May 4: The National Arts Centre Presents The Trojan Women by Lisa Bielawa – Featuring Members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra as part of WolfGANG Sessions

Photo by Desmond White available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artist-profiles/lisa-bielawa

The National Arts Centre Presents The Trojan Women by Lisa Bielawa
Featuring Members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra as part of WolfGANG Sessions

Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 9pm
CLUB SAW | 67 Nicholas Street | Ottawa, ON
Tickets and More Information

Livestream Available (Free)

“Bielawa’s music is thoughtful and approachable. She’s a voice in what you might call the new accessible avant-garde.” – Gramophone Magazine

Lisa Bielawa: www.lisabielawa.net

Ottawa, ON – Composer, producer, and vocalist Lisa Bielawa –– described as “a dynamic and innovative composer” by The Boston Globe –– will have her work for string quartet, The Trojan Women, performed by members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra at Ottawa’s Club SAW on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 9pm as part of NAC’s WolfGANG Sessions. The concert will also include Dinuk Wijeratne’s The Disappearance Of Lisa Gherardini and David Bruce’s Gumboots. The performance will be broadcast live, available free of charge and on-demand at www.nac-cna.ca/en/event/36177.

Lisa Bielawa is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and a Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition, who takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. She is the recipient of the 2017 Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters and a 2020 OPERA America Grant for Female Composers. She was named a William Randolph Hearst Visiting Artist Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2018 and was Artist-in-Residence at Kaufman Music Center in New York for the 2020-2021 season. In 1997, Bielawa co-founded the MATA Festival. In 1997, Bielawa co-founded the MATA Festival. 

In 1999, Bielawa composed a continuous score for Euripides' tragedy The Trojan Women for a production directed by JoAnn Akalaitis. The following year, a string quartet based on some of the musical material from that score, which was premiered in 2000 by the Miami String Quartet at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. She also composed a version of the work for string orchestra, which was commissioned and premiered by the String Orchestra of New York City (SONYC). The string quartet version of The Trojan Women premiered nearly 21 years ago to date, on May 10, 2003 at the MATA Festival, in New York City.

Bielawa says of the work:

“The special musical challenge of this project was to identify and convey, in three movements, three variegated forms of grief, each one a consequence of one woman's particular sufferings: ‘Hecuba,’ ‘Cassandra,’ and ‘Andromache.’ These women lost husbands and sons in the notorious brutality of the Trojan War. Each time I revisited the piece as it evolved from music for the theatre, to string quartet, and finally to string orchestra, I was informed by a slightly different understanding of the nature of public and private grieving. Euripides’ eulogy to the fallen Troy takes its place alongside the picture of Jerusalem in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, W.G. Sebald’s searching inquiries into the rubble of Dresden, or the jarring pictures we see daily in the media.”

More about Lisa Bielawa: During her 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship period, Lisa Bielawa is working primarily on two projects – a new opera, La Ballonniste, and a book of prose vignettes from her experiences and encounters with music in a variety of international settings. La Ballonniste is an opera in three acts inspired by the life of Elisabeth Thible, an opera singer who was the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon, with libretto by Claire Solomon, dramaturgy by Cori Ellison. Bielawa’s book will share remembrances and observations gathered from her decades of wandering, offering cultural moments in the global continuum frozen in time.

Bielawa consistently executes work that incorporates community-making as part of her artistic vision. She has created music for public spaces in Lower Manhattan, a bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, KY, the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, on the sites of former airfields in Berlin in San Francisco, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the coronavirus lockdown, Bielawa cultivated a virtual community using submitted testimonies and recorded voices from six continents, through her project, Broadcast from Home.  In 2022, Bielawa was selected for a residency with the Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps, during which she wrote new orchestral and community-based works to engage the Louisville community.

Bielawa’s music has been premiered at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, SHIFT Festival, Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, National Cathedral, Rouen Opera, MAXXI Museum in Rome, and Helsinki Music Center, among others. Orchestras that have championed her music include The Knights, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, ROCO in Houston, and the Orlando Philharmonic. Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Rider, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Radio France, Yerevan Concert Hall in Armenia, the Venice Architectural Biennale, American Music Week in Salzburg, the INFANT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, and more. 

She received a 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser, created with librettist Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte. Vireo was filmed in twelve parts in locations across the country and features over 350 musicians. Vireo was released on CD/DVD in 2019 (Orange Mountain Music). Bielawa is also recorded on the Tzadik and BMOP/ sound labels, among others.

For more information about Lisa Bielawa visit www.lisabielawa.net.

For information about The National Arts Centre Orchestra visit: www.nac-cna.ca/orchestra

April 14-25: Baritone Matthias Goerne and Pianist Evgeny Kissin Give Three Recitals in Cleveland, Toronto, and New York

Matthias Goerne by Marie Staggat available in high resolution here.
Evgeny Kissin by Mascia Sergievskaia available in high resolution here.

Matthias Goerne, Baritone & Evgeny Kissin, Piano
Three Recitals in North America in April

“Goerne’s instrument, with its velvety crevices, catches darkness and light . . .Few artists are so temperamentally suited to this repertoire – and fewer still possess such a plush, darkly inviting voice.”
– The New York Times on Matthias Goerne 

“I'm not sure anyone else has the virtuosity to step this far outside the box with such honesty and dignity and power.”
– The Washington Post on Evgeny Kissin

Sunday, April 14, 2024 at 3pm: Presented by The Cleveland Orchestra
Severance Music Center | 11001 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH
Tickets & Information 

Sunday, April 21, 2024 at 2pm: Presented Roy Thomson Hall
60 Simcoe St, Toronto, ON
Tickets & Information 

Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 8pm: Presented by Carnegie Hall
Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall
57th St. and 7th Ave., New York, NY
Tickets & Information

matthiasgoerne.org | kissin.org

Celebrated and sought-after baritone Matthias Goerne, described as “today’s leading interpreter of German art songs,” by The Chicago Tribune, and legendary virtuoso pianist Evgeny Kissin will give three recitals in North America in April, following appearances across Europe in Brussels, Vienna, Madrid, Lisbon, and Paris. The superstar duo, who are performing together for the first time this year, will be presented by The Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Music Center in Cleveland, OH on Sunday, April 14 at 3pm; at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, ON on Sunday, April 21 at 2pm; and at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY on Thursday, April 25 at 8pm.

Goerne and Kissin’s program features some of the most sublime art songs of the Romantic period by Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, including musical depictions of love and betrayal in Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Brahms’s Lieder und Gesänge, alongside selections from his Songs after Poems by Heinrich Heine. 

Celebrated around the globe for his opera and concert performances, German baritone Matthias Goerne is a frequent guest with leading orchestras and renowned festivals and concert halls. Among his musical partners are conductors such as Claudio Abbado(†), Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniele Gatti , Bernard Haitink, Manfred Honeck, Mariss Jansons(†), Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Franz Welser-Möst. Throughout his career, he has collaborated with the most important pianists of our time. His carefully chosen roles range from Amfortas, Marke, Wolfram, Wotan, Orest, and Jochanaan to the title roles in Béla Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. Goerne’s artistry has been documented on numerous recordings, including five Grammy nominations, an ICMA award, a Gramophone Award, the BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award 2017, Diapason d’or arte, and the ECHO Klassik 2017 in the category “singer of the year.” He has released three albums with Deutsche Grammophon: Beethoven Songs with Jan Lisiecki; a collection of Wagner, Strauss and Pfitzner Songs with Seong-Jin Cho and his new album of Schumann and Brahms Songs with Daniil Trifonov. His latest album Schubert revisited was released in January 2023 by Deutsche Grammophon. In the 2023-24 season, Matthias Goerne embarked on an extensive recital and orchestral tour of China, in addition to this series of recitals with Evgeny Kissin in Europe and the United States. He has premiered Jörg Widmann’s Schumannliebe at Porto’s Casa da Musica and Cologne Philharmonie. Furthermore, he will appear with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and return to the Salzburg Festival in the summer.

Evgeny Kissin’s musicality, the depth and poetic quality of his interpretations, and his extraordinary virtuosity have earned him the veneration and admiration deserved only by one of the most gifted classical pianists of his generation and, arguably, generations past. He is in demand all over the world and has appeared with many of the world’s great conductors, including Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim, Dohnanyi, Giulini, Levine, Maazel, Muti, and Ozawa, as well as all the great orchestras of the world. This season, Kissin returns to tour the United States with a recital program that includes the works of his beloved Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms and Prokofiev. In addition to this collaboration with Matthias Goerne, he also appears in concert with major European orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, among others. Evgeny Kissin’s newest release is an album featuring Beethoven Sonatas on the Deutsche Grammophon label. Past awards have included the Edison Klassiek in The Netherlands, and the Diapason d’Or and the Grand Prix of La Nouvelle Academie du Disque in France. His recording of works by Scriabin, Medtner and Stravinsky (RCA Red Seal) won him a Grammy in 2006 for Best Instrumental Soloist. In 2002, Kissin was named Echo Klassik Soloist of the Year. His most recent Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (with orchestra) was awarded in 2010 for his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy (EMI Classics). Evgeny Kissin’s extraordinary talent inspired Christopher Nupen’s documentary film, Evgeny Kissin: The Gift of Music, which was released in 2000 on video and DVD by RCA Red Seal.

Sony Classical Announces Alexis Ffrench's New Album Classical Soul; First Single Out Today

Sony Classical Announces Fourth Studio Album
by Alexis Ffrench

Classical Soul Volume One
Album Release Date: September 27, 2024
Pre-Order Available Now

New Single The Way It Was Out Today – Listen Here

Watch the Music Video for Soar
Featuring Fally Ipupa and Kevin Olusola

A Homage To His Late Father's Record Collection With Original Compositions For Piano & Orchestra Infused With Nods From Soul Classics 

Renowned classical-soul pianist and composer Alexis Ffrench is thrilled to announce the release of his latest album, Classical Soul Vol. 1, arriving next Friday, September 27, via Sony Classical - pre-order is available now. This much-anticipated project marks Ffrench's first brand new studio recording in two years and promises to be a nostalgic journey through the timeless sounds that have shaped his unique musical DNA - listen here (for press only; not for publication).

Drawing inspiration from his late father’s cherished record collection, Classical Soul Vol. 1 masterfully blends Ffrench’s signature classical sound with his early influences from soul icons, such as Roberta Flack and her unforgettable 'Killing Me Softly,' which won the Grammy for Record of the Year 50 years ago. 

The album includes the recent single Soar, an uplifting multi-cultural anthem featuring Congolese singer-songwriter Fally Ipupa and Pentaonix' cellist and beatboxer Kevin Olusola, celebrating people coming together at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Watch the accompanying music video here.

Recorded at the legendary Miraval Studios in France, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard and known for hosting some of the most incredible names in music; the studio served as the perfect environment to create Alexis’ deeply personal, nostalgic and reflective album. 

Classical Soul Vol. 1 is a continuation of the poignant and avant-garde music that has defined Alexis Ffrench’s career, solidifying his status as one of the UK’s most distinctive and groundbreaking artists. As the pioneer of the 'Classical Soul' genre, Ffrench has captured the hearts of millions worldwide, with over one billion streams across his catalogue. His previous chart-topping albums, Dreamland and Evolution, have established him as the fastest-growing classical artist worldwide, resonating with a diverse audience that spans generations. 

Speaking about the album, Ffrench said; "This album is a reflection of my musical heritage and the soundtrack of my life. It’s an ode to the music that has shaped me—not just as an artist, but as a person. I wanted to capture the soul of these influences while infusing them with the classical elements that are so intrinsic to my identity." 

Fans and newcomers alike can expect Classical Soul Vol. 1 to be an exploration of the rich tapestry of sounds that have influenced Ffrench throughout his life. With its heartfelt nods to the past and a modern twist, this album is poised to become a landmark in his already illustrious career. 

A pioneering superstar of Classical Soul, Alexis’s sound refuses to be limited by genre, time period, or by expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility. 

About Alexis Ffrench: Alexis brings piano to the mainstream. Whether it's performing at the King's Coronation Concert in 2023 to an audience of over 18 million viewers, hosting his Apple Music show after Elton John's Rocket Hour, performing at major music festivals & sold out venues worldwide, hosting nationwide music education masterclasses, or posting covers of today’s hits by Central Cee, Billie Eilish and more to an enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is passionate about music being accessible to all. 

Listen to Classical Soul Volume 1

TRACKLIST

1. The Way It Was
2. Reverie
3. Interlude #1 (Killing Me Softly With His Song)
4. Chasing Yesterdays
5. Together Without You
6. Interlude #2 (A Change Is Gonna Come)
7. Soar
8. Fireflies
9. Fate
10. Sö
11. Interlude #3 (At Last)
12. Suddenly
13. Everything Changes
14. Interlude #4 (I Say A Little Prayer)
15. Sanctuary
16. Interlude #5 (Ain't No Sunshine)
17. Broken Wings On Crimson Skies
18. Once
19. Returning To You
20. I Say A Little Prayer (Reprise)
21. The Time Of Your Life

Follow Alexis Ffrench on:
Website | Instagram | YouTube | X 

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Website | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | TikTok | X

Composer David Crowell Announces New Album Point / Cloud Out May 3 on Better Company Records – Featuring Sandbox Percussion, Dan Lippel, Mak Grgić, & eco|tonal

David Crowell Announces New Album Point / Cloud
Out May 3 on Better Company Records

Featuring Sandbox Percussion, Dan Lippel, Mak Grgić,
and eco|tonal (Iva Casián-Lakoš and David Crowell)

“[David] Crowell focuses his integrity most upon what he can shape most effectively, where his ear goes, where the sound goes, [and] on how he develops a sonic community.” – Arteidolia

“The clangor of the vibraphones especially, allowed to ring with the pedal, created organ-like sonorities that vibrated through the brain long after the piece ended.” – Washington Classical Review on the World Premiere of Verses for a Liminal Space

CDs or press downloads available upon request.

davidcrowellmusic.com | www.bettercompanyrecords.com

New York, NY – Composer, saxophonist, and guitarist David Crowell announces his new album, Point / Cloud, to be released by Better Company Records on Friday, May 3, 2024. The album features Crowell’s music performed by the GRAMMY®-nominated Sandbox Percussion, the versatile and gifted guitarists Dan Lippel and GRAMMY®-nominated Mak Grgić, and the musically meditative duo eco|tonal – David Crowell and cellist/singer/improviser Iva Casián-Lakoš.

Crowell brings a “singular vision that transcends genre” (Exclaim) to diverse forms of composed and improvisational music, and has been praised for compositional work that is "notable for its crystalline sonic beauty" (The Boston Globe) and which “pulses with small, ecstatic fibrillations” (The New York Times). His music has previously been released on the New Amsterdam, Innova, National Sawdust Tracks, Coviello Classics, and Skirl labels.

Point / Cloud’s four sonically intricate and imagery-laden works written for percussion, guitar, and the hybrid artistry of singing cellist Iva Casián-Lakoš, prompt the idea of embracing respite while on journeys of travel and change – from the familiarity of highway drives, to enigmatic excursions, to pipe organs played by the ocean’s tides, to reprieve from musical progressions.

In her liner notes, writer Jennifer Gersten describes the album as featuring compositions that are “transmissions from in between.” She writes, “Crowell’s intricate notions take flight, then build us a home in midair.”

Crowell looks to the unique musical expressions of Sandbox Percussion, Dan Lippel, Mak Grgić, and cellist/vocalist Iva Casián-Lakoš to not only navigate his highly nuanced writing of vastly different ideas –– all which have evolved gradually over time and/or several iterations of musical form –– but to artfully unveil the real world object or experience with which each work cleverly resonates.

Crowell has known and worked with the quartet Sandbox Percussion for more than a decade, and the complexities and degree of rhythmic grace sewn into Verses for a Liminal Space show the high level of sophistication and deep refinement that this longtime relationship has allowed. Commissioned by a university consortium and finished at Dumbarton Oaks where Crowell was doing a fellowship, the piece occurs in what Gersten describes as, “three ‘verses’: short, spaced circumnavigations, flowing into one another.” The vibraphone is featured prominently first, winding up and down. From there, the sounds of vibraphone and marimbas appear to bring the music to a sudden halt in place. Then the third “verse” reveals what feels at once like a cascading deluge and an orbiting carousel of sound. Recurring, low percussive tones serve as a sonic beacon, tethering together the audible spaces within and outside the music.

The album’s titular work, Point / Cloud, is described by Crowell as a response to Steve Reich’s 1987 work, Electric Counterpoint – a monumental three-movement work for guitar in which the soloist plays with pre-recorded tracks. The title Point / Cloud leans into the contrast cultivated by the instruments over time: individual notes played with pointillistic quality, which lead to an eventual accumulation of densely packed but nebulous sonic “clouds.”

In a fanciful twist of fate, the evolution of Pacific Coast Highway reflects an embrace of the unexpected, not unlike what arises while traveling on the highway. The work was originally conceived for electric guitar and electric bass but would go on to assume various other arrangements or, what Crowell describes as, “multiple personalities.” This album captures a classical guitar duo version, performed by astute guitarists Dan Lippel and Mak Grgic. Crowell, having spent some of his life growing up in California, titled the work Pacific Coast Highway as a nod to a particular route on the work’s namesake road. Lippel and Grgić’s guitars each burst with notes that dance with a graceful connection, traversing the piece with weaves and turns evocative of the California thoroughfare.

Crowell says the finale work, 2 Hours in Zadar — performed by eco|tonal (Iva Casián-Lakoš and David Crowell), with text by Casián-Lakoš’s mother Nela Lakoš — stands at the intersection of his own compositional sensibilities and Casián-Lakoš’s musical strengths, as well as her Croatian ancestry. Subtle utterances of Casián-Lakoš speaking Croatian are blended with organ-like electronics, which are derived from manipulations of Casián-Lakoš’s voice. From there, the work unfolds with Gregorian-style chanting alongside Casián-Lakoš’ cello. Eventually, samples of a sound unique to the city of Zadar makes its presence known: The Sea Organ. A symbiosis of human architecture and the unpredictability of nature, this “organ” is a marble stair in the Croatian coastal city of Zadar that contains an assortment of pipes in its steps, which are “played” by the ebb and flow of waves. Casián-Lakoš reemerges, singing more of her mother’s text. She describes a speaker who contemplates the vastness of the ocean and as Gersten describes it: “surrendering to and yet—with plainspoken sweetness—refusing the water’s power.”

Point / Cloud is a focused and eloquent expression of Crowell’s musical ideas, displaying the fruits of steady craft, lived experiences, and evolving artistic perspectives over the course of many years. The recording conveys a defined concept that is cleverly presented through styles of performance and composition of notably contrasting character. As mixer and producer of the album, Crowell’s first hand attention to detail in this regard allowed him to reflect upon and shape the sound of the music with even more artistic specificity.

About David Crowell: David Crowell is a composer and instrumentalist (saxophones, guitar) based in New York City. His work crosses stylistic boundaries, encompassing contemporary classical composition, improvisation, jazz, and experimental rock and pop. Artistic processes vary piece by piece, from composing purely for acoustic instruments to the use of electronics and manipulations of originally sampled sound. Improvisation plays an important role in generating material, either to exist on its own terms or for later development in a more deliberate compositional manner.

Commissioning ensembles have included JACK Quartet, A Far Cry, Argus Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, New Morse Code, NOW Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion, and icarus Quartet. Recent new works for the Argus Quartet (2021) and Unheard-of//Ensemble (2023) have both been supported by Individual Artist Grants from the New York State Council on the Arts. A new work for string orchestra was commissioned by Dumbarton Oaks for A Far Cry, which premiered the piece in April 2022. Crowell was also the Musician In Residence at Dumbarton Oaks in spring 2021. He performed internationally as a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble from 2007-16, including a three-year international tour of Einstein on the Beach and ten complete performances of Music in Twelve Parts. Crowell has also played with the Bang on a Can All-Stars, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Steve Reich, Signal Ensemble, and Asphalt Orchestra.

Track List:

Point / Cloud
Music by David Crowell

1. Verses for a Liminal Space [14:33]
2. Point / Cloud I [4:01]
3. Point / Cloud II [3:47]
4. Point / Cloud III [4:22]
5. Pacific Coast Highway [4:55]
6. 2 Hours in Zadar [9:48]

Total Time: [41:26]

David Crowell, electronics; Iva Casián-Lakoš, cello, spoken word, vocals; Sandbox Percussion: Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, percussion; Dan Lippel, guitar; Mak Grgić, guitar.

Verses for a Liminal Space
Performed by Sandbox Percussion
Engineered by Mike Tierney at Bunker Studio in Brooklyn, NY

Point / Cloud
Performed by Dan Lippel
Engineered by Ryan Streber at Oktaven and David Crowell in Ditmas Park, NY

Pacific Coast Highway
Performed by Dan Lippel and Mak Grgić
Engineered by John Schneider at Earthstar Creation Center

2 Hours in Zadar
Performed by eco|tonal (Iva Casián-Lakoš and David Crowell)
Croatian Text by Nela Lakoš
Engineered by Aaron Nevezie at Bunker Studio and David Crowell in Long Island City, NY

Produced and Mixed by David Crowell
Mastered by Charles Van Kirk
Artwork by Rebecca Crowell
Cover Design by Kate Gentile
Notes by Jennifer Gersten

May 4 & 5: California Symphony's BRAHMS OBSESSIONS Explores the Relationship between Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann + World Premiere of Saad Haddad's Mishwar

Robert Thies, Donato Cabrera, California Symphony, and Saad Haddad. Hi res photos available here.

California Symphony's BRAHMS OBSESSIONS

Explores the Relationship between Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann
and Presents the World Premiere of Saad Haddad's Mishwar

 Led by Donato Cabrera, Artistic & Music Director
Featuring Piano Soloist Robert Thies in Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto

In Concert May 4 and 5, 2024
At Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts

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 conclude the 2023-24 season, featuring concerts that honor trailblazing composers and unique artists, with Brahms Obsessions on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm and Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 4pm, at the Lesher Center for the Arts (1601 Civic Drive, Walnut Creek). The concerts reunite the music of two composers who shared an intense friendship – Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann – pairing his brilliant Symphony No. 1 with her only surviving Piano Concerto performed by featured soloist Robert Thies. The concerts also feature the world premiere performances of the first of three works to be commissioned by California Symphony from its 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence Saad Haddad. Haddad’s new work is Mishwar (in Arabic: مشوار), which translates as A Trip.

“We close our season with the performance of two works that allow us to ponder one of the most profound friendships of the 19th century. Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms shared a deep love and understanding of music and in her Piano Concerto and his Symphony No. 1, we can clearly hear their respective sensibilities and personalities,” says Donato Cabrera. “For Clara Schumann’s concerto, I am very excited to be introducing the extraordinary pianist, Robert Thies, to our audience. He brings an unparalleled musicianship and an intellectual understanding to his performances that I greatly admire. One of the defining characteristics of the California Symphony is its nationally recognized composer-in-residence program, and we will be introducing our new composer-in-residence, Saad Haddad, with the world premiere of his overture, Mishwar. Saad’s music is full of unique sounds and energy and Mishwar will surely intrigue and excite those that will hear these premiere performances.”

California Symphony’s concerts begin with Saad Haddad’s music, which explores the relationship between the West and the East by translating traditional Arab instruments to a Western symphonic context. Haddad has drawn Mishwar from his memories of family trips during his childhood, driving up the coast of California and playing what he calls “the Arabic game” during the car ride with his siblings. He says, “My dad liked to see who retained the most out of the Arabic language among the three of us, who were all born in the U.S.: ‘What color is that car?’; ‘Who can count to 20?’; ‘How do you say ‘sky’?’; and so on. None of us were quite good at this game, though the moments when one of us would remember a word or phrase would always bring joy for my dad.” Haddad describes the piece as, “a conversation, albeit quite a loud one, between both my identities: a coastal American trained in Western classical music, and the son of Jordanian and Lebanese immigrants attempting to retain the culture they themselves grew up in.” 

The concerts continue with Clara Schumann’s only surviving Piano Concerto, completed by the virtuosic pianist/prodigy two weeks before her sixteenth birthday and premiered with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by famed composer Felix Mendessohn in 1835. Described by The New York Times as “music’s unsung renaissance woman,” Schumann was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the 1800s. A passionate champion of new music, she was a child prodigy who became one of the 19th century’s foremost piano virtuosos, remaining active for over six decades. At age 21, she married composer Robert Schumann (then virtually unknown, while she commanded an international reputation), and went on to have eight children while maintaining a career as a performer and teacher, and encouraging her husband’s career. Her revolutionary Piano Concerto, which showcases Schumann’s trademark improvisatory style, will be performed by guest soloist Robert Thies, known for his “unerring, warm-toned refinement, revealing judicious glimmers of power” (Los Angeles Times), who captured international attention in 1995 when he became the first American since Van Cliburn to win the Gold Medal at a Russian piano competition.

Composers Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms shared an intense friendship, documented by personal diaries and letters between the two over decades. Brahms wrote in a letter to a friend, “I believe that I do not have more concern for and admiration for her than I love her and find love in her. I often have to restrain myself forcibly from just quietly putting my arms around her and even—: I don’t know, it seems to me so natural that she could not misunderstand.” Clara wrote in her diary, “There is the most complete accord between us… It is not his youth that attracts me: not, perhaps, my flattered vanity. No, it is the fresh mind, the gloriously gifted nature, the noble heart, that I love in him.”

The program concludes with Brahms’s powerful Symphony No. 1. Tortured by comparisons to Beethoven, it took Brahms 21 years to finish writing his first symphony. Some critics hailed the piece as “Beethoven’s tenth” in recognition of Brahms’s ultimate triumph. “Seldom, if ever, has the entire musical world awaited a composer’s first symphony with such tense anticipation,” said 19th century music critic Eduard Hanslick. “The new symphony is so earnest and complex, so utterly unconcerned with common effects, that it hardly lends itself to quick understanding… [but] even the layman will immediately recognize it as one of the most distinctive and magnificent works of the symphonic literature.”

Up next, 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. More information. 

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.

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 Brahms Obsessions

In the California Symphony’s season finale, Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera reunites the music of Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann. Described by The New York Times as “music’s unsung renaissance woman,” Clara Schumann was an acclaimed composer and pianist in the 1800s. In this concert, 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 is explored in the California Symphony’s program titled Brahms Obsessions. The music of Brahms and Clara Schumann are paired with the world premiere of California Symphony Resident Composer Saad Haddad’s newest work, Mishwar. Haddad’s music explores the relationship between the West and the East by translating traditional Arab instruments to a Western symphonic context.

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, May 4, 2024 at 7:30pm   
Sunday, May 5, 2024 at 4:00pm

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

CONCERT:

BRAHMS OBSESSIONS
7:30pm, Saturday, May 4
4:00pm, Sunday, May 5
Donato Cabrera, conductor
California Symphony
Robert Thies, piano

PROGRAM:
Saad Haddad: Mishwar (مشوار) (World Premiere)
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 1

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.

April 25-May 9: Guitarist MILOŠ tours North America with Les Violons du Roy in Music from Sony Classical Album Baroque - Quebec, Montreal, DC, Kansas City, Stanford, Denver

CLASSICAL GUITARIST MILOŠ TOURS NORTH AMERICA
WITH LES VIOLONS DU ROY 

INCLUDING MUSIC FROM LATEST SONY CLASSICAL ALBUM BAROQUE

LISTEN NOW

“one of the most exciting and communicative classical guitarists today” – The New York Times

Upcoming North American Tour with Les Violons Du Roy and Jonathan Cohen:  
Quebec City, QC: Palais Montcalm on April 25, 2024
Montreal, QC: Salle Bourgie on April 26, 2024
Washington, DC: Library of Congress on April 30, 2024
Overland Park, KS: Johnson County Community College on May 2, 2024
Stanford, CA:  Stanford Live at Bing Concert Hall on May 5, 2024
Denver, CO: Newman Center for the Performing Arts on May 9, 2024 

CONCERT SCHEDULE

Read the Financial Times feature on MILOŠ

MILOŠ, the superstar musician who has led today’s classical guitar revival, began a new era in his exceptional career with his October 2023 debut album for Sony Classical. Titled simply Baroque, the album presents MILOŠ’ carefully curated selection of baroque works especially transcribed and arranged for the guitar, both solo and in collaboration with Jonathan Cohen and his ensemble Arcangelo.

In April and May, MILOŠ comes to North America for a six-concert tour with Cohen’s ensemble Les Violons du Roy, performing concerts that include music from the new album. Tour performances include Quebec on April 25 at Palais Montcalm; Montreal on April 26 at Salle Bourgie; Washington, DC at the Library of Congress on April 30; Overland Park, KS on May 2 at the Performing Arts Series at Johnson County Community College; in Stanford, CA on May 5 presented by Stanford Live at Bing Concert Hall; and on May 9 in Denver, CO at the Newman Center for the Performing Arts.

The spring tour follows MILOŠ’s highly praised tour in fall 2023 which included performances in St. Paul, MN presented by the Schubert Club, in Quebec, QC at Palais Montcalm, and at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Watch MILOŠ's stunning video of his performance of Handel's Menuet from Suite in B-Flat Major, from Blenheim Palace.

Since his incredible breakthrough in 2011, when his debut album held the no. 1 position in the UK Classical charts for a breathtaking 28 weeks, MILOŠ has built an impressive international career by performing solo recitals and concertos at most of the world’s leading concert venues. His six studio albums have sold the equivalent of over half a million copies and conquered the classical album charts in multiple territories, earning him a Classical BRIT, Echo Klassik and two Gramophone Awards.

BBC Music Magazine included him in “Six of the Best Classical Guitarists of the Past Century” and The New York Times cited him as “one of the most exciting and communicative classical guitarists today.” His wide variety of musical influences and repertoire, ranging from baroque to contemporary music, via the Beatles and beyond, has helped MILOŠ build a loyal international fanbase and introduce his instrument to a whole new generation of listeners. His long list of musical collaborators ranges from Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Lisa Batiashvili, Alison Balsom, and Jess Gillam, to Tori Amos, Gregory Porter and Anoushka Shankar. He was the first-ever classical guitarist to perform a sold-out solo show at the Royal Albert Hall, where he returned last summer playing to a capacity audience. He has presented on both BBC and Sky TV and has his own series of educational books Play Guitar with Miloš published by Schott Music.

He recently launched the Miloš Karadaglić Foundation. Based in Porto Montenegro, this philanthropic organisation aims to act as a regional hub of influence by empowering artistic excellence though various educational opportunities, partnership and close mentorship.

Baroque heralds a new milestone in MILOŠ’ career.

He says, “Since the very beginning of my life as a musician, I have been deeply inspired by the incredible variety and electrifying energy of the baroque repertoire. This golden era of music is mysterious and extraordinary, flamboyant, often endlessly lyrical, ultimately timeless. And yet within the classical guitar context, apart from J.S. Bach, I believe we have only ever managed to touch the surface. This very thought inspired me to, over the years, try and dig deeper, go beyond the obvious, experiment, collaborate and transcribe, to open a new door of possibilities for my instrument and its own baroque voice.” 

MILOŠ’ own transcription of Bach’s monumental Chaconne sits at the heart of this recording, anchoring the richly varied constellation of baroque composers’ masterpieces. MILOŠ particularly wanted to present the guitar across a wide range of European influences, and not merely within the more familiar Spanish context. He has selected luminescent works by nine composers here, the majority of which have never been played on solo guitar before.

There is plenty of light and shade within the music, reflecting baroque’s unique chiaroscuro character. Works such as Alessandro Marcello’s Adagio from Oboe Concerto in D Minor; Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in D minor; the Menuet from George Frideric Handel’s Suite in B-Flat Major; Jean-Philippe Rameau’s The Arts and the Hours or François Couperin’s Les Barricades mystérieuses offer more introspective moments, while Antonio Vivaldi’s movements from La Notte and L’estro Armonico, originally written as a concerto for four violins, or indeed Boccherini’s Fandango from ‘Quintet No. 4 in D Major’ provide fireworks of thrilling virtuosity.

MILOŠ worked very closely with Jonathan Cohen on all the orchestral transcriptions, as well as with Michael Lewin, the eminent British guitarist and lutenist with whom he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and with whom he now shares a wonderful creative collaboration.

“Everything I have learned and experienced in my musical life so far, all the influences and various musical traditions, converge in this album,” says MILOŠ. “I wanted to convey a new vision of baroque here, with all the variety of style and texture, while preserving the innate intimacy and typical beauty of the guitar sound.”

While for MILOŠ one creative circle closes with the release of this album, Baroque ultimately serves as the foundation of a brand-new era in this artist’s already extraordinary career. 

Website: milosguitar.com
Instagram: instagram.com/milosguitar
Facebook: facebook.com/milosguitar
TikTok: tiktok.com/@milosguitarist

April 24: Jupiter String Quartet Presented by New Millennium Concert Series Performing Music by Su Lian Tan, Antonin Dvořák, and W.A. Mozart

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 New Millennium Concert Series

Performing Music by Su Lian Tan, Antonin Dvořák, and W.A. Mozart

Wednesday, April 24, 2024 7pm
California State University, Sacramento
Capistrano Hall | 6000 J Street | Sacramento, CA
Tickets and Information

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

www.jupiterquartet.com

Sacramento, CA – The Jupiter String Quartet –– the internationally acclaimed winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) –– will be presented in concert by New Millennium Concert Series at CSUS Capistrano Hall (6000 J Street) on Wednesday, April 24, 2024 7pm.

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.

The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed musical chemistry to three works that span more than 225 years, highlighting a range of musical styles and unique personal experiences –– each of which directly influenced how the composers approached their respective musical ideas. The program includes: W.A. Mozart’s String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575 (1789); Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895); and Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang (2002).

Mozart wrote several of his later string quartets for the King of Prussia, Frederick Wilhelm II, who was an accomplished cellist. This explains the particular prominence of the cello line, and the elevation of all four voices to greater equality in general. The joyful interplay of the K. 575 quartet is a perfect example of this more democratic structure. Next on the program will be Su Lian Tan’s vivid Life in Wayang, which evokes sounds of traditional South Asian shadow puppet theater. The music is filled with percussive effects that imitate the sounds of the traditional gamelan ensemble. Dvořák’s exuberant and expansive A-flat Major Quartet will finish the program, and its folksy style showcases his joy in returning, after a long visit to America, to his beloved homeland of Czechoslovakia.

The Jupiter Quartet says of bringing this musically diverse program to the community of California State University, Sacramento:

“We are pleased to bring these vivid and engaging works to the audience in Sacramento, and happy that we will get to share both more familiar works and fresher ones. These three works showcase a great variety of sounds and timbres that the string quartet can create, from the refined, operatic beauty of Mozart to the bright, percussive brilliance of the gamelan-like sounds in Life in Wayang.

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, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented by New Millennium Concert Series for a performance at CSUS Capistrano Hall. The ensemble will perform a program that is diverse in its musical styles and in the creative sources of the composers’ respective works. The music reflects a colorful collage of inspirational elements, unified by a thread of compositional sophistication. Performed works will include, W.A. Mozart’s String Quartet No. 21 in D Major, K. 575 (1789), Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895), and Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang (2002).

Short description: The Jupiter Quartet, described as an ensemble of “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity” (The New Yorker), is presented by New Millennium Concert Series for a performance featuring the music of W.A. Mozart, Antonin Dvořák, and Su Lian Tan.

Concert details:

Who: Jupiter String Quartet Presented by New Millennium Concert Series
What: Music by W.A. Mozart, Antonin Dvořák, and Su Lian Tan.
When: Wednesday, April 24, 2024 at 7pm
Where: California State University, Sacramento, Capistrano Hall, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA 95819
Tickets and information: www.csus.edu/college/arts-letters/music/spotlight/new-millennium.html

GatherNYC Sunday Morning Concerts at MAD in Columbus Circle continue with Juilliard Quartet, Orpheus + Boyd Meets Girl, Maeve Gilchrist, and more

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 March, April, and May:
MAR 31 • Juilliard Quartet
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

Read about GatherNYC in The Strad!

“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 six remaining concerts this spring. 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 last year. “Then we have a two-minute celebration of silence when we turn the lights down, centering ourselves in the center of the city. Then the lights come back on, and the music starts again out of the silence. We find that the listening and the feeling in the room changes after that.”

Metcalf and Boyd say, “We are thrilled to be returning to the beautiful Museum of Arts and Design, offering 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, Sundays at 11AM:

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

April 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.

April 13: Pianist Sarah Cahill in The Future is Female Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore – Performing as Part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve

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

Pianist Sarah Cahill in The Future is Female
Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore

Performing as Part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve

Saturday April 13, 2024 at 6pm
Strathmore Mansion | 10701 Rockville Pike | Rockville, MD
More information

“Sarah Cahill plays a wide-ranging selection of music composed by women on the final volume of a series distinctive for its finesse and conviction.”
– Gramophone Magazine on The Future is Female

Sarah Cahill: www.sarahcahill.com

Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR TIny Desk Concert

Rockville, MD – On Saturday, April 13, 2024 at 6pm, Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, is co-presented in concert by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore as part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve –– an annual multi-day Women Composers (WoCo) Festival, featuring works by women and gender-marginalized composers performed by local and nationally acclaimed performers. Cahill’s concert will be held at Strathmore Mansion (10701 Rockville Pike).

Nearly a year since the release of The Future is Female Vol. 3, At Play –– the final volume in the album trilogy counterpart to Cahill’s project The Future is Female –– the esteemed Bay Area pianist will perform a diverse program of works by an array of women composers who are featured as part of The Future is Female. The Future is Female is Cahill’s research and performance project, which celebrates and highlights women composers from the 17th century to the present day. Cahill’s three recordings of the same title encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe and include several newly commissioned works and world premiere recordings. Each of the albums was released on UK label First Hand Records.

The music Cahill has selected to perform during WoCo Fest 2024 spans almost 250 years and includes Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre’s Keyboard Suite in D minor (movements I, III, V, and VI) (1687); Hélène de Montgeroult’s Sonata No. 9, Op. 5 No. 3 (1811); Louise Farrenc’s Two Etudes, Op. 26 (1839); Leokadiya Kashperova’s Au sein de la nature (1910), movement III; Adelaide Pereira da Silva’s Valsa Choro No. 2 (1965); Troubled Water by Margaret Bonds (1967); and She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees by Theresa Wong (2019).

Cahill was recently featured in an NPR Tiny Desk concert performing music from The Future is Female - watch here.

Listen to The Future is Female, Vols. 1-3 (First Hand Records):

Vol. 1: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol1
Vol. 2: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol2
Vol. 3: https://lnkfi.re/CahillFutureisFemaleVol3

Sarah Cahill began working on The Future is Female, which now encompasses more than 70 compositions, in 2018. “For decades I had been working with many living American composers, including Pauline Oliveros, Tania León, Eve Beglarian, Mary D. Watkins, Julia Wolfe, Ursula Mamlok, Meredith Monk, Annea Lockwood, and many more, but felt an urgent need to explore neglected composers from the past, and from around the globe,” she explains. “Like most pianists, I grew up with the classical canon, which has always excluded women composers as well as composers of color. It is still standard practice to perform recitals consisting entirely of music written by men. The Future is Female, then, aims to be a corrective towards rebalancing the repertoire. It does not attempt to be exhaustive, in any way, and the three albums in this series represent only a small fraction of the music by women which is waiting to be performed and heard. Since recording these three albums in August 2021, I’ve performed extraordinary music by Louise Farrenc, Maria Szymanowska, Helen Hopekirk, Dora Pejačević and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Reena Esmail, Arlene Sierra, Viola Kinney, Marion Bauer, and many other composers who should rightfully be included in this series. The possibilities are, in fact, limitless.”

Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival.

Of the mission and vision of the Boulanger Initiative and taking part in WoCo Fest by performing music from The Future is Female, Cahill says:

“It’s such a great honor to be part of WoCo Fest 2024. The Boulanger Initiative is engaged in such groundbreaking and important work, including their very valuable database of music by women and gender-marginalized composers – a resource that is being used widely in conservatories and music studios, for future generations. As these amazing composers are acknowledged, recognized, and performed, we can start achieving some equity and inclusion in concert programs, and the Boulanger Initiative has a vital role in that process.”

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

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

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

For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.

About the Boulanger Initiative: Boulanger Initiative advocates for women and all gender marginalized composers. We foster inclusivity and representation to expand and enrich the collective understanding of what music is, has been, and can be. We promote music composed by women through performance, education, research, consulting, and commissions.

About Strathmore: Strathmore is a multidimensional creative anchor in the community, where everyone can connect with the arts and artists can explore their full potential. It is a 501(c) nonprofit serving the entire Washington, DC, region and the state of Maryland, with hundreds of performances, visual arts exhibitions, and education programs for diverse audiences on its Montgomery County campus and in the community each year.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described by The New York Times as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde,” is co-presented in concert by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore, as part of WoCo Fest –– an annual, multi-day, Women Composers (WoCo) Festival, which features works by women and gender-marginalized composers performed by local and nationally-acclaimed performers. Cahill will perform a program featuring music from her project, The Future is Female, including works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Leokadiya Kashperova, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Margaret Bonds, and Theresa Wong.

Short description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” (The New York Times), is co-presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore in The Future is Female, as part of WoCo Fest. Cahill’s performance will feature works by Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de La Guerre, Hélène de Montgeroult, Louise Farrenc, Leokadiya Kashperova, Adelaide Pereira da Silva, Margaret Bonds, and Theresa Wong.

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by the Boulanger Initiative and Strathmore
What: Music by several women composers, historical and living, from Cahill’s ongoing project, The Future is Female, as part of WoCo Fest 2024: Evolve
When: Saturday April 13, 2024 at 6pm
Where: Strathmore Mansion, 10701 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852
Tickets and information: www.boulangerinitiative.org/woco-fest-2024-evolve/saturday-mansion

April 25 & 27: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Guest Soloist with Minnesota Sinfonia

Photo by Corey Hayes available in high resolution at: https://www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/yevgeny-kutik

Violinist Yevgeny Kutik is Guest Soloist with Minnesota Sinfonia

Conducted by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman
Featuring Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor

Thursday, April 25, 2024 at 7pm
Metropolitan State University | 700 East 7th Street | St. Paul, MN
Tickets and Information

Saturday 27, 2024 at 2pm
Basilica of St. Mary | 1600 Hennepin Avenue | Minneapolis, MN
Tickets and Information

“polished dexterity and genteel, old-world charm” – WQXR

www.yevgenykutik.com

St. Paul and Minneapolis, MN — Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, known for his “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) will be presented with the Minnesota Sinfonia on Thursday, April 25 in St. Paul, MN and Saturday, April 27 in Minneapolis, MN. For both concerts, Kutik will be the featured soloist in Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, conducted by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman. Each performance will also include W.A. Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, “Linz” and Antonín Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 8.

A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the US with his family at the age of five. Kutik regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. His discography, all on Marquis Records, reflects an appreciation for culture and history –both his own and as well as the stories of others: The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012). Music from the Suitcase is being developed into an immersive stage and performance production for the 2024-2025 season.

Kutik is also the Artistic Director of The Birch Festival – a 501(c)(3) organization that aims to connect and integrate leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. The festival promotes and propels distinct voices in music through new composition and creative interpretations of old favorites.

Kutik will reunite with Jay Fishman and the Minnesota Sinfonia following a 2021 guest performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in D minor. For this program, Kutik and the Minnesota Sinfonia will perform Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26. In this performance, audiences can enjoy Kutik’s meticulous but elegant musicality, interspersed with the vibrant energy of the Minnesota Sinfonia. Bruch’s first violin concerto continues to endure as an extremely popular orchestral work to the present day. Still, even in the face of countless renditions, the sheer technical poise and expressive expectations of the piece elicit heightened thrill over the anticipation of a newly performed interpretation and the interconnected dynamic between soloist and the orchestra.

Of collaborating with Fishman and Minnesota Sinfonia to perform one of Bruch’s most popular works, Kutik says:

“It's always a great joy to revisit Bruch's 1st Violin Concerto, a work beloved by audiences across the world. The work is astounding in how effortlessly it blends virtuosity and breathtaking beauty. I loved working with Jay and the Sinfonia in 2021 and am particularly honored to be with them again now in their final concert season.”

More about Yevgeny Kutik: With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is also lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire. Kutik is also ​​Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival.

Yevgeny Kutik was a featured soloist in Joseph Schwantner’s The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, a made-for-television classical music concert series released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS. In 2021, Kutik made his debut with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, an expansion of The Poet’s Hour, written specifically for Kutik. Kutik gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia, at the Tanglewood Music Festival in August 2022. The work was co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2019, he made his debuts at the Kennedy Center, presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival. Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition. In 2006, he was awarded the Salon de Virtuosi Grant as well as the Tanglewood Music Center Jules Reiner Violin Prize.

Kutik holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and currently resides in Boston. Kutik’s violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella.

For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.

About the Minnesota Sinfonia: The Minnesota Sinfonia is a community-supported 501(c)3 nonprofit with a mission to serve the musical and educational needs of Minnesotans with a special emphasis on serving families with young children, inner-city youth, seniors, and those with limited financial means.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, described by The New York Times as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” is presented as the featured soloist with the Minnesota Sinfonia in two performances on April 25, 2024 at 7pm and April 27, 2024 at 2pm. Together with the Sinfonia, under the direction of Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman, Kutik will perform Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor Op. 26. The performance will also include Mozart’s Symphony No. 36, “Linz” and Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance No. 8.

Short description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, known for his “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times), is presented by the Minnesota Sinfonia on April 25 in St. Paul and April 27 in Minneapolis, as the featured soloist in a performance of Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor led by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman.

Concert details:
Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by Minnesota Symphony
Conducted by Artistic and Executive Director Jay Fishman
What: Music by Max Bruch, Antonín Dvořák, and W.A. Mozart
When: Thursday, April 25 at 7pm and Saturday 27, 2024 at 2pm
Where:
(April 25) Metropolitan State University 700 East 7th Street, St. Paul, MN 55106
(April 27) Basilica of St. Mary, 1600 Hennepin Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55403
Tickets and information: www.mnsinfonia.org/2023-2024-wcs-4

Emerald City Music Presents Violinist Jinjoo Cho in Two Immersive Multimedia Performances on April 19 and 20

Jinjoo Cho, photo by Kyu-Tae Shim available in high resolution HERE.

Emerald City Music Presents Violinist Jinjoo Cho
in Two Immersive Multimedia Performances on April 19 and 20

Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8pm
415 on Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets (Seattle)

Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets (Olympia)

“[Emerald City Music is] creating a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making”
– The Seattle Times

www.emeraldcitymusic.org

Seattle & Olympia, WA – Emerald City Music (ECM), deemed “the beacon for the casual-classical movement” by City Arts Magazine, presents two concerts featuring South Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho in immersive, multimedia performances on Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 on Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW). A charismatic soloist, dynamic chamber musician, dedicated teacher, artistic director, and published writer, Jinjoo Cho is a versatile classical virtuoso of the 21st Century. Her program for Emerald City Music is anchored by artistic and historical contrast, featuring the music of Baroque masters Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann Sebastian Bach alongside a new work dedicated to Cho by Korean-American composer and pianist Juri Seo with projections created by visual artist Changyeob Ok

Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for its casual environment combined with performances by award-winning musicians, ECM encourages attendees to enjoy its flagship “date-night experience” at 415 on Westlake, which features an open bar and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” praising its “nontraditional atmosphere” which allows for “artists [to] mingle with the audience during the intermission.” To reach audiences beyond its live presentations, all of ECM’s concerts are recorded and made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.

“We are thrilled to welcome the dynamic and thrilling virtuoso violinist Jinjoo Cho to the ECM stage for the very first time! Not only is Jinjoo a mesmerizing violinist, but her creativity in sculpting innovative and eclectic programs is what makes her an outstanding artist,” says Emerald City Music Artistic Director Kristin Lee. “I am especially excited for her performance of Toy Store by composer Juri Seo which will be presented with multimedia visual art by artist Changyeob Ok. These will be one-of-a-kind evenings, which reinvent our venues at 415 on Westlake and the Minnaert Center as immersive multimedia experiences!”

The three vastly different works on this solo violin program create a “circle of life” narrative over the course of the evening. Beginning with the wandering mysteriousness of Biber’s Passacaglia for Solo Violin (1670) – one of the world’s oldest surviving solo violin works – the night gives way to Bach’s stately Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1717-20), widely considered the apogee of violin repertoire. The centerpiece of Cho’s program is Juri Seo’s multimedia work Toy Store, a reflective journey through the various experiences of childhood that live on in our minds as adults. Drawing inspiration from punk jazz, John Adams, 19th century presto movements, and video game music, the first movement, Jack-in-the-Box, is a dramatic portrayal of surprise, humor, and obsession as experienced in a childlike mind. The second movement, Monster Truck, combines heavy metal and 18th century Chaconne to create a musical narrative that is at once violent and hilarious. Mobile, explores the feelings of comfort and fear associated with falling asleep, as one experiences a taste of death. In the penultimate movement, Roller Skates, resolution begins to take shape as the violin and prerecorded track participate in multi-part canonic unison. Finally in “Bubbles,” the ethereal soundscape of pizzicati, harmonics, and tremolo evokes lightness and release.

About Jinjoo Choo: Jinjoo Cho is the First Prize Winner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and Concours Musical International de Montréal in addition to the Buenos Aires, Schoenfeld, and Stulberg Competitions. She has toured the world since the age of 11 and continues to perform at distinguished concert halls and festivals including the Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Banff Centre, Festival de Lanaudière, La Seine Musicale, Aigues-Vives Music Festival, Kronberg Academy, Schwetzingen Festspiele, Herkulessaal, Teatro Colón, Seoul Arts Center, and more. Cho has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Ensemble Appassionato, Seoul Philharmonic, and the North Carolina, Phoenix, and Charlotte symphonies. She is the founding Artistic Director of the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute and an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She previously served as faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. Jinjoo is deeply passionate about sharing her love of music, in whatever form that it takes. Her creative explorations range from commissioning new works by composers Juri Seo and Andrew Rindfleisch to collaborating with artists of other disciplines including choreographer Jinyeob Cha. A consummate recording artist, Jinjoo Cho has recorded four albums on the Azica, Naïve Classique, Analekta, and Sony Classical labels. In 2021, her first book, Would I Shine Someday, was listed as a bestseller on major book platforms in Korea. For more information, visit www.jinjoocho.com.

About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: Emerald City Music’s founding 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. Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions. Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.

About ECM

Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.

ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. 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

Newport Classical Music Festival Presents 27 Concerts from July 4-21 in Newport's Historic Mansions and Venues

Photos available in high resolution here.

2024 Newport Classical Music Festival Presents
27 Concerts from July 4-21, 2024

Celebrating its 55th Anniversary

Performances by Anne Akiko Meyers, Laura Benanti, Lara Downes, Joyce Yang, Chanticleer, Canadian Brass, Handel and Haydn Society, A Far Cry,

Sphinx Virtuosi, PUBLIQuartet, Isidore String Quartet, Sō Percussion with Caroline Shaw, and many more

 Opera Night at The Breakers featuring La tragédie de Carmen

World Premiere of a New Work by Clarice Assad
Commissioned by Newport Classical

Historic Venues include The Breakers, The Elms, Castle Hill Inn, Chinese Tea House, and more

Tickets on Sale: www.newportclassical.org/music-festival

Newport, RI – The 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival will present 27 concerts this summer between July 4-21, 2024, bringing timeless music for today to Newport’s stunning historic mansions and venues including The Breakers, Blithewold Mansion in Bristol, The Elms, Castle Hill Inn, Chinese Tea House, King Park, Newport Art Museum, Norman Bird Sanctuary, Redwood Library & Athenæum, and more.  

The Newport Classical Music Festival celebrates its 55th anniversary in 2024. For 55 years, Newport Classical has been a beacon for artistry, drawing in countless concertgoers to revel in exceptional performances within unique and intimate settings. Each July, against the picturesque backdrop of the City by the Sea, the Newport Classical Music Festival stands out as an unparalleled experience. With 27 concerts held in 11 historic venues over 18 days featuring 120 artists, patrons can craft a Festival itinerary tailored to their preferences. Be it the discovery of a new composer, the rhythm of percussion, or revisiting a beloved work with a fresh perspective, audiences are invited to broaden their musical horizons. 

Highlights of the 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival include Opening Night with the dynamic and inspiring Sphinx Virtuosi and cello soloist Thomas Mesa; a sensational recital by acclaimed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers; the return to Newport of Chanticleer, Canadian Brass, and A Far Cry with special guests Kinan Azmeh and Dinuk Wijeratne; the Music Festival debut of the storied, Boston-based Handel and Haydn Society; two enchanting evenings with Tony Award-winning Broadway star Laura Benanti, recently a featured guest on HBO’s The Gilded Age; plus performances by star pianists Lara Downes, Joyce Yang, Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner, Drew Petersen, and Daniel del Pino; and appearances by numerous celebrated chamber ensembles including the Isidore String Quartet; PUBLIQuartet; Duo Kayo; Lincoln Trio; Fenway Quintet; Poulenc Trio with accordionist Hanzhi Wang; and Sō Percussion with vocalist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw. 

For the fourth year in a row, Newport Classical has commissioned a brand new work to be premiered at the Music Festival. This year’s Composer-in-Residence is GRAMMY®-nominated Brazilian-American musician Clarice Assad, who is writing a new piece for mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier and PUBLIQuartet titled Whispers from the Pirate Queen, inspired by the unbreakable spirit of women who dare to challenge societal norms and fight for their convictions – including one of the earliest American feminists and famous Rhode Islander, Anne Hutchinson. Other highlights include the festival’s popular Opera Night at The Breakers which this year features Peter Brook’s production of Bizet’s La tragédie de Carmen, directed by Tara Barnham; Sunrise Meditations concerts; a concert inspired by nature at Norman Bird Sanctuary; a free Fourth of July concert at King Park; and this year’s young professional Newport Classical Festival Artists in eight performances throughout the festival. 

Executive Director Gillian Friedman Fox, says, “Every summer Director of Artistic Planning and Engagement Trevor Neal and I aspire to curate a festival that celebrates the legacy of Newport Classical and introduces our audience to the musicians who are shaping the future of classical music. This year, for our 55th anniversary, we continue to honor music executed at the highest level and performed in magical settings. We are proud to offer an experience unlike any other.”

Now in its third year, Newport Classical’s Festival Artists Residency Program brings together five professional musicians at the early stages of their careers for an intense period of rehearsal and music making during the festival. This diverse group of emerging talents live, work, and play together, becoming engaged members of the community during their extended time in Newport. Each of these exceptionally gifted musicians are selected for their experience working in fast-paced chamber music settings and comfort tackling a wide range of repertoire. This summer, Newport Classical welcomes back returning artists Ariel Horowitz (violin), Jordan Bak (viola), and Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner (piano) alongside first-time artists SooBean Lee (violin) and Jonathan Swenson (cello). In varying configurations, the Festival Artists will perform in eight concerts as well as free community events.

Photos by Lisette Rooney, available in high resolution here.

2024 Newport Classical Music Festival Concerts:

The 2024 Newport Classical Music Festival kicks off on Thursday, July 4 at 7:30pm with a free, outdoor Fourth of July Patriotic Pops concert preceding the fireworks at King Park featuring Fenway Quintet, one of Boston’s most esteemed professional brass quintets, in a joyous program complete with percussion, celebrating America's birthday. This concert is part of the 2024 BankNewport Community Concerts Series, with additional support from a Rhode Island Foundation Community Grant.

Newport Classical Music Festival’s Opening Night concert on Friday, July 5 at 8pm at The Breakers features Sphinx Virtuosi, one of the nation’s most dynamic professional chamber orchestras, comprised of 18 of the nation's top Black and Latinx classical soloists. Set against the opulent backdrop of The Breakers, the self-conducted chamber orchestra will deliver a pioneering program spotlighting historically marginalized composers including Quenton Blache, Javier Farias, Andrea Casarrubios, Adolphus Hailstork, and Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. With cellist Thomas Mesa joining their ranks as soloist for GRAMMY®-winning composer Jessie Montgomery’s Divided, the brilliance and passion of this self-conducted ensemble promises to deliver an unforgettable performance.

On Saturday, July 6 at 8pm, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Joyce Yang, who captivates audiences with her virtuosity and interpretive sensitivity, brings her tactile, expressive playing to The Breakers. Acclaimed by The New York Times for her “vivid and beautiful playing,” Yang promises a passionate evening featuring music by the legendary Russian composers of the Romantic and Classical eras including Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, and Mussorgsky. 

On Sunday, July 7 at 9am, surrounded by the serene beauty of the Norman Bird Sanctuary, Newport Classical’s Festival Artists will present Italian Strings in Nature, a delightful program of Italian chamber music, including an arrangement of Rossini’s beloved William Tell Overture along with works by Boccherini, Cherubini, and Puccini.

In the evening on July 7, at 8pm at The Breakers, the GRAMMY® Award-winning male-voiced “orchestra of voices” Chanticleer makes their much-anticipated return to Newport after a sold-out concert during the 2021 Festival. Titled Music of a silent world, Chanticleer’s program features songs of the natural world and gives a voice to the rocks, stones, trees, and rivers that share the planet with us. Their performance will include music by Stephen Sondheim, Heinrich Isaac, and Joni Mitchell, and a new commission from Chanticleer’s composer-in-residence, Ayanna Woods. 

On Tuesday, July 9, the day begins with an 11am concert at The Elms featuring the Festival Artists in an extraordinary program of Piano Trios. Delve into the rich tapestry of classical repertoire, beginning with Beethoven's lively and nimble Piano Trio in B-flat Major, journeying through Elfrida Andrée's evocative and dramatic Piano Trio in G minor, and culminating in the sublime beauty of Schumann's revered Piano Trio No. 1.

On Tuesday, July 9 and Wednesday, July 10 at 8pm at The Breakers, Newport Classical welcomes Broadway’s legendary Laura Benanti, celebrated for her Tony Award-winning performances and captivating presence on stage and screen, including her memorable role in HBO's The Gilded Age. Known for her iconic portrayals in Gypsy, Into the Woods, Nine, and My Fair Lady, Benanti will dazzle audiences with her unparalleled talent, extraordinary voice, and undeniable star power in these intimate, not-to-be-missed performances with pianist Billy Stritch, music director for stars including Tony Bennett and Liza Minnelli. 

Two of last year’s Festival Artists, violist Edwin Kaplan and cellist Titilayo Ayangade, return to Newport as the innovative Duo Kayo for a performance on Wednesday, July 10 at 4pm at Newport Art Museum. Making bold statements in the classical music world, Duo Kayo challenges traditional thinking about the genre, serving as a vessel for new and exciting music. Surrounded by the Museum’s beautiful art collection, audiences can enjoy an interdisciplinary afternoon featuring a diverse program, from Vivaldi’s Double Cello Concerto, to Leonard Bernstein’s “Cool” from West Side Story, to the world premiere of a new piece by Newport Classical’s 2023 Composer-in-Residence Curtis Stewart. 2024 Festival Artists Jordan Bak and Jonathan Swenson join Kaplan and Ayangade for the final work by Paul Wiancko, Vox Petra.   

On Thursday, July 11 at 11am, the Festival Artists present French Musings at The Elms. Inspired by the 18th-century French chateau d’Asnieres outside Paris, The Elms is the perfect place for a morning concert of delightful French repertoire ranging from Baroque elegance to neoclassical charm, including works by Marais, Leclair, Tailleferre, and Saint-Saëns.

That evening, Thursday, July 11 at 8pm, Opera Night brings director Peter Brook’s captivating reimagining of Bizet's timeless masterpiece Carmen to the festival, delving deep into the intricate relationships of the four lead characters. This semi-staged production of La tragédie de Carmen is directed by Tara Branham, and features the same beloved arias and musical moments, infused with renewed vitality and intensity, all set against the breathtaking backdrop of The Breakers. The cast includes Dane Suarez as Don José, Stephanie Sanchez as Carmen, Maria Brea as Micaëla, and Jeffrey Hoos as Escamillo, with music direction by Charles Kim.

Friday, July 12 begins with a 5:15am Sunrise Meditations concert at the Chinese Tea House. Witness the dawn of a new day with the Newport Classical Festival Artists as they enchant audiences with a program of meditative musical selections, immersing listeners in a journey curated to instill a sense of positivity and buoyancy, featuring music by Telemann, Glière, Sibelius, Haydn, and Elgar.

That evening, Friday, July 12 at 8pm at The Breakers, the GRAMMY®-nominated chamber orchestra A Far Cry returns to Newport, joined by Canadian pianist Dinuk Wijeratne and acclaimed Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh, for an unforgettable evening of musical storytelling and global connection. This deeply personal and reflective program explores themes of emigration, travel, and home, featuring original compositions by Wijeratne and Azmeh in the first half. Following intermission, revel in the enchanting melodies of a young Janáček as he draws inspiration from Czech folk traditions, a lush showcase for the ensemble. 

Hailed as the epitome of brass excellence, Canadian Brass treats Newport to an extensive program of compositions ranging from Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 to the heartfelt melodies of the classic folk song “Danny Boy” on Saturday, July 13 at 8pm. Renowned for their captivating concert presentations that seamlessly blend virtuosity with charm, Canadian Brass promises to ignite The Breakers with their genre-transcending talents. 

On Sunday, July 14 at 3pm, the Poulenc Trio with virtuoso accordionist Hanzhi Wang will present a spellbinding performance highlighting the accordion's versatility and charm at the historic Redwood Library & Athenæum. Their program spans genres and eras, creating an engaging musical dialogue, and includes music by Vivaldi, Poulenc, Rossini, plus emerging star composers Juri Seo and Viet Cuong, and the world premiere of a new work for solo accordion by Hanzhi Wang titled Mountain’s song: Echoes of Kawagarbo which reflects her personal pilgrimage to the sacred mountain. 

That evening, Sunday, July 14 at 8pm, Newport Classical presents An Evening with Violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. The GRAMMY®-nominated trailblazing violinist, joined by the virtuosic pianist Max Levinson, graces the illustrious halls of The Breakers in her Newport debut with an exquisite program that includes a new piece specifically commissioned for her by the legendary Philip Glass. Meyers’ concert also includes music by Corelli, Beethoven, Márquez, and Morten Lauridsen. 

Newport Classical presents Classical Music Movie performed by the Festival Artists on Tuesday, July 16 at 11am at Blithewold Mansion, bringing together the magic of film with the beauty of chamber music. Experience John Williams' haunting Schindler's List and the nostalgic charm of E.T. alongside the adventurous spirit of Indiana Jones and the fantasy of Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Lord of the Rings, and more. Enjoy a boxed lunch on the grounds following the performance by pre-ordering from Blithewold in advance. 

That evening, Tuesday, July 16 at 7:30pm, Two Pianos are Better than One unites the dynamic talents of Drew Petersen and Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner at the picturesque Castle Hill Inn, for a thoughtfully curated program of works for two pianos that includes music by Mozart, Wagner, Beach, Rachmaninoff, and Chaminade.

On Wednesday, July 17 at 11am, the Lincoln Trio performs a morning concert at The Elms that marks their 20th anniversary as an ensemble. Revered for their pioneering spirit and innovative contemporary repertoire, the Trio will perform the iconic Brahms C Major Piano Trio which catapulted them to acclaim alongside a curated selection of works by trailblazing female composers, including the visionary Stacy Garrop, whose groundbreaking composition left a lasting impression as the inaugural Composer-in-Residence for Newport Classical in 2021.

That evening, Wednesday July 17 at 8pm at The Breakers, Newport Classical presents the Isidore String Quartet. This red-hot young quartet was founded in 2019 at the Juilliard School and launched their career by winning one of the most prestigious awards in chamber music at the 2022 Banff Competition. Their artistry and potential were further recognized when they were awarded a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Hailed for their “blazing virtuosity” by Violinist.com, the Isidore Quartet aims to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the string quartet repertoire. They perform music by Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Billy Childs at The Breakers.

At The Breakers on Thursday, July 18 at 8pm, Spanish pianist and beloved past Festival Artist Daniel del Pino, accompanied by the talented violist Marian Herrero and the 2024 Festival Artists, unveils a treasure trove of rarely performed masterpieces by Spanish composers. Experience the richness and diversity of Spanish musical heritage in pieces by J.S. Bach, Bowen, De Falla, Del Campo, culminating with Joaquín Turina's celebratory masterpiece, Escena Andaluza for viola, piano, and string quartet.

Friday, July 19 begins with a 5:15am concert at Chinese Tea House, Melodic Introspections at Sunrise, performed by the Festival Artists. Experience the stunning sunrise over Newport’s iconic Cliff Walk during this inspiring and introspective concert which features works by Lei Liang, Dobrinka Tabakova, Wei-Chieh Lin, Florence Price, and Beethoven.

The Handel and Haydn Society, established in 1815 and acclaimed for its performances of Baroque and Classical music for 209 seasons, performs at The Breakers on Friday, July 19 at 8pm. The ensemble brings classical music to life with the same immediacy it had the day it was composed. Their joyful programming features acclaimed soloists soprano Joélle Harvey, violinist Aisslinn Nosky, and oboist Debra Nagy in a series of concerti and works for chamber orchestra from the Baroque period by Corelli, Handel, and J.S. Bach. 

On Saturday, July 20, at 3pm, Festival Artist Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner performs an invigorating afternoon piano recital at historic Emmanuel Church, known for its breathtaking English Gothic Revival architecture that enhances the acoustic ambiance. “A gifted virtuoso” (San Francisco Chronicle), Sánchez-Werner quickly became a beloved pillar of the Newport Classical Music Festival last summer, bringing technical prowess and passion to every electrifying chamber performance. In this solo appearance, he performs music by Chopin, Beethoven, Rubio, Velázquez, and Rachaminoff.

That evening, on Saturday, July 20 at 8pm at The Breakers, PUBLIQuartet and special guest mezzo-soprano Renée Rapier perform the world premiere of a new work commissioned by Newport Classical from 2024 Composer-in-Residence Clarice Assad. A bold composer, a brilliant pianist, and an inventive vocalist, Assad's theatrical composition is her newest chapter in Chronicles of Ghosts. Whispers from the Pirate Queen explores the timeless bond between two remarkable women: Grace O'Malley, the legendary 16th-century Irish pirate queen, and Anne Hutchinson, the influential Puritan spiritual leader and pioneer of the 17th century. PUBLIQuartet pairs the new piece with What is American, a captivating reimagination of Dvořák's American Quartet, blending classical melodies with blues, jazz, and rock influences, as well as music by Vijay Iyer, Duke Ellington, and Julia Perry. At 11am that morning, Assad will give a free Composer Talk at Emmanuel Church Library, discussing her new work.

On Sunday, July 21 at 11am, Sō Percussion with vocalist and composer Caroline Shaw perform at The Colony House. Enjoy the vibrant collaboration of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and the innovative Sō Percussion in an electrifying program blending voice and percussion quartet as they share the music from their newest album, Rectangles and Circumstance. Co-written by Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion, the genre-blending songs use verses from nineteenth-century poems by Christina Rosetti, Emily Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Gertrude Stein, and William Blake. Chamber music meets singer-songwriter storytelling in this extraordinary performance showcasing vital, expressive, and imaginative music-making.

That afternoon, Sunday, July 21 at 2pm, pianist Lara Downes, hailed as “a musical ray of hope” by NBC News, gives a free family concert at Temple Shalom, before performing at The Breakers that evening at 8pm in the Newport Classical Music Festival Closing Night concert. The American pianist and cultural visionary returns to Newport after a sold-out performance on the 2021 Festival to present THIS LAND, a concert that captures 100 years of American transformation, celebrating the spirit of innovation and imagination, resilience and resistance, and reflecting a wide diversity of voices to illustrate the beauty that grows at the crossroads of our American journeys. THIS LAND features music by Scott Joplin, Arturo O’Farrill, Florence Price, Kian Ravaei, William Grant Still, Angelica Negrón, Jake Heggie, Margaret Bonds, George Gershwin, and more. 

For the full schedule, visit: www.newportclassical.org/music-festival

About Newport Classical

Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.

Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc. and previously known as Newport Music Festival, Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 55 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of music on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.

Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”

In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, and Clarice Assad.

Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir Announced as a Winner of the CHANEL Next Prize

Photo courtesy of CHANEL, available in high resolution here.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir Announced as a Winner of the CHANEL Next Prize

One of Ten Artists Awarded

“[Thorvaldsdottir] has carved her own corner in contemporary music by creating symphonic works of sustained brilliance” – The Times

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

More Information About the CHANEL Next Prize

Anna Thorvaldsdottir: CHANEL Next Prize Profile

www.annathorvalds.com

Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir has been selected as one of the ten winners of the CHANEL Next Prize, the second edition of the House’s international arts and culture prize, announced by the CHANEL Culture Fund. Jurors of the 2024 edition include actress Tilda Swinton, artist Cao Fei, and curators Legacy Russell and Hans Ulrich Obrist.

The biennial prize is awarded to ten international contemporary artists who are redefining their chosen discipline. Each artist embodies CHANEL’s mission to advance the new and the next. Each of the ten prize winners will receive €100,000 in funding, allowing them to fully realize their most ambitious artistic projects. 

The NEXT Prize was established in 2021 as part of the CHANEL Culture Fund, CHANEL’s global initiative to accelerate the ideas that advance culture, extending the House’s century-long legacy of cultural patronage. 

Yana Peel, the Global Head of Arts & Culture at CHANEL, says: “The CHANEL Next Prize was founded to amplify the work of artists who are making a difference and redefining their discipline. Each is a catalyst and a pioneer. Each is disrupting established practice in their field, from art and opera to cinema and game design. Watching their creative journeys will be thrilling.”

Anna Thorvaldsdottir says: “It is such an honor to receive the CHANEL Next Prize from this iconic and monumental institution. It is a true pleasure to be one of the awarded artists in this wide-ranging recognition of various art forms from around the world. The prize shines an important and distinctive light on diverse fields within the arts and shows unequivocal commitment to the support of the arts and culture into the future."

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (The New York Times) and "riveting" (The Times) sound world has made her “a leading voice in contemporary music” (The Guardian). Her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow. “Thorvaldsdottir is incapable of writing music that doesn’t immediately transfix an open-eared listener,” reports The New York Times.

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

This season also brings the world premiere of Anna’s major new installation piece METAXIS by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra on June 1, 2024 at Harpa, part of the opening celebration of the 2024 Reykjavík Arts Festival and of the festival's collaboration with Harpa and the ISO. Anna describes METAXIS as, “an installation for deconstructed orchestra and space.” Audiences will have the unique opportunity to explore the music from different perspectives, as they wander through Harpa’s iconic foyer and feel how their experience of the music changes with every step. The musicians will be spread out over the different levels of the building, blending together in myriad ways and creating a unique sound world with innumerable textures. The piece is half an hour in length and will be conducted by Eva Ollikainen.

Anna’s music is widely recorded, and all of her orchestral works are available on the Sono Luminus label. Most recently, Sono Luminus released Anna’s latest portrait album, ARCHORA / AIŌN, which was recorded by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eva Ollikainen. The album was chosen as one of the best of 2023 by The Boston Globe, NPR, and The New York Times. The label’s previous releases include CATAMORPHOSIS as part of the album Atmospheriques in 2023; METACOSMOS in 2019; AERIALITY, originally released by Deutsche Grammophon in 2014 and re-released in a remastered version on Sono Luminus in 2022; and Dreaming, originally released on a portrait album by Innova Recordings in 2011 and re-released on Sono Luminus in 2020. Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.

Anna’s work is frequently performed internationally and has been commissioned by many of the world’s leading orchestras, ensembles, and arts organizations, including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Danish String Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, BBC Proms, and Carnegie Hall. Anna’s “detailed and powerful” (The Guardian) orchestral writing has garnered her awards from the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center, the Nordic Council, and the UK’s Ivors Academy.

Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra 2018-2023, Anna was in 2023 also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD from the University of California in San Diego, and is currently based in the London area.

The music of Anna Thorvaldsdottir is published by Chester Music, part of Wise Music Group. 

Website: annathorvalds.com
Instagram: @annathorvalds
Facebook: @annathorvaldsdottirmusic
X: @annathorvalds

About the CHANEL Culture Fund

Extending a century of commitment to the arts, the CHANEL Culture Fund fosters a vibrant network of creators and innovators to advance the ideas that shape culture worldwide. 

Core programmes include CHANEL’s Art Partners, institutions whose leaders seek to collaborate on ground-breaking, long-term initiatives that bring innovation to the cultural landscape. The CHANEL Next Prize celebrates artists and accelerates their future successes through access to resources and mentorship. And the podcast CHANEL Connects amplifies the voices of thought-leaders across disciplines, generations, and geographies – tackling the defining issues of our time.

From emerging curators at the MCA Chicago to leading ecologists at the Leeum Museum of Art in Seoul, from game-changing artists at the Venice Biennale to the brightest directors at the British Film Institute, the CHANEL Culture Fund champions creative audacity for a better future.

April 2: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Lebanon Valley College Performing the Music of George Walker and Antonin Dvořák

Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet

Telegraph Quartet Presented by Lebanon Valley College

Performing the Music of
George Walker and Antonin Dvořák

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm
Lutz Recital Hall at Blair Music Center
101 College Ave. | Annville, PA

Free and Open to the Public - More Information

New Album: Divergent Paths (Azica Records)
Available Now

“full of elegance and pinpoint control” – The New York Times

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Annville, PA – On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, the San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented in concert by Lebanon Valley College performing the music of George Walker and Antonin Dvořák. The concert is free and open to the public.

George Walker’s sublime Lyric is an emotive and moving tribute to his grandmother, Melvina King, and was first published as part of his String Quartet No.1. Walker composed his first quartet in a neo-romantic style when he was 23 years old, at a time when classical music in America was turning toward a more severe, mathematical approach. Dvořák crafted his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major –– his final chamber piece –– in two stages: starting around March 1895 when he was scheduled to depart the United States to return to his homeland and then revisiting the work in December 1895, after writing his Quartet in G Major. He finished the A flat-major in just under three weeks and the music largely reflects Dvořák’s spiritual temperament during this time, which was one of uplifting positivity and joy

Telegraph Quartet says of performing the historically and culturally complex music in this program:

“When Dvorak came to the U.S. to be the director of the National Conservatory of Music, he spent three years exploring the culture and folk music here and encouraged his American colleagues to use their own folk music as the foundation for a distinct American style, just as he had succeeded in doing for Bohemia. He placed a great emphasis specifically on the music of Native American and African American folk music from which he felt American composers should draw their inspiration and began his last string quartet at the end of his famed visit. A half century later, in spite of all of the societal barriers thrown in his and his ancestors’ paths, we find George Walker, an African American composer of great talent and skill forging his own style and voice in his String Quartet No. 1. While it does not overtly heed Dvorak’s advice of building its foundation on American folk music per se, it does exude a distinctly American and modern style, full of haunting lyricism and defiantly sinewy harmonies that respectively entice and demand the attention of the listener.”

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

About Telegraph Quartet: The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as, “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

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

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

For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

About Lebanon Valley College: Lebanon Valley College educates students for lifelong success through exceptional undergraduate liberal arts programs and professional graduate programs delivered in an engaging and supportive academic and co-curricular environment. We educate our students to think critically and creatively, analyze and address complex issues, and communicate effectively. We guide them in deepening their commitment to inclusion, civic engagement, and global citizenship.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Lebanon Valley College on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a program that features two works deeply shaped by personal experiences and relationships, written in the 19th and 20th centuries: George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 Lyric (1946) and Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Lebanon Valley College on Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm. The ensemble will perform the music of Walker and Dvořák.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Lebanon Valley College
What: Music by Walker and Dvořák
When: Tuesday, April 2, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Lutz Recital Hall at Blair Music Center, 101 College Ave., Annville, PA 17003
Tickets and information: www.lvc.edu/events/burgner-series-telegraph-quartet/

Robert Sirota: The String Quartets Presented by the Kaufman Music Center Featuring the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer

Photo by Ryuhei Shindo available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/robert-sirota

Robert Sirota: The String Quartets
Presented by the Kaufman Music Center

Featuring the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer

Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30pm
Merkin Hall at ​​Kaufman Music Center | 129 W 67th St. | New York, NY

Tickets and Information

“Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.” – Allan Kozinn, The Portland Press Herald

www.robertsirota.com

New York, NY – On Sunday, April 11, 2024 at 7:30pm, Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets, featuring the American String Quartet and the Telegraph Quartet with soprano Abigail Fischer, performing Sirota’s complete works for string quartet thus far. For the first time ever, Sirota's four string quartets –– each of which he describes as “in essence a long journal entry reflecting a response to our times" –– will be heard together in one concert program: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016) Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019) with text by Stevan Cavalier.

Over five decades, composer Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.

Robert Sirota's impressive catalog of composed work evokes a wide range of emotion that touches on several aspects of the human experience. He says of this collaborative performance and the highlighting of his string quartets:

“I am so looking forward to hearing this significant body of work performed in a single evening by great musicians I have worked with for many years.” .

In response to the calamitous events of September 11, 2001, Sirota wrote Triptych –– the first of what would become a trilogy of string quartets. The work is meant as a commemorative tribute to all those lost on the day of the attacks. The composition was written in conjunction with a painting of the same name by artist Deborah Patterson. Following the premiere of Triptych in September of 2002 at Trinity Church Wall Street, Lucid Culture called the performance "viscerally harrowing,” "impactful," and "riveting."

American Pilgrimage was written by Sirota for the American String Quartet. Though initially reluctant to write another string quartet following Triptych, Sirota found his inner vision for the new piece, calling American Pilgrimage “a true companion” to Triptych. The raw material of the work is derived from four sources: Protestant hymnody, Gospel music, Native American songs, and jazz. The Arts Fuse describes the American String Quartet's premiere recording of American Pilgrimage as “compelling and invigorating.”

Wave Upon Wave is the final piece in the trilogy of quartets that Sirota began with Triptych in 2002. Sirota explains that the quartet is about human hopes, and fears, as well as “prayers that we will triumph over the forces of darkness which threaten to overwhelm us.” Fittingly, The New York Music Daily describes the work as “a search for hope within the human soul.”

After several postponements of its 2020 premiere due to the pandemic, Contrapassos' long awaited debut was presented in July 2022 by the Sierra Chamber Society. With text by librettist Stevan Cavalier and vocals by soprano Abigail Fischer –– a dear, long-time friend of Sirota's –– the 24-minute work for string quartet and soprano reflects a seamless collaboration between poetry, vocal, and instrumental music, inspired by the imagery of Dante. This concert will mark its New York premiere.

More about Robert Sirota: Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; Concerts on the Slope; the Chiara, American, Ethel, Elmyr, Blair and Telegraph String Quartets; the Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Recent commissions include Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, and yMusic, Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis, Trinity Episcopal Church (Indianapolis), and Sierra Chamber Society, as well as arrangements for Paul Simon.

Since 2021, Sirota has presented Muzzy Ridge Concerts, an annual series featuring performances by world-class musicians, in his home studio in Searsmont, Maine. Robert Sirota has received grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, NEA, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His music is recorded on Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels, and is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Schott, Music Associates of New York, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore. For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com.

About Telegraph Quartet
About American String Quartet
About Soprano Abigail Fischer

For Calendar Editors:

Description: On April 11, 2024, The Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets, a performance featuring four of the composer’s works as performed by the American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016), Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019), with text by Stevan Cavalier. The Portland Press Herald describes Sirota’s works, which encompass an array of emotions and experiences, as “personal and undogmatic.”

Short description: On April 11, 2024, The Kaufman Music Center will present Robert Sirota: The String Quartets. The American String Quartet, Telegraph Quartet, and soprano Abigail Fischer will perform a program of Robert Sirota’s “personal and undogmatic” (Portland Press Herald) four string quartets: Triptych (2002), American Pilgrimage (2016) Wave Upon Wave (2017) and the New York Premiere of Contrapassos for soprano and string quartet (2019).

Concert details:

What: Robert Sirota: The String Quartets
Who: Telegraph Quartet, American String Quartet, and Soprano Abigail Fischer
Presented by Kaufman Music Center
When: Thursday, April 11, 2023 at 7:30pm
Where: ​​Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, 129 W 67th St, New York, NY 10023
Tickets and Information: www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/robert-sirota-the-string-quartets

Jupiter Quartet and Pianist Kenneth Osowski are Presented by York College of Pennsylvania – Performing Music by Wynton Marsalis, Su Lian Tan & Dvořák

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

The Jupiter String Quartet and pianist Kenneth Osowski Perform in York on April 12
Presented by York College of Pennsylvania

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

Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:30pm
Waldner Performing Arts Center
441 Country Club Road | York, PA

Free and Open to the Public
More Information

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

www.jupiterquartet.com

York, PA – 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 by York College of Pennsylvania at Waldner Performing Arts Center (441 Country Club Road) on Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:30pm. The concert will feature a collaboration with York College faculty pianist Kenneth Osowski. The performance is free and open to the public.

The Jupiter Quartet will perform a program of works that spans more than a century and highlights a range of musical styles.The first half of the concert will include excerpts from At the Octoroon Balls, String Quartet No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis (1995), as well as Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang (2002). Mr. Osowski will join the quartet in the second half for a performance of Antonin Dvorak's Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81 (1887).

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 chamber music by Dvořák. His second Piano Quintet in A Major feels like the climatic milestone, as Dvořák had attempted to write in the quintet form, to his personal dissatisfaction, 10 years before this work’s conception in 1887. Not only does the Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major reflect a successful second attempt and a sophisticated display of chamber writing but its completion overlapped with a burst of international recognition for Dvořák.

The Jupiter Quartet says of performing this program and performing with Ken Osowski:

”We have known Ken since the very early years of our string quartet career, when all of us were students together at the Yellow Barn Music Festival in Vermont. He is a dynamic and engaging pianist, with an incredibly wide knowledge of musical styles and genres, and it is always a joy to get to play with him.”

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.

About Kenneth Osowski:

Ken Osowski serves as Associate Professor of Music at York College. Professor Osowski earned a doctoral degree from the Peabody Conservatory, a master’s degree from the University of Nevada, Reno, and a bachelor’s degree from Yale University. He serves as Principal Pianist of the York Symphony Orchestra, Collaborative Pianist for the York County Senior Honors Choir, and Founder/Artistic Director for the York Chamber Players. Professor Osowski has collaborated with the Jupiter, Lydian, and Parker String Quartets, and Apollo Chamber Players. He has also appeared as soloist with the Hershey Symphony and York Symphony Orchestra.

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 York College of Pennsylvania for a performance at Waldner Performing Arts Center (441 Country Club Road). The ensemble will perform a stylistically diverse, collaborative program that includes excerpts from At the Octoroon Balls, String Quartet No. 1 by Wynton Marsalis, Su Lian Tan’s Life in Wayang and Antonin Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81 (1887), performed with pianist Ken Osowski.

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 York College of Pennsylvania in a collaborative concert with pianist Ken Osowski, performing the music of Wynton Marsalis, Su Lian Tan, and Antonin Dvořák.

Concert details:

Who: Jupiter String Quartet with Pianist Ken Osowski
Presented by York College of Pennsylvania
What: Music by Su Lian Tan, Wynton Marsalis, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Friday, April 12, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Waldner Performing Arts Center, 441 Country Club Road, York, PA 17403
Tickets and information: www.ycp.edu/news-and-events/events/featured/

April 5: GRAMMY®-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Presented with Baroklyn by Gogue Performing Arts Center – Featuring the Music of J.S. Bach

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

GRAMMY-nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented with Baroklyn by Gogue Performing Arts Center
Featuring the Music of J.S. Bach

Third Performance as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra & Chamber Music Series

Friday, April 5, 2024, 7pm
Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center
910 South College Street | Auburn, AL

Tickets and information

“colorful and idiosyncratic” – The New York Times

Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com

Auburn, AL – On Friday, April 5, 2024, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein returns to the Woltosz Theatre at the Gogue Performing Arts Center (910 South College Street) for her third performance as part of the Gogue Center’s 2023–24 Orchestra & Chamber Music Series. Dinnerstein, who is heralded for her distinctive musical voice and commitment to sharing classical music with everyone, will perform ​​together with her ensemble Baroklyn, in a concert the Baroque-era music of J.S. Bach. The program will include Sonata in D Major for Cello and Piano; Keyboard Concerto in D Minor; Sonata in C Minor for Violin and Piano; and Keyboard Concerto in E Major. The evening’s program is subject to change.

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. The recording reflected an aesthetic that was both profoundly idiosyncratic and deeply rooted in the score. Dinnerstein is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”

Since then, Dinnerstein has remained passionately dedicated to continually honing her artistry and musicianship across the extensive breadth of J.S. Bach’s body of work for solo piano and collaborative performances. The Washington Post has called Simone Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” Baroklyn merges Dinnerstein’s appreciation for musical collaboration with musical leadership, as Dinnerstein both founded the ensemble and conducts the group from the piano.

Of bringing a collaborative performance with Baroklyn to the Gogue Performing Arts Center and illuminating the iconic music of J.S. Bach:

”I am so excited to bring the principal members of Baroklyn to Auburn and the Gogue Performing Arts Center. Every one of these musicians is a superlative musician, and they bring individual personality and life to every voice of Bach’s intricate counterpoint.”

Simone Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the 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, the Seoul Arts Center and the Sydney Opera House.

She has made thirteen albums, all of which topped the Billboard classical charts, with repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. From 2020 to 2022, she released a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic. A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020), featuring the music of Philip Glass and Schubert, was described by NPR as, “music that speaks to a sense of the world slowing down,” and by The New Yorker as, “a reminder that quiet can contain multitudes.” Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021), surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The final installment in the trilogy, Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music.

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

For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein –– who has gained recognition as both a proficient and imaginative performer of Bach’s music and is described by The New York Times as “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” –– is presented in concert with Baroklyn. Dinnerstein is the Artistic Director of the ensemble, which she also conducts from the piano. The collaborative performance will feature an array of music by Baroque era icon, J.S. Bach, including two concertos and two sonatas.

Short description: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, “an utterly distinctive voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times) is presented in a performance with Baroklyn, the chamber ensemble Dinnerstein conducts from the piano and of which she is the Artistic Director. Together they will perform the music of J.S. Bach.

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn
Presented by the Gogue Performing Arts Center
What: Music by J.S. Bach
When:Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7pm
Where: ​​Woltosz Theatre at Gogue Performing Arts Center, 910 South College Street, Auburn, AL
Tickets and information: www.goguecenter.auburn.edu/simone-dinnerstein-with-baroklyn/

April 5: Telegraph Quartet Presented by ​​​​​​​University of Vermont Lane Series Performing the Music of Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, and Antonin Dvořák

Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet

Telegraph Quartet Presented by University of Vermont Lane Series

Performing the Music of
Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, and Antonin Dvořák

Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7:30pm
UVM Recital Hall | 384 South Prospect Street | Burlington, VT
Tickets & Information

New Album: Divergent Paths (Azica Records)
Available Now

“full of elegance and pinpoint control” – The New York Times

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Burlington, VT – On Friday, April 5, 2024, the San Francisco-based Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented in concert by the University of Vermont Lane Series. The award-winning ensemble will perform a program featuring Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 “Lyric” and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193.

Each of the works on this program are directly shaped by significant relationships and delicate emotional connections in the composers’ lives. In hearing them together, one gets not only an artistic performance but also a glimpse into how these composers viewed their respective relationships. There’s a degree of personal intimacy one can take away from the music that extends beyond straightforward historical facts.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel wrote her String Quartet in the shadow of her highly praised brother Felix, taking a bold step and ultimately choosing to embrace her own musical voice rather than defer to a style or form that would have been more accepted by her sibling and long-time musical confidant. George Walker’s Lyric poses a more direct but no less meaningful interpersonal connection, as a tribute to his grandmother Melvina King. The relationship itself is obvious but what makes it even more powerful is Walker’s decision to turn away from the more widely used mathematical musical style being used in America at the time, in favor of a more emotionally driven neo-romantic style, in order to write a piece fitting of the vision Walker had for honoring King. Dvořák’s final chamber work, his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major, doesn’t extend ties to a specific individual the way Mendelssohn’s and Walker’s works do. However, the 1895 quartet embodies a profound relationship all the same: Dvořák’s vacillating connection to the cultures of the United States – where he wrote part of the quartet – and his love of the Bohemian culture and his home in Prague, where he eventually completed the piece. Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music and the experiences of composers, the Telegraph Quartet will blend their own deeply forged relationships with each of these works to bring the unique ties of the songs to life with an engaging and attentive artistry.

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

More about 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 University of Vermont Lane Series: The George Bishop Lane Series was established in 1955 by a generous gift from the Lane family and has been presenting the finest in live performing arts since 1955. We have approximately 25 events a season, primarily in the comfortable, intimate, and acoustically superb UVM Recital Hall on Redstone Campus. We enjoy an international reputation as presenters of classical, jazz, folk/traditional, chamber, and choral music as well as theater, film, and dance. As a program of the University of Vermont School of the Arts , we are also dedicated to providing educational outreach to students of all ages, both on and off campus.

Serving as a link among many constituencies, the Lane Series finds its audience, volunteers, and advisors from the students, faculty, staff, and alumni of UVM as well as the community at large. In addition to the presentation of performances, the Lane Series ensures students and public direct interaction with performers through master classes, workshops, residencies, lectures, and receptions. The Lane Series is committed to a dual mission of cultural presentation and outreach, and education. Through our ARTIX program we provide free tickets to over 30 social service agencies to insure arts access to all audiences. We also offer reduced ticket prices to students.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by the University of Vermont Lane Series on Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7:30pm. The Bay Area ensemble will perform a program featuring three works that are shaped by immensely personal experiences and relationships, written during the 19th and 20th centuries: Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat major (1834), George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 Lyric (1946) and Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Lebanon Valley College on Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7:30pm. The ensemble will perform the music of Walker and Dvořák.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by University of Vermont Lane Series
What: Music by Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: UVM Recital Hall, 384 South Prospect Street, Burlington, VT 05405
Tickets and information: www.uvm.edu/laneseries/telegraph-quartet

April 18-20: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Major Orchestral Work ARCHORA in Boston Premiere Performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra

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

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Major Orchestral Work ARCHORA
in Boston Premiere Performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Andris Nelsons

April 18-20, 2024 | Symphony Hall | 301 Massachusetts Ave. | Boston, MA
Tickets & Information

“The energy that inspires the Icelandic composer’s colossus doesn’t feel of this Earth, but rather an internal combustion – we are the sublime composite of everything. Low, bellowing brass and woodwinds drone as flutes carry our light forward. Monumental music that feels rigorously intimate.” – Lars Gotrich, NPR, on ARCHORA 

“Thorvaldsdottir’s music partakes of deep, primordial textures and a mysterious sense of structure and flow.” – David Weininger, The Boston Globe, on ARCHORA 

First Commercial Recording of ARCHORA is Available Now on Sono Luminus
Chosen as One of the Best Albums of 2023 by NPR, The Boston Globe, & The New York Times
Press downloads available upon request. 

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

Boston, MA – Composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s latest major orchestral work, ARCHORA, will receive its Boston premiere performances by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andris Nelsons in concerts on April 18 at 7:30pm, April 19 at 1:30pm, and April 20 at 8pm, at Symphony Hall. The program also includes Mozart’s Symphony No. 33 and Brahms’ Violin Concerto with guest soloist Hilary Hahn.

Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s “seemingly boundless textural imagination” (The New York Times) and “riveting” (The Times) sound world has made her “a leading voice in contemporary music” (The Guardian). Her music is composed as much by sounds and nuances as by harmonies and lyrical material – it is written as an ecosystem of sounds, where materials continuously grow in and out of each other, often inspired in an important way by nature and its many qualities, in particular structural ones, like proportion and flow. “Thorvaldsdottir is incapable of writing music that doesn’t immediately transfix an open-eared listener,” reports The New York Times in its review of ARCHORA.

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

ARCHORA is featured on Anna’s latest portrait album, ARCHORA / AIŌN, which was recorded by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eva Ollikainen and released on the Sono Luminus label. The album was chosen as one of the best of 2023 by The Boston Globe, NPR, and The New York Times. (Press downloads available upon request). 

Anna writes of ARCHORA:

The core inspiration behind ARCHORA centres around the notion of a primordial energy and the idea of an omnipresent parallel realm – a world both familiar and strange, static and transforming, nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The piece revolves around the extremes on the spectrum between the Primordia and its resulting afterglow – and the conflict between these elements that are nevertheless fundamentally one and the same. The halo emerges from the Primordia but they have both lost perspective and the connection to one another, experiencing themselves individually as opposing forces rather than one and the same. As with my music generally, the inspiration is not something I am trying to describe through the music as such – it is a way to intuitively approach and work with the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the piece.

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

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

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

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

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

Anna is currently based in the London area. She regularly teaches and gives presentations on composition, in academic settings, as part of residencies, and in private lessons. Invited lectures and presentations include Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, NYU, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Sibelius Academy, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Composer-in-Residence with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra 2018-2023, Anna was in 2023 also in residence at the Aldeburgh Festival and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. She holds a PhD (2011) from the University of California in San Diego.

For more information: www.annathorvalds.com

April 8 & 9: San Francisco's Telegraph Quartet Presented in Two Virginia Performances

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

The Telegraph Quartet Performs in Norfolk and Williamsburg, Virginia

Performing the Music of
Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, and Antonin Dvořák

Monday, April 8, 2024 at 7:30pm
Kaufman Theater at Chrysler Museum of Art
1 Memorial Place | Norfolk, VA
Tickets and Information

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 7:30pm
Williamsburg Regional Library | 515 Scotland St. | Williamsburg, VA
Tickets and Information

New Album: Divergent Paths (Azica Records)
Available Now

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

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Norfolk & Williamsburg, VA – The award-winning, San Francisco-based, Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group described by The Strad as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” will be presented in two performances on Monday, April 8 in Norfolk, VA and Tuesday April 9 in Williamsburg, VA. For each of these concerts, the Bay area ensemble will perform a program featuring Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet, George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 “Lyric” and Antonin Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193.

On April 8 at 7:30pm, the Telegraph Quartet will be presented in concert by the Feldman Chamber Music Society at the Kaufman Theater at Chrysler Museum of Art (1 Memorial Place). Then on Tuesday April 9, the group will travel to Williamsburg where they will be presented in concert by the Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg at the Williamsburg Regional Library (515 Scotland St.).

Each of the works on the Telegraph Quartet’s program are directly shaped by significant relationships and delicate emotional connections in the composers’ lives. In hearing them together, one gets not only an artistic performance but also a glimpse into how these composers viewed their respective relationships via melodic expression. There’s a degree of personal intimacy one can take away from the music that extends beyond straightforward historical facts.

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel wrote her String Quartet in the shadow of her highly praised brother Felix, taking a bold step and ultimately choosing to embrace her own musical voice rather than defer to a style or form that would have been more accepted by her sibling and long time musical confidant. George Walker’s Lyric poses a more direct but no less meaningful interpersonal connection, as a tribute to his grandmother Melvina King. The relationship itself is obvious but what makes it even more powerful is Walker’s decision to turn away from the more widely used mathematical musical style being used in America at the time, in favor of the more emotionally driven neo-romantic style, in order to write a piece fitting of the vision Walker had for honoring King. Dvořák’s final chamber work, his String Quartet No. 14 in A flat-major, doesn’t extend ties to a specific individual the way Mendelssohn’s and Walker’s works do. However, the 1895 quartet embodies a profound relationship all the same: Dvořák’s vacillating connection to the cultures of the United States – where he wrote part of the quartet – and his love of the Bohemian culture and his home in Prague, where he eventually completed the piece. Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music and the experiences of composers, the Telegraph Quartet will blend their own deeply forged relationships with each of these works to bring the unique ties of each song to life with an engaging and attentive artistry.

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

More about 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.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, described by The New York Times as being “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in two performances on Monday, April 8 and Tuesday April 9, 2024 –– both at 7:30pm. Both concerts will feature the Bay Area ensemble performing a program featuring three works that are shaped by immensely personal experiences and relationships, written during the 19th and 20th centuries: Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat major (1834), George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1 Lyric (1946) and Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105 B. 193 (1895).

Short description: The Telegraph Quartet, which is described as “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Lebanon Valley College on Friday, April 5, 2024 at 7:30pm. The ensemble will perform the music of Walker and Dvořák.

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Feldman Chamber Music Society
What: Music by Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Monday, April 8, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Kaufman Theater at Chrysler Museum of Art, 1 Memorial Place, Norfolk, VA 23510
Tickets and information: www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org/telegraph-quartet-april-9-2024/

Who: Telegraph Quartet
Presented by Chamber Music Society of Williamsburg
What: Music by Fanny Mendelssohn, George Walker, and Antonin Dvořák
When: Tuesday, April 9, 2024 at 7:30pm
Where: Williamsburg Regional Library, 515 Scotland St., Williamsburg, VA 23185
Tickets and information: www.feldmanchambermusic.org/telegraph-quartet-april-8-2024/