Reeds and Strings
2022-05-29 16:00 - 17:45 (America/New_York) | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
First oboist of the New York Philharmonic Liang Wang leads the way from Mozart’s Oboe Quartet to Cimarosa’s Oboe Concerto and Britten’s Metamorphosis. Tchaikovsky Competition winner, violinist Itamar Zorman, violinist Susan Heerema, violist Michael Strauss and Yehuda Hanani perform the Beethoven String Trio in C minor, written in his dramatic, misterioso key.
This concert is generously sponsored by:
Richards and Nurit Amsdur
Neil and Kathleen Chrisman
Claudio and Penny Pincus
Kenneth Stahl and Shirley Rippulone
In Person Tickets:

Purchase Tickets Here
Below, virtual event tickets are $28. A link will be emailed to you one week after the concert.

Musica Latina
2022-06-12 16:00 - 17:45 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
Classical Spanish and Flamenco dancer and choreographer Irene Rodriguez has been the leading figure of Spanish dance in Cuba. Described as “an intense, exacting dancer” by the New York Times, she exudes charisma and artistic excitement. In addition to a new dance work that will be specifically choreographed for Close Encounters, she is joined by violinist Giora Schmidt, pianist Max Levinson, guitarist Christian Puig, and Yehuda Hanani in repertoire ranging from Sarasate, Granados, de Falla, Manuel Ponce to Astor Piazzolla and Cuban composer Jorge Martin.
“The performance is a kaleidoscope of sizzling Latin American and Spanish folklore and rhythm – with original choreography by the magnificent Cuban dancer Irene Rodriguez punctuating and adorning some of the music.” – Artistric director Yehuda Hanani.
Read the press release for more details.

This concert is generously sponsored by:
Richard and Nurit Amdur
Neil and Kathleen Chrisman
Claudio and Penny Pincus
Kenneth Stahl and Shirley Ripullone
In Person Ticket:

Purchase Tickets Here
Below, virtual event tickets are $28. A link will be emailed to you one week after the concert.

Piano Master Class with Gila Goldstein
2022-07-21 14:00 - 15:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Moonlight Sonatas
2022-07-21 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-07-24 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-07-27 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-07-28 19:30 - 21:00, 2022-07-30 19:30 - 21:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Violin Master Class with Giora Schmidt
2022-07-22 14:00 - 15:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Cello Master Class with Jeffrey Zeigler
2022-07-23 14:00 - 15:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Talk: Russian Art & Culture After Mariupol
2022-07-23 16:00 - 17:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Viola Master Class with Michael Strauss
2022-07-25 10:30 - 11:30 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Talk: Stage Fright, Memory, Self-Consciousness and the Performer
2022-07-26 13:00 - 14:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Piano Master Class with Alexander Shtarkman
2022-07-26 14:30 - 15:30 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Talk: Opera with Jay Lesenger
2022-07-26 19:00 - 20:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Violin Master Class with Peter Zazofsky
2022-07-27 10:30 - 11:30 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Cello Master Class with Yehuda Hanani
2022-07-27 14:00 - 15:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Cello Master Class with Diego Fainguersch
2022-07-28 10:30 - 11:30 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States

Grand Opening: Otherworldly Schubert and “One Earth”
2022-11-06 16:00 - 18:00 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
Tamar Muskal’s twice-postponed work will receive its long-awaited world premiere, kicking off the new season with a musical adventure. In the words of the composer, “We live in a very challenging time—a time of war, sickness, climate disasters, and economic difficulties. One Earth, for a rapper/beatbox artist, table player, string quintet and a treble chorus, calls all people to positive action, to love, to beauty, and to anything that protects the planet and humanity. The piece is rich in sonorities, a fusion of different musical worlds, and contrasts between energetic rhythms, lyrical melodies and powerful rapping.” The program also features Schubert’s heavenly String Quintet in C Major—an early 19th Century call to humanity, beauty and truth. Of Muskal’s music, the Chicago Tribune has written: “The ripples and shimmers that filled Muskal’s post-minimalist score were as evanescent as swirling, digitized visuals— dissolving into one another with kaleidoscopic beauty…high-tech music theater at its most inventive and fascinating.”
Borromeo String Quartet;
Yehuda Hanani, cello;
Avirodh Sharma, tabla;
Christylez Bacon, beatbox artist;
Tian Hui Ng, conductor;
Rachel Feldman, choral director;
Mount Holyoke College Chamber Singers
Purchase tickets through the Mahaiwe here.
Virtual Ticket: Link will be sent one week after concert.

Grand Piano Trios—Beethoven’s “Ghost” and “Archduke”
2022-12-11 16:00 - 18:00 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
A virtual symphony for three musicians, expansive and noble—like the Austrian Archduke who was the dedicatee—the great “Archduke” is more than a trio. It offered Beethoven the perfect vehicle for the development of his compositional techniques and the exploration of instrumental brilliance and virtuosity with three independent, powerful voices. In the “Ghost” Trio, conjuring up images from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Beethoven plays with strangeness and eeriness.
Both works are among his most Olympian and are in the best possible hands: Pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute has been described as “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” by the New York Times. Violinist Hye-Jin Kim won First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at the age of nineteen and has been guest soloist with major orchestras in the U. S., Europe and Asia since. They join internationally acclaimed music director Yehuda Hanani in compositions of tremendous scope, drama and wit.
Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano;
Hye-Jin Kim, violin;
Yehuda Hanani, cello
Buy Mahaiwe Tickets Below:

Buy Virtual Tickets Here. A link will be sent one week after the concert.

Town & Country—Mendelssohn and Dvorak
2023-02-18 18:00 - 20:00 | Saint James Place, 352 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
Glittering cosmopolitan Berlin and the village of Nelahozeves, Bohemia (now Czech Republic, population 2,200) are the respective places of origin of Felix Mendelssohn and Antonin Dvorak. Mendelssohn’s Trio in C minor offers some of his most exquisitely crafted music, with a magical scherzo right out of Midsummer Night’s Dream. The spirit of Slavic folk music is at the heart of the “Dumky” Trio, opus 90—showcasing Dvorak’s gifts of melody and inventiveness. The suave salon vs. fireside village dance; city lights and rural utopia, if you will.
Renana Gutman, piano; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello
Masks are strongly recommended but not required.

Virtual Ticket: Link will be sent one week after concert.

“Pictures at an Exhibition”— A Gallery Stroll
2023-03-26 16:00 - 18:00 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
A work in ten movements by Modest Mussorgsky that was inspired by a visit to an art exhibition, “Pictures at an Exhibition” is a showpiece where only the most virtuosic pianists dare to tread! It is also a perfect point from which to explore the common language of music and art, which share not only terms such as “line, rhythm and color,” but also considerations of structure, narrative, counterpoint, etc. The program offers other “pictures in time”: Granados’ musical portraits from his opera Goyescas; Franz Liszt’s St. Frances walking on the waves; Debussy’s Sonate with its commedia dell’arte storyline; and the Hogarth-Stravinsky connection for the opera The Rake’s Progress. The final picture of Mussorgsky’s work is a majestic depiction of his friend Victor Hartmann’s sketch, “The Great Gate of Kiev.” Images will be projected to accompany the music.
Max Levinson, piano; Danielle Talamantes, soprano; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Virtual Tickets Here. Link will be sent to one week after concert.

From Bach Brandenburg to Appalachian Spring with Manhattan Chamber Players
2023-04-23 16:00 - 18:00 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
Bringing a “mellifluous blend of vigorous intensity and dramatic import, performed with
enthusiasm, technical facility and impressive balance,” the 13-strong Manhattan Chamber Players make their Close Encounters With Music debut this season. In a program both orchestral (Brandenburg No. 3 and Copland’s iconic Appalachian Spring and reduced to octet for Mendelssohn’s early work (“Its youthful verve, brilliance and perfection make it one of the miracles of nineteenth-century music”), they demonstrate their versatility and virtuosity. First written as a ballet for Martha Graham and telling the story of 19th century pioneers celebrating spring after building a new Pennsylvania farmhouse, Copland’s reworking of the Appalachian Spring Suite has become one of the staples of the concert hall.
In addition to numerous engagements across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, MCP regularly tours throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and in Asia and the Middle East. Its players are current and former members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect, and the Amphion, Attacca, Dover, Escher, and Ying Quartets, as well as top prizewinners in the Banff, Concert Artists Guild, Fischoff, Naumburg, Osaka, Primrose, Queen Elisabeth, Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Tertis, and Young Concert Artists Competitions.
Manhattan Chamber Players, chamber orchestra

Virtual ticket Here. Link will be sent one week after concert.

Annual Luncheon Musicale Benefit
2023-05-07 12:30 - 14:30
Celebrate the Salon in the Gilded Age elegance of a private Berkshires club. The scintillating atmosphere of the 19th century institution that helped promote artists, painters and musicians as the intelligentsia gathered to exchange ideas, enhanced by gaiety and ambience.
All That Jazz features Jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal at The Lenox Club. RSVP by April 24: 800.843.0778 or cewmusic@aol.com.
Savor a superb lunch and support Close Encounters With Music. La vie est belle!!!

Your payment places you on our confirmation list. We will not mail tickets.
CEWM Luncheon Invitation

The Escher String Quartet – Tchaikovsky, Ravel, Ruth Crawford Seeger
2023-05-21 16:00 - 18:00 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
The Souvenir de Florence String Sextet takes us on a musical excursion to Italy, where
Tchaikovsky spent some of his happiest times— reflected in the unforgettable tunes and warm cantabile style. Assessments of the work’s national style—Italianate or inescapably Russian—differ, but the sextet is quintessential Tchaikovsky, suffused with his characteristic longing and
incomparable melodies. Ravel’s Quartet in F Major is decidedly impressionistic and non-European, with exotic modes and mysterious, ethereal beauty. Listening to it is almost akin to exploring a foreign planet. The “1931” Quartet by Ruth Crawford Seeger, the first woman composer to be awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, is a tour-de-force for string ensemble.
Escher String Quartet: Adam Barnett-Hart
and Brendan Speltz, violin;
Pierre Lapointe, viola; Brook Speltz, cello
With Daniel Panner, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello
https://themahaiwe.secure.force.com/ticket/#/instances/a0F3w00000td7GlEAI

Virtual Tickets Here. Link will be sent one week after concert.

Gala Concert: Schubert “Trout” and Schumann Piano Quintet
2023-06-11 16:00 - 18:00 | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230, United States
** Concert Tickets Still Available! Gala Dinner is Sold Out. **
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! The program also features Schumann’s miraculous Piano Quintet in E-flat Major—the first work ever conceived and written for this combination of instruments. An all-star ensemble that joins artistic director Yehuda Hanani includes returning Van Cliburn Gold Medalist Yekwon Sunwoo (“superbly assured pianism”—BBC Music) and violinist Giora Schmidt (“Impossible to resist, captivating with lyricism, tonal warmth, and boundless enthusiasm”— Cleveland Plain Dealer).So ends Season 31 of Close Encounters— bookended by the most sublime output of Franz Schubert.
Yekwon Sunwoo, piano;
Giora Schmidt and Helena Baillie, violin;
TBA, viola;
Yehuda Hanani, cello;
Jeremy McCoy, double bass
Mahaiwe Tickets: $28 – $52.
Buy Tickets

Virtual Ticket: Link to concert will be sent one week after concert.

Piano Master Class with Gila Goldstein
2023-07-21 14:00 - 15:30 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States
This Berkshire High Peaks Festival Piano Master Class on Friday, July 21 at 2:00pm is presented by Gila Goldstein of Longy School of Music at Brown University. Read her full biography here.
Berkshire High Peaks Festival master classes, talks, and Moonlight Sonatas concerts are free and open to the public and take place at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts (unless otherwise noted).

At the core of the festival are 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 prominent composers, renowned pedagogues, and notable figures in the music world as they prepare for professional lives.
This year’s theme is “Pathways.” At a time when the music business is fraught with uncertainties and career paths aren’t as prescribed and predictable as previously, faculty will give a series of talks about how they found their individual places in the music world. All concerts, master classes, and talks will be open and free to the public. Central to the festival’s mission are performance opportunities for young artists on the cusp of their careers.
The Berkshire High Peaks Festival is a performing and teaching summer institute that brings together renowned musicians, pedagogues, and exceptionally gifted international students, normally held in the cultural hub of the southern Berkshires. The intimate scale and highest level of talent make possible an invigorating ten days of discovery, exploration, bonding, and growth. The festival has an all-inclusive atmosphere, fostering camaraderie and cross-cultural exchange and understanding. The faculty is similarly international.

Panel Discussion: "Pathways to a Future in Music"
2023-07-21 16:00 - 17:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States
This Berkshire High Peaks Festival Panel Discussion on Friday, July 21 at 4:00pm features Juilliard Chief Operating Officer Lesley Rosenthal and High Peaks Faculty.
Berkshire High Peaks Festival master classes, talks, and Moonlight Sonatas concerts are free and open to the public and take place at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts (unless otherwise noted).
At the core of the festival are 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 prominent composers, renowned pedagogues, and notable figures in the music world as they prepare for professional lives.
This year’s theme is “Pathways.” At a time when the music business is fraught with uncertainties and career paths aren’t as prescribed and predictable as previously, faculty will give a series of talks about how they found their individual places in the music world. All concerts, master classes, and talks will be open and free to the public. Central to the festival’s mission are performance opportunities for young artists on the cusp of their careers.
The Berkshire High Peaks Festival is a performing and teaching summer institute that brings together renowned musicians, pedagogues, and exceptionally gifted international students, normally held in the cultural hub of the southern Berkshires. The intimate scale and highest level of talent make possible an invigorating ten days of discovery, exploration, bonding, and growth. The festival has an all-inclusive atmosphere, fostering camaraderie and cross-cultural exchange and understanding. The faculty is similarly international.

Violin Master Class with Ara Gregorian
2023-07-22 11:00 - 12:30 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States
This Berkshire High Peaks Festival Violin Master Class on Saturday, July 22 at 11:00am is presented by Ara Gregorian of East Carolina University School of Music. Read full biography here.

Berkshire High Peaks Festival master classes, talks, and Moonlight Sonatas concerts are free and open to the public and take place at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts (unless otherwise noted).
At the core of the festival are 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 prominent composers, renowned pedagogues, and notable figures in the music world as they prepare for professional lives.
This year’s theme is “Pathways.” At a time when the music business is fraught with uncertainties and career paths aren’t as prescribed and predictable as previously, faculty will give a series of presentations about how they found their individual places in the music world. All concerts, master classes, and talks will be open and free to the public. Central to the festival’s mission are performance opportunities for young artists on the cusp of their careers.
The intimate scale and highest level of talent make possible an invigorating ten days of discovery, exploration, bonding, and growth. The festival has an all-inclusive atmosphere, fostering camaraderie and cross-cultural exchange and understanding. The faculty is similarly international.

Voice Master Class
2023-07-22 14:00 - 15:00 | Berkshire School, 245 N Undermountain Rd, Sheffield, MA, 01201, United States
This Berkshire High Peaks Festival Master Class for vocalists on Saturday, July 22 at 2:00pm is presented by Danielle Talamantes, soprano, Metropolitan Opera, and Kerry Wilkerson, Baritone, George Mason University. Read full biography here.

Berkshire High Peaks Festival master classes, talks, and Moonlight Sonatas concerts are free and open to the public and take place at Berkshire School in Sheffield, Massachusetts (unless otherwise noted).
At the core of the festival are 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 prominent composers, renowned pedagogues, and notable figures in the music world as they prepare for professional lives.
This year’s theme is “Pathways.” At a time when the music business is fraught with uncertainties and career paths aren’t as prescribed and predictable as previously, faculty will give a series of presentations about how they found their individual places in the music world. All concerts, master classes, and talks will be open and free to the public. Central to the festival’s mission are performance opportunities for young artists on the cusp of their careers.
The intimate scale and highest level of talent make possible an invigorating ten days of discovery, exploration, bonding, and growth. The festival has an all-inclusive atmosphere, fostering camaraderie and cross-cultural exchange and understanding. The faculty is similarly international.
