Composer

This programme begins with one of the best loved string quartets of all time: Franz Schubert’s Death and the Maiden remains among of the most powerful and poignant works in the genre. In the second half we are joined by Canadian violin legend, Mark Fewer for a performance of Mendelssohn’s exuberant Viola Quintet in B flat.

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Death and the Maiden

Winspear Centre

Experience the light and lyrical side of the BSO as Principal Oboe Katherine Needleman delights with Martinü’s rarely performed Oboe Concerto. Mendelssohn’s "Scottish" Symphony captures the charm of Scotland, while Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances brings vibrant folk tunes to life.

Mendelssohn & Needleman

Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall

The Music Center at Strathmore

First appearing with the MSO in 2011, violin virtuoso Andrew Sords returns to Merchant Hall for his third performance, this time showcasing Richard Strauss’s vibrant and youthful Violin Concerto in D Minor. Composed when Strauss was only 17, the concerto may be less frequently performed than his later tone poems and operas, but it remains a captivating showcase of late-Romantic virtuosity and artistic promise.

The concert opens with Leopold Stokowski’s dramatic orchestral arrangement of J. S. Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, made famous by Disney’s Fantasia. Inspired by a walking tour through the ruins of Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh, Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A Minor (“Scottish”) brings the program — and the MSO’s season — to an exuberant close.

German Masters

Hylton Performing Arts Center

Violin virtuoso Andrew Sords returns for his third performance with the MSO, showcasing Richard Strauss’s vibrant and youthful “Violin Concerto in D Minor.” Composed when Strauss was only 17, the Concerto is a captivating showcase of late-Romantic virtuosity and artistic promise. The concert opens with Leopold Stokowski’s dramatic orchestral arrangement of J.S. Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor,” made famous by Disney’s Fantasia. Inspired by the ruins of Holyrood Chapel in Edinburgh, Felix Mendelssohn’s “Symphony No. 3 in A Minor” brings the program and MSO’s season to a close.

German Masters With Andrew Sords, violin

Join us for an unforgettable evening where raw emotion meets musical might.
The night opens with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture—a gripping sonic battle of will and destiny, capturing the fierce inner conflict of a tragic hero. Next, prepare to be swept away by the lyric fire of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, a masterwork that wields grace as strength and passion as purpose. Finally, revel in the bold exuberance of Schubert’s Symphony No. 2, a youthful yet commanding declaration of symphonic brilliance.

Finding Power

University of Redlands

Ode to Joy

Rutgers University–Camden

With A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Mendelssohn whisks you away to his enchanting fairytale world from the very first notes. Pianist Alexander Lonquich, a master of early Romantic repertoire, brings brilliance to Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto – a work with a hidden story. Did you know a passage was composed by Delphine von Schauroth, a German pianist, though her name never made the title page? Mendelssohn’s music, in turn, inspired his friend Robert Schumann, whose ‘Rhenish’ Symphony flows like the majestic Rhine, perhaps echoing his visit to Cologne Cathedral. Under Philippe Herreweghe’s baton, Schumann’s grandeur and Mendelssohn’s magic come alive in this collaboration with the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.

Alexander Lonquich enchants with Mendelssohn

The Concertgebouw

Queen Elisabeth Hall

Jörg Widmann, a former Daniel R. Lewis Composer Fellow with The Cleveland Orchestra, makes a winning return to Severance to conduct three of his own works — including the US premiere of his wildly propulsive Danse macabre — alongside Mendelssohn’s “Reformation” Symphony, a treasure of the composer’s youth that ends with a stately fantasy on a famous chorale by Martin Luther.

Mendelssohn’s Reformation Symphony

Severance Music Center

Enjoy a powerful conclusion to our season, featuring an unforgettable evening of passion, virtuosity, and hope. Carlos Simon's Fate Now Conquers opens the evening, anchored by Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, – a sweeping tribute to the American landscape, rich with spiritual echoes and folk-inspired themes. Written during the composer’s time in the United States, this symphony reflects both longing and discovery, making it a perfect finale to a season of musical exploration. For this concert, ASO will be joined on stage by acclaimed violin virtuoso, Melissa White, who’ll perform Mendelssohn’s beloved Violin Concerto.

New World Symphony

University of Louisiana

Masaaki Suzuki conducts Orchestra of St. Luke’s in a program featuring Mozart’s Don Giovanni overture, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major performed by Midori, and Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony. From dramatic tension to vibrant dances, the concert journeys through pivotal works of the great classical and early romantic masters.

Midori Performs Beethoven’s Violin Concerto

Carnegie Hall

The season closes with the Katarina String Quartet, 2025 Grand Prize winner of the Fischoff Competition. Selected by curating/performing ensemble Ulysses Quartet, the Katarina will perform works by Vivian Fung and Franz Joseph Haydn, and be joined by the Ulysses Quartet in a performance of Felix Mendelssohn's Octet.

Schneider Concerts Presents | Katarina String Quartet

The New School

Violist Dana Kelley, celebrated chamber musician and associate principal of the National Symphony goes in depth exploring works being performed during the Schneider Concerts 2025-2026 season at The New School in four pre-concert talks in December, January, March, and April. Join us for one or all four.


Schneider Concerts Presents | Dana Kelley, April Preconcert Talk

The classical music magazine Cresendo hailed the young pianist Danae Dörken as "Discovery of the Year." The journal Concerti sees her "on her way to the top," and Rondo magazine raves about her emotionality, sensitivity, and "impressive sense of sound." The German-Greek musician belongs to the international elite of her generation. With breathtaking technique, exceptional stage presence, and musical depth, she captivates audiences, critics, and fellow musicians alike. She is a regular guest of internationally renowned orchestras such as the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Northern Sinfonia, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Nuremberg State Philharmonic, the Weimar State Orchestra and performs in London's Wigmore Hall, the Paris Philharmonic, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Mozarteum Salzburg, the Zurich Tonhalle, the Bozar in Brussels, in Berlin, Hamburg and at the largest classical music festivals in Germany and Europe.

Guest performance at the Cologne Philharmonic

Cologne Philharmonie

At the Cologne Philharmonie, the two carefully rehearsed programmes from the April tour will come together in a unique combination. After Dvořák’s rousing Carnival Overture and Elgar’s iconic Cello Concerto performed by Sol Gabetta, the evening will conclude with Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. As with all other performances on the tour, the concert will be conducted by Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov.

Czech Philharmonic • Cologne

Kölner Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany

Our season finale features the Lexington Children’s Chorus performing in Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This composition is adapted and arranged by Maestro McPhee and expands Mendelssohn’s incidental music into a full evening that explores Shakespeare’s comedic wit and warmly human story where the real and fairy worlds collide.

An Evening with Shakespeare

Isaac Harris Cary Memorial Building

Richard Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll was a gift to his wife Cosima on the birth of their son. The music, one of the composer's sunniest creations, takes up motifs from the opera Siegfried, which Yannick Nézet-Séguin will also be bringing to his Baden-Baden guest performance this spring. In Götterdämmerung, the conclusion of the Ring tetralogy, the older Siegfried will embark on a trip on the Rhine. But today’s audience beats him to it: with Robert Schumann's cheerful and Romantic “Rhenish” Symphony.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden

Felix Mendelssohn fell in love with Scotland on holiday and the resulting musical inspiration produced two of his best-known and loved works, the Hebrides Overture and his Third Symphony, nicknamed Scottish. From his depiction of the sea around the coast and even a bit of Hibernian thunder, both evocatively depict the dramatic scenery of Scotland.

On Your Doorstep: Highlands & Fjords

Strule Arts Centre

Guildhall Derry

Ellen Taafe Zwilich declared her popular Concerto Grosso 1985 as a “20th century response to the spirit of Handel,” created for his 300th birthday celebration. Inspired by Handel’s Violin Sonata in D, in serves as a fitting precursor to Mendelssohn’s exquisite and romantic Violin Concerto in E minor. Dvořák’s pastoral Eighth Symphony vividly depicts Czech songs and dances through rich, pleasing melodic harmonies.

Mendelssohn & Dvořák

Kleinhans Music Hall

“After dinner, I prevailed upon CPE Bach to sit down again to a clavichord…he grew so animated and possessed, that he not only played, but looked like one inspired.” Possessed and entranced too is the F major symphony by CPE Bach: kinks and coils at every turn, with heaps of non-sequiturs that fit bizarrely and beautifully together. Internationally renowned violinist and Philharmonia favorite Shunske Sato guides us through the connection between works by some of the 18th and 19th centuries’ most beloved composers.

Kinks and Quirks

First United Methodist Church-Palo

First Congregational Church of Berkeley

War Memorial and Performing Arts Center

The people of Hamburg are in luck. During the Czech Philharmonic’s April tour, they’ll be the only audience to hear both of the programmes the orchestra has prepared. The second evening of the residency at the magnificent Elbphilharmonie will bring Mendelssohn, Bartholdy, and Stravinsky to the stage. After Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony, the orchestra—under the direction of Chief Conductor Semyon Bychkov—will perform The Rite of Spring.

Czech Philharmonic • Hamburg

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

With youthful energy and profound musical sensitivity, Randall Goosby is one of the most exciting violin talents of his generation. As a musician in the "Young Wild Ones" series at the Dortmund Concert Hall, he presents two masterpieces of the piano trio repertoire together with cellist Minjoung Kim and pianist Zhu Wang. Mendelssohn's passionate D minor Trio meets Beethoven's radiant "Archduke Trio"—an evening full of virtuosity, chamber music intensity, and infectious joy in playing.

Randall Goosby | Konzerthaus Dortmund

Konzerthaus Dortmund

For the season finale, the SSSO makes an appearance at UPH and Proctors! Joined by Saratoga Voices, the SSSO will present an inspiring celebration of music and poetry. Florence Price’s “Four Songs from the Weary Blues” brings the evocative words of Langston Hughes to life, while Vaughan Williams’ “Towards the Unknown Region” sets Walt Whitman’s poetry to sweeping, emotional music. The program closes with Mendelssohn’s enchanting “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” capturing Shakespeare’s timeless tale of magic, love, and mischief.

Concert IV: Poetic Echoes

Universal Preservation Hall

Proctors Theatre

The programme includes Mozart’s masterful Sonata in C K521 and Schubert’s much-loved F minor Fantasie. Don’t miss this singular opportunity to hear two giants of the piano perform together for the first time in London.

Maria Joāo Pires and Marc-André Hamelin in Recital

Barbican Centre

Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony is a musical journey through the misty landscapes and ancient ruins of Scotland. Inspired by the composer’s travels, the symphony captures the rugged beauty and haunting mystery of the Highlands in a way that is both deeply personal and universally enchanting. Opening the program, Adolphe’s Underneath the Sheen envisions the movement of light through the canopy of the redwood forest, and Lise de la Salle joins for Chopin’s intimate and poetic Second Piano Concerto.

Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3

Cincinnati Music Hall

William Shakespeare and Felix Mendelssohn provide the perfect fusion of language and music in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A particularly famous part of this score includes Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March,” which has heralded the marriage of countless couples, though this exuberant Romantic work deserves to be heard in its fuller context. A small cast of singers and actors join the orchestra onstage to bring this famous comedy to life, from the mischievous Puck and elegant fairy court to the bewildered human lovers and fools! The orchestra also performs Mendelssohn’s beautiful Three Motets for upper voices, inspired by the nuns of Rome’s Trinità dei Monti.

Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night's Dream

Benaroya Hall

Not only will you bask in the sunshine of Mendelssohn’s “Italian” Symphony (he dubbed it “blue sky in A Major”), but you’ll also hear two concertos and two soloists! First, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto — intense, charged with emotion and considered by many the greatest ever composed for the instrument — quotes a beautiful Czech folk song in the instrument’s most ethereal range; and our principal viola gives the world premiere of a concerto by Jonathan Leshnoff, a GRAMMY®-nominated composer ranked among the most-performed living composers by American orchestras. It’s all under the exciting leadership of Ana María Patiño-Osorio, second-prize winner at the Malko Competition for conductors, in her DSO debut.

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony

Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center

The CU Boulder Philharmonia Orchestra presents “Homage and Reformation” featuring composers inspired and influenced by great masters, themes and ideals of the past to help light their paths forward. Villa-Lobos pays tribute to Mozart in his Sinfonietta No. 1, Mozart gives deference to Bach in the Adagio and Fugue in C minor and Mendelssohn points to Bach, Beethoven and Martin Luther himself in his Symphony No. 5, “Reformation.”

Philharmonia Orchestra: Homage + Reformation

University of Colorado Boulder

The good melodies are in line when the always well-intentioned Simon Gaudenz, who has a special flair for programming, together with the Odense Symphony Orchestra offers a selection of Schubert's best songs together with the Norwegian lyric tenor Petter Moen, who is visiting Odense again. We let the orchestra's many timbres magnify the beautiful songs, which were originally written with piano accompaniment, before we are enchanted after the break by Felix Mendelssohn's last composed and probably most popular symphony, The Scottish Symphony .

Schubert & Mendelssohn

Odense Concert Hall

Season Finale – Palladium Chamber Players Jeffrey Multer and Marika Bournaki are joined by The Florida Orchestra’s Principal Cellist, Yonia Draiblate for a thrilling close to the 2025–26 Chamber Series, featuring Schubert’s lyricism, Shostakovich’s intensity, and Mendelssohn’s brilliance.

Palladium Chamber Series – Intimate Connection, Bold Expression: Schubert, Shostakovich, & Mendelssohn

Hough Concert Hall

Alexander Erlich-Herzog, clarinet

Curtis Institute of Music

The Quatuor Danel has been at the forefront of the international classical music scene for decades with their bold, vibrant, and concentrated performance style, and celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2022. The Danel’s 2023-24 North American tour included concerts for Aspect Chamber Music Series, Peoples’ Symphony Concerts, Music Toronto, Chamber Music in Oklahoma, and the McGill International String Quartet Academy. Additional touring activities this season include performances in France, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Portugal, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong.

Quatuor Danel

Presidio Theatre Performing Arts Center

Lesher Center for the Arts

Every great story deserves a great soundtrack—and at Once Upon a Tune, the DPO will bring tales to life through the power of orchestral music.

Once Upon a Tune

Central Presbyterian Church Denver

Mapleton Arts Center

6th Chamber Music Concert in the Vienna State Opera

Vienna State Opera

"It's the music that counts," says Elisabeth Leonskaja, who always places her personality behind the composition and creates great things through music alone. Born in Georgia, then under Soviet dictatorship, and raised in the legendary Russian piano school, Leonskaja used a concert visa in 1978 to emigrate to Vienna, where she has lived ever since and from where she launched her career as a pianist on all the major stages of the (Western) world. Now the "Grande Dame" at the piano joins the CAMERATA to imbue Beethoven's combative C minor Concerto with her legato playing and expressive power. This first symphonic piano concerto in music history is framed by two of the most beautiful natural musics. Russian-born conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, who has since conquered the major orchestral landscape from early music, leads the CAMERATA in Mendelssohn's Scottish impression of the "Hebrides" Overture and in Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony," which he entitled "Memories of Country Life."

Season concert four: Forces of Nature

Mozarteum Foundation

Start your weekend with our must-see Friday night concert series and social experience, Symphonic Piazza. Prepare to escape, mingle, and be entertained as you enjoy the perfect combination of a shorter format concert with enjoyable and engaging lobby activities to share with family, friends, and our musicians. It’s your new go-to date night! The fun continues in the lobby after the concert, as we’ll have even more memorable things for you to experience.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

"I would like to write you a violin concerto," wrote the composer Felix Mendelssohn to his friend, the star violinist Ferdinand David. "I have one in E minor in my head, and the beginning will not leave me alone." And the opening of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto is among classical music's most iconic, stormy and passionate, with the solo violin in the role of the ultimate romantic hero. Here, it is the DR Symphony Orchestra's 1st concertmaster Soo-Jin Hong who is allowed to be the soloist with his own orchestra.

Eun Sun Kim & Dvorak's 8th.

DR Koncerthuset

A solitary piano draws you into Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto and turns tradition on its head. This revolutionary work replaces bravado with vulnerability through a delicate dialogue between piano and orchestra that swells into grand passages of triumph and vitality.

Mendelssohn's “Italian” Symphony & Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4

The Parker

2nd concert of the Robert Franz Singing Academy

Konzerthalle Ulrichskirche

Delvan Lin, piano

The Passion forms the heart of Christian doctrine, a narrative of sacrifice, love, and immeasurable suffering that, in the face of death, reveals the path to forgiveness and redemption. Especially on Good Friday, that solemn day of suffering and inner reflection, the tragedy, but also the sublime glory of earthly existence, is revealed. It is a moment when people pause to contemplate pain and transience, guilt and mercy—and at the same time to reflect on their own lives within the interconnectedness of their fellow human beings. In this spiritual atmosphere, the suffering of Jesus Christ acquires not only historical but also existential significance. The theologian Friedrich Rochlitz created a libretto that encompasses the entire Passion—from the interrogation to the burial—and inspired the composer Louis Spohr to create a musical setting that is unparalleled. With his Passion oratorio "The Savior's Last Hours," Spohr created a work of epochal depth: it conveys the pain of the Passion narrative in every note, yet simultaneously opens a space for hope and inner peace. The premiere of this masterpiece on Good Friday in 1835 became a significant event that profoundly shaped both the religious and cultural understanding of the Passion. Thus, Spohr's music connects the historical dimension with the timeless opportunity to reflect on one's own life and the universal questions of suffering, compassion, and redemption.

Mendelssohn Bartholdy & Spohr

Landestheater Eisenach

Margarethenkirche Gotha

Famous classical hits galore – presented by a cult ensemble consisting of 100% cellos! Music to relax to, presented by the Concertgebouw Orchestra's renowned cello section. Our tip: reserve your tickets well in advance!

Pure Cello

The Baden-Baden Casino

The New York Philharmonic String Quartet was formed in 2017 during the Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary season. The group is comprised of four principal musicians from the Philharmonic: concertmaster Frank Huang, principal second violin Qianqian Li, principal viola Cynthia Phelps, and principal cello Carter Brey. In addition to their performances at Lincoln Center, all four members have amassed extensive awards and recognition for their extensive careers as soloists and chamber musicians.

New York Philharmonic String Quartet

California State University, Northridge

The traditional Palm Sunday Concert was established in 1827 to gather money for the widows and orphans of the Royal Kapelle (today’s Staatskapelle). For decades, this was the only concert programme to feature choral symphonic music. Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Kapellmeister Felix Mendelssohn was also once a guest here, conducting his oratorio »St. Paul« on Palm Sunday in 1843. Five years later, in memory of Mendelssohn’s death a few months earlier, Carl Gottlieb Reißiger conducted the Dresden premiere of »Elijah«. The oratorio tells the story of the prophet in a series of dramatic scenes depicting a life of destiny, doubt, faith and consolation.

Symphony Concert N° 8

Semper Opera Dresden

Two classics of the orchestral repertoire contrast with a heartfelt recent work by our Featured Composer Gabriela Ortiz. 

The story goes that Beethoven’s fifth Piano Concerto got its nickname from a comment by an officer in Napoleon’s army, who attended one of the first performances and declared it ‘an Emperor of a concerto’. It gives soloist Denis Kozhukhin the opportunity to display the different facets of his skill, from the rule-breaking creativity of the first movement, through the serenity of the second, to the dancing virtuosity of the finale.    

Denis Kozhukhin plays Beethoven

Southbank Centre

A fascinating fusion concert featuring the music of the boy genius Felix Mendelssohn and one of Savannah’s most celebrated sons, Johnny Mercer.

Philip Dukes and Friends I: Mendelssohn & Mercer

The DeSoto Savannah

Anton Bruckner spoke to the conductor Arthur Nikisch about divine visions – perhaps this is a key to understanding his mystical choral motets? Estonian composer Arvo Pärt is also no stranger to periods of retreat and inner contemplation. Both composers transport their listeners to another world. In this program, their music will be combined with probably the best-known organ work of all time: Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor.

Soundscapes

Stiftskirche

The woodwinds take center stage in the first half of the program, with charming works by Madeleine Dring and Irvine Fine. After intermission, the strings take over as they perform the greatest work ever written by a teenager, Mendelssohn’s amazing Octet.

Chamber Music 2: Winds vs. Strings

Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church

Congregation Rodef Sholom

Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s Overture, a bold and joyful work, hints at the greatness she might have achieved had she been allowed to follow in her beloved brother Felix’s footsteps. Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole blends French elegance with Spanish flair, while Felix Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony is filled with warm melodies and rhythmic energy, capturing the vibrant spirit and color of Italy in its fullest bloom. A program to celebrate the slow return of Spring!

Masterworks 7: Primavera

Martin Woldson Theater

Giordano Bellincampi leads a program rich in sweeping landscapes and deep emotional resonance. Vaughan Williams’ Toward the Unknown Region soars with adventurous choral harmonies, while Barber’s Violin Concerto, performed by Concertmaster Adelya Nartadjieva, balances tender lyricism with fiery brilliance. The evening concludes with Mendelssohn’s Scottish Symphony, a dramatic and evocative masterpiece inspired by Scotland’s rugged beauty.

Barber & Mendelssohn

Jacoby Symphony Hall

At the end of March, violinist Viviane Hagner returns to perform with ERSO. The centerpiece of the evening is the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Unsuk Chin—one of the most performed living composers today. Though classical in structure, the concerto is known for its exceptionally demanding solo part, offering both technical and interpretive challenges. The concert opens with a new work by Estonian composer Maria Kõrvits, commissioned especially by ERSO. The second half of the evening takes listeners on a journey through Italy. Under the baton of Olari Elts, the orchestra will perform Franz Schubert’s Overture in the Italian Style, inspired by Italian opera, followed by Felix Mendelssohn’s vibrant Symphony No. 4 Italian, a musical reflection of the composer’s travels through Italy.

Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. Elts and Hagner

Estonia Concert Hall

A lunch break that invigorates the mind. The Thursday lunch concerts will bring audiences the best selection of the Friday night programme.

Symphonic Lunch VI: Olari Elts and Mendelssohn

The devil loves music—especially when a violin is involved. Some even whisper that he invented it himself! Tartini's Devil's Trill Sonata, Paganini's lightning-fast Caprices, Schnittke's ghostly A Paganini —that doesn't sound like a human hand... or does it? In this concert, there's plucking, bowing, trickery, and seduction—until even the devil is amazed.

3.  Children's concert Devilishly good music

Theater Lübeck

Mendelssohn and Strauss were teenagers when they wrote their Piano Sextet and first Horn Concerto respectively. Mendelssohn chose the unusual combination of two violas, cello and double bass alongside violin and piano, and with this dark, sumptuous palette he creates a rich symphonic soundscape.

Fanfare: Mendelssohn, Strauss and Beethoven

Smith Square Hall

Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason’s performances have been lauded as “exceptionally woven together, as if by a single mind” (New York Classical Review). This recital connects eras and styles, pairing Felix Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 1 and Robert Schumann’s folk-inspired pieces with Rebecca Clarke’s evocative 1919 sonata and Nadia Boulanger’s set of three movements from the same decade.

Artist Spotlight: Sheku & Isata Kanneh-Mason

David Geffen Hall

2026 March Concert

University of New Orleans

In this one-of-a-kind concert, let’s learn about the orchestra and insects without fear! Discover The Carnival of the Insects, a recent work by Quebec composer Maxime Goulet. Each short movement highlights an insect and an orchestra instrument that will have the chance to be heard as a soloist. Ants, bees, beetles, and many other insects will be evoked by the timbres of the four instrument families of the orchestra. To complete the celebration, other bugs might just join in!

The OSM Carnival

Place des Arts

Elegant, expressive and brimming with Romantic spirit, this program features two masterpieces by Felix Mendelssohn. His dramatic Symphony No. 5 (“Reformation”) is filled with majestic themes and sweeping orchestral writing, culminating in a powerful finale. Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor is a jewel of the violin repertoire, known for its soaring melodies and virtuosic brilliance. The dynamic YuEun Gemma Kim, praised for her vibrant artistry, joins as guest soloist. This concert promises a rich blend of lyrical beauty and bold Romantic expression.

Mendelssohn Classics

Poway Center for the Performing Arts

The Viano Quartet continues to amaze listeners nationwide, and their program at CMS shows the remarkable range of their repertoire. After firmly establishing their Classical and Romantic credentials with delightful Haydn and effervescent Mendelssohn, the Viano moves to the 20th century with Webern’s hyper-expressive single movement, followed by Shostakovich’s 9th Quartet, which builds through five interconnected sections to a pinnacle of orchestral intensity.

The Viano Quartet

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Like a great masterpiece shaped by time and intellect, the Reno Phil embarks on the pursuit of knowledge, where music unfolds with curiosity, discovery, and profound insight. At the heart of the evening is Nathan Amaral, the first prize winner of the 2024 Sphinx Competition, whose artistry illuminates Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto—a work of exquisite elegance and fiery virtuosity, as if the violin itself is searching for truth in every soaring phrase. The journey begins with Autumn Maria Reed’s Robin’s Eye View, a vivid and imaginative exploration of the world from above. The night reaches its pinnacle with Brahms’ Symphony No. 1, a work Robert Schumann once prophesied as part of Beethoven’s legacy, declaring that Brahms, wielding his “magic wand,” would reveal “wondrous glimpses into the secret world of the spirits.” From its stormy opening to its triumphant, hymn-like finale, the symphony wrestles with struggle and revelation, culminating in an exultant resolution—a testament to the brilliance that emerges when passion and intellect collide.

Mendelssohn Violin Concerto

Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts

Opening the program is Felix Mendelssohn’s first cello sonata, a work of luminous interplay that reveals both the cello’s expressive depth and the piano’s crystalline brilliance. Then, Nadia Boulanger’s striking miniatures demonstrate the full range of the cello’s capabilities, as do Robert Schumann’s folk-inspired short compositions. The program concludes with the trailblazing composer Rebecca Clarke, whose rich, expressive Viola Sonata is presented here in its cello arrangement. Written in 1919 for a competition, the work tied for first place with a sonata by Ernest Bloch and is admired for its sweeping lyricism, harmonic richness, technical brilliance, and sheer expressive power.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason, cello Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano

University of Michigan

Mendelssohn’s beloved Violin Concerto, played here by DSO Concertmaster Robyn Bollinger, is awash in lyricism and virtuosic displays. Conducted by Mendelssohn at its premiere, Schumann’s buoyant “Spring” Symphony delights in celebrating the season of renewal. Composer and conductor Jörg Widmann opens with a piece of his own, which he describes as echoing Beethoven’s “fury and rhythmic insistence.”

Mendelssohn and Schumann

Detroit Symphony Orchestra

There’s nothing like hiking across moors and encountering castle ruins to ignite the creative process—as Mendelssohn experienced it on a tour of Scotland. Holyrood Castle (where Mary Queen of Scots was crowned) inspired the mysterious mood of the Third Symphony’s opening. But the mists ultimately lift in the sunny, lively finale. Plus, Portland favorite Conrad Tao dazzles in Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto, with its slow movement once described by biographer Maynard Solomon as “an entire movement of unrelieved, time-stopping beauty…for something just short of eternity.”

Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Willamette University

With its sweeping melodies and raw emotion, Tchaikovsky’s famous Pathétique is a powerful exploration of love, loss and fate. It’s music that speaks from the heart, and under Principal Guest Conductor Delyana Lazarova’s baton, every note tells a story.

Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony

Music Hall, Aberdeen

City Halls

This concert brings together two great romantic German composers, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

The works are both rousing and comforting in nature, and the much-loved Ein deutsches Requiem, which Brahms referred to as a ‘human requiem’, is written to console the living and to explore grief in its many forms, rather than to accompany the dead.

Volodymyr Sirenko

Cadogan Hall 

The Ehnes Quartet with Arnaud Sussmann perform Beethoven’s emotional quartet, Schubert’s virtuosic Rondo, and Mendelssohn’s energetic Quintet.

Fire & Form: The Ehnes String Quartet

Bethesda Bookshop

The musical talent that runs in the Kanneh-Mason family is already the stuff of legend, and this recital by cellist Sheku and pianist Isata shows off the siblings’ extraordinary musicianship in an era-spanning program. Memorable works by two brilliant but historically unsung women composers — Nadia Boulanger and Rebecca Clarke — feature prominently alongside the colorful First Cello Sonata of Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann’s strikingly original Five Pieces in Folk Style.

Composer

Felix Mendelssohn

Events

Upcoming events

May 6, 2026

A Midsummer Night’s Dream · Alamo City Arts

May 6, 2026

Dvořák's Radiant Eighth Symphony · Orchestre Symphonique de Québec

7 - 8 May, 2026

Beethoven, Symphony No. 4 · Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège

7 - 9 May, 2026

Schumann Cello Concerto · Scottish Chamber Orchestra

May 8, 2026

A British Evening · Residentie Orkest Den Haag

Past events

May 4, 2026

Death and the Maiden · Winspear Centre

2 - 3 May, 2026

Mendelssohn & Needleman · Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

About

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