Find your perfect harmony among music-loving singles* in your age group by participating in 8-minute speed dates while enjoying catered appetizers on the historic Princeton University campus! Everyone will then head over to the concert hall to experience the trailblazing Isidore String Quartet. May you enjoy Isidore with a fellow music-lover you adore!

EPSG:4326

Do-Re-Meet

Princeton University

Breathe in sound and silence through guided meditation as you listen to music more viscerally than ever before, meditating to the playing of the Isidore String Quartet, guided by Matthew Weiner, Associate Dean in the Princeton University Office of Religious Life. This is a FREE, unticketed opportunity to indulge in attentive, focused, and mindful listening.

Live Music Meditation: Isidore String Quartet

Two of today’s finest string quartets become even more than the sum of their parts in octets by Felix Mendelssohn and George Enescu as they return to Princeton University Concerts the evening prior to heading to Carnegie Hall. These monumental works—each, incredibly, written by the prodigious composers in their teens—are quintessential representations of the form, showcasing the sonic power and rich, multilayered possibilities of an octet configuration.

Princeton University Concerts presents Ébène and Belcea String Quartets

The Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Masterclass Series presents a masterclass with celebrated oboist Elaine Douvas on Sunday, November 10th, at 2PM. The Series provides students from across campus the unique opportunity to connect one-on-one with renowned performers in a workshop format that is open to the public.

A Masterclass with Elaine Douvas, oboist

Since making his Princeton University Concerts (PUC) debut seven years ago when he was just 24-years-old, British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor has firmly established himself as one of the most important pianists to emerge in several decades. The program that he brings for his long-awaited return is a testament to the jaw-dropping range of his virtuosity — the profound intimacy of Brahms’ Intermezzi Op. 117 and the passion of Robert Schumann’s great Fantasy in C Major Op. 17 (“perhaps the most impassioned music I have ever written,” in the composer’s own words) will culminate with Mussorgsky’s fiendishly difficult and imaginative Pictures at an Exhibition. As the bells of the Great Gate of Kiev sound in the work’s grand finale, you will hear for yourself why this poet of the piano was named one of the top 50 pianists ever on record by Gramophone in 2023.

Princeton University Concerts presents Benjamin Grosvenor, Piano

At a time when very few artists take a clear political stand, piano legend Igor Levit speaks out on social and political issues often – on his social media channels, as a frequent guest on prominent European talk shows, playing at the national convention in Germany, performing at demonstrations on behalf of social inclusion, protesting climate change at his concerts, dedicating his albums to social causes, playing living room concerts on Twitter, and more. His commitment to using his platform and artistry for the betterment of the world has earned him the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Statue B of the International Auschwitz Committee, and Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. This has also come at a cost — Levit has played under police protection after receiving antisemitic death threats. This artist is the epitome of a musician-activist, and this event will be a fascinating way to get to know him as an individual in a conversation permeated by live performance, moderated by award-winning international correspondent for National Public Radio, Deborah Amos.

Princeton University Concerts presents “Pianist and Advocate for Change”

The Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Masterclass Series presents a masterclass with acclaimed pianist Min Kwon on Sunday, November 3rd, at 2PM. The Series provides students from across campus the unique opportunity to connect one-on-one with renowned performers in a workshop format that is open to the public.

A Masterclass with Min Kwon, pianist

A fly-on-the-wall documentary following pianist Igor Levit (who will appear at Princeton University Concerts on October 30 and November 3) from the final recordings of his Beethoven piano sonata cycle and into the beginning of Covid lockdown, when public music-making stopped and Levit gave a series of concerts from his apartment in Berlin. The film offers a fascinating look at the day-to-day life of a world-class artist: going from concert to studio to sleep, all the while feeding the social media beast, which will eventually turn into an important medium for Levit during Covid lockdown.

The Music of Strangers (Film)

Princeton Garden Theatre

Please join us for a performance by Princeton University’s top jazz small group opening for a return performance of the Princeton University faculty jazz sextet featuring Rudresh Mahanthappa (alto saxophone), Ted Chubb (trumpet), Michelle Lordi (voice), Matthew Parrish (bass), Jerome Jennings (drums) and special guest Charles Dutta ’27 (piano).

Jazz Small Group I and PU Faculty Jazz Sextet

James Moore presents a set of compositions for his acoustic ensemble The Hands Free. The set will feature a new song cycle on texts by Irish language poet Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill with English translations by Paul Muldoon.

James Moore: Music for The Hands Free

Igor Levit has become one of the “one of the essential artists of his generation” (The New York Times). Nine years after his Princeton University Concerts debut, he returns at long last with a program that combines his trademark interpretations of J.S. Bach and Johannes Brahms’ music with Liszt’s colossal transcription of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony — “Forget four-hands piano: Levit seemed to be playing with six or eight. He generated the breadth, force and baffling volume of a full orchestra,” wrote The New York Times following his performance of another Beethoven symphony at Carnegie Hall last season. Now we have the glorious opportunity of witnessing this transformation of the instrument by one of the most awe-inspiring pianists of our time.

Princeton University Concerts presents Igor Levit, Piano

Princeton University faculty member Juri Seo’s ‘Birds, Bees, Electric Fish’ is a 30-minute work that imagines the perceptual worlds experienced by non-human organisms. Scored for 2 flutists and 2 percussionists, it will be performed by flute and percussion duo Caballito Negro with guest performers. The program also features new works for the performers by faculty member Jason Treuting, and graduate student composers Hope Littwin and Isaac Santos.

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Juri Seo: ‘Birds, Bees, Electric Fish,’ Caballito Negro and guests

Princeton University Sinfonia presents their first concert of the 2024-25 season.

Princeton University Sinfonia in Concert

The Princeton University Glee Club joins the Ndlovu Youth Choir in concert.

Princeton University Glee Club with the Ndlovu Youth Choir

PSK’s second Mixtape concert for the academic year, in which various artists and ensembles—including star accordionist Iwo Jedynecki—perform new works by Princeton University graduate student composers Ellie Cherry, Gladstone Deluxe, Liam Elliot, Jeff Snyder, Max Vinetz, and Justin Wright.

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Mixtape 2

A relaxed performance curated for kids ages 3-6 and their families. Featuring host Rami Vamos and artists from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (“CMS”), this inclusive concert experience is adapted for neurodiverse audiences, including children with autism or other special needs. The performance is presented in a judgment-free environment, and is less formal and more supportive of sensory, communication, movement, and learning needs.

CMS Kids

Lewis Arts Complex

Join us at the Princeton Public Library to dive into national bestseller The Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer, a novel set in the aftermath of the Iranian revolution, in context of Princeton University Concerts’ upcoming event with renowned Iranian musician Kayhan Kalhor on Wednesday, February 12, 2025 at 7:30PM as part of the Healing with Music series. This hybrid in-person and virtual book group will culminate in a keynote event on Thursday, October 24, 2024 at 7PM (EST) on Zoom with award-winning international correspondent for National Public Radio Deborah Amos, whose reporting on the Middle East and refugees in the U.S. is regularly featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered, and Iranian-born, American author Dalia Sofer. Participants of this book club will be automatically registered for the keynote and will have the opportunity to pre-submit their questions to Deborah Amos and Dalia Sofer.

"The Septembers of Shiraz" by Dalia Sofer

Princeton Public Library

Imagination is often conceptualized as an entirely unbounded creative capacity that eludes empirical explanation. But methods have emerged that allow a more systematic investigation of complex, multimodal imaginings. Despite historical reliance on terminology that implies a complete disconnection between the imagination and the perceptual environment (“stimulus-independent thought”, “task-unrelated thought”), research has increasingly shown that aspects of the current environment can systematically influence the content and trajectory of mind-wandering and spontaneous thought.

Music-Evoked Imaginings Workshop

Legendary jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant returns with an ensemble of renowned improvisers from genres spanning early music, jazz, folk, and electronic music to create a new type of folk song inspired by timeless and universal stories. This original fusion of Baroque music, vaudeville, Sappho, and folkloric material of Europe and the Americas will be expressed through the voice of one of the most gifted vocalists and prolific storytellers of our time.

Princeton University Concerts presents Cécile McLorin Salvant, Vocals, and Friends

Inspired by the groundbreaking research carried out by the renowned ethnomusicologist and composer Béla Bartók during his time in Turkey in the 1930s, this concert juxtaposes compositions for string quartet, piano and traditional instrumental improvisations. Join Princeton faculty violinist, Anna Lim along with colleagues from Klasik Keyifler and the Hoppa Project, to explore the influence of Bartók at the intersection of traditional folk music and contemporary musical practices. We will perform works of his contemporaries including Akses, and Saygun who traveled with Bartók in Anatolia. Turkish composers Erberk Eryılmaz and Mahir Cetiz will offer new chamber works and co-moderate the program. In celebration of the many cultures of the region we will perform music of composers Komitas and Gurdjieff from the late Ottoman period. Oud virtuoso Ara Dinkjian and clarinet virtuoso İsmail Lumanovski will interweave improvised ’interludes” and traditional music from Anatolia. The US premiere of Cetiz’s new work “Laments and Dreams; a Meditation based on the works of Yaşar Kemal” will be presented.

In the Footsteps of Bartók: Collaborations and Improvisations

The Princeton University Orchestra presents its first program of the 2024-25 season, conducted by Michael Pratt. Kasey Shao ’25, winner of the 2023-24 Concerto Competition, will perform George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Princeton University Orchestra

Unruly Sounds, now in its eighth year, returns to Hinds Plaza for an afternoon of music. Mika Godbole of Mantra Percussion curates this annual celebration of original music from Princeton University’s graduate music program and other area-based musicians. The all-day event features a wide variety of post classical / contemporary grooves. As in past years, the festival promises to keep to its tradition of highlighting fresh sounds and new compositions. Festival-goers are encouraged to walk around, sit, and eat, and experience the music in a relaxed atmosphere—dancing is encouraged! The festival’s primary objective is to pair new compositions and original music with a casual ambience to encourage accessibility and dialogue between composers and the community. In case of rain, the festival will move inside to the Community Room. This event is sponsored by jaZams, Orvana, Princeton Public Library, Princeton Record Exchange, Princeton Sound Kitchen, and Small World Coffee.

Unruly Sounds Music Festival 2024

The Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), in collaboration with the 3D Audio and Applied Acoustics Lab (3D3A) present a unique spatial audio experience. Audiences will be immersed in a 3D audio system designed by Yue Qiao as part of his doctoral dissertation at Princeton. This system will place sound throughout the Lewis Arts Complex Forum space as an installation that occurs Sept 26th, 27th, 29th, and 30th, from 11am to 4pm. Music for the installation has been created by Claire Hu, Devin Greenwood, Yue Qiao, Moad Musbahi, Liam Elliot, and Tanay Mannikar. Additionally, PLOrk will perform a piece written for the system on September 27th at 5:30pm. Visitors are invited to move around and explore the sound environment! Free and open to the public.

Stand In Waves: Installation & Performance

Home Within is an audio-visual project of Syrian composer and clarinetist, Kinan Azmeh, and Syrian-Armenian visual artist, Kevork Mourad. In this work, art and music develop in counterpoint to each other, creating an impressionistic reflection on the Syrian revolution and its aftermath. Created with the intention of raising awareness for Syrian refugees, this work features original music by the clarinetist with live illustration depicting specific moments in Syria’s recent history. In addition to performing Home Within, the two artists — both members of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble — will join award-winning international correspondent for National Public Radio, Deborah Amos, to discuss the impact of war on our sense of “home,” and how they use image and sound to establish a sense of sustained urgency and continued hope for both their homeland and communities around the world.

Princeton University Concerts presents “Syria: Art in a Time of Crisis”

Join Princeton University Concerts (PUC) at the Princeton Garden Theatre for a screening of Grammy-nominated documentary The Music of Strangers, which follows members of the Silk Road Ensemble as they gather in locations across the world, exploring the ways art can both preserve traditions and shape cultural evolution. Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and producer Caitrin Rogers focus on the personal journeys of artists appearing this season at Princeton University Concerts: Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh (appearing with live illustrator Kevork Mourad on September 26), Iranian kamancheh player Kayhan Kalhor (appearing on February 12 and 13), Chinese pipa star Wu Man (appearing on February 13), and Galician bagpipe sensation and beloved past PUC artist Cristina Pato — to chronicle passion, talent, and sacrifice. Through these moving individual stories, the filmmakers paint a vivid portrait of a bold musical experiment and a global search for the ties that bind.

This portrait concert features three Decoda artists and celebrates Reza Vali’s unique accomplishments and artistic identity. Dedicated to championing the work of living composers, Decoda has a particular history working with Vali, and brings forth an especially committed and informed interpretation of his distinct musical voice. This performance also marks the premiere of a new version of Vali’s work ‘Mystery of the Rose’ for flute, cello and piano.

A Portrait Concert Celebrating Reza Vali

Chancellor Green Rotunda

Sō Percussion’s 2012 celebration of John Cage’s explosive legacy blew the roof off Carnegie’s Zankel Hall! More than a decade later, we have updated the program, which features both Cage’s work and that of our current collaborators, to include cutting-edge music along with Cage’s timeless provocations. Favorite works such as the ultra-virtuosic, genre-defining Third Construction mix with ethereal chance-based pieces to express the huge range of Cage’s ideas and influence. Other composers featured include Pauline Oliveros, Jason Treuting, Caroline Shaw, claire rousay, Pamela Z, and Dan Deacon. 

A John Cage Celebration with Sō Percussion

When does movement spill over from something we recognize as dance as an artistic and social form to something else? Something potentially otherworldly, whether ecstatic or demonic? This workshop explores medieval dance practices that went outside conventional and socially accepted frameworks, playing with the many meanings of bodily movement (and sometimes also sound) in the premodern period. Lunch will be provided.

Medieval Dance, Madness, Ecstasy: A Workshop

Woolworth Center

Princeton University graduate student composers present their original compositions.

WAY + Mixtape

Join your fellow music-lovers to read and discuss The Pianist from Syria: A Memoir by Aeham Ahmad — an astonishing account of a pianist’s escape from war-torn Syria. This hybrid in-person and virtual book group, presented in partnership with the Princeton Public Library, preludes Princeton University Concerts’ “Healing with Music” event on September 26, 2024 with Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and live illustrator Kevork Mourad featuring Home Within, an audio-visual project created in response to the Syrian revolution and its aftermath.

"The Pianist from Syria" by Aeham Ahmad

Princeton University ensemble-in-residence Sō Percussion perform two concerts—each with a different program—over two consecutive nights featuring new works by Princeton University graduate student composers. New works by Ellie Cherry, Francisco del Pino, Gladstone Deluxe, Kennedy Taylor Dixon, Liam Elliot, Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Bobby Ge, Hannah Ishizaki, Travis Laplante, Lucy McKnight, Christian Quiñones, Isaac Santos, Nathan Schram, Max Vinetz, and Justin Wright.

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Sō Percussion

Certificate Recital: Lana Utley, Voice

Rafael Collado ’24 (Voice) performs a senior recital.

Certificate Recital: Rafael Collado, Voice

Certificate Recital: Kimberly Shen, Piano

Final Concert for Music 106 – performance of the final projects from the class.

MUS 106 Final Concert

Certificate Recital: Tim Manley, Voice

Join the Princeton Flute Studio for an evening of flute music featuring Yevgeny Morozov, piano, and the Sinfonia Flute Ensemble! The recital is free and open to the public. The students will be performing works by Bach, Prokofiev, Jolivet, Telemann, and more.

Princeton Flute Studio Recital

Certificate Recital: Andrew Tao, Percussion

Join the members of the Princeton Vocal Consort for their Senior Recital performance, featuring motets, madrigals, jazz standards and more.

Vocal Consort Recital

Princeton University Chapel

Certificate Recital: Aster Zhang, Cello

MPP 219 presents two fully-staged performances of W.A Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.”  Directed by David Kellett and conducted by Ruth Ochs.

MPP 219: Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”

Students in Jazz at Princeton’s Small Groups perform a spring concert. Small Group 1, directed by Miles Okazaki, and Small Group Z, directed by Ted Chubb will play selections that are a mixture of classic jazz repertoire and contemporary compositions. 

Jazz Small Groups 1 and Z

Sinfonia concludes the season with a new work, The Broken Tree, by music major Toussaint Santicola Jones ’25, who has created his second symphonic work inspired by the art of Leonora Carrington. Two student musicians will take the stage as soloists with music exploring the beauty of two infrequently showcased instruments: the harp and the English horn. Dvořák’s final symphony also carries the title, “From the New World,” and is a tribute to the two years he spent living and teaching in the US. In his symphony, he blended European and American musical idioms into a  musical statement that is still widely popular.

Sinfonia Spring Concert

Certificate Recital: Haram Kim, Violin

Opus, Princeton’s undergraduate-run chamber music collective, presents the final concert of its tenth anniversary season, featuring works by composers ranging from Schumann and Ravel to Yuri Lee ’27.

Opus presents: Birthday Bash

“The willingness of the Brentano String Quartet to step in on such short notice is truly remarkable, and we are deeply indebted to them for their flexibility and commitment to our audience — a commitment rooted in the ensemble’s residency in the Princeton University Department of Music (1999–2014). This truly feels like the ultimate realization of our motto, ‘the world’s most celebrated musicians among friends,’ — because these musicians have in many ways become some of our best friends.”

Brentano String Quartet

Students in Projects in Instrumental Performance: Chamber Music (MPP 213) perform a chamber music concert, featuring works by Mozart, Schubert, Dvorak, and Beethoven.

MPP 213 Final Chamber Music Concert

Jazz Small Groups A & X present a program of music encompassing both the historical and the modern expressions of this great American art form.

Jazz Small Groups A & X

Free concert of masterworks arranged for large chamber ensemble, plus two world premieres by Princeton students

MPP 208 Players

Featuring music by Buxtehude, Biber, Hildegard von Bingen, and more.

Early Music Princeton Spring Concert

Certificate Recital: Nina Shih, Violin

Explore traditional music, Afrobeat, soukous, desert blues and Tuareg rock music from West and Central Africa, led by Director, Olivier Tarpaga.

African Music Ensembles Concert

Join La Vie En Cello, Princeton’s all-cello ensemble, for our Spring 2024 Concert “On Repeat!”, featuring arrangements for cello ensemble of wide-ranging hits such as Olivia Rodrigo’s “Vampire”, Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin ‘Bout You”, Mitski’s “My Love Mine All Mine”, the Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, and other works from Radiohead and Queen. La Vie En Cello is a multi-genre collective of Princeton cellists, tackling works from classical to rock to jazz. We are sure that after listening to our our-long program, you’ll be wanting to keep those songs going, On Repeat!

La Vie En Cello Presents: On Repeat!

Certificate Recital: Konstantin Howard, Saxophone

Certificate Recital: Rohit Oomman, Jazz Guitar

 JAZZ VOCAL COLLECTIVE (JVC) is a small jazz ensemble that features solo voice and a rhythm section (e.g. piano, guitar, bass, and drums) and horns to create a collaborative musical experience. Under the direction of Dr. Trineice Robinson-Martin, join JVC for a beautiful evening of songs from the great American songbook and beyond.

Jazz Vocal Collective Concert: Spring in Song

Princeton Arts Fellow Kamara Thomas presents the first developmental production of her new musical theater work Xulgaria, featuring students from her spring course, the Princeton Playhouse Orchestra and Choir and guest artists from across the country. In this dark but hopeful fairy tale, two friends find themselves in an underworld of eternal winter—Xulgaria. On their journey they must face the great Bird-women who are the land’s rulers as they search for Spring and retrieve the parts of themselves thought lost. A talkback will follow the performance.

Xulgaria, a musical fairytale and ritual for healing by Kamara Thomas

Princeton University Steel Band with Tiger Chunes

Following his appearance on Princeton University Concerts’ Concert Classics series with Mitsuko Uchida, PUC-fan-favorite pianist Jonathan Biss comes to the Healing with Music series alongside Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Adam Haslett for an intimate concert-conversation centered on anxiety, depression, and music. In addition to conversation and Q&A, the event will include live performance of piano works by Schubert and Schumann as well as excerpts from the author’s latest novel, Imagine Me Gone.

Jonathan Biss, Piano Adam Haslett, Writer

Certificate Recital: Adithya Sriram, Saxophone

Princeton Camerata’s spring concert, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet as well as student soloist Sara Shiff. Come see our talented musicians showcase their hard work!

Princeton Camerata Spring Concert

Certificate Recital: Isaac Yi, Saxophone

The Walter L. Nollner Memorial Concert – Dream of Gerontius

Gabriel Chalick ’24 (Jazz Trumpet) performs a senior recital.

Certificate Recital: Gabriel Chalick, Jazz Trumpet

This lecture reconsiders Mahler’s evolving reception of Nietzsche, focusing on the long-term impact of the philosopher’s break with Wagner. The release in April 1878 of Menschliches, Allzumenschliches pulled the rug from under a teenage composer already firmly committed to Wagnerian musical metaphysics as theorized in Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872). Eighteen years later, still smarting, he used the immense Third Symphony to stage a confrontation between the old and new Nietzsches, without settling the question. The early 1900s saw a harsh and dismissive new tack (related colorfully by a skeptical Alma Mahler), but soon an affinity for Nietzschean optimism and the ewige Wiederkehr emerged, albeit intermittently, in the creative works of the final decade. Through all these phases, Mahler grappled with a private ambivalence notably reminiscent of the traumas described in “Der Genesende,” Part III/13 of Also sprach Zarathustra. His difficulty coming to terms with Nietzsche thus seems itself Nietzschean, suggesting a deeper indebtedness than we have imagined.

Musicology Colloquium: Charles Youmans

The Princeton University Orchestra and Glee Club perform Edward Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, featuring soloists Anthony Dean Griffey, Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen ’15, and Andrew Foster Williams.

Princeton University second-year graduate student composers, in partial fulfillment of the General Examination, create new works in response to the work of other, established artists. Various artists and ensembles perform the new works. New works by Ellie Cherry, kennedy taylor dixon, Bobby Ge, Travis Laplante, and Nathan Schram.

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Generals Concert

The wind band has a rich and storied history, particularly in the United States (where it is often a young wind player’s first introduction to collaborative music making), with composers as well-known as Julie Giroux, John Philip Sousa, and Gustav Holst writing countless works for the medium. During our inaugural concert on April 14th, the Princeton University Wind Ensemble, Princeton University’s only concert band, will present works from both the traditional wind band canon and contemporary composers alike, including a special performance by the PUWE Chamber Brass Ensemble. Reception with refreshments to follow immediately afterward in the Lewis Center for the Arts Forum.

Princeton University Wind Ensemble Inaugural Concert

Certificate Recital: Albert Zhou, Viola

Certificate Recital: Soonyoung Kwon, Violin

Jazz Festival 2024

As the headliner of Jazz Festival 2024, Jazz at Princeton and the Program in Latin American Studies present the Creative Large Ensemble, directed by Darcy James Argue, with drummer/composer/MacArthur genius Dafnis Prieto.

Jazz Creative Large Ensemble

What are we supposed to make of a Renaissance mass whose audible engine is a lewd song? Cut Circle explores this question through the astonishingly ungroomed Missa L’ami Baudichon. The mass anchors a wide-ranging program of sacred and secular music by Josquin des Prez (1450–1521). 

Ungroomed Renaissance: Josquin’s Missa L’ami Baudichon; Songs and Motets

Certificate Recital: Amelia Kauffmann, Voice

In advance of Princeton University Concerts’ “Healing with Music” event Anxiety, Depression, and Music with pianist Jonathan Biss and writer Adam Haslett, begin the exploration with Biss’ audio book Unquiet: My Life with Beethoven into Haslett’s bestselling novel Imagine Me Gone through this book club presented in partnership with the Princeton Public Library.

"Imagine Me Gone" by Adam Haslett

South African soprano Golda Schultz has been gracing the stage of the world’s greatest opera houses—from the Metropolitan Opera to the Vienna State Opera. Equally at home in leading operatic roles as she is as a soloist with the world’s foremost orchestras and in the most venerated recital halls, she has quickly become a leading voice in a new generation of star singers. For her Princeton University Concerts debut, she brings the extraordinary warmth of her voice to a program hailed as “a love-letter to women in music” exploring themes of love, nature, folklore and belief from a distinctly female perspective. Discussing the program’s curation, she shares: “Emilie Mayer, whose music was never recorded, was a genius on the level with Beethoven, but she was forgotten the day after she died in 1883. Nadia Boulanger became one of the greatest pedagogues with a touch that defined American culture. Even when we forget these women, what they’ve done still remains.” 

Golda Schultz, Soprano / Jonathan Ware, Piano

As part of its tenth anniversary season, Opus, Princeton’s undergraduate-run chamber music collective, presents a collaborative concert with Penn Sforza, a newly formed club at the University of Pennsylvania dedicated to chamber music. The program will include works from the classical canon and selections from film scores.

Opus x Penn Sforza

This year, Saturday Morning Arts turns five! Join us for a joyous celebration of our Trenton and Princeton University students, featuring performances by Trenton Youth Dancers, Orchestra, Singers, and Theater. The event will conclude with a collaborative performance involving all four groups—a historic first for SMArts.

Saturday Morning Arts Fifth Anniversary Showcase

Pamela Z performs “Syrinx” for voice and electronics, along with other works.

Pamela Z Meets The Animal Song Collective

Choi Glass Box Theater

Princeton University Chamber Choir in association with the SSCM Conference presents Music in Memoriam: Singing about Death in Moscow, Salzburg, Dresden, Constantinople, and London. Featuring the Washington Cornett and Sackbutt ensemble, directed by Gabriel Crouch & Michael McCormick

Princeton University Chamber Choir: Music in Memoriam

Music has existed in human societies since prehistory, likely because it allows expression and regulation of emotion, and evokes pleasure. In this lecture I will present findings from cognitive neuroscience that bear on the question of how we get from perception of sound patterns to pleasurable responses. I will first discuss evidence that corticocortical loops from and to the auditory cortex are responsible not only for perceptual processes but also for working memory, sensory-motor, and predictive functions that are essential to produce and perceive music. Then, I will discuss neuroimaging and brain modulation studies from our lab focusing on the dopaminergic reward system, its involvement in musical pleasure, and what happens when that system is disrupted. I propose that pleasure in music arises from interactions between cortical loops that enable expectancies to emerge from perceived sound patterns, and subcortical systems responsible for reward and valuation. This model integrates knowledge derived from basic neuroscience of reward mechanisms with independently derived concepts, such as tension and anticipation, from music theory. It may also serve as a way of thinking more broadly about aesthetic rewards.

Musicology Colloquium: Robert Zatorre

Introducing Francesco Cavalli’s Veremonda, l’amazzone di Aragona

The 17th century was the time of the highest flowering of choral musical culture in Russia and Ukraine. This century was also the richest in the variety of musical styles of liturgical music. In the 16th century, based on medieval monody, two types of polyphonic music began to develop: Troestrochie and Demestvo. But almost all manuscripts of these polyphonic styles were composed in the mid-17th century. The medieval monody itself, or Znamenny chant, is closely related to the Byzantine melos of the 12th-14th centuries. Troestrochny and demestvenny polyphony are in no way related to Western European music; instead of the European major-minor modal system, the aesthetics of alternating consonances and dissonances, Old Russian polyphony relied on the ancient scale of Znamenny chant, and the polyphony created in this modal system sounded predominantly dissonant for the European listener.

Lecture and Masterclass: Slavonic plainchant and 17th century early Russian polyphony

The Society for Seventeenth-Century Music (SSCM) will hold its annual meeting this spring at the Princeton University, April 4-7, 2024.  Hosted by the Department of Music, with the support of the Program in Human Values, the Council of the Humanities, the Program in Italian Studies, the Department of Art and Archaeology, the Department of French and Italian, and the Department of Comparative Literature, the conference will feature three days of scholarly presentations, a dance workshop, lightening talks for graduate students, and two concerts, including excerpts from Wendy Heller’s new critical edition (Bärenreiter) Cavalli’s Veremonda l’amazzone di Aragona (1652), featuring guest countertenor Lawrence Zazzo, musicians and singers from Early Music Princeton, conducted by Michael Pratt; and a concert by the Princeton University Chamber Choir (“Music in Memoriam: Singing about Death in Moscow, Salzburg, Dresden, Constantinople, and London”), presented by the Princeton University Chamber Choir, conducted by Gabriel Crouch, with the Washington Cornet and xSackbut Ensemble, directed by Michael Holmes.   The conference sessions will be held primarily in Taplin Auditorium.

Annual Meeting for the Society of Seventeenth-Century Music

“Jonathan and I share the deep conviction that you can never really know all there is to know about great music,” remarks Mitsuko Uchida, one of the world’s most revered Schubert interpreters, “and that it’s worth spending your whole life trying to know a little more.” Perhaps that is one of the many reasons that we cannot get enough of these two beloved pianists, both of whom have made multiple appearances on our series. Now making their PUC debut as a duo in a rare joint recital, the legendary pair invites us to try to know a little more about Schubert with a program singularly focused on this composer, whose many works for piano four-hands were written for friends gathered at evening salons. And so we will have our own “Schubertiade,” as these events came to be known, in the ultimate realization of PUC’s tagline: “the world’s most celebrated musicians among friends.”

Jonathan Biss, Piano / Mitsuko Uchida, Piano

Gavin Steingo in dialogue with Gary Tomlinson

PLOrk, (the Princeton Laptop Orchestra) presents “PLOrk: Sound System“, featuring guest artists Evan Chapman (drummer of Square Peg Round Hole) and light artist Ezra Masch. This special program, performed on electronic and acoustic instruments, features a custom-built drum-controlled light sculpture installation, two enormous subwoofer speakers that are activated by climbing inside them, a strange multiplayer video game where the performers turn screen pixels directly into sound, and a piece that uses the audience’s cellphones as its instrument. 

PLOrk: Sound System

A concert featuring solo shakuhachi (bamboo flute) by Riley Lee, with special guests, Barbara White, Elizabeth Brown and Ned Rothenberg. Riley Lee will perform traditional pieces from the Zen Buddhist-inspired ‘honkyoku’ (Original Pieces) of Japan, music from 12th century Europe and contemporary duets with their composers.

Yearning for the Bell

Princeton University performance faculty, distinguished guest artists and supremely talented students takes us back to January 14, 1914 France when Maurice Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé, a sequence of three art songs based on poems by Stéphane Mallarmé for soprano, two flutes, two clarinets, piano, and string quartet, received its world premiere. The ensemble recreates the program of that concert, featuring works by Ravel’s French contemporaries.

Richardson Chamber Players 2024

Internationally acclaimed cellist Colin Carr works with talented Princeton University students in a free workshop, sponsored by the Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Masterclass Series. A concert will be held after the masterclass with Colin Carr, presenting Franz Schubert’s Sonata per violoncello e pianoforte D 821 “Arpeggione,” Benjamin Britten’s Suite no.3 op 87  for solo cello, and Sergei Rachmaninoff encore for cello and piano, with pianist Donna Weng Friedman ’80.

A Masterclass with Colin Carr, Cellist

Kasey Shao Junior Piano Recital

Much of our understanding of musical history aligns with the borders that have either previously or are today drawn by empires. The central narrative of Western music history is one that aligns with the statecraft of European, and later North American, empires and their politics and identities. Yet recent efforts at decolonization and broadening the repertoire have pushed us to look beyond the stories told by the victors, which often distort if not entirely omit histories that do not uphold their legacies. The need for these efforts surrounding the musics of formerly colonized groups, particularly and often the cultures of people of color is most glaring. However, similar deconstructions of hegemonic story-telling in more unlikely, European spaces, also prove to be a rich and fruitful endeavor.

Musicology Colloquium: Leah Batstone

Cheryl E. Leonard is a composer, performer, field recordist, and instrument builder whose works investigate natural sites and ecosystems, and human relationships to them. She uses microphones and amplification to explore sonic intricacies, highlighting unique voices and soundscapes while addressing environmental issues. Her projects often feature sculptural natural-object instruments and field recordings from remote locales. Leonard’s musical research has taken her to a wide range of wilderness areas, including Antarctica and the Arctic. Her works have been presented in concerts and art exhibitions in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Australasia. Grants awarded include the Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, American Music Center, American Composers Forum, and ASCAP. Commissions include works for Kronos Quartet, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Funsch Dance. Leonard’s recordings are available on Other Minds, mappa, Gilgongo, and numerous other labels. www.allwaysnorth.com

Composition Colloquium: Cheryl Leonard

Flute, clarinet, violin, and cello ensemble Hub New Music performs new works by Princeton University faculty composer Donnacha Dennehy and graduate student composers Francisco del Pino, Aliayta Foon-Dancoes, Hope Littwin, Elijah Daniel Smith and Max Vinetz.

Princeton Sound Kitchen presents Hub New Music

“Beethoven Meets Haydn” — Take an exciting adventure through time as we meet Franz Joseph Haydn and his equally famous student, Ludwig van Beethoven. Through music for the piano trio, we learn about the connection between these great composers. Join musicians from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and host Rami Vamos for this one-hour program of fun for the whole family.

Adventures in Chamber Music (Family Concert)

“One of the finest quartets of our time, the Hagen [Quartet] … comes too rarely to our shores,” proclaims the Washington Post. Having recently celebrated its 40th anniversary, the most senior and venerated of the European quartets finally returns to PUC with a program most fitting for the occasion. The infrequency of their American tours makes each visit all the more special – an attribute reflected in the rare beauty of a Haydn string quartet in a minor key and in the startling beauty of Debussy’s only string quartet, which they will perform. The ensemble will leave us with one of Beethoven’s final works – a masterpiece that set the future of music on a new axis, leaving behind everything that came before. Hearing it performed by the Hagen Quartet, a group that has consistently set a new standard throughout its storied career, similarly promises to be a defining moment in PUC’s history. 

Hagen String Quartet

Following Princeton University Concerts’ “Healing with Music” event exploring the intersection of Music, Dance, & Parkinson’s the day prior, learn more about the Mark Morris Dance Group’s Dance for PD® program through this award-winning documentary that follows individuals with Parkinson’s as they prepare to stage a first-ever dance performance. Through determination, adversity, and contending with doubt, “Capturing Grace” highlights the transformative power of art and the strength of the human spirit.

Capturing Grace

On Monday, March 4 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Taplin Auditorium on the Princeton campus, Boris Petrushansky will work with young pianists from the Princeton University Music Department. The masterclass is free and open to the public and made possible by Legacy Arts International’s partnership with the Music Department at Princeton University.

Masterclass with Boris Petrushansky

“What happens to me when my feet feel like glue and they’re stuck on the floor — I sometimes cannot walk, but I can dance…the music leads me to a place where I am weightless” shares Cyndy, a participant of Dance for PD® (Parkinson’s Disease). Developed by the Mark Morris Dance Group into a model for classes in more than 300 communities and 25 countries, the program applies the insight and techniques used by dancers to guide their own bodies and minds to benefit people with Parkinson’s. Join us for an experiential panel, led by Dance for PD®’s founding teacher and Program Director David Leventhal and including local experts from the Princeton University faculty, that explores the intersection of music, dance, and Parkinson’s. The event will include a performance by local Dance for PD® participants of adapted Mark Morris choreography, set to live music performed by PUC fan favorite cellist Joshua Roman.

Dance for PD®

Our resident ensemble of Princeton University performance faculty and talented students presents a Sunday-afternoon program of songs with and without words written by female composers on both sides of the Atlantic.  Songs for mezzo-soprano and piano by prolific lieder composer Josephine Lang and for mezzo-soprano and mixed chamber ensemble by Dame Ethel Smyth bookend the program, with works for string quartet, solo piano, and flute, viola, and harp, that reference American, Jamaican, and European song and poetry in between.

Princeton University Concerts presents the Richardson Chamber Players Fall Concert

The much-celebrated, Grammy-winning vocal ensemble makes its return for a classic holiday program of a cappella choral music, ranging from Renaissance masterworks to roof-raising spirituals within the magical setting of the Princeton University Chapel.

Princeton University Concerts presents Chanticleer Vocal Ensemble

Ask any young violinist which professional artist they most revere, and they will most likely respond: Janine Jansen. Ask any violin aficionado, in fact, and they will say the same. This superstar Dutch violinist is in high demand by the world’s most prestigious venues, and at last she makes her Princeton University Concerts debut with Queen Elisabeth Competition laureate Denis Kozukhin performing some of the most beloved works for violin and piano duo in the repertory.

Princeton University Concerts presents Janine Jansen, Violin, and Denis Kozhukhin, Piano

Get to know pianist Sir Stephen Hough before he makes his Princeton University Concerts debut (Thursday, February 20, 2025 with the Takács String Quartet) by reading his Financial Times Book of the Year collection of essays on music and life, as part of this hybrid in-person and virtual book group presented in partnership with the Princeton Public Library. The book group will culminate in a keynote event with Sir Stephen Hough on Friday, January 10, 2025 at 12:30PM (EST) on Zoom. Participants of this book club will be automatically registered for the keynote and will have the opportunity to pre-submit their questions to Sir Stephen Hough.

"Rough Ideas" by Stephen Hough

In 1988, philosophy student Christian Gerhaher asked his friend Gerold Huber to read through some of Robert Schumann’s vocal works. Fast forward three decades, and the duo — firmly established as “the greatest partnership in singing” (The New York Times) — released an award-winning 11-disc box set of nearly 300 of the composer’s songs on the Sony label. Having brought their expertise to the world’s most venerated concert hall, they now make their Princeton University Concerts debut sharing some of these gems in a program that places Schumann’s lesser-known lieder alongside his beloved Liederkreis, Op. 39, deemed one of the greatest song cycles of the 19th century. This is an unmissable opportunity to immerse in the composer’s vocal writing performed by the one of the most fascinating lieder duos of our time.

Princeton University Concerts presents Christian Gerhaher, Baritone and Gerold Huber, Piano

The Djibouti-French 28-year-old phenom makes his Princeton University Concerts debut amid his meteoric rise as the new voice of classical guitar. In an hour-long program — grounded in translating works originally written for baroque instruments into the vibrant soundscape of the guitar — he will showcase some of the music included in his debut album for the Deutsche Grammophon as one of the only guitarists to have ever been signed by this storied label.

Princeton University Concerts presents Raphaël Feuillâtre, Guitar

In the wake of the Iranian revolution, teenage Kayhan Kalhor left his homeland and family with nothing but a backpack and his beloved kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument) in tow. Since that time, he has built an international reputation as one of the most famous performers and composers from Iran — touring with the New York Philharmonic; collaborating with John Adams as part of Carnegie Hall’s Perspectives Series; being nominated for five GRAMMY Awards; and winning a 2017 GRAMMY Award with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, of which he is an original member. And yet, the constantly shifting political situations in Iran and the U.S. have continued to complicate both his personal and his professional life. Get to know this extraordinary individual, who has continuously put his dedication to music and his culture above profound loss, anti-Muslim sentiment, and political unrest, in a conversation permeated by live performance, moderated by award-winning international correspondent for National Public Radio, Deborah Amos.

Princeton University Concerts presents “Finding Home in the Music of Iran”

Breathe in sound and silence through guided meditation as you listen to music more viscerally than ever before, meditating to the playing of kamancheh (Iranian spiked fiddle) player Kayhan Kalhor, guided by Matthew Weiner, Associate Dean in the Princeton University Office of Religious Life. This is a FREE, unticketed opportunity to indulge in attentive, focused, and mindful listening.

Princeton University Music Department

Nov 24, 2024

Princeton University Concerts presents the Richardson Chamber Players Fall Concert

Dec 7, 2024

Princeton University Concerts presents Chanticleer Vocal Ensemble

Dec 11, 2024

Princeton University Concerts presents Janine Jansen, Violin, and Denis Kozhukhin, Piano

Jan 2, 2025

"Rough Ideas" by Stephen Hough

Jan 2, 2025

"Rough Ideas" by Stephen Hough

Nov 20, 2024 - Feb 13, 2025

Do-Re-Meet

Nov 20, 2024

Live Music Meditation: Isidore String Quartet

Princeton University Music Department