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Noe Music opens its season with a dynamic program featuring the brilliant Elizabeth Joy Roe at the helm of our magnificent Steinway Model D. She brings electrifying clarity to Samuel Carl Adams’s Piano Etudes (Bay Area premiere), a set of bold, inventive works that push the piano’s expressive range. Roe then joins Noe Music co-Artistic Director Meena Bhasin for Brahms’s F minor sonata for viola and piano—a deeply romantic, richly textured work that showcases the powerful intimacy of these instruments in the hands of longtime friends. A thrilling start to the season you won’t want to miss.

Our friend James Austin Smith (of Tertulia fame) has assembled an ensemble of the finest woodwind players in America to visit the Bay Area, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to present this gorgeous recital at Noe Music.

Winners of the 2024 Concert Artists Guild Competition and one of the most exciting young ensembles on the national scene, the Poiesis Quartet brings their radiant energy and “extraordinary, honeyed group sound” (Cleveland Classical) to Noe Music in their SF debut. Their program, Regeneration, explores resilience, healing, and cultural memory through a vivid mix of contemporary and 20th century music. From Michi Wiancko’s lush environmental meditation and a bold new commission by Kevin Lau, to Billy Childs’s deeply personal Awakening and Prokofiev’s folk-inspired wartime Quartet in F major, this concert is a powerful journey through sound, emotion, and transformation.

Hailed as “among modern music’s most compelling vocalists” (The Wall Street Journal), ganavya brings her genre-defying sound to Noe Music in celebration of her deeply personal new album, Nilam (out May 25, 2025). Drawing from South Indian classical traditions, jazz, and devotional song, ganavya’s music resists boundaries and invites stillness. Joined by bassist Max Ridley and harpist Charles Overton, she offers an evening of intimate, soulfully expansive music—an honest expression of ancestry, gratitude, and the quiet power of connection.

The second installment of Noe Music’s Piano Portraits series features Inon Barnatan, “one of the most admired pianists of his generation” (The New York Times), known for his poetic sensibility and fearless virtuosity. In an afternoon that highlights the expressive range of the piano, Barnatan performs an all-Schubert program, including the Impromptu in F minor (D.935/1) and the towering Sonata in B-flat major (D.960). He is joined by co-Artistic Director and violinist Owen Dalby for the composer’s radiant Fantasy in C major for violin and piano (D.934). A must-hear concert with one of today’s true keyboard poets.

Nathalie Joachim’s Fanm d’Ayiti (Women of Haiti) receives its long-awaited live Bay Area premiere at Noe Music. A Grammy-nominated composer, flutist, and vocalist, Joachim honors the stories of Haitian women—past and present—through radiant song, folk tradition, and contemporary chamber music. She’s joined by a string quartet from Decoda, Carnegie Hall’s affiliate ensemble co-founded by Noe Music’s own Owen Dalby and Meena Bhasin. Intimate, powerful, and genre-defying, Fanm d’Ayiti is a celebration of heritage, resilience, and the enduring power of women’s voices.

Three powerhouse performers. One electrifying trio. Junction Trio—featuring violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist and Bay Area native Jay Campbell, and pianist-composer Conrad Tao—brings unmatched energy, precision, and imagination to the Noe Music stage. Known for their adventurous programming and deep musical chemistry, the Trio redefines the piano trio for a new generation. Whether performing Shostakovich, Brahms, or boundary-pushing premieres by composers like John Zorn and Amy Williams, Junction Trio dazzles audiences with bold ideas and jaw-dropping virtuosity. Don’t miss this rare chance to experience “electrifying performers working their magic live” (Boston Musical Intelligencer).

Noe Music’s Piano Portraits series concludes with an unprecedented two-concert weekend featuring pianist and composer Dan Tepfer, renowned for his genre-defying brilliance and deep musical curiosity. On Saturday at 8pm, Tepfer presents Inventions / Reinventions, offering personal interpretations and spontaneous improvisations on J.S. Bach’s Inventions. The following Sunday at 4pm, he performs Goldberg Variations / Variations, blending Bach’s masterwork with his own improvisational responses. Performed on Noe Music’s magnificent Steinway Model D, each concert promises a unique experience where tradition meets innovation. As The New York Times notes, Tepfer “combines superb technique with a complex set of impulses: he’s a deeply rational improviser drawn to the unknown.” Come once or come twice—no two moments will be the same.

Noe Music’s Piano Portraits series concludes with an unprecedented two-concert weekend featuring pianist and composer Dan Tepfer, renowned for his genre-defying brilliance and deep musical curiosity. On Saturday at 8pm, Tepfer presents Inventions / Reinventions, offering personal interpretations and spontaneous improvisations on J.S. Bach’s Inventions. The following Sunday at 4pm, he performs Goldberg Variations / Variations, blending Bach’s masterwork with his own improvisational responses. Performed on Noe Music’s magnificent Steinway Model D, each concert promises a unique experience where tradition meets innovation. As The New York Times notes, Tepfer “combines superb technique with a complex set of impulses: he’s a deeply rational improviser drawn to the unknown.” Come once or come twice—no two moments will be the same.

The 13-member Palaver Strings and Noe Music’s dear friend Nicholas Phan join forces for A Change Is Gonna Come, a stirring exploration of America’s rich legacy of protest songs. This program, based on their 2024 GRAMMY-nominated album, weaves together traditional anthems and contemporary works inspired by social movements and historical events, including Nico Muhly’s Stranger, Akenya Seymour’s Fear the Lamb, and the premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Protest Songs. Spanning genres and eras, the performance confronts our past and present, celebrating protest as one of our most precious rights. As Gramophone notes, “There is liberation in the timelessness of these songs and settings… a tapestry of protest.”