2023-24 Season

These young lions have been busy since they first performed for us in February of 2022. Their next Wigmore Hall cycle will feature all three quartets by Benjamin Britten. The quartet often appears at festivals such as Spoleto USA, Aldeburgh, North Norfolk, Cheltenham, East Neuk, Lockenhaus and Heidelberger Frühling. Recent and upcoming premieres include works by Charlotte Bray, Edmund Finnis, Mark Simpson, Simon Rowland-Jones and Sir Mark-Anthony Turnage.

Formed in 2011, London-based CASTALIAN QUARTET was appointed the inaugural Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the Oxford University Faculty of Music in 2021. They are also the recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s 2019 Young Artists Award. They have performed at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Philharmonic, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Paris Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Montreal’s Salle Bourgie, Carnegie Hall, and the Spoleto USA Festival. [How was Boise overlooked?]

The Castalian String Quartet’s 2022 release Between Two Worlds (Delphian Records), presenting music by Orlando di Lasso, Thomas Adès, Ludwig van Beethoven and John Dowland, was given a double five-star review as BBC Music Magazine’s “Album of the Month.”

If you were with us in October of 2019, you cannot have forgotten our transcendent concert by these Italians—it was the final concert before the pandemic shut our doors for a year and a half.
As a critic close to me wrote: “the Cremona Quartet's program Friday night will stay in the memory of our audience for its consummate musicality, coupled with gracious, humble professionalism. Their Mozart was exquisitely balanced on a tightrope of clear precision and adroit, expressive unity . . . Verdi's quartet was full of color, as each player found new timbres to explicate the changing moods within the musical lines . . . The Cremona Quartet pivots from power to delicacy with lightning-fast, unified flexibility.”

Since its formation in 2000, the QUARTETTO DI CREMONA has established a reputation as one of the most exciting chamber ensembles on the international stage. Regularly invited to perform in major music festivals and halls in Europe, North and South America, and Far East, they garner universal acclaim for their high level of interpretive artistry. Highlights of recent and upcoming seasons are the performances at the Wigmore Hall (London), at the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), at the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, at the Brucknerhaus (Linz), at the Salle de la Madeleine (Geneve), in Stockholm, Schwarzenberg, Kuhmo, Mumbai, Taipei, and for the Fundación Juan March in Madrid and the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center. North American tours are regularly planned twice a year, with the Carnegie Hall debut scheduled for October 2023 as well as a re-invitation from the CMS of Lincoln Center in March 2024 [and the BCMS!].

Ambassadors for the international project “Friends of Stradivari” and honorary citizen of Cremona, they also endorse “Le Dimore del Quartetto” and Thomastik Infield Strings. Cristiano Gualco violin Nicola Amati, Cremona 1640; Paolo Andreoli violin Paolo Antonio Testore, Milano ca. 1758 (Kulturfonds Peter Eckes); Simone Gramaglia viola Gioachino Torazzi, ca. 1680 (Kulturfonds Peter Eckes); Giovanni Scaglione cello Dom Nicola Amati, Bologna 1712 (Kulturfonds Peter Eckes)

IMANI WINDS has been on our wish list for quite a while, and we’re very excited that this season they found time for us. Celebrating over two decades of music making, the twice Grammy-nominated Imani Winds has led both a revolution and evolution of the wind quintet through their dynamic playing, adventurous programming, imaginative collaborations and outreach endeavors that have inspired audiences of all ages and backgrounds. The ensemble’s playlist embraces traditional chamber music repertoire, and as a 21st century group, Imani Winds is devoutly committed to expanding the wind quintet repertoire by commissioning music from new voices that reflect historical events and the times in which we currently live. Imani Winds regularly performs in prominent international concert venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Hall and the Kimmel Center. Their touring schedule has taken them throughout the Asian continent, Brazil, Australia, England, New Zealand and across Europe. Their national and international presence include performances at chamber music series in Boston, New York, Washington D.C., San Francisco, Philadelphia and Houston. Festival performances include Chamber Music Northwest, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Chautauqua, Banff Centre and Angel Fire.

Imani Winds’ travels through the jazz world are highlighted by their association with saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter, woodwind artist and composer Paquito D’Rivera and pianist and composer Jason Moran. Their ambitious project, "Josephine Baker: A Life of Le Jazz Hot!" featured chanteuse René Marie in performances that brought the house down in New York, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Los Angeles and St. Louis.
In 2021 Imani Winds joined the Faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music, where they serve as the school’s first ever Faculty Wind Quintet. Imani Winds has also served as Resident Artists at Mannes School of Music, and as Ensemble-in-Residence at University of Chicago.

In 2021, Imani Winds released their latest album, “Bruits” on Bright Shiny Things Records, which received a 2022 Grammy nomination for “Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.” Gramophone states, “the ensemble’s hot rapport churns with conviction throughout.” In 2016, Imani Winds received one of their greatest accolades to date: making a permanent presence in the classical music section of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington DC.