Upcoming Events

This intimate afternoon concert explores the delicate balance of voices found in chamber music. The centerpiece of the program is Bach’s The Art of the Fugue. Interspersed between these dazzling dialogues are short pieces exploring Bach’s music through a contemporary lens. The conversation between past and present continues when Schumann’s imaginative “Fairy Tale Pictures” is paired with György Kurtág’s late 20th century response. Beethoven’s complex Grosse Fuge closes the performance.

Travel across the centuries in this program of vibrant chamber works rooted in the rich Austro-Hungarian musical tradition. First, Haydn’s “Quinten” string quartet masterfully darts from major to minor as each movement transforms and embellishes the central theme. The winds then take center stage for Ligeti’s whimsical Six Bagatelles, a piece saturated with Hungarian folk melodies, before two violins, two violas, and a cello close out the concert with Brahms’s radiant and warm String Quintet No. 1.

This colorful program highlighting a variety of music styles features the work of two influential French composers. César Franck’s expressive and fiery piano quintet will be performed alongside Claude Debussy’s only string quartet, an avant-garde tapestry of textures. Special guest Blake Pouliot joins Colburn students for both works. Rounding out the program is a fugal masterwork by Mozart showcasing the bass and an innovative contemporary work by Tōru Takemitsu that blends Eastern and Western sounds.

MacArthur Genius Grant-winning pianist Jeremy Denk joins Colburn faculty and students in this program of electric quintets. Opening the concert is Mozart’s Quintet for Piano and Winds, a work that masterfully balances the piano against oboe, clarinet, horn, and bassoon. Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet starts on an eerie tone before modulating towards a brighter, more symphonic end. In between these masterworks is Valerie Coleman’s Tzigane, which was inspired by Ravel’s similarly named Hungarian rhapsody for violin.