Cellist

In a celebration of instrumental odd couples, three duos highlight the extremes of possibility for their ensembles. Maurice Duruflé’s post-Romantic trio augments the duo format, and all join for the concluding septet by virtuoso pianist Hummel, who was the pupil of Mozart and Haydn and was admired by Beethoven.

EPSG:4326

Instrumental Odd Couples: Beethoven, Rossini, Duruflé, Britten, Hummel

The Barns At Wolf Trap

In a celebration of instrumental odd couples, three duo teams highlight the extremes of possibility for their ensembles. Maurice Duruflé’s post-Romantic trio augments the duo format, and all join for the concluding Septet by virtuoso pianist Johann Hummel, who was a pupil of Mozart and Haydn and was admired by Beethoven.

Instrumental Array

Spa Little Theatre

The Piano Quartet genre has enticed and inspired many of history’s greatest of composers. Pianist Gloria Chien, violinist Arnaud Sussmann, violist Milena Pajaro De Stadt, and cellist and artistic director Nicholas Canellakis join forces to present three spectacular and varied takes on this unique form by Fauré, Turina, and Schumann.

The Art of the Piano Quartet

Sedona Performing Arts Center

The splendor of piano and strings explores Gershwin’s jazzy brilliance to Schumann’s lush romanticism, with miniature musical delights in between. This special and diverse concert promises to enthrall you on CMSPB’s celebratory gala evening.

Celebrating Gershwin to Schumann

Norton Museum of Art

"Brown's tangible charisma is matched with a monumental talent."

Michael Stephen Brown, piano Nicholas Canellakis, cello

University of South Alabama

Our season opener ‘Celebrating A New Season!’ features cello sensation Nicholas Canellakis ("impassioned... with the audience seduced by Mr. Canellakis's rich, alluring tone" -The New York Times) in the Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto No. 1 and continues to honor the progressive orchestral tradition of 19th century France. Louise Farrenc was a piano virtuoso and trailblazing composer who was the only female to hold a position at the esteemed Paris Conservatory during this time. Her overtures and symphonies have upheld their significance in the standard Romantic repertoire of today. To compliment the French influence, we will close the program with Berlioz’ masterpiece, Symphonie Fantastique. A work that transpired great advancement in the world of orchestration, musical story-telling, and compositional techniques that continue to captivate audiences of all ages today, and the final movement ‘The Witches Sabbath’ will be sure to capture the upcoming Halloween spirit for all!

Celebrating a New Season!

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial

CONCERT PROGRAM VI: Chamber Music Now

Menlo School Campus

The artistic, political, and social explosions that began at the start of the twentieth century presaged one hundred years of turmoil, and composers realized that musical rules were no more. Variety abounded; no musical style dominated, and anyone could become an artist. This eclectic sampling of music from the most changeable era in world history was foreshadowed by Beethoven, whose creativity and artistic independence remained unmatched.

CONCERT PROGRAM V: The Turbulent Century

As the Romantic movement matured, music became more about art, nature, and experiences. The French rallied behind the sensuous music of their country following the Franco-Prussian War; Russians told sad tales from their vast and cold land; Bohemians mined the folk traditions of their countrymen; and composers such as Brahms shared their most personal thoughts with the world.

Concert Program IV: Romantic Twilight

The “musician as hero” was invented by Beethoven when he chose to triumph over deafness and fulfill his artistic destiny. Beginning in 1803, a decade of masterpieces cemented his reputation not only as the world’s most famous musician, but also as an artist who was unequivocally his own muse. His triumphs over adversity opened the doors of musical imagination to composers everywhere, from the young, awestruck Schubert to the visionary women composer-performers Louise Farrenc and Clara Schumann.

Concert Program III: From The Heart

Rose Studio: Beethoven, Rachmaninov, and Price

Rose Studio

Late Night Rose: Beethoven, Rachmaninov, and Price

To celebrate Chamber Music Sedona’s 40th Anniversary Season, we’re going BIG, featuring massive and groundbreaking works that will shatter any notion that chamber music is small scale. Mendelssohn’s beloved Octet, one of the greatest masterpieces of western music, will be joined by the epic and rarely heard Octet by Romanian composer George Enescu, along with something truly special: a brand new work by composer and Sedona favorite Michael Stephen Brown, co-commissioned by Chamber Music Sedona to commemorate our 40th year.

40th Anniversary Gala: Epic Octets

Experience the wide range of ideas, sounds, and cultures that have inspired composers from the Americas in the 20th century. The program opens and closes with vibrant, beloved classics by Copland and Gershwin brought about by their travels to Latin America. In between are short personal statements inspired by things close to each composers’ heart—their relationship with religion, their interpretation of native folk music, and a deeply intimate reaction to the death of a friend. Take a trip in sound from the pulsating dance hall to the quietest prayer in this exploration of music from the Western Hemisphere.

Voices of the Americas

Lincoln Center

Like a shooting star, Franz Schubert blazed across music's sky for a brief 31 years, leaving behind over 1,000 works that transformed the Classical into the Romantic age.
Four programs spanning Schubert's creative career and variety of compositions offer a rich journey into one of music's most ethereal worlds. A fifth concert explores how the legacy of Schubert and composers in the two centuries following his death have re-worked and been inspired by his compositions.

Winter Festival: From Song

Long-time Sedona friend and favorite Alex Fiterstein headlines a program featuring the rich tradition of Jewish music, journeying from the classical tradition to the wild and fun world of Klezmer, as seen through the soulful voice of the clarinet.

From Classics to Klezmer

In a program celebrating America’s musical diversity, we will enjoy the sublime music of Dvořák twice, once through his “American” voice in the Sonatina, composed in Spillville, Iowa, and his quintessentially Czech mode with his iconic Piano Quintet.

American Visitors

We celebrate the end of our 28th season with the string quintet Dvořák wrote in America, inspired by Native American drumming, African American melodies and infused with his Bohemian spirit. Afterwards, join our musicians for the Festival Finale Dinner around the magnificent Inglenook fountain.

Inglenook

Inglenook Winery

A Little Fun celebrates music’s power to express the depths of profundity and the height of absurdity in a program that unashamedly combines the sublime with the ridiculous. Well-behaved all the way to its conclusion, Joseph Haydn’s quartet nick-named The Joke plays a cunning prank on the audience, not to be revealed in advance! Jumping centuries, Charles Ives’s only piano trio combines transcendental serenity in its outer movements with the self-proclaimed outrageousness of its scherzo, titled TSIAJ (This Scherzo is a Joke). The twentieth-century Russians Alfred Schnittke and Dmitry Shostakovich supply potent doses of ironic humor, and Haydn gets the last word with a clever arrangement for chamber ensemble of his Surprise Symphony, so nicknamed on account of a single, outrageous note.

This concert is preceded by a free afternoon Prelude Performance at 5 p.m. by the 2022 International Program artists. Prelude programs will be announced in May.

CONCERT PROGRAM VI A Little Fun

This eclectic program celebrates both a beloved instrument and classical music’s most rigorous contrapuntal form. Arguably the king of musical innovators, Joseph Haydn took from the past and created the future, as in his Opus 20 Quartet which begins with a cello solo (a historical first) and concludes with a lively fugue that could have come straight from the pen of J.S. Bach. From cellist-composers Luigi Boccherini and Michael Finckel (David Finckel’s cousin) to the Frenchman Alexandre Tansman and the Russian Aleksandr Glazunov, we will hear cellos throughout this concert in delightful combinations, even cello quartets, with exhilarating fugues popping up unexpectedly.

CONCERT PROGRAM IV Cellos And Fugues

Nicholas Canellakis takes center stage for a perennial audience favorite, Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto. Then Ransom Wilson leads the Redlands Symphony in two musical portraits of America: Dvořák’s New World Symphony and Harry Thacker Burleigh's From the Southland.

Dvorak in America

University of Redlands

Cellist Nicholas Canellakis and pianist-composer Michael Brown have been hailed as “a pair of adventurous young talents” (Time Out New York) who “play with their antennae tuned to each other” (The Washington Post). Performing together throughout the world for more than a decade, they combine their unique talents to create a duo that combines masterpieces from the standard literature with original compositions and arrangements.  Canellakis and Brown are both artists with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. They are guest curators for series around the country including the 2021 Music@Menlo Winter Focus Residency, and at Chamber Music Sedona, where Canellakis is the Artistic Director. Both maintain active solo careers, performing recitals and concertos each season. Canellakis, hailed as a “superb young soloist” (The New Yorker), made his Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium debut as soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra. Brown, called a “young piano visionary,” is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and was a 2018 Emerging Artist of Lincoln Center. Brown is also a critically acclaimed composer who has written many works for Canellakis, and for such organizations as the Maryland and New Haven symphonies, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and Poland’s NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra. Canellakis is also a filmmaker and actor. He and Brown produce and star in a comedy web series called “Conversations with Nick Canellakis,” in which they conduct satirical interviews with stars of the classical music world.

Nicholas Canellakis

Cellist

Events

Mar 10, 2024

Instrumental Odd Couples: Beethoven, Rossini, Duruflé, Britten, Hummel · Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts

Mar 9, 2024

Instrumental Array · SPAC - Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Feb 11, 2024

The Art of the Piano Quartet · Chamber Music Sedona

Feb 8, 2024

Celebrating Gershwin to Schumann · Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach

Jan 14, 2024

Michael Stephen Brown, piano Nicholas Canellakis, cello · Mobile Chamber Music

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