2024-25
Concerts

Rhiannon Giddens has made a singular, iconic career out of stretching her brand of folk music, with its miles-deep historical roots and contemporary sensibilities, into just about every field imaginable.

Join us for this spring concert featuring SCMC's beginning string ensemble, Sinfonia, and intermediate string ensemble, Concert Orchestra.

Join us for this spring concert featuring SCMC's top youth orchestra ensemble, Philharmonic.

Grammy Award winning vocalist Catherine Russell is a native New Yorker, born into musical royalty. Her father, the late Luis Russell, was a legendary pianist/composer/bandleader, and Louis Armstrong's long-time musical director. Her mother, Carline Ray, was a pioneering vocalist/guitarist/bassist who performed with International Sweethearts of Rhythm, Mary Lou Williams, and Sy Oliver.

Chris Thile is a multifaceted musical talent and acclaimed Grammy Award-winning mandolinist, singer, songwriter, composer, and MacArthur Fellow recipient of the prestigious “Genius Grant".

Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet are one of the most sought-after young ensembles today and current members of CMS’s Bowers Program. Since soaring to international acclaim as winners of the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, they have performed at major venues across the globe. 

World-renowned guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli has dedicated many of his albums to the great songwriters and performers who have helped to establish the Great American Songbook and the pop music canon: Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Paul McCartney, Richard Rodgers, and Duke Ellington, to name a few. With his new album, Pizzarelli and his remarkable new trio cast a wider net to explore other sources for the most immortal songs of the past century: the Broadway stage and the silver screen.

In celebration of the centennial of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, pianist Emmet Cohen brings together an all-star quintet to explore the fundamental questions that shaped their artistry: Why are we here? What are we reaching for? Where does the music take us? Guided by the spirit of the infinite, Cohen continues the journey set forth by the architects of jazz — seeking deeper truths through sound. A dedicated champion of musical community, Cohen believes in jazz as a living, evolving conversation — one that unites people across time and place. Join Cohen and his ensemble for a bold, reimagined experience of the music that forever changed the course of jazz.

Saxophonist Branford Marsalis is one of the most influential and revered figures in contemporary music. The NEA Jazz Master, Grammy Award winner and Tony Award nominee is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet.

The piano quintet is a powerhouse chamber ensemble, combining the sonic richness of a string quartet with the symphonic aura of grand piano. Inspired by Robert Schumann’s early example, composers from the early Romantic age all the way through the 21st century have contributed significantly to the genre. Russian master Anton Arensky, a teacher of Rachmaninoff, penned his sole quintet in his mature years, and the ever-popular champion of French music Camille Saint-Saëns began his prolific chamber music career with this quintet of surprising skill and maturity. Bracing violin duos by virtuosos of the Baroque and Classical eras serve as effervescent quintet preludes.

The “Schubertiade” was a concert invented during Franz Schubert’s lifetime by his friends, who would gather for long evenings to enjoy their favorite composer’s music. Join us for our season-closing Schubertiade exploring Schubert in three settings: his inimitable four-hand piano music, his virtuosic vein with a violin-and-piano showpiece, and his profound statements in the epic Trio in E-flat major, which took the genre to unparalleled levels of complexity and emotional intensity.