A conductorless chamber collective ignites Mozart, Britten, Bruch’s Kol Nidrei, and Mendelssohn’s miraculous Octet
Close Encounters With Music welcomes back The Vivace Chamber Orchestra, a New York–based collective renowned for precision, color, and expressive unanimity, on Sunday, December 7, 2025, at 4 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington.
Curated to showcase the ensemble’s rare, one-mind musicianship, the program looks back and leaps forward. Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C minor—an homage to Bach’s contrapuntal craft—ventures into daring harmonies that feel a century ahead of their time, with the drama of an Italian overture. Britten’s Simple Symphony sparkles with wit and buoyant good spirits. Max Bruch’s Kol Nidrei (for cello and strings) unfolds as an extraordinarily expressive arc—from supplication and contrition to promise and redemption. And nothing less than a miracle, Mendelssohn’s String Octet in E-flat Major—written at sixteen and marked to be played “in symphonic orchestral style”—remains a beloved touchstone for its youthful verve, brilliance, and perfection.
“Vivace brings the electricity of a string quartet to an orchestral palette,” says CEWM Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani. “This program lets them pivot from the etched counterpoint of Mozart to Britten’s joie de vivre, the soulful depth of Kol Nidrei, and the sheer marvel of Mendelssohn’s Octet.”
The Vivace Chamber Orchestra, under Fleming’s direction, features an exceptional roster of New York–based string players: Siwoo Kim, Miho Saegusa, Keiko Tokunaga, Rubén Rengel, Suliman Tekalli, Christine Wu, and Edwin Kaplan on violins; Andrew Gonzalez, Laura Liu, and Sofia Gilchenok on violas; Ari Evan, Mihai Marica, and Aaron Wolff on cellos; and Andrew Trombley on bass.
“Performing without a conductor heightens our listening—we have to breathe and phrase as one,” says Luke Fleming, Artistic Director of The Vivace Chamber Orchestra. “From Mozart’s chiseled counterpoint to Britten’s sparkle, with the deep lyric core of Kol Nidrei, the program sets up the exhilarating release of Mendelssohn’s Octet.”
An elite, conductorless cohort of string artists, The Vivace Chamber Orchestra unites leading chamber musicians and orchestral principals for projects that demand both soloistic flair and chamber instinct. Their hallmark is unanimity—of intonation, articulation, and interpretive intent—resulting in performances of clarity, vitality, and breathtaking cohesion.
Beyond the Concert
Following the performance, audiences are invited to an “Afterglow” reception to meet the artists and mingle with fellow music lovers. Select concerts will also be available online, extending CEWM’s reach to listeners far beyond the Berkshires. (Subscribe to our YouTube Channel)
About Close Encounters With Music (CEWM)
Now in its 34th season, Close Encounters With Music presents world-class chamber music with imaginative programming, acclaimed guest artists, and community-centered events across the Berkshires. CEWM concerts pair beloved masterworks with discoveries, illuminating connections across eras and cultures. Learn more at cewm.organd follow CEWM on social media for updates and behind-the-scenes content.
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CEWM_Dec2-e1755712685177.jpg553780Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-10-17 15:30:292025-10-17 15:32:22The Vivace Chamber Orchestra Returns to the Mahaiwe — December 7
Season Opens with Silent Film Classic Der Golem and Live Original Score
Close Encounters With Music (CEWM) proudly unveils its 34th season, a dynamic series of chamber music concerts running from November through June. Renowned for pairing world-class performances with insightful commentary, CEWM’s 2024–2025 season spans centuries and styles, showcasing extraordinary musicians from around the globe.
A Cinematic Masterpiece Meets Live Music The season launches November 2nd at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center with a rare treat: a screening of Der Golem(1920) accompanied by a live klezmer-infused score. Paul Wegener’s German Expressionist landmark tells the haunting 16th-century legend of a clay figure brought to life to protect Prague’s Jewish community—only to turn on its creators. The film was a sensation on release, influencing works from operettas to the 1931 cult classic, Frankenstein.
Israeli-born composer Betty Olivero’s evocative score—performed live by clarinetist Saerom Kim, the Avalon String Quartet, and conducted by Jonathan Yates—transforms traditional Yiddish folk melodies and Jewish liturgical music into a rich, cinematic soundscape. Her music heightens the film’s drama with color, urgency, and nuance, creating an unforgettable, fully immersive experience for both eyes and ears.
A Season of Remarkable Artists Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani invites both longtime patrons and new Berkshire residents to experience intimate programs with outsize talent in the historic Mahaiwe theater. “We can regain a sense of community through the inspiring and healing effects of the best music ever penned—from over 300 years ago to almost yesterday,” Hanani says.
Highlights of the season include:
Pianists Adam Golka, Max Levinson, Anna Polonsky, and Gila Goldstein
Violinists Giora Schmidt, Miranda Cuckson, Xiao-Dong Wang, Ara Gregorian, Hye-Jin Kim,
Violists Anthony Devroye, Helena Baillie
Two appearances by the Vivace Chamber Orchestra
Metropolitan Opera baritone John Moore in Schumann’s sublime Dichterliebe
Beyond the Concert After each performance, audiences are invited to an “Afterglow” reception to meet the artists and mingle with fellow music lovers. Select concerts will also be available online, extending CEWM’s reach to listeners far beyond the Berkshires.
Tickets and Subscriptions
Season subscriptions are available now at cewm.org:
As The Berkshire Edge noted, “CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.” Join us for Close Encounters With Music’s sparkling 34th season.
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/CEWM_Nov2.jpg450800Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-09-10 08:00:002025-09-03 15:39:21Close Encounters With Music Announces Dazzling 34th Season
Berkshire High Peaks Festival 2025—On the Campus of Bard College at Simon’s Rock in Great Barrington, MA, Situated in the Beautiful and Culturally Dynamic Berkshire Hills
“One World—A Harmonic Convergence”: Performances, Master Classes and Gifted Musicians on the Cusp of Careers; Folk-infused Classics at The Guthrie Center, Chesterwood, Berkshire Busk! and Kellogg Music Center, July 23 – August 3
GREAT BARRINGTON, MA: Berkshire High Peaks Festival, the educational initiative of Close Encounters With Music, will mount its 16th annual season on the bucolic campus of Bard College at Simon’s Rock in the heart of Great Barrington. At the core of the festival are over 50 international students of exceptional promise and demonstrated accomplishment who gather for intensive study, are coached as part of performing ensembles and enjoy discussions and workshops by renowned pedagogues and notable figures in the music world as they prepare for professional lives.
Alumni have gone on to careers in conducting, teaching, and arts administration. They are members of chamber music ensembles, orchestras and perform as soloists. Over 750 young musicians have been inspired by the High Peaks program, many on full or partial scholarships.
For audiences and listeners, High Peaks offers wall-to-wall performances as participants—strings, pianists and vocalists—showcase their talent at venues around the Berkshires, including the Guthrie Center, Chesterwood and the Kellogg Music Center, alongside their mentors. High Peaks participants also make their debut at Main Stage at Berkshire Busk! during Festival Latino—a joyful, high-energy evening of music in downtown Great Barrington.
The ten-day festival, directed by internationally acclaimed cellist Yehuda Hanani, will continue to make its offerings of “Moonlight Sonatas” concerts, lectures and master classes open to the public. Hanani and his renowned colleagues infuse students with love and enthusiasm for their musical vocation, instilling in them an appreciation for past traditions and a spirit of adventure and discovery—as well as connecting them to the Berkshire community and beyond with daily events. Highlights include performances of Close Encounters With Music’s 2002 commissioned work by superstar composer Osvaldo Golijov “How Slow the Wind,” Peter Warlock’s Suite Capriol, Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, Ginastera’s “Pampeana” and other repertoire demonstrating direct links from folk traditions that have fed into classical masterworks. A trifecta of farewell concerts throughout the afternoon and evening on August 2 concludes the 2025 Festival.
“We are committed to bringing the very best artists and leading pedagogues to continue this musical tradition, here in the breathtaking environment that inspired generations of writers, artists and musicians,” says Hanani.
Guest faculty/performers include violinists Peter Zazofsky, First Prize winner of the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium Competition; Katie Lansdale, winner of grand prizes at Fischoff and Yellow Springs national competitions, and Ari Isaacman-Beck, first violin of the Dalí String Quartet. Violists are Anthony Devroye of the Avalon Quartet and Helena Baillie prizewinner in Munich ARD, Banff and Tertis competitions. Vocal faculty include Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes, baritone Kerry Wilkerson and opera director and conductor Jay Lesenger, who directed John Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles at Glimmerglass Opera. Returning piano faculty members are Alexander Shtarkman, a Van Cliburn Competition winner and Peabody Institute Professor, and Gila Goldstein, director of piano studies at Brown. Diego Fainguersch, principal cellist of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and Yehuda Hanani, currently on the faculty of Mannes College in New York City will coach and inspire cellists in the program.
“Music from High Peaks” has been presented in popular concert locations, including the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA; Orpheum Theater in Tannersville, NY; Basilica Hudson; the New York State Museum in Albany; Bridge Street Theater in Catskill, NY; the Carey Institute for Global Good in Rensselaerville, NY, and many others. This July, in addition to the concerts that are scheduled at the Kellogg Music Center of Simon’s Rock, performances take place at Berkshire Busk! in Great Barrington, Chesterwood in Stockbridge, at The Guthrie Center in Housatonic, and in Tannersville, NY.
The following events are open to the public:
Thursday, July 24
1:30 PM – Master Class Gila Goldstein (Longy School of Music), piano
Friday, July 25
1:30 PM – Master Class Anthony Devroye (Avalon Quartet), viola
Saturday, July 26
1:30 PM – Master Class Peter Zazofsky (Boston Univ.), violin
6:30 PM – Mainstage at Berkshire Busk!, Great Barrington, MA
Sunday, July 27
3:00 PM – Music from High Peaks – Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA
Monday, July 28
1:30 PM – Master Class Yehuda Hanani (Mannes College), cello
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Concert Featuring Brahms, Broadway, Schubert, Massenet, Mozart, Ellington, and New Grosshandler Trio, “All Speak of Love”
GREAT BARRINGTON — It’s all about love: A new work for clarinet trio by composer Seth Grosshandler that celebrates young love, courtship and the serendipity of meeting one’s intended receives its inaugural performance. Signature love arias from favorite operas and Broadway sung by Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson. Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock (“My sweetheart dwells so far from me, I long hotly to be with her over there”) is a tour de force meshing clarinet and soprano. Resolved to retire, in 1891 Brahms encountered the clarinet playing of Richard Mühlfeld and was inspired by a fresh muse to compose once again. A scholar and close friend of Brahms praised the Clarinet Trio, writing that & “It is as though the instruments were in love with each other.”
“Love is revealed in many different manifestations,” says Yehuda Hanani. “The passion, the tenderness, the devotion, the longing, the elation, and the heartbreak. Music is the perfect vehicle to capture it all.” Seth Grosshandler’s new work, also “L’Amour Toujours, Miniatures on 853-4542” was inspired by a chance meeting, a telephone number written backwards on a piece of music paper, and a marriage of many decades that followed a fateful phone call.
An all-star ensemble that shares the stage with artistic director Yehuda Hanani includes clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein (“…treats his instrument as his personal voice, dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility, and range”—Washington Post) returning to CEWM after several seasons and Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and her partner in romance and song, baritone Kerry Wilkerson, who also will regale with a love songs by Mendelssohn, Turina, from “Magic Flute” and “Phantom of the Opera.” Pianist Max Levinson’s career was launched when he won first prize at the Guardian Dublin International Piano Competition, the first American to achieve this distinction. He was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and in 2005, the Andrew Wolf Award for his chamber music playing. The Boston Globe proclaimed: “The questioning, conviction, and feeling in his playing invariably remind us of the deep reasons why music is important to us, why we listen to it, why we care so much about it.” Levinson has performed as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, Oregon Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Boston Pops, and National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland among others.
So concludes Season 33 of Close Encounters With Music —bookended by the immortal Brahms, by inspiration, and love for the craft. As Shakespeare so eloquently put it, “If Music be the food of love, play on.”
TICKET INFORMATION
Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
— The Berkshire Edge
HOW TO REACH US
Close Encounters With Music Post Office Box 34 Great Barrington, MA 01230 Web: cewm.org e-mail: [email protected]
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/CEWM-June-8-Calendar-Slider.jpg560775Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-05-30 09:43:442025-06-03 14:23:15“L’Amour Tourjours—And a World Premiere,” Sunday, June 18, 4pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Mass
Sewing machine heiress takes Paris by storm, befriends cultural luminaries, and inspires (and supports!) new works by Ravel, Debussy, De Falla, Milhaud, Boulanger, Chabrier, Reynaldo Hahn, and Stravinsky
The daughter of sewing machine industrialist Isaac Merritt Singer, Winnaretta Singer-Polignac was a force of nature, hosting everyone from Leon Bakst to Jean Cocteau and Jean Giraudoux to Prokofiev, Madame Jean Lanvin, Siegfried Wagner, Arthur Rubinstein, Arnold Schoenberg, and Edith Wharton in her Paris salon. More importantly, she was responsible for developing a new genre: “Great music for a small space by up-and-coming composers” in the words of Sylvia Kahan, her biographer, who will join for the four-hand piano “Bagatelle” by Winnaretta’s husband, Edmond de Polignac. Works either commissioned by her, dedicated to her, or that were performed in her mansion on Rue Henri-Martin, will be featured in this on-stage “salon”: Ravel’s Pavane pour un enfant défunte, Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata 1924, the sizzling César Franck Piano Quintet and songs by Fauré, Poulenc and Reynaldo Hahn. Winnaretta also befriended Marcel Proust and his lover Hahn, who reciprocated with an evening at their Paris salon, inspiring a chapter in Swann’s Way. The program is a rich tapestry in search of a certain time, place and fascinating personages.
A tantalizing Berkshire connection to the tale of the Princess is that her father Isaac Merritt Singer’s business partner was Edward Clark, a wealthy lawyer who took charge of the manufacturing end of the business, turning it into a major success. The rest is history as Clark’s grandson Robert Sterling Clark and his wife Francine founded the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown to house their personal art collection, much of it acquired on their trips to France.
Artists: Alexander Shtarkman, piano; Sylvia Kahan, piano; William Ferguson, tenor; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Grace Park, violin; Helena Baillie, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello
TICKET INFORMATION
Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
L’Amour Toujours and A World Premiere Sunday, June 8, 2025 4 PM Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
It’s all about love: A new work for clarinet trio by composer Seth Grosshandler that celebrates young love, courtship and the serendipity of meeting one’s intended receives its inaugural performance. Signature love arias from favorite operas and Broadway sung by Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson. Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock (“My sweetheart dwells so far from me, I long hotly to be with her over there”) is a tour de force meshing clarinet and soprano. Resolved to retire, in 1891 Brahms encountered the clarinet playing of Richard Mühlfeld and was inspired by a fresh muse to compose once again. A scholar and close friend of Brahms praised the Clarinet Trio, writing that “It is as though the instruments were in love with each other.”
Artists: Max Levinson, piano; Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet; Danielle Talamantes, soprano; Kerry Wilkerson, baritone; Yehuda Hanani, cello
2024/2025 Current Season
Sunday, October 20, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, December 15, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini, Barber
Sunday, February 23, 4 PM, Saint James Place 6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, March 23, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center ”Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, April 27, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, May 4, 12 PM – Private Club, Lenox MA Luncheon Musicale
Sunday, May 18, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center “A Tale of Two Salons” – Winaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, June 8, 4PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center L’Amour Toujours and a World Premiere
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/CEWM-May-18-Calendar-Slider.jpg560775Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-04-14 16:07:342025-04-14 16:13:00A Tale of Two Salons—Winnaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC PRESENTS “CLASSICAL ROOTS, LATIN SOUL” – THE DALI STRING QUARTET ON SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 4 PM AT THE MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, GREAT BARRINGTON, MASS.
Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Piazzolla and Morales-Matos’ Caribbean Dances Live Side by Side on the Program
Alongside Beethoven’s Quartet No. 1 Op. 18 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 Quartet, this program is infused with striking Latin repertoire: Sonia Morales-Matos’ Divertimento Caribeño No. 3 (dance suites of Caribbean merengue sandwiched around a Cuban bolero) and Astor Piazzolla’s TangoBallet, a work that paints pictures through rhythms and melodies. The Dalí Quartet is Chamber Music America’s 2024 Ensemble of theYear and the 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Symphony’s esteemed Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino Musicians, among other awards. Beethoven’s first of his 16 string quartets contains thematic scaffolding and inspiration from Mozart and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 6 in F minor was written in homage to his sister Fanny, shortly after her death and just before his. With these selections, the program perfectly exemplifies the balance the Dali achieves in its classical roots and Latin soul identity.
Carrying dual “citizenship” in the chamber music realm, the Dali’s latest CD, with pianist Olga Kern, features the piano quintets of Brahms and Shostakovich. They have recorded works by: Efrain Amaya, Alberto Ginastera, Sonia Morales-Matos, Astor Piazzolla, Juan Bautista Plaza, and Gerardo Matos Rodriguez for Centaur Records. Dali violinist Ari Isaacman-Beck, trained traditionally, observes, “For me, my favorite (ongoing!) discovery is the breadth of repertoire of wide-ranging musical languages and profound quality by Latin American composers. From Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, Reynaldo Hahn, Alberto Ginastera, and Heitor Villa-Lobos to Sonia Morales, Eleanor Alberga, Gilbert Galindo, Tania León, Angélica Negrón, as well as so many others—it has been a total joy to become better acquainted with these older (and contemporary!) composers’ works. Through their music, I’ve learned more about Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn, and I’m continuing to learn about Bolero, Merengue, Mambo, Guajira, and a huge repertoire of folk influences that are particular to Latin America. We as human beings experience dance and music in the same area of the brain, and the interaction between rhythm, harmony, and motive is profoundly fascinating and moving to me; the particularities of those three elements, in their endless possible permutations, gives rise to a greater experience of cultural backgrounds other than my own.”
In its over three decades of offering the finest soloists and chamber ensembles and stretching the reach of chamber music to include accordion, rapper, pipa, percussion, marimba, tabla, in addition to traditional instruments, CEWM has presented the most distinguished string quartets on the music scene: the Alban Berg, Ariel, Borromeo, Escher, Avalon, Lark, Dover, Fine Arts, Harlem, Muir and Vermeer. CEWM is delighted to add the Dali to this stellar list.
“… beautifully prepared program … the Latin American program alternately glimmered and blazed.”-The Philadelphia Inquirer
Dalí String Quartet: Ari Isaacman-Beck, violin; Carlos Rubio, violin; Adriana Linares, viola; Jesus Morales, cello
TICKET INFORMATION
Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Dali-Quartet-Color_Horizontal.jpeg533800Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-03-25 09:39:032025-03-25 09:40:26“Classical Roots, Latin Soul” with the Dalí String Quartet
ALSO MASTERPIECES OF CHAMBER MUSIC AND VOCAL FOLKLORE FROM TCHAIKOVSKY AND MOUSSORGSKY
Two monumental works, two Russian ex-pats of the same aristocratic background—and two divergent extremes. One, a master of nostalgia and a formidable pianist, follows in the footsteps of Chopin. The other, a trailblazer, scandalizer and collaborator of Picasso delights in breaking old molds—though harking back to traditional Russian folk material—and ushers in a new age in music, conceptually aligned with Cubism. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring shocked tout-Paris and sparked riots (scenes from the film Coco Chanel will be shown). Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano was written after a course of hypnotherapy for “composer’s block,” out of which emerged a work of virtuosity and grandeur, with his characteristic flourishes and a Russian Belle Époque sensibility. “Terrifyingly difficult” for the piano, it is a virtual piano concerto—not to downplay the soulful melodic role of the cello! Baritone Enes Pektas joins with Russian folk songs and favorites by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky.
Pianist Michael Chertock comes to the Mahaiwe and Rite of Spring directly from Carnegie Hall, where he joins the Cleveland Orchestra and conductor Franz Welser-Möst on March 19in a Russian symphonic masterpiece by Stravinsky—Pétrouchka, a work he previously recorded with the Cincinnati Symphony. Baritone Enes Pektas brings vocal folklore to the program with Moussorgsky’s political parody in the story of a flea that becomes a government minister as well as the ever popular “Ochi Tchernye” and Tchaikovsky’s “None but the Lonely Heart.” “It’s a program of unceasing dramatic and emotional eloquence,” says artistic director Yehuda Hanani.
Michael Chertock, piano; Yehuda Hanani, cello; Enes Pektas, baritone
Meet the Artists
Michael Chertock made his orchestral debut at the age of 17, performing the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Andrew Litton conducting and made his Carnegie Hall debut in 1999 with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, performing Duke Ellington’s New World A’Comin’. He has recorded John Alden Carpenter’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra with the BBC Concert Orchestra, Abbey Road Studio; the Roger Davis Piano Concerto in F, with the Sofia Philharmonic; and the Rhapsodies of Piano and Orchestra of William Perry with the RTE Orchestra of Dublin, Ireland. He has toured Asia with the Boston Pops and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. Chertok’s 2003 performance on the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s recording of Petrouchka with Paavo Järvi turned in rave reviews in Gramophone and American Record Guide. In 2005, he performed Gershwin’s Concerto in F Major with Keith Lockhart and the National Youth Orchestra of London. Later that year, he performed the world premiere of “Jeux Deux” for hyper-piano and orchestra by Todd Machover, commissioned by the Boston Pops expressly for Mr. Chertock and later repeated at MIT and in Portugal. Other conductors he has worked with include James Conlon, Jaime Laredo and Erich Kunzel with orchestras such as the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Toronto Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Naples Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Utah Symphony, Oregon Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony and the Dayton Philharmonic. Festival appearances have been at Steans Institute of the Ravinia Festival and Grand Tetons. Additional recordings are Cinematic Piano, Chamber Music of Frank Proto, Palace of the Winds, Christmas at the Movies, Love at the Movies and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Festival Prelude for Organ and Orchestra, on which he was the organ soloist. In 1991, Mr. Chertok was awarded the silver medal at the World Piano Competition of the American Music Scholarship Association. He received bachelor and master of music degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he is currently chair of the piano department.
Named “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist” by The New York Times, CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. He has won wide international recognition as soloist, chamber musician and inspiring pedagogue. His concerto appearances have been with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, San Antonio, New Orleans, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Taipei and Seoul symphonies among many other orchestras, and he has toured with I Solisti de Zagreb, conducting from the cello. A frequent guest at Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, Yale at Norfolk, Great Lakes, Casals Prades, Finland Festival, Ottawa, Oslo, Round Top Institute, Manchester, and the Australia Chamber Music festivals, he has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Escher, Ariel, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets. In New York City, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum. A three-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, he has inspired scores of cellists as Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and previously served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. In recognition of his distinguished teaching, he was given the title of honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory, China. He now is a member of the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York City.
Baritone Enes Pektas is recognized for his rich voice and captivating stage presence. Currently pursuing his graduate studies at the prestigious Mannes School of Music, he also serves as a Resident Artist with Classic Lyric Arts, honing his craft under the guidance of leading vocal and dramatic coaches. A native of Turkey, he completed his Bachelor of Music degree at the Istanbul University State Conservatory, where he laid the foundation for his career in opera and classical music. Since then, he has quickly established himself as a promising talent on the international stage, making his Carnegie Hall debut in 2022. His recent performance credits include Leonidas in Lysistrata, Le Fauteuil in L’enfant et les sortilèges, and a cover of the titular role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Each performance has been met with critical acclaim, showcasing his versatility across a diverse operatic repertoire. In addition to his stage work, he has earned recognition in prestigious vocal competitions: three awards in Turkey and, most recently, the Encouragement Award at the MetropolitanOperaLaffont Competition (New York District), further solidifying his reputation as a rising star.
Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
Alongside Beethoven’s Quartet No. 1 Op. 18 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 Quartet, this program is infused with striking Latin repertoire: Sonia Morales-Matos’ Divertimento Caribeño No. 3 (dance suites of Caribbean merengue sandwiched around a Cuban bolero) and Astor Pizzolla’s Tango Ballet, a work that paints pictures through rhythms and melodies. The Dalí Quartet is Chamber Music of America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year and the 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Symphony’s esteemed Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino Musicians, among other awards. Beethoven’s first of his 16 string quartets contains thematic scaffolding and inspirations from Mozart and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 6 in F minor was written in homage to his sister Fanny, shortly after her death and just before his.
“… beautifully prepared program…the Latin American program alternately glimmered and blazed.” – The Philadelphia Inquirer
Dalí String Quartet: Ari Isaacman-Beck, violin; Carlos Rubio, violin; Adriana Linares, viola; Jesus Morales, cello
2024/2025 Current Season
Sunday, October 20, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, December 15, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini, Barber
Sunday, February 23, 4 PM, Saint James Place 6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, March 23, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center ”Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, April 27, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, May 4, 12 PM – Private Club, Lenox MA Luncheon Musicale
Sunday, May 18, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center “A Tale of Two Salons” – Winaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, June 8, 4PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center L’Amour Toujours and a World Premiere
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/CEWM-March-23-Calendar-Slider-copy.jpg560775Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-02-14 14:51:332025-02-14 15:05:15Close Encounters With Music Presents “Rite of Spring”—Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky on Sunday, March 23, 4pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Two leading Bach interpreters, Colin Carr and Yehuda Hanani will embark an unaccompanied voyage on Sunday, February 23, 2025 at Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA
For CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani, the suites are the end-all in classical music.
“The wonders of Bach are inexhaustible. After decades of intimate dialogue with the suites, alone, in performance, and in masterclasses (where one is inspired as much as one inspires), I am still awed by the mastery of Johann Sebastian: his architectural strength and harmonic daring, the human truth reflected in his balancing tension and release.”
Hanini’s colleague, the distinguished British cellist Colin Carr would agree. On Sunday, February 23, these two leading Bach interpreters embark on a journey traversing his Six Suites, the apogee of the cello repertoire. Filled with mystery and beauty, blasted through with rapture, every note is a bold statement. Music that first flowed from the composer’s quill in the early 1700’s, it belongs to no specific time or place. At the same time as it floats in the heavenly spheres, it provides plenty of earthly pleasures—courtly music, riffs, Celtic jigs, the merriment of a tavern musician, and glimpses of modern minimalism. The title “Unaccompanied” is a bit of a misnomer: a single cellist takes on numerous voices, making the music a drama for three or four characters played by one actor! If angels danced, this is the music that would no doubt accompany them on their gramophone. Hanani and Carr will alternate playing the six works on legendary instruments, both built in 1730 —Carr on his Matteo Gofriller made in Venice, and Hanani on his David Tecchler made in Rome.
Colin Carr has been hailed for his “supreme technique and ebullience” (Boston MusicalIntelligencer). He appearsthroughout the world as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and teacher. He has played with major orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, the orchestras of Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, Philadelphia, Montréal and all the major orchestras of Australia and New Zealand. Conductors with whom he has worked include Rattle, Gergiev, Dutoit, Elder, Skrowasczewski and Marriner. He has been a regular guest at the BBC Proms and has twice toured Australia. As a member of the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, he recorded and toured extensively for 20 years. He is a frequent visitor to international chamber music festivals worldwide and has appeared often as a guest with the Guarneri and Emerson string quartets and with New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Recent CD releases include the complete Bach suites on the Wigmore Live label. Read bio here.
Named “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist” by The New York Times, CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani’s charismatic playing and profound interpretations bring him acclaim and reengagements across the globe. He has won wide international recognition as soloist, chamber musician and inspiring pedagogue. His concerto appearances have been with the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, San Antonio, New Orleans, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, BBC Welsh Symphony, Irish National Symphony, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Taipei and Seoul symphonies among many other orchestras, and he has toured with I Solisti de Zagreb, conducting from the cello. A frequent guest at Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, Yale at Norfolk, Great Lakes, Casals Prades, Finland Festival, Ottawa, Oslo, Round Top Institute, Manchester, and the Australia Chamber Music festivals, he has collaborated in performances with preeminent fellow musicians, including Leon Fleisher, Aaron Copland, Christoph Eschenbach, David Robertson, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Itzhak Perlman, Vadim Repin, Julian Rachlin, Dawn Upshaw, Yefim Bronfman, Eliot Fisk, the Tokyo, Vermeer, Muir, Escher, Ariel, Colorado, and Manhattan quartets. In New York City, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum. A three-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, he has inspired scores of cellists as Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and previously served on the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory. In recognition of his distinguished teaching, he was given the title of honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory, China. He now is a member of the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York City. Read bio here.
Photo by InSight Foto, Inc. PO BOX 2789 Santa Fe, NM 87504 USA www.insightfoto.com [email protected] (505) 988-1424
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TICKET INFORMATION
Season subscriptions are available at cewm.org: $180 for the remaining season series of 4 concerts Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine),
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
If you don’t already, please follow us on social media! We work to keep our posts informative and inspiring. (insert logos/hyperlinks)
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/CEWM-Feb-23-Calendar-Slider.jpg560775Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2025-01-08 10:01:592025-01-28 10:28:42Close Encounters With Music Presents 6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello
A 14-person Pop-up Collective of New York’s Finest String Players Offers Power, Precision, Finesse and Soaring Artistry in a Festive Holiday Concert on Sunday, December 15, 4pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center.
Great Barrington, MA: Close Encounters With Music’s 33rd Season in the Berkshires continues with chamber music royalty in a 14-person ensemble on Sunday, December 15, 4PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, MA. This festive holiday concert is filled with music by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini and Barber.
Composed by Tchaikovsky to counter a bout of insomnia and melancholy, Serenade for Strings immediately cheered him up, and he reported “feeling well, invigorated and content”—as gratified listeners have over the years. Few composers have possessed the ability to reflect emotions within their music as well as Tchaikovsky, and the Serenade channels solemnity and joy (an homage to Mozart, a memorable waltz) into one perfect package. Barber’s iconic Adagio, “full of pathos and cathartic passion, rarely leaves a dry eye” (it was played at the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco…). Holberg Suite (subtitled “suite in olden style” — 1884), one of Grieg’s most beloved works, offers chorale-like harmonies, joyous and lilting rhythms, and hints of a rural fiddle player. Boccherini’s Baroque-era Cello Concerto, rewritten in a Romantic vein, is a virtuosic delight. The conductorless Vivace String Orchestra takes center stage and CEWM’s artistic director Yehuda Hanani and cellist extraordinaire will be the soloist in this work.
Comprised of fourteen top-tier soloists who gather for periodic tours, Vivace performers are the crème de la crème of chamber music players. They are members of the legendary Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Sybarite5, Frisson, Eighth Blackbird, Seraphic Fire, Sejong Soloists, The Knights, A Far Cry, Music from Copland House, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and the Jasper String Quartet. Individually, they have performed as soloists with prestigious orchestras around the globe— Los Angeles Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony, Spanish National Orchestra, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Rochester Philharmonic, Staatsorchester Brandenburgisches Frankfurt, Columbus, Houston, Dallas, Detroit, and New Jersey, symphony orchestras, Johannesburg Philharmonic, Venezuela Symphony, Kwazulu-Natal Philharmonic, Orchestre Royal de Chambre and Montevideo Philharmonic in the most prestigious cultural venues and in chamber music settings with stars of the music world. Members have taken top prizes in competitions, including the Naumburg, Boston Symphony Concerto Competition, Avery Fisher, and a Rising Star Award by Tiffany & Co. They lead colorful and eclectic lives in music, performing jazz, tango, contemporary and Baroque; have mastered the Violoncello da Spalla (a five-stringed mini cello that is played on the shoulder!) and the Argentine bandoneon; compose, teach, and have found other exciting outlets for their creativity. Cellist Aaron Wolff had a lead role in the Coen brothers’ film A Serious Man and has provided string arrangements for Comedy Central’s sitcom Broad City.
United in their excellence, experience and the excitement they generate, Vivace presents a precision-instrument orchestral voice.
Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Katie Hyun, Kobi Malkin, Siwoo Kim, Keiko Tokunaga, Ruben Rengel, Sami Merdinian, Miho Saegusa, violins; Luke Fleming, Caeli Smith, Tanner Menees, Andrew Gonzalez, violas; Ari Evan, Arlen Hlusko, Aaron Wolff, cellos; Lizzie Burns, double bass
Yehuda Hanani, cello solo
All audience members are invited to an “Afterglow” reception following each concert to meet the performers and one another! In addition to offering live in-person concerts, curated online performances will be available to accommodate geographically remote listeners and virtual followers.
TICKET INFORMATION
Season subscriptions are available at cewm.org: $225 for the remaining season series of 6 concerts, plus a 4 concert, select-your-own option. Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
— The Berkshire Edge
HOW TO REACH US
Close Encounters With Music Post Office Box 34 Great Barrington, MA 01230 Web: cewm.org e-mail: [email protected]
If you don’t already, please follow us on social media! We work to keep our posts informative and inspiring. (insert logos/hyperlinks)
NEXT UP:
6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, February 23, 2025 4 PM, Saint James Place, Great Barrington
Two leading Bach interpreters embark on a journey while traversing his Six Suites, the apogee of the cello repertoire. Filled with mystery and beauty, blasted through with rapture, every note is a bold statement. Music that first flowed from the composer’s quill in the early 1700’s, it belongs to no specific time or place. At the same time as it floats in the heavenly spheres, it provides plenty of earthly pleasures – courtly music, riffs, Celtic jigs, the merriment of a tavern musician, and glimpses of modern minimalism. The title “Unaccompanied” is a bit of a misnomer: a single cellist takes on numerous voices, making the music drama for three or four characters played by one actor! If angels danced, this is the music that would no doubt accompany them on their gramophone.
Colin Carr, cello; Yehuda Hanani, cello
“…Colin Carr – supreme technique and ebulllience” – Boston Musical Intelligencer
“In this era of the cello, Hanani is among the best. His Bach was absorbing imaginative, beautiful i all respects” – San Francisco Examiner
2024/2025 Current Season
Sunday, October 20, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, December 15, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini, Barber
Sunday, February 23, 4 PM, Saint James Place: 6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, March 23, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: “Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, April 27, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, May 18, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: “A Tale of Two Salons” – Winaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, June 8, 4PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center: L’Amour Toujours and a World Premiere
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Vivace-Painting-e1731338006944.jpg623766Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2024-11-11 10:09:382024-11-11 10:13:42Close Encounters With Music Presents The Vivace Chamber Orchestra with Works by Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini and Barber
Close Encounters With Music’s 2024-2025 Season sparkles and vibrates with brilliant performers and thought-provoking themes October through June in Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Chamber Music in Great Barrington!Early Melodrama and the ever-fascinating Brahms/Schumann triangle; Tango and Caribbean dance suites with the Latin Soul of The Dalí String Quartet; Tchaikovsky by Vivace Chamber Orchestra; an on-stage Parisian Salon; and so much more!
Great Barrington, MA—Embarking on its 33rd year of presenting outstanding chamber music with lively commentary, Close Encounters With Music presents a season that sizzles and sparkles with the widest swath of genres, styles, composers and instruments—and of course, the great performers who share their brilliant artistry, including pianists Adam Golka, Max Levinson, Michael Chertock and Cliburn Competition laureate Alexander Shtarkman; violinists, Xiao-Dong Wang, Itamar Zorman, Helena Baillie and Grace Park; clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein; Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes, The Dali String Quartet and distinguished cellist Colin Carr, who joins Yehuda Hanani in a traversal of the sublime Six Unaccompanied Bach Suites.
Dalí String Quartet will perform Sunday, April 27, 4pm at The Mahaiwe
Artistic director Yehuda Hanani is welcoming audience members new to the Berkshires as well as long-time residents to join for intimate programs with outsize talent, in the beautiful landmark Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center “to regain a sense of Community through the inspiring and healing effects of the best music ever penned—from over 300 years ago to almost yesterday, with the ink just drying”!
Just a few of this season’s themes are explorations of the divergent paths of Russian ex-pats Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Rachmaninoff—one a master of nostalgia, the other a trailblazer whose work set off riots; and “A Tale of Two Salons” inviting us to drop in to the Paris gatherings of Marcel Proust and Winnaretta Singer, heiress to the Singer Sewing Machine fortune, and their composer friends: Fauré, Ravel, Reynaldo Hahn, Eric Satie.
Featured works include the bewitching Robert Schuman Piano Quartet No. 1, Beethoven and Mendelssohn string quartets, Stravinsky’s landmark “Rite of Spring,” and the Brahms Clarinet Trio. And a new work of music is born—the world premiere of CEWM’s 25th commissioned chamber work—by Berkshire composer Seth Grosshandler—is scheduled for the concluding program of the season “L’Amour Toujours” on June 8.
All audience members are invited to an “Afterglow” reception following each concert to meet the performers and one another!
In addition to offering live in-person concerts, curated online performances will be available to accommodate geographically remote listeners and virtual followers.
Ticket Information
Season subscriptions are available at cewm.org: Regular $280 and Early Bird $250 for the series of 7 concerts, plus a select-your-own option. Single Tickets, $55 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $30 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100.
“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”
— The Berkshire Edge
(For Calendar listings, see below.)
2024-25 SEASON
Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, October 20th 2024 4PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
The ever-fascinating and intimate triangle – Robert and Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms – will be brought to new light with seldom-heard works that highlight the musical cross-references and spiritual bond that united them. Predating accompaniment to silent film by decades, Robert’s melodrama, Schön Hedwig is a forerunner to soap-opera sentimentality with a happy ending. His Piano Quartet in E-flat Major (premiered with Clara as pianist), marries Romantic lyricism with baroque counterpoint and sonic flamboyance in one of the masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire. Also featured are Clara Schumann’s piano concerto composed with a daring slow movement, a love duet between the piano and a single cello, as well as her Three Romances for Violin and Piano. Brahms’ greatest set of piano variations Op. 9, written after Schumann was committed to an asylum, spells out the name CLARA in its theme, in a work tender, boisterous and touched with heartfelt brilliance.
Adam Golka, piano;Itamar Zorman, violin; Helena Baille, viola, Yehuda Hanani, cello; Michael Wise, narrator.
Composed by Tchaikovsky to counter a bout of insomnia and melancholy, Serenade for Strings immediately cheered him up, and he reported “feeling well, invigorated and content” – as gratified listeners have over the years. Few composers have possessed the ability to reflect emotions within their music as well as Tchaikovsky, and the Serenade channels solemnity and joy (an homage to Mozart, a memorable joy) into one perfect package. Barber’s iconic Adagio, “full of pathos and cathartic passion, rarely leaves a dry eye” (it was played at the funerals of Albert Einstein and Princess Grace of Monaco…). Holberg Suite (subtitled “suite in the olden style” – 1884), one of Grieg’s most beloved works, offers chorale-like harmonies, joyous and lilting rhythms, and hints of a rural fiddle player. Boccherini’s Baroque-era Cello Concerto, rewritten in a Romantic vein, is a virtuosic delight. The Vivace Chamber Orchestra is comprised of fourteen top-tier soloists who gather for periodic tours.
Vivace Chamber Orchestra; Yehuda Hanani, cello
6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, February 23, 2025 4 PM
Saint James Place, Great Barrington
Two leading Bach interpreters embark on a journey while traversing his Six Suites, the apogee of the cello repertoire. Filled with mystery and beauty, blasted through with rapture, every note is a bold statement. Music that first flowed from the composer’s quill in the early 1700’s, it belongs to no specific time or place. At the same time as it floats in the heavenly spheres, it provides plenty of earthly pleasures – courtly music, riffs, Celtic jigs, the merriment of a tavern musician, and glimpses of modern minimalism. The title “Unaccompanied” is a bit of a misnomer: a single cellist takes on numerous voices, making the music drama for three or four characters played by the actor! If angels danced, this is the music that would no doubt accompany them on their gramophone.
Colin Carr, cello; Yehuda Hanani, cello
“…Colin Carr – supreme technique and ebullience” – Boston Musical Intelligencer
“In this era of the cello, Hanani is among the best. His Bach was absorbing imaginative, beautiful in all respects” – San Francisco Examiner
“Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, March 23, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Two monumental works, two Russian ex-pats of the same aristocratic background – and two divergent extremes. One a master of nostalgia and a formidable pianist, follows in the footsteps of Chopin. The other, a trailblazer, scandalizer and collaborator of Picasso delights in breaking old molds – though harking back to traditional Russian folk material – and ushers in a new age in music, conceptually aligned with Cubism. Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring shocked tout-Paris and sparked riots (scenes from the film Coco Chanel will be shown). Rachmaninoff’s Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano was written after a course of hypnotherapy for “composers block,” out of which emerged a work of virtuosity and grandeur, with his characteristic flourishes and a Russian Belle Époque sensibility. “Terrifyingly difficult” for the piano, it is a virtual piano concerto – not to downplay the soulful melodic role of the cello.
Michael Chertock, piano: Yehuda Hanani, cello
Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, April 27, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Alongside Beethoven’s Quartet No. 1 Op. 18 and Mendelssohn’s Op. 80 Quartet, this program is infused with striking Latin repertoire: Sonia Morales-Matos’ Divertimento Caribeño No. 3 (dance suites of Caribbean merengue sandwiched around a Cuban bolero) and Astor Pizzolla’s Tango Ballet, a work that paints pictures through rhythms and melodies. The Dalí Quartet is Chamber Music of America’s 2024 Ensemble of the Year and the 2019 recipient of the Atlanta Symphony’s esteemed Aspire Award for accomplished African American and Latino Musicians, among other awards. Beethoven’s first of his 16 string quartets contains thematic scaffolding and inspirations from Mozart and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 6 in F minor was written in homage to his sister Fanny, shortly after her death and just before his.
Dalí String Quartet:
Ari Isaacman-Beck, violin; Carlos Rubio, violin; Adriana Linares, viola; Jesus Morales, cello.
Annual Luncheon Musicale Benefit
Sunday, May 4, 2025 12PM
At a Private Club in Lenox, Mass.
Celebrate the Salon in the Gilded Age elegance at a private Berkshires club. The scintillating atmosphere of the 19th century institution helped promote artists, painters and musicians as the intelligentsia gathered to exchange ideas, enhanced by gaiety and ambience. Savor a superb lunch and support Close Encounters With Music. La vie est belle!
Reserve the date! Tickets will go on sale in March.
A Tale of Two Salons – Winnaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, May 18, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
the daughter of sewing machine industrialist Isaac Merritt Singer, Winnaretta Singer, Princess de Polignac, was a force of nature, hosting everyone from Leion Bakst to Jean Cocteau and Jean Giraudoux to Prokofiev, Madame Jean Lanvin, Siegfried Wagner, Arthur Rubenstein, Arnold Schoenberg, and Edith Wharton in her Paris salon. more importantly, she was responsible for developing a new genre: “Great music for a small space by up-and-coming composers” in the words of Sylvia Kahane, her biographer, who will join for the four-hand piano “Bagatelle” by Winnaretta’s husband, Edmond de Polignac. Works either commissioned by her, dedicated to her, or that were performed in her mansion on Rue Henri-Martin, will be featured in our on-stage “salon”: Ravel’s Pavane pour un enfant défunte, Stravinsky’s Piano Sonata 1924, the sizzling César Franck Piano Quintet and songs by Fauré, Polenc and Reynaldo Hahn. She also befriended Marcel Proust and his lover Hahn, who reciprocated with an evening at their Pairs salon, inspiring a chapter in Swann’s Way. A rich tapestry in search of time, place and personages.
Alexander Schtarkman, piano; Sylvia Kahane, piano; William Ferguson, tenor; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Helena Baillie, viol; Yehuda Hanani, cello
Gala Concert: L’Amour Toujours and A World Premiere
Sunday, June 8, 2025 4 PM
Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
It’s all about love: A new work for clarinet trio by composer Seth Grosshandler that celebrates young love, courtship and serendipity of meeting one’s intended receives its inaugural performance. Signature love arias from favorite operas and Broadway sung by Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and Kerry Wilkerson. Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock (“My sweetheart dwells so far from me, I long hotly to be with her over there) is a tour de force meshing clarinet and soprano. Resolved to retire, in 1891 Brahms encountered the clarinet playing of Richard Mühlfeld and was inspired by a fresh muse to compose once again. A scholar and close friend of Brahms praised the Clarinet Trio, writing that “It is as though the instruments were in love with each other”. An all-star ensemble that shares the stage with artistic director, Yehuda Hanani, includes clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein (“…treats his instrument as his personal voice, dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility and range” – Washington Post) returning to CEWM after several seasons. So concludes Season 33 of Close Encounters With Music – bookended by the immortal Brahms, by inspiration and friendship.
Max Levinson, piano; Alexander Fiterstein, clarinet; Danielle Talamantes, soprano; Kerry Wilkerson, baritone; Yehuda Hanani, cello
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC stands at the intersection of music, art, and the vast richness of various cultural traditions. Entertaining, erudite, lively commentary puts the composers and their times in perspective to enrich and enlighten your concert experience. Join our community of friends and patrons as we continue our tradition of bringing together sublime chamber music, distinguished performers and musical commentary, all in convivial settings. Share the excitement of world premiere performances and meet some of the most original and influential figures in contemporary classical music, as well as up-and-coming stars of tomorrow. And to accommodate our newly expanded virtual followers, we are also offering a virtual pass to a curated online selection of performances.
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH MUSIC supports the renaissance of the Southern Berkshires by presenting six concerts this season at the landmark Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Situated in the heart of Great Barrington’s historic district, the Mahaiwe offers modern comfort in the nostalgic atmosphere of a 100-year-old theater. A seventh performance is held at the acoustically superb Saint James Place. Join the growing number of culture enthusiasts who converge from the Berkshires, Hudson Valley, Northwest Connecticut, New York City and Boston for each Close Encounters event! Contributing Benefactors and Endowers are invited to a special gala dinner following the June concert (see Ticket Order form).
2024/2025 Current Season
Sunday, October 20, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Drama and Melodrama – The Schumanns
Sunday, December 15, 4 PM, The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Sunday, February 23, 4 PM, Saint James Place 6 Unaccompanied Bach Suites for Cello with Colin Carr & Yehuda Hanani
Sunday, March 23, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center “Rite of Spring” – Rachmaninoff/Stravinsky
Sunday, April 27, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center
Classical Roots, Latin Soul – The Dalí String Quartet
Sunday, May 18, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center A Tale of Two Salons – Winnaretta Singer and Marcel Proust
Sunday, June 8, 4 PM, Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center L’Amour Toujours and a World Premiere
“Great music played with great heart… There’s a palpable mystique about Close Encounters concerts. The evening never failed to fascinate!…” –The Berkshire Eagle
“The Berkshires are home to distinguished cultural events, but none so brilliant, perhaps, as the chamber music series Close Encounters With Music.” —Berkshire Record
“…A stunning, majestic resolution, a brilliant ending to an unforgettable encounter with music. Bravi!” —The Berkshire Edge
“RESCUING NEGLECTED COMPOSERS: Mr. Hanani’s rich tone and thoughtful phrasing made a powerful case for it [Eduard Franck Sonata for Cello and Piano] in a performance that had a convincing subtext: The 19th-century cello repertoire is not so vast that cellists (or their admirers) should neglect works this opulently lyrical….Soulful, fiery performance of Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2.”—New York Times
“STUNNER CLOSES SEASON! Though Hanani, Stephen Prutsman and Dawn Upshaw all performed with that rare combination of mutual understanding and technical finesse which makes for the most satisfying chamber music, Hanani deserves special recognition for his astute program choices.”—Albany Times Union
“The program provided stellar performances…played with passion and pathos…”—Arizona Republic
“…To experience the finest music ever written, presented by leading musicians of the day, in the inviting atmosphere of the Berkshires, is the best of all possible worlds. . . The quality of Lincoln Center with an intimacy that exceeds it….”
If you don’t already, please follow us on social media! We work to keep our posts informative and inspiring. @closeencounterswithmusic on Instagram and Facebook.
https://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Dali-Quartet-Color_Horizontal.jpeg533800Dawn Stanyonhttps://cewm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/CEWM-Logo-Purple-340w.pngDawn Stanyon2024-09-09 15:49:182024-09-09 15:58:26PRESS RELEASE: Close Encounters With Music Announces Its 33rd Season
