Bravo! Vail Music Festival Names Composer Chris Rogerson as New Artistic Director

Bravo! Vail Music Festival Names 

Composer Chris Rogerson as New Artistic Director

Photo by Sophie Zhai

Vail, CO (April 2, 2026)– The Bravo! Vail Music Festival (Bravo! Vail), a top U.S. classical music festival and the only festival in North America to host four orchestras each summer, announces composer Chris Rogerson as its next Artistic Director.

Selected from an applicant pool of internationally renowned musicians and arts leaders, Rogerson assumes the Artistic Director Designate role immediately and the Artistic Director title on September 1, 2026, for an initial three-year term. 

“We are thrilled that Chris will lead Bravo! Vail in its next era – his commitment to artistic excellence, sophisticated and innovative programming, and approach to community engagement all align perfectly with Bravo! Vail’s mission and goals for the future. It will be an exciting new chapter for Bravo! Vail,” said Caitlin Murray, Bravo! Vail’s President and CEO.  

"On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we welcome Chris and look to the future with excitement and inspiration. We are honored to embark on the exciting journey ahead with Chris Rogerson as our next Artistic Director for our beloved festival," said Hank Gutman, Board Chair of Bravo! Vail. "This collaboration promises to elevate our mission and enrich the cultural tapestry of Vail for years to come."Rogerson becomes the fourth Artistic Director in the Festival’s history, succeeding Anne-Marie McDermott after her 16-year tenure.His appointment underscores the Festival's continued commitment to new works and education, alongside core orchestral and chamber music programming. “Bravo! Vail represents the highest level of music-making in an incomparable natural setting. From its founding in 1987, it has served as a beacon of artistic integrity and a place of limitless artistic possibility,” stated Chris Rogerson, incoming Bravo! Vail Artistic Director Designate. “I have the deepest admiration for the artistic directors who have shaped this festival and am honored to carry forward that legacy. I have been fortunate to have contributed to the festival as a composer and have seen firsthand how magical it is: a place where excellence and collaborative joy are inseparable, and where decisions serve the music and the artists who bring it to life. The opportunity to lead the festival into its next chapter alongside the incredible team is profoundly meaningful and tremendously exciting.” Rogerson is an accomplished American-born composer. His music has been performed by artists including Yo-Yo Ma, Anthony McGill, J’Nai Bridges, and Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, as well as leading orchestras and ensembles across the country. For the past decade, he has served as a member of the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music. In 2023, Rogerson received the prestigious Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Rogerson’s relationship with Bravo! Vail spans multiple commissions, including Samaa’ for piano, gongs, and strings, premiered in 2022 by Anne-Marie McDermott and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Commissioned in honor of McDermott’s 10th anniversary as Artistic Director, the work was the first premiered as part of Bravo! Vail’s Symphonic Commissioning Project, an ongoing initiative supporting the creation and premiere of new orchestral works.

Prior to his appointment with Bravo! Vail, Rogerson served as Composer-in-Residence of Young Concert Artists and as Composer-in-Residence and Artistic Advisor for both the Allentown Symphony Orchestra and the Amarillo Symphony. He has also received awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chamber Music America, the Theodore Presser Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Copland House.

In addition to being a member of the faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, where he also studied, he is an alumnus of the Yale School of Music and Princeton University. His advisors have included Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, Martin Bresnick, and Steve Mackey.

Bravo! Vail will announce its 40th anniversary season—Rogerson’s first as Artistic Director—in December of 2026.

Chris Rogerson is available for press interviews. Photos are available here. 

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About Chris Rogerson

Chris Rogerson is a composer praised as a “confident new musical voice” (The New York Times), with music noted for its lyricism, “haunting beauty,” and “virtuosic exuberance.” His works have been performed at leading venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, and Wigmore Hall.

Recent highlights include Of Simple Grace for Yo-Yo Ma, a violin concerto for Benjamin Beilman and the Kansas City Symphony, and Dream Sequence for Anne-Marie McDermott and the Dover Quartet. He has received commissions from major orchestras nationwide and was awarded the 2022 Elise L. Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Rogerson is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Yale School of Music, and Princeton University, and serves on the faculty of Curtis. For more information about Chris Rogerson, please visit: https://www.chrisrogerson.com/

About Bravo! Vail Music Festival

Consistently cited as one of the top 10 classical music festivals in the country, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival brings world-renowned musicians to picturesque venues throughout the Vail and Eagle River Valley region for six weeks, drawing music lovers from around the world. The only festival in North America to host four of the world’s finest orchestras in a single season, Bravo! Vail celebrates its 39th season from June 25-August 6, 2026, with approximately 60 concerts—almost half of which are presented for free. Beyond its summer programming, Bravo! Vail serves the community by providing year-round low-cost music education through Music Makers Haciendo Música, a piano, violin, guitar, cello, and ensemble instruction program to help develop new generations of musicians and music lovers. "[Bravo! Vail] is the most high-profile — and high altitude — mountain music festival in America." - The Times (UK)

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Press Contacts:

Christy Pierce

8VA Music Consultancy

christy@8vamusicconsultancy.com

800.530.3318

Parker Owens

Bravo! Vail Music Festival

powens@bravovail.org

970.989.3716

"She Was First:" Marin Alsop featured on PBS

As the first American woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States, South America, Austria, and Great Britain, Marin Alsop is paving the way for other women to realize their leadership potential. Alsop joins host Soledad O'Brien on She Was First, as she conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and teaches conducting to the next generation of trailblazers at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute.

She Was First is a docuseries that profiles pioneering women who have revolutionized the arts throughout history through an intimate look at their creative processes and fearless defiance of societal expectations.

“I'm hoping that as people see more and more women, and people of color, on the podiums, they'll start to have a broader sense of what a conductor can be,” Alsop says.

Watch the 26-minute documentary here, which traces the meteoric rise of the inspirational conductor, along with the challenges and hardships she faced, and continues to overcome, shattering many glass ceilings. #PurpleBaton

Third Coast Review: Benjamin Beilman Amazes at Sun Valley Music Festival

With a fascinating program celebrating the change of seasons and the Americana of Sun Valley, Idaho, violinist Benjamin Beilman, festival Music Director Alasdair Neale, and festival musicians entertained large audiences at the Sun Valley Music Festival Winter Season. Three free concerts took place March 19-21. Louis Harris, who saw two performances, comments:

The first half of the program was intended to focus on the American experience rooted in Sun Valley, including nature, great vistas, fun road trips, and general Americana. It started with a work for solo violin that Beilman commissioned in 2022: Sanguineum by Gabriella Smith, who was a student with Beilman at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Beilman explained how Smith is an environmental preservationist who, in a restoration project, planted sanguineum on an abandoned navy air base in California’s bay area, where she’s from. Native to the western US, this red currant flower is a deciduous shrub that is beautiful in the spring. (…)

I always have some trepidation when hearing a personal favorite [Copland’s Appalachian Spring, in the original version for 13 players]. Will this performance be any good? The answer became clear in the opening measures when the musicians produced a sound that had more lushness than any other performance I’ve ever heard. I love the way Copland has the various instruments playing off one another, and, under Neale’s direction, these musicians interacted with such precision, it was like they had been playing together for decades.

Read the full piece on Third Coast Review.

This year’s main festival is scheduled from Monday, July 27, through Thursday, August 20. For more information, visit svmusicfestival.org.

Alasdair Neale and Benjamin Beilman

"Midsummer Marriage": Conductor Dane Lam and Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra on CVNA

James Bash, from Classical Voice North America, visited Honolulu to review the Hawai'i Symphony Orchestra's March 8 performance of Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by Dane Lam. The collaboration between the HSO and the Manoa Valley Theatre was the first concert in the HSO’s Sounds of Shakespeare Festival, a three-concert series celebrating music inspired by the Bard’s plays.

Urged on by Lam’s energetic gestures and clear baton, the orchestra elicited the magical qualities of Mendelssohn’s music. The inspired ensemble evoked a feathery fairy world, the passions of young lovers (Ari Agodong, Emily Steward, Adam Kalma, and Alex Munro), the nobility of Oberon (Kevin Keaveney), the pride of Tatiana (Jasmine Haley Anderson), and the hee-hawing of Bottom (Andrew Baker).

From beginning to end, Lam and his forces were alert to all of the action and made sure that there were no glitches and the pacing never flagged. The resulting standing ovation was well deserved.

By collaborating with the Manoa Valley Theatre, the production put a spotlight on the arts community in Hawaii and broadened the HSO audience to include theatergoers.

Read the full piece on CVNA.

Curtis Opera Theatre's "La Passion de Simone" on OperaWire

On February 26, 2026, Curtis Opera Theatre, a program of the Curtis Institute of Music, presented something unique. Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (1952–2023) deliberately stripped away the familiar scaffolding of opera—no heroes, no villains, no tidy narrative arc—and replaced it with something closer to performance art with a score. Sung in French with English supertitles, La Passion de Simone, a “musical journey in 15 stations,” is a 75-minute, no-intermission work that left me genuinely perplexed. In the best way.

The soprano Nikan Ingabire Kanate carried the full 75 minutes as the Narrator, singing without interruption from start to finish. Her stamina was remarkable, her tone clear and bright throughout. With Shields and Oliva building a living atmosphere through light and smoke, Kanate’s striking voice was the constant—the element that held it all together.

The Curtis New Music Ensemble played Saariaho’s demanding score with real skill and feeling. Leading them was conductor Marc Lowenstein.

“This is not music driven by story. It simply asks us to be present.”

Read the full review by Chris Ruel on OperaWire.

Seattle Chamber Music Society Announces 2026 Summer Festival

Seattle Chamber Music Society Announces 2026 Summer Festival
June 18 - July 26

World’s Largest Chamber Music Party Expands with Performances All Across the Greater Seattle Region

Marking America250, Every Concert Features a Work Connected to America—by an American Composer or One That Helped Shape Our Nation’s Classical Voice, including music by Amy Beach, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and George Walker and SCMS Commissions from Juhi Bansal and Kian Ravaei

Renowned performers include violinists James Ehnes, Erin Keefe, Alexander Kerr, and Tessa Lark; pianists Inon Barnatan, Alessio Bax, and Orion Weiss; cellists Ani Aznavoorian, Efe Baltacıgil, and Mark Kosower; and violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Jonathan Vinocour

To download images, click HERE

Seattle, March 9, 2026 — Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS), a cornerstone of the classical music scene since 1982, announced today the programming for its 2026 Summer Festival. From June 18 through July 26, classical music luminaries will come together for outstanding chamber music collaborations, guided by the vision of violinist James Ehnes, SCMS’s Gilbert Omenn and Martha Darling Artistic Director. This year, SCMS is broadening its geographical reach by presenting concerts in performance halls around the region and sharing chamber music in even more nontraditional spaces.“This summer, we embark on a festival-wide celebration of American music, inspired by the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Every program includes a work either written in America, or by an American, or both” says Ehnes. “We’re especially looking forward to playing this summer in many different communities; our goal is to share this incredible music with as many people as possible! Every concert brings together remarkable and dynamic combinations of the world’s most compelling musicians, and often these extraordinary ensembles exist for a single evening only,” he adds. Among the renowned artists performing this year are violinists James Ehnes, Erin Keefe, Alexander Kerr, and Tessa Lark; pianists Inon Barnatan, Alessio Bax, and Orion Weiss; cellists Ani Aznavoorian, Efe Baltacıgil, and Mark Kosower; and violists Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Jonathan Vinocour. For this summer’s festival, the SCMS Commissioning Club has commissioned a work from Juhi Bansal, and – with Mimir Chamber Music Festival – SCMS has co-commissioned a piece for narrator and string quartet by Kian Ravaei, in which the narrator recites the opening and closing of the Declaration of Independence. 

The Summer Festival celebrates the depth, beauty, and vitality of the chamber music tradition. Highlights include John Adams’s Shaker Loops for string septet; Amy Beach’s Piano Trio; Samuel Barber’s String Quartet; Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring (“Ballet for Martha”) in its original version for 13-instrument chamber ensemble; Antonín Dvořák’s String Quartet No. 12, “American”; Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances Op. 45 (Two Pianos); and George Walker’s String Quartet No. 1. Complementing these works are beloved masterpieces, including Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60; Haydn’s Piano Trio in A-flat Major, Hob. XV:14; Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49; and Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20. (Full program details are below.)

Nordstrom Recital Hall, Meydenbauer Center, and Town Hall concerts will be livestreamed and available on demand worldwide through SCMS’s Virtual Concert Hall. The digital concert experience features six camera angles plus live intermission interviews and commentary with SCMS musicians and hosts from Classical KING, Seattle’s classical music radio station. This season’s Virtual Concert Hall includes all nine performances from the 2026 Summer Festival, along with three special “greatest hits” concerts drawn from standout performances of past seasons, creating a 12-concert online festival that pairs this summer’s programming with some of the most beloved moments from recent years.

SCMS joyfully refers to its Summer Festival as “the world’s largest chamber music party,” and, this summer, is bringing it to new corners of the Seattle region. During the five week period, SCMS presents 11 ticketed mainstage concerts and 11 completely free and open-to-the-public pre-concert recitals at leading performing arts spaces throughout the Sound, including Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Meydenbauer Center, Town Hall Seattle, Bainbridge Performing Arts, and Vashon Center for the Arts. In addition, on Saturday, July 18, audiences can enjoy the free Chamber Music in the Park outdoor concert and community play-along at Seattle's Volunteer Park.SCMS Summer Festival also transports the joy of live music all across the greater Seattle region with a series of 20+ concerts running June 18 to July 6 from the stage of The Concert Truck, fueled by SCMS. Redefining how people experience live music, The Concert Truck is a box truck transformed into a fully equipped mobile concert hall, allowing world-class chamber music to be performed in everyday spaces—city streets, parks, schools, and neighborhoods. SCMS Summer Festival stops include Alki Beach, Bellevue Downtown Park, Gas Works Park, Seattle Center, Seward Park, and Washington Arboretum Park. (All locations and dates will be announced soon.) 

A highlight of the Festival, Tasting Notes returns July 6 with an exciting new lineup of celebrated Seattle chefs and a delicious new twist. Hosted by James Ehnes and celebrity chef and New York Times best-selling author J. Kenji López-Alt, this one-of-a-kind evening brings SCMS musicians together with acclaimed chefs Taichi Kitamura (Sushi Kappo Tamura), Mutsuko Soma (Kamonegi and Hannyatou), and Christina Woods (Temple Pastries). Guests will experience live chamber music, lively cooking demonstrations, and—new this year—a full dinner service featuring each chef’s creations, all unfolding on stage at the Triple Door (216 Union St, Seattle).

“Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Summer Festival shows the world how chamber music is a centering force,” added Ehnes. “Throughout the summer, we gather thousands of people to hear extraordinary works performed at the highest level, and we further establish Seattle as a cultural destination for exceptional artists and classical music audiences. Each concert reflects the very best of SCMS and our art form, and is designed to leave listeners uplifted, fulfilled, and more deeply connected to Chamber Music.” 

Seattle Chamber Music Society: 2026 Summer Festival

The World’s Largest Chamber Music Party: June 18 through July 26

—June 18–July 6—

The Concert Truck, fueled by SCMS, presents 18 performances in Alki Beach, Gas Works Park, Seattle Center, and other stops around Seattle. The full list of locations and dates will be announced soon.

—July 6—

Tasting Notes

The Triple Door 

216 Union St, Seattle, 98101

—July 7—

Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances for Two Pianos, Op. 45

Alessio Bax, Orion Weiss (piano) 

Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20 

James Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti, Andrew Wan, and Chad Hoopes (violin), Che-Yen Chen and Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Edward Arron and Efe Baltacıgil (cello)

Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall 

200 University St, Seattle, 98101

—July 9—

Kian Ravaei: A Free People (SCMS co-commission) 

Amy Schwartz Moretti and Andrew Wan (violin), Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Efe Baltacigil (cello)

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 49 

Alessio Bax (piano), Chad Hoopes (violin), Mark Kosower (cello) 

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 60 

James Ehnes (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello), Orion Weiss (piano) 

Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall 

200 University St, Seattle, 98101

—July 12—

Haydn: Piano Trio in A-flat Major, Hob. XV:14 

Orion Weiss (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Mark Kosower (cello) 

Respighi: Piano Quintet in F Minor

Alessio Bax (piano), Andrew Wan and Chad Hoopes (violin), Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Efe Baltacıgil (cello)

Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12, “American” 

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

Benaroya Hall’s Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall 

200 University St, Seattle, 98101

—July 13 & July 14—

Beethoven: String Quartet, Op. 18 No. 1 

James Ehnes, Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

Dohnányi: Serenade for String Trio 

Tessa Lark (violin), Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Dvořák: String Quartet No. 12, “American” 

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

July 13 - Vashon Island Center for the Arts 

19600 Vashon Hwy SW, Vashon, 98070

July 14 - Bainbridge Island Performing Arts 

200 Madison Ave N., Bainbridge Island, 98110

—July 15—

Beethoven: String Trio, Op. 9 No. 1 

Alexander Kerr (violin), Meredith Kufchak (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Barber: String Quartet 

James Ehnes and Amy Schwartz Moretti (violin), Che-Yen Chen (viola), Edward Arron (cello)

Suk: Piano Quartet, Op. 1 

Inon Barnatan (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Matthew Lipman (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello) 

Meydenbauer Center 

11100 NE 6th St, Bellevue, 98004

—July 17—

Amy Beach: Piano Trio 

Paige Roberts Molloy (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78

James Ehnes (violin), Inon Barnatan (piano)

Mendelssohn: String Quintet No. 1 in A Major 

Alexander Kerr and Noah Geller (violin), Meredith Kufchak and Matthew Lipman (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello) 

Meydenbauer Center 

11100 NE 6th St, Bellevue, 98004

—July 18—

Chamber Music in the Park, and community play-along 

Dvořák: Terzetto in C Major, Op. 74

James Ehnes and Alexander Kerr (violin), Meredith Kufchak (viola)

Suk: Piano Quartet in A minor, Op. 1

Inon Barnatan (piano), Tessa Lark (violin), Matthew Lipman (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello)

Volunteer Park

1247 15th Ave E, Seattle, 98112

—July 19—

Juhi Bansal: New Work (SCMS commission) 

Noah Geller and Alexander Kerr (violin), Meredith Kufchak (viola), Jonathan Swensen (cello) 

Fauré: Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Major, Op. 13 

Tessa Lark (violin), Inon Barnatan (piano)

Dvořák: Piano Quartet No. 2 in E-flat Major, Op. 87 

Jon Kimura Parker (piano), James Ehnes (violin), Matthew Lipman (viola), Ani Aznavoorian (cello)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

—July 21—

Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8 

Jon Kimura Parker (piano), Jun Iwasaki (violin), Brant Taylor (cello)

Walker: String Quartet No. 1

Stephen Rose and Erin Keefe (violin), Noah Geller (viola), Bion Tsang (cello)

Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 25 

Inon Barnatan (piano), Karen Gomyo (violin), Jonathan Vinocour (viola), Kenneth Olsen (cello)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

—July 24—

Piazzolla: Histoire du Tango

Karen Gomyo (violin), Paige Roberts Molloy (piano)

Adams: Shaker Loops for String Septet 

James Ehnes and Stephen Rose (violin), Jun Iwasaki and Jonathan Vinocour (viola), Brant Taylor and Kenneth Olsen (cello), Joseph Kaufman (double bass)

Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898 

George Li (piano), Erin Keefe (violin), Bion Tsang (cello)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

—July 26—

Shostakovich: Two Pieces for String Octet 

Karen Gomyo, Jun Iwasaki, Stephen Rose, and Erin Keefe (violin), Jonathan Vinocour and James Ehnes (viola), Bion Tsang and Brant Taylor (cello)

Grieg: Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 36 

Kenneth Olsen (cello), George Li (piano) 

Copland: Appalachian Spring (“Ballet for Martha”) - Original complete ballet for 13 instruments 

James Ehnes, Karen Gomyo, Erin Keefe, and Stephen Rose (violin), Jonathan Vinocour and Jun Iwasaki (viola), Brant Taylor and Bion Tsang (cello), Joseph Kaufman (double bass), Demarre McGill (flute), Benjamin Lulich (clarinet), Seth Krimsky (bassoon), and Paige Roberts Molloy (piano)

Town Hall Seattle 

1119 8th Ave, Seattle, 98101

Early bird subscriptions available now, click HERE. Single tickets go on sale April 27.

The 2026 Summer Festival is generously sponsored by Lyn and Jerry Grinstein.

The Virtual Concert Hall is generously sponsored by Diana K. Carey.

The 2025-2026 season is generously sponsored by Dave and Amy Fulton.

Community and Education programs take place throughout the festival and are free with registration. A full list of community and education programs, including free pre-concerts, will be available at seattlechambermusic.org. Offerings will include four in-depth lectures—also streamed via Zoom—an interactive sight-reading party, the popular Azure Family Concert, open rehearsals, and a Community Play-Along, bringing Chamber Music in the Park for musicians and listeners alike. Dates and details will be announced soon.

About Seattle Chamber Music Society

The mission of the Seattle Chamber Music Society is to cultivate a deep appreciation for chamber music by presenting exceptional performances in welcoming and accessible formats. Through education, community engagement, and a commitment to excellence, SCMS seeks to position chamber music as a central cultural force, both locally and globally, while ensuring its enduring relevance and sustainability. 

Each year, SCMS presents a Winter Festival in January and a Summer Festival in July at the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall at Benaroya Hall, bringing the world’s finest classical musicians to the stage. These intimate chamber music performances captivate both seasoned enthusiasts and newcomers alike. In addition to its renowned festivals, SCMS offers an expanded year-round lineup, including the new Signature Series, Crescendo Concerts in Seattle’s most stunning homes, and Concerts at the Center for Chamber Music, providing unparalleled access to extraordinary musical experiences. 

SCMS also enriches the community through dynamic engagement programs designed for audiences of all ages. From inspiring young learners in elementary schools to enriching lives in retirement communities, and from performances in hospitals and parks to concerts on wheels, SCMS remains steadfast in its mission to bring extraordinary chamber music to every corner of our community.

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Media contact:

Matt Herman, Managing Director

8VA Music Consultancy

matt@8vamusicconsultancy.com

Marin Alsop on The Kelly Clarkson Show

In celebration of Women's History Month, pop star P!nk, filling in for Kelly Clarkson on her talk show, meets Marin Alsop, the most famous woman conductor in the world and one of the most acclaimed conductors of our time. Marin dials in from Vienna to share how she's breaking yet another glass ceiling on International Women's Day.

“On International Women's Day I will become the first woman in the 200-year history to lead the Webern Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. It's shocking to me that we can be in the year 2026, and there can still be firsts for women.”

Congratulations, Marin!

Watch the full segment on YouTube.

Parlando confronts darkness and history in Haas’s unsettling ‘in vain’

Ben Gambuzza reviews Parlando’s stirring performance of in vain, by Georg Friedrich Haas, composed in 2000 as a response to the rise of the far right in Austria. It is scored for 24 instruments and explores microtonality and the acoustic properties of sound, creating strikingly novel tonalities and textures. It is performed in different levels of low lighting, even in darkness, blending with the music over 70 minutes. Simon Rattle declared in vain “one of the first masterpieces of the 21st century.”

“in vain is tragic,” writes Gambuzza about Parlando’s Feb. 22 performance at Kaufman Music Center, conducted by Ian Niederhoffer, who founded the New York-based chamber ensemble. “Haas himself has acknowledged that the ending, which takes us back to the beginning, is anything but optimistic: ‘I still cannot imagine that anybody can perceive the moment when the music from the beginning returns at the end as anything but oppressive.’”

Parlando leaned into these final moments with strung-out and exhausted descending scales. They get slower and slower, minute by minute. As the red light seeped into the blue, I had to tell my brain not to render the glockenspiel’s descending sequence as a grotesque “Three Blind Mice.” But it wouldn’t listen.

…

Like all concert music, in vain is capable of prompting a revolution in the mind rather than in the street. And like a Bach Passion, it’s music for reflection, not for celebration. It conceptualizes a fallen utopian idea. It’s an obituary in music. There was something healthily naive about Parlando’s interpretation, but for such a young ensemble, their sound was mature.

Read the full piece here.

Parlando, with conductor and founder Ian Niederhoffer.

Sandbox Percussion: "Canto Ostinato" Casts a Musical Spell at Cal Performances

Sandbox Percussion and AMOC* and perform Canto Ostinato at Lincoln Center, June 25, 2025. Credit: Lawrence Sumulong

Sandbox Percussion and American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), gave a spectacular performance of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato on Sunday, Feb. 22, under the auspices of Cal Performances at Zellerbach Playhouse in Berkeley.

Canto Ostinato is a layered, shimmering minimalist work from the 1970s that has earned a dedicated following in ten Holt’s native Netherlands, and is realized here by the four mallet percussionists of Sandbox, joined by AMOC members Conor Hanick and Matthew Aucoin on piano. As envisioned by these sterling interpreters, ten Holt’s hypnotic instrumental score unfurls in an emotional dramatic arc during an afternoon-length sonic journey.

“It was a sonically magical combination,” reports Lisa Hirsch for the San Francisco Chronicle. “Percussion instruments they may be, but together they created a wash of sound that was, paradoxically, both exciting and soothing. The music demanded attention, even as it verged on the hypnotic.”

The musical texture shifted from time to time, with instruments dropping out and coming back in. When all of the instruments played, the sound could pierce you, obliterating thought and leaving only sensation. Sometimes it felt like a great epic was being recited in the distance, the words incomprehensible.

Read the full piece here.

A Love Letter to Chamber Music: The Isidore String Quartet on the Cover of "Strings" magazine

“Part of the Juilliard Quartet’s influence on our mission is their motto of treating the old like it’s new and the new like it’s old,” violinist Adrian Steele, from the Isidore String Quartet, tells Greg Cahill from Strings magazine for the cover story of the March/April 2026 issue. “That ability to contextualize the repertoire and maintain its freshness is core to our mission as a group. One way to accomplish that is by treating the music as a playground — by shedding preconceptions or rigidity in interpretation.”

The group — Phoenix Avalon and Adrian Steele, violins; Devin Moore, viola; and Joshua McClendon, cello — has been on a steady rise since winning the first prize and the Haydn prize at the 2022 Banff International String Quartet Competition, and a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

The quartet's debut album, Adorations, is a love letter to chamber music — “a celebration of chamber music at its essence, a tapestry of joy, human connection, and the enduring resonance of lives intertwined,” Moore says. “We felt immense joy putting this album together and can’t wait for listeners to experience that same joy.”

Joy is indeed central to the Isidore's mission, Steele says. “In such an innately intimate setting, the community we build through our music should reflect the relationships we build within the quartet. The spark of live music comes from the looks and gestures we share during a performance, and that energy translates to our communication with the audience as a sort of ‘fifth member’ of the quartet.”

Ultimately, this fabulous young string quartet is just “four friends who love sharing music and connecting with each other and our communities, adds Avalon. “We aim to inspire joy and curiosity through our music and to reach as many people as possible. We want our performances to reflect the world we live in — with its struggles and challenges — while also offering a space for pause, honesty, and genuine connection.”

Read the full feature here.

Listen to Adorations on your favorite music streaming platform: oh.lnk.to/Adorations