Hailed as “entrancing” (BBC Music Magazine) the Merz Trio opens the 2024/25 Newport Classical Chamber Series searching for song in night’s darknesses.
Distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned, fiery performances, the Ariel Quartet has garnered critical praise worldwide for more than 25 years. Filled to the brim with contrast and expressivity, this program of Mendelssohn, Auerbach, and Britten traces three dramatically different composers’ responses to loss, be it personal or collective, explicit or implicit, and the resulting experience is a riveting and emotionally stirring Aristotelian Catharsis.
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Join us for a pre-concert conversation with Philip Lasser, a visionary composer with rich French and American cultural influences, whose music is known for its modernity and rapid development. Lasser will delve into his background and creative process, with a particular focus on the composition of his newly commissioned piece, "The Art of Memory," which will have its U.S premiere later that evening by Anton Majias at the Newport Classical Recital Hall.
“One of the great Bach players of our time,” Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias performs the US premiere of 12 new preludes by composer Philip Lasser in response to, and alongside Book II of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.
A passionate conveyor of the operatic repertoire, baritone Markel Reed boasts an impressive resume including roles with the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, and more. This vocal recital celebrates standard and contemporary works, beginning with biblical texts and poetry from Brahms and Poulenc. Reed concludes the evening with an aria from Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut up in my Bones, having originated the role of Chester in the world premiere of this seminal work.
Celebrated by The Guardian as “a cellist of power and grace” possessing “mature artistry and willingness to go to the brink,” two-time GRAMMY®-nominated cellist Seth Parker Woods explores three centuries of music for cello centering around identity, narrative storytelling, and polyphonic composition for a monophonic voice...
Now in its 10th season, the Telegraph Quartet passionately performs both standard chamber music and contemporary works. Praised by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape,” the Quartet has won the 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition Grand Prize. For their Newport debut, they explore compositions by Rebecca Clarke, Beethoven, and Smetana, highlighting the poignant irony of each composer’s struggle with hearing loss in relation to their work.
Spend Valentine’s Day with Boyd Meets Girl, Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd and American cellist Laura Metcalf, who have toured the world sharing their eclectic mix of music from Debussy and Bach to Radiohead and Beyoncé. Both acclaimed soloists in their own right, Boyd has been described as “truly evocative” by The Washington Post, and as "a player who deserves to be heard" by Classical Guitar Magazine, while Metcalf, who has also toured as a member of the popular chamber ensembles Eighth Blackbird, Break of Reality and Sybarite5, has been called "brilliant" by Gramophone.
Acclaimed Trio Karénine has established itself in recent years as a key group on the French and international stage. The piano trio is lauded for its musical integrity and joie de vivre by critics and audiences alike. In a true celebration of the piano trio, this program opens with Schubert’s second piano trio, one of the very last compositions completed during this lifetime. The program concludes with Dvořák’s rarely programmed second piano trio, filled with color, warmth, lively dance, and Slavic folk elements.
Praised for his “virtuosic,” “dazzling,” and “brilliant” performances (New York Times) and his “bold, keen sound” (The New Yorker), oboist James Austin Smith boasts an extensive chamber music career. In this compelling recital, he will present a program of works by...
