March 28, April 11 & 25: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Curates Bach Series at Miller Theatre at Columbia University

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

GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Curates Bach Series at Miller Theatre at Columbia University

Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 8pm – Bach Collection
with Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, Oboist Peggy Pearson, Violinist Rebecca Fischer, and Baroklyn

Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 8pm – Bach Suites and Concertos
with Flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley,
Plus Baroklyn

Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 8pm – Bach Sinfonias
Simone Dinnerstein, Solo Piano

Miller Theatre at Columbia University
2960 Broadway (at 116th Street) | New York, NY
Tickets and Information

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

www.simonedinnerstein.com

New York, NY – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein will be presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University (2960 Broadway, at 116th Street) in three concerts on Thursday, March 28, Thursday, April 11, and Thursday, April 25, 2024 as part of Miller Theatre’s 2023-2024 Bach Series, which was curated by Dinnerstein.

A champion of unifying people through music and sharing its beauty with everyone, the Brooklyn-based pianist has collaborated with Miller Theatre to present and perform in another concert series highlighting the awe-inspiring complexities and collaborative joys of J.S. Bach’s work, in addition to music by several other compelling composers.

Dinnerstein shares these thoughts ahead the series opening on March 28:

“For these concerts, I commissioned the fabulous composer, Philip Lasser, to create keyboard realizations for the Cantata 170, Brandenburg 6, and the Orchestral Suite No 3. Philip’s very special sensitivity to Bach’s writing is melded with his own distinctive musical voice and will bring a new flavor to these familiar works. I am particularly excited about his transformation of the Air on the G String and can’t wait to premiere this on April 11!”

On March 28, Dinnerstein opens the series with Bach Collection –– a program highlighting an elegant variety of Bach’s music in several musical forms –– sonata, concerto, and cantata –– performed together with a stellar group of guest artists.

The second performance on April 11, Bach Suites and Concertos, highlights a pair of Bach’s orchestral suites and two of his concertos –– one for keyboard and one of his famed Brandenburg concertos –– performed in collaboration with Dinnerstein’s ensemble Baroklyn, and two guest flutists.

Lastly, on April 25, Dinnerstein closes the series with Bach Sinfonias –– a program for solo piano, which juxtaposes Bach’s Sinfonias with three other musically diverse selections, spanning more than 250 years.

Over the course of more than a decade, Dinnerstein has steadily gained recognition as both a skilled and imaginative performer of Bach’s music. Public appreciation for her performances of his music began with the exuberant and wide-reaching reception of her 2007 debut album featuring J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Since then, Miller Theatre has enthusiastically embraced several opportunities to present Bach-centric concert programs curated and performed by Dinnerstein.

The opening concert on March 28 underscores the creative versatility of J.S. Bach as a composer. The program is anchored by two Bach masterpieces—his Brandenburg Concerto No. 6, where violas get their chance to shine, and his breathtaking sacred cantata Vergnügte Ruh', beliebte Seelenlust (Delightful repose, cherished pleasure of the soul). Featured with Dinnerstein are mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, oboist Peggy Pearson, violinist Rebecca Fischer, and Dinnerstein’s ensemble, Baroklyn, of which she is the Artistic Director and which Dinnerstein conducts from the piano.

Dinnerstein says of the collaborations for the first performance in this year’s series:

“It is also my special pleasure to welcome back Peggy Pearson on March 28. I first fell in love with Peggy’s fabulous oboe d’amore playing on the legendary recording she made with Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Emmanuel Music of Bach’s Ich Habe Genug. In this same concert, we will welcome concertmaster Rebecca Fischer’s daughter, Oriana Hawley, to join Baroklyn’s violists in our performance of Brandenburg 6. Oriana is a dual degree undergraduate student at Columbia University and the Juilliard School.”

On April 11, the Bach Series continues with a performance centered around two pairs of pieces by Bach: his orchestral suites and concertos. Dinnerstein’s artistry at the piano shines in Bach’s Keyboard Concerto No. 6 in F major (1738), while Baroklyn and flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley add a whirlwind of grandiosity and musical color to performances of Bach’s Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor (c. 1738-39); Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major (c. 1731), and the Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major (c. 1720-21).

Then on April 25, Miller Theatre will present the finale of the Bach Series with a performance featuring a thrilling program of solo works for piano that display an assortment of moods and musical forms. Rooted in the Baroque era with J.S. Bach’s technical collection of 15 Sinfonias (1720-23), Dinnerstein also brings her highly skilled and thoughtful performance style to Philip Lasser’s 12 Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach (2002), Keith Jarrett’s Encore From Tokyo (1978) and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Gavotte et 6 Doubles (c. 1729-30).

Through every concert, Dinnerstein strives to inspire enthusiasm and curiosity around Bach’s music. She showcases the beauty of his work, in modern interpretations for today’s listeners. “I hope that hearing these myriad works in one program will bring new shades of meaning to the listeners as well as the performers,” she says.

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.

About Miller Theatre: Miller Theatre at Columbia University is the leading presenter of new music in New York City and a vital force for innovative programming. In partnership with Columbia University School of the Arts, Miller is dedicated to producing and presenting unique events, with a focus on contemporary and early music, jazz, opera, and multimedia performances. Founded in 1988, Miller Theatre has helped launch the careers of myriad composers and ensembles over the years, serving as an incubator for emerging artists and a champion of those not yet well known in the United States. A four-time recipient of the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming, Miller Theatre continues to meet the high expectations set forth by its founders—to present innovative programs, support the development of new work, and connect creative artists with adventurous audiences.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” is presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University in three performances over March and April, as part of Miller Theatre’s 2023-2024 Bach Concert Series. The performances were each curated by Dinnerstein herself and features several guest artists, including Baroklyn, the ensemble Dinnerstein founded and which she conducts from the piano.

Short description: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation,” (The New York Times) is presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University in three performances as part of Miller Theatre’s 2023-2024 Bach Concert Series, which was curated by Dinnerstein herself.

Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, Oboist Peggy Pearson, Violinist Rebecca Fischer, Flutists Christina Jennings and Ilaria Loisa Hawley, and Baroklyn
Presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University
What: Three performances as part of Miller Theater’s 2023-2024 Bach Concert Series
When: March 28, April 11, and April 25, 2024 - all at 8pm
Where: Miller Theatre at Columbia University 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street), New York, NY 10003
Tickets and information: www.millertheatre.com/season-subscriptions/bach#subscription

March 8-9: Emerald City Music Presents Quartet in Spotlight: Abeo Quartet and the Calidore Quartet

Emerald City Music Presents
Quartet in Spotlight: Abeo Quartet and the Calidore Quartet

Featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20
Plus Music by Dimitri Shostakovich and W.A. Mozart

Violinist Kristin Lee, Artistic Director

Friday, March 8, 2024 at 8pm
415 Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets & Information

Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets & Information

“[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, March 8, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, March 9, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW), Emerald City Music (ECM) presents its annual Quartet in Spotlight series, featuring not one, but two exceptional string quartets sharing the stage: the Abeo Quartet (Njioma Grevious, violin; Rebecca Benjamin, violin; James Kang, viola; Macintyre Taback, cello) and the Calidore Quartet (Jeffrey Myers, violin; Ryan Meehan, violin; Jeremy Berry, viola; and Estelle Choi, cello).

The collaboration of these two ensembles celebrates a very meaningful relationship and built legacy: the multi-award winning Calidore has served as mentors and teachers to the emerging Abeo Quartet at the University of Delaware. Each ensemble will perform a work on their own in the spotlight. The Calidore performs W.A. Mozart’s Quartet No. 16 (1783), a tuneful work that redefined the possibility of musical form and bearing a dedication to his contemporary Joseph Haydn.

The Abeo performs Dimitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 11 in F Minor, Op. 122 (1966), a cryptic suite of seven movements that bitterly elegizes the passing of Vasili Shrinsky, a close friend of Shostakovich and a member of the Beethoven Quartet to whom he dedicated four quartets. The Calidore and Abeo Quartets finally join together to perform arguably among the most resplendent pieces of music ever written: Felix Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major (1825). Written at the mere age of sixteen, Mendelssohn’s prodigious symphonic vision met his affection late in life as he called it: “my favorite of all of my compositions.”

Of this thoughtfully curated program, Artistic Director Kristin Lee says:

“As a part of our Quartet in Spotlight segment, we couldn't overlook the fact that we are celebrating our Eighth Season at ECM and decided to feature these two fantastic quartets to join forces on one of the most beloved pieces of the chamber music repertoire- Mendelssohn's Octet. The Calidore Quartet mentored the Abeo String Quartet at University of Delaware in the recent years, so it will be such a special performance to witness the leading quartet of our time collaborating with the next generation of up and coming string quartets. It's a program not to be missed!”

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

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

Facebook: www.facebook.com/emeraldcitymusic
Instagram: www.instagram.com/emeraldcitymusic

San Francisco Girls Chorus Celebrates 45th Anniversary Season with Annual Gala and Auction on April 26

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

San Francisco Girls Chorus Celebrates 45th Anniversary Season with Annual Gala and Auction on April 26

Featuring Guest Speaker Diane Jones Lowrey
Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Common Sense Media and former SFGC Parent

And Guest Artist Silvie Jensen, Mezzo-Soprano & SFGC Alumna

Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6pm
Julia Morgan Ballroom | 465 California St | San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information

San Francisco, CA – The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) continues its 2023-2024 season led by Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, celebrating 45 years of empowering young women, with its Annual Gala and Auction on Friday, April 26, 2024 at 6pm at the Julia Morgan Ballroom (465 California St., San Francisco). SFGC’s goal for the event is to raise $225,000 in support of SFGC’s Music Education Programs and the Elizabeth Avakian Need-Based Scholarship Fund. 

This evening of celebration and song will include performances by the GRAMMY® Award-winning SFGC Premier Ensemble and Soloist Intensive, as well as a live auction and Fund-A-Need – an initiative to ensure that every young singer is able to access SFGC’s transformative music education programs. SFGC also welcomes Guest Speaker Diane Jones Lowrey, the Head of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Common Sense Media, former SFGC Parent, and recently appointed Commissioner on the Commission on the Status of Women in San Francisco, as well as Guest Artist Silvie Jensen, mezzo-soprano and SFGC Alumna.

The 2024 SFGC Gala Committee includes chairperson Sarah Hollenbeck, Laura Lane, Ann Gray Miller, Kim Nakahara, John Sanborn, Leah Fitschen Schloss, Sheila Schwartzburg, Alma Sorensen, and Stephanie Wei.

SFGC Gala Table Sponsors include Ryan and Johanna Aipperspach, Shoshana Berger, Jen Bilik, Ellen and Joffa Dale, Charles Ferguson and Kay Dryden, Leah Fitschen Schloss '85 and Randall Schloss, Carol and Richard Harris, Sarah Hollenbeck and David Serrano Sewell, Alison Huang and Jonathan Howe, Ann Gray Miller, Erin Pettigrew and Matthew Fong, Sheila and Thomas Schwartzburg, Julia Trujillo and Richard Bourgon. 

The 2024 SFGC Gala is sponsored by The Julia Morgan Ballroom, Image Orthodontics, and Whistler Vineyards.

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 choristers 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 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.

Individual tickets for the San Francisco Girls Chorus 2024 Gala and Auction are available for $450, with table sponsorships starting at $3,000. For more information on the gala, tickets or table sponsorships, please visit www.sfgirlschorus.org/gala or call (415) 863-1752 x306.

About Diane Jones Lowrey:
Diane Jones Lowrey is a global brand marketing and social impact leader with extensive experience guiding the operations of global marketing organizations, building global brands, and forging meaningful partnerships to accelerate growth and impact. Diane is currently the Head of Diversity Equity and Inclusion at Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. Before Common Sense, Diane held several roles at Levi Strauss & Company, leading global marketing operations for the Levi’s brand. She led diversity marketing, which included Latino marketing for the US and Latin America.

Diane’s community and volunteer service focuses on equity, education, and the arts. She has served as a Trustee of the French American International School in San Francisco, Alonzo King Lines Ballet Board Member, and Communications Chair for the Mount Holyoke Alumnae Association. The mayor appointed Diane as a Commissioner for the Commission on the Status of Women in San Francisco in 2024. Diane attended Mount Holyoke College and the University of Michigan Graduate School of Business Administration. The San Francisco League of Women Voters recognized Diane for her leadership by receiving the Women Who Could Be President Award. She also won a Cannes Lion Award for outstanding public service advertising. In honor of her community service, Diane was appointed to the board of the California First Lady’s Conference on Women by Maria Shriver. Diane lives in San Francisco with her husband and has an adult daughter who will soon finish law school. Diane enjoys exploring the city, discovering new restaurants, international travel, cooking, and engaging with different cultures. A devoted Francophile, Diane frequently travels to France while continuing to struggle through French language classes.

About Silvie Jensen:
Silvie Jensen is a highly sought-after oratorio soloist; she recently made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall, singing Handel’s Messiah with Kent Tritle and Musica Sacra. She sang as Alto Soloist with the San Francisco Symphony in Bach’s Magnificat in 2018, and also made her debuts with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players singing Berio, and with the Mendocino Music Festival, in Cimarosa’s Il Matrimonio Segreto. She has appeared with Symphony Parnassus at Herbst Theater, singing Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen and Symphony No. 4. She has sung St Matthew’s Passion with Ivan Fischer conducting the Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall, in Sir Jonathan Miller’s St. Matthew Passion at BAM, as well as singing the Israelitish Man in Judas Maccabeus with Clarion Music Society; Handel’s Messiah with Trinity Wall Street and Monmouth Orchestra; in the B Minor Mass with the Springfield Symphony and with Voices of Ascension, with Musica Sacra at Alice Tully Hall, with Sacred Music in a Sacred Space; and with Broadway Bach Ensemble singing Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Joseph Canteloube’s Songs of the Auvergne. 

She has commissioned and premiered works composed for her, and is a frequent recitalist, appearing in New York at Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, Symphony Space, Americas Society, Liederkranz Club, The Stone, Bonhams, Nicholas Roerich Museum, The Cell Theatre, and at the Ethical Humanist Society in Philadelphia. She has made recordings for ECM, London, Koch, Helicon, MSR Classics, Sono Luminus and Soundbrush Records. Her solo album “Who is Silvie?” is available on iTunes.

More about the San Francisco Girls Chorus: www.sfgirlschorus.org/about

More about Valérie Sainte-Agathe: www.sfgirlschorus.org/valerie-sainte-agathe

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 Joseph and Vera Long Foundation.

Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with Missoula Symphony Orchestra on March 2-3

Photo by Lauren Desberg available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/kristin-lee

Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with
Missoula Symphony Orchestra in Two Concerts

Conducted by Music Director Julia Tai
Performing Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1

March 2 at 7:30pm and March 3 at 3pm
Dennison Theatre at University of Montana
32 Campus Drive | Missoula, MT

Tickets and more information: www.missoulasymphony.org/concerts/in-natures-realm

Kristin Lee: www.violinistkristinlee.com

Missoula, MT– On Saturday, March 2, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3pm violinist Kristin Lee will be the featured soloist with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Julia Tai –– the first female music director in the Missoula Symphony Orchestra’s history –– at Dennison Theatre at University of Montana (32 Campus Drive).

Lee will be the featured soloist in a performance of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1. The concerts will also include Dvořák’s In Nature's Realm Overture, Op.91 Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale," and the world premiere of Nothing Gold Can Stay by Missoula composer Scott Billadaeu.

Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1 was the result of an idea posed by Kristin Lee back in 2009, during rehearsals for a performance, Fung took Lee up on a proposal to write a piece for her. The musical foundations the new work were jointly inspired by Fung’s tour of Bali with a Balinese gamelan and her friendship with Lee, who had accompanied Fung to Bali with interest in experiencing what Fung describes as “the sounds that have moved [her]”, as well as Lee “wanting to understand where [Fung’s] ideas came from.”

Fung says of the work: “The concerto draws on the sights, sounds, and memories of Bali that have remained in my heart from the tour, as well as my getting to know Kristin [Lee], her firebrand style of playing, and, complementing that, the intense lyricism that she expresses as well. The work is in one continuous movement with several sections.

Kristin Lee’s accolades and sheer virtuosity as a violinist make any opportunity to witness her perform live an occasion worth much excitement. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” reports the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Lee has performed as soloist with leading orchestras around the world including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Nordic Chamber Orchestra of Sweden, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic, and many more.

In all of her performances and in the impressive array of roles she inhabits as a musician, Kristin Lee is dedicated to forging personal connections between audiences and classical music. She performs widely as a member of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including on tour in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Taiwan, and across the U.S. Always up for adventure, at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Lee has performed in such unexpected places as rafting down the Colorado River, in a natural rock grotto, and in the magical landscape of the red rock canyons of the area. Lee founded Emerald City Music in Seattle, and as artistic director, presents eclectic, vibrant concert experiences in unusual venues, which leave both performers and audiences mutually transformed. The series was recently deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts). She is also committed to the future of classical music as a devoted mentor and educator for the next generation, serving on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin, and teaching in residencies with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute, among others.

Born in Seoul, Kristin Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, and Itzhak Perlman. Her many honors include 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. She is also the unprecedented First Prize winner of three concerto competitions at The Juilliard School, where she earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Her violin was crafted in Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley.

For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.

About Missoula Symphony Orchestra: The Missoula Symphony Orchestra and Chorale has delivered unique, live performances to Western Montana since 1954. Locals and visitors of all ages and backgrounds attend MSO concerts, from first-time symphony goers to dedicated sponsors and community members.

Under the leadership of our Music Director, Julia Tai, the company has expanded musical offerings and education programs. The current season features eight concerts, including four Masterworks Concerts, a Holiday Pops! concert, a Youth/Family concert, a Broadway concert, and a free outdoor summer concert. Education and community engagement programs include free mini concerts at the Missoula Public Library and its branches, Student Night@Dress Rehearsal, a coaching/mentorship program in regional public schools, a summer string camp, and important scholarship support to University of Montana music students. To learn more, visit us at MissoulaSymphony.org.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Violinist Kristin Lee will be presented in two concerts on March 2 at 7:30pm and March 3 at 3pm, as the featured soloist with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra conducted by Music Director Julia Tai. A musician of impeccable skill whose performances The New York Classical Review describes as “vivid” and “fluid and expressive,” Lee will be the featured soloist in a performance of Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1 –– a piece Fung wrote for Lee. Fung says the concerto “brings together my influence by non-Western traditional music, especially Balinese gamelan music, and my friendship with violinist Kristin Lee.” The program will also include Dvořák’s In Nature's Realm Overture, Op.91, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale," and the world premiere of Nothing Gold Can Stay by Missoula composer, Scott Billadaeu.

Short description: Violinist Kristin Lee –– a musician of impeccable skill whose performances are described as “vivid” and “fluid and expressive” (The New York Classical Review) –– will be presented in two concerts as the featured soloist with the Missoula Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Michelle Merrill. Lee will perform Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto No. 1 –– a piece Fung wrote for Lee. Fung says the work blends her “influence by non-Western traditional music, especially Balinese gamelan music, and my friendship with violinist Kristin Lee.”

Concert details:
Who: Violinist Kristin Lee
Presented by the Missoula Symphony Orchestra
What: Music by Vivian Fung, Dvořák, Beethoven, and a world premiere by Scott Billadaeu
When: Saturday, March 2, 2024 7:30pm Sunday, March 3, 2024 3pm
Where: Dennison Theatre at University of Montana, 32 Campus Drive, Missoula, MT 59812
Tickets and information: www.missoulasymphony.org/concerts/in-natures-realm

GatherNYC Sunday Morning Concerts at MAD in Columbus Circle continue with Duo Kayo, Invoke, Borromeo and Juilliard Quartets

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 February, and March:
FEB 18 • Duo Kayo
MAR 3 • Invoke
MAR 17 • Borromeo Quartet
MAR 31 • Juilliard Quartet

Spring 2024 Concerts:
APR 7 • Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl (rescheduled from November)
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:

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.

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

April 7: Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl (rescheduled from November)
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.

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 the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string

Jupiter Quartet Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Performing the Music of Anton Arensky,
Nathan Shields, and Max Bruch

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm
Barbro Osher Recital Hall | 50 Oak Street | San Francisco, CA

Tickets and Information

“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

San Francisco, CA – The Jupiter String Quartet –– internationally acclaimed winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition, who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) –– will be presented in concert for Chamber Music Tuesday by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm. The concert will feature performances of Anton Arensky’s String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Medusa by Nathan Shields, and Max Bruch’s String Octet in B-flat Major. This performance is part of a week-long residency by the Jupiter Quartet, wherein the ensemble will present several masterclasses and rehearsals for the students of SFCM.

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.

For this chamber concert, the Jupiter Quartet will perform a program that stokes intrigue, both through the boldness of the music and the sophistication of the arrangements. Several student musicians of SFCM will collaborate with the ensemble during the performance. (Additional musicians are subject to change).

The concert will include Anton Arensky’s String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor –– a piece which features the unusual combination of two cellos, one viola, and one violin –– resulting in a darker, richer timbre than the usual string quartet makeup. Arensky wrote the piece in homage to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who died a year prior to its composition, and as such features lovely melodic lines as well as flashy virtuosity. The Jupiter Quartet will perform this piece in collaboration with SFCM student cellist, Constantine Janello. Additionally, the Jupiter Quartet will perform Nathan Shields’ new quartet, Medusa –– a work composed for the ensemble for Shields’ Guggenheim Fellowship. The work uses the scintillating paintings of Caravaggio as an inspiration for exploring the effects of various types of political and social violence. Lastly, the program will feature Max Bruch’s beautifully lush String Octet in B-flat Major, for four violins, two violas, cello and double bass. SFCM students musicians –– violinists Shintaro Taneda, Mathea Goh; violist Isabel Tannenbaum; and bassist Christopher Yick –– will accompany the Jupiter Quartet. The composer’s final work, it was completed in 1920 –– the year of Bruch’s death. However, the piece would remain in obscurity for several decades, as it was not published until 1996.

Jupiter Quartet says of working in residency with SFCM and performing this program for the SFCM community:

“We are so pleased to be able to spend several days at SFCM, both teaching and collaborating with the students and faculty there. We are particularly excited to get to perform together with some of the SFCM students at our recital. Playing together in performance is one of our favorite ways to interact with students, as it is a dynamic and joyful way to exchange ideas.”

More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, 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.

The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon.

The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four. For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The Jupiter Quartet, the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, who are described by The New Yorker as an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for a performance at Barbro Osher Recital Hall (50 Oak Street). The Jupiter Quartet will perform a program sparked with intrigue, including Anton Arensky’s String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor and Nathan Shields’ Medusa, in addition to Max Bruch’s String Octet in B-flat Major.

Short description: The Jupiter Quartet, an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” (The New Yorker), is presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music for a performance featuring the music of Anton Arensky, Nathan Shields, and Max Bruch.

Concert details:
Who: Jupiter Quartet and SFCM student musicians: violinists Shintaro Taneda, Mathea Goh; violist Isabel Tannenbaum; cellist, Constantine Janello; bassist Christopher Yick
Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
What: Music by Anton Arensky, Nathan Shields, and Max Bruch
When: Wednesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Barbro Osher Recital Hall, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets and information: www.sfcm.edu/experience/performances/chamber-music-tuesday-jupiter-string-quartet

March 15: Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma Announce Third Album in Beethoven for Three Series

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma
Announce Third Album in Beethoven for Three Series

Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97, “Archduke”

“Symphony No. 4: Mvmt. IV Allegro ma non troppo”
Out Now – Listen Here

Album Release Date: March 15, 2024 – Pre-Order Now

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma’s Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97, “Archduke" is set for release on March 15, 2024 on Sony Classical and available now for preorder. Accompanying today’s announcement and preorder is the first track release: “Symphony No. 4: Mvmt. IV Allegro ma non troppo” — listen here.

Like the artists' two previous Beethoven for Three releases, this new recording challenges the traditional distinction between chamber and orchestral repertoire, pairing the unforgettable "Archduke" trio with one of the composer's most internally varied symphonies, thoughtfully re-arranged for piano, violin, and cello by Shai Wosner. Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97, “Archduke" is the latest chapter in three friends’ ongoing exploration of what Beethoven’s invention means for musicians and audiences today.

The Beethoven for Three series features three artists in pursuit of the essential elements of Beethoven's musical language, presenting Beethoven's most iconic symphonies in intimate arrangements that maintain the power and immediacy of his orchestral works. By performing the symphonies on three instruments alongside the composer’s canonical piano trios, the artists present a wealth of insight into both Beethoven and his earliest audiences. 

“We all feel that being able to participate in a symphony is such a wonderful thing to do,” says Ma. “One of the things that has separated people since recording began is the categories that we put people in, in which chamber musicians, orchestra players, people who play concertos, people who do transcriptions, people who compose, people who conduct, are all viewed as separate categories with no overlap. That siloed thinking discourages actual creativity and collaboration between people. And so we feel that one of the things that is really important to do today is to actually go back to the first principles of music, the simple interaction between friends who want to do something together."

Beethoven for Three has its origins in the 2021 Tanglewood Music Festival, where Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first played Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in trio format. The performance was an instant success, and the first release in the series, Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5, was recorded soon after. Gramophone highlighted their recording of Symphony No. 5, noting that “the performance by Ax, Kavakos and Ma is not just aptly intense—the opening Allegro con brio is as involving as any orchestral performance I've heard—but also incredibly sensitive to the music’s crucial juxtapositions, as one can hear in the Andante con moto, where they so deftly balance delicacy and heroic swagger—note the vulnerability in Kavakos's tone at 1'42"—in a way that I find deeply moving."

The second installment in the project, Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 6 “Pastorale” and Op. 1, No. 3 was released in 2022 to further acclaim. The Strad noted that "the blend and balance between these three hugely experienced players is just about ideal in the relaxed outer movements [of Symphony No. 6] and in the ‘Scene by the Brook’, while the ‘Peasants’ Merrymaking’ is as rustic and playful as the ‘Storm’ is disruptive...They are just as urbane and sophisticated in the C minor Piano Trio...This is Ax’s stamping ground and he brings his string-playing friends along with him for a performance that beguiles and delights from beginning to end."

Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first performed together as a trio at the 2014 Tanglewood Festival, playing a program of Brahms's piano trios. Their first recording effort, Brahms: The Piano Trios, was released in 2017 to universal critical acclaim; Gramophone observed that "These performances get straight to the heart of Brahms’s music, relishing its pull of opposites," while Limelight noted, "There’s no doubting the ardour that these players bring to the music, which is delivered with an eye to creating broad, sweeping phrases … there are plenty of opportunities to swoon along the way.”

Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.

Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 4 and Op. 97 "Archduke"
Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos & Emanuel Ax

Symphony No. 4 in B-Flat Major, Op. 60

1 I. Adagio - Allegro vivace
2 II. Adagio
3 III. Allegro vivace
4 IV. Allegro ma non troppo

Piano Trio No. 7 in B-Flat Major, Op. 97, "Archduke"

5 I. Allegro moderato
6 II. Scherzo. Allegro
7 III. Andante cantabile, ma però con moto
8 IV. Allegro moderato

2023 Trio Performance Dates:

January 30 Ann Arbor, MI – Hill Auditorium
January 31 East Lansing, MI – Cobb Great Hall
February 1 Cleveland, OH – Mandel Concert Hall: Severance Music Center
February 3 Chicago, IL – Chicago Symphony Center: Orchestra Hall

Connect with the Artists

Emanuel Ax
Website | Facebook | Twitter

Leonidas Kavakos
Website | Facebook | Instagram

Yo-Yo Ma
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Tiktok | Twitter | YouTube

Hauser Returns with Classic II – Lead Single: Yiruma’s “Kiss The Rain” Out Now

ALBUM ARTWORK (FOR MEDIA USE): DOWNLOAD

Hauser Returns with Classic II

An All-New Collection Of Classical Music’s Most
Beautiful Melodies Reimagined For Cello And Orchestra

Out Today: Lead Single – Yiruma’s “Kiss The Rain”
Listen Here and Watch the Music Video

U.S. Tour Kicks Off May 31 – Dates Include Carnegie Hall, Ravinia Festival And Orpheum Theater – Tickets Here

Available Friday, April 19, 2024 – Preorder Now

Global cello sensation HAUSER brings his artistry and passion to a new selection of classical music’s greatest melodies with the release of his new album Classic II, a follow-up to the worldwide success of 2020’s Classic. For the new album, which arrives Friday, April 19, 2024 HAUSER has chosen and realized 18 unforgettable melodies in revelatory new arrangements, which were recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Ziegler. Heralding the album’s arrival today alongside preorder is the release of HAUSER’s deeply felt interpretation of the romantic “Kiss the Rain” by the internationally acclaimed Korean composer and pianist Yiruma – listen here and watch the music video.

Wrapping up 2023 with the release of his first-ever holiday album, HAUSER shows no signs of slowing down in 2024, as he gears up for his first-ever solo U.S. tour this spring. Kicking off on May 31 at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, FL, the tour includes stops at iconic venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Ravinia Festival in Chicago, Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and the Orpheum Theatre in Los Angeles. Tickets for HAUSER's 2024 U.S. tour are available now at HAUSERofficial.com/event-directory.

“You can’t go wrong giving a beautiful, singing tune to the cello,” HAUSER says of his new album. “There is always a good chance that it will sound even better than the original!”

On Classic II, which he produced himself, HAUSER reunites with his creative collaborators on Classic – arranger Robin Smith, Ziegler and the London Symphony Orchestra. With Smith, he reimagined his favorite melodies in elegant new settings that feature the solo cello, perhaps the most “vocal” of all orchestral instruments. The melodies he chose were written originally for voice, piano, oboe or – in several instances – entire symphony orchestras, from the Baroque era to the present day. The goal was to make these melodies “sing” anew in the cello.

“This is such a pleasure for me,” HAUSER says, calling Classic II and Classic his “dream albums.” “It’s what I actually enjoy the most – when I come back to my roots, to the classical repertoire. When I was a little boy, this was my dream: to play with an amazing orchestra, in a good studio, on a good cello. These melodies are some of my earliest memories, when I fell in love with music. This comes naturally to me.”

Two of the melodies he chose for Classic II had a life-changing significance for HAUSER.

The cellist first heard the luminous “Song of the Moon” from Antonín Dvořák’s opera Rusalka when, as very young cello student in London, HAUSER was chosen to play in an orchestra accompanying soprano Renée Fleming in the aria for a Buckingham Palace performance for Prince Charles. The music itself so galvanized HAUSER that he transcribed it for himself – “a pivotal moment in my life,” he says, that opened up his awareness of how the cello could “sing.”

Years later, before HAUSER launched his career as half of 2CELLOS, the soulful Baroque elegance of the Albinoni “Adagio” inspired him to arrange the piece as a cello solo, to perform in a video he put together. He released it on YouTube, never imagining that it would trend in an epic way – earning some 91 million views. On Classic II, both works have been freshly reimagined to take advantage of HAUSER’s mature artistry and the sumptuous sound of the London Symphony Orchestra.

When HAUSER released Classic in early 2020 – before the COVID pandemic and the onset of global political turbulence – the cellist said of the music, “This is what the world needs.” Of Classic II, he makes the same point, adding, “The world needs this music now – more than ever.”

HAUSER – CLASSIC II

TRACKLISTING

1. Albinoni Adagio 
2. Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23
3. Arioso 
4. Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2
5. Slavonic Dance 
6. Emmanuel 
7. Kiss The Rain 
8. Serenade 
9. Song to the Moon (from Rusalka) 
10. Una Furtiva Lagrima 
11. Pathétique Sonata
12. Intermezzo 
13. Tristesse 
14. Adagio d'Amore
15. Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 
16. Postlude No. 3 
17. Adagietto
18. Lullaby 

HAUSER – 2024 U.S & CANADA TOUR DATES

Fri, May 31, 2024 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Live
Sat, June 1, 2024 - Clearwater, FL - Ruth Eckerd Hall
Sun, June 2, 2024 - Orlando, FL - Walt Disney Theater
Tues, June 4, 2024 - Virginia Beach, VA - Sandler Center
Wed, June 5, 2024 - Washington, DC - Warner Theatre
Thurs, June 6, 2024 - New York, NY - Carnegie Hall
Sat, June 8, 2024 -Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
Sun, June 9, 2024 - Detroit, MI - Fisher Theatre
Tues, June 11, 2024 - Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theatre
Thurs, June 13, 2024 - Minneapolis, MN - State Theatre
Fri, June 14, 2024 - Chicago, IL - Ravinia Festival
Sat, June 15, 2024 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
Mon, June 17, 2024 - Dallas, TX - AT&T Performing Arts Center
Tues, June 18, 2024 - Austin, TX - Bass Concert Hall
Thurs, June 20, 2024 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
Fri, June 21, 2024 - Salt Lake City, UT - Eccles Theater
Sat, June 22, 2024 - Las Vegas, NV - Wynn Las Vegas – Encore Theater
Sun, June 23, 2024 - Costa Mesa, CA - Segerstrom Center for the Arts
Tues, June 25, 2024 - Phoenix, AZ - Mesa Arts Center
Thurs, June 27, 2024 - Los Angeles, CA - Orpheum Theatre
Fri, June 28, 2024 - Saratoga, CA - The Mountain Winery
Sat, June 29, 2024 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater

HAUSER – 2024 AUSTRALIA / NEW ZEALAND TOUR DATES

Fri, April 12, 2024 - Brisbane, Australia - Brisbane Entertainment Centre
Sat, April 13, 2024 - Sydney, Australia - Qudos Bank Arena
Wed, April 17, 2024 - Auckland, New Zealand - Spark Arena
Fri, April 19, 2024 - Melbourne, Australia - Rod Laver Arena
Sat, April 20. 2024 - Perth, Australia - RAC Arena

HAUSER – 2024 JAPAN TOUR DATES

Wed, April 24, 2024 – Osaka, Japan – Osaka International Convention Center (Grand Cube)|Thurs, April 25, 2024 – Tokyo, Japan – Tokyo International Forum Hall A
Sat, April 27, 2024 – Tokyo, Japan – NHK Hall

HAUSER – 2024 MIDDLE EAST

Fri, May 16, 2024 – Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Dubai Opera
Sat, May 17, 2024 - Dubai, United Arab Emirates – Dubai Opera

HAUSER – 2024 EUROPE

Tues, July 9, 2024 – Tartu, Estonia - Tartu Lauluväljak
Wed, July 10, 2024 – Sigulda, Latvia - Castle Of The Livonian Order
Thurs, July 11, 2024 – Vilnius, Lithuania - Kalnų parkas
Sat, July 13, 2024 – Bucharest, Romania – The Roman Arenas
Sun, July 14, 2024 – Plovdiv, Bulgaria – Ancient Theatre
Mon, July 15, 2-24 - Plovdiv, Bulgaria – Ancient Theatre
Wed, July 17, 2024 – Regensburg, Germany - Thurn und Taxis Schlossfestspiele
Sun, July 21, 2024 - Łódź, Poland – Atlas Arena
Wed, July 24, 2024 – Nitra, Slovakia - Amfiteáter
Fri, July 26, 2024 - Kroměříž, Czechia - Kroměříž Archbishop's Palace
Sat, July 27, 2024 - Kroměříž, Czechia - Kroměříž Archbishop's Palace
Thurs, August 1, 2024 – Sitges, Spain – Jardins de Terramar
Sun, August 4, 2024 - Chiclana de la Frontera, Spain – Concert Music Festival
Wed, August 7, 2024 – Marbella, Spain – Starlite Marbella

FOR TICKETS & INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT HAUSERofficial.com/event-directory.

ABOUT HAUSER

Following an incredible 10-year run as half of 2CELLOS, global superstar HAUSER has ushered in a new era as a solo artist and visual concept creator, using his innovative musical skills and irresistible charisma to bring a new wave of cello music to fans everywhere. Making his solo debut in 2020 with the release of Classic and The Player in 2022, HAUSER has amassed over a billion audio streams and 4 billion video views globally. Revered globally for his captivating live performance, the Croatian musician is a phenomenon that thrives on audience interaction, hitting the stage in over 40 countries across the globe (including historic venues like New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall) and performing alongside such wide-ranging acts as Andrea Bocelli, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Elton John. His electric stage presence has also led to several high-profile appearances, including an opening night performance at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, performing at the Vatican for the Pope, and special features for both the NFL and UEFA. Named one of People Magazine’s 2022 Sexiest Men Alive and featured by the likes of Rolling Stone, Forbes, and The New York Times, HAUSER has graced the stage for numerous broadcast performances, most recently adding Love Island to a long resume of appearances that includes The Bachelorette, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CNN en Español and more.

Connect With Hauser:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok

# # #

Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/

Sony Classical Announces Vivaldi – The Four Seasons the New Album from Violinist Luka Faulisi

Sony Classical Announces
Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
the New Album from Violinist Luka Faulisi

New Single: "Spring" I. Allegro
Out Today

Vivaldi is the exceptional new recording of the much loved Vivaldi “Four Seasons” by rising Italian-Serbian-French violinist Luka Faulisi, taking on the piece with his bright, youthful energy. For this album, scheduled for release via Sony Classical on April 12, 2024, he collaborated with the excellent Polish baroque ensemble (oh!) Orkiestra Historyczna, directed by concertmaster and ensemble leader Martyna Pastuzka. New single, "Spring" I. Allegro is out today – listen here.

The combination of Luka’s romantic sound, formed in French impressionistic repertoire, and the ensemble’s energetic and forceful take let the well-known masterpiece shine in a new light.

Providing an additional feature, Luka has chosen three corresponding romantic pieces, sitting between the Vivaldi concertos to provide a change of perspective – the Catalan traditional Song of the Birds, Lili Boulanger’s Nocturne and Tchaikovsky’s Autumn Song.

About Luka Faulisi

With ‘a million-dollar sound’ (Pinchas Zukerman), twenty-one-year-old Luka Faulisi is one of the most promising violinists of his generation. Having started to play the violin at the age of three, Luka was a student of Boris Belkin at the Conservatorium Maastricht in the Netherlands. Over the years, through personal mentoring, several distinguished artists have influenced Luka’s musical formation. Pavel Berman describes him as an ‘an incredibly gifted virtuoso violinist’. Flautist Emmanuel Pahud praises Luka as ‘an extremely talented young man with great instrumental abilities and a strong musical expression’ and according to Jean-Jacques Kantorow Luka possesses ‘incredible facilities.’

Recent European concerti highlights include Luka’s Polish debut with the Szczecin Philharmonic; French debut with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Italian debut with the Orchestra Filharmonica di Torino; Serbian debut with the Radio Television Serbia Symphony Orchestra at the Kolarac Hall in Belgrade and a North Macedonian debut with FAME'S European Orchestral Performing Institute. Luka’s Asian presence is also growing, having collaborated recently with the Macao Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Shortly upcoming is Luka’s British debut with the Liverpool Philharmonic at the Royal Albert Hall; Finnish debut with the Oulu Symphony and Parisian orchestral debut with the Orchestre National d'Île-de-France.

Recent recital highlights include debuts in Paris at the Salle Colonne and debut at the 30th anniversary of the “Festival du Salon de Provence” in summer 2023.

Luka’s debut recital album “Aria”, recorded with the pianist Itamar Golan, was released with Sony Classical International in Spring 2023.

Maya Beiser Releases Terry Riley's In C as Soundscape Reenvisioning the Minimalist Masterpiece; Performs at National Sawdust April 6

Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C

Release Date: April 5, 2024

Islandia Music Records

Pre-Save: https://found.ee/MayaBeiserInC 

Maya Beiser Plays Terry Riley’s In C Live at National Sawdust on April 6, 2024
www.nationalsawdust.org/event/maya-beiser-terry-rileys-in-c-ello

 Press download and CDs available upon request. Hi res photos available here.

New York, NY – On April 5, 2024, cellist and producer Maya Beiser will release her newest solo album, Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C, on her Islandia Music Records label. On it, Maya recreates Terry Riley’s In C as a series of ever-evolving cello loops. Enveloped by live drumming by Shane Shanahan and Matt Kilmer, Maya constructs a hypnotic, rapturous soundscape that re-envisions this classic Minimalist masterpiece. 

To celebrate the release, Maya will perform In C live at National Sawdust (80 N 6th St., Brooklyn, NY) on Saturday, April 6, at 7:30pm with Shane Shanahan and Matt Kilmer, incorporating spatial sound designed specifically for National Sawdust’s immersive Meyer Constellation system.

“To me,” Maya says, “Terry Riley’s In C is an amalgamation of an ‘open source’ and ‘sacred text.’ In creating this album I was interested in finding the serendipitous rhythmic and melodic connections that emerge when reconstructing In C’s 53 melodic cells as a series of cello loops, floating above continuous C string cello drones. The cello’s lowest, most lush string, with its overtones and harmonics, forms the depth and resonance of the album.”

Terry Riley describes Maya's performance on the recording as, “stunningly beautiful.” He says, “The overall shape flows so naturally and her cello sound is so warm and powerful.” 

About Maya Beiser:

Hailed as “the reigning queen of avant-garde cello” by The Washington Post, Maya Beiser brings a bold and unorthodox presence to contemporary classical music. Raised on a commune in Israel’s Galilee Mountains by her Argentinean father and French mother, Beiser spent her early life surrounded by the music and rituals of Jews, Muslims, and Christians, while studying classical cello repertoire. Throughout her extensive career she has been a featured performer on the world’s greatest stages, defying conventional norms with her boundary-crossing performances. Maya has collaborated with eclectic artists across five continents, reimagining solo cello performance in the mainstream arena. Maya’s vast discography includes fourteen solo albums, many of them topping the classical music charts, and she is the featured soloist on numerous film soundtracks. A graduate of Yale University, Maya Beiser is a United States Artists (USA) Distinguished Fellow in Music and was a Mellon Distinguished Visiting Artist at MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. She is the founder of Islandia Music Records, an independent record label that creates work with large-scale social, cultural, and spiritual impact by pushing the boundaries of the art-music genre. 

For more information, visit www.mayabeiser.com.

Track Listing: 

Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C
Islandia Music Records
Release Date: April 5, 2024

Terry Riley: In C 1-10
Total Time: 55:04 

Maya Beiser, cello, vocals
Shane Shanahan, drums
Matt Kilmer, drums 

Produced by Maya Beiser
Recorded by Dave Cook at The Art at Foothill Farm, Lenox, MA
Edited and mixed by Dave Cook at Area 52 Studios, Saugerties, NY
Mastering by Scott Hull at Masterdisk in Peekskill, NY
Photography by Hu Boyang
Art direction by Denise Burt
Creative Director: Kristen Loring Brennan 

About Islandia Music Records:
Islandia Music Records is an independent record label that engages avant-garde musicians, visual artists, sound designers and technology innovators who are redefining the boundaries of art and music. Founded by cellist and producer Maya Beiser, Islandia Music Records is on a mission to foster, support, and represent the whole vision of our artists, working to create new vernacular with large-scale cultural, spiritual and social impact.

Sony Classical Announces Leonidas Kavakos THE APOLLΩN ENSEMBLE Bach Violin Concertos

Leonidas Kavakos
THE APOLLΩN ENSEMBLE
Bach Violin Concertos

New Single: “Allegro” (BWV 1052R)
Out Today

Pre-Order Available Now

For his latest release on Sony Classical, to be released on March, 29, 2024, violinist Leonidas Kavakos goes back to Bach – the composer whose music has inspired him for decades.

Having played Bach as a youngster, Kavakos stopped performing the composer’s music in public in order to reexamine his relationship with the scores and recalibrate his baroque technique. In 2022, he released an acclaimed recording of the composer’s Partitas and Sonatas for Solo Violin on Sony Classical - his first release including music by Bach. New single “Allegro” (BWV 1052R) is out today –– listen here.

Now Kavakos turns to Bach’s four solo violin concertos - varied and vivid orchestral works from the first half of the 18th century in which the composer combined the best of German and Italian instrumental styles.

Ever questioning orthodoxies, Kavakos experimented with a one-per-part playing in preparation for his recording. With the members of The ApollΩn Ensemble, he concluded that the best approach was to use the smallest possible group of musicians - just five ensemble string players and a harpsichordist.

‘You couldn’t get more intimate with the music than this’, the violinist says. Using a single instrument for each of the ensemble parts creates ‘a particular harmonic and rhythmic world that both complements and enhances what everyone else is doing’ and ‘brings an enormous variety and richness to the sound and was a constant inspiration.’

Having experimented with baroque and classical bows, Kavakos uses a bow modeled on a François Tourte example from the early 1800s, together with his 1734 Willemotte Stradivarius.

Bach’s four violin concertos communicate strikingly different moods. The dark D minor concerto ‘opened up an incredible world for me,’ says Kavakos, who describes the contrasting E major concerto as ‘pure sunshine.’ Bach’s slow movements, says Kavakos, ‘carry us to the place where every human soul would love to be.’

An exclusive Sony Classical artist, Kavakos is one of the world’s most respected violinists. He continues to be a guest of the great concert halls and orchestras of the world as both violinist and conductor.

California Symphony Concerts Broadcast on Radio Stations Across the Country Starting March 2024

Photo by Kristen Loken. Hi res photos available here.

CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY CONCERTS TO BE BROADCAST ON RADIO STATIONS ACROSS THE COUNTRY STARTING IN MARCH 2024

AS PART OF WFMT ORCHESTRA SERIES

Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director

“These days in the Bay Area, the California Symphony may be the most forward-looking music organization around.”
– Mercury News 

CaliforniaSymphony.org

WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony, led by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, will be heard on 68 radio stations covering 338 markets across the country starting in March 2024, as part of the WFMT Radio Network’s Orchestra Series. The orchestra’s live concert recordings are featured as part of the Winter 2024 installment of WFMT’s Orchestra Series, which also includes the Dresden Staatskapelle, The Hallé, Royal Liverpool Orchestra, German Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, and China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts. The series also includes performances from the Los Angeles Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony.

Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Donato Cabrera since 2013. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area. California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere. 

The California Symphony programs to be broadcast nationwide feature riveting new orchestral pieces by composers Viet Cuong, Anna Clyne, and Gabriela Lena Frank and stunning performances by soloists Sarah Cahill, piano; Inbal Segev, cello; Charlie Albright, piano; and Nathan Chan, cello. Stations broadcasting the California Symphony’s programs include WQXR in New York, NY; WFMT in Chicago, IL; WRTI in Philadelphia, PA; WCLV in Cleveland, OH; WBJC in Baltimore, MD; KCNV in Las Vegas, NV; KMFA in Austin, TX; KBCS in Seattle, WA; and many more. Check local listings for schedules.

“I’m very excited and proud to be sharing these live performances by my incredible California Symphony colleagues and extraordinary soloists, with a radio audience that spans the entire country,” says Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera. “The repertoire we perform is diverse and eclectic, truly showcasing and celebrating the music that only an orchestra can offer.”

“Bringing a new piece of music into the world is an exhilarating and rewarding experience, and I am grateful to the WFMT Radio Network for providing California Symphony with a platform to showcase the richness of the orchestral repertoire alongside the music we commission and perform,” says California Symphony Executive Director Lisa Dell. “California Symphony’s commitment to highlighting the vibrancy of classical music makes our performances a thrilling and accessible experience for all.”

California Symphony’s four programs as part of this WFMT Orchestra Series are:

PROGRAM 1
California Symphony’s first broadcast program features the premiere performance of Stargazer by recent Composer-in-Residence Viet Cuong, with Sarah Cahill at the piano. Walton’s Symphony No. 1 continues Donato Cabrera’s exploration of works written around the time of the Second World War, and Ravel’s audience favorite Mother Goose Suite ends the program.

PROGRAM 2
Donato Cabrera leads the California Symphony in a program of dances and melodies in the second broadcast program. Kodály’s Dances of Galánta begins the concert, contrasted with Anna Clyne’s DANCE for Cello and Orchestra, featuring cellist Inbal Segev as soloist. Ukrainian composer Myroslav Skoryk’s emotional and tragic Melody begins the second half. The program concludes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 2, which uses Ukrainian folk songs to great effect. 

PROGRAM 3
The third broadcast from California Symphony brings a rousing set of works from Bernstein, Debussy, and Gabriela Lena Frank all focused on the theme of dance. Nestled in between, hear pianist Charlie Albright perform Beethoven’s virtuosic Piano Concerto No. 3.

PROGRAM 4
In this final program, California Symphony celebrates the music of Viet Cuong with his emotional and intricate work Next Week’s Trees, commissioned by the California Symphony early in Cuong’s tenure as Composer-in-Residence with the orchestra. Captivating cellist Nathan Chan performs Elgar’s Cello Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony concludes the concert.

ABOUT THE WFMT RADIO NETWORK
The WFMT Radio Network, the international syndication division of award-winning Chicago classical music station WFMT, distributes radio series and specials worldwide with a mission to enrich lives, engage communities, and inspire exploration. In addition to these broadcasts, the Network’s portfolio includes concerts by the Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, topic-based series such as Collectors’ Corner, Fiesta!, Exploring Music with Bill McGlaughlin, and more.

Feb. 28: Telegraph Quartet Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

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
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Performing the Music of Stephen Prutsman:
Film Score from The Cabinet of Caligari

Plus Alban Berg’s “Lyric Suite"

Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm
Sol Joseph Recital Hall | 50 Oak Street | San Francisco, CA

Tickets and Information: https://sfcm.edu/experience/performances/telegraph-quartet-recital-0

“tonal warmth and communicative urgency”
– San Francisco Chronicle

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

San Francisco, CA – The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) –– described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control” –– will be presented in concert by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm in a program featuring music by Stephen Prustman and Alban Berg.

Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings a concert program to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music that is both steeped in the history of the 1920s but also grounded in writing from the present day and reflective of two very different styles of music. Though Stephen Prutsman –– known for his film scoring –– is an active musician and composer of today, The Cabinet of Caligari is a silent horror film from the dawn of the 1920s that’s considered the quintessential work of German Expressionist cinema. Conversely, Alban Berg found inspiration for his Lyric Suite in Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, with whom Berg began a love affair in 1925. Despite the affair being clandestine, the Lyric Suite itself served as Berg’s manifestation of the excitement, trepidation, and suffering of the secret relationship, with Berg going so far as to include their initials in musical cryptograms throughout.

Violinist Joseph Maile says of the emotional contrast found in this program and performing Prutsman’s film score:

“We programmed both of these works for their use of the incredibly overwrought and distorted lens of expressionism that was such a hallmark of this era of the early 20th Century. The stark shadows and harsh lighting cast on the crooked scenery of Robert Wiene’s “Caligari” create one of the first psychological thrillers of film, and Stephen Prutsman’s outstanding score draws on the styles of Bartók and the Second Viennese School (of which Alban Berg was a seminal figure) to underscore the dark expressionism of the film.

Alban Berg’s seminal chamber work and ‘latent opera’ as he called it, was inextricably tied to and pulled out of his deeply personal, secret affair and spiritual relationship with Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, which, in his own words, caused his world to be turned upside down and continued via letter until his death 10 years later. It expresses through the newly created 12-tone language, that same degree of delirium, passion, and mysticism of the ‘Caligari’, but through a purely musical medium.”

The Telegraph Quartet’s new release, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths was released on August 25 via Azica Records. The first album in a three record series focused on string quartets of the era, Divergent Paths offers a glimpse into the beginning of the 20th century. The Telegraph Quartet explores this time period of bewildering and unbridled creativity through the work of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity.

As a recorded display of the Telegraph Quartet’s long standing appreciation for the unique musical work of this era, Divergent Paths has been highly praised by both for its adventurous pairing and for the ensemble’s impressive performance thereof. Arts Fuse writes, “[The Telegraph Quartet] demonstrate[s] an attractive comfortability with Schoenberg’s larger style. The New York Times says: “[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.” The Strad writes of Telegraph’s performance of the Ravel, “The textures are delicate and subtle, the Telegraph’s interpretation equally nuanced. Virtuosity is consummate: expressively full one second, lean the next, with the players bending in the wind of Ravel’s quixotically shifting sonorities.

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 San Francisco Chronicle as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency,” is presented in concert by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a program highlighting history of the 1920s through two very contrasting works, including Stephen Prutsman’s film score for German-expressionist horror film The Cabinet of Caligari (1920) and Alban Berg’s love-affair inspired “Lyric Suite" (1925).

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, described as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency” (San Francisco Chronicle), is presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music on February 28, 2024 for a performance featuring the music of Stephen Prutsman and Alban Berg.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by the San Francisco Conservatory of Music
What: Music by Stephen Prutsman and Alban Berg
When: Wednesday, February 28, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Sol Joseph Recital Hall, 50 Oak Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
Tickets and information: www.sfcm.edu/experience/performances/telegraph-quartet-recital-0

San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents Modern Take on Baroque Masterpiece Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans at Z Space

Photo of the San Francisco Girls Chorus by Rachel Z Photography. Photos available in high resolution at www.sfgirlschorus.org/press-room.

The San Francisco Girls Chorus Presents Vivaldi’s
Juditha Triumphans at Z Space on March 9 and 10, 2024

Music Direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe, SFGC Artistic Director
Stage Direction by Céline Ricci

Saturday, March 9 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 10 at 2pm
Z Space | 450 Florida Street | San Francisco, CA
Tickets & Information: www.sfgirlschorus.org/performances

San Francisco, CA –The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) continues its 2023-2024 season, celebrating 45 years of empowering young women, with a production of Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans on Saturday, March 9 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 10 at 2pm at Z Space (450 Florida Street, San Francisco). The performances feature SFGC’s Premier Ensemble, with music direction by SFGC Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, stage direction by Céline Ricci, and projection design by Peter Crompton and Frédéric Boulay.

This remarkable oratorio from 1716 was written for an all-female ensemble, with all characters both male and female interpreted by women of the Ospedale della Pietà, a girl’s orphanage in Venice where Vivaldi was music director. It is the only oratorio by Vivaldi to have survived.

Sainte-Agathe and Ricci take a modern approach to this beautiful Baroque-period work. For these performances, SFGC commissioned a new arrangement and edition of Juditha, created by Adam Cockerham. This arrangement, trimmed to a shorter runtime and for nine instrumentalists instead of the original large orchestra, makes the work accessible for more performers and audiences.

Sainte-Agathe says, “I am excited to bring into the world a version of Juditha that will be possible for more young singers and smaller organizations to present. Vivaldi wrote this music for young women, and I hope this production will encourage our young people to have a better understanding of his work, piquing their curiosity about the Baroque era. It's been a very rewarding journey to work with Céline and the design team to bring modern technology and Baroque repertoire together.”

Stage director Céline Ricci is a frequent collaborator with SFGC, and is also the Founder and Executive/Artistic Director of San Francisco's Ars Minerva, whose mission is to engage new audiences for classical music through innovative productions of Baroque operas. Ars Minerva brings forgotten music back to life, in collaboration with artists in the San Francisco Bay Area. Born in Florence to Italian and French parents, Ricci studied in Paris and continued her post-graduate studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Selected by renowned conductor William Christie for his academy, Le Jardin des Voix, she was named one of opera's promising new talents in 2005 by Opernwelt. Her recent performances include Dido and Aeneas with Akademie für Alte Musik, with performances in Berlin, Buenos Aires and Rome, concerts with Philharmonia Baroque at Lincoln Center and Tanglewood, with Ars Lyrica at the Berkeley Early Music Festival and in Houston, and with Romabarocca at Palazzo Braschi in Rome, among many others.

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 with a concert featuring the Premier Ensemble in 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 Oakland Scottish Rite Center, coming together to celebrate their accomplishments from the year individually and as a school. The performance will feature the world premiere of a new work by SFGC Chorus School composer-in-residence Sahba Aminikia. 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

San Francisco Girls Chorus - Upcoming Highlights 

SFGC Premier Ensemble in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans
Music direction by Valérie Sainte-Agathe & stage direction by Céline 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
Oakland Scottish Rite Center, 1547 Lakeside Dr, Oakland, CA 94612

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 Joseph and Vera Long Foundation.

California Symphony Presents Mozart Serenades Conducted by Donato Cabrera and Featuring Violinist Jennifer Cho

CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY PRESENTS MOZART SERENADES

Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director

In Concert March 16 & 17, 2024
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts

Featuring Richard Strauss’s Serenade and Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita)
Plus Jennifer Cho in Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Five Percussionists 

Continuing a season of performances honoring trailblazing composers and unique artists 

Tickets & Information: www.californiasymphony.org

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 Mozart Serenades on Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 4pm, at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek). These performances explore the unique, individual sounds of the orchestra in a program which beautifully showcases woodwinds, brass, and percussion – from Richard Strauss’s popular Serenade to Lou Harrison’s compelling Concerto for Violin with Five Percussionists and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita).

“As we have shown with our very popular concerts for string orchestra, there is a treasure trove of music worth exploring that showcases the various sections of the orchestra,” says Donato Cabrera. “For this concert, I’ve chosen two serenades for woodwinds and brass, one by Richard Strauss and another by Wolfgang Mozart. These two serenades, which are multi-movement works, showcase the variety of beautiful sounds that can only come from these incredible collections of wind instruments. The California Symphony has a long and deep connection to the music of the legendary Bay Area composer Lou Harrison, and his Concerto for Violin and Five Percussionists, with our incredible concertmaster, Jennifer Cho, will showcase the uniquely inclusive sounds of this very special composer.”

Written when he was 17-years-old, Richard Strauss’s lively Serenade opens these performances. Strauss drew inspiration from his famous horn-playing father in this work. While its classical style shows some influence of Mozart and Mendelssohn, Strauss was able to turn Serenade into something remarkably original. Full of achingly beautiful lyricism and rich wind scoring, Serenade enjoys a special position among Strauss’ works. 

The California Symphony returns to the music of American maverick composer and longtime Bay Area resident Lou Harrison in these concerts. Concertmaster Jennifer Cho is featured in his rhythmic Concerto for Violin with Five Percussionists. Both fabulously virtuosic and fervently expressive, Concerto for Violin with Five Percussionists includes a variety of unorthodox percussion instruments – from wash tubs to coffee cans, flowerpots, and other “junk percussion” that Harrison discovered while rummaging with his colleague John Cage. A California native, Jennifer Cho has been California Symphony’s Concertmaster since 2017 and has been a guest Concertmaster of the Reno Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Mendocino Music Festival, Sarasota Opera, Merola Opera, the New Hampshire Music Festival, and the Skywalker Sundance Orchestra. 

Finishing the program is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s effervescent Gran Partita wind serenade, a seven-movement tour de force. One of the most notable works for wind ensemble, Gran Partita is famous for its clever harmonies, sparkling textures, and beautiful melodies. In the 1984 movie Amadeus, Mozart’s rival Salieri hears the Gran Partita and famously proclaims, “It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.”

Up next, the California Symphony hosts its annual gala, Symphony Supper Club, on April 13, 2024 at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley. The honorary gala chair is Sharon Simpson, and the event co-chairs are Julie Basque and Abby Dye. The evening will transport guests back to the golden era of supper clubs, renowned for their elegance and timeless music. The event features a three-course dinner and auction; a performance by international jazz sensation, multi-instrumentalist, and star of Postmodern Jukebox Gunhild Carling; and dancing to the seductive, swinging stylings of the Gunhild Carling Band.

On May 4 and  5, 2024 at the Lesher Center for the Arts, the California Symphony reunites the music of Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann in Brahms Obsessions. Described by The New York Times as “music’s unsung renaissance woman,” Clara Schumann was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the 1800s. In these concerts, her only surviving piano concerto is performed by featured soloist Robert Thies, alongside Brahms’ brilliant first symphony. Both the object of Brahms’ affections, Clara Schumann, and his mountainous task of succeeding Beethoven’s symphonic legacy, are showcased in this program. The music of Brahms and Clara Schumann is accompanied by a world premiere of California Symphony Resident Composer Saad Haddad’s newest work. Haddad’s music explores the relationship between the West and the East by translating traditional Arab instruments to a Western symphonic context.

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. Single tickets are $45-90, and $20 for students 25 and under. A 30-minute pre-concert talk and Q&A led by lecturer Scott Fogelsong will begin one hour before each performance. More information is available at CaliforniaSymphony.org. 

FOR CALENDAR EDITORS: 

WHAT: California Symphony presents Mozart Serenades 

The California Symphony conducted by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera showcases the unique and individual sounds of woodwinds, brass, and percussion in Mozart Serenades. Written when he was 17-years-old, Richard Strauss’ lively Serenade opens the night of wind music. Finishing the program is Mozart’s sparkling “Gran Partita” wind serenade. In the 1984 movie Amadeus, Mozart’s rival Salieri hears the Gran Partita and famously proclaims, “It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God.” Between these two giants of the wind repertoire, the California Symphony performs the music of American maverick composer Lou Harrison. Concertmaster Jennifer Cho is featured in his rhythmic Concerto for Violin with Five Percussionists. A California native, Jennifer Cho has been invited in recent seasons to be guest Concertmaster of the Reno Philharmonic, Las Vegas Philharmonic, the Mendocino Music Festival, Sarasota Opera, Merola Opera, the New Hampshire Music Festival, and the Skywalker Sundance Orchestra.

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, March 16, 2024 at 7:30pm   
Sunday, March 17, 2024 at 4:00pm

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

CONCERT:
MOZART SERENADES
7:30pm, Saturday, March 16
4:00pm, Sunday, March 17

Donato Cabrera, conductor
California Symphony

Jennifer Cho, violin

PROGRAM:
Richard Strauss: Serenade
Lou Harrison: Concerto for Violin with Five Percussionists
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Serenade No. 10 (Gran Partita)

TICKETS: 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.

Feb. 24: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Stanford Live

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 Stanford Live

Performing Music by Grażyna Bacewicz, Alban Berg, Mieczysław Weinberg

Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 7pm
The Studio | 327 Lasuen St. | Stanford, CA

Tickets and more information: https://live.stanford.edu/calendar/february-2023/telegraph-quartet

“precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication”
– The Strad

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Stanford, CA – On Sunday, February 24, 2024 at 7pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) will be presented in concert by Stanford Live at The Studio (327 Lasuen Street). Telegraph Quartet will perform a program that highlights music from the first half of the 20th century, including String Quartet No. 4 (1951) by Grażyna Bacewicz, Alban Berg’s Lyric Suite (1925-26), and String Quartet No. 1 (1941) by Benjamin Britten.

Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music and the experiences of composers, the program Telegraph Quartet will perform features music that juggles the flagrant turmoils of World War II with the subtlety of deep passion when intertwined with a covert affair. Together, these works give Telegraph Quartet the opportunity to display their emotionally nuanced and seamlessly unified musical expression from vastly different emotional vantage points.

The Telegraph Quartet’s new release, 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths was released on August 25 via Azica Records. The first album in a three record series focused on string quartets of the era, Divergent Paths offers a glimpse into the beginning of the 20th century. The Telegraph Quartet explores this time period of bewildering and unbridled creativity through the work of Arnold Schoenberg and Maurice Ravel, whose music on this album weaves threads of great contrast and surprising similarity. Part of the program the Telegraph Quartet is performing for Stanford Live –– Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4 (1951), and Benjamin Britten’s String Quartet No. 1 (1941) –– make up the selections that will be recorded on the second volume in the series.

Violinist Joseph Maile says of the historical context built into this program:

“All three of these works represent milestones in the musical development of each composer and the emergence of a mature style for each. It may be no coincidence that each was also written during or after troubling or downright traumatic points in their lives, whether deeply personal, in the case of Alban Berg and his doomed love affair, or in the face of the vast societal upheaval and displacement, in the case of Britten and Bacewicz’s personal experiences of World War II.”

Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4 was composed in 1951, several years after the end of World War II. During this time, Bacewicz lived through the Nazi occupation of Warsaw. The work opens with a kind of sorrow-tinged hope that builds to a joyous third movement.

Alban Berg’s unlikely muse and the inspiration of his Lyric Suite, Hanna Fuchs-Robettin, was 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.

Benjamin Britten and his future partner Peter Pears fled England in 1939 with the rumblings of war with Germany on their heels, in part to avoid their inevitable jailing if war broke out due to their pacifist beliefs. War did break out shortly and by 1941, the homesick Britten was writing his first quartet, with a nostalgia for his island home that is reflected in the wave-like motions of the work’s third movement.

More about the Telegraph Quartet: 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.

About Stanford Live: Stanford Live presents a wide range of the finest performances from around the world fostering a vibrant learning community and providing distinctive experiences through the performing arts. With its home at Bing Concert Hall and Frost Amphitheater, Stanford Live is simultaneously a public square, a sanctuary, and a lab, drawing on the breadth and depth of Stanford University to connect performance to the significant issues, ideas, and discoveries of our time. Stanford Live includes a wealth of collaborators and partners, including Stanford academic departments and individual faculty members, Stanford students, off-campus arts institutions, and community organizations. Crucially, Stanford Live supports the university’s focus on placing the arts at the heart of a Stanford education.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” is presented in concert by Stanford Live on Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 7:00pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a program highlighting music from the first half of the 20th century, including String Quartet No. 4 by Grażyna Bacewicz, Lyric Suite by Alban Berg, and String Quartet No. 1 in D Major, Op. 25 by Benjamin Britten.

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, described as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” (The Strad), is presented by Stanford Live on February 24, 2024 for a performance featuring the music of Grażyna Bacewicz, Alban Berg, and Benjamin Britten.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Stanford Live
What: Music by Grażyna Bacewicz, Alban Berg, and Benjamin Britten
When: Saturday, February 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: The Studio, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford, CA, 94305
Tickets and information: www.live.stanford.edu/calendar/february-2024/telegraph-quartet

Composer and Percussionist Chris P. Thompson Announces New Album Stay the Same – Plus New York Premiere at Carnegie Hall

Composer and Percussionist Chris P. Thompson
Announces New Album Stay the Same

Worldwide Release Date: April 4, 2024
Pre-Order Available Now

Carnegie Hall Performance and New York Premiere of Hanabi
by Chris P. Thompson
Performed by Alarm Will Sound
Conducted by Artistic Director Alan Pierson

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 7:30pm
Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org, CarnegieCharge 212.247.7800, or the Carnegie Hall Box Office

Review CDs and downloads available upon request.

www.chrispthompson.com

New York, NY – Composer and percussionist Chris P. Thompson announces his new album, Stay the Same, set for release on April 4, 2024. Shortly before the release of the album, contemporary classical chamber ensemble Alarm Will Sound will give the New York premiere of Thompson’s work Hanabi, at Carnegie Hall in Zankel Hall (57th St. and 7th Ave.) on March 26, 2024 –– Tickets available now.

Stay the Same features a thoughtful and nuanced blend of electronic and microtonal music –– two styles that greatly influenced, informed, and shaped Thompson’s four earlier albums: 2021’s Red Folder, 2020’s True Stories & Rational Numbers, 2019’s Everything Imaginable Comes True, and 2017’s Lot Hero (EP). Thompson explains: “Stay the Same integrates the two [musical approaches] in a way that feels super natural to me as a continuation of my own story, and yet the juxtaposition is also likely to feel quite unexpected to the rest of the world.”

In addition to Thompson’s emphasis on blending two musical styles, each of the tracks on Stay the Same contributes to an overall presentation of symmetrical contrast throughout the album –– an aspect that is especially appreciable in the album’s vinyl format. For each track on Side A, its corresponding track on Side B serves as both mirror image and flip side of the coin. Meanwhile, extreme contrasts in energy level from one track to the next paint a picture of emotional swings: anxious and manic highs versus paralyzed lows.

The first five works, which make up Side A on vinyl –– Stay the Same, Mirror, The Help You Need, Different Pressures, and Sculpture Garden –– ride a breathless spiral of inwardly-focused psychological tension to its breaking point and ghostly aftermath. The second half of the album, or Side B –– Selfie, Wall, Changes, Philip Thinking, and UV Garden –– holds up a mirror to a narcissistic external world, escapes its grasp, and floats through the ashes after it self-destructs.

Thompson says: “This music lives in cycles of misguided self-help, and the irony of purchasing a cure from the same doctor who sold you the disease. It grew from a very personal realization that in the end there are no solutions, no answers, and no destination. There is only the path that leads in a new direction, or the one that circles right back to where you started.”

Thompson released his fourth solo album True Stories & Rational Numbers in October 2020. A nine-movement work sequenced as electronic music but also fully scored for four keyboardists, it represents Thompson’s investigation of just intonation and the natural mathematics of rhythm and harmony, his search for a performance practice to incorporate these into live contemporary music, and his personal fan-fiction about physicist Hermann von Helmholtz and his second wife, writer Anna von Helmholtz. True Stories & Rational Numbers received its world premiere live performance at the Barbican Centre in London in November 2021. Red Folder, a collaboration with playwright Rajiv Joseph for the Steppenwolf Theater’s STEPPENWOLF NOW series was released in early 2021. Following the release of that project, Thompson worked with the same team on a follow-on educational program, The Red Folder Project, which reached over 5,000 young people in 70 different schools.

Thompson’s first two records, the LP Everything Imaginable Comes True (2019) and EP Lot Hero (2017), draw heavily on the high-energy sound world of modern drum and bugle corps, while incorporating luminaries of the New York City contemporary classical music scene in both familiar and unexpected capacities. Thompson has also had the opportunity to work both as a performing percussionist and arranger on a wide variety of projects with a diverse range of composers and performers.

Chris P. Thompson describes the inspiration and methods behind each track on Stay the Same:

Stay the Same (A1) & Selfie (B1)
Both tracks make unconventional use of TTS (“text to speech”). As a pair, they liken the brain’s relentless and often abusive inner dialogue to a scrolling stream of algorithmically-generated content. I sample the output of the TTS generator and then do detailed rhythmic and pitch editing to create vocal performances with an AI-flavor… one you’re not sure you can trust to be real. Both tracks also use high energy marching percussion as beat material. The result is that while Stay the Same is an inwardly-focused “before” picture: messy, imperfect, and melodramatic, Selfie is the externally-focused “after” picture: polished, dispassionate, ridiculous.

Mirror (A2) & Wall (B2)

Mirror is self-examination under duress. Breakneck speed and subtle adjustments to the tuning of the pianos create harmonies that glow with mania and desperation. While that propulsive forward motion gives an impression of trying to move through, the stacked harmonic structures of Wall seem to shoot up vertically, blocking movement in every direction. The music fights relentlessly upward in a Sisyphean struggle to climb over.

The Help You Need (A3) & Changes (B3)

A confused and disoriented brain can be extra susceptible to the promises of grifters. The Help You Need wearily receives their bit-crushed voices as if being assaulted with unsolicited advice… in an overheated room through a 2400-baud modem. It also makes use of a unique recording and playing technique to create the impression of a drumline composed entirely of clones of myself. Having escaped outside into the cold, Changes sheds its synthetic skin and walks through the destruction – broken pianos and smoldering machines – into the unknown with a sense of awe and ultimately an eerie but resonant joy.

Different Pressures (A4) & Philip Thinking (B4)

In Different Pressures, a white-knuckle grip on control rapidly turns desperation into panic. Conversely, Philip Thinking accepts cycles of anxiety and sadness as waves that swell and recede, giving them license to run their course. The piece is also a mini-homage to Philip Glass, and has been remixed as a bonus track by organist James McVinnie.

Sculpture Garden (A5) & UV Garden (B5)
Both pieces use microtonal piano to different effects. Sculpture Garden creates moments of intense stasis, as in the permanence of stone figures. Objects appear locked in place while the world moves by. Every major chord in the piece is “justly” tuned — a subtle but significant adjustment of pitch giving the impression of freezing time. A solitary observer of the busy and faceless outside world –– like a ghost. UV Garden employs a combination of just intonation and melting quarter-tone piano harmonies to create the sound of organic change –– like surreal, slinky, constantly growing organic matter. It’s imperfect, messy, strange, and gross — but transformed.

Chris P. Thompson: Stay the Same
Grin Agog Music | Release date: April 4, 2024

[1] Stay the Same [3:14]
[2] Mirror [4:05]
[3] The Help You Need [3:42]
[4] Different Pressures [1:45]
[5] Sculpture Garden [4:04]
[6] Selfie [2:40]
[7] Wall [3:46]
[8] Changes [3:11]
[9] Philip Thinking [3:21]
[10] UV Garden [5:51]

[Total Time: 35:39]
Chris P. Thompson: Electronic Sequencing, Sampling, Percussion, Piano

Composed/Produced/Mixed by Chris P. Thompson
Created in the reading rooms of The NY Public Library, 5th Ave, and the NY Society Library.
Mastering: Heba Kadry, NYC
Album Art and Design: Josh Lambert
Photo of Chris P. Thompson by Shervin Lainez

About Chris P. Thompson: A composer and percussionist, Chris P. Thompson is a 20-year veteran of the New York City contemporary music scene and 15-year member of the contemporary classical chamber orchestra, Alarm Will Sound. Thompson’s work is influenced by a childhood spent in California’s Silicon Valley during the the 1980s and 1990s, as well as by the New York City contemporary music scene of the 2000s and 2010s. Each contributed to Thompson developing work that draws equally from electronic music, marching percussion, and contemporary classical music.

Jupiter Quartet Presented by San Antonio Chamber Music Society in Folk Encounters

Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string

The Jupiter String Quartet Presented by San Antonio Chamber Music Society in Folk Encounters

Performing Music by Su Lian Tan,
Wynton Marsalis, and Antonin Dvořák

Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3:15pm
Trinity Baptist Church | 319 E. Mulberry Avenue | San Antonio, TX

Tickets and Information at: www.sacms.org/concert-4/

“technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” – The New Yorker

www.jupiterquartet.com

San Antonio, TX – The Jupiter String Quartet –– the internationally acclaimed winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition, who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) –– will be presented in concert by San Antonio Chamber Music Society at Trinity Baptist Church (319 E. Mulberry Avenue) on Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3:15pm.

The Jupiter Quartet will perform a program of works that spans more than a century and highlights a range of musical styles, including excerpts from "At the Octoroon Balls," String Quartet No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis (1995), Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193, and Su Lian Tan’s “Life in Wayang” (2002).

The first half of this globally-inspired program pairs Su Lian Tan’s evocation of traditional South Asian puppet theater with Wynton Marsalis’ exploration of the complicated American Creole experience through the lens of a New Orleans ball. The program finishes with folk-inspired chamber music by Dvořák. Dvořák’s exuberant and expansive A-flat Major quartet reflects the composer’s delight in finding kinship between the folk music of America and his beloved homeland of Czechoslovakia

The Jupiter Quartet says of performing this historically diverse program:

“We are looking forward very much to performing this challenging and vibrant program for the audience in San Antonio. These three works really show the range of what a string quartet can do, from the wild frenzy of Marsalis’s “Hellbound Highball” and the clanging gamelan-like tones throughout Tan’s work, to the beautiful romanticism of Dvorak’s late quartets.”

Based in Urbana and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Brought together by ties both familial and musical, the Jupiter Quartet has been performing together for 23 years. 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.

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.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The Jupiter Quartet, the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign who are described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented by San Antonio Chamber Music Society for a performance at Trinity Baptist Church, (319 E. Mulberry Avenue). The ensemble will perform a stylistically diverse, collaborative program that includes excerpts from "At the Octoroon Balls," String Quartet No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis, and Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang. and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).

Short description: The Jupiter Quartet, who are described as having an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” (The New Yorker), is presented by San Antonio Chamber Music Society for a performance featuring the music of Wynton Marsalis, Su Lian Tan, and Antonin Dvořák.

Concert details:

Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by San Antonio Chamber Music Society
What: Music by Su Lian Tan, Wynton Marsalis, and Antonin Dvořák.
When: Sunday, March 3, 2024 at 3:15pm
Where: Trinity Baptist Church, 319 E. Mulberry Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78212
Tickets and information: www.sacms.org/concert-4/

Sony Classical Presents Derek Solomons – L'Estro Armonico – Haydn Symphonies

Sony Classical Presents Derek Solomons
L'Estro Armonico – Haydn Symphonies

Album Release Date: March 29, 2024
Pre-Order Available Now

“among the most brilliant Haydn performances” – BBC Music Magazine, 2012 

The previously unreleased Haydn project by L'Estro Armonico, recorded between 1980-1986 appearing on available on 18 CDs for the first time

36 Symphonies appearing on CD for the first time

16 CDs remastered from analog and digital tapes

In the 1980s, as the movement for historically informed performance was booming, there was a sudden flurry of attempts by period-instrument ensembles to record all of Haydn’s 106 symphonies. It was perhaps inevitable that none of them would reach the summit of this musical Everest – most made it about halfway up to this ambitious and costly undertaking.

One of these Haydn series that created a stir at the time was directed by the London-based violinist-conductor Derek Solomons. Between 1980 and 1986, he recorded 49 symphonies with his hand-picked ensemble, L’Estro Armonico. Sony Classical is now pleased to present all of these pioneering Haydn performances for the first time on CD. Included in this new collected edition of 18 newly mastered discs are several recordings never before issued in any medium.

In an interview for Gramophone, Solomons stated: “There seemed no better composer to look at than Joseph Haydn to make our recording début on original instruments – and also the début of these symphonies in this kind of performance. I’d discovered that there was a group of 14 symphonies written for Count Morzin before Haydn started working for Count Esterhazy.”

On questions such as the historically correct size of the ensemble, Solomons’s guide (and the annotator of all his Haydn symphony releases) was H.C. Robbins Landon, the doyen of Haydn scholars. Landon had determined from contemporary sources that Haydn’s “Morzin” orchestra initially comprised only three first and three second violins, one each of viola, cello and bass, with a pair of oboes, a pair of horns and a bassoon.

After recording the early “Morzin” group, Solomons turned to the ground-breaking “Sturm und Drang” symphonies that Haydn composed in the years following his move – in around 1760 – from Count Morzin’s Vienna establishment to the wealthy, influential, music-loving Hungarian court of Count Esterházy. In 1982, L’Estro Armonico began with the six earliest of this astonishing body of works. They were released by CBS, which, having taken over the project from Saga, went on to record the ensemble’s Haydn until 1986 – long enough to complete the remaining symphonies from the “Sturm und Drang” period as well as a few earlier and later ones also written for Esterházy.

Although Derek Solomons’s vision of performing all the symphonies with L’Estro Armonico would, sadly, never materialize, there was almost unanimous enthusiasm for the works that were ultimately recorded and released: “It would be hard to imagine performances of more freshness and conviction … One is impressed by the light-textured quality of the playing, its neatness and precision … The string section is small … which enables the winds – especially the splendid high horns – to be heard with absolute clarity” (Gramophone); “I find it very difficult to go back to conventional Haydn, which seems so mannered and dull in comparison” (Classical Music); “The exhilaration I feel as I rediscover Haydn’s inventiveness, underlines the fact that I will never be able to listen again to Haydn being flattened by a steamroller of a large symphony orchestra” (Music & Video Week). As recently as 2012, a BBC Music Magazine critic called these “among the most brilliant Haydn performances I’ve heard.”

SET CONTENTS

DISC 1:

Haydn: Symphony No. 39 in G Minor, Hob. I:39
Haydn: Symphony No. 35 in B-Flat Major, Hob. I:35
Haydn: Symphony No. 38 in C Major, Hob. I:38, “The Echo”

DISC 2:

Haydn: Symphony No. 59 in A Major, Hob. I:59, “Fire”
Haydn: Symphony No. 49 in F minor, Hob. I:49, “La passione”
Haydn: Symphony No. 58 in F Major, Hob. I:58

DISC 3:

Haydn: Symphony No. 26 in D Minor, Hob. I:26
Haydn: Le pescatrici: Overture, Hob. I:106
Haydn: Symphony No. 41 in C Major, Hob. I:41

DISC 4:

Haydn: Symphony No. 48 in C Major, Hob. I:48, “Maria Theresia”
Haydn: Symphony No. 44 in E Minor, Hob. I:44, “Trauer”

DISC 5:

Haydn: Symphony No. 52 in C Minor, Hob. I:52
Haydn: Symphony No. 43 in E-Flat Major, Hob. I:43, “Mercury”

DISC 6:

Haydn: Symphony No. 42 in D Major, Hob. I:42
Haydn: Symphony No. 51 in B-Flat Major, Hob. I:51

DISC 7:

Haydn: Symphony No. 45 in F-Sharp Minor, Hob.I:45
Haydn: Symphony No. 46 in B Major, Hob. I:46

DISC 8:

Haydn: Symphony No. 47 in G Major, Hob. I:47
Haydn: Symphony No. 65 in A Major, Hob. I:65

DISC 9:

Haydn: Symphony No. 50 in C Major, Hob. I:50
Haydn: Symphony No. 64 in A Major, Hob. I:64
Haydn: Symphony No. 54 in G Major, Hob. I:54

DISC 10:

Haydn: Symphony No. 55 in E-Flat Major, Hob. I:55
Haydn: Symphony No. 56 in C Major, Hob. I:56

DISC 11:

Haydn: Symphony No. 57 in D Major, Hob. I:57
Haydn: Symphony No. 63 in C Major, Hob. I:63

DISC 12:

Haydn: Symphony No. 60 in C Major, Hob. I:60 “Il distratto”
Haydn: Symphony No. 68 in B-Flat Major, Hob.I:68

DISC 13:

Haydn: Symphony No. 66 in B-Flat Major, Hob. I:66
Haydn: Symphony No. 69 in C Major, Hob. I:69, “Laudon”
Haydn: Symphony No. 67 in F Major, Hob. I:67

DISC 14:

Haydn: Symphony No. 16 in B-Flat Major, Hob. I:16
Haydn: Symphony No. 17 in F Major, Hob. I:17
Haydn: Symphony No. 19 in D Major, Hob. I:19
Haydn: Symphony No. 20 in C Major, Hob. I:20
Haydn: Symphony No. 108 in B-Flat Major, Hob.I:108

DISC 15:

Haydn: Symphony No. 1 in D Major, Hob. I:1
Haydn: Symphony No. 37 in C Major, Hob. I:37
Haydn: Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Hob. I:2
Haydn: Symphony No. 15 in D Major, Hob. I:15

DISC 16:

Haydn: Symphony No. 4 in D Major, Hob. I:4
Haydn: Symphony No. 10 in D Major, Hob. I:10
Haydn: Symphony No. 18 in G Major, Hob. I:18

DISC 17:

Haydn: Symphony No. 5 in A Major, Hob. I:5
Haydn: Symphony No. 32 in C Major, Hob. I:32
Haydn: Symphony No. 11 in E-Flat Major, Hob. I:11

DISC 18:

Haydn: Symphony No. 33 in C Major, Hob. I:33
Haydn: Symphony No. 27 in G Major, Hob. I:27
Haydn: Symphony No. 107 in B-Flat Major, Hob. I:107
Haydn: Symphony No. 3 in G Major, Hob. I:3

The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration & Festival in New York City - Full Schedule Announced

Experiential Orchestra and Videmus Present

The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York City
March 13-16, 2024

www.JuliaPerryFestival.com

New York, NY – From March 13-16, 2024, Experiential Orchestra (EXO) and Videmus will present the Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York City, celebrating Perry’s brilliance and legacy and illustrating the vibrance and importance of her music historically, today, and tomorrow. The four-day celebration takes place at venues across the city including Le Poisson Rouge, Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. In addition to EXO and Videmus, presenting partners include the Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts and National Concerts. WQXR is the official media partner. The festival also marks the release of American Counterpoints, a new album from Experiential Orchestra and Curtis Stewart, conducted by EXO Music Director James Blachly, which includes the first-ever recording of Perry's Violin Concerto plus music by Stewart and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. American Counterpoints will be released by Bright Shiny Things on March 1, 2024.

The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival will include performances of Julia Perry's chamber, choral, and orchestral music, as well as a series of talks and discussions organized by Dr. Louise Toppin, founder of the African Diaspora Music Project and Artistic Director of Videmus, illustrating the resurgence of scholarly interest in Perry’s work. Festival performers include the Experiential Orchestra led by Music Director James Blachly, bass-baritone Donnie Ray Albert, pianist Samantha Ege, flutist Brandon Patrick George, baritone Will Liverman (released courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera), soprano Laquita Mitchell, PUBLIQuartet, violinist and composer Curtis Stewart, and soprano Louise Toppin. Students from New York City conservatories and music schools will participate in a side-by-side rehearsal and reading of Perry's music with EXO. A shared performance by Experiential Orchestra and youth ensembles led by EXO Music Director James Blachly and presented by National Concerts on March 16 at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall passes Perry’s musical legacy to the next generation. The concert culminates in four-time-Grammy nominee Curtis Stewart performing Perry's virtuosic Violin Concerto, with young musicians sitting side-by-side the EXO professionals in the orchestra.

Julia Perry (1924-1979) was an African-American composer, born in Lexington, Kentucky and raised in Akron, Ohio. Her early career was filled with promise: she spent two summers at the Berkshire Music Center, studied with Luigi Dallapiccola and briefly with Nadia Boulanger, won the Prix Fontainebleau and two Guggenheim Fellowships, and her Study for Orchestra was performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1965. But tragically, many of her roughly 100 compositions remain unknown. As J. Michele Edwards writes, “Her career was curtailed because of health problems, especially a paralytic stroke affecting her right side in 1971. Her letters reveal her effort to walk, talk, and conduct again. She did learn to write with her left hand and resumed composing; however, she endured tragic emotional and financial difficulties.”

Louise Toppin says, “Julia Perry’s prominence in music history as an African American woman composer has been erased for too long. Her story as a rising star in the world of composition and conducting during the years of extreme segregation in the United States is both compelling and astonishing. Her compositions (although to date her known output is small) show craftsmanship of the highest caliber that appeal to performers and audiences alike. With this festival, we are presenting for consideration her compositions (several world premieres) and current research on her life and work. There is much continued excavation that needs to take place to present a more complete biography and to locate/uncover her missing compositions.  Our celebration (and others held during 2024 in England, Michigan and Missouri) are but the beginning of unveiling this extraordinary composer – Julia Perry.”

"Since I first encountered Julia Perry's music in 2014, I have been inspired by her work, life, and career. As I studied her music in depth, it became clear to me what a true master and genius musician she was, and how important it is to have her music performed more broadly," says James Blachly. “In 2020, Dr. Louise Toppin invited me to serve as the Orchestra Liaison for the African Diaspora Music Project, and for the past three years, she and I have worked with our colleague, conductor Christopher Wilkins, to explore Perry's many unpublished works. During this time Louise also formed an international working group to advocate for Perry's music and legacy. The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival is an outgrowth of this rich collaboration, and brings together in one place many of the foremost scholars and performers working to promote Perry, all timed to celebrate Perry's centenary. I firmly believe that Perry's music is an essential part of our American cultural and musical history. All of her music deserves to be heard, and much of it should become a part of our most frequently performed repertoire."

Read more about Julia Perry in The New York Times and The Marginalian.

The Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival Opening Night on Wednesday, March 13, 2024 at 8pm (doors at 7pm) at Le Poisson Rouge features the multi-GRAMMY-nominated PUBLIQuartet, applauded by The Washington Post as “a perfect encapsulation of today’s trends in chamber music;” soprano Laquita Mitchell, praised in The New York Times for her “smooth-voiced and soothing presence;” and pianist and musicologist Samantha Ege, known for her "vivid, revelatory" performances (iNews). PUBLIQuartet will bring a creative re-imagining to the music of Julia Perry, performing world premieres of rediscovered works by Perry in arrangements by members of the quartet Jannina Norpoth, Hamilton Berry and Curtis Stewart, including Perry’s Prelude for Piano and Miniature for Piano and Stewart’s We Who Seek, which draws on Perry’s choral work Ye, Who Seek the Truth in a new version for quartet, electronics, and spoken word to be performed by Stewart. Soprano Laquita Mitchell will perform two rediscovered songs by Perry, How Beautiful are the Feet and By the Sea. Samantha Ege performs Perry’s Miniature for Piano and Prelude for Piano. The evening also celebrates the release of Experiential Orchestra’s album American Counterpoints, which features contributions from all of the PUBLIQuartet members.

On Thursday, March 14, 2024 from 9:30am-6pm, the festival in partnership with the Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts will present a day of Discovery and Discussion around Perry’s works, curated by Louise Toppin. The lecture series features a keynote by Tammy Kernodle (University Distinguished Professor of Music at Miami University and the former President of the Society for American Music) and presentations by Tad Biggs, Sasha Doster, Samantha Ege, Philip Ewell, Angela Hammond, Gayle Murchison, and Garrett Schumann. A second keynote presentation by Christopher Wilkins (Music Director and Conductor for the Akron Symphony and Boston's Landmarks Orchestra) and Louise Toppin, DMA (Professor of Music, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor, University of Michigan) will discuss Perry’s time in Akron, Ohio, as well as the challenges surrounding the publication of her works.  The lecture series is free and open to the public, but registration is required. 

On Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 7:30pm at Tishman Auditorium at The New School, in partnership with the Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts, the festival celebrates the Chamber Music of Julia Perry. The performance features soloists from Experiential Orchestra, along with guest soloists baritone Will Liverman, bass-baritone Donnie Ray Albert, and flutist Brandon Patrick George, in selections from Julia Perry’s chamber music catalog including the presumed world premiere of her Quinary Quixotic Songs, as well as Six Contrasts for baritone, Pastoral for solo flute and ensemble, and Symphony No. 13 for Wind Quintet. Angela Hammond will provide an overview of Perry’s life, and a panel discussion with Afa Dworkin, President and Artistic Director of the Sphinx Organization; Loki Karuna, Interdisciplinary Arts Activist; and composer Anthony M. Kelley will be moderated by Co-Founder, Artistic Director and Violist of Castle of our Skins Ashleigh Gordon. MacDowell Executive Director Chiwoniso Kaitano will discuss Perry’s eight stays at the nation’s preeminent artist residency program between 1954 and 1968. 

On Friday March 15, 2024 at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the festival brings Perry’s legacy to the next generation, through side-by-side rehearsals and readings with Experiential Orchestra led by Music Director James Blachly and students from three New York City conservatories. In addition to rehearsing with violin soloist Curtis Stewart, students will have the opportunity to learn from Stewart and Fredara M. Hadley, Ph.D., Ethnomusicology Professor at The Juilliard School, about their personal relationship with Perry’s music. Jennifer Arnold, Violist and Antiracism Advocate, will lead additional activities. These rehearsals and readings are open only to the participating students and other festival participants.

The Closing Night Concert on Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 8pm presented by National Concerts at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center features Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto performed by Curtis Stewart and the Experiential Orchestra led by Music Director James Blachly, following the March 1 release of their recording of the piece as part of EXO’s American Counterpoints album. Perry’s Violin Concerto was composed in 1963 and revised in 1968, but she continued to update the score until 1977, only two years before her death. Both this performance and the recording include Perry’s extensive revisions to its orchestration, by Roger Zahab. EXO, Stewart, and Blachly gave the professional world premiere performance of this revised version of the concerto in December 2022 in New York. Students from three New York City conservatories will join EXO for the concerto, sitting side-by-side with EXO members. The festival Closing Night Concert also includes soprano Louise Toppin performing the world premiere orchestral arrangement of Julia Perry’s setting of the spiritual I’m a Poor Li’l Orphan in this World and Experiential Orchestra performing Perry’s beautiful Prelude for Strings. The concert closes with the two youth ensembles performing the first half of the concert – Ruckel Middle School Chorus (Niceville, FL) and Sandra Day O’Connor HS Orchestra (San Antonio, TX) – joining EXO on stage to perform Perry's Ye, Who Seek the Truth, introducing this important composer’s music to the next generation.

Programs subject to change. Visit www.JuliaPerryFestival.com for all festival updates and information.

Julia Perry Centenary Celebration & Festival Schedule:

Opening Night with PUBLIQuartet, Violinist Curtis Stewart, Soprano Laquita Mitchell and Pianist Samantha Ege

Wednesday, March 13, 2024 - Doors at 7pm; Concert at 8pm

Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, New York, NY

Tickets & Information

Discussion and Discovery – A Lecture Series Organized by Dr. Louise Toppin

Thursday, March 14, 2024 from 9:30am-6pm

In Partnership with the Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts

Theresa Lang Community and Student Center
Arnhold Hall, 2nd Floor
55 West 13th Street, New York, NY

Free Registration & Information

The Chamber Music of Julia Perry

Thursday, March 14, 2024 at 7:30pm

In Partnership with the Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts

Featuring Soloists from Experiential Orchestra; Donnie Ray Albert, Bass-Baritone; Brandon Patrick George, Flute; and Will Liverman, Baritone
Angela Hammond, Speaker
Chiwoniso Kaitano, Executive Director, MacDowell
Panel Discussion with Afa Dworkin, President and Artistic Director of the Sphinx Organization; Loki Karuna, Interdisciplinary Arts Activist; and Composer Anthony M. Kelley; moderated by Ashleigh Gordon, Co-Founder, Artistic Director & Violist of Castle of our Skins

John L. Tishman Auditorium
63 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY

Tickets & Information

Introducing Julia Perry to the Next Generation

Friday, March 15, 2024

Experiential Orchestra in a Side-by-Side Reading with Conservatory Students
Led by EXO Music Director James Blachly
With Violin Soloist Curtis Stewart; Fredara Hadley, Ph.D., Professor of Ethnomusicology, The Juilliard School; and Jennifer Arnold, Violist and Antiracism Advocate

The DiMenna Center for Classical Music
50 W 37th St, New York, NY

Closed event. Festival participants only.

Closing Night with Experiential Orchestra, Violinist Curtis Stewart, Soprano Louise Toppin

Saturday, March 16, 2024 at 8pm

Presented by National Concerts

Featuring Experiential Orchestra; James Blachly, EXO Music Director; Curtis Stewart, Violin Soloist; Louise Toppin, Soprano; Students from Three New York City Conservatories; Ruckel Middle School Chorus (Niceville, FL); Sandra Day O’Connor HS Orchestra (San Antonio, TX)

Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center
1941 Broadway, New York, NY

Tickets & Information
Use code EXO316 for a 15% discount.

Programs subject to change. Visit www.JuliaPerryFestival.com for all festival updates and information.

For more information about the presenters and presenting partners:

Experiential Orchestra: www.experientialorchestra.com

James Blachly: www.jamesblachly.com

Videmus: www.videmus.org

Louise Toppin: www.louisetoppin.com

Mannes School of Music at The New School College of Performing Arts: www.newschool.edu/mannes

National Concerts: www.nationalconcerts.com 

WQXR is the official media partner for the Julia Perry Centenary Celebration & Festival 

For more information about American Counterpoints, Bright Shiny Things: Paula Mlyn, paula@a440arts.com