January 6, 2026 :: Harmoniemusik in Vienna Music for wind band (harmoniemusik) was long a Viennese mainstay. In a land filled with music-loving aristocrats who couldn’t afford a resident full-time orchestra, a wind ensemble (harmonie), typically made up of pairs of oboes, clarinets, horns, and bassoons, provided a handy source for the ‘table music’ (tafelmusik) that accompanied dinners, garden...
December 12, 2025 :: SOLOIST NATHAN CHAN SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON REUNITING WITH MENTOR DONATO CABRERA, PERFORMING GULDA’S CELLO CONCERTO AT SCHUBERT IN VIENNA, GROWING UP AS A MUSICAL PRODIGY, AND HOW TO GO VIRAL ON TIKTOK. What’s it like to come home and perform in the Bay Area with your former mentor, Donato Cabrera? It is with great excitement,...
November 6, 2025 :: Jessie Montgomery (b. 1981) Overture (2022) Musicians come in all sizes, shapes, and skillsets. Some are one-trick ponies, but their tricks are really good. Others might encompass multiple disciplines – pianist-composers, composer-conductors, performer-teachers, and the like. And there are those who embrace the whole. That’s where Jessie Montgomery comes in: violinist, teacher, and composer with...
:: Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Boléro (1928) Within two years of its premiere at the Paris Ópera with famed danseuse Ida Rubinstein, Boléro had been conducted by Piero Coppola, Willem Mengelberg, Serge Koussevitzky, Arturo Toscanini, and Ravel himself. Four years later it was the background to a Carole Lombard movie titled, not surprisingly, Bolero. It has popped...
April 7, 2025 :: Unfinished Nobility A special corner of the repertory is reserved for those works that are highly valued despite (or because of) being left incomplete by their authors. It’s quite the honor roll: Bach’s The Art of Fugue, Mozart’s Requiem and C Minor Mass, Mahler’s Tenth Symphony. To that we can add the two most tantalizing...
March 4, 2025 :: The third movement (Allegro molto vivace) is a thrilling, triumphant march, full of energy and momentum. After the deep emotions of the earlier movements, it builds to a rousing, powerful climax that feels like the grand finale. The music surges to a victorious conclusion—one so convincing that many assume the symphony is over. “What usually happens...
February 19, 2025 :: Saad Haddad (b. 1992) Fantasia for Strings (2025) It all starts with 16th century composer Thomas Tallis, who spent his career in the service of English monarchs Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I, and Elizabeth I. Within his vast catalog is a 1567 tune “Why turn’th in sight” that caught the attention of composer Ralph...
February 10, 2025 :: Robert Thies shot to fame in 1995 when he became the first American in four decades—since Van Cliburn’s Cold War win in 1958—to win a Russian piano competition, but things didn’t quite work out as planned… Robert talks with us ending up at zero after his feted win and looking forward to performing Mozart’s Piano...
January 3, 2025 :: From enduring extreme poverty and personal hardship to creating a piece that would captivate audiences around the world (and beyond!), Joaquín Rodrigo’s life and work are an inspiring testament to the power of music. Read on for six fast facts about the composer of the iconic Concierto de Aranjuez. 1. He Turned Adversity Into Art ...
:: Carlos Simon (b. 1986) Breathe (2021) Anyone who has practiced meditation knows the centrality of the breath. Many traditions teach basic breath practices—focusing on nostrils or diaphragm or belly, counting breaths, etc. Breath is central to our very existence as living beings; we all breathe in one way or another, whether we are people, penguins,...
