Tag Archive for: Chamber Music

PRESS RELEASE: Close Encounters With Music Announces Its 33rd Season

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. 

Upcoming Concerts
Season Subscriptions

“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. 

Vivace Chamber Orchestra: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Boccherini, Barber

Sunday, December 15th 2024, 4PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

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

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 – 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….”

—Yehuda Hanani, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

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. @closeencounterswithmusic on Instagram and Facebook.

Berkshire High Peaks Festival Open to Public

Performances, Talks, Master Classes and Gifted Musicians on the Cusp of Careers: Events Are FREE and Open to the Public, July 20 – 31

Berkshire High Peaks Festival offers its 15th annual season in a new Berkshire location: the bucolic campus of Bard College at Simon’s Rock in the heart of Great Barrington. At the core of the festival are over 40 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. For audiences and listeners, High Peaks offers wall-to-wall performances as participants—strings, pianists, vocalists and wind players—showcase their talent at the Kellogg Music Center, often alongside their mentors.

Over 650 young musicians have been inspired by the High Peaks program, many on full or partial scholarships.

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 them with 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 a faculty concert on Thursday July 25, and a farewell concert on July 30.

“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 and Ida Bieler, renowned pedagogue and first woman concertmaster of a European orchestra; Metropolitan Opera soprano Danielle Talamantes and opera director and conductor Jay Lesenger, who directed John Corigliano’s Ghosts of Versailles at Glimmerglass Opera in Cooperstown; pianists Alexander Shtarkman, a Van Cliburn Competition winner and Gila Goldstein, director of piano studies at Brown; violist Anthony Devroye of the Avalon String Quartet, Diego Fainguersch, first cellist of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic, and Yehuda Hanani, formerly Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory, faculty member at the Peabody Institute, and currently on the faculty of Mannes College in New York City.

“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 Chesterwood in Stockbridge and in Tannersville. 

The following are open to the public:

Sunday, July 21

1:30 PM – Master Class Gila Goldstein (Longy School of Music), piano

Monday, July 22

1:30 PM – Opera Talk – Jay Lesenger (Opera Director / Conductor)

3:30 PM – Master Class Ida Bieler (NYU, North Carolina School of the Arts), violin

7:30 PM – Moonlight Sonatas (High Peaks Residents Perform)

Tuesday, July 23

1:30 PM – Talk (“All About Rhythm”)– Arti Dixson (Ahmad Jamal ensemble percussionist, author, clinician)

3:30 PM – Master Class – Danielle Talamantes (Metropolitan Opera) and Kerry Wilkerson (George Mason Univ.), vocalists

7:30 PM – Moonlight Sonatas (High Peaks Residents Perform)

Wednesday, July 24

1:30 PM – Master Class – Diego Fainguersch (Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Institute of Art at the Teatro Colon), cello

Thursday, July 25

10:30 AM – Master Class Yehuda Hanani (Mannes College), cello

7:30 PM – Moonlight Sonatas (High Peaks Faculty Concert)

Friday, July 26

10:30 AM – Master Class Alexander Shtarkman (Peabody Conservatory), piano

4:00 PM – Music from High Peaks in Tannersville, NY

Saturday, July 27

10:30 AM – Master Class Peter Zazofsky (Boston Univ.), violin

7:00 PM – Salon – Performance and reception at private home

Sunday, July 28

2:30 PM – Music from High Peaks – Chesterwood, Stockbridge, MA ($20/$15 for members)

7:30 PM – Moonlight Sonatas (High Peaks Residents Perform)

Monday, July 29

10:30 AM — Master Class Anthony Devroye (Avalon Quartet), viola

1:30 PM – Talk – “Meet the Composer” – Seth Grosshandler and Tamar Muskal

Tuesday, July 30

7:30 PM — Moonlight Sonatas — Farewell Concert (High Peaks Residents Perform)

Learn more about Berkshire High Peaks Festival. We have a $20,000 Matching Gift Challenge to support he next generation of world class musicians. Donations accepted until July 2.

MORE ABOUT THE HIGH PEAKS FESTIVAL

The Berkshire High Peaks Festival is a performing and teaching summer institute bringing 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.  In past summers, in addition to the classical canon, the music has focused on traditions ranging from Latin American tango to Japanese ceremonial drums to the heritage of Jazz and improvisation in addition to the classical canon. Central to the festival’s mission are performance opportunities for young artists on the cusp of their careers.  Faculty and guest performers have included the most respected classical musicians and teachers of our time: guitarist Eliot Fisk; violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi, Elmar Oliveira, Peter Zazofsky, and Stefan Milenkovich; violists Pierre-Henri Xuereb and Michael Strauss; pianists James Tocco, Michael Chertock, and Vassily Primakov and cellists Thomas Landschoot, Sae Rom Kwon and Jeffrey Zeigler. Berkshire High Peaks concerts have taken place at the New York State Museum in Albany, NY; the Norman Rockwell Museum and Chesterwood in Stockbridge,MA; Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, NY; Basilica Hudson; Orpheum Theater in Tannersville, NY; in the orchard at Olana, at Claremont Historical Site and at the Carey Center for Global Good in Rensselaerville, NY.

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 650 young musicians have been inspired by the High Peaks program, many on full or partial scholarships.

Berkshire High Peaks Festival Artistic Director YEHUDA HANANI has received acclaim across the globe for his charismatic playing and profound interpretations.  An extraordinary recitalist, he is equally renowned for performances with orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Berlin Radio Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Irish National Symphony, Belgrade Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Seoul Symphony, and BBC Welsh Symphony. His engaging chamber music with commentary series, Close Encounters With Music, has captivated audiences from Miami to Kansas City, Omaha, Calgary, Scottsdale, the Berkshires, and at the Frick Collection in New York City. He has been the subject of hundreds of articles and interviews in the media, and his weekly program on NPR affiliate station WAMC Northeast Radio, “Classical Music According to Yehuda” attracted thousands of fans. A prolific recording artist, he served on the faculties of the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory, as Professor of Cello at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and is now the faculty of Mannes School in New York City.

Great Piano Quintets—Dvořák and Brahms, Sunday, June 9, 4pm

Close Encounters With Music Presents Its Gala Concert “Great Piano Quintets” Sunday, June 9, 4 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington

Two Masterpieces of the Chamber Music Repertoire End the CEWM Season on Mount Olympus with Brahms and Dvořák

Dvořák’s sublime Piano Quintet in A Major occupies a lofty place in the chamber music canon, at the same elevation as Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34.  Simply put, both works are majestic, symphonic in scope, and invite the listener into a lost world of powerful beauty, profundity, and nobility of sentiments, peppered with folk tunes and polkas.

Dvořák admired Brahms, Brahms encouraged and mentored Dvořák. The combination of string quartet and piano lends the quintet a sonic grandeur as it joins two self-sufficient forces in an ideal partnership. On full display is Brahms’s fiery passion, his interest in Hungarian folk music and the turbulent mix of emotions that run through the quintet—from mysterious to stormy to heartbreakingly expressive.

“As for the Dvorak, a music writer once quipped that if there is someone who doesn’t like Dvorak’s Op. 81 piano quintet, I’m not sure I want to meet them,” says Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani. “These are two of the most glorious epic works in the entire chamber music repertoire—joyful, probing, densely rich, and good for the soul.”  Dvorak’s gift for melody and rhythmic genius are what combine to make him such a favorite with connoisseurs and casual listeners alike.

An all-star ensemble that shares the stage with Hanani includes Max Levinson (“a brilliant American pianist…who touches the listener deeply and often—Los Angeles Times) and violist Jordan Bak (“a bright commanding presence…a rising star”—Boston Musical Intelligencer) making his CEWM debut. Known for his thrilling performances and musical creativity, violinist/violist Ara Gregorian made his debut as soloist with the Boston Pops Orchestra in Symphony Hall. He has since established himself as one of the most sought-after musicians of his generation with performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher, Alice Tully, Kennedy Center and major venues throughout the world.  United with Gregorian in matrimony as well in music, violinist Hye-Jin Kim has forged a formidable path since her First Prize win at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition at the age of nineteen and a subsequent win at the Concert Artists Guild International Competition, performing as soloist with major orchestras including the Philadelphia, New Jersey Symphony, BBC Concert (UK), Seoul Philharmonic (Korea), Pan Asia Symphony (Hong Kong), and Hannover Chamber (Germany).

Read artist bios here.

So concludes Season 32 of Close Encounters—bookended by the most miraculous output of Johannes Brahms and with Dvořák’s folkloric genius, spontaneity, and vitality, in the hands of some of today’s most distinguished performers.  A gala Patron’s dinner follows the performance, available as a Patron Concert/Dinner Package.   

Max Levinson, piano; Ara Gregorian and Hye-Jin Kim, violin; Jordan Bak, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello

TICKET INFORMATION 

Tickets, $52 for Orchestra and Mezzanine and $28 for Balcony seats, can be purchased at www.cewm.org or by calling 413-528-0100. 

Gala Patron Package tickets are available for $175 and include Orchestra seats at the Mahaiwe and dinner following. Information and sign-up at cewm.org

In addition to offering live in-person concerts, curated online performances are available to accommodate geographically remote listeners and newly expanded virtual followers. Tickets are $28 for individual programs, delivered to your email address!

“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”  – The Berkshire Edge

“Café Vienna—Nervous Splendor,” Sunday, May 19, 4 PM

Cabaret, Operetta, and Quintessential Viennese Charm—Composers from Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven to Lehar, Johan Strauss Jr., Fritz Kreisler, Korngold, Mahler and Schonberg Capture the Many Faces of the Imperial City.

Close Encounters with Music presents “Café Vienna—Nervous Splendor,” Sunday, May 19, 4 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Join us for this intriguing chamber music performance!

Tickets Here

The ”Café Vienna” program takes a cross-section of Viennese musical modes—from operetta to waltz, Beethoven’s Piano Trio which spins on a popular song by Weigl, to Schubert’s sublime testament to his beloved métier, “An die Musik.”  And of course, the quintessential café music of Fritz Kreisler, “Caprice Viennois.”  In charm, verve, and artistic sophistication, Vienna’s past is unsurpassed. 

The imperial “City of Song” has played an essential role as a leading European cultural center, hosting major personalities in the development of music, as well as literature, painting, psychiatry and intellectual thought, from the 16th to 20th centuries. As in the architecture, musical styles that sprang up are a mix of Baroque, Classical, Art Nouveau, Modernist and sleek contemporary. During the 19th century, the café became a meeting place for the creative set in town.  Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, Johan Strauss Jr., Mahler, Korngold, all of whom are represented on the program, could be found in their favorite coffee houses, penning compositions while greeting the likes of Gustav Klimt, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Rilke, Freud, Kafka, Werfel, or Wittgenstein.

“The city was the crowning glory of the Hapsburg empire. The paradox of its reaching unparalleled heights in the flowering of the arts, literature, sciences as it was gradually crumbling – declining politically and economically – makes it a fascinating historical case study.  From the founder of the classical dynasty, Haydn, all the way to the rebellion of Arnold Schonberg, and everything in between – cabaret, operetta, Beethoven trio—the program is as eclectic as Vienna itself was” says artistic director Yehuda Hanani.  

Under the artistic influence of mezzo-soprano Emily Marvosh, pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, and violinist Xiao-Dong Wang, who join cellist and artistic director Yehuda Hanani, Vienna’s magic will cast its spell.  

All performers are frequent guests of Close Encounters With Music. Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute’s ability to communicate the essential substance of a work has led critics to describe her as possessing “razor-sharp intelligence and wit” and “subtle, complex, almost impossibly detailed and riveting in every way” (The Washington Post) and as “an artist of commanding technique, refined temperament and persuasive insight” (The New York Times).  American contralto Emily Marvosh has been gaining recognition for her “plum-wine voice,” and “graceful allure,” on the stages of Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Disney Hall, Lincoln Center, Prague’s Smetana Hall and Vienna’s Stefansdom. Following her solo debut at Boston’s Symphony Hall in 2011, she has been a frequent soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society. Recent solo appearances include the American Bach Soloists, Washington National Cathedral, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. Xiao-Dong Wang, who has been called the most talented violinist to emerge from China, has performed as soloist with orchestras around the world, including the London Royal Philharmonic, the London Mozart Players, Adelaide, Perth, Queensland symphony orchestras and Sydney Opera Orchestra.

As of this season, CEWM has fully resumed its hors d’oeuvres and wine receptions.  Audience members are invited to meet the artists and enjoy beverages and bites by Authentic Eats by Oleg on stage at the Afterglow receptions. Join us!

TICKET INFORMATION 

Tickets, $52 for Orchestra and Mezzanine and $25 for Balcony seats, can be purchased at www.cewm.org or by calling 413-528-0100.  In addition to offering live in-person concerts, curated online performances are available to accommodate geographically remote listeners and newly expanded virtual followers. Tickets are $28 for individual programs, delivered to your email address!

“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”  – The Berkshire Edge

Tickets Here

Something Borrowed, Something Blue — Cross-Cultural Synergy on April 14

Close Encounters with Music presents “Something Borrowed, Something Blue — Cross-Cultural Synergy” on Sunday, April 14 at 4pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, Great Barrington, Massachusetts. Chertock and Zorman join internationally renowned cellist and artistic director Yehuda Hanani for an adventurous musical voyage. Join us for this intriguing chamber music performance!

Debussy and Ravel in Spanish attire; Haydn’s “Gypsy” Trio, Beethoven Turkish Marches, Synagogue Prayer in Gregorian Mode, Tango, and Other Exotica Enliven and Extend the Composers’ Palettes and Listeners’ Pleasures.  And Celebrating 100th Anniversary of Gershwin’s 1924 Rhapsody in Blue!

Tickets Here

Press Release

Close Encounters With Music’s Winter / Spring 2024 concerts continue on Sunday, April 14 with an afternoon of jazz, tango, liturgy, waltz, Habanera and Gershwin’s wildly popular Rhapsody in Blue, known for its integration of jazz and classical music – and written on the train between New York and Boston!  Composers include Haydn (Gypsy tunes), Max Bruch (German composer retrofits synagogue “Kol Nidrei” prayer), Ravel and Debussy (Spanish and North African heritage), César Cui (Russian composer writes “Orientale”), and Astor Piazzolla (tango goes to Paris!).     

Michael Chertock, piano; Itamar Zorman, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello.

Pianist Michael Chertock has been a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, the symphony orchestras of Toronto, Baltimore, Detroit, Utah and Oregon, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Cincinnati Pops.  Since his emergence winning top prize at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, violinist Itamar Zorman has wowed audiences all over the world with his breathtaking style, causing one critic to declare him a “young badass who’s not afraid of anything.”  Also winner of the 2013 Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Israel Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, German Radio Philharmonic, and RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Dublin), working with Zubin Mehta, Michael Tilson-Thomas, David Robertson, Valery Gergiev, Karina Canellakis and Yuri Bashmet.  Chertock and Zorman join internationally renowned cellist and Artistic Director Yehuda Hanani in “Something Borrowed, Something Blue—Cross-Cultural Synergy” for an adventurous musical voyage.

Read artist bios here.

CEWM has resumed its hors d’oeuvres and wine Afterglow receptions on stage following the concerts. Audience members are invited to meet the artists and enjoy beverages and bites by Authentic Eats by Oleg. Join us!

TICKET INFORMATION 

Tickets, $52 (Orchestra and Mezzanine) and $28 (Balcony), can be purchased at www. cewm.org or by calling 413-528-0100. We also offer a virtual option—tickets are $28 for individual programs, delivered to your email address!

Tickets Here
Makaris Celtic Band 12 musicians holding lyres, flutes, cellos standing against a stone wall

Celtic Baroque Band Makaris on St. Patrick’s Day

Close Encounters With Music presents the Celtic Baroque Band Makaris in “A Bach Family Concert with an Irish Twist” on Saint Patrick’s Day, Sunday, March 17, 4pm at Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Tickets Here

Violin, Guitar, Harp and Harpsichord Meet Bagpipes and Irish Whistle in a Cross-Genre Saint Patrick’s Day Celebration

In his dance suites, J.S. Bach ventures into Spanish sarabandes, French bourrées, and British gigues. He and family members delighted in arranging Celtic and Scottish folk music. They will be joined by Beethoven and Haydn who also forayed into Irish folk music with their own arrangements. Makaris formed in 2018 to explore the broad musical heritage of Scotland and the following year released its disc Wisps in the Dell, to critical international acclaim.

“Absolutely wonderful…one of the very best releases of 2019 – MusicWeb International).  A makar (pl. makaris) was a royal court troubadour of medieval Scotland and the program provides a lush sampling from the ensemble’s collection. “You can’t help but feel like you’ve suddenly traveled back in time and are enjoying a tankard of old Scottish ale inside a seedy establishment.”

– Classical Music Sentinel

Scottish music proved creatively productive and financially lucrative for several composers during the 18th century. Haydn and Beethoven alone arranged hundreds of these traditional songs for home performance. The songs included dance calls, serenades, expressions of unrequited love, laments for lost loved ones, and all manner of joyous and gruesome subjects. Well-known names from orchestral music and opera clothed the folksy melodies and down-to-earth lyrics in sophisticated arrangements and their own styles. The ensemble Makaris’s debut CD, Wisps in the Dell, shows why this repertoire proved so popular with audiences and artists.

About Makaris

Members of New York-based 10-member Makaris include Fiona Gillespie, a classically-trained singer, songwriter and composer who holds degrees in voice performance from Westminster Choir College and the University of North Texas; and Eliott Figg, keyboardist, conductor and composer, a graduate of the Historical Performance Program at Juilliard who recently appeared with New Vintage Baroque and as conductor and harpsichordist with Little Opera Theatre of New York, with Spoleto Festival USA and L.A. Opera.  The leader of the ensemble, cellist, viola da gamba and lirone player Kivie Cahn Lipman performs and records with Le Strange Viols.  He formed ACRONYM Baroque Band, who have been guests of CEWM several times, because he discovered 17th-century music in old manuscripts which have to date translated into eight CDs of modern premieres recorded and more on the way! Cahn-Lipman is a graduate of Oberlin, Juilliard, and the University of Cincinnati where he received his doctorate studying under CEWM artistic director Yehuda Hanani.

Afterglow Reception Post Concert

As of this season, CEWM has fully resumed its hors d’oeuvres and wine receptions.  Audience members are invited to meet the artists and enjoy beverages and bites by Authentic Eats by Oleg on stage at the Afterglow receptions. The concert fortuitously coincides with St. Patrick’s Day. Join us for a toast!

Ticket Information

Tickets are $52 for Orchestra and Mezzanine and $25 for Balcony seats, can be purchased at www.cewm.org or by calling 800-843-0778. Pro-rated Season subscriptions for the remainder of 2024 ($185 Regular, $160 Senior), are available until February 11 at cewm.org. We also offer a virtual option—tickets are $28 for individual programs, delivered to your email address one week post performance.

“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.”

— The Berkshire Edge

“The Art of the String Quartet—The Avalon” Concert

Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Puccini, Court Intrigue, Ancient Persia, and Early Feminism in Stacy Garrop’s Berkshire Premiere on Sunday, February 11, 4 PM at Saint James Place, Great Barrington

Close Encounters With Music’s 2024 Winter / Spring chamber music concerts open on February 11th with the return of the estimable Avalon String Quartet, bringing to the stage the Berkshire premiere of “For Such a Time as This.” The work is a retelling of the biblical Book of Esther for string quartet and vocalist, from a feminist perspective. Composer Stacy Garrop’s (recent commissions from the Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Louisiana symphony orchestras) intent is to remind us “we each possess agency to make changes happen in our lives, to act upon injustices, and leave the world a better place.” Mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley takes on the role of narrator, alternatively playing Queen Vashti, King Ahasuerus (identified as the historical Xerxes), Queen Esther and her guardian Mordecai from the 5th century BCE scroll, as well as the villain Haman who seeks to annihilate the entire Jewish population of Persia – modern day Iran. Bentley has been featured soloist with orchestras led by Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw and Pierre Boulez. Tickets Here.

In choosing the biblical tale, Garrop says, “I find several striking points. First, women had little or no agency over their lives. Biblical times were a man’s world. Vashti’s banishment at the beginning of the Book sets this tone immediately. The question whether Esther possesses the agency to act is addressed head on.” Court intrigue, a beauty pageant, and an averted genocide are elements of the gripping story, set to dramatic music.

Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 pulsates with young love before landing in fairyland with a shimmering scherzo right out of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Puccini’s verismo-style “Chrysanthemums,” a seldom-performed gem, begins the concert.

Close Encounters has featured leading string quartets of today each season— the Dover, Ariel, Borromeo, Escher, Muir among others—and the Avalon is an audience favorite (“The Avalon—drop-dead gorgeous playing” – Classics Today) returning for their fourth visit.

Julia Bentley, narrator/mezzo-soprano, Avalon String Quartet: Blaise Magniere, violin; Marie Wang, violin; Anthony Devroye, viola; Cheng-Hou Lee, cello

The Art of the String Quartet—The Avalon

Sunday, February 11, 4 PM at Saint James Place, Great Barrington

CEWM has resumed its hors d’oeuvres and wine receptions. There is an Afterglow Reception in Saint James Place’s Great Hall following the concert in the Sanctuary Space. Audience members are invited to meet the artists and enjoy beverages and bites by Authentic Eats by Oleg. Join us!

In addition to offering live in-person concerts, curated online performances will be available to accommodate geographically remote listeners and newly expanded virtual followers.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, $52, can be purchased at www.cewm.org or by calling 800-843-0778. Prorated Season subscriptions for the remainder of 2024 ($185 Regular, $160 Senior) are available at cewm.org. We also offer a virtual option—tickets are $28 for individual programs or $100 for the complete season, delivered to your email address!

“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime.” – The Berkshire Edge

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Avalon String Quartet

Described by the Chicago Tribune as “an ensemble that invites you — ears, mind, and spirit — into its music,” the Avalon String Quartet has established itself as one of the country’s leading chamber music ensembles. The Avalon has performed in major venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the 92nd St Y, Merkin Hall, and Bargemusic in New York; the Library of Congress and National Gallery of Art in Washington DC; Wigmore Hall in London; and Herculessaal in Munich. Other performances include appearances at the Bath International Music Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Caramoor, La Jolla Chamber Music Society, NPR’s St. Paul Sunday, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Dame Myra Hess Concerts, Los Angeles Music Guild, and Ravinia. The quartet performs an annual concert series in historic Fullerton Hall at the Art Institute of Chicago, where it has presented the complete quartet cycles of Beethoven, Bartok, and Brahms in recent seasons. The Avalon is quartet-in-residence at the Northern Illinois University School of Music, a position formerly held by the Vermeer Quartet. Additional teaching activities have included the Interlochen Advanced Quartet Program, Madeline Island Music and the Britten-Pears School in England, as well as masterclasses at universities and conservatories throughout the United States. Additionally, they have given numerous performances and presentations to young audiences in under-resourced schools and communities. The Avalon captured the top prize at the ARD Competition in Munich (2000) and First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City (1999). In its early years, the ensemble trained intensively with the

Julia Bentley, narrator/mezzo-soprano. Following apprenticeships with Santa Fe Opera and Chicago Lyric Opera, mezzo-soprano Julia Bentley appeared in leading operatic roles including Carmen, Rosina, Dorabella, Despina, and both Rossini and Massenet Cinderellas, from Anchorage to New York. Recognized by the New York Times for her “rich sound, deep expressivity and uncanny sense of pitch,” she has been featured as soloist with orchestras led by George Manahan, Raymond Leppard, Oliver Knussen, Robert Shaw and Pierre Boulez. Ms. Bentley performs frequently with Chicago’s many fine ensembles, including the Ear Taxi Festival, Contempo, eighth blackbird, the Spektral Quartet, Fulcrum Point, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Chicago Opera Theater, the Newberry Consort, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Lyric Opera and the MusicNOW series at Symphony Center with conductor Cliff Colnot. She has appeared to critical acclaim at Alice Tully Hall and Weill Hall with Pierre Boulez as the soloist in Le Marteau Sans Maître, and recorded on the Albany, Cedille and Tintagel labels. Recent engagements have included performances of La Damnation de Faust with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra, Pierrot Lunaire with eighth blackbird, La Cenerentola with Sacramento Opera, Berg’s Lyric Suite with the Emerson String Quartet, and the Bach B Minor Mass with the Apollo Chorus as well as chamber music series in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. She is honored to have a 20-year affiliation with The New Budapest Orpheum Society and is featured in their Grammy-nominated CD As Dreams Fall Apart on Cedille Records. She served as an Associate Professor of Voice and Graduate Art Song Literature at the Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana.

Composer Stacy Garrop

Stacy Garrop’s music is centered on dramatic and lyrical storytelling. Dr. Garrop is a full-time freelance composer living in the Chicago area. Her catalog covers a wide range, with works for orchestra, opera, oratorio, wind ensemble, choir, art song, various sized chamber ensembles, and works for solo instruments. Recent commissions include Forging Steel for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Goddess Triptych for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Spectacle of Light for the Music of the Baroque Orchestra, Berko’s Journey for the Omaha Symphony, Song of Orpheus for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, The Battle for the Ballot for the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, In a House Besieged for The Crossing on texts by Lydia Davis, and Alpenglow, a double concerto for saxophone, tuba, and wind ensemble commissioned by a consortium of 18 organizations. Notable past commissions include My Dearest Ruth for soprano and piano with text by Martin Ginsburg, the husband of the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; Glorious Mahalia for the Kronos Quartet; Give Me Hunger for Chanticleer; Slipstream for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra Musicians Chamber Music Series; and Terra Nostra (oratorio), commissioned by the San Francisco Choral Society. Dr. Garrop’s current commissions include upcoming projects with the U.S. Navy Band, Fauré Centennial Festival, and Chicago Opera Theater for a new opera with librettist Jerre Dye. Garrop has received numerous awards and grants including an Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Fromm Music Foundation Grant. Recent performances of her orchestral works were given by the Baltimore, Chicago, Fort Collins, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Reading, Richmond, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, of her wind ensemble works by the U.S. Marine Band and U.S. Navy Band; and of her chamber works by the Avalon String Quartet, Boston Trio, Capitol Saxophone Quartet, Ensemble Échappé, and the Lincoln Trio. Theodore Presser Company and ECS Publishing carry her works.

CEWM Presents “Nocturne – Night and Dreams” on Sunday, December 5, 4 PM at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” and Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata Take Center Stage

On Sunday, December 3 at 4 PM, Close Encounters With Music, the Berkshires’ premiere chamber music organization, presents Nocturne – Night and Dreams, a multi-faceted program that explores nuances and contradictions of the night. Release from the brightness of daylight, from consciousness into sleep and dreaminess, the night’s seductive, mysterious potion-like allure has fascinated artists throughout the ages. Lullabies celebrate repose, the restful charm; serenades celebrate love. Other works mark the fear of darkness, the unseen and what may lurk beneath the veil of the night.

Composers from Mozart and Schubert to Borodin and Bernstein have been transfixed, lulled, soothed, and aroused. Beethoven evokes the enchantment of the moon in his iconic “Moonlight” Sonata; Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is a perennial favorite and will be performed in its original scoring. Leider by Schumann, Debussy, Fauré, arias from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet, and selections from favorite musicals (West Side Story and Man of La Mancha) demonstrate the universality of the theme. To paraphrase Walt Whitman, only the darkness of the night reveals all the stars—in the Heavens and on stage!

Italian pianist Fabio Bidini has appeared as soloist with orchestras worldwide—the London National Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, San Francisco, Dallas and Philharmonia Orchestra Prague among many others. Baritone John Viscardi, who takes on the vocal repertoire in the program, also serves as executive director of Berkshire Lyric Arts, a vocal summer program. Mr. Viscardi’s performances with orchestra and recital include Carmina Burana with Opera Philadelphia and appearances with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center and Carnegie Hall.  Also joining artistic director and cellist Hanani will be violinists Kobe Malkin and Grace Park, violist Luke Fleming, and double bassist Lizzie Burns.

All audience members are invited to an “Afterglow” reception with canapés from Authentic Eats by Oleg 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 newly expanded virtual followers.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, $52 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $28 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100. Subscriptions are $250 ($225 for seniors) for the series of 7 concerts (a 35% savings!). Season subscriptions are available at [email protected]. We also offer a virtual option. Tickets are $28 or $100 for the complete season.

“CEWM patrons have learned that sooner or later they’ll be blindsided by a performance so sublime it will defy explanation.” — The Berkshire Edge

 “The Berkshires are home to distinguished cultural events, but none so brilliant, perhaps, as the chamber music series Close Encounters With Music.” —Berkshire Record 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Fabio Bidini, piano

Italian pianist Fabio Bidini is one of this generation’s top-flight pianists. His appearances have included performances with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican, the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, the San Francisco Symphony, New World Symphony, Dallas Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra Prague at the Rudolphinum, and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra at Liszt Academy Hall. He has collaborated with conductors including Michael Tilson Thomas, Max Valdes, Dimitry Sitkovetsky, Ivan Fisher, Jesús López Cobos, JoAnn Falletta, Zoltan Kocsis, Michael Christie, and Gianandrea Noseda. Bidini’s schedule last season included orchestral appearances with the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he has performed close to a dozen times, and with the Fresno Philharmonic.  In great demand as a chamber music partner, he is the pianist of the highly acclaimed Los Angeles Piano Trio and has enjoyed artistic collaboration with many ensembles and artists including Trio Solisti, the Modigliani Quartet, American String Quartet, Janacek Quartet, Brodsky Quartet, Szymanowski Quartet, Zoltan Kocsis, and Dimitri Ashkenazy. In 2015 the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles founded the Carol Colburn Grigor Piano Chair for him, and he currently serves on the faculty.

John Viscardi, tenor

John Viscardi has moved audiences around the world with his vocal beauty and dramatic intensity, having performed with Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia, New York City Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Des Moines Metro Opera, and Opera Carolina. Viscardi is a winner of both the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and the Concorso Internazionale F.P. Tosti. Last season’s engagements included his role début as Cavardossi in Opera Carolina’s Tosca, a production of Pelléas at Mélisande with Los Angeles Opera, Hardin’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall, and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus with Opera San Luis Obispo. This season, Mr. Viscardi will join Opera Louisiane to sing Conrad in Hell’s Bells and Intermountain Opera Bozeman in Montana to sing Rodolfo in La Bohème. Mr. Viscardi attended the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.

Kobi Malkin, violin

Israeli violinist Kobi Malkin, is making his mark as both as an exciting soloist and a perceptive chamber musician. He was praised by the New York Times for his “aptly traversed palette of emotions, from languid introspection to fevered intensity with gorgeous tone and an edge-of-seat intensity.”  As a soloist, Malkin has appeared with the Ashdod Chamber Orchestra, the Haifa Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Jerusalem Music Academy Symphony Orchestra Haifa, New England Conservatory’s Philharmonia, Symphonette Ra’anana, the Ruse Philharmonic Orchestra, the Young Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, and Orquesta de Camara de Bellas Artes, the Saint Louis Symphony and the Chicago Philharmonic under the batons of such conductors as Ze’ev Dorman, Stanley Sperber and Hugh Wolff. Malkin’s musicianship has been recognized by many awards, including the prestigious Ilona Kornhauser prize in the America-Israel Cultural Foundation’s Aviv Competitions, New England Conservatory’s Violin Competition, Haifa Symphony Orchestra’s Zvi Rotenberg Competition, the Canetti International Violin Competition, as well as scholarships from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and has performed at an array of venues such as New York’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Vienna Konzerthaus, Ruse’s Philharmonic Hall, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. He holds a Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Sylvia Rosenberg and Donald Weilerstein, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory, where he worked under the guidance of Miriam Fried. 

Luke Fleming, violin

Praised by The Philadelphia Inquirer for his “glowing refinement,” violist Luke Fleming‘s performances have been described by The Strad as “confident and xpressive…playing with uncanny precision,” and lauded by Gramophone for their “superlative technical and artistic execution.”   Festival appearances include the Marlboro Music School and Festival, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, Perlman Music Program, the Norfolk and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festivals, the Melbourne Festival, Bravo!Vail, and Festival Mozaic. Formerly the violist of the internationally acclaimed Attacca Quartet, he has served as Artist-in-Residence for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and received the National Federation of Music Clubs Centennial Chamber Music Award.  He was awarded First Prize at the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. In 2015, Mr. Fleming became the Founding Artistic Director of both the Manhattan Chamber Players, a New York-based chamber music collective, and the Crescent City Chamber Music Festival. He currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Viola at the University of New Orleans School of the Arts. Mr. Fleming holds the degrees of Doctor of Musical Arts, Artist Diploma, and Master of Music from the Juilliard School, a Postgraduate Diploma with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, and a Bachelor of Music summa cum laude from Louisiana State University.  

ABOUT ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, Yehuda Hanani

Named “one of the most polished performers of the post-Starker generation and a consistently expressive artist.” by The New York Times, 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. His recording of the monumental Alkan Cello Sonata received a Grand Prix du Disque nomination, and on CD and in live performances, he has given premières of works of Nikolai Miaskovsky, Lukas Foss, Leo Ornstein, Paul Schoenfield, Thea Musgrave, Joan Tower, Eduard Franck, Osvaldo Golijov, Lera Auerbach, Tamar Muskal, Virgil Thomson, William Perry and Pulitzer Prize winners Bernard Rands and Zhou Long. In New York City, he has appeared as soloist at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, Alice Tully, and the Metropolitan Museum. Among the early designers and proponents of thematic programming, his engaging chamber music with commentary series, Close Encounters With Music, has captivated audiences from Miami to Kansas City, Omaha, Detroit, Calgary, Scottsdale, the Berkshires, and at the Frick Collection in New York City. A three-time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller grant, Mr. Hanani’s studies were with Leonard Rose at Juilliard and with Pablo Casals. 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. Artistic director of Berkshire High Peaks Festival, he presents master classes internationally at conservatories and for orchestras, including the Juilliard School, University of Indiana at Bloomington, New England Conservatory, McGill University, Paris Conservatoire, Berlin Hochschule für Music, Royal Academy of Music and Guildhall School in London, Tokyo National University, Jerusalem Academy of Music, the Central Conservatories in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, and the New World Symphony in Miami. In recognition of his distinguished teaching, he was given
the title of honorary professor of the Tianjin Conservatory, China. His objective is to instill a sense of wonder and adventure in young musicians, to lead them to technical mastery and bridge tradition with innovation. He now is a member of the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York City.

Season Concerts

CEWM’s 32nd Season Sparkles and Vibrates!

Close Encounters With Music’s 32nd Season sparkles and vibrates with brilliant performers and thought-provoking themes in Great Barrington, Mass.

Season performances include Celtic Baroque Band Makaris in a Bach Family Concert with an Irish Twist and the story of Biblical Esther from a feminist perspective in a new work…and so much more!

Makaris Celtic Band 12 musicians holding lyres, flutes, cellos standing against a stone wall

This season offers the widest swath of genres, styles, composers and instruments—and of course, the great performers who share their brilliant artistry, including pianists Adam Golka, Fabio Bidini, Ieva Jokubaviciute, Max Levinson and Michael Chertock; violinists Giora Schmidt, Ara Gregorian, Hye-Jin Kim, Xiao-Dong Wang, Itamar Zorman;  vocalists John Viscardi, Julia Bentley and Emily Marvosh; the Avalon String Quartet, and Celtic Band Makaris. 

The Avalon String Quartet
Avalon String Quartet: © Todd Rosenberg Photography 2012

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 what constitutes “virtuosity” in art; the historic allure of Vienna as a nexus of music and art and destination for composers, painters and groundbreaking thinkers; and cross-cultural synergy and its enriching effects. Featured works include Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachmusik,” Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, and the incomparably beautiful Dvorak and Brahms Piano Quintets. 

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 newly expanded virtual followers.

TICKET INFORMATION

Tickets, $52 (Orchestra and Mezzanine), $28 (Balcony) and $15 for students, are available through the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center or by calling 413-528-0100. Subscriptions are $250 ($225 for seniors) for the series of 7 concerts (a 35% savings!). Season subscriptions are available at [email protected] and through our website.

“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.)

2023-24 SEASON

Virtue and Virtuosity

Sunday, November 5, 2023 4 PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

The words are intricately related but diverge. Virtuosity: music that glorifies the possibilities of the instrument and the prowess of the performer—that titillates and stuns the audience in the Romantic tradition of Paganini.  It’s the violinist tight-rope walking on the strings, performing impossible feats, stretching the capabilities of the instrument, creating pacts with the Devil. Sarasate and Saint Saëns will dazzle (his gorgeous Rondo Capriccioso, a minefield for the violinist, will be performed on the cello, exponentially more challenging!). And introducing Russian/Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin, whose Preludes offer a “Red and Hot” fusion of jazz and classical forms.  Pyrotechnics and acrobatics? Mastery of content and form? Craft plus magic as the ideal… According to Rodin, the greatest virtuosity is when you don’t notice it. The program touches on some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of art and culminates with the emotionally compelling and ineffably beautiful Brahms Piano Trio Op. 8.

Adam Golka, piano; Giora Schmidt, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello; Philip Thompson, cello

Nocturne—Night and Dreams

Sunday, December 3, 2023 4 PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Nuances of the night are explored in this multi-faceted program. Release from the brightness of daylight, from consciousness into sleep and dreaminess, the night’s seductive, mysterious potion-like allure has fascinated artists throughout the ages. Lullabies celebrate repose, the restful charm; serenades celebrate love.  Other works mark the fear of darkness, the unseen and what may lurk beneath the veil of night.  Composers from Mozart and Schubert to Borodin and Bernstein have been transfixed, lulled, soothed and aroused.  Beethoven evokes the enchantment of the moon in his iconic “Moonlight” Sonata; Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik is a perennial favorite and will be performed in its original scoring. Lieder by Schumann, Debussy, Fauré, arias from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet and selections from favorite musicals (West Side Story and Man of La Mancha) demonstrate the universality of the theme. To paraphrase Walt Whitman, only the darkness of the night reveals all the stars—in the Heavens and on stage!

Fabio Bidini, piano; John Viscardi, baritone; Kobi Malkin and Grace Park, violin; Luke Fleming, viola; Lizzie Burns, double bass; Yehuda Hanani, cello

The Art of the String Quartet—The Avalon

Sunday, February 11, 2024 4 PM

Saint James Place, Great Barrington

 The notable Avalon returns with another Berkshire premiere, “For Such a Time as This,” a retelling of the biblical Esther story for string quartet and vocalist, from a feminist perspective. Composer Stacy Garrop’s (recent commissions from the Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Louisiana symphony orchestras) intent is to remind us “we each possess agency to make changes happen in our lives, to act upon injustices, and leave the world a better place.” Mendelssohn’s Quartet No. 2 pulsates with young love before landing in fairyland with a shimmering scherzo right out of Midsummer Night’s Dream.  Puccini’s verismo-style “Chrysanthemums,” a seldom-performed gem, begins the concert.

Julia Bentley, narrator/mezzo-soprano, Avalon String Quartet: Blaise Magniere, violin; Marie Wang, violin; Anthony Devroye, viola; Cheng-Hou Lee, cello

“The Avalon—drop-dead gorgeous playing” – Classics Today

Celtic Baroque Band Makaris—A Bach Family Concert with an Irish Twist

Sunday, March 17, 2024 4 PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

In his dance suites, J. S. Bach ventures into Spanish sarabandes, French bourrées and British gigues.  He and family members delighted in arranging Celtic and Scottish folk music.  They will be joined by Beethoven and Haydn, who also forayed into Irish folk music with their own arrangements. Makaris formed in 2018 to explore the broad musical heritage of Scotland and the following year released its first disc, Wisps in the Dell, to critical international acclaim (“Absolutely wonderful…one of the very best releases of 2019” – MusicWeb International).  A makar (pl. makaris) was a royal court troubadour of medieval Scotland and the program provides a lush sampling from the ensemble’s collection. “You can’t help but feel like you’ve suddenly traveled back in time and are enjoying a tankard of old Scottish ale inside a seedy establishment.” – Classical Music Sentinel

Fiona Gillespie, soprano; Caitlin Hedge, violin; Ben Matus, Irish whistle, bassoon and bagpipes; Elliot Figg, harpsichord and organ; Kivie Cahn-Lipman, cello; Doug Ballilett, bass; Liv Castor, harp; Paul Morton, theorbo and guitar

Something Borrowed, Something Blue—Cross-Cultural Synergy!

Sunday, April 14, 2024 4 PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

The Romans appropriated the entirety of classical Greek culture, and the Renaissance rediscovered and revitalized it.  Then came Rodin and Greek Revival in American architectural style.  An Egyptomania craze gripped 19th century Europe and found its way into operas (Aida, Samson and Delilah), couture (harem pants as high fashion), architectural idioms, decorative arts, music and dance (arabesques).  Culinary arts, fashion (remember Issey Miyake?), painting, furniture design – we are all enriched, stimulated and invigorated by borrowed influences. An afternoon of Gershwin, Max Bruch (German composer uses synagogue “Kol Nidrei” prayer), Cesar Cui (Russian composer writes “Orientale”), Ravel’s “Habanera,” Haydn Trio (Gypsy movement) and more.  When the main stream gets tired, foreign tributaries recharge it!

Michael Chertock, piano; Itamar Zorman, violin; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Annual Luncheon Musicale Benefit

Sunday, May 5, 2024 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 that 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.

Café Vienna — “Nervous Splendor”

Sunday, May 19, 2024 4 PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

The imperial “City of Song” has played an essential role as a leading European cultural center, hosting major personalities in the development of music, as well as literature, painting, psychiatry and intellectual thought, from the 16th to 20th centuries.  As in the architecture, musical styles that sprang up are a mix of Baroque, Classical, Art Nouveau, Modernist and sleek contemporary.  During the 19th century, the café became a meeting place for the creative set in town.  Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, Johan Strauss Jr., Mahler, Korngold, all of whom are represented on the program, could be found in their favorite coffee houses, penning compositions while greeting the likes of Gustav Klimt, Arthur Schnitzler, Stefan Zweig, Rilke, Freud, Kafka, Werfel, or Wittgenstein.  This program takes a cross-section of Viennese musical modes—from operetta to waltz, Beethoven’s Piano Trio which spins on a popular song by Weigl, to Schubert’s sublime testament to his beloved métier, “An die Musik.”  And of course, the quintessential café music of Fritz Kreisler, “Caprice Viennois.”  In charm, verve, and artistic sophistication, Vienna’s past is unsurpassed.

Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano; Xiao-Dong Wang, violin; Emily Marvosh, mezzo-soprano; Yehuda Hanani, cello

Gala Concert: Great Piano Quintets

Sunday, June 9, 2024 4 PM

Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center

Dvořák’s sublime Piano Quintet in A Major occupies a lofty place in the chamber music canon, at the same elevation as Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34.  Simply put, both works are majestic, symphonic in scope, and invite the listener into a lost world of powerful beauty, profundity, and nobility of sentiments, peppered with folk tunes and polkas.  Dvořák admired Brahms, Brahms encouraged and mentored Dvořák. The combination of string quartet and piano lends the quintet a sonic grandeur as it joins two self-sufficient forces in an ideal partnership.  An all-star ensemble that shares the stage with artistic director Yehuda Hanani includes Max Levinson (“a brilliant American pianist…who touches the listener deeply and often—Los Angeles Times) and violist Jordan Bak (“a bright commanding presence…a rising star”—Boston Musical Intelligencer) making his CEWM debut. So concludes Season 32 of Close Encounters—bookended by the most miraculous output of Johannes Brahms and with Dvořák’s folkloric genius, spontaneity, and vitality.

Max Levinson, piano; Ara Gregorian and Hye-Jin Kim, violin; Jordan Bak, viola; 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).

“…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….”

—Yehuda Hanani, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

HOW TO REACH US

Close Encounters With Music

Post Office Box 34

Great Barrington, MA 01230

Web: cewm.org

e-mail: [email protected]  

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Tag Archive for: Chamber Music

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