The Kennedy Center Announces 2020-2021 Season Programming for Fortas Chamber Music Concerts
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Press Release
February 10, 2020
Download photos here
The Kennedy Center Announces
2020–2021 Season Programming for
Fortas Chamber Music Concerts
Highlights Include Two Appearances from the Dover Quartet,
Recitals from Benjamin Grosvenor and Augustin Hadelich,
and Several Commissioned Works, Including a Song Cycle
by Richard Danielpour and Rita Dove
Dover Quartet’s Residency is Extended Through 2022–2023 Season
(WASHINGTON)—The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announces
programming for the 2020–2021 season of Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, the series’s 39th
season and 24th under the leadership of artistic director and pianist Joseph Kalichstein.
The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts offer 11 performances in 2020–2021, with a bold mix of
traditional and innovative programming. Five new works commissioned by the Kennedy Center
will premiere next season, emphasizing the ability of the Fortas series to blend pieces from the
established chamber music catalog with works that expand the repertoire. Many familiar
ensembles return, though some in unexpected ways. Next season features an octet comprised of
two Fortas series mainstays, a vocal program that paints scenes from recent American history,
and a cello quintet with members from Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson (KLR) Trio. The Dover
Quartet celebrates its renewed role as Kennedy Center Quartet-in-Residence with two concerts.
Two recitals with young, celebrated artists and a percussion ensemble round out an adventurous
season of programming.“One naturally expects a close-knit partnership within a chamber group,” said Joseph
Kalichstein. “But you will also hear partnerships of two string quartets, of composers and poets,
and of composers and their interpreting performers. You will also hear the music, some of it
newly commissioned, of 11 living composers of different ages, genders, and styles, but all imbued
with imagination, energy, and individuality—a testament to the resilience and power of classical
music.”
The Dover Quartet opens the 2020–2021 season, beginning its third year as Quartet-in-
Residence at the Kennedy Center. They are joined by the Escher Quartet for a program of string
octet works by Shostakovich and Mendelssohn, as well as George Enescu’s Octet in C major,
which is rarely heard and regarded asa successor to Mendelssohn’s own Octet. (October 20)
Acclaimed mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is joined by the Music from Copland House
chamber ensemble for a distinctly North American program in collaboration with the Kennedy
Center’s Renée Fleming VOICES series. Pierre Jalbert’s Canadian-inspired Crossings begins the
program, followed by John Harbison’s Songs America Loves to Sing. A Kennedy Center co-
commission, A Standing Witness, by composer Richard Danielpour with text by former U.S. Poet
Laureate Rita Dove, concludes the program. The work is made of musical snapshots of America
since 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy,
culminating in the political unrest of today. (November 18)
The formidable Takács Quartet returns in December for a traditional program of Schubert’s
Quartettsatz, Debussy’s String Quartet, and Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 132, as a farewell to
the “year of Beethoven.” (December 8)
The Calidore Quartet returns to the Fortas stage playing a new Kennedy Center co-
commissioned work by Grammy®-nominated composer Anna Clyne entitled Breathing Statues.
Ever inventive, Clyne’s work spans genres, from electronic to acoustic to symphonic. The
Calidore Quartet builds upon the established chamber music repertoire with Breathing Statues,
performing it alongside works from other composers integral to the chamber literature—Barber,
Beethoven, and Dvořák. Winners of the 2016 M Prize, this American quartet continues to
emphasize excitement and novelty in their performances. (January 28, 2021)
2A cello quintet makes its appearance at the Kennedy Center early in 2021. Consisting of violinist
Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson of the KLR Trio, violinist Cathy Meng and cellist Keith
Robinson of the Miami Quartet, and violist Hsin-Yun Huang, this quintet performs the second
Kennedy Center co-commission of the season by Richard Danielpour and Schubert’s String
Quintet in C major, D. 956. Danielpour wrote his new work, called A Shattered Vessel, as a
complement to Schubert’s String Quintet, one of the great pillars of the chamber music
literature. (January 31, 2021)
Kennedy Center’s longtime Trio-in-Residence, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, is a staple
of every Fortas season, and next year the three are joined by clarinetist David Shifrin. A celebrated
chamber musician himself, Shifrin was awarded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s
Award for Extraordinary Service to Chamber Music in 2019. The highlight of the program is the
world premiere of a moving new work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich.
Abgang and Kaddish was inspired by the music written by prisoners in concentration camps
during World War II. “Ellen [Taaffe Zwilich] seemed really shaken by working on this and says
that having it finished was a great emotional release for her,” remarked Joseph Kalichstein
following a personal conversation with the composer. (March 3, 2021)
The all-female Aizuri Quartet formed in 2012 and has already met with great critical acclaim.
Reflective of the overall Fortas season, the group’s repertoire emphasizes the importance of
playing new works alongside exciting, modern performances of the great masterpieces of
chamber music history. Their program does just that, combining a 1989 work by György Kurtág
with music by Britten and Beethoven. The quartet comments, “Each work on the program
invokes a feeling of expanse… as if the composer were standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out
over a broad new terrain.” (March 25, 2021)
Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor performs a solo recital this April with a program that
demonstrates the wide possibilities of the piano literature, from the most intimate and inward-
looking Brahms Intermezzi to the huge canvas and high drama of Chopin’s last Sonata, capped by
a late Beethoven Sonata that has both. Grosvenor’s technical proficiency materializes on such a
program; he is an artist who seeks to explore the minutiae of his instrument. Highly lauded, he has
3received Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year and Instrumental Awards. Grosvenor also makes
an appearance with the National Symphony Orchestra in the 2020–2021 season. (April 1, 2021)
Sō Percussion is an acclaimed, boundary-pushing percussion quartet. Joined by composer and
vocalist Caroline Shaw, the group will premiere Shaw’s newest composition alongside Steve
Reich’s hypnotic Music for Pieces of Wood and Julia Wolfe’s unorthodox String Quartet for
Percussion, written specifically for Sō Percussion and co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center.
Sō Percussion and Shaw challenge listeners to change their perception of what chamber music
can be with these creative works. (April 28, 2021)
In its second performance this season, the Dover Quartet resumes its role as a leader of the
Fortas series and Quartet-in-Residence at the Kennedy Center. Two string quartets by
Mendelssohn and Dvořák bookend the world premiere of Kennedy Center Composer-in-
Residence Mason Bates’s new work, co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center. It is a celebration
for the Dover Quartet, having performed one of Bates’s works during each year of the first three
years of their residency. (May 14, 2021)
For the final concert of the Fortas season, renowned violinist Augustin Hadelich is
accompanied by pianist Orion Weiss in recital. Hadelich was named Instrumentalist of the Year
by Musical America in 2018, won a Grammy® in 2016, and has won numerous other competitions
and awards. Highlights of the program include Isaac Albéniz’s lively El Puerto from Ibéria, John
Adams’s minimalist Road Movies, and Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata. (May 23, 2021)
Full details and programs for Fortas Chamber Music Concerts in the 2020–2021 season can be
found in the following chronological listing of events.
Subscriptions for 2020–2021 are available beginning February 5.
ABOUT FORTAS CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS
The Kennedy Center Fortas Chamber Music Concerts are dedicated to presenting the best from the
world of chamber music. In September 1981, the Center’s then–artistic director, Marta Istomin,
established a chamber music series in the newly opened Terrace Theater. The Fortas Chamber Music
Concerts series, established two years later, observes its 39th season in 2020–2021, which is Joseph
Kalichstein’s 24th at the helm of the series.
4The late Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas, for whom the series is named, maintained a lifelong avocation
as a violinist and dedicated amateur chamber music player. Justice Fortas, who served as a Kennedy
Center trustee from 1964 until his death in 1982, was an extraordinary source of wisdom and counsel to the
organization. He gave generously of his time and energy in all areas, from legal to artistic.
In recognition of his devotion, the Kennedy Center’s Abe Fortas Memorial Fund was established for the
support of chamber music concerts at the Kennedy Center and for the further development of the musical
programs Fortas envisioned. Carolyn Agger, the late Washington, D.C., attorney and Fortas’s widow, left a
sizable gift to the Kennedy Center’s Abe Fortas Memorial Fund. The Fund supports the highest level of
chamber music at the Kennedy Center, whether performed by distinguished international artists or bright
and emerging talent. In addition, it supports The Kennedy Center Chamber Players—featuring musicians
of the National Symphony Orchestra.
Joseph Kalichstein is finishing his 23rd season as artistic advisor for chamber music to the Kennedy
Center and artistic director of its Fortas Chamber Music Concerts, devoted to presentation of the world’s
finest chamber music. Acclaimed for the heartfelt intensity and technical mastery of his playing, pianist
Joseph Kalichstein enthralls audiences throughout the United States and Europe, winning equal praise as
orchestral soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. During his long professional history with the Kennedy
Center, Kalichstein has appeared with the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, given solo recitals, and
performed with the National Symphony Orchestra. In his current capacity with the Kennedy Center,
Kalichstein has additionally played a major role in festivals devoted to Brahms, Beethoven, and the history
of the piano itself.
Born in Tel Aviv, Kalichstein came to the United States in 1962. His principal teachers included Joshua
Shor, Edward Steuermann, and Ilona Kabos at The Juilliard School. Prior to his 1969 Leventritt Award
victory, he won the Young Concert Artists Auditions. As a result, he gave a heralded New York recital
debut and, at the invitation of Leonard Bernstein, performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 with the
New York Philharmonic, as part of the nationally televised Young People’s Concerts.
With his diverse repertoire of works ranging from Mozart, Beethoven, and Brahms to 20th-century works
by Bartók, Prokofiev, and others, Kalichstein has collaborated with celebrated conductors and appeared
internationally with the world’s finest symphony orchestras. He continues to play in music capitals
worldwide with the famed Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson piano trio, the Trio-in-Residence of the Fortas
Chamber Music Concerts series, and which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017.
5FORTAS CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS
2020–2021 CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF EVENTS
All concerts take place in the Terrace Theater unless otherwise noted.
The Dover Quartet and the Escher Quartet
Tuesday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m.
Joel Link, violin
Bryan Lee, violin
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Camden Shaw, cello
Adam Barnett-Hart, violin
Danbi Um, violin
Pierre Lapointe, viola
Brook Speltz, cello
SHOSTAKOVICH Two Pieces for Octet, Op. 11
MENDELSSOHN Octet in E-flat major, Op. 20
ENESCU Octet in C major, Op. 7
________________________________________________________________________
Susan Graham and Music from Copland House
Wednesday, November 18 at 7:30 p.m.
Susan Graham, mezzo-soprano
Music from Copland House
JALBERT Crossings
HARBISON Songs America Loves to Sing
DANIELPOUR A Standing Witness
______________________________________________________________________
Takács Quartet
Tuesday, December 8 at 7:30 p.m.
Edward Dusinberre, violin
Harumi Rhodes, violin
Geraldine Walther, viola
András Fejér, cello
SCHUBERT Quartettsatz in C minor, D. 703
DEBUSSY String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132
______________________________________________________________________
6Calidore Quartet
Thursday, January 28, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.
Jeffrey Myers, violin
Ryan Meehan, violin
Jeremy Berry, viola
Estelle Choi, cello
BARBER String Quartet in B minor, Op. 11
CLYNE Breathing Statues (co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center)
BEETHOVEN Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, Op. 133
DVOŘÁK String Quartet No. 12 in F major, Op. 96, “American”
_________________________________________________________________
Cello Quintet
Sunday, January 31, 2021, at 2 p.m.
Jaime Laredo, violin
Cathy Meng, violin
Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Sharon Robinson, cello
Keith Robinson, cello
SCHULHOFF Duo for Violin and Cello
DANIELPOUR A Shattered Vessel String Quintet (Co-commissioned by the
Kennedy Center)
SCHUBERT String Quintet in C major, D. 956 Op. posth. 163
_____________________________________________________________________
Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio with David Shifrin
Wednesday, March 3, 2021, at 7:30pm
Joseph Kalichstein, piano
Sharon Robinson, cello
Jaime Laredo, violin
David Shifrin, clarinet
MOZART Piano Trio in B-flat major, K. 502
ZWILICH Abgang and Kaddish (2019) for Piano Trio and Clarinet (World
Premiere)
BRAHMS Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8 (revised version)
____________________________________________________________________
Aizuri Quartet
Thursday, March 25, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.
Ariana Kim, violin
Miho Saegusa, violin
Ayane Kozasa, viola
Karen Ouzounian, cello
“EXPANSE”
7KURTÁG Officium Breve in memoriam Andreae Szervánszky, Op. 28
BRITTEN String Quartet No. 1 in D major, Op. 25
BEETHOVEN String Quartet No. 12 in E-flat Major, Op. 127
________________________________________________________________________
Benjamin Grosvenor
Thursday, April 1, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.
Benjamin Grosvenor, piano
BRAHMS Three Intermezzi, Op. 117
BEETHOVEN Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101
LISZT Berceuse, S. 174
CHOPIN Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
______________________________________________________________________
Sō Percussion with Caroline Shaw
Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at 7:30 p.m.
Eric Cha-Beach, percussion
Josh Quillen, percussion
Adam Sliwinski, percussion
Jason Treuting, percussion
Caroline Shaw, vocals
REICH Music for Pieces of Wood
WOLFE String Quartet for Percussion (co-commissioned by the Kennedy
Center)
SHAW New work
________________________________________________________________________
Dover Quartet
Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at 7:30 p.m.
Joel Link, violin
Bryan Lee, violin
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola
Camden Shaw, cello
MENDELSSOHN String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 12
BATES New work TBD (co-commissioned by the Kennedy Center)
DVOŘÁK String Quartet No. 13 in G major, Op. 106
________________________________________________________________________
Augustin Hadelich in recital
Sunday, May 23, 2021, at 2 p.m.
Augustin Hadelich, violin
Orion Weiss, piano
DEBUSSY Violin Sonata in G minor
8ALBÉNIZ El Puerto (from Ibéria)
TARREGA Recuerdos de la Alhambra (arr. Ricci)
SARASATE Romanza Andaluza
ADAMS Road Movies
BEETHOVEN Violin Sonata No. 9 in A major, Op. 47 “Kreutzer”
________________________________________________________________________
FUNDING CREDITS
The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts are supported by generous contributors to the
Abe Fortas Memorial Fund, and by a major gift to the fund from the late Carolyn E. Agger,
widow of Abe Fortas.
The Kennedy Center Abe Fortas Memorial Fund Trustees: Nancy S. Abramowitz,
Michael Brewer, Harold Burson†, Charles Burson, R. Scott Pastrick, and David M. Rubenstein.
Joseph Kalichstein is artistic director of the Fortas Chamber Music Concerts and artistic advisor for
chamber music to the Kennedy Center.
The Advisory Committee, chaired by Joseph Kalichstein, includes Emanuel Ax, Richard Goode, Marilyn
Horne, Marta Istomin, Jaime Laredo, Yo-Yo Ma, Gianandrea Noseda, Leonard Slatkin, and Frederica von
Stade.
TICKETS AND INFORMATION
Subscriptions for the 2020–2021 season are available for renewal or purchase beginning February
5 at the Kennedy Center Subscription Office, online at kennedy-center.org/subscribe, and via
phone through InstantCharge, (202) 467-4600; toll-free at (800) 444-1324. For all other ticket-
related customer service inquires, call the Advance Sales Box Office at (202) 416-8540.
#Fortas
###
PRESS CONTACT
Rachelle Roe
(202) 416-8443
rbroe@kennedy-center.org
9FOR PHOTOS
Iain Higgins
(202) 416-8442
imhiggins@kennedy-center.org
TICKETS & INFORMATION
(202) 467-4600; (800) 444-1324
kennedy-center.org
10You can also read
