brooklynorchestra.org

Lancaster, PA – Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist​​ of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” will be the featured guest soloist with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in three performances on Friday, January 12 at 7:30pm, Saturday, January 13, at 2:30pm, and Saturday January 13 at 7:30pm. All three concerts will be held at Gardner Theatre in Lancaster Country Day School (725 Hamilton Rd.).

Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone and known for her adventurous artistic instincts, will perform two piano concertos as part of this program. Dinnerstein’s selections will reflect not only a notable contrast in historical placement but will nod to two very different composers –– J.S. Bach and Philip Glass –– Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord No 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Philip Glass’s seldom performed “Tirol” Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra. Additionally, the program will also include Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night (version 1943). The performance will be conducted by Michael Butterman and a free, 25-minute, pre-concert talk will be held one hour before each performance.

The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. Recognized and celebrated for her appreciation of J.S. Bach’s work, she is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” Much further down the timeline of history from Bach, the music of Philip Glass is of equal intrigue and passion to Dinnerstein –– earning praise from critics and even Glass himself, who has written music for specifically for her. The Philadelphia Inquirer has said of Dinnerstein’s live performance of Bach and Glass: “Bach and Glass are about patterns and formal structure. Within the rigor, though, Simone Dinnerstein found a great deal of joy and liberation.” Of her approach to Glass’s work, EarRelevent writes that Dinnerstein has “a great affinity for the composer’s music.”

On reuniting with conductor Michael Butterman and performing this engaging, two concerto program with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra for her first concerts of 2024, Dinnerstein says:

It is always a joy to collaborate with my dear friend, Michael Butterman. Michael has the most natural and fluid approach to interpretation, both of which lend themselves particularly well to the music of Bach and Glass. And this will be my first time performing with the musicians of the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, so I am looking forward to meeting them!

About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.

In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.

www.simonedinnerstein.com

About the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra: The LSO is a non-profit organization governed by a board of community volunteers and managed by a professional staff. The LSO gratefully acknowledges support from Godfrey, Barley Snyder, Willow Valley, Hershey, Ephrata National Bank, Tiger’s Eye, the Holiday Inn Lancaster, and UPMC, along with donations from hundreds of corporate and private benefactors which underwrite the Symphony’s invaluable contribution to the quality of life in South-Central Pennsylvania. To learn more about the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, please visit www.lancastersymphony.org.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” is presented as the featured guest soloist with The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra in a performance led by Michael Butterman. Dinnerstein, who is known for her appreciation of and skill with the music of both Bach and Philip Glass, will perform two concertos as part of the evening’s program: Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord No 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra. Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night (version 1943) will also be included in the performance.

Short Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” (The New York Times) is presented as the featured soloist in concert with The Lancaster Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Butterman, in a concert that will feature Dinnerstein performing Bach’s Concerto for Harpsichord No 2 in E major, BWV 1053 and Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto No. 1. The performance will also include Schoenberg’s Transfigured Night (version 1943).

Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Michael Butterman
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Schoenberg, and Philip Glass
When: Friday, January 12 at 7:30pm and January 13, 2024 at 2:30pm and 7:30pm.
Where: Gardner Theatre in Lancaster Country Day School, 725 Hamilton Rd., Lancaster, PA 17603
Tickets and information: www.lancastersymphony.org/concert-calendar/bach-and-glass

GatherNYC concerts continue with Joe Lovano & The Overlook, 9 Horses & Jacob Jolliff, Brandon Patrick George & Parker Ramsay, Duo Kayo at MAD in Columbus Circle

GatherNYC Continues 2023-2024 Season at Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle

Every Other Sunday Morning at 11AM

Coming Up Next in December, January, February:
DEC 17 • Project Trio
JAN 7 • 9 Horses + Jacob Jolliff (mandolin)
JAN 21 • Parker Ramsay (harp) + Brandon Patrick George (flute)
FEB 4 • Joe Lovano* + Douglas J Cuomo + The Overlook: Seven Limbs
FEB 18 • Duo Kayo
*newly added!

Spring 2024 Concerts:
MAR 3 • Invoke
MAR 17 • Borromeo Quartet
MAR 31 • Juilliard Quartet
APR 14 • Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
APR 28 • Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
MAY 12 • Ocean Music Action: Megan Conley (harp) + friends
MAY 26 • Kristin Lee (violin) + friends

“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 2023-24 season at the series’ home venue, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) (2 Columbus Circle) with five upcoming concerts in December, January and February. The season runs through May 2024, with concerts held every other Sunday at 11am in The Theater at MAD. Coffee and pastries are served before each performance at 10:30am.

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 earlier this 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 16 concerts throughout our 2023-24 season, our most exciting lineup yet. We look forward to providing our audiences with world-class musical experiences in an intimate, unique setting, complete with spoken word, silence, coffee and a communal, welcoming environment.”

Up next:

Dec 17: PROJECT Trio
PROJECT Trio, made up of saxophone, double bass and beatboxing flute, is a dynamic and innovative music group known for their genre-blending performances and captivating stage presence. The trio pushes the boundaries of traditional chamber music with their unique fusion of classical, jazz, hip-hop, and world music influences. Their creative and adventurous approach to music-making has earned them a devoted following (their YouTube channel alone has over 100 million views), making them a trailblazing force in the contemporary music landscape. 

Jan 7: 9 Horses with Jacob Jolliff
Supergroup 9 Horses (Sara Caswell, violin; Joseph Brent, mandolin; Andrew Ryan, bass) returns to GatherNYC along with mandolin virtuoso Jacob Jolliff of the Bela Fleck Band to present their electrifying program that blends bluegrass with Bach and Vivaldi. 

Jan 21: Brandon Patrick George (flute) + Parker Ramsay (harp)
Grammy-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George, a “knockout musician with a gorgeous sound” (Philadelphia Inquirer) is joined by harpist Parker Ramsay, hailed as “remarkably special” (Gramophone) for an unforgettable duo recital. Together they perform a lyrical program spanning centuries and continents.

Feb 4: Douglas J Cuomo + The Overlook: “Seven Limbs”
The Overlook returns to GatherNYC to present Douglas J Cuomo’s meditative and ecstatic work Seven Limbs for string quartet and improvised electric guitar. This piece is inspired by an ancient Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice called The Seven Limbs, which is a method of purifying the mind, allowing it to become more patient, peaceful, loving, and compassionate; filled with joyful energy.

Feb 18: Duo Kayo
Duo Kayo is the dynamic pairing of violist Edwin Kaplan and cellist Titilayo Ayangade, both star chamber musicians and veterans of esteemed string quartets (the Tesla and Thalea Quartets, respectively). The duo is on a mission to become a vessel for new and exciting music, which they have already shared with audiences across the country, as well as closer to home at Lincoln Center. Their expressive, richly harmonic programs creatively blend the classical with the contemporary.

GatherNYC's Spring 2024 Schedule – All Concerts Take Place at 11AM: 

Mar 3: Invoke
Described as “...not anything but everything: Classical, Folk, Bluegrass, Americana and a sound yet to be termed seamlessly merged into a perfect one” (David Srebnik, SiriusXM Classical), Invoke strives to successfully dodge even the most valiant attempts at genre classification. The multi-instrumental quartet encompasses traditions from across America, including bluegrass, Appalachian fiddle tunes, jazz, and minimalism. Fueled by their passion for storytelling, Invoke weaves all of these styles together to form a unique contemporary repertoire, featuring original works composed by and for the group.

Mar 17: Borromeo Quartet
One of the most influential quartets of our time, the Borromeo Quartet has held residencies at both New England Conservatory and the Taos School of Music for 25 years. Their vivid performances and fearless approach to music making have inspired many generations of musicians, and led them to be recognized with some of the industry’s most prestigious awards: the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Martin Segal Award of Lincoln Center.

Mar 31: Juilliard String Quartet
Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics, while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature. Based out of the Juilliard School in New York City, where the four members of the quartet serve on the faculty, the reach of this venerable quartet is worldwide.

April 14: Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
The Edinburgh-born, New York-based harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic harp to new levels of visibility. Sought after as both a soloist and collaborator, she has released 5 albums and enjoyed high-profile collaborations with the Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab and many others. Her most recent album was hailed by the Irish Times in its five-star review as “Buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling...a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.”

April 28: Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
The Rivers are our Brothers is an electronic song cycle on ecological responsibility, told from the point of view of the land. Based on a letter from Chief Seattle that urges us to think of the earth as kin, the songs take a first-person view of nature: rocks sing about their mothers, and snowflakes tell about their hearts of sand. Connery’s vocals and Felix Fan’s electric cello combine to tell the story using a “supernatural” sound. "The goal of this music is to give nature a voice" says Connery, “and this isn’t a cute nature documentary. I want to stop people in their tracks and show them the world like they’ve never seen it: as vibrant, and thrilling, and alive.”

May 12: Ocean Music Action: Honoring Mother Earth
On Mother’s Day, harpist Megan Conley brings her Ocean Music Action project to GatherNYC with a concert paired with a volunteer day of climate action. OMA uses the transformative power of music to inspire greater stewardship of oceans and waterways, and the musical selections are inspired by the natural world. Megan, formerly the principal harpist of the Houston Symphony now living in Honolulu, will be joined by several of her esteemed colleagues from The Knights for a special program honoring mother earth.

May 26: Kristin Lee & Friends
GatherNYC’s 2023-24 season concludes with a celebratory program curated and performed by one of New York City’s most accomplished violinists, Kristin Lee. Kristin enjoys a vibrant and multi-faceted career as a soloist with major orchestras like the Philadelphia Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony, a chamber musician on the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and Founder and Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, a chamber music series in Washington State. Kristin and her colleagues will share a virtuosic and exciting program to finish the season.

For tickets and information, visit www.gathernyc.org.

GatherNYC's programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Jupiter Quartet Presented by Auditorium Chamber Music Series at The University of Idaho

The Jupiter String Quartet is Presented by
Auditorium Chamber Music Series at The University of Idaho

Performing Music by Michi Wiancko, Bela Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven

Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 7:30pm
University of Idaho Administration Auditorium
851 Campus Dr | Moscow, ID

Tickets and Information at
www.uidaho.edu/class/acms/concerts

“The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.”
– The New Yorker

www.jupiterquartet.com

Moscow, ID – On Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 7:30pm, the Jupiter String Quartet –– internationally acclaimed winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition –– will be presented in concert by the Auditorium Chamber Music Series at The University of Idaho. The performance will be held in the University of Idaho Administration Auditorium (851 Campus Drive).

The award-winning ensemble will perform an assortment of bold selections from the early 19th century through to the present day: Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2. (1808), Bela Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6 (1939), and Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores (2020) –– a work written specifically for the Jupiter Quartet, which was commissioned by Bay Chamber Concerts in partnership with the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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 and has been the quartet-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012. 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.

Of these three emotive works, which highlight notably different points of inspiration across several centuries, the Jupiter Quartet says:

“We are pleased to present three of our favorite dramatic works for the audience in Idaho—the timely “To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores” by Michi Wiancko, which addresses topics related to climate change; the wonderful last quartet of Bela Bartok, which is full of both haunting beauty and biting sarcasm; and the volatile and electric Op. 59 No. 2 Quartet by Beethoven, with its sublimely transcendent slow movement.”

Beethoven’s epic eighth quartet, one of his “Razumovsky” String Quartets, is one of the many works he wrote during a time of immense political turmoil. Bartók’s sixth and final string quartet was also conceived during the second world war as he struggled to deal both with the turmoil in his homeland of Hungary and his mother’s acute illness. He eventually fled to the United States after his mother’s death.

Michi Wiancko’s Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores was written for the Jupiter Quartet and is a response to climate change. Over the work’s seven movements, Wiancko traverses a broad spectrum of emotional depth: the joy of curiosity around nature’s complexity, mourning the ongoing struggles of those most in need, urgency in the face of increasing environmental crises, and an energized call for positive change through humanity’s collective bond.

More About Jupiter String Quartet: This tight-knit ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music. Artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana since 2012, the Jupiter Quartet maintain private studios and direct the University’s chamber music program.

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, Music at Menlo, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois in 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.

About the Auditorium Chamber Music Series: Since 1986, the Auditorium Chamber Music Series has presented some of the world's finest small ensembles in the beautiful neo-gothic auditorium in the heart of the University of Idaho campus. Four ensembles visit the Palouse each year, performing for the series and enriching the region through school residencies, informal performances in community venues and master classes. The Auditorium Series embraces a wide variety of types and styles of ensemble, from string quartets to eight-voice a cappella choirs to ethnic improvisational ensembles. The same great ensembles that audiences from New York to Seattle flock to hear — the Beaux Arts Trio, Masters of Persian Music, Kronos Quartet, Chanticleer, eighth blackbird and the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin — have all graced the Auditorium Chamber Music Series.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented by Auditorium Chamber Music Series at The University of Idaho for a performance in the University of Idaho Administration Auditorium (851 Campus Drive). The Jupiter Quartet will perform a diverse program featuring one of Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” String Quartets (No. 8 in E minor, Op. 52 No. 2), as well as Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, and Bela Bartók’s String Quartet No. 6.

Short description: The Jupiter Quartet, an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” (The New Yorker), is presented by the Auditorium Chamber Music Series at the University of Idaho for a performance featuring the music of Michi Wiancko, Bela Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven.

Concert details:

Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by Auditorium Chamber Music Series at University of Idaho
What: Music by Michi Wiancko, Bela Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Thursday, January 25, 2024 at 7:30pm.
Where: University of Idaho Administration Auditorium, 851 Campus Drive, Moscow, ID
Tickets and information: www.uitickets.com

Telegraph Quartet Presented by Friends of Chamber Music Portland in Two Performances

Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet

Telegraph Quartet Presented by Friends of Chamber Music Portland in Two Performances

January 22 & 23, 2024 at 7:30pm
Lincoln Performance Hall at Portland State University
1620 SW Park Ave. | Portland, OR
Tickets & Information

Latest Album: Divergent Paths (Azica Records)
Available Now

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Portland, OR – The San Francisco-based b (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented by Friends of Chamber Music Portland in two concerts – First Time’s a Charm featuring music by Walker, Britten, Vivian Fung, and Dvořák on Monday, January 22 and Unlikely Muses featuring music by Beethoven, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, and Berg on Tuesday, January 23, both at 7:30pm.

First Time’s a Charm explores examples of composers’ first attempts at the string quartet form, which they approached with great respect and individual exploration, and includes George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 “Lyric;” Britten’s String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25; Vivian Fung’s “Pizzicato” from String Quartet No. 1; and Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105. George Walker composed his first quartet in a neo-romantic style when he was 23 years old, at a time when classical music in America was turning toward a more severe, mathematical approach. Britten completed his first string quartet within three months after he accepted a commission from the great devotee and supporter of chamber music Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Composing a work at her invitation earned him a $400 fee, and also added his name to an elite roster of composers (Bartók, Schoenberg, Copland, et al.) who had benefited from her commissions. Canadian composer Vivian Fung wrote her first string quartet using one of the most iconic tools of the medium, the pizzicato. Fung says, “Inspired by listening to Asian folk music, the piece is influenced partly by the music of the Chinese plucked instruments pipa and qin as well as by the energetic rhythms of Indonesian gamelan.” In contrast to the theme, the program closes with Dvořák’s last string quartet. For nearly three years, beginning in 1892, Antonin Dvořák lived with his family in New York City, where he was engaged as the director of the American Conservatory of Music. Dvořák became well acquainted with the musical cultures of this country. Upon returning to his homeland, Dvořák continued to work on the composition he started before leaving the United States. However, Dvořák had come home, and his new quartet spoke his language, the language of the Bohemian culture.

Unlikely Muses reflects deep relationships each composer had with another during their life that affected the course of their work and includes Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 6 in B-flat Major, Op. 18 No. 6; Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s String Quartet; and Berg’s Lyric Suite. The last of Beethoven’s first six string quartets owes its wit, levity, and exploratory nature to Beethoven’s teacher Josef Haydn, the grandfather of the quartet. Though Beethoven and Haydn often clashed over their styles, later in life, Beethoven would acknowledge his musical debt to Haydn and the evolution of his quartets from their Haydn-esque beginnings. Although Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel did not have a public career as a composer like her brother Felix, the two were close musical confidants throughout their lives and influenced each other’s work deeply, as can be heard in her string quartet. Lastly, Alban Berg’s unlikely muse is Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, the inspiration of his Lyric Suite, discovered much later through a miniature score of the composer outlining a secret love narrative. In 1925 an affair began between them––both were married––and Berg composed the work over the next year as a musical manifestation of the excitement, trepidation, and suffering of their secret relationship, going so far as to include their initials in musical cryptograms throughout.

The Telegraph Quartet’s latest album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, was released on August 25 via Azica Records. The first in the Telegraph’s three-album series focused on string quartets of the first half of the 20th century, Divergent Paths explores the bewildering and unbridled creativity of the period through the music of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. The album has been met with critical acclaim, with The New York Times reporting, “[I]n the Schoenberg, they achieve something truly special, meticulously guiding its often wayward progress. At times Schoenberg makes the four strings sound almost orchestral, but the Telegraph players can also make his contrapuntal tangles radiantly clear. Every minute of their account sounds gripping and purposeful, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay the piece.”

About Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. 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 was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

The Quartet has performed in New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. They have collaborated with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; composer-vocalist Theo Bleckmann; St. Lawrence Quartet, and the Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by John Harbison, Osvaldo Golijov, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger. In 2018 the Quartet released its debut album, Into the Light, featuring works by Anton Webern, Benjamin Britten, and Leon Kirchner on the Centaur label. The Telegraph Quartet released its new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths – which features Ravel’s renowned quartet and Schoenberg’s first quartet – on August 25 via Azica Records.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Quartet is currently on the chamber music faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as the Quartet-in-Residence and has given master classes at the SFCM Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan and in fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet.

For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Friends of Chamber Music Portland on Monday, January 22 and Tuesday January 23, 2024 at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a different program each evening–First Time’s a Charm and Unlikely Muses. The first concert will feature music by Walker, Britten, Vivian Fung, and Dvořák, while the second performance will feature the work of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Beethoven, and Berg.

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented by Friends of Chamber Music Portland in two unique performances on January 22 and 23, 2024. The first concert will include works by Walker, Britten, Vivian Fung, and Dvořák. The second performance will feature music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Beethoven, and Berg.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Friends of Chamber Music Portland
What: Music by Walker, Britten, Vivian Fung, and Dvořák; Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Beethoven, and Berg
When: Monday January 22 and Tuesday January 23, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Lincoln Performance Hall at Portland State University, 1620 SW Park Ave., Portland, OR 97214
Tickets and information: www.focm.org/concerts/2023-24-season/telegraph-quartet-2023-24/6263/

March 8: Sony Classical to release Lucas Debargue's next album - Fauré’s Complete Music for Solo Piano

Sony Classical Presents
Lucas Debargue's Remarkable Recording of Fauré’s Complete Music for Solo Piano

First Single - 3 Romances sans paroles,
Op. 17: Romance No. 3 Andante Moderato
Out Now

Album Release Date: March 8, 2024
Preorder Now

A key release for the anniversary of French composer Gabriel Fauré, as 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death (1845 - 1924)

This 4-album set with 68 tracks is a remarkable new release as it covers the complete piano oeuvre of Gabriel Fauré written over 60 years

Includes extensive liner notes by Debargue on the music, its significance, and the composer's life

Recorded on a special piano (Opus 102 by Stephen Paulello) with 102 keys that has never before been heard in recital or on a recording

Upcoming US Performances:
Jan. 28, 2024: Horowitz Center in Columbia, MD
Presented by the Candlelight Concert Society
Tickets and Information

Feb. 2, 2024: Carnegie Hall in New York, NY
Presented by Cherry Orchard Festival
Tickets and Information

For his latest release on Sony Classical, pianist Lucas Debargue turns to one of the unsung treasuries of the piano repertoire - the works of Gabriel Fauré. In a remarkable undertaking, Debargue has recorded every note of his compatriot’s piano music - all on a newly designed piano rarely heard on record until now.

For many years, Debargue was mystified by what he describes as the ‘gentle melancholy and harmonic sophistication’ of Fauré’s piano music. He played the French composer’s early piano works but steered clear of the Bagatelles, Nocturnes and Preludes that enjoy a special reputation among certain pianists.

Turning Point

The turning point came when Debargue encountered Fauré’s Nine Preludes Op 103. These elusive masterpieces, written in 1910-11, ‘revealed the profound originality and mastery’ of the composer, says Debargue. They encompass, the pianist believes, ‘a vast emotional range from serene contemplation to extreme anguish.’

For his new recording, Debargue has reexamined Fauré’s entire output for piano, starting from the beginning. Across 4 CDs, he ‘retraces the journey that the composer had taken from his earliest works for the piano to his last contribution to the medium.’ Recording it, reports the pianist, has ‘transformed my life both as a person and as a musician.’

Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) lived through a time of great change in France. He was born into a country entrenched in tradition but by the end of his life had witnessed the arrival of radical new trends including the birth of modernism and the shifting of the centre of musical gravity from Vienna to his own city, Paris.

Delicacy, accuracy and precision are often cited as key elements of Fauré’s music, which has a reputation for understated elegance but is just as often passionate and disruptive. It was famously referred to by Aaron Copland as ‘intensity on a background of calm’. Like Beethoven, Fauré was afflicted by encroaching deafness with increasing age - a feature of his biography that influenced his later music.

Piano music ranks alongside chamber music and song as the most important genre in Fauré’s production. The composer spent 60 years exploring the piano and developing his specific philosophy of the instrument. In his piano music, the expressive rubs shoulders with the reserved, the spontaneous with the austere, violence with calm - sometimes within the space of a single bar. In his works for the instrument, the composer’s trademark clarity and concision are combined with sinuous melodies and tantalizing harmonic ambiguity.

A Rarely Heard Instrument

It is Debargue’s firm belief that Fauré’s piano music deserves a very particular instrumental sound. He has found the instrument to provide it in the ‘Opus 102’ piano, designed and built by Stephen Paulello - a boutique piano maker based in Bourgogne, France.

The instrument’s name comes from its extended range of 102 keys, encompassing eight octaves plus a fourth. It is a ‘barless’ piano, in which no part of the metal frame is laid over resonating strings, resulting in unconstrained resonance across every string and therefore, every note. Parallel strings and nickel-coated wires help create a different piano sonority.

When Debargue first played the Paulello Opus 102 piano, he was surprised and intrigued. ‘The instrument resembled no other,’ he says: ‘not only did if fill me with considerable enthusiasm, it also left me feeling disorientated.’

What the pianist describes as the ‘ideal clarity’ in the instrument led him to conclude that this would be the partner piano for his Fauré recordings. Among its qualities, he cites, is its ability to change sound at a moment’s notice, ‘to switch from a velvety sound to something more acidulous.’

Fauré and the Piano

Fauré wrote piano works throughout his creative life, resulting in an oeuvre stretching over some sixty years. His first published piano pieces, Trois romances sans parole, cannot be precisely dated but are thought to have been written around 1863. They show the influence of Mendelssohn and the German school, but with Gallic charm. Also included here are Fauré’s frequently overlooked Pièces brèves Op 84, written later in the 1860s.

Among the works that followed were an 1875 Mazurka in stylistic tribute to Chopin, with touches of grace and melancholy, and the Ballade for solo piano (written 1877-79), known for its intricate piano writing.

Perhaps Fauré’s best known piano collection is his set of Barcarolles, written over 41 years from 1880 and second only to the Nocturnes in offering a comprehensive survey of what the composer could draw from a piano in service of his wider musical worldview. The set moves from straightforward but charming lyricism to music of unearthly transparency.

The ornate Impromptus followed in 1881, while the Valses-caprices, a collection started in 1882 and added to for twelve years, reveal the improvisatory elements to Fauré’s writing (a quality particularly suited to the Paulello Opus 102, says Debargue). Other works of the period include a sturdy Theme and Variations of 1895.

Fauré’s late sets of 13 Nocturnes and Nine Preludes are without doubt his most remarkable works for the piano. The Nocturnes appears to alternate light and dark, passion and serenity, in which there are references to the abyss of the First World War. The Nine Preludes, from 1910-11, are elusive masterpieces that gradually reveal their truths from a place of cool serenity.

Fauré’s hallmarks make themselves felt throughout these works - a sinuous musical language that combines ancient modes with modern conventions, and whose emotional breadths have rarely been matched. Fauré’s music can appear to show both courage and despair, but its most admirable and consistent quality is widely believed to be its charm.

Fauré 2024

Lucas Debargue’s recording of Fauré’s complete piano works is set to be a major recording event of the Fauré anniversary, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death in 1924. Its 68 tracks will be available digitally as well as physically in a 4 CD box . A comprehensive set of sleeve notes notes includes Debargue’s own commentary on each piece, an analysis of Fauré’s approach to the piano writing and full details of the Paulello Opus 102 instrument. The pianist will include Fauré in his recitals throughout the coming year.

Link to the Album: https://Lucasdebargue.Lnk.To/Faure

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Nov 27: Simone Dinnerstein performs Philip Glass's Tirol Concerto with Brooklyn Orchestra at Roulette; plus NY Premiere of Glass's Symphony No. 14

Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein 

GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as soloist in
Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Concerto for Piano and Orchestra with the Brooklyn Orchestra

Concert features the New York Premiere of Glass’s Symphony No. 14
Conducted by Olivier Glissant

Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:30pm
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Avenue | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets & Information

www.simonedinnerstein.com | www.brooklynorchestra.org

New York, NY – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described by The Washington Post as, “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will be the featured soloist in Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto (Piano Concerto No. 1) in a performance with the Brooklyn Orchestra conducted by Olivier Glissant, on Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:30pm at Roulette Intermedium (509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn). This will be the Brooklyn native’s first performance at the venue. Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto, composed in 2000, has not been played in New York in 20 years. The concert will also include the New York premiere of Glass’s Symphony No. 14 (“Liechtenstein Suite”), composed in 2020 for the LGT Young Soloists, which gave the world premiere in 2021 at the Royal College of Music in London. 

Simone Dinnerstein is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and is becoming known for her interpretations of Philip Glass’s music. She recorded and extensively performed his Piano Concerto No. 3, which he wrote for her in 2017, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. NPR reported of her recording of the piece, “Dinnerstein's creamy tone and elastic phrasing gives the music an air of Schubertian warmth and wistfulness.” The Washington Post writes of her interpretation of Mad Rush, “The vast architecture of Glass’s Mad Rush was shot through with ever-changing light, creating a hypnotic effect with a delicate symbiosis of the physical and spiritual.”

Dinnerstein began performing Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto No. 1 earlier this year. The seldom-performed work is based on melody fragments of traditional Austrian Volkslied, or folk music, in the Tyrolean tradition. It was commissioned by Festival Klangspuren and the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 2000. Dinnerstein says of the piece, “The second movement of the ‘Tirol’ is what first drew me to it. Built almost as a set of variations, the sound is lush and pulsating, and its mood relates to his Symphony No 3 for strings. I love the play between intense lyricism and a feeling of austerity, so reminiscent of Schubert’s writing.”

The Brooklyn Orchestra is a symphonic ensemble dedicated to new music, striving to focus on contemporary composers. Created in 2015 by composer/conductor Olivier Glissant, the group was conceived to fuse genres of music that rarely meet on the classical stage and to bring music from multiple cultures to the orchestral repertoire, in an effort to make symphonic music accessible to a wider and more diverse audience.

About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.

In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.

www.simonedinnerstein.com

For Calendar Editors:

Description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” performs Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto on a concert that also includes the New York premiere of his Symphony No. 14 with the Brooklyn Orchestra conducted by Olivier Glissant at Roulette.

Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with the Brooklyn Orchestra
Conducted by Olivier Glissant
What: Philip Glass’s “Tirol” Piano Concerto and New York premiere of his Symphony No. 14
When: Monday, November 27, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Roulette Intermedium, 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
Tickets and information: www.brooklynorchestra.org/calendarmain.html

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Soloist in Concert at Carnegie Hall Presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York

Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Arianna Dominguez available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein 

GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein performs as soloist with
Chamber Orchestra of New York at Carnegie Hall

Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467
Conducted by Music Director Salvatore DiVittorio
Presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York

Thursday, December 14, 2023 at 7pm
Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall | 57th St. and 7th Ave. | NYC
Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212.247.7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office

“lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance”
– The New Yorker

Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com

New York, NY – GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who is described by The Washington Post as “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity,” will be the featured soloist with Chamber Orchestra of New York conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio, in a concert on Saturday, December 14, 2023 presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall.

Dinnerstein, an American pianist who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will be the featured soloist in a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467. The concert program will also include Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Suite by John Williams, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana – a transcription of five of Verdi’s favorite operas.

The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.” As a musician who embraces collaboration and inclusiveness with her artistry and performances, Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major, K. 467 holds particular significance for Dinnerstein. Not only is the piece included on her 2017 album, Mozart in Havana, but the concerto served as a point of artistic connection between Dinnerstein and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra, with which she performed the piece while visiting Cuba in 2015, at the invitation of her teacher and esteemed pianist, Solomon Mikowsky. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s performance of the C Major K 467 concerto as having “heartfelt directness, purity of line,”

Of the personal significance behind Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major and her cherished memories performing it, Dinnerstein says:

“This Mozart concerto has been one of my favorites since I was a child. I’ve had many memorable experiences performing it, from the thrilling experience of performing it in Vienna, where Mozart lived, to recording it in Havana with the extraordinary Havana Lyceum Orchestra and subsequently touring it with them in the United States. The writing is reminiscent of Mozart’s operatic output, and it is a complete joy to sing on the piano. I am excited to perform this work, collaborating for the first time with Salvatore DiVittorio and Chamber Orchestra of New York!”

About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.

In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.

www.simonedinnerstein.com

About Chamber Orchestra of New York: Chamber Orchestra of New York is a premier ensemble that features a seasoned roster of our city’s most flourishing musicians. The orchestra is internationally distinguished for championing unique repertoire that bridges the classical and modern traditions, including iconic film music, through premieres and world premiere recordings of rediscovered masterworks. Through all-embracing approaches with its distinct programs – from performances to educational outreach – the orchestra aims to cultivate a broader audience across generations for the future of classical music. The orchestra has received commissions from The Morgan Library & Museum, Dolce & Gabbana at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the United Nations, and Star Wars under Disney, among others. The orchestra’s albums for Naxos Records, including its work championing Respighi, continue to air worldwide to much acclaim. It has also established The Respighi Prize music competition, New York Conducting Workshop, and Maestro Juniors education program.

About Salvatore Di Vittorio: Salvatore Di Vittorio is an internationally respected, published composer and conductor, recognized for his uniquely lyrical, melodic orchestral music “following in the footsteps of Ottorino Respighi” – the revered 20th century composer who inspired great composers in both classical and film music. In 2008, the great nieces of Respighi, Elsa and Gloria Pizzoli, entrusted Di Vittorio with the restoration of several early orchestral works, including the completion of the first Concerto for violin (in A Major). With his profound natural gift of melody throughout all his memorable music, Di Vittorio’s forte of orchestration and arrangement is evidenced not only through his own original works but numerous elaborations across the spectrum from Claude Debussy to John Barry. A multifaceted career, doubling as an orchestral conductor, as Music Director of Chamber Orchestra of New York, further distinguishes Salvatore Di Vittorio from most orchestral composers today.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” is presented as a guest soloist with Chamber Orchestra of New York in for a performance conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, featuring the music of Mozart, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana.

Short description: GRAMMY-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” (The New Yorker), is presented in concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall with Chamber Orchestra of New York, led by Salvatore Di Vittorio. The concert will include music by Mozart, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana.

Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Chamber Orchestra of New York
Presented by Chamber Orchestra of New York
Conducted by Salvatore Di Vittorio
What: Music by Mozart, John Williams, Tchaikovsky, and the world premiere of Salvatore Di Vittorio’s Suite Verdiana
When: Saturday, December 14, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: 57th St. and 7th Ave., New York, NY 10019
Tickets and information: www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2023/12/14/Chamber-Orchestra-of-New-York-0700PM

San Francisco Girls Chorus Explores Folk Songs of the World with Latin Grammy Nominee Sam Reider at Davies Symphony Hall

Photos available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World
at Davies Symphony Hall on December 11

With Special Guest Latin Grammy Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider
Valérie Sainte-Agathe, Artistic Director

Monday, December 11, 2023 at 7pm
Davies Symphony Hall | 201 Van Ness Ave. | San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information: www.sfgirlschorus.org/performances

San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org
Press Room: www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) continues its 2023-2024 season with its highly anticipated annual concert at Davies Symphony Hall, SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World, on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 7pm. The concert will feature hundreds of singers from the Premier Ensemble, the entire six-level Chorus School, SFGC alumnae, and special guest accordionist and 2023 Latin Grammy nominee, Sam Reider. Led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC is celebrating 45 years of empowering young women through music this season.

SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World is inspired by folk music traditions from around the world, combining traditional favorites (including Silent Night), new works, and hidden gems from the holiday choral repertoire. "One of my favorite moments in the year is the concert at Davies Symphony Hall, when we have 300 children on stage,” says Sainte-Agathe. “You hear and feel the power of the sound. One reason our singers remain motivated is that each time they're on stage, they have this feeling that they are performing, and doing it really well after practicing so much. They realize that their music is moving and touching to people; sometimes people are so moved that they’re crying. That's so powerful. There is really nothing else like it."

Guest artist Sam Reider, who is based in San Francisco, has performed, recorded, and collaborated with a range of artists including Jon Batiste, Jorge Glem, Sierra Hull, Laurie Lewis, and Paquito d’Rivera. From his genre-bending acoustic ensemble The Human Hands to his duo collaboration with Grammy-nominated Venezuelan artist Jorge Glem, his unique compositional voice and melodicism runs throughout his eclectic projects.

Since 1978, SFGC has provided girls and young women the unique opportunity not only to perform at the highest artistic caliber, but also to develop self-confidence, leadership skills, and an awareness of the role of the arts in civic engagement. A leader in the Bay Area and national music scenes, SFGC produces award-winning concerts, recordings and tours; empowers young women in music and other fields; and sets the international standard for the highest level of performance and education. SFGC has been recognized through numerous honors including five GRAMMY Awards, four ASCAP/Chorus America Awards for Adventurous Programming, and in 2002, becoming the first youth chorus to receive Chorus America's prestigious Margaret Hillis Achievement Award for Choral Excellence. Each year, hundreds of singers of diverse backgrounds from 45 Bay Area cities ranging in age from age four to eighteen participate in SFGC’s programs. The organization consists of a six-level Chorus School training program and the Premier Ensemble, a professional-level chorus of treble voices.

Under the direction of Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC has achieved an incomparable sound that underscores the unique clarity and force of impeccably trained treble voices fused with expressiveness and drama. As a result, the SFGC vibrantly performs 1,000 years of choral masterworks from plainchant to the most challenging and nuanced contemporary works, many created expressly for them, in programs that are as intelligently designed as they are enjoyable and revelatory to experience. The SFGC 2023-2024 season is no exception. 

SFGC's season continues on March 9, 2024 when the Premier Ensemble performs Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space, with music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe and stage direction by Céline Ricci. The Premier Ensemble’s season concludes with a collaboration with renowned percussionist and composer Haruka Fujii on May 19, 2024 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. On May 30, 2024, the Chorus School will showcase singers from Levels 1 through IV at its annual Chorus School Spring Concert at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments from the year individually and as a school. In addition, SFGC ensembles will perform throughout the Bay Area in collaboration this season with other organizations and artists including the East Bay Philharmonic, Sunset Music & Arts, Lisa Mezzacappa, and the Amateur Music Network.

More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about
More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe
More about Sam Reider: www.samreidermusic.com/about

San Francisco Girls Chorus - Upcoming Highlights

SFGC Winter Concert: Folk Songs of the World
with Latin Grammy-Nominee Accordionist Sam Reider

December 11, 2023 at 7pm
Davies Symphony Hall, 201 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans
Music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & stage direction by Celine Ricci

March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm & March 10, 2024 at 2pm
Z Space, 450 Florida St, San Francisco, CA

SFGC Premier Ensemble with Percussionist & Composer Haruka Fujii

May 19, 2024 at 3pm
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, 50 Oak St, San Francisco, CA

Chorus School Spring Concert
Featuring a World Premiere by SFGC Composer-in-Residence Sahba Aminikia

May 30, 2024
Scottish Rite Masonic Center, 2850 19th Ave, San Francisco, CA

Tickets & information: www.sfgirlschorus.org

The San Francisco Girls Chorus receives support from Grants for the Arts, The Kimball Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Sequoia Trust, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., The Sam Mazza Foundation, The Bernard Osher Foundation, and The Morris Stulsaft Foundation.

GatherNYC continues in Nov and Dec with Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl, Dalí Quartet, and Project Trio at MAD in Columbus Circle

GatherNYC Continues 2023-2024 Season at Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle

Every Other Sunday Morning at 11AM

Up Next:
NOV 19 • Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl
DEC 3 • Dalí Quartet
DEC 17 • Project Trio
JAN 7 • 9 Horses + Jacob Jolliff (mandolin)
JAN 21 • Parker Ramsay (harp) + Brandon Patrick George (flute)
FEB 4 • Douglas J Cuomo + The Overlook: Seven Limbs
FEB 18 • Duo Kayo
MAR 3 • Invoke
MAR 17 • Borromeo Quartet
MAR 31 • Juilliard Quartet
APR 14 • Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
APR 28 • Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
MAY 12 • Ocean Music Action: Megan Conley (harp) + friends
MAY 26 • Kristin Lee (violin) + friends

“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 2023-24 season at the series’ home venue, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) (2 Columbus Circle) with three upcoming concerts in November and December. The season runs through May 2024, with concerts held every other Sunday at 11am in The Theater at MAD. Coffee and pastries are served before each performance at 10:30am.

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.

Up next:

Nov 19: Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl
GatherNYC Artistic Directors Rupert Boyd and Laura Metcalf team up with violinist Abi Fayette and trumpeter Louis Hanzlik, two of the Artistic Directors of the legendary, Grammy-winning Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, for a joyous collaborative program that spans many genres including Baroque, tango, jazz and more.

Dec 3: Dalí Quartet
The award-winning Dalí Quartet is acclaimed for bringing Latin American quartet repertoire to an equal standing alongside the Classical and Romantic canon. Their program “Classical Roots, Latin Soul” has been praised worldwide for its fresh approach to music from Brahms and Haydn to Piazzolla and Paquito d’Rivera.

Dec 17: PROJECT Trio
PROJECT Trio, made up of saxophone, double bass and beatboxing flute, is a dynamic and innovative music group known for their genre-blending performances and captivating stage presence. The trio pushes the boundaries of traditional chamber music with their unique fusion of classical, jazz, hip-hop, and world music influences. Their creative and adventurous approach to music-making has earned them a devoted following (their YouTube channel alone has over 100 million views), making them a trailblazing force in the contemporary music landscape. 

Jan 7: 9 Horses with Jacob Jolliff
Supergroup 9 Horses (Sara Caswell, violin; Joseph Brent, mandolin; Andrew Ryan, bass) returns to GatherNYC along with mandolin virtuoso Jacob Jolliff of the Bela Fleck Band to present their electrifying program that blends bluegrass with Bach and Vivaldi. 

Jan 21: Brandon Patrick George (flute) + Parker Ramsay (harp)
Grammy-winning flutist Brandon Patrick George, a “knockout musician with a gorgeous sound” (Philadelphia Inquirer) is joined by harpist Parker Ramsay, hailed as “remarkably special” (Gramophone) for an unforgettable duo recital. Together they perform a lyrical program spanning centuries and continents.

Feb 4: Douglas J Cuomo + The Overlook: “Seven Limbs”
The Overlook returns to GatherNYC to present Douglas J Cuomo’s meditative and ecstatic work Seven Limbs for string quartet and improvised electric guitar. This piece is inspired by an ancient Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice called The Seven Limbs, which is a method of purifying the mind, allowing it to become more patient, peaceful, loving, and compassionate; filled with joyful energy.

Feb 18: Duo Kayo
Duo Kayo is the dynamic pairing of violist Edwin Kaplan and cellist Titilayo Ayangade, both star chamber musicians and veterans of esteemed string quartets (the Tesla and Thalea Quartets, respectively). The duo is on a mission to become a vessel for new and exciting music, which they have already shared with audiences across the country, as well as closer to home at Lincoln Center. Their expressive, richly harmonic programs creatively blend the classical with the contemporary.

Mar 3: Invoke
Described as “...not anything but everything: Classical, Folk, Bluegrass, Americana and a sound yet to be termed seamlessly merged into a perfect one” (David Srebnik, SiriusXM Classical), Invoke strives to successfully dodge even the most valiant attempts at genre classification. The multi-instrumental quartet encompasses traditions from across America, including bluegrass, Appalachian fiddle tunes, jazz, and minimalism. Fueled by their passion for storytelling, Invoke weaves all of these styles together to form a unique contemporary repertoire, featuring original works composed by and for the group.

Mar 17: Borromeo Quartet
One of the most influential quartets of our time, the Borromeo Quartet has held residencies at both New England Conservatory and the Taos School of Music for 25 years. Their vivid performances and fearless approach to music making have inspired many generations of musicians, and led them to be recognized with some of the industry’s most prestigious awards: the Cleveland Quartet Award, the Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the Martin Segal Award of Lincoln Center.

Mar 31: Juilliard String Quartet
Founded in 1946 and hailed by The Boston Globe as “the most important American quartet in history,” the ensemble draws on a deep and vital engagement to the classics, while embracing the mission of championing new works, a vibrant combination of the familiar and the daring. Each performance of the Juilliard String Quartet is a unique experience, bringing together the four members’ profound understanding, total commitment, and unceasing curiosity in sharing the wonders of the string quartet literature. Based out of the Juilliard School in New York City, where the four members of the quartet serve on the faculty, the reach of this venerable quartet is worldwide.

April 14: Maeve Gilchrist (harp)
The Edinburgh-born, New York-based harpist and composer Maeve Gilchrist has taken the Celtic harp to new levels of visibility. Sought after as both a soloist and collaborator, she has released 5 albums and enjoyed high-profile collaborations with the Silkroad Ensemble, Arooj Aftab and many others. Her most recent album was hailed by the Irish Times in its five-star review as “Buoyant, sprightly and utterly beguiling...a snapshot of a musician at the top of her game.”

April 28: Majel Connery + Felix Fan: Rivers are our Brothers
The Rivers are our Brothers is an electronic song cycle on ecological responsibility, told from the point of view of the land. Based on a letter from Chief Seattle that urges us to think of the earth as kin, the songs take a first-person view of nature: rocks sing about their mothers, and snowflakes tell about their hearts of sand. Connery’s vocals and Felix Fan’s electric cello combine to tell the story using a “supernatural” sound. "The goal of this music is to give nature a voice" says Connery, “and this isn’t a cute nature documentary. I want to stop people in their tracks and show them the world like they’ve never seen it: as vibrant, and thrilling, and alive.”

May 12: Ocean Music Action: Honoring Mother Earth
On Mother’s Day, harpist Megan Conley brings her Ocean Music Action project to GatherNYC with a concert paired with a volunteer day of climate action. OMA uses the transformative power of music to inspire greater stewardship of oceans and waterways, and the musical selections are inspired by the natural world. Megan, formerly the principal harpist of the Houston Symphony now living in Honolulu, will be joined by several of her esteemed colleagues from The Knights for a special program honoring mother earth.

May 26: Kristin Lee & Friends
GatherNYC’s 2023-24 season concludes with a celebratory program curated and performed by one of New York City’s most accomplished violinists, Kristin Lee. Kristin enjoys a vibrant and multi-faceted career as a soloist with major orchestras like the Philadelphia Orchestra and St. Louis Symphony, a chamber musician on the roster of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, and Founder and Artistic Director of Emerald City Music, a chamber music series in Washington State. Kristin and her colleagues will share a virtuosic and exciting program to finish the season.

For tickets and information, visit www.gathernyc.org.

Pianists Sarah Cahill, Adam Sherkin, and Adrienne Kim Presented by Piano Lunaire on December 9th

Pianists Sarah Cahill, Adam Sherkin, and Adrienne Kim
Presented by Piano Lunaire in
COMPOSERS IN PLAY VI: Portrait of a Canadian Minimalist
Performing the Music of Ann Southam

Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 8pm
Tenri Cultural Institute | 43 W. 13th St. | New York, NY 10011

Tickets and more information:
www.pianolunaire.org/composersinplay

“Pianist Sarah Cahill commands a near-godlike status among fans of contemporary classical music”
– NPR Music

Sarah Cahill | Adrienne Kim | Adam Sherkin

New York, NY – On Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 8pm, “sterling pianist” (The New York Times) Sarah Cahill will be presented in concert by Piano Lunaire alongside pianists Adrienne Kim and Adam Sherkin (Artistic Director of Piano Lunaire) at the Tenri Cultural Institute (43 W. 13th St.). This concert, titled Portrait of a Canadian Minimalist, is the sixth installment in the Composers in Play series presented by Piano Lunaire.

The three pianists will perform a program highlighting the work of Canadian composer Ann Southam. Cahill will give the New York premiere of Commotion Creek (2007) and perform Glass Houses No. 5 and No.7 (1981) and Rivers Series 1 No. 1 and Rivers Series 2 No. 7 (1979). Sherkin will give the New York premieres of Fiddle Creek (2008), Pond Life III (2008), Fidget Creek (2008) and Pond Life IV (2008). Kim and Sherkin will also be performing original works by Sherkin, with Sherkin giving the U.S. premiere of his work, This Constant Song (Homage to Southam). Kim will also perform Franz Schubert’s Gretchen am Spinnrade (arr. by Franz Liszt) (1814) and Southam’s Remembering Schubert (1993).

An unlikely champion of the Minimalist aesthetic, Southam worked tirelessly throughout her career, experimenting with style and structure, always staying true to her own voice and musicality. Later in life, as she embraced minimalism - particularly at the keyboard - she navigated her own brand of lyricism, intimacy and efficiency of line not only as feminist, but as an individual artist born of unquestionably North American sensibilities. She advocated for women in the arts and cultivated her own – very unique – career, all the while cohabitating a compositional world heavily dominated by men. CBC Producer Eitan Cornfield once said: “Ann Southam blasts the stereotype of the Canadian composer. She is proudly, politically female, in a stuffy male universe.”

In 2023, now thirteen years after her death, she is revered more than ever. This performance celebrates the major piano cycles Southam wrote over a late twenty-year span, forming her final creative period: Glass Houses, Rivers and Pond Life. These works are the most popular of Ann Southam’s cycles to be sold in print and be performed.

Of collaborating with Cahill for this program honoring Ann Southam, Sherkin says:

“We are honored to be collaborating with Sarah Cahill on this exciting presentation of Ann Southam’s piano music. Cahill is among the most sensitive proponents of Southam’s catalogue, particularly here in the US. Her dedication to Southam’s art has yielded expert renditions, both on stage and in the recording studio. Additionally, Cahill’s career has seen dynamic partnerships with celebrated American minimalist composers, offering a unique depth of understanding when performing Southam. This exceptional profile of West Coast meeting a Canadian sensibility, is ideal for contextualizing Southam in a dynamic new perspective for 2023. It is our hope that fresh audiences will come to discover and appreciate Ann Southam’s work, both at the piano and beyond.”

Of Ann Southam’s music and the works she’ll be performing in this concert, Kim says:

“Ann Southam’s approach to minimalism speaks to me on so many levels. She wanted to shine a light on the repetitive and meditative qualities of so-called ‘women’s work’, the daily work of mending and sewing, that was so important and beautiful but often unnoticed. There is something about the work done by hands, whether holding a needle or playing the piano, that allows contemplation and rumination and the deepest exploration. In this program, I’m weaving together a transcription of one of Franz Schubert’s most famous songs - portraying the innermost thoughts of a woman sitting at a spinning wheel, with Ann Southam’s “Remembering Schubert”, and pairing these with two gorgeous pieces by Adam Sherkin, which seem to me to be of a similar handicraft, though across centuries.”

Cahill says of this special performance dedicated to Ann Southam’s work and performing alongside Kim and Sherkin:

“It’s a great honor to be joining two esteemed colleagues, Adam Sherkin and Adrienne Kim, for this special celebration of Ann Southam’s music. Adam has an especially close relationship to Southam’s music, through his extensive research and deep understanding of her work, and as a fellow Canadian composer. For a few decades now, Southam has been one of my favorite composers to play, but Adam encouraged me to explore more of her work, for which I’m very grateful. Southam is often left out of the history books and lists of great minimalist composers, so this concert presented by Piano Lunaire is particularly meaningful, to introduce her to new audiences and generate more interest in her extraordinarily profound and transcendent music.”

About Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF). Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings.

Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 6 to 8pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.

About Adrienne Kim: Pianist Adrienne Kim has performed in Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Bargemusic, Symphony Hall, Phillips Gallery and Ravinia's Rising Stars series in Chicago. She has been soloist with the Central Philharmonic Orchestra of Beijing, and the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico among others. Adrienne was a member of Chamber Music Society Two, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's two-year residency program. She is the pianist of the Alcott Trio and a founding member of the New York Chamber Music Co-Op. She performs regularly as a member of the Bronx Arts Ensemble and participated in the National Endowment for the Arts/Chamber Music America Rural Residency. She has recorded for the Koch, Centaur, Capstone, Albany and Innova labels. Her newest recording of solo piano and chamber works by the composer Ilari Kaila, with the Aizuri Quartet and flutist Isabel Lepanto Gleicher, was released last year on Innova Recordings.

Adrienne is on the faculty of Mannes College and heads the Secondary Piano department there. She recently joined the faculty of Manhattan School of Music Pre-College and Interharmony Music School. She also teaches at Kinhaven’s Young Artist Seminar and taught at the senior session for 12 summers. She is the founder and director of Wild Plums Recording Retreat, a boutique festival in Vermont devoted to the art of recording, and ScherziMusic Academy, which offers online workshops in piano and composition. She studied at Indiana University and Manhattan School of Music as a student of Menahem Pressler and Leon Fleisher.

About Adam Sherkin: Acclaimed for “dazzling displays of hand and ear virtuosity” (Opus One), “technical prowess and uncommon lyricism” (Musical Toronto), Adam Sherkin is a dynamic artist who commands a multi-dimensional approach to performance and composition. Admired for innovative programming and engaging virtuosity, Sherkin has performed at significant venues throughout Canada, the United States and Britain. His solo repertoire features music from the Baroque to present-day, with a specialization in keyboard works from North America (including his own). Recently, Sherkin’s music has been premiered in Mexico, the United States, the Netherlands and Asia. In 2018, Adam Sherkin founded “Piano Lunaire,” a new-gen organization that serves as platform for contemporary performances, houses a record label and collaborates with the new music community at large. Sherkin’s recordings are available on all major streaming services; he currently resides in New York City.

About Piano Lunaire: Innovating, Piano-Side, since 2018: Founded in October 2018 under a full Hunter's Moon, Piano Lunaire is a contemporary classical music organization based in New York and Toronto, pursuing the presentation of artistic excellence in the 21st Century. The company’s portfolio is three-fold: we produce monthly full moon performances, house a record label, and collaborate with the musical community at large, in capacity of both fundraiser and pedagogical platform.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianists Sarah Cahill, described by The New York Times as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde,” Adam Sherkin, and Adrienne Kim are presented in concert by Piano Lunaire. Cahill will perform several selections by composer Ann Southam, as part of a program titled: Portrait of a Canadian Minimalist. The concert will also feature original works by Sherkin –– including the U.S. premiere of This Constant Song (Homage to Southam) – as well as music by Franz Schubert.

Short description: Pianists Sarah Cahill, “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” (The New York Times), Adam Sherkin, and Adrienne Kim, are presented by Piano Lunaire. The program features works by Ann Southam, Adam Sherkin, and Franz Schubert.

Concert details:

Who: Pianists Sarah Cahill, Adam Sherkin, and Adrienne Kim
Presented by Piano Lunaire
What: Music by Ann Southam, Adam Sherkin, and Franz Schubert
When: Saturday, December 9, 2023 at 8pm
Where: Tenri Cultural Institute, 43 W. 13th St., New York, NY 10011
Tickets and information: www.pianolunaire.org/composersinplay

Emerald City Music Presents Inspired by Gamelan – Featuring the Washington State Debut of Gamelan Gita Asmara led by Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka

Emerald City Music Presents Inspired by Gamelan
Featuring the Washington State Debut of Gamelan Gita Asmara
led by Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka

Plus Percussionist Svet Stoyanov, Violinist Kristin Lee,
and Pianist Michael Stephen Brown

with Music by Steve Reich, Claude Debussy, and Lou Harrison

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8pm
415 Westlake
415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/inspired-by-gamelan

Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 7:30pm
Capital High School Performing Arts Center
2707 Conger Avenue NW | Olympia, WA

Tickets: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season/inspired-by-gamelan-olympia

“[Artistic Director Kristin Lee] wants to show you, through Emerald City Music’s concert series, just how varied and innovative chamber music can be.” 
– The Seattle Times

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – On Friday, December 15, 2023 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, December 16, 2023 at 7:30pm in Olympia at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center (2707 Conger Avenue NW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents Inspired by Gamelan –– a concert program dedicated to Balinese gamelan, featuring Gamelan Gita Asmara, founded by Dr. Michael Tenzer and led by Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka, in the ensemble’s Washington State debut. Violinist and ECM Artistic Director Kristin Lee, percussionist Svet Stoyanov, and pianist Michael Stephen Brown will also be returning to ECM as featured performers. The first half of the performance will feature Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, III. Fast (1987), Claude Debussy’s Estampes For Solo Piano, L.100 (1903), and Varied Trio For Violin, Piano And Percussion by Lou Harrison (1987), followed by a 30 minute experience of the gamelan as the second half of the performance. The concerts are supported in part by the American-Indonesian Cultural & Educational Foundation.

Composers over the centuries found inspiration in folk music from around the world, and in the late 20th century, many composers found their influence in gamelan music from Indonesia. ECM presents an experience of the Balinese gamelan alongside three chamber music works that transform the indelible instrument into each composer’s own style and setting. Debussy paints with its harmonic color palette and common melodic shapes. Steve Reich lives within its rhythmic systems and poignant expression through repeated figures, while Lou Harrison captures its overall textures and tells an evocative story through the sense of gamelan’s coordinated interlocking parts. The concerts promise to transport audiences with the gamelan in both its urtext and re-textualization.

Of their upcoming Washington State performance debut, Gamelan Gita Asmara says:

“Gamelan Gita Asmara performs traditional and contemporary music of Bali, Indonesia, using a set of instruments called gamelan semaradana, imported from Bali. The group was founded in Vancouver in 1996 by Michael Tenzer, a Professor in the School of Music at UBC. It performs every year throughout British Columbia, and played an extensive tour of Bali in 2013. In these, our first concerts in Washington, we will present two early twentieth-century compositions by the celebrated composer Wayan Lotring, and premiere a new work, Sekar Ura, by our Artistic Director Putu Swaryandana Ichi Oka.”

For the performance 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. The second performance of the program in Olympia will take place at the Capital High School Performing Arts Center.

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for their casual environment combined with award winning artists, ECM has gained recognition from several high-profile publications like Seattle Times, The City Arts deemed ECM “the beacon for the casual-classical movement.” Unique to only ECM attendees are encouraged to wear casual clothes, enjoy the open bar and walk around in order to increase the satisfaction of each of the ECM concerts. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” noting its “nontraditional atmosphere,” which often “doesn’t have a stage separating performers from the audience, and artists mingle with the audience during the intermission.”

This performance, and all of ECM’s Mainstage performances this season, will be recorded live and then made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

For more about the artists, visit: www.emeraldcitymusic.org/season-artists

About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director:

Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who 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.

As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the 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. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. Lee is also 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.

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. 

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 more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.

About ECM:

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), 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 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.

ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Artistic Director Kristin Lee –– a touring violinist awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant and a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center –– is regarded for her innovative programming that both honors the tradition of chamber music while expanding the genre’s boundary past common limits. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.

ECM values real, authentic connection and holds the belief that music possesses the innate power to connect people, inclusive of varying backgrounds and perspectives. Over eight years, artists from every corner of the globe have visited Emerald City Music to prove just that: there exists a special connection between artist and listener that only music can facilitate.

Follow ECM on Social Media

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Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Basically Bach with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra

Photo of Simone Dinnerstein by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution at: https://jensen-artists.squarespace.com/artists-profiles/simone-dinnerstein 

Pianist Simone Dinnerstein is Presented by
The Catskill Mountain Foundation in Basically Bach

with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra
Conducted by Robert Manno

Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 7:30pm
Orpheum Performing Arts Center | 6050 Main St | Tannersville, NY

 Tickets and information: www.catskillmtn.org/orpheum-performing-arts-center/

“an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation”
– The New York Times

Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com

Tannersville, NY – Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New Yorker as an artist​​ of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” will be the featured guest soloist with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra conducted by Robert Manno in a concert titled Basically Bach, on Saturday, November 25, 2023 at the Orpheum Performing Arts Center (6050 Main St.).

Dinnerstein, an American pianist who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, and who has come to be recognized and celebrated for her appreciation of J.S. Bach’s work, will be the featured soloist in performances of Bach’s keyboard concertos: Keyboard Concerto #6 in F Major BWV 1057 and Keyboard Concerto #2 in E Major BWV 1053. The concert program will also include Bach’s Orchestral Suite #3 in D Major BWV 1068, Handel’s Entrance of the Queen of Sheba from Solomon, and Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Cellos in G Minor, with cellists David Heiss and Ashley Bathgate.

The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Of her thoughts leading up to this Bach-centric program and collaborating with Robert Manno and the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra, Dinnerstein says:

“I am really looking forward to collaborating with Bob [Manno] and the musicians of the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra on this repertoire, which is so special to me. It will be my first performance of the F Major keyboard concerto, and it’s always fun to have musical dialogue with one flute, let alone with two! I think the audience will enjoy the bubbly joy of this particular work. The second movement of the E Major keyboard concerto has its origins in one of Bach’s cantatas, and it will be a joy to sing this music on the piano with Bob as my partner, given his experience and expertise in the world of opera.”

About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has a distinctive musical voice. The Washington Post has called her “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy.

In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Piano Sonata No. 2. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. www.simonedinnerstein.com

About The Catskill Mountain Foundation: The Catskill Mountain Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation dedicated to arts, culture and educational enhancements in the northern Catskill Mountain region.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” is presented as a guest soloist with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra in a performance led by Robert Manno titled Basically Bach, featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel.

Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times), is presented as the featured guest soloist with the Windham Festival Chamber Orchestra led by Robert Manno, in Basically Bach. The concert will include music by J.S. Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel.

Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by The Catskill Mountain Foundation
Conducted by Robert Manno
What: Music by J.S. Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel
When: Saturday, November 25, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: Orpheum Performing Arts Center 6050 Main St Tannersville, NY 12485
Tickets and information: www.catskillmtn.org/orpheum-performing-arts-center/

Sony Classical Presents Cleveland Quartet – The Complete RCA Album Collection

Sony Classical Presents
Cleveland Quartet – The Complete RCA Album Collection

The complete RCA Red Seal Recordings of the Cleveland Quartet from 1972 to 1979, featuring the major works for string quartet in analogue recorded sound

18 out of 23 LPs in this set appearing on CD for the first time, remastered from the original master tapes using 24 bit / 192 kHz technology

Collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax, Pinchas Zukerman, Richard Stoltzman and more

Original LP sleeves and labels, booklet with full discographical notes

Release Date: December 1, 2023

Pre-order: www.clevelandquartet.lnk.to/RCAcollection

Immediately upon their debut at the 1969 Marlboro Festival, four brilliant young American musicians calling themselves the Cleveland Quartet were hailed as a chamber ensemble of exceptional quality. Over the next quarter century, they performed on every continent, including nearly 30 complete Beethoven cycles in the US and Europe. At their peak, the Cleveland Quartet gave more than 100 concerts a year. They became the first classical artists to play on the televised Grammy awards and performed at the White House for President’s Carter inauguration.

“A quartet in the great tradition,” declared Stereo Review’s critic, commenting on the Cleveland’s Beethoven for RCA Victor, their exclusive label between 1972 and 1987. Most of the ensemble’s recordings for RCA had never appeared on CD until now. Sony Classical is pleased to present this entire, critically acclaimed discography in a box set of 23 discs.

The earliest entry, first released in 1973, comprises the three Brahms quartets, idiomatic performances that Gramophone’s enthusiastic reviewer heard as “suffused with a warm and mellow light. Scrupulous attention is given to every detail and yet lyrical phrases are allowed their head. … There is no other complete set of these three works that effectively rivals this new recording.”

The same magazine also acclaimed the next Cleveland release, Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden”: “I know of no string quartet with more sumptuous tone than the Cleveland. Their style of music-making is equally generous: they squeeze the last drop of expression out of every bar. … The recording is excellent in catching their tonal body and bloom.”

And so the story continued, with quartets by Haydn, Ives (“A definitive performance” – High Fidelity) and Barber, as well as collaborations with Emanuel Ax in the piano quintets of Schumann, Brahms and Dvořák, which Stereo Review in 1977 deemed “the finest thing the Cleveland Quartet has yet given us – simply gorgeous playing that is totally integrated, within the foursome and with the pianist, at every point.”

There are also two octets. In Mendelssohn’s, the Cleveland players are joined by the Tokyo Quartet, in Schubert’s by such distinguished British soloists as Barry Tuckwell on horn and Jack Brymer on clarinet. And, not least, there is the Schubert String Quintet with Yo-Yo Ma as second cellist, recorded and originally released by CBS. Gramophone called the performance “splendid”, one that goes “to the very heart of this wonderful work.”

But the core of the Cleveland Quartet’s RCA discography is surely the complete Beethoven cycle they recorded between 1974 and 1979. Stereo Review was thoroughly impressed in the Early Quartets by the “(seemingly) effortless agilità, rhythmic vitality and flexibility, and feel for structure and the big line”, and its reviewer found the performances of the Middle Quartets “full of intensity and flexibility with never a hint of self-indulgence, romantic excess, or, for that matter, academicism or over study. The string sound is gorgeous and beautifully recorded.” And, writing about the Cleveland’s Late Quartets, the magazine called it “a true capstone” to the series.

SET CONTENTS

DISC 1:
Brahms: String Quartet No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 51 No. 1
Brahms: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 51 No. 2

DISC 2:
Brahms: String Quartet No. 3 in B-Flat Major, Op. 67

DISC 3:
Schubert: String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810 "Death and the Maiden"
Mozart: Adagio and Fugue in C Minor, K. 546

DISC 4:
Schubert: Octet in F Major, D. 803

DISC 5:
Haydn: String Quartet in D Major, Hob.III:63 "The Lark"
Haydn: String Quartet in D Minor, Hob.III:76 "Erdody, Fifths"

DISC 6:
Barber: String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 11
Ives: String Quartet No. 2
Ives: Scherzo for String Quartet

DISC 7:
Brahms: Quintet for Clarinet and String Quartet in B Minor, Op. 115

DISC 8:
Dvořák: Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81

DISC 9:
Mendelssohn: String Octet, Op. 20
Mendelssohn: Variations and Scherzo for String Quartet, Op. 81

DISC 10:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 "Rasoumovsky"
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 59 No. 2 "Rasoumovsky"

DISC 11:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 9 in C Major, Op. 59 No. 3 "Rasoumovsky"

DISC 12:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat Major, Op. 74 "Harp"
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 95 "Serioso"

DISC 13:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 1 in F Major, Op. 18
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 18

DISC 14:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 3 in D Major, Op. 18
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 4 in C Minor, Op. 18

DISC 15:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 5 in A Major, Op. 18
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 6 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18

DISC 16:
Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in B-Flat Major, Op. 18
Brahms: String Sextet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 36

DISC 17:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 12 in E-Flat Major, Op. 127
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 16 in F Major, Op. 135

DISC 18:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 13 in B-Flat Major, Op. 130

DISC 19:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 131
Beethoven: Grosse Fuge in B-Flat Major, Op. 133

DISC 20:
Beethoven: String Quartet No. 15 in A Minor, Op. 132

DISC 21:
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956, Op. 163

DISC 22:
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34

DISC 23:
Schumann: Piano Quartet in E-Flat, Op. 47
Schumann: Piano Quintet in E-Flat, Op. 44