Get ready to immerse yourself in the enchanting compositions of Robert Schumann, performed by world-renowned musicians across various cities. From the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s chamber music event in Lenox featuring Yo-Yo Ma, to the Boston Artists Ensemble’s ‘Enchanted Spheres’ in Salem, and the Celebrity Series of Boston’s concerts spanning Boston, Groton, and Cambridge, there’s something for every classical music enthusiast. Highlights include Emanuel Ax’s recital featuring Schumann’s exquisite Arabeske, the Dover Quartet’s rendition of Schumann’s String Quartet No. 1, and Julia Fischer and Jan Lisiecki’s performance of Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 2.

Celebrating Schumann: Unmissable Musical Events in Lenox, Salem, Boston, Groton, and Cambridge

Experience the magic of Robert Schumann's compositions in Boston and Groton this season. The Celebrity Series of Boston presents a stellar lineup featuring Emanuel Ax's piano mastery, Dover Quartet's chamber music brilliance, Lang Lang's expressive recital, and a captivating violin and piano duo by Julia Fischer and Jan Lisiecki. From Schumann’s Arabeske and Fantasie to his String Quartet No. 1 and Violin Sonata No. 2, these events promise unforgettable musical journeys.

Celebrate Robert Schumann: Boston and Groton Host Classical Music Extravaganza

Boston is set to become a haven for classical music and ballet lovers with an array of performances celebrating the timeless works of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. From the enchanting Nutcracker at the Citizens Opera House to the Dover Quartet's riveting performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, and the emotionally charged Swan Lake back at the Citizens Opera House, there's something for everyone. Don't miss the Winter Experience featuring Balanchine's Mozartiana, a neoclassical ballet set to Tchaikovsky's stunning Suite No.4, Mozartiana.

Celebrate Tchaikovsky in Boston: The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Dover Quartet, and Winter Experience

Immerse yourself in the timeless brilliance of Ludwig van Beethoven with an array of electrifying events across Boston, Groton, and Cambridge. Join us for an unforgettable journey through Beethoven’s masterworks, featuring performances by Emanuel Ax, the Vista Philharmonic Orchestra, and Yulianna Avdeeva. Experience the extraordinary as these world-renowned artists bring Beethoven's legendary compositions to life.

Celebrate Beethoven in Boston, Groton, and Cambridge with Emanuel Ax and More!

Boston is all set to be swept away by the magic of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's timeless compositions. From the enchanting journey of 'The Nutcracker' at the Citizens Opera House, to the gripping tale of 'Swan Lake', these performances promise to captivate audiences. Adding to the musical feast is the Dover Quartet's recital at the New England Conservatory of Music, featuring Tchaikovsky's moving first string quartet. Also on stage is George Balanchine's 'Winter Experience', celebrating the beauty of Tchaikovsky's 'Mozartiana' at the Citizens Bank Opera House. Dive into this celebration of classical music and ballet in the heart of Boston!

A Tchaikovsky Extravaganza: Boston Celebrates with The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and More

Experience a cultural extravaganza with the Celebrity Series of Boston as it brings together an eclectic mix of performances showcasing the diversity and richness of music, dance, and art. From the orchestral magic of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' to the dynamic rhythms of Dafnis Prieto’s Sí o Sí Quartet, each event promises to be a unique exploration of artistic expression. Join us as we delve into the stories and sounds that make each performance a memorable celebration of creativity.

Celebrating Diversity Through Music and Art: A Journey with Celebrity Series of Boston

The gospel choir’s talent and dedication captured the world’s attention when they sang at the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in 2018. With just one performance, the choir wowed a global audience, and achieved a new level of fame and renown. As they perform all over Britain and the world, the group’s foundational values shine through, keeping them committed to each other and to sharing their talents with delighted audiences. 

EPSG:4326

The Kingdom Choir 

Berklee College of Music

In their engaging, thoughtful, and approachable concerts, they invite listeners to experience the familiar and the unfamiliar, often pairing folk songs from around the world with contemporary chamber and classical selections and pop culture treats from film and anime.

Stringfest: Rasa String Quartet

Salvation Army Kroc Center

Race and Song was born in 2020 out of a deep bond and nearly 30-year friendship between veteran musicians and storytelling troubadours Reggie Harris and Alastair Moock. Together in musical conversation, the two musicians from different backgrounds explore complex issues of race, class, gender, and history. They frame their lived experiences through music for a program that’s as entertaining as it is educational.

Reggie Harris & Alastair Moock

In this What Makes It Great? performance, Kapilow shares how Gershwin’s compositional choices set the work apart. In teaching audiences to listen to works, not simply hear them, he demonstrates how rhythmic, harmonic, and stylistic moments can defy expectations and delight audiences. Kapilow illustrates what made Rhapsody in Blue both an immediate sensation in its time and an enduring, era-defining piece of American art. 

What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow: Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

New England Conservatory of Music

Cellist Alisa Weilerstein and pianist Inon Barnatan reunite for their fourth appearance together on the Series since their joint debut in 2008. After nearly two decades of shared stages, collaborative recordings, and various other artistic projects, their profound artistic connection and heartfelt camaraderie radiate with every performance. 

Alisa Weilerstein, cello & Inon Barnatan, piano

One hundred years ago, Martha Graham started a conversation to redefine contemporary dance and the social, psychological, and sexual ideas it can portray. Her celebrated company perpetuates this legacy, keeping her choreography fresh and vital—solidifying Graham as an essential American artist.  

Martha Graham Dance Company 

Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre

The magnificent Berliner Philharmoniker returns to Symphony Hall under the baton of Music Director Kirill Petrenko, revealing the intricacies and majesty of Bruckner’s monumental Fifth Symphony. Renowned for their clarity and roster-wide virtuosity, the orchestra draws out every detail of Bruckner’s writing: evocative and questioning woodwinds, spacious brass, and propulsive strings. 

Berliner Philharmoniker 

Boston Symphony Orchestra

South African piano titan Abdullah Ibrahim makes his Celebrity Series debut after decades of performance, composition, and activism. The Cape Town of his youth provided a rich assortment of influences—from homegrown rhythms to Western themes—giving his music dynamic texture, depth, and diversity. 

Abdullah Ibrahim Trio

Flamenco artist Nino de los Reyes returns to the Neighborhood Arts series with Uno más de la banda ("one more member of the band"), a new program that brings together music and dance in thrilling ways. Nino, the only dancer to win a Grammy Award for his musical contributions to Chick Corea and the Spanish Heart Band’s album Antidote, makes his steps, claps, and vocalizations an essential part of the music. In this show, the bailador in the spotlight becomes another member of the band.

Nino de los Reyes Flamenco Ensemble

Roxbury Community College

Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa) is the author of thirteen bestselling cookbooks, a beloved Food Network personality, Instagram sensation, and cultural icon, with millions of followers in the US and abroad. She is the host of Be My Guest and Barefoot Contessa on Food Network and Max, for which she has won five Emmy Awards and three James Beard Awards.

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: An Evening Conversation with Ina Garten

In their Celebrity Series debut, the Castalian Quartet unveils a diverse repertoire that showcases their versatility and depth. From the nuanced moods, rich allusions, and intricate textures of Schubert to Kurtág’s collection of disparate miniature sound worlds; and from the sprightly and stately dances by Coleridge-Taylor to Beethoven’s Serioso Quartet, full of experimental techniques that set the stage for the composer’s later period, their program is a vivid journey through the landscape of classical music. 

Castalian String Quartet 

Longy School of Music of Bard College

“One of jazz piano’s most brazenly virtuosic players” (The New York Times), Grammy Award-winning pianist Hiromi returns to Celebrity Series following her explosive solo debut, with her latest project, Sonicwonder. Celebrating her 2023 album Sonicwonderland, this tour reunites the powerhouse ensemble of French bassist Hadrien Feraud, drummer Gene Coye, and trumpeter Adam O’Farrill. Together, they create an all-electric wonderland of thrilling improvisation, funky arrangements, and exuberant music-making. 

Hiromi’s Sonicwonder 

Through her performances, participatory workshops, community festivals at her East Boston cultural center, and even an official elote cart, Veronica Robles never misses a chance to share the beauty and diversity of Latin American cultures with Bostonians from all backgrounds.

Veronica Robles Female Mariachi

Arlington Street Church

Since coming together as a quartet in 1993 and making their debut in 1996, the Jerusalem Quartet has impressed critics and moved audiences with striking interpretations of time-tested quartet repertoire and beyond. The members of this foursome have grown together as artists, becoming “a virtuosic ensemble with a glorious, meaty sound and irresistible panache” (The Guardian).  

Jerusalem Quartet

Pianist and bandleader John Paul McGee makes his Celebrity Series concert debut with his Jazz Quartet. Dr. McGee and his band blend gospel, jazz, and classical music into an entertaining and uplifting style that he calls “Gospejazzical.”

John Paul McGee Jazz Quartet

Bethel A.M.E. Church

In the intervening years, Lewis returned as a solo recitalist, recital partner, and orchestral soloist, always drawing praise for the deftness, shading, and intelligence of his interpretations. Celebrated as the “world’s most compelling interpreter of Schubert piano music” (The Arts Desk), Lewis returns this season, once again immersed in a worldwide recital tour of the composer’s final three sonatas. These introspective and profound works offer endless opportunities for reflection, and we invite you to experience—again or for the first time—these masterworks with the brilliant Paul Lewis. 

Paul Lewis, piano 

Experience the timeless masterpiece of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" like never before with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at NEC's Jordan Hall on Friday, October 18th at 8:00 PM. Under the artistic direction of celebrated violinist Richard Tognetti, this unique performance promises to breathe new life into Vivaldi’s iconic work. The Australian Chamber Orchestra, known for their innovative and imaginative collaborations, will be joined by the exceptional talents of brothers Joseph Tawadros, a virtuoso of the oud (Middle Eastern lute), and James Tawadros, a master of the riq (tambourine-like instrument). This collaboration offers a stunning recasting of "The Four Seasons," blending the rich musical traditions of Venice and the Middle East for an unforgettable auditory journey. Don't miss this opportunity to experience one of the most rhapsodic, lyrical, and explosive interpretations of Vivaldi's work.

Australian Chamber Orchestra The Four Seasons

The two sonatas of Beethoven’s Opus 27, rarely heard together, throw the form’s rules aside: tempo, structure, and flow are at the composer’s whim. Ax pairs the two works with Schumann's exquisite Arabeske, and his virtuosic showpiece Fantasie in C Major, dedicated to Liszt and published to raise funds for a statue of Beethoven in Bonn. Corigliano's Fantasia on an Ostinato reflects on an unconventional passage from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony to create a modern-day showpiece.

Emanuel Ax, piano

Groton Hill Music Center

Saxophonist, pianist, and composer Edmar Colón returns to Neighborhood Arts with his Quartet, featuring two very special guests: multi-Grammy winning drummer Terri Lyne Carrington and pianist Kris Davis. This stellar band performs new and original songs by Edmar alongside timeless classics from his native Puerto Rico.

Edmar Colón Jazz Quartet

Fabiola Méndez, the Boston Music Awards 2023 Latin Artist of the Year, blends Folk, Afro-Caribbean, and Jazz to create a sound all her own on the ten-string Puerto Rican cuatro.

Fabiola Méndez Quartet

With her compelling music, she elegantly blends her culturally-rooted Turkish musical traditions, classical music, and contemporary influences from jazz and fusion. Music is Soydemir's playground: she is a master of exploring and representing a composer’s imagination while performing, and discovering new visions, options, and colors while arranging music. 

Summer 2024: Yağmur Soydemir

Tobin Community Center

Ivanna Cuesta is a talented and versatile Dominican drummer and composer. A Berklee College of Music alumna, she completed a double specialization in Performance and Writing/Contemporary Translation. During her time at Berklee, she had the opportunity to work and be mentored by Wayne Shorter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Neal Smith, and Esperanza Spalding, among others.

Summer 2024: Ivanna Cuesta

Boston native Zakiyyah is an artist-activist who has had the pleasure of performing for numerous audiences from the House of Blues, to the Boston Symphony Hall, and more recently, the United Nations.

Summer 2024: Zakiyyah

Venezuelan pianist Leo Blanco performs with his trio, bringing you that pays tribute to one of the greats, with a Latin twist. Latinious Monk is inspired by the works of jazz piano genius Thelonious Monk, heard through Leo Blanco's own Latin jazz influences. Blanco, an acclaimed pianist now on the faculty at Longy and Berklee, grew up in the Venezuelan Andes, where he absorbed folk music that blended American, Afro-Caribbean, and European influences. 

Leo Blanco Trio

Roxbury Branch of the Boston Public Library

Three all-time greats come together for a rare evening of intimate duets. Winner of seven Grammy and four Latin Grammy Awards, the Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz and a perennial Celebrity Series audience favorite.

Duets – Dianne Reeves, Chucho Valdés, and Joe Lovano

An Ailey performance is always a special experience. From the moment the house lights dim until the jubilant curtain calls at the end of Revelations, a performance by the “phenomenal” and “electrifying” (TV host Tamron Hall) dancers of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will excite you, inspire you, and uplift you.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Boch Center

Jakub Hrůša, a “serious, thoughtful conductor” (ArtsDesk) whose star is on the rise around the world, leads the Bamberg Symphony in this all-German, all-Romantic program. Hrůša makes his Celebrity Series debut, and the orchestra has appeared on the Series once before, in the 1983/84 season. It’s a rare treat to welcome them back to Boston.

Bamberg Symphony, Jakub Hrůša, conductor

Symphony Hall

Since the group’s inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared around the world to popular and critical acclaim. “Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding,” raves the London Independent; The New York Times extols the Quartet’s “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism.”

Digital Concert: Brentano String Quartet

“My best advice is never to pass up an opportunity to hear the Brentano String Quartet,” raves The Strad, citing the group’s intensity, commitment, and intelligent interpretations.

Brentano String Quartet

New England Conservatory

Don’t miss an unforgettable musical performance that illustrates how traditions treasured by Africans enslaved on sugar plantations shaped musical styles across Latin America. Hear how African influences have endured and evolved across the centuries in today’s Latin music and culture.

Leo Blanco and The Sugar Road Ensemble

Yo-Yo Ma is an icon around the world for his staggering talent and extraordinary technique, his warmth and charisma, and his zest for musical partnerships. Whether he’s appearing as an orchestral soloist, with any number of chamber music partners, or collaborating with the biggest stars in bluegrass, he draws audiences in with compelling, committed performances.

Yo-Yo Ma, cello and Kathryn Stott, piano

Two brilliant artists come together as a chamber music duo for the first time on the Series: violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Kirill Gerstein join forces for a program featuring sonatas by Janáček, Bartók, and Brahms, as well as a work by György Kurtág. The program also includes a new piano suite by Thomas Adès based on his opera The Tempest; these artists premiered the work in Europe in 2022, and will give the Boston premiere of the suite at this concert. 

Christian Tetzlaff, violin and Kirill Gerstein, piano

The Rasa String Quartet explores the musical space where classical and global folk traditions intersect and influence one another, inspiring curiosity and powerful emotions. They bring together folk selections and highlights from anime and film scores from Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese backgrounds in this fascinating and beautiful program. 

Rasa String Quartet

Standout Jerusalem-based contemporary dance company Vertigo returns to Boston with Artistic Director Noa Wertheim’s newest work MAKOM.  The work, whose title derives from the Hebrew for “place,” is described as “a perpetual search of a return to the place that brings us closer to ourselves.” 

Vertigo Dance Company

Spend an evening with a true Broadway legend as three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone returns to Celebrity Series with a brand-new program, A Life in Notes. In this personal musical memoir, LuPone, backed by her band, shares the indelible songs that define her life on and off the stage. 

Patti LuPone

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.

Isidore String Quartet

Canadian pianist Bruce Liu, launched on the fast track to classical superstardom when he won the 18th Chopin Competition in 2021, makes his Boston debut at Jordan Hall.

Bruce Liu, piano

Five-time Grammy Award winner Mark Lettieri makes his in-person Celebrity Series debut with his group in this Stave Sessions concert. He creates acclaimed guitar-based instrumental music and is a member of leading jazz fusion collective Snarky Puppy and The Fearless Flyers. As a session musician proficient in a multitude of styles, he has recorded and performed in virtually every genre of popular music with both independent and major-label artists.

Mark Lettieri Group

Somerville Theatre

Three acclaimed musicians and longtime Neighborhood Arts favorites -- violinist and erhu player Shaw Pong Liu, cello innovator Mike Block, and tabla virtuoso Sandeep Das -- come together as the Soul Yatra Trio to showcase folk music from around the world, revealing new beauty in traditional melodies. The Trio will share folk tunes from China, India, and the United States, as well as new and original works.

Stringfest, featuring Soul Yatra Trio

Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan, as Chromic Duo, use toy pianos, “real” pianos, electronics, and multimedia to uncover truths and reimagine human connection. Their program Room of Oceans invites audiences to reflect on the question, “how can we create moments of connection and empathy?” Through a series of new commissions and nature-inspired works by Chopin, Ravel, Olafur Arnalds, and Brian Eno, and commissions from Cassie Wieland, and Nyokabi Kariũki, Chromic creates a space for audience members to reflect on their current state of being and experience an undercurrent of dynamic emotions.

Chromic Duo

“One of the 21 composers / performers who sound like tomorrow” (The Washington Post), JIJI is equally at home on acoustic and electric guitar, and is the first guitarist to win the prestigious Concert Artists Guild Award in 30 years. She is a must-hear, once-in-a-generation artist. Her program, Classical Goes Electric, begins in the Italian Renaissance and ends in the present day, bringing together composers like Paganini, Tania León, Steve Reich, and JIJI herself. 

JIJI

In Ki moun ou ye, flutist, vocalist, and composer Nathalie Joachim takes us through an intimately staged song cycle that ponders the titular question: “Who are you?” Performed in both English and Haitian Kreyòl, the immersive work weaves a vibrant tapestry of Joachim’s live voice, and intricate electronically sampled vocal textures underscored by an acoustic instrumental ensemble.

Nathalie Joachim

Two young superstars lead the way when the Orchestre de Paris makes a return to Celebrity Series for the first time since 1993/94 with three important pieces that all premiered in the City of Light.  

Orchestre de Paris, Klaus Mäkelä, conductor

Grammy-nominated composer and conductor Miho Hazama is one of the most promising and talented composers/arrangers of her generation. Lauded in DownBeat as one of “25 for the Future” and an ASCAP Foundation awardee for Best Young Jazz Composer, Hazama creates inventive, complex, and surprising compositions for m_unit, the 13-piece jazz chamber orchestra that she leads.

Miho Hazama and m_unit

Scottish-American polymath Alan Cumming returns with his new cabaret show Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, an evening of story and song celebrating and exploring his puckish, eclectic spirit and joie de vivre, with a joyful and mischievous exploration of that most communal of pastimes: aging!

Alan Cumming is Not Acting His Age

Harvard University

English saxophonist Jess Gillam is delighting the music world with her outstanding talent and irresistible personality. She has been forging her adventurous path since she shot to fame as the first saxophonist to reach the finals of BBC Young Musician and the youngest ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms. Passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music, Gillam invites audiences around the world on journeys of musical discovery through her electrifying performances and eclectic programming.

Jess Gillam, saxophone

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and brilliantly talented multi-instrumentalist Sierra Hull returns with her band for an evening of virtuosity, honesty, and heart.  The first woman to be named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Mandolin Player of the Year, an award she has recaptured four subsequent times since 2016, Hull continues to excel in the bluegrass genre. She returns after her most recent Series appearance as part of Béla Fleck’s all-star My Bluegrass Heart band in 2021.

Sierra Hull

Born in Manzanillo, Cuba, Cuban pianist Zahili Gonzalez Zamora started playing piano at the age of six, and graduated from the National School of Music with a performance degree. Her passion for music has taken her to Canada, to South East Asia and, the United States. Her rich musical background, career experience, and extraordinary improvisation skills make her a modern Latin jazz leader and an influential musician.

Zahili Zamora's Jazz Ensemble

Trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is an undisputed legend: a protégé of Dizzy Gillespie, who helped him defect from Cuba, he helped redefine the sound of Cuban jazz as a founding member of Irakere. He’s a classically trained trumpeter who has appeared with symphony orchestras, and premiered John Williams’ Trumpet Concerto.

Arturo Sandoval and Pedrito Martinez

Lang Lang’s expressive piano mastery and passion are evident to audiences across the globe. He consistently and expertly conveys the sweeping drama of music through his gestures, expressions, and sumptuous playing. As a performer and philanthropist, Lang Lang has made it his life’s work to share the beauty of the piano and classical music with audiences of all ages and levels of familiarity.  

Lang Lang, piano 

Defying convention and boundaries, Time For Three stands at the busy intersection of Americana, modern pop, and classical music. To experience Time For Three (TF3) live is to hear the various eras, styles, and traditions of Western music fold in on themselves and emerge anew.

Time For Three

Hub New Music, a “nimble quartet of winds and strings” (NPR), has built a national reputation for commissioning and performing fresh, dazzling, and ambitious contemporary works. Hear the Grammy-nominated group in their hometown for an exciting collaborative program that features an exciting spoken word and electronics collaboration, the world premiere of a work by Marcos Balter, and more.

Hub New Music

Multicultural Arts Center

Praised in Opera News as “a gentle actor and elegant musician” and in The Wall Street Journal for his “mellifluous baritone,” vocalist Justin Austin is quickly making a name for himself on opera, oratorio, musical theatre, and concert stages around the United States and Europe.

Justin Austin, baritone

The Takács Quartet are renowned around the world for their elegant, incisive accounts of the classic quartet repertoire and for their appetite for new music. They combine a rock-solid commitment to the essentials of the classic repertoire and a zest for new music and unconventional partnerships: in recent seasons, they’ve collaborated with bandoneon standout Julien Labro, composer and The National vocalist Bryce Dessner, vocalist Clarice Assad, and actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep

Digital Concert: Takács Quartet

The Takács Quartet are renowned around the world for their elegant, incisive accounts of the classic quartet repertoire and for their appetite for new music. They combine a rock-solid commitment to the essentials of the classic repertoire and a zest for new music and unconventional partnerships: in recent seasons, they’ve collaborated with bandoneon standout Julien Labro, composer and The National vocalist Bryce Dessner, vocalist Clarice Assad, and actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Meryl Streep.

Takács Quartet

The Westerlies are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet and Andy Clausen and Addison Maye-Saxon on trombone. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along. 

The Westerlies 

After a rapturously received sold-out Celebrity Series debut in 2022, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson returns to Boston to perform Bach’s Goldberg Variations at Jordan Hall. 

Víkingur Ólafsson, piano

Flutist Fernando Brandão and his Quartet perform Brazilian contemporary jazz and Northeastern Brazilian music styles in this concert that is the first of three that celebrate the vibrant diversity of Brazilian music and culture.

Fernando Brandão Quartet

Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church

The Nebulous Quartet might have traditional string quartet instrumentation, but their sound is all their own. They create unique arrangements and beautiful original compositions that reflect the members’ distinct musical identities and the joyful spirit that brings them together.  

Nebulous String Quartet

If you’ve heard Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, you know it’s full of gorgeous moments and sweeping feeling, but have you ever wondered what, specifically, makes it great and keeps avid listeners coming back again and again?

Digital Concert: What Makes it Great? with Rob Kapilow, featuring A Far Cry

What Makes it Great? with Rob Kapilow, featuring A Far Cry

Brilliant jazz vocalist, composer, and lyricist Cécile McLorin Salvant weaves a tale of women’s secrecy under the male gaze in her latest project, Mélusine. Salvant takes as her inspiration the European folk legend of Mélusine, the woman cursed to spend one day each week as a half-snake. 

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra pay tribute to one of the greats when they celebrate the centennial of drummer Max Roach. Roach, a pioneering legend and innovative master musician and bandleader, spanned a diverse range of styles and influenced generations to follow with his artistry and his commitment to activism.

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

French-born pianist Hélène Grimaud enjoys a busy and varied career on the world’s concert stages, as an orchestral soloist, a chamber music partner, and a solo recitalist. Her combination of sheer strength and power, tempered by her interpretive subtlety and technical control, makes her an impressive pianist in any setting. She makes her Boston recital debut with this performance, and previously appeared on the Series in 2006 with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Hélène Grimaud, piano

Evoking potent symbolism of the crow as a messenger between life and death, transcending space and time, Ashwini Ramaswamy explores memory, dislocation, ancestry, and more in the Boston premiere of Let the Crows Come.

Ashwini Ramaswamy

“Super-cool, multi-talented and dauntlessly adventurous American countertenor” (The Telegraph) Anthony Roth Costanzo returns to Boston for an all-new recital program with pianist Bryan Wagorn.

Anthony Roth Costanzo, countertenor

Music From The Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap’s connections to Afro-Brazilian music and dance, and other influences across the African Diaspora. Jointly founded by Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and American composer and bassist Gregory Richardson, the company strives to bring tap dance—America’s original vernacular dance—and its lineage to the broadest possible audience.

Music From The Sole

Three game-changing musicians combine their talents into one sensational and eclectic group. Violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Tao have all dazzled Celebrity Series audiences in unexpected pairings, and the trio will deliver a program that interweaves the old and the new: arrangements of chant and madrigals and a Schumann trio sit alongside a Celebrity Series co-commission for the group, Bells and Whistles by Amy Williams.


Junction Trio

Acclaimed pianist and author Jeremy Denk curates a program that unites female composers across the centuries. Works by Louise Farrenc and Clara Schumann, French Romantic holdout Cécile Chaminade, American pianist and composer Amy Beach, and modernist-turned-folk-revivalist Ruth Crawford Seeger sit alongside works by acclaimed contemporary composers Tania León, Meredith Monk, Phyllis Chen, and Missy Mazzoli.

Jeremy Denk, piano

Diana Adamyan is quickly gaining an international reputation as one of her generation’s most outstanding violinists. After winning First Prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, the world’s most prestigious prize for young violinists, she went on to receive First Prize in the 2020 Khachaturian Violin Competition.

Digital Concert: Diana Adamyan, violin

Violin and viola innovator Chelsey Green, a jazz virtuoso and committed music educator, and her trio share a program of jazz, funk, pop, and more with talented kids from local string ensembles. Green, an Associate Professor at Berklee, enjoys a busy career as a performer and academic.

Stringfest, featuring Chelsey Green Quartet

Diana Adamyan, violin

Castle of our Skins is a concert and educational series dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. From classrooms to concert halls, Castle of our Skins invites exploration into Black heritage and culture, spotlighting both unsung and celebrated figures of past and present.

Castle of our Skins

Lakecia Benjamin, voted Rising Star Alto Saxophonist in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll and selected among 2020’s “25 for the Future” by the same publication, fuses traditional conceptions of jazz, hip hop, and soul to create electrifyingly danceable grooves.

Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix

Violinist Chelsey Green makes a return to the Series (and a Neighborhood Arts debut) with her quartet for an afternoon of electrifying and innovative jazz that will make you hear the violin and viola in a whole new way!

Chelsey Green Quartet

Molly Tuttle, praised for her "expressive, crystalline voice and astounding flat-picking guitar skills" (Rolling Stone Country), is a standout in roots music's new generation and the first woman to be named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe, two fascinating artists with wide-ranging performance interests and big ideas, come together for a beautifully eclectic recital that examines the relationship between the East and the West. The program brings together 16th- and 17th-century Italian and English works; traditional Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian songs; Benjamin Britten’s settings of translated poems, Songs from the Chinese; 20th-century and contemporary compositions; and more. 



Digital Concert: Karim Sulayman, tenor and Sean Shibe, guitar

Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, Daniil Trifonov’s performances are a perpetual source of awe, and he’s one of the world’s most in-demand recitalists, orchestra soloists, and chamber music partners. He’s been called “without question the most astounding pianist of our age” by London’s Times, and he lends his staggering interpretive talent and dazzling technique to selections by Rameau, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, as well as Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata. 

Daniil Trifonov, piano

Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe, two fascinating artists with wide-ranging performance interests and big ideas, make Celebrity Series debuts in this beautifully eclectic recital that examines the relationship between the East and the West. The program brings together 16th- and 17th-century Italian and English works; traditional Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian songs; Benjamin Britten’s settings of translated poems, Songs from the Chinese; 20th-century and contemporary compositions; and more. 

Karim Sulayman, tenor and Sean Shibe, guitar

Renée Fleming is one of the most acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s greatest opera houses and concert halls. Honored with five Grammy Awards and the National Medal of Arts, she is an icon who has shared her voice with the world on notable occasions, from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Super Bowl. 

Renée Fleming, soprano1

Rob Kapilow turns the What Makes it Great? spotlight on the folk and rock music that came out of Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and ‘70s. Along with a vocalist and other instrumentalists, he demonstrates what made the place and time so singular and special in the history of American popular music.

What Makes it Great? with Rob Kapilow

The program will include Classical and early Romantic works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, with each selection to be introduced from the stage. Hear from the artist himself about each work’s history and significance and gain insight into Mr. Schiff’s programmatic choices. 



Sir András Schiff

In Alisa Weilerstein’s groundbreaking, multi-year performance series FRAGMENTS, new music by some of the most compelling composers of our time meets the timeless beauty of Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello in an immersive, multisensory audience experience. In FRAGMENTS 1, individual movements from Bach’s first suite are thoughtfully integrated with selected new commissions to make a wholly original emotional arc. Enhanced by responsive lighting and scenic architecture, the music is performed without pauses or printed program details, creating an atmosphere of enchantment, adventure, and discovery. 

Alisa Weilerstein: FRAGMENTS 1

Flamenco artist Nino de los Reyes makes his second appearance on the Neighborhood Arts Series. Dance, vocals, and hand percussion unite for a thrilling afternoon of artistry!

Nino de los Reyes Flamenco Quartet

Brazil’s world-renowned contemporary dance ensemble Grupo Corpo returns to Boston for the first time since 2018 with a program that shows off uniquely Brazilian cultural elements and aesthetics

Grupo Corpo

Dafnis Prieto—a Grammy Award-winning Cuban-born drummer, composer, bandleader, and 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow—joins forces with Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza—also a Grammy winner, a sensitive and thoughtful interpreter, and a sought-out partner for musicians of all kinds—to engage listeners through words and music. 



Celebrity Series of Boston

15 - 16 Jan, 2025

Yulianna Avdeeva, piano

17 - 18 Jan, 2025

Malpaso Dance Company

Jan 22, 2025

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Jan 24, 2025

Dafnis Prieto’s Sí o Sí Quartet

Jan 25, 2025

Jamie Barton, Matthew Lipman, Tamar Sanikidze

Dec 15, 2024

The Kingdom Choir

Dec 14, 2024

Stringfest: Rasa String Quartet

Articles & News

Celebrity Series of Boston