Grupo Corpo

Program: Gira (2017)

Gil Refazendo (Gil originally created 2019, revised 2022)

Dafnis Prieto & Luciana Souza

Dafnis Prieto & Luciana Souza

Saturday | October 28 | 8pm

Berklee Performance Center

Dafnis Prieto—a Grammy Award-winning Cuban-born drummer, composer, bandleader, and 2011 MacArthur “Genius” Fellow—joins forces with Brazilian vocalist Luciana Souza— also a Grammy winner, a sensitive and thoughtful interpreter, and a sought-out partner for musicians of all kinds—to engage listeners through words and music.

Their artistic partnership began with a 2022 collaboration on Prieto’s album Cantar, his first outing as a lyricist. The album and this concert showcase Souza’s soulful and expressive vocals and her interpretive prowess in songs written in Spanish, English, and Portuguese.

“[Prieto’s music is] a marvel of acrobatic musicianship, with Souza’s voice hopping and gliding across tricky but joyful melodies, a glorious match of percussive angularity and tuneful allure.”

— The New York Times

“[Luciana Souza’s] voice traces a landscape of emotion that knows no boundaries.”

–Entertainment Weekly

“The result of her reflections shines with uncommon ambition, so much so that it is hard to think of many soloists of a similar stature who would dare to bring anything like it to the stage.”

Alisa Weilerstein: FRAGMENTS 1

Sunday | November 5 | 7pm

Sanders Theatre

In Alisa Weilerstein’s groundbreaking, multi-year performance series FRAGMENTS, new music by some of the most compelling composers of our time meets the timeless beauty of Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello in an immersive, multisensory audience experience. In FRAGMENTS 1, individual movements from Bach’s first suite are thoughtfully integrated with selected new commissions to make a wholly original emotional arc. Enhanced by responsive lighting and scenic architecture, the music is performed without pauses or printed program details, creating an atmosphere of enchantment, adventure, and discovery.

With FRAGMENTS, cellist Alisa Weilerstein creates a space for performer, composer, and listener that is at once physically intimate and philosophically expansive.

Sir András Schiff piano

Friday | November 10 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Sir András Schiff takes the stage at Jordan Hall for his first in-person appearance with Celebrity Series since 2016. The program will include Classical and early Romantic works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Schubert, with each selection to be introduced from the stage. Hear from the artist himself about the history and significance of each work, along with insight into Mr. Schiff’s programmatic choices.

Experience the unexpected with one of the most authoritative and thoughtful pianists of our time.

What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow

Ladies of the Canyon: the Music of Joni Mitchell and Carole King

Saturday | November 11 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Rob Kapilow turns the What Makes it Great? spotlight on the folk and rock music that came out of Los Angeles’ Laurel Canyon in the 1960s and ’70s. Along with a vocalist and other instrumentalists, he demonstrates what made the place and time so singular and special in the history of American popular music.

Of the dozens of artists who created and collaborated in the enclave, Kapilow brings forward two brilliant, era-defining singer-songwriters: Carole King and Joni Mitchell. Through examples chosen from King’s Tapestry (1971) and Mitchell’s Clouds (1969) and Ladies of the Canyon (1970), he illustrates the genius of these two artists, and the magic of the community that nurtured their iconic works.

Selections will include “Natural Woman,” “I Feel the Earth Move,” “Both Sides Now,” “Big Yellow Taxi,” and more.

Renée Fleming

“America’s soprano of choice”

–The New York Times

Sunday | November 12 | 5pm

Symphony Hall

Grammy award-winning singer Renée Fleming returns to the Series for an unforgettable evening of music. With a voice full of richness, warmth, and complexity, Ms. Fleming continues her ever- evolving arc as an artist with a program of standard and new repertoire. Don’t miss an evening of vocal artistry with one of the greatest voices of our time.

Karim Sulayman tenor

Sean Shibe guitar

Tuesday | November 14 | 7:30pm

Longy’s Pickman Hall

Debut Series

Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe, two artists with wide-ranging performance interests and big ideas, come together for Broken Branches, an eclectic recital that examines the relationship between the East and the West. The program brings together 16th- and 17th-century Italian and English works; traditional Sephardic and Arab-Andalusian songs; Benjamin Britten’s settings of translated poems, Songs from the Chinese; twentiethcentury and contemporary compositions; and more.

Sean Shibe has a “great gift for painting notes in what seems a thousand colours, with multiple dynamic shadings en route… there are exquisite and tender sounds everywhere you look.”

–The Times (UK)

“A tenor such as I have rarely seen in my life as a music lover. Sulayman masters all the registers of stage performance… His charisma is magnetic, always at the service of the work he interprets… which he fully makes his own.”

–Revue L’Opéra (Quebec)