Dvořák “turned the musical establishment upside down,” notes Brentano violist Serena Canin, when he proclaimed that “in the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music… There is nothing in the whole range of composition that cannot be supplied with themes from this source.” The magnificent Brentano Quartet brings this credo to life in a program that explores Dvořák and his American legacy.

EPSG:4326

Brentano Quartet

American Philosophical Society

Born of a desire to foster cultural curiosity, Castle of our Skins is a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. The Boston Musical Intelligencer praises the ensemble’s programmatic choices for complementing and reinforcing each other, and the “impressive performers” for communicating “directly and movingly with their audience.” Highlighting the ensemble’s PCMS debut program is the Philadelphia premiere of a new work (co-commissioned by PCMS) by flutist/ composer Allison Loggins-Hull.

Castle of our Skins

Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts

A Spanish string quartet that enjoys a truly international profile, Cuarteto Casals possesses “a sonic signature entirely its own” (New York Times). A regular guest at the world’s most prestigious concert venues, Cuarteto Casals brings its “fine-honed precision and passionate expressiveness” (The Independent) to Philadelphia for its Chamber Music Society debut.

Cuarteto Casals

Following last season’s astounding collaboration with the Dover Quartet, “charismatic, full-voiced” (New York Times) bass-baritone Davóne Tines returns to the Perelman Theater stage for his PCMS recital debut. In Recital #1: MASS, Tines “queers” the mass in the broad sense that he bends it to his own understanding, “giving Black people and queer people and anyone who has felt excluded by religion or classical music or America their say” (Classical Voice).

Davóne Tines, bass-baritone & John Bitoy, piano

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Known for their “expert musicianship, razor-sharp ensemble, and deep musical feeling” (Chicago Tribune), the Dover Quartet returns to the PCMS stage with Philadelphia Orchestra double-bassist Joseph Conyers, “a lyrical musician who plays with authenticity that transcends mere technique” (Grand Rapids Press). Following string quartets by Joseph Haydn and George Walker, Conyers and the Dover unite for Antonín Dvořák’s lush, richly-textured Quintet in G Major, Op. 77.

Dover Quartet & Joseph Conyers, double bass

Featuring 17 leading soloists and chamber musicians of today’s younger generation, ECCO combines the power and expansiveness of a great orchestral ensemble with the personal involvement and spontaneity of chamber music. For its PCMS return, this exciting, conductor-less band of strings teams up with the Jupiter Quartet, “an ensemble of eloquent intensity” (The New Yorker) and a mainstay of the American chamber music scene.

ECCO w/ Jupiter Quartet

“Poetic, charismatic and virtuosic” (Sunday Telegraph), this London foursome combines youthful élan with a musical intelligence beyond their years. The Elias’s PCMS return promises “playing of wonderful exuberance and fire” (The Guardian) and insights gleaned from their ambitious “Beethoven Project” at Wigmore Hall in which the group performed the complete Beethoven string quartets to widespread acclaim.

Elias Quartet

The talented musicians performing in Ensemble Connect form “one of the strongest ensembles in the city” (New York Classical Review). Over the course of this two-year fellowship program, extraordinary young professionals perform a series of concerts that smartly bridges the history and future of classical music, from timeless Baroque music to new works. This program includes a Philadelphia premiere by Michi Wiancko, commissioned by Carnegie Hall; brilliant quintets by Mozart and R. Schumann; and Dark Wood by Pulitzer Prize winner Jennifer Higdon—a title that refers to the bassoon, used virtuosically throughout the piece.

Ensemble Connect

Lauded as a “charismatic star” by the Boston Globe, Fleur Barron makes her PCMS debut with a pianist near and dear to the Society in Julius Drake. The British-Singaporean mezzo has put together an evening of songs that speak to her and her heritage in a very personal way.

Fleur Barron, mezzo & Julius Drake, piano

A unique collaboration between outstanding young musicians and an expert on the music of J.S. Bach, the Gamut Bach Ensemble prides itself on stylistically sensitive, earnest, and insightful performances. Directed by Koji Otsuki, the Ensemble embarks on a program of cantatas in the luminous Church of the Holy Trinity.
Sarah Shafer, soprano; Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano; Daniel McGrew, tenor; Edward Vogel, baritone; Melissa Hooper & Kate Wegener, oboe; Jake Thonis, bassoon; Emilie-Anne Gendron & Miho Saegusa, violin; Ayane Kozasa, viola; Zachary Mowitz, cello; Nate West, double bass; Jonathan Oddie, organ; Koji Otsuki, director.

Gamut Bach Ensemble

Church of the Holy Trinity

Lauded for her “remarkable mastery of her instrument” (CVNC), 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant winning violinist Geneva Lewis joins forces with gifted young pianist Evren Ozel for a PCMS debut program offering masterworks by Beethoven and Bartók alongside Fazıl Say’s first violin sonata, a work suffused with Turkish motifs and dances.

Geneva Lewis, violin & Evren Ozel, piano

Russian-born Alina Ibragimova seemingly defies the laws of physics, playingwith an “immediacy and honesty” that collapses “any sense of distance between performer and listener” (The Guardian). For her Society debut, Ibragimova is joined by her long-standing recital partner Cédric Tiberghien, whose flourishing international career spans five continents. In the words of BBC Music Magazine, “Few players of this music combine such clarity and articulation with shimmering sparkle and virtuosic flair.”

Alina Ibragimova, violin & Cédric Tiberghien, piano

Acclaimed for their “bristling energy” and “febrile flair and panache” (Chicago Classical Review), the Grammy-nominated Imani Winds has carved out a distinct presence in the classical music world with its dynamic playing and culturally poignant programming. Featuring works by Cuban, Brazilian, Argentine, and Uruguayan-American composers, the group’s program reflects its deep commitment to enriching the traditional wind quintet repertoire.

Imani Winds

A national treasure in her native England, Imogen Cooper has become known for poetic, insightful interpretations and a rare ability to negotiate the composers’ shifting moods. “I try for a story to be told and to bring much color and difference of material to the sound in the piano,” Cooper says of her PCMS recital, which centers on treasured works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Liszt.

Imogen Cooper, piano

Possessing a “tone that draws in one’s ear with sounds and ideas that simply cannot be resisted” (Philadelphia Inquirer), flutist Julietta Curenton joins “leading new-music foursome” (New York Times) the JACK Quartet in a concert that includes the Philadelphia premiere of Iranian composer Aida Shirazi’s Vestiges. The program concludes with John Zorn’s Nachträglichkeit, a work for string quartet and flute that is full of surprises, from extremely quiet moments to unexpected, fast blows.

JACK Quartet & Julietta Curenton, flute

PCMS audiences will fondly recall Joélle Harvey’s “evenly weighted, luminousliquid soprano” (New York Times) from our Emerging Voices project. For her PCMS recital debut, the American soprano is joined by John Moore, a baritone of “handsome timbre, unflagging energy, and an easy command of the stage” (Seattle Times), and pianist Allen Perriello for a program that includes solos and duets and songs from the musical theater canon.
Program to include solos and duets by Cornelius, Schumann, and Brahms and a selection of musical theater songs.

Joélle Harvey, soprano; John Moore, baritone & Allen Perriello, piano

Among our most distinctive chamber music voices, Jonathan Biss applies his prodigious technique, artistic maturity, and eloquence to a recital program that ranges from Schubert and Schumann to a myth-inspired work by Amy Beth Kirsten—”one of America’s most innovative and visionary composers” (BBC Music Magazine)—before culminating in the triumphant and ecstatic radiance of Beethoven’s Op. 110.

Jonathan Biss, piano

Since its founding in 2018 by French lutenist Thomas Dunford, the Jupiter Ensemble has quickly established itself as a major force in the European early music scene. In this program dedicated entirely to Vivaldi, the musicians present an exuberant portrait of a composer whose solo works, operas, and oratorios are among the most timeless music of the Baroque period. The result is an overwhelming impression of “chamber music delightedly shared among friends” (Gramophone).

Jupiter Ensemble

Among the world’s leading bel canto tenors, Lawrence Brownlee has emerged as a pivotal voice for activism and diversity in classical music. His latest recital program, Rising, is dedicated to Black composers and writers, with text drawn from the Harlem Renaissance.

Lawrence Brownlee, tenor & Kevin Miller, piano

In its annual PCMS concert, the “genuinely exciting” (New York Times) Aizuri Quartet presents a program entitled Sunrise that traces a journey from darkness into dawn. Beginning with cellist Karen Ouzounian’s arrangement of Clara Schumann’s Ich stand in dunkeln Träumen (“I stood in dark dreams”) and ending with Haydn’s Sunrise quartet, the program also includes Sivunittinni by Canadian Inuk vocalist/composer Tanya Tagaq. Noted for the “sheer range of emotional and musical territory that she covers” (Ludwig van), Tagaq describes her string quartet as a piece of the land that speaks to humankind’s disconnect from nature.

Events in Philadelphia, PA

Brentano Quartet

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Castle of our Skins

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Cuarteto Casals

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Davóne Tines, bass-barito...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast - A ...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast: A l...

Artelize

The Artelize Podcast and ...

Artelize

Dover Quartet & Joseph Co...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

ECCO w/ Jupiter Quartet

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Elias Quartet

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Ensemble Connect

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Fleur Barron, mezzo & Jul...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Gamut Bach Ensemble

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Geneva Lewis, violin & Ev...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Alina Ibragimova, violin ...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Imani Winds

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Imogen Cooper, piano

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

JACK Quartet & Julietta C...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Joélle Harvey, soprano; J...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Jonathan Biss, piano

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Jupiter Ensemble

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Lawrence Brownlee, tenor ...

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society

Aizuri Quartet

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society