Press Releases

Close Encounters with Music Presents “Tamar Muskal – Composer, Songwriter, Fashionista” the Second Installment of its Conversations with… Series of Intimate and Stimulating Afternoons on Music and Ideas

APRIL 15, 2019 -- Undaunted by new forms or new frontiers, Tamar Muskal has written everything from pop songs to symphonies to her new opera-in-progress, set in the world of high fashion, that tells the story of Diana Vreeland and Andre Leon Talley and examines the constant rises and falls of the industry.

The Art of the Quartet: The Escher String Quartet Presented by Close Encounters with Music

Press Releases

APRIL 15, 2019 -- Acclaimed for musical insights and rare tonal beauty, and championed by the Emerson String Quartet, the Escher has toured extensively throughout the U.S., Europe, Australia and Asia. They served as BBC New Generation Artists and gave debuts at the BBC Proms, are winners of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and perform as Artists of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Close Encounters with Music Presents its Season Finale Gala: Like Father-in-Law, Like Son-in-Law: Antonin Dvorak and Josef Suk

Press Releases

APRIL 15, 2019 -- Czech nationalist composer Antonin Dvořák rose to fame in Prague, paving the way for his favorite student and later son-in-law Josef Suk. There was great closeness and spiritual kinship between them, and both were championed by Brahms (who confessed to envying Dvořák’s melodic gifts!) Dvořák’s Rondo and Suk’s Balada and Pisen Lasky love song are rarely performed gems, and the more familiar Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major by Dvořák is acknowledged as one of the masterpieces in the form, along with those of Schumann and Brahms. In fact, Dvořák assimilated Brahms’ techniques and methods, while his exuberance, earthiness and the warmth of his melodies ennoble Bohemian folklore.

Photographs of Inna Faliks and Yehuda Hanani

“Troika A La Russe” Presented by Close Encounters with Music

Press Releases

FEBRUARY 22, 2019 -- Ukrainian-born pianist Inna Faliks (“adventurous and passionate”— The New Yorker) and Yehuda Hanani present a program rich in Russian lore, Slavic emotionalism, Soviet-era sarcasm, and dazzling virtuosity: the cello/piano sonatas by Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 5, which pianist Sviatoslav Richter considered the most difficult piece in the entire piano repertory. Rachmaninoff’s sonata is passionate and emotionally torrential, a survivor from the 19th century. Prokofiev, on the other hand, dubbed “bad boy of Russian music” by the establishment for his earlier avant-garde style, has written here a work that is mellow and reflective.

“Humor in the String Quartets of Papa Haydn” Presented by Close Encounters with Music

Press Releases

JANUARY 7, 2019 -- What constitutes a musical—or any other kind of—joke? Humor explodes our expectations and takes us by surprise. Three Haydn string quartets, including his “Joke” Quartet, provide an evening of ambiguous beginnings and fake-out endings; mismatched dialogues between instruments, misunderstandings, musical pratfalls and pretend memory lapses and digressions. What about those embarrassing long pauses, that daring modulation, that unexpected excursion into strange tonalities….? It’s all intentional and part of the fun! From the composer of the “Surprise” Symphony who wrote a cat’s meow into another comes a slightly tipsy “high” as well as “low” program of subversive humor.

Musical Tribute to a Dear Deceased Fish (Which Happens to be One of Schubert’s Compositional Triumphs!) and Other-Worldly Mozart Piano Quartet Close Encounters with Music Presents “Mozart and Schubert-Marzipan and the ‘Trout'”

Press Releases

OCTIOBER 19, 2018 -- Two great melodists, two young geniuses in one brilliant evening: Bubbly, like fine Champagne, Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet is one of the most joyous pieces ever written. A landmark of classical music, it weaves a net of enchantment with its catchy melodies and fresh exuberance. This piece has it all—elegance, beauty and irrepressible good humor; music from the pen of a 22 year old prodigy inspired by the tragic-comic death of a fish that captures the glories of Nature!

Image of Yahuda Hanani Playing the Cello

Close Encounters with Music Makes History as it Moves its High Peaks Festival to the Cultural Berkshires, Bringing Illustrious Faculty and Starts of Tomorrow Together to Celebrate a Love of Music and Share their Passion with the Community and Beyond 2018 Theme “The French-Russian Connection” Explores Influences, Links and Legendary Collaborations across Music, Literature and Art: Stravinsky, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Diaghilev, Prokofiev, Fauré and César Franck

Press Releases

(Sheffield, MA – March, 2018) – Close Encounters With Music, an organization artistically headed up by internationally acclaimed cellist and educator Yehuda Hanani, is making history this summer by moving its High Peaks Festival to The…

Close Encounters with Music Presents Grand Piano Trios

Press Releases

MARCH 22, 2018 -- The remarkably versatile composer-pianist-conductor-painter-gymnast Felix Mendelssohn personifies genius and musical prodigy and his second Piano Trio in C minor (1845) is a true expression of the exquisite sensibility of his life and art. Bedřich Smetana’s profoundly moving Piano Trio in G minor of 1855 was composed after the death of his daughter; its style is close to that of Robert Schumann, with hints of Liszt, Wagner and Berlioz. Two of today’s brightest young performers join cellist Yehuda Hanani for a juxtaposition of these passionate works, written in classic mid-19th-century style, full of beauty and riveting melodies.