Carter Brey News

The new classical series Only at Merkin with Terrance McKnight, featuring, among others, the world-renowned pianists Andre Watts and Ursula Oppens; the world premiere of a piano quintet by acclaimed new music composer Laura Kaminsky; and presentations by Academy and Grammy Awards winner Kristen Anderson-Lopez (Frozen); Emmy, Tony, Grammy and Academy Awards winner Bobby Lopez (Frozen); Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winners Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal); and 10-time Tony winner Maury Yeston (Titanic, Nine) are among the numerous highlights of the Kaufman Music Center's diverse 2018-19 season at Merkin Hall.

In response to overwhelming demand and near universal critical acclaim, Symphonie Fantastique - the singular creation by designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "genius" Basil Twist - extends its 20th anniversary engagement to July 15. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production, which opened on April 4, is a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.

Venezuelan pianist Gabriela Martinez is quickly establishing a reputation and earning praise as a versatile artist who combines poetic vivacity with graceful definition.  She brings her diverse program, featuring Beethoven, Granados, Dan Visconti, Adam Schoenberg and Ginastera to The Edye at The Broad Stage on Saturday, April 7 at 8:00pm.

Praised for its "panache" by The New York Times, the Harlem Quartet is "bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent," says the Cincinnati Enquirer.  That new attitude will be on display when the Harlem Quartet returns to the Soraya and Younes Center for the Performing Arts (The Soraya) and teams up with honor students from CSUN's Samuel Goldberg Honors String Quartet. This free concert will be performed on Wednesday, March 14 at 7:30pm in the intimate 500-seat Plaza del Sol Performance Hall situated alongside The Soraya on the CSUN campus.

Cellist Sang-Eun Lee comes to Pepperdine University's Raitt Recital Hall at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 8, 2018 at the Lisa Smith Wengler Center for the Arts as the final artist of the 2017-2018 Recital Series. Tickets, starting at $28 for adults and $10 for full-time Pepperdine students, are available now by calling (310) 506-4522 or visiting arts.pepperdine.edu.

Symphonie Fantastique - the singular creation by designer, director, master puppeteer, and MacArthur "Genius" Basil Twist - returns to its original home at HERE in a 20th anniversary production for 12 weeks only, March 29-June 17. Set to Hector Berlioz's revolutionary 1830 score, Symphonie Fantastique, for the first time in New York, features live piano accompaniment by Christopher O'Riley. Hailed as a creative masterpiece when it debuted in 1998, the production is set to open on April 4 and a presentation from HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program and a centerpiece of HERE's 25th anniversary season.

Wagner aplenty, Wagner galore. After starting the week off with the Met's PARSIFAL under the exciting Nezet-Seguin, I ended it with another Wagner, DIE WALKURE, in a sweeping account of Act I from the New York Philharmonic under its music director designate, Jaap van Zweden.

Music won and the NBA lost when Amit Peled chose the cello over basketball. Peled, who stands 6-foot-5, says that as a young man he had to decide between a future dribbling basketballs and a future bowing four strings. He chose the life of a musician, although today at 44 he continues to follow his favorite b-ball teams and shoot hoops with his children.

The New York Philharmonic will return to Bravo! Vail in Colorado for the Orchestra's 16th annual summer residency there, performing six orchestral concerts July 20-27, 2018.

92nd Street Y inaugurates three engaging new series - Chamber Orchestras, a Vocal Series, and Garrick Ohlsson: Brahms Exploration - ushering in a host of original concepts, artists, compositions, and collaborations, in keeping with 92Y's enduring traditions of cultural discovery, intellectual curiosity, and artistic experimentation.  Additionally, 92Y commences Inflection, its first interdisciplinary festival, a six-concert exploration of music in relation to other art forms, including spoken word, photography, sculpture, and dance.  This season also features the World Premieres of Phyllis's Portrait by Sergio Assad and Jonathan Berger's new opera Leonardo, the US premiere of a symphony by Hans Rott, the New York premieres of Wynton Marsalis's new work for solo violin, a new string quartet by Martin Bresnick, and Andreia Pinto Correia's String Quartet No. 1 "Unvanquished Space"; five major international artists making their 92Y performance debuts: Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov, German cellist Alban Gerhardt, Bulgarian violinist Gergana Gergova, the Danish String Quartet, and the Artemis String Quartet; several young musicians also give their 92Y debut performances in the pristine acoustics of Buttenwieser Hall for the Soundspace Series: Jessica Xylina Osborne, Einav Yarden, Conrad Tao (with violinist Stefan Jackiw), the Horszowski Trio, Juho Pohjonen, and Orion Weiss.

The ninth season of CONTACT!, the New York Philharmonic's new-music series, begins with Musicians from the New York Philharmonic performing two New York Premieres, Du Yun's Tattooed in Snow, for String Quartet (2015), and Fernanda Aoki Navarro's Parthenogenesis (2012).

On January 18, the ten outstanding musicians from Music Academy of the West who have been named as this year's Zarin Mehta Fellows will arrive in New York to take part in the New York Philharmonic Global Academy Fellowship Program's fourth season.

Bernstein's Philharmonic: A Centennial Festival will be performed again on Tuesday, November 14. Let's see what the critics had to say!

The Harlem Quartet returns to the Chamber Music Society of Detroit Midtown Series Friday, November 3, 8 PM, following an enthusiastically received, sold-out debut on the series last fall.

The Harlem Quartet returns to the Chamber Music Society of Detroit Midtown Series Friday, November 3, 8 PM, following an enthusiastically received, sold-out debut on the series last fall.

The New York Philharmonic's Marie-Josee Kravis Composer-in-Residence Esa-Pekka Salonen and Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence Leif Ove Andsnes will both launch their 2017-18 Philharmonic residencies in a Scandinavian-themed program led by Paavo Jarvi.

Music Director David Bernard will conduct with the audience seated amongst the musicians, continuing his trailblazing 'InsideOut' concept, at New York's DiMenna Center for Classical Music

The New York Philharmonic String Quartet will make its New York recital debut at 92nd Street Y performing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 4; Dvo? k's String Quartet in F major, American; and Mendelssohn's String Quartet in F minor on Sunday, November 12, 2017, at 3:00 p.m. The performance will be co-presented by the New York Philharmonic and 92nd Street Y. Formed in January 2017, the New York Philharmonic String Quartet comprises Concertmaster Frank Huang, Principal Associate Concertmaster Sheryl Staples, Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps, and Principal Cello Carter Brey.

The New York Philharmonic has launched the podcast Listening Through Time, an intimate conversation about how performances have evolved from one generation of Philharmonic players to the next. In each episode, a Philharmonic musician (current or retired) joins Philharmonic Archivist / Historian Barbara Haws in listening to and comparing the Orchestra's perfor mances from different eras.

Members of the NJSO Chamber Players will perform the Aaron Jay Kernis string quartet that the composer later orchestrated as Musica celestis in a special NJSO Accent event with Kernis on Friday, October 13, at 6:45 pm at the Richardson Auditorium in Princeton. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra's 8 pm concert includes the NJSO premiere of Kernis' ethereal work for string orchestra.