Composer

The composer Sofia Gubaidulina who died in March 2025 once admitted: “while I am composing, I pray”. The heightened intensity of her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra oscillates between “down-to-earthness” and “heavenly aspiration”. Sir Antonio Pappano presents the work with ‘his’ London Symphony Orchestra along with the unfinished 9th Symphony by Anton Bruckner. Its dedication to “dear God” indicates what Bruckner was attempting to express in music that was literally composed on his deathbed: a confrontation with the “ultimate questions” in the style of a monumental “sinfonia da chiesa”.

London Symphony Orchestra

Berliner Philharmoniker

Sofia Gubaidulina’s Concerto puts the viola in the spotlight in a work that slowly builds to an intense, uplifting conclusion, paving the way for Anton Bruckner’s monumental, visionary symphonic statement.

On Tour in Berlin

Philharmonie Berlin

This rich recital program features works from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, beginning with Bach’s wonderfully moody organ piece Ich ruf’ zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ—heard here in a gorgeous piano arrangement by Busoni—and continuing on to Gubaidulina’s Sonata, an early composition that reveals the composer’s modern mysticism.

EPSG:4326

Ran Dank Piano Recital

New Mexico Museum of Art

Violin virtuoso Gidon Kremer joins the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra alongside conductor and Music Director Marios Papadopoulos, for an evening of exceptional music. The programme will include music by Gubaidulina and Schnittke, both of whom composed for Kremer and are an integral part of his musical universe. Known for his passionate playing, Kremer brings his brilliance to the stage in a performance full of intensity and emotional depth.

Gidon Kremer

University of Oxford

Austrian cellist Valerie Fritz combines classical and contemporary music with innovative concert formats. She is a winner of the Berlin Prize for Young Artists, a member of the NAMES ensemble, and this year an ECHO Rising Star. With self-designed programs and in collaboration with contemporary composers, she represents a new, unorthodox generation of musicians.

Sunday Matinee

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Saifei Wang, piano

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

Dahlia String Trio plays three masterpieces from three centuries, each offering a unique exploration of string texture.

Poetry in motion

Unitarisk Kirkesamfund

Mary Brook Hartmann, Cello and Stephen Chang, Viola

The Juilliard School

Conservatorium Symphony Orchestra – Pictures at an Exhibition Conducted by Matthew Wood

Queensland Conservatorium

Experience music of the late 20th and 21st centuries, including premieres, in the intimate setting of the Rose Studio at CMS.

Sonic Spectrum IV

Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Gubaidulina, Prokofiev and Mozart

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts

The Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia presents the final concerts of the season

Charlottesville Symphony at the University of Virginia - Masterworks 5 - Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade

Charlottesville High School

University of Virginia

No concert season is complete without a performance by the Bundesjugendorchester, the “protégé” of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Germany’s finest young talents between 14 and 24 come together this time with the Bundesjazzorchester to present jazz highlights by Leonard Bernstein, Duke Ellington, and Wynton Marsalis. That classical composers also have a feel for swing is demonstrated by Darius Milhaud’s La Création du monde and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Revuemusik. Jazz flows through the veins of Libor Šíma, whose Sledgehammer reloaded is performed, and the singer Malika Tirolien, who appears as a special guest with her Grow Suite.

Feel the Jazz Bundesjugendorchester and Bundesjazzorchester

The devil played the violin for Tartini in a dream. The music was charismatic, electrifying, fiendishly difficult and utterly transfixing. Tartini awoke and transcribed the melody, penning the Devil’s Trill sonata. It can only be played by someone astounding.

The Devil’s Violin

ACO On The Pier

In 2026, the Free State of Saxony will celebrate a statewide "Year of Jewish Culture" – 100 years after the founding of the first Saxon state association of Jewish communities. Under the title "Tacheles," projects, events, and exhibitions will make Saxony's rich Jewish culture and history, past, present, and future, as well as irretrievable losses, visible and audible for a year. Our chamber concert also addresses this theme, featuring well-known and lesser-known compositions from a wide variety of genres spanning approximately one hundred years of Jewish musical creation.

Tacheles

Augustusplatz

Fritz specialises in both contemporary and classical music, applying experiments with electronics and gut strings to a broad repertoire. For this performance in LSO St Luke’s, the programme explores the complex tension between doubt and faith, from Schumann’s Five Pieces in Folk Style, through a movement from Messiaen’s startling Quatour pour le fin du temps, to more contemporary works, such as Mikołaj Majkusiak’s Rhythms of Doubt, and a brand new ECHO commission by Jennifer Walshe.

ECHO Rising Stars: Valerie Fritz

LSO St Luke's

Instantly recognizable thanks to its use throughout pop culture, Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet soars with tender poetry and heart-on-sleeve passion. Blazing with originality and raw intensity, Sofia Gubaidulina’s In Tempus Praesens (“For the Present Time”) is one of those works that must be witnessed live, and a spectacular experience awaits you with rising-star violinist Alexi Kenney. And, get swept away on a sea of glorious sound in Scriabin’s earth-shattering Poem of Ecstasy.

Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet

Jones Hall

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe comes to Theater Heerlen under the direction of Robin Ticciati, who recently joined the orchestra as its conductor. We previously saw this top British/Italian conductor at PLT with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The soloist is the brilliant Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, who has previously graced our stage with the Orchestre de Champs D'Élysées. Both conductor and soloist are known for their expressive, refined interpretations. And that is evident as they perform Schumann's Violin Concerto , Bach's Ricercar a 6 from his Musical Offering , and Mozart's masterful Jupiter Symphony . Timeless classics that penetrate deep into our hearts and souls.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe (GB), Robin Ticciati (GB) and Vilde Frang (NO) Schumann, Bach, Mozart, Gubaidulina

Theater Heerlen

Over the course of this season, you can enjoy performances by many major international soloists, including the brilliant violinist Vilde Frang. She presents Schumann’s often unjustly rarely performed Violin Concerto, which according to Yehudi Menuhin is the missing link between Beethoven and Brahms. The work, originally written for the great Joseph Joachim, was dismissed by him as the ‘work of a madman’ and never performed. However, anyone who surrenders to Vilde Frang and the refined Chamber Orchestra of Europe will hear a work of deep spiritual power which showcases Schumann at his best. After Schumann, the British conductor Robin Ticciati will be taking the audience back to the roots of classical music with Mozart’s majestic Jupiter Symphony. Ticciati is world-famous for his expressive and refined interpretations, breathing life into both classical and contemporary works with enthusiasm and precision. An evening that allows the beauty of two timeless masterpieces to shine in all their glory.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Robin Ticciati

De Blauwe Zaal

After Robert Schumann’s death, his magnificent Violin Concerto descended into oblivion. Rumour has it that a séance in 1933 brought it back to light: the descendants of Joseph Joachim, the musician for whom the work was written, heard the voices of Schumann and Joachim leading them to the score. Violinist Vilde Frang conjures up this piece for us, as Robin Ticciati leads the Chamber Orchestra of Europe through a programme in which many voices virtuosically intertwine. With its grand and mighty themes, Mozart’s 41st Symphony was soon nicknamed the Jupiter. The final movement of this work consummates a majestic marriage between a Baroque five-part fugue and the galant classical style. Anton Webern colours Bach's brilliant six-part Ricercar from the Musikalisches Opfer with the greatest of refinement and attention to detail, and Sofia Gubaidulina takes the unfinished final fugue from the Kunst der Fuge as her starting point.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Ticciati & Frang

BOZAR

The chamber music program by Anna-Maria Barth, concertmaster of the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt, and her piano partner Alex Pudmann fulfills a long-held desire to place creative women at the center of a program. This is less about the question of whether a program exclusively featuring works by female composers is still necessary today. We are simply embarking on a musical journey of discovery – and one that goes far beyond well-known names like Clara Schumann (1819-1896) and Lili Boulanger (1893-1918)
. We are discovering romantic, extremely rarely performed violin music not only from Europe but from all over the world:
the Romance Op. 23 by the American Amy Beach (1867-1944), the violin sonata by the Swede Amanda Maier (1853-1894), and the Fantasy No. 1 by the American Florence Price (1887-1953). And last but not least, with Le Grand Tango, the recently deceased Russian Sofia Gubaidulina (1931-2025), inspired by Shostakovich and one of the most honored musicians of our time, will perform. An evening full of elegance, passion, and musical power – dedicated to the great women of music!

18th Wilhelmsbad Chamber Concert

Congress Park Hanau

Austrian cellist Valerie Fritz loves the extraordinary, the unusual. Even at the beginning of her studies at the Mozarteum Salzburg, she knew that a classical career with the standard repertoire was out of the question for her. Her self-confidence has already taken the young artist far: she has been nominated by the Elbphilharmonie, among others, and is a "Rising Star" in the European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) season. With accordionist Goran Stevanovich, she explores the spatial, acoustic, and interpersonal aspects of the concert setting with music from Bach to the present day.

Valerie Fritz, Violoncello

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Tapiola Sinfonietta's new artistic partner Nicolas Altstaedt and long-time collaborator Ryan Bancroft will meet for the first time in a concert. Altstaedt is the soloist in William Walton's melodic and virtuoso cello concerto, which was completed in 1957 for cello legend Grigori Pyatigorsk. Sofia Gubaidulina died in the spring of 2025 at the age of 94. Her musical fairy tale Poema-Skazka, composed in 1971, tells the story of a chalk that wants to draw castles and gardens, but is condemned to scratch boring words and numbers on a school blackboard.

Meeting

Espoo Cultural Centre

A concert in two halves with an intermission – and it will be a very athletic affair on an exciting playing field with numerous musical passes: Under the commands of Elim Chan, we will form an orchestral team for compositions that demand teamwork and coordination. But first, we will musically prepare the stage for the match – with a work "written with great pleasure" by Sofia Gubaidulina: It dates from 1971 and is a delightful story about a small piece of chalk. For Dvořák's Violin Concerto, first performed in 1883, we welcome the acclaimed violinist Augustin Hadelich as the driving star striker: For although the original composition is based on the idea of ​​the symphonic concerto, there is ample room for the soloist to showcase their talent – ​​especially in the fiery finale, which is based on the Bohemian folk dance "Furiant," meaning "the intoxicating one" or "the frenzied one." In the second half, our task remains the same: to move the musical ball back and forth between the different instrumental sections with great precision and unerring technique – in Bartók's popular Concerto for Orchestra from 1943, which, while essentially a disguised symphony, offers ample solo opportunities for individual members of our ensemble.

Elim Chan, Augustin Hadelich

Bamberger Symphoniker

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will open the evening with the Fairy Tale-Poem by contemporary Russian author Sofia Gubaidulina. This orchestral work tells the story of a piece of white school chalk that dreams of drawing beautiful castles, gardens and seas on a blackboard Instead, it has to write boring words and numbers and draw geometric shapes every day. The schoolchildren are growing up and there is less and less writing for it. Will someone's childlike hand make her dreams come true?

Andris Poga and Tchaikovsky's Pathétique

Rudolfinum

Erm…only BRYN TERFEL! Yes, the great man himself graces the stage of Sage One, joining our wonderful Royal Northern Sinfonia and Music Director Dinis Sousa.

Bryn Terfel sings Schubert

The Glasshouse International Centre for Music

This concert is dedicated to the award-winning composer Sofia Gubaidulina, who passed away in 2025. She wrote music for a fairy tale about a small piece of chalk with big dreams, a story that reads like a parable about the fate of an artist. Mahler's "Songs of a Wayfarer" also delve deep into the human soul: the poems oscillate between the joys and sorrows of love and the question of fulfillment between "world and dream," this life and the next. In this respect, they come close to Shostakovich's Eighth Symphony: the composer, who was persecuted by Stalin at times, allowed the horrors of World War II to resonate within its pages. With Leo McFall and the celebrated singer Paula Murrihy, renowned for her operatic and lieder interpretations, this program is in excellent hands.

2nd Symphony Concert: Music for peace

Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden

The successful cooperation between the Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna and the Wien Modern Festival continues in 2025, once again with a program of world premieres — this time by students of MUK teachers Eva Reiter and Samuel Penderbayne — as well as a reference work of contemporary music.

Instrumental ionization

MUK - Music and Arts Private University of Vienna

Jonathan Brown was the violist of the Cuarteto Casals, with whom he performed in all of the major concert halls in Europe, North America and Asia, as well as making numerous recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label including repertoire ranging from Bach through Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven to Bartók, Ligeti and Shostakovich. This performance is presented in collaboration with SFCM alumni, faculty, and students.

Chamber Music Tuesday with Jonathan Brown

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Under the captivating direction of Nicolò Umberto Foron, experience a musical adventure where the shadows of your National Orchestra become accomplices in black magic and bursts of laughter.

Halloween Concert

Opéra Comédie

In her 1971 Märchen – Poem, Sofia Gubaidulina uses music of transcendent beauty to conjure a stick of chalk that dreams of life outside the classroom drawing beautiful landscapes.

London Symphony Orchestra/Ryan Bancroft

Barbican Centre

This concert is included in these packages: Chamber Music Dialogues, Fantasy and Fury: Music of the Romantic, and Season Sampler.

Musical Dialogues: Bach and Beyond

Colburn School

The Melbourne Ensemble presents a remarkable program that encourages you to listen blindly and openly, allowing the music to transport you to a spiritual realm.

Melbourne Ensemble: Lux Aeterna

The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra has never before performed Gustav Mahler’s major early work Das klagende Lied – The Song of Lamentation – for vocal soloists, choir and orchestra. Chief Conductor Ryan Bancroft is thrilled to finally take on Mahler’s youthful masterpiece. “It’s a rare and remarkable piece that should be a real draw for Mahler lovers out there,” says Bancroft.

The Young Mahler

Stockholm City Hall

A jazz band and a symphony orchestra meet in the zany groovings of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Revue Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band – part of a concert that brings these two sound- worlds together. Jazz is represented by the syncopated brilliance of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major, performed by Proms favourite and former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Benjamin Grosvenor. Shostakovich supplies the symphony – the snarling, sometimes shockingly tender ‘Babi Yar’, bearing witness to the horrors of a Nazi massacre of Jews in Soviet Ukraine.

Benjamin Grosvenor Plays Ravel

Royal Albert Hall

Johannes Brahms' Quintet for clarinet and strings, a timeless masterwork, will bring back Rane Moore, who shone in last year's Dreams and Prayers concert. The program begins with a piano trio by Haydn, architect of high classicism, that features flute rather than violin (D Major, Hob. XV:16). Sofia Gubaidulina's blazing originality is already evident in her early Piano Quintet, which reveals her origins as a soviet composer under the sway of mentors like Shostakovich, but still bursts with her own unique talent and energy.

CIOMPI PRESENTS 2025 SUMMER MUSIC SERIES - Jonathan Bagg

Duke University

Not many conductors manage this: to be as much in demand with the Freiburger Barockorchester as with the Bayreuth Festival or the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; to have the right touch for early music as well as for Romantic and contemporary music, and for concert music as well as for opera. The Spaniard Pablo Heras-Casado is a stylistic all-rounder and presents another »conquest« in his repertoire during his return to the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra: Excerpts from Richard Wagner’s »Götterdämmerung«. In addition, the no less versatile star violist and NDR Artist in Residence 2024/25 Antoine Tamestit performs Sofia Gubaidulina’s Viola Concerto, which has more or less become a »modern classic«.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Antoine Tamestit / Pablo Heras-Casado

Off into the musical ring! Pablo Heras-Casado conquers Wagner, Artist in Residence Antoine Tamestit puts Gubaidulina's viola concerto in a new light - on May 30 and 31 with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra.

International Music Festival: Pablo Heras-Casado & Antoine Tamestit

Not many conductors manage this: to be as much in demand with the Freiburger Barockorchester as with the Bayreuth Festival or the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; to have the right touch for early music as well as for Romantic and contemporary music, and for concert music as well as for opera.

Femmes Fortes

Wallraf-Richartz-Museum & Fondation Corboud

Graduating Student Recital | Yu-Han Sun, piano | Sunrise

Longy School of Music of Bard College

Christoph Sietzen is an award-winning multi-percussionist and a celebrated soloist in dialogue with large orchestras. But he also loves chamber music. In Cologne he will perform with Tabea Zimmermann, queen of the viola, and with harpsichord artist Mahan Esfahani.

Christoph Sietzen & Friends

Museum Ludwig

### Event Description: BSO: Gil Shaham Returns

**Event Title:** BSO: Gil Shaham Returns

**Date and Time:** Sunday, April 27, 2025, at 3:00 PM

**Location:** The Music Center at Strathmore

**Event Overview:**
Join the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for an enchanting afternoon of musical storytelling featuring the return of the acclaimed violinist Gil Shaham. Under the baton of conductor Eva Ollikainen, this concert promises to be a masterclass in musical narration and emotional depth.

**Program:**
- **SOFIA GUBAIDULINA:** Fairytale Poem
- **KORNGOLD:** Violin Concerto
- **STRAVINSKY:** Petrushka (1911)

**Featured Artists:**
- **Conductor:** Eva Ollikainen
- **Violinist:** Gil Shaham

**Highlights:**
- **Stravinsky’s Petrushka:** A vivid exploration of Russian folk music, bringing to life the rich inner worlds of dancing puppets.
- **Sofia Gubaidulina’s Fairytale Poem:** A poignant fable about a piece of chalk that finds liberation through creativity.
- **Korngold’s Violin Concerto:** A dramatic and lyrical piece showcasing Gil Shaham’s warm and poetic tone, evoking Old World romanticism.

**Additional Information:**
- This event is presented by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and not by Strathmore.
- Strathmore is Global Biorisk Advisory Council STAR accredited, ensuring a safe and secure environment for all attendees.

**Tickets:**
- Tickets can be purchased on the BSO website.

**Plan Your Visit:**
- For more information on directions, parking, and other visitor details, please refer to the "Know Before You Go" section on the Strathmore website.

**Share This Event:**
- Spread the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Experience an afternoon of extraordinary music and storytelling with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Gil Shaham at The Music Center at Strathmore. Don’t miss this captivating performance!

Gil Shaham Returns

The Music Center at Strathmore

A masterclass in musical storytelling, Stravinsky’s Petrushka mined Russian folk music to imagine the rich inner lives of dancing puppets. Soviet composer Sofia Gubaidulina crafted her own pointed fable about a piece of chalk that dwindles away in mindless busywork until it is liberated by a creative child, while leading opera and film composer Erich Korngold poured all of his dramatic gifts into his soaringly lyrical Violin Concerto. Award-winning violinist Gil Shaham uses his uniquely warm and poetic tone to kindle the Concerto’s “Old World” romantic sensibility. 

Gil Shaham & Petrushka

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

Boston Symphony Chamber Players

New England Conservatory of Music

Shostakovich was on a chamber music roll when he composed the Quartet No 2 – its Romance tipping the wink to Tchaikovsky and Borodin. Tragedy intrudes on the 11th Quartet which mourns the much-loved Vasily Shirinsky, second violinist of the Beethoven Quartet. And standing at the gateway to Shostakovich’s late style, it’s paired with the lyrical No 14, which breathes the vivacious warmth of its dedicatee, cellist Sergei Shirinsky, and sports a heart-on-sleeve duet Shostakovich called his ‘Italian bit’. The Kyans complete the programme with Gubaidulina’s work about the nature of sound itself.

Shostakovich Quartets: Intimate Portraits, Part 3

Milton Court Concert Hall

‘I have spent my life trying to create a kind of cathedral of sound’. The words of Sofia Gubaidulina, one of the most significant living composers in the world. Her music, deeply spiritual and dramatic, forms the backbone of tonight’s celebration of International Women’s Day.

In this programme, Anja Bihlmaier makes her Manchester debut as the orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor and explores this kaleidoscopic programme. There’s the UK premiere of Dreydl by the genre-defying Olga Neuwirth, alongside music from American Sarah Gibson – beyond the beyond is a BBC commission, written as Sarah’s joy at becoming a mother was tempered by a progressive and terminal illness. This performance will see the posthumous premiere of the work.

A Celebration of International Women’s Day

The Bridgewater Hall

Mahler meets Prokofiev in the Quartet No 6, which Shostakovich started to sketch on honeymoon following his marriage to second wife Margarita Kainova. The 12th, composed after a spell of bad health signalled a decisive return of confidence, (‘it’s a symphony, a symphony’ he enthused). It’s inscribed to his devoted friend Dmitri Tsyganov, first violinist of the Beethoven Quartet. The Carduccis end with No 3, one of Shostakovich's finest works and the only one he wrote in 1946, when the Soviet state began a campaign of censorship.

Shostakovich Quartets: Intimate Portraits, Part 2

This recital is given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. Isabelle Jamois is a student of Marianne Gedigian. 

Isabelle Jamois, Flute

Alice Pratt Brown Hall

Percussion students of Matthew Strauss collaborate with instrumentalists from various studios to perform works by Lansky, Gubaidulina, Stockhausen, Jolivet, Ortiz, and Lavenda.

Mixed Chamber Music for Percussion

You can simply go to a concert at the Philharmonie, spontaneously, during your lunch break – and with free admission: every Wednesday at 13:00 between September and June. The programme lasts 40 to 50 minutes: chamber music, piano works or a percussion duo – everything from Tchaikovsky to tango. Members of the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Karajan Academy regularly perform, as well as guests from the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berlin music conservatories. As can be expected at a lunch concert, catering is available from 12 noon until shortly before the concert begins.

Lunch concert

Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Fairytale Poem’ from 1971, with which the Konzerthausorchester and Joana Mallwitz begin their concert, is, according to the composer, about a little piece of chalk with big dreams of marvellous things that it wants to draw. Unfortunately, it is only used as blackboard chalk at school and is eventually thrown away. A boy finds it and begins to draw castles, gardens and sunsets on the street. The chalk is too happy to realize that it is finally disintegrating.

Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Joana Mallwitz

Konzerthaus Berlin

Hatred, jealousy and loss: Sergei Rachmaninoff creates a dark world with powerful colours in his one-act opera Francesca da Rimini. Against this backdrop, the heroine’s brief happiness in love shines all the more brightly. Kirill Petrenko presents the impassioned score with acclaimed soloists in a concert performance. Sofia Gubaidulina’s work The Wrath of God is almost apocalyptically dramatic. And here, too, it is about the hatred that – says the composer – “grows in this world with such force and intensity that it inevitably touches me.” The programme opens with one of the most popular works of American orchestral music: Samuel Barber’s touching and intimate Adagio for strings.

Kirill Petrenko with Rachmaninoff’s “Francesca da Rimini”

Berliner Philharmonie

He began his career as a member of the Vienna Boys' Choir, then studied piano, first in his hometown of Vienna, then in Hanover, where Igor Levit became his mentor. At the 2022 ARD Music Competition, he not only won first prize, but also seven special prizes.

Rising Star: Lukas Sternath

The Philharmonic State Orchestra, from whose ranks the ensembles for six chamber concerts are formed until the summer, spends most of its time in the pit: at the interface between the singing on stage and the music from below. The fact that text and instrumental sound usually go together extraordinarily well is therefore in the orchestra's blood. For an entire season, the interaction of text and music will also be examined in an intimate chamber music setting. How fitting that many members of the State Opera ensemble could be won over for the series. The Hamburg chamber singer Gabriele Rossmanith will be the first to perform.

1st Chamber Concert

Leo B. Ruiz Memorial Recital

Carnegie Hall

This recital is given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. Zachary Wuorinen is a student of Timothy Pitts. 

Zachary Wuorinen, Double Bass

Swan Lake is the quintessential ballet score — a resplendent fable of dreamlike transformation. Tchaikovsky’s ballet suite caps a program of musical storytelling that includes Gubaidulina’s whimsical Fairytale Poem and Adams’ brightly colored Slonimsky’s Earbox. Vilde Frang makes her instrument sing and soar in Stravinsky’s neoclassical Violin Concerto.

Tchaikovsky Swan Lake

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Wheaton College

Do fairy tales always have happy endings? Is cheerfulness always joyful and lighthearted? In Gubaidulina's fairy-tale poem , a piece of school chalk dreams of drawing flowers and the sea. When its dream finally comes true, the chalk is so happy that it doesn't even notice it dissolving while drawing this beautiful world. Shostakovich, too, typically combines sweetness, melancholy, and bitterness in his symphonically structured First Violin Concerto. And for Petrushka, the Punch of the Russian fair, Stravinsky's joy and tragedy are also closely intertwined: He is murdered at the end, but his spirit bursts into merriment.

Petrushka

Konzerthaus Klagenfurt

Trumpet students of Barbara Butler

NY Phil Principal Clarinet Anthony McGill is the soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, a showcase for the instrument’s expressive ability. Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony stirs the soul with​ rich melodies and dramatic intensity. Rafael Payare conducts this concert, which begins with Sofia Gubaidulina’s tone poem inspired by Miloš Macourek’s The Little Piece of Chalk, an allegory of artistic perseverance​​​.

Anthony McGill, Mozart & the Pathétique

David Geffen Hall

### Event Description: Isata Kanneh-Mason, Piano Recital

**Date and Time:** Thursday, October 10, 2024, at 7:30 PM  
**Venue:** Hill Auditorium, 825 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109

**Event Overview:**
Join us for an enchanting evening as UMS’s 146th Annual Choral Union Series opens with a recital debut by the internationally acclaimed pianist, Isata Kanneh-Mason. Known for her dynamic performances and emotional depth, Isata will present a wide-ranging and eclectic recital program that spans 168 years of musical history. This performance marks her first solo recital with UMS, following her previous appearances with her younger brother, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

**Program:**
- **Joseph Haydn:** Piano Sonata No. 60 in C Major, Hob. XVI:50
- **Clara Schumann:** Nocturne in F Major, Op. 6, No. 2
- **Carl Nielsen:** Chaconne, Op. 32
- **Sofia Gubaidulina:** Chaconne
- **Frédéric Chopin:** Piano Sonata No. 3 in b minor, Op. 58

**About the Artist:**
Isata Kanneh-Mason is a Decca Classics recording artist and has garnered international acclaim for her solo and chamber music performances. Her debut album, "Romance: The Piano Music of Clara Schumann," topped the UK classical charts and received high praise from Gramophone magazine. Isata's repertoire is diverse, ranging from classical composers like Haydn and Mozart to 20th-century American works. She has performed in prestigious venues across Europe and has received numerous awards, including the Leonard Bernstein Award and an Opus Klassik award for best young artist.

**Tickets:**
- **Season Ticket Packages:** Available now
- **Individual Event Tickets:** On sale starting August 1
- **Discounts:** Student, Senior, and Group discounts may be available

**Sponsors:**
- **Supporting Sponsor:** Gil Omenn and Martha Darling
- **Additional Sponsors:** Anthony Reffells, Matthew VanBesien, and Rosie Jowitt

**Contact Information:**
- **Box Office:** 734-764-2538
- **Website:** [UMS University Musical Society](https://www.ums.org)

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the extraordinary talent of Isata Kanneh-Mason in a program that promises to be both emotionally stirring and musically diverse. Secure your tickets early and be part of a memorable evening at Hill Auditorium.

Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano

University of Michigan

Isata Kanneh-Mason opens the season with a powerful solo debut following two sold-out chamber music performances at Shriver Hall Concert Series. “A profound and greatly gifted artist who radiates warmth, joy, and much-needed musical sunshine” (Gramophone), the chart-topping British pianist performs an inventive program featuring a bravura Haydn work and Chopin’s masterful final sonata, a thrilling journey of virtuosity and emotional depth.

Johns Hopkins University

Signature Performance: EMF Classical Guitar Summit

Temple Emanuel

Sheku Kanneh-Mason makes his Orchestral Series debut with Dmitri Shostakovich’s subtly sinister Cello Concerto No. 1. Shostakovich once told Sofia Gubaidulina that his wish for her was always to continue along her “mistaken path”, turning a critical remark from her Soviet censors into a virtue. Her poignant Fairytale Poem portrays a small piece of chalk in the hand of a child who draws “castles, gardens with pavilions and the sea with the sun on the pavement.”

Esa-Pekka Salonen & Sheku Kanneh-Mason

Davies Symphony Hall

 Ojai Dawns

Besant Hill School

Morning Concert

Libbey Park

Music Director Jaap van Zweden conducts Mozart’s timeless Requiem, a work of great poignance and emotional depth. Also on the program is Sofia Gubaidulina’s eerie Viola Concerto featuring soloist Antoine Tamestit. The composer famously said, “The peculiar mysteriousness and veiled quality of the viola’s timbre has always been something of an acoustic enigma to me, and an object of rapture.”

The Mozart Requiem and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Viola Concerto

Lincoln Center

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony maps a journey from darkness to light, reflecting the crisis of his collapsed marriage. It’s an emotional white-knuckle ride, from the blazing opening brass fanfare – through pain, anguish, daydreams and nostalgia – ending in hard-won triumph.

Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody

Rafael Payare leads this brilliant Romantic-meets-Modern program that opens with Sofia Gubaidulina’s dynamic Fairytale Poem. Jean-Yves Thibaudet brings his dazzling style and theatricality to 20th-century composer Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto. The second half features Beethoven’s towering Symphony No. 3—an ode to heroism, revolution and freedom. The “Eroica” is considered by many to be the greatest of not just Beethoven’s symphonies, but the greatest symphony of all time.

Beethoven's Eroica

Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center

Von Liebe und Erleuchtung kündet dieses Forum N des hr-Sinfonieorchesters Frankfurt rund um die große »Mystikerin« der musikalischen Avantgarde Sofia Gubaidulina, aber auch von Düsternis und Hass. Der Glaube ist das zentrale Thema im Leben und in der Musik Gubaidulinas, die sich 1970 russisch-orthodox taufen ließ. Ihre Verbundenheit mit dem göttlichen Kosmos prägt ihr gesamtes Schaffen und offenbart sich in zahlreichen religiös inspirierten Werktiteln. So auch in »Der Zorn Gottes«, ihrem 2020 uraufgeführten »grandios apokalyptischen Orchesterwerk« (Süddeutsche Zeitung), in dem sich Gubaidulina mit dem Thema des Jüngsten Gerichts auf ein immer wieder auftauchendes Motiv der Bibel bezieht und dieses klanggewaltig in Szene setzt. Zuvor widmet sich die lettische Violinistin Baiba Skride Gubaidulinas 3. Violinkonzert »Dialog: Ich und Du«, das vom gleichnamigen Buch Martin Bubers aus dem Jahr 1923 inspiriert wurde. Unter der Leitung des Franzosen Maxime Pascal treten die beiden Kompositionen Gubaidulinas dabei in Beziehung zu Olivier Messiaens leuchtendem Orchesterwerk »L’Ascension« über die Himmelfahrt Christi und zur kompositorischen Strenge der Sinfonie in drei Sätzen von Igor Strawinsky.

Love and Hate

Bertramstraße 8

“They are four classical musicians performing with the energy of young rock stars jamming on their guitars, a Beethoven-goes-indie foray into making classical music accessible but also celebrating why it was good in the first place.” —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Brooklyn Rider

Owen Arts Center

The exciting Venezuelan conductor Domingo Hindoyan leads the LA Phil in Prokofiev’s majestic Fifth Symphony, conceived by the composer as “glorifying the grandeur of the human spirit” set against the backdrop of World War II drawing to a close. Khatia Buniatishvili is “an extraordinary pianist with a magnificent technique, an inherent musicality and … a genuine musical personality” (Los Angeles Times), and the Georgian pianist returns for Rachmaninoff’s heart-on-its-sleeve Second Piano Concerto.

Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Tonight's NEC Philharmonia concert, led by guest conductor Shiyeon Sung, features Gubaidulina's Fairytale Poem, Hindemith's Violin Concerto performed by one of the winners of the Concerto Competition, and Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 6 in D Major.

NEC Philharmonia + Shiyeon Sung: Gubaidulina, Hindemith, Dvořák

New England Conservatory

Join us for an extraordinary evening of contemporary music with the "musica viva: Duncan Ward & Lawrence Power" concert, presented by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. This captivating event will take place on Friday, 23rd February 2024, at 8:00 pm in the majestic Herkulessaal of the Munich Residence. An introduction to the evening's program will be offered at 6:45 pm, providing deeper insights into the performances.

The concert will feature an exceptional program, including Charles Ives' "Central Park in the Dark" and Sofia Gubaidulina's "Concerto for Viola and Orchestra," framing the world premiere of Minas Bourbodakis' "sparks, waves and horizons for orchestra." This piece, commissioned by Bavarian Radio’s musica viva series with the support of the Freunde des BRSO e. V., promises to be a highlight of the evening. Additional works by Milica Djordjević, including "Mali svitac for orchestra" and "Čvor for winds, brass, piano, and percussion," will also be featured.

Under the baton of internationally acclaimed guest conductor Duncan Ward, with Lawrence Power on viola, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks will bring these innovative compositions to life. The concert is a part of the Bavarian Radio's musica viva series, renowned for being a premier forum for future-oriented and contemporary music.

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the cutting edge of orchestral music. Tickets are available online via the BRticket-Webshop. For more information, contact the ticket hotline or visit the official website. Join us for an evening that promises to be a memorable exploration of modern musical landscapes.

Composer

Sofia Gubaidulina

Events

Upcoming events

Apr 30, 2026 - Apr 29, 2027

Sonic Spectrum IV · Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

23 - 24 Oct, 2026

Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 · Utah Symphony

Oct 28, 2026

Coro di Santa Cecilia / Luigi Piovano · Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Nov 7, 2026

Yellow Barn Showcase Day · Wigmore Hall

18 - 19 Nov, 2026

Elgar’s Enigma Variations · Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Sep 6, 2026

London Symphony Orchestra · Berliner Philharmoniker

Sep 6, 2026

On Tour in Berlin · London Symphony Orchestra

About

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