Pianist

Immerse yourself in vivid storytelling and orchestral brilliance! Strauss’s dramatic Don Juan pulses with energy, Billy Childs’ saxophone concerto Diaspora explores powerful jazz-inspired narratives, and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2 dazzles with captivating rhythms and lush, colorful harmonies.

Masterworks II: Diaspora

Adler Theatre

Centennial Hall Auditorium

They are currently the USA’s hippest string quartet export: the Isidore String Quartet. Only three years after its founding, the New York-based ensemble won the 14th Banff Competition, followed by an Avery Fisher Career Grant one year later, catapulting the quartet to the top league of chamber music. The eponymous Isidore is the violinist Isidore Cohen, a former member of the legendary Juilliard String Quartet, in whose spirit the musicians combine tradition and innovation. They consider quartet playing not as an elite artform, but as the medium of an approachable, shared musical experience. In this spirit, they are also protagonists of the project »Music Heals Us«, giving underprivileged people access to classical music. And as if all that weren’t enough, there is the concert program, which combines Mozart’s so-called »Dissonance Quartet« and Dvořák’s Opus 106 with a work by the American jazz musician and composer Billy Childs.

EPSG:4326

Isidore String Quartet

Palais im Großen Garten

Albuquerque Academy

Saint-saëns Thundering Organ Symphony

Veterans Memorial Auditorium

The appearance of vocalists Felicia Moore, Kelley O’Connor, Issachah Savage and Reginald Smith Jr. is generously supported by Lisa and Matthew Winkler.

Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Xian Zhang

State Theatre New Jersey

New Jersey Performing Arts Center

Experience the dynamic artistry of the Isidore, one of the most exciting new quartets in the chamber music scene.

Music Toronto: Isidore Quartet

St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts

Gustav Holst, a keen student of astrology, seized on the different characters assigned to our planets to compose his masterpiece. Each planet brings different feelings and startling effects, from Mars’ shattering depiction of war to Neptune as it drifts away into space and ethereal voices fade into silence. Breathtaking high-definition imagery from NASA showcases our solar system’s heavenly bodies.

Holst The Planets: An HD Odyssey

Benaroya Hall

The Isidore String Quartet began as an ensemble at Juilliard, heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, their spectacular program includes Mozart’s iconic quartet, along with Grammy-winning composer Billy Child’s moving “Unrequited” and one of Beethoven’s last works.

Mondavi Center

Fiesta! by Jimmy López Bellido is an exuberant mix of European traditions with Afro-Peruvian and popular music vibes. Steven Banks performs Billy Childs’ Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, taking the listener through a Black American experience from Africa through enslavement to empowerment. Richard Strauss' gorgeous Suite from Der Rosenkavalier is the perfect preamble to Ravel’s fantastic La Valse.

Sarasota Orchestra presents Melting Pot of Music

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall

Eight-time Grammy winner Billy Childs has “sidestepped categorization as an intrepid hard bopper” (The New Yorker), collaborating with jazz luminaries like J.J. Johnson, Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, and Dave Holland, as well eminent classical and contemporary artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Sting, and the Kronos Quartet. Admired for his versatility, technical mastery, and deep emotional expression, the renowned pianist and composer makes his Miller debut with his all-star quartet.

Billy Childs Quartet

Columbia University

The San Diego Symphony returns with Rafael Payare guiding the orchestra through this powerful concert featuring a new composition by Billy Childs in its world-premiere week of performances by the San Diego Symphony. Russian wunderkind Alexander Malofeev, who at thirteen years old won first prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians, brings Prokofiev’s delightfully macabre Piano Concerto No. 3 to life. Beethoven’s groundbreaking Eroica Symphony, which forever changed the trajectory of symphonic music, closes out this concert.

San Diego Symphony

McCallum Theatre

Rising star Alexander Malofeev (“Truly remarkable” - Boston Classical Review) takes the Jacobs Music Center stage in Prokofiev’s muscular and demanding Piano Concerto No. 3, a work originally written for the composer himself to play as part of his many tours of the USA in the 1920s and 1930s. The program begins with the World Premiere of Los Angeles-born, GRAMMY® Award-winning composer Billy Childs’ Concerto for Orchestra, and ends with Music Director Rafael Payare leading the Symphony in Beethoven’s celebrated Eroica symphony, one of the most influential symphonies in the Western musical canon. Shocking in Beethoven’s own time for the unfamiliar vastness of its dimensions and its huge orchestral sound, this symphony ends with a mighty set of variations based on music from Beethoven’s ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, which celebrate the evolution of human beings from mere unfeeling creatures made of clay to living, breathing human beings, capable of liberty, equality, fraternity and love.

Orchestral Evolution: Childs' Premiere and Beethoven’s Eroica

Jacobs Music Center

### Event Description: Isidore String Quartet - Princeton University Concerts

**Event:** Isidore String Quartet - Princeton University Concerts Debut  
**Date:** Wednesday, November 20, 2024  
**Time:** 6:00 PM EST - 9:00 PM EST  
**Venue:** Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall, Princeton University

**About the Event:**
Join us for an extraordinary evening as the Isidore String Quartet makes its highly anticipated debut at Princeton University Concerts. This event is part of our "Performances Up Close" series, where the audience is seated onstage alongside the musicians, creating an intimate and immersive experience.

**Program:**
- **Billy Childs:** String Quartet No. 3, "Unrequited" (2015)
- **Ruth Crawford Seeger:** String Quartet (1931)
- **W.A. Mozart:** String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465 "Dissonance"

**Musicians:**
- **Phoenix Avalon:** Violin
- **Adrian Steele:** Violin
- **Devin Moore:** Viola
- **Joshua McClendon:** Cello

**Accolades:**
The Isidore String Quartet, formed in 2019, has quickly risen to prominence, winning the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022. Known for their sweeping coherence and blazing virtuosity, the ensemble aims to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the string quartet repertory.

**Tickets:**
- **Subscription:** This event is currently available as part of a Deluxe Package Subscription or Princeton University Student Early Bird program. 
- **Single Tickets:** Go on sale on Monday, August 5 at noon Eastern time.

**Additional Information:**
For directions, parking, and accessibility information, please visit our [Venue & Accessibility](#) page.

**Contact:**
For more information, please contact us at 609-258-2800.

Don't miss this chance to experience world-class music in an intimate setting. Add this event to your calendar and be part of a memorable evening with the Isidore String Quartet.

Alexander Hall

Over the course of a glittering career, Childs has worked with, amongst many others, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, LA Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Renee Fleming, Yo-Yo Ma, Wayne Shorter, Alison Kraus, Dianne Reeves, Chris Botti, Esperanza Spalding, Lisa Fischer, Susan Tedeschi, Rickie Lee Jones, Shawn Colvin, Ledesi, Becca Stevens, Chris Potter, Brian Blade, Steve Wilson and Jerry Douglas.

Guildhall Jazz Orchestra with Billy Childs

Milton Court Concert Hall

Join the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for an unforgettable evening of music featuring the renowned pianist Garrick Ohlsson. This special concert will take place at the prestigious Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall in New York, NY, on September 28, 2024, at 8:00 PM.

The evening's program is a celebration of classical music, showcasing works by Mozart, Brahms, and a new commission by the six-time Grammy winner Billy Childs, co-commissioned by Orpheus and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Garrick Ohlsson, celebrated for his "muscular technique" and the "sensitivity and restraint" with which he deploys it (The New York Times), will grace the stage with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat Major, K. 271, "Jeunehomme". The concert will also feature Brahms' Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24, orchestrated by Michael Stephen Brown, alongside the world premiere of Billy Childs' new work.

This concert promises to be a memorable night, not only for the exquisite performances but also for the unique blend of classical and contemporary music. The concert duration is 2 hours, including an intermission, allowing audiences to fully immerse themselves in the musical journey.

Subscriptions are on sale now, offering up to 20% savings for series subscribers. Secure your subscription by February 7, 2024, to ensure the best seats for this and other concerts in the series. Single tickets will be available starting May 17, 2024.

Don't miss this opportunity to witness Garrick Ohlsson's incredible technique and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra's innovative approach to classical music. Subscribe today for the best seats and join us for a night of unforgettable music at Carnegie Hall.

Orpheus & Garrick Ohlsson Mozart, Brahms & Billy Childs

Carnegie Hall

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra welcomes back Garrick Ohlsson to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, “Jeunehomme.” Mozart melded styles from near and far to redefine the concerto genre. Brahms mined Handel (and Bach and Beethoven) to craft what he later called his “favorite work,” the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel. Composer and five-time Grammy winner Billy Childs infuses classical traditions with his jazz roots in a new work for Orpheus.

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra Garrick Ohlsson, Piano

This red-hot young quartet was founded in 2019 at the Juilliard School and launched their current trajectory by winning one of the most prestigious awards in chamber music at the 2022 Banff Competition. Their artistry and limitless potential were further recognized when they were awarded a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Hailed for their “blazing virtuosity” by Violinist.com, the Isidore Quartet aims to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the string quartet repertoire by creating enjoyable, approachable, and intimate concert experiences.

The Breakers Newport

Winners of the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition and the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Isidore String Quartet embodies the excitement, dedication, and creativity of young classical musicians today. Named after Isidore Cohen of the Juilliard String Quartet, the Isidore Quartet infuses the repertory with life by approaching the established as if it were brand new and the new as if it were firmly established. Welcome these remarkable musicians for their Santa Fe concert debut, following performances at Alice Tully Hall and the Kennedy Center!

New Mexico Museum of Art

Join us for an unforgettable evening of music and mastery with the renowned violinist Rachel Barton Pine, accompanied by the talented pianist Matthew Hagle. This special performance is scheduled for Friday, April 19, 2024, at 7:30 PM, taking place in the elegant setting of the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Rachel Barton Pine, celebrated for her virtuosic skill and passionate interpretations, will take the stage to present a program that spans the breadth of violin repertoire, including treasures from Dvořák, Beethoven, and pioneering works by Black composers such as Dolores White, Billy Childs, and William Grant Still. This concert not only showcases Pine's exceptional artistry but also her dedication to bringing to light the contributions of Black composers to the classical music canon.

The evening's program will feature Antonin Dvořák's Sonata in G Major, op. 100, Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No. 9 in A Major, op. 47 "Bridgetower," and a selection of pieces that highlight the rich diversity and depth of music by Black composers, including "Blues Dialogues" by Dolores White, "Incident on Larpenteur Avenue" by Billy Childs, and "Suite for Violin and Piano" by William Grant Still.

Rachel Barton Pine's performances are known for their emotional depth, technical precision, and engaging storytelling. Accompanied by Matthew Hagle, whose playing has been praised for its sensitivity and musical understanding, this concert promises to be a powerful and moving experience.

Washington Performing Arts is committed to accessibility, ensuring that all visitors can enjoy the performances. For specific accessibility information at Kennedy Center events, please visit the Kennedy Center's accessibility page or contact Washington Performing Arts' patron services.

Don't miss this opportunity to experience the artistry of Rachel Barton Pine and Matthew Hagle in a program that celebrates the beauty and diversity of classical music.

Rachel Barton Pine, violin

John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Experience the sweeping drama of Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony, inspired by the African American and indigenous music Dvořák encountered during his time in America. It has remained one of the most popular symphonies of all time, even heard in space during Neil Armstrong’s Apollo 11 lunar spaceflight—a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy. Conductor Xian Zhang opens the concert with works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Billy Childs.

Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony Billy Childs’ Saxophone Concerto

California Center for the Arts

Following its momentous win at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition, the Isidore String Quartet impresses with its “focus and command beyond its years…[and its] sweeping coherence and blazing virtuosity” (Violinist.com). The Quartet performs beloved works by Mozart and Mendelssohn, and a 2012 quartet by Billy Childs, one of music’s most versatile composers at home in both the jazz and Classical genres.

Isidore Quartet (Baltimore Debut)

Johns Hopkins University

This red-hot young quartet was founded in 2019 at the Juilliard School and was launched on their current trajectory by winning one of the most prestigious awards in chamber music at the 2022 Banff Competition. Their artistry and limitless potential were further recognized when they were awarded a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Groton Hill Music Center

The New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet — in fact, it takes its name from JSQ founder Isidore Cohen — and the idea of “approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.” In this program, they move seamlessly from the great musical innovator of the 18th century to a trailblazer of the 21st: Billy Childs, whose String Quartet No. 2 (“Awakening”) was composed in the wake of his wife’s emergency hospitalization 10 years ago due to a pulmonary embolism. It takes the listener through the shock and chaos of the emergency room, the disembodied sonic experience of machines during an extended hospitalization, and subsequent recovery and healing.

University of Michigan

With its recent selection for the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, the future is bright for the Isidore String Quartet, making its Cal Performances debut with a richly varied program. The young ensemble captured first prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition last year, after coming together as students at Juilliard, where they were mentored by longtime Juilliard String Quartet cellist, Joel Krosnick. Beethoven’s expansive late-period Op. 132 Quartet in A minor is balanced by Haydn’s brilliant Quartet in C major, from the masterful Op. 20 works that solidified the composer’s position as the father of the string quartet. The group also performs multi-Grammy-winning jazz composer and pianist Billy Childs’ second quartet, from 2012. “They have earned their laurels and are a talented young ensemble to watch. The Isidore projected the infinite variety that Beethoven mines from the most unassuming material…time stood still here” (Chicago Classical Review).

First Congregational Church

Classical Roots has celebrated the contributions of African-American composers and artists for nearly fifty years. This season, we hear new music from Shelley Washington, who focuses "on exploring emotions and intentions by finding their root cause." Saxophonist Steven Banks, "one of the transformational musicians of the twenty-first century" (Seen and Heard International) performs a new concerto written for him by Grammy Award–winner Billy Childs. 

Classical Roots

Orchestra Hall

Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based Isidore String Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory.  The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of ‘approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established.’

 The members of the quartet are violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore, and cellist Joshua McClendon. The four began as an ensemble at the Juilliard School, and following a break during the global pandemic reconvened at the Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival in the summer of 2021 under the tutelage of Joel Krosnick.  In addition to Mr. Krosnick, the ISQ has coached with Joseph Lin, Astrid Schween, Laurie Smukler, Joseph Kalichstein, Roger Tapping, Timothy Eddy, Donald Weilerstein, Atar Arad, Robert McDonald, Christoph Richter, Miriam Fried, and Paul Biss, while performing in venues such as Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at the Ravinia Festival.

Isidore Quartet

Central United Methodist Church

Smetana, Prokofiev, two thrilling debuts and a Minnesota Orchestra first all at once! Conductor Ruth Reinhardt and saxophonist Steven Banks, a 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, make their debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra to showcase Billy Childs’ recently premiered Diaspora, a concerto for saxophone and orchestra. The work co-commissioned by the Orchestra highlights Black experiences in America, with inspiration from poets including Langston Hughes and Maya Angelou. Then: romance, drama and intrigue capture the evening with a suite from Prokofiev’s gripping ballet score.

Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet

Minnesota Orchestra

Winners of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022, the New York City-based IsidoreString Quartet was formed in 2019 with a vision to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the repertory. The quartet is heavily influenced by the Juilliard String Quartet and the idea of ‘approaching the established as if it were brand new, and the new as if it were firmly established

Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center

Tucson Convention Center

The spellbindingly rapturous work by Morten Lauridsen paired with a world premiere by celebrated jazz pianist and composer Billy Childs.

LUX: The Music of Morten Lauridsen & Billy Childs

Walt Disney Concert Hall

Where there is darkness, we seek to illuminate the spirit with eternal light. In Lux Aeterna, (Eternal Light), the spellbindingly rapturous work premiered by the Los Angeles Master Chorale in 1997, Lauridsen created a rich and intensely moving work that sparked a renaissance of choral music throughout the world. Paired with this masterpiece will be a world premiere by Billy Childs – one of the world’s most celebrated jazz pianists and composers – reuniting the Chorale and brilliant violin virtuoso Anne Akiko Meyers along with the Billy Childs Jazz/Chamber Ensemble and The Lyris Quartet

Lux: The Music Of Morten Lauridsen & Billy Childs

Music Director Rafael Payare and the Symphony celebrate the Orchestra’s return to Jacobs Music Center in a program that showcases the musicians and the exceptional new aural and visual experience of the venue. The kaleidoscopic program begins with Texu Kim’s new fanfare for Jacobs Music Center. The Symphony continues its exploration of Strauss’s epic tone poems with audience favorite Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks followed by a dazzling Billy Childs West Coast Premiere co-commissioned by the San Diego Symphony, with the charismatic style of soloist Steven Banks. The second half of the program explores Mozart’s festive Exsultate jubilate, where opera sensation Liv Redpath takes center stage, and concludes with the dreamy serenity of Debussy’s illustrious La mer.

Grand Opening Night

Joan and Irwin Jacobs Music Center

Music Director Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony Orchestra return for the 2023-2024 Jacobs Masterworks season with a jubilant and multifaceted program at The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. The evening begins with Texu Kim’s Zzan!!, which means "cheers" in Korean and employs drinking glasses as percussion instruments. The evening continues with Mozart’s festive Exsultate Jubilate, featuring opera sensation Liv Redpath. Billy Childs’ Saxophone Concerto, co-commissioned by the San Diego Symphony, with soloist Steven Banks, makes its West Coast Premiere. The second half of the evening features a World Premiere by Juan Colomer, A Casual Walk to Extinction, and R. Strauss’ magnificent Also sprach Zarathustra, the fanfare of which was popularized in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

Season Opening Under The Stars

The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park

New World Symphony and Emmy Award-winning conductor Miguel-Harth Bedoya team up for a toe-tapping, jazz-infused evening that’s fun for the whole family. Get swept away by the romance and drama of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances From West Side Story. Explore the intersection of jazz and classical music as saxophonist Steven Banks takes the stage for a moving concerto dedicated to the Black experience in America. End your night with Fiesta!, four Latin, Afro-Peruvian and pop music-inspired dances by Jimmy López Bellido.

Dances From West Side Story

Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts

New World Symphony and Emmy Award-winning conductor Miguel-Harth Bedoya team up for a toe-tapping, jazz-infused evening that’s fun for the whole family. Get swept away by the romance and drama of Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. Explore the intersection of jazz and classical music as saxophonist Steven Banks takes the stage for a moving concerto dedicated to the Black experience in America. End your night with Fiesta!, four Latin, Afro-Peruvian and pop music-inspired dances by Jimmy López Bellido. 

Dances from West Side Story

A Celebration Of American Music

Guggenheim grant-awarded Billy Childs is a piano prodigy with a gift for composition, with an astounding 16 Grammy Award nominations and 5 Grammy Award wins. Widely regarded as one of the foremost American composers of fusion jazz and chamber music, he is a technical wizard who continues to innovate harmonically and rhythmically.

Billy Childs

Montgomery Theater

He started out as a clarinetist, but listening to Motown’s popular hits featuring the “cool-looking” saxophone made Steven Banks switch gears and dedicate himself to showcasing that instrument’s vast capabilities. Winner of the prestigious 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Banks is an advocate for expanding the saxophone repertoire. To that end, he commissioned a concerto from four-time Grammy winner Billy Childs and premiered it last February. This exciting new work combines jazz and 20th-century neoclassical traditions in a powerful synthesis of style, range, and dynamism.

Chamber Symphony: Mozart Symphony No. 39, Steven Banks

Aspen Meadows Resort

The Isidore String Quartet returns to Vail Interfaith Chapel to give the Bravo! Vail premiere of Billy Childs’ String Quartet No. 2, Awakening, alongside Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15.

Community Concert XI

Vail Interfaith Chapel

Stop on by for an hour of delightful piano playing by two of the greats: Billy Childs and George W. Russell Jr. Expect to leave with your heart and soul musically fulfilled.

Billy Childs and George W. Russell Jr. Play the Piano!

Berklee College of Music

The Billy Childs Ensemble will present a program of music drawing from the incredible repertoire of composer and pianist Billy Childs, currently a Harmony and Jazz Composition Department artist-in-residence. 

The Music of Billy Childs, Featuring the Billy Childs Ensemble

David Friend Recital Hall

Multiple-Grammy-winning pianist and composer and Pasadena native Billy Childs brings his glorious Jazz artistry to the Boston Court stage for the first time, leading his band in some of some of his latest recording projects, “Acceptance” and “Rebirth” – the latter of which won a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

Boston Court Pasadena

Humanity is at the core of this transformative program. “I conceived of it as a symphony on the greatness of the human soul,” Prokofiev remarked about his wartime Fifth Symphony. In 2020, as Reena Esmail set out to compose RE|Member, she felt the deep healing of a collective return to music-making after a global pandemic. And Billy Childs expresses trauma, resilience, and empowerment within the Black American experience through his poignant symphonic poem, Diaspora, brought to life in these performances by saxophonist Steven Banks.

Prokofiev and Childs

Powell Hall

This program brings together three contrasting works, each exploring the theme of hope in the face of hardship. López and Childs delve into the pain of displacement and loss, while Mahler, in his quest for a transcendent refuge, paints a luminous picture of the heavenly joys of childhood. A compelling program that uses the power of classical music to inspire reflection on humanity, spiritual yearning, and the beauty of life.

López, Childs, and Mahler: Hope in the Heart of Exile

Place des Arts

SFCM’s New Music Ensemble performs a variety of works written in the 20th and 21st centuries in concert each year under the baton of Nicole Paiement, an internationally acclaimed conductor, celebrated for her expertise in contemporary opera and her commitment to premiering new works.

New Music Ensemble with Nicole Paiement

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

With their “polished sonority and well-balanced, tightly synchronized ensemble” (Chicago Classical Review), the young Isidore Quartet has swiftly soared to prominence, winning the 2022 Banff Competition and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant. Now, they present a new work written for them by foremost American composer and Grammy-winning jazz pianist Billy Childs. Jeremy Denk, “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs” (The New York Times) joins them for Schumann’s expansive Piano Quintet.

Isidore String Quartet Jeremy Denk, piano

 Bask in Beethoven’s sun-infused, high-spirited Fourth Symphony, whose second movement, said Berlioz, sounds like “an angel singing at the gates of Paradise.” Plus, saxophonist Steven Banks performs Childs’ Diaspora , which the composer describes as “a symphonic poem which strives to chronicle the paradigm of the forced black American diaspora, as sifted through the prism of my own experience as a black man in America.”   

Beethoven's Symphony No. 4

Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall

Six-time Grammy-winning composer and jazz pianist Billy Childs performs at SFCM in a special concert with Roots, Jazz and American Music faculty and students. This concert also features the world premiere of a musical work by Jordyn Davis, one of the winners of the Emerging Black Composers Project.

RJAM Big Band Concert with Billy Childs

The New York Times wrote that Gabriella Smith’s music “exudes inventiveness with a welcoming personality, rousing energy and torrents of joy.” Smith expresses that joy in her music and collaborations, even as it asks listeners to preserve our fragile planet. Her first album, Lost Coast, channeled imagery inspired by a five-day backpacking trip through California’s Lost Coast Trail with her Curtis Institute roommate and friend Gabriel Cabezas. Cabezas’s cello and Smith’s violin and vocals combine acoustically and through electronic loops to express anger and grief at natural devastation blended with wonder and hope.

Smith, Cabezas & Childs

Brothers Demarre and Anthony McGill give a world premiere by jazz piano icon Billy Childs reflecting on America's 250th. Rachmaninoff unapologetically captures the Russian musical spirit in his Symphony No. 3, while Shostakovich elicits a celebratory mood.

Pianist

Billy Childs

Events

Upcoming events

6 - 7 Feb, 2026

Prokofiev and Childs · St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

11 - 12 Feb, 2026

López, Childs, and Mahler: Hope in the Heart of Exile · Orchestre symphonique de Montréal

Feb 27, 2026

New Music Ensemble with Nicole Paiement · San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Mar 8, 2026

Isidore String Quartet Jeremy Denk, piano · Shriver Hall Concert Series

25 - 26 Apr, 2026

Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 · Oregon Symphony

Past events

8 - 9 Nov, 2025

Masterworks II: Diaspora · Quad City Symphony Orchestra

Jun 4, 2025

Isidore String Quartet · Dresdner Musikfestspiele

About

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