2023/24 Brochure

Isata Kanneh-Mason

2023/24 Calendar

Jazz Along the Charles Charles River Esplanade

Saturday | October 7

Isata Kanneh-Mason

Friday | October 13 | 8pm | GH

Saturday | October 14 | 8pm | JH

Charles Lloyd 85th Birthday Celebration

Sunday | October 15 | 7pm | BK

Thibaudet / Batiashvili / Capuçon

Friday | October 20 | 8pm | JH

An Evening with Audra McDonald

Sunday | October 22 | 5pm | SH

Grupo Corpo

Saturday | October 28 | 8pm | BCST

Sunday | October 29 | 3pm | BCST

Dafnis Prieto featuring Luciana Souza

Saturday | October 28 | 8pm | BK

Alisa Weilerstein: FRAGMENTS 1

Sunday | November 5 | 7pm | ST

Sir András Schiff

Friday | November 10 | 8pm | JH

What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow Ladies of the Canyon

Saturday | November 11 | 8pm | JH

Renée Fleming

Sunday | November 12 | 5pm | SH

DEBUT SERIES

Karim Sulayman and Sean Shibe

Tuesday | November 14 | 7:30pm | PK

Daniil Trifonov

Wednesday | November 15 | 8pm | SH

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Friday | November 17 | 8pm | BK

Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix

Friday | December 1 | 8pm | BK

DEBUT SERIES

Diana Adamyan

Thursday | December 7 | 7:30pm | PK

Jeremy Denk

Saturday | December 9 | 8pm | JH

Sunday | December 10 | 3pm | GH

Music From The Sole I Didn’t Come to Stay

Friday | January 12 | 8pm | BBT

Saturday | January 13 | 2pm & 8pm | BBT

Ashwini Ramaswamy Let the Crows Come

Friday | January 19 | 8pm | BBT

Saturday | January 20 | 2pm | BBT

Anthony Roth Costanzo

Friday | January 19 | 8pm | JH

Hélène Grimaud

Saturday | January 20 | 8pm | JH

Sunday | January 21 | 3pm | GH

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Sunday | January 28 | 5pm | SH

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Friday | February 2 | 8pm | ST

What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings

Saturday | February 3 | 8pm | JH

Víkingur Ólafsson

Saturday | February 10 | 8pm | JH

Takács Quartet

Friday | February 16 | 8pm | JH

DEBUT SERIES

Justin Austin

Wednesday | February 21 | 7:30pm | PK

Time For Three

Saturday | February 24 | 8pm | ST

Arturo Sandoval and Pedrito Martinez

Friday | March 8 | 8pm | BK

Sierra Hull

Saturday | March 9 | 8pm | ST

DEBUT SERIES

Jess Gillam

Tuesday | March 12 | 7:30pm | PK

Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age

Friday | March 15 | 8pm | ST

Miho Hazama and m_unit

Saturday | March 16 | 8pm | BK

Orchestre de Paris

Sunday | March 17 | 7pm | SH

Nathalie Joachim

Wednesday | March 20 | 7pm | CB

JIJI

Thursday | March 21 | 7pm | CB

Chromic Duo

Friday | March 22 | 7pm | CB

Mark Lettieri Group

Saturday | March 23 | 7pm | CB

Bruce Liu

Saturday | March 23 | 8pm | JH

DEBUT SERIES

Isidore String Quartet

Wednesday | March 27 | 7:30pm | PK

Thursday | March 28 | 8pm | GH

Patti LuPone

A Life in Notes

Tuesday | April 2 | 8pm | SH

Vertigo Dance Company MAKOM

Friday | April 5 | 8pm | BCST

Saturday | April 6 | 8pm | BCST

Christian Tetzlaff and Kirill Gerstein

Sunday | April 7 | 3pm | JH

Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott

Tuesday | April 9 | 8pm | SH

An Evening with David Sedaris

Friday | April 12 | 8pm | SH

Brentano String Quartet

Sunday | April 14 | 3pm | JH

Bamberg Symphony

Tuesday | April 23 | 8pm | SH

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Thursday | May 2 | 8pm | BCWT

Friday | May 3 | 8pm | BCWT

Saturday | May 4 | 2pm & 8pm | BCWT

Sunday | May 5 | 3pm | BCWT

Duets – Dianne Reeves, Chucho Valdés, and Joe Lovano

Saturday | May 4 | 8pm | BK

These performances are also available for on-demand digital streaming! Recordings will premiere two days after the live events and will be available for seven days.

For more information, please visit celebrityseries.org/athome

BK | Berklee Performance Center

BCST | Boch Center Shubert Theatre

BCWT | Boch Center Wang Theatre

CB | Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre

GH | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center

JH | NEC’s Jordan Hall

PK | Longy’s Pickman Hall

BBT | NEC’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre

ST | Sanders Theatre

SH | Symphony Hall

celebrityseries.org/photo-credits

The Debut Series at Longy’s Pickman Hall

Hear artists you’ll be talking about for years to come in one of the city’s most intimate music venues.

Since 2012, Celebrity Series has been bringing you Boston debuts of artists whose stars are on the rise. In the 2023/24 season, we introduce musicians from around the world as new-to-theSeries artists take the Pickman Hall stage at Longy School of Music of Bard College.

Learn more at celebrityseries.org/debutseries

Cover photo by John Davis. For a list of all photo credits, visit:

Welcome to the 2023/24 season!

It’s wonderful to welcome you, or welcome you back, for what promises to be a thrilling year of live performance.

At the launch of every season, I ask myself (and am asked by many others), “what’s new this year?” This year, I’m excited to introduce our new Artistic Director Nicole Taney. This season is her handiwork, and she has crafted a compelling balance of returning, new-to-us, and new-to-Boston artists that I know you’re going to enjoy.

We are also journeying to a beautiful brand-new venue, inviting four artists to present two performances: one at a Boston-area venue and another at the Groton Hill Music Center’s Meadow Hall.

And, finally, I’m pleased to introduce our new season sponsors, the Stephanie L. Brown Foundation and Susan & Michael Thonis. I’m grateful for their leadership support of our mission and programming, and for all of their work behind the scenes to build a strong, welcoming, and equitable Celebrity Series.

I invite you to browse the season and curate your own subscription now: get the best seats and valuable benefits, and support Celebrity Series’ goal to bring the arts to everyone, and everyone to the arts.

Warmly,

Gary Dunning President and Executive Director

It’s great to be here, and to introduce my first Celebrity Series season as Artistic Director. I arrived in Boston last summer and hit the ground running to prepare for this very announcement.

I compare the experience of putting a season together—matching an artist, a venue, a date, and our artistic goals—to completing a jigsaw puzzle. Now that all the pieces have clicked into place, the picture has become clear: I hope you enjoy exploring the season and crafting your subscription.

Thank you for your support; I look forward to seeing you at a performance!

Sincerely,

Nicole Taney Artistic Director

Subscription Benefits

Purchase tickets to just three performances to become a Celebrity Series subscriber!

Early Access to Performances

Score the best seats for your favorite shows before single tickets go on sale! By bundling just three performances, subscribers can purchase their favorite seats before the general public.

Locked-in Ticket Prices

Need more tickets during the season? Pay no fees and get the guaranteed subscriber price on all additional ticket purchases. Additional tickets must be purchased from the Celebrity Series Box Office.

Save on Ticket Fees

Single tickets have variable fees per ticket that add up. As a subscriber, you pay just one $15 fee when you subscribe and can add as many tickets as you like during the season for no additional fee.

Flexible Ticket Exchanges

If your plans change after purchasing a subscription, exchange tickets for another performance in the season quickly and easily. Many organizations charge for this benefit; Celebrity Series subscribers get it for free. If you’re not sure what you’d like to exchange into, we can keep the credit on your account until you decide. The credit on your account is valid through the end of the performance season.

Subscriber-only Waiting List Access for Sold-out Events

Subscribers can get tickets for sold-out performances or upgrade their seats with exclusive subscriber-only waiting lists. When other subscribers return tickets, we go to this private subscriber-only list first to fill seats!

Celebrity Series Membership

Celebrity Series members make a generous investment in the transformative power of the performing arts. As a member of the Celebrity Series of Boston, your contribution supports Celebrity Series’ mission to present performing artists who inspire and enrich our community.

Your Gift at Work

• Your gift supports the production of live performance in the 2023/24 season in a variety of venues across greater Boston

• Your gift encourages increased equity in Boston’s cultural and civic life as we amplify diverse artistic perspectives from across the country and around the globe

• Your gift connects Boston communities by providing vital opportunities for expression and employment for local artists and audiences through our Arts for All! community programs

• Your gift ensures that future generations will experience the unique magic and unifying force of live performance for many years to come

Become a Member

Make your gift today. Support the future of artistic performances by making a gift to Celebrity Series! Scan this QR code with your smartphone camera or visit celebrityseries.org/MembershipGift to make your gift now, or make a gift with your subscription order to make the most of your Celebrity Series season.

SCAN ME!

Master tabla artist Sandeep Das leads a workshop with members of Boston City Singers.

Membership Benefits

To thank you, Celebrity Series offers an array of membership benefits. Learn more at celebrityseries.org/membership.

Friends Circle ($100-$499)

• Early 2023/24 season subscription on-sale on May 11, AND early single-ticket sales for select performances

• Copy of mailed BRAVO! annual report

• Donor-only discount on any digital performance purchase

• Celebrity Series in Action monthly e-newsletter

Patrons Circle ($500-$1,249)

All the above, plus:

• Early 2023/24 season subscription on-sale on May 9, AND early single-ticket sales for select performances

• Listing in BRAVO! annual report

• Acknowledgment in digital program books

• Opportunities to connect with fellow members of the Celebrity Series community at performance receptions

Dress Circle ($1,250-$2,499)

All the above, plus:

• Early 2023/24 season subscription on-sale on May 2, AND early single-ticket sales for select performances

• Invitation to annual Dress Circle thank-you event

• Invitations to behind-the-scenes virtual and live events

Leadership Circle ($2,500-$4,999)

All the above, plus:

• Invitation to virtual Town Hall with Celebrity Series leadership

• Invitation to Fall Annual Meeting

• Virtual holiday telegram from a Neighborhood Arts artist (New!)

• Dedicated Leadership Circle ticketing assistance from Celebrity Series’ Donor Ticketing Advisor

Artists Circle ($5,000-$9,999)

All the above, plus:

• Invitations to post-performance receptions with select artists

Mission Hill Arts Festival

The Yard at the Tobin Community Center

1481 Tremont St, Roxbury, MA

The Mission Hill Arts Festival, an annual outdoor performance series at The Yard at the Tobin Community Center, invites audiences to share a performance and a conversation.

This summer’s theme is Exuberance, and Celebrity Series is excited to co-present three performances that offer a new way of thinking about movement, rhythm, and the musical status quo.

These community concerts are co-presented by Celebrity Series’ Neighborhood Arts Program (see page 55 for more information).

Learn more about these events and purchase tickets at celebrityseries.org/mhaf

Jalen Bunch

Finding Joy, A Celebration in Dance

Saturday | June 24 | 6pm

Dancer and Choreographer Jalen Bunch, wearing a device that translates their movements into sound in real time, depicts triumph and survival through movement and digitally rendered sound. They ask: what does exuberance look like, and what will it sound like?

Lee Fish Quintet

Sounds of a Starr

Saturday | July 22 | 6pm

Drummer Lee Fish pays tribute to his mother Lori Starr, a composer, musician, and educator. Fish arranges Starr’s compositions for his own quintet, bringing new life to her works, and continuing her legacy of joy, exuberance, life, and love.

Kevin Harris Project

P U L S E

Saturday | August 19 | 6pm

Pianist and composer Kevin Harris creates a chamber work in collaboration with Winsor Music that brings notated and improvised music together in an exuberant whole. The ensemble of oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, acoustic bass, and piano features jazz and classical musicians playing alongside each other in an energetic exchange of ideas.

Jazz Along the Charles

Saturday | October 7

DCR Charles River Esplanade, Boston

Ken Field & Zahili Zamora co-curators

Come explore one of Boston’s iconic outdoor spaces when Jazz Along the Charles returns this fall! One hundred local musicians, in 25 jazz ensembles, perform a single Boston-inspired setlist in their own style.

Experience the concert however you choose: linger with one band to hear their interpretation of each tune, or make your way along a mile-plus loop to sample the diversity of our city’s jazz scene.

Save the date for this dynamic and evolving jazz experience.

This public event is free and open to all!

LEAD SPONSOR:

Groton Hill Music Center

122 Old Ayer Rd, Groton, MA

In the 2023/24 season, we invite you to experience a new venue, Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center. Opened in 2022, Groton Hill Music Center is a spacious, comfortable, and inviting place to hear a concert: the natural wood and stone used throughout enhance the panoramic view of the countryside beyond the Meadow Hall stage. Meadow Hall’s acoustics are warm and vibrant, and the 300-seat capacity and excellent sightlines offer an intimate concert experience.

The Groton Hill campus offers high-quality food and beverage options and ample free parking. Come early and explore this stunning new addition to the New England performing arts landscape.

This season, Celebrity Series presents four artists in two locations performing the same program at a Boston-area venue and in Groton, MA at Meadow Hall in the Groton Hill Music Center.

Isata Kanneh-Mason piano

October 13 | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill

October 14 | NEC’s Jordan Hall

Hélène Grimaud piano

January 20 | NEC’s Jordan Hall

January 21 | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill

Jeremy Denk piano

December 9 | NEC’s Jordan Hall

December 10 | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill

Isidore String Quartet

March 27 | Longy’s Pickman Hall

March 28 | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill

–The New York Times

Isata Kanneh-Mason piano

Friday | October 13 | 8pm | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center

Saturday | October 14 | 8pm | NEC’s Jordan Hall

British pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason’s star has rapidly risen as she continues to astound and inspire audiences of all backgrounds—aficionados and newcomers alike—with her dazzling interpretations of standard and overlooked repertoire.

She returns to the Series for the third time—making her solo recital debut—as she takes center stage for two special concerts: she inaugurates Celebrity Series’ partnership with Groton Hill Music Center and launches the Boston season at Jordan Hall.

Don’t miss an unforgettable appearance by “a profound and greatly gifted artist who radiates warmth, joy, and much-needed musical sunshine” (Gramophone).

Program:

Joseph Haydn Piano Sonata No. 60 in C Major, Hob. XVI/50

Fanny Mendelssohn Easter Sonata

Robert Schumann Kinderszenen, Op. 15

Frédéric Chopin Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58

Friday, October 13: Post-Performance Celebration! Celebrity Series Friends Circle members are invited to a reception celebrating our first Groton Hill performance on October 13. Make a gift of $100 or more with your subscription purchase or visit celebrityseries.org/donate to be included in this special evening.

“Calmly commanding throughout, she was also unfailingly subtle.”

Isata Kanneh-Ma son

Charles Lloyd 85th Birthday Celebration Charles Lloyd New Quartet

featuring Jason Moran, Reuben Rogers, Eric Harland

Sunday | October 15 | 7pm

Berklee Performance Center

Celebrate the great bandleader and composer Charles Lloyd on his 85th birthday tour when he returns to Boston with his longtime quartet.

Lloyd and his horn and flute will feature prominently, and bandmates Jason Moran, Eric Harland, and Reuben Rogers constitute a truly impressive rhythm section befitting one of the most enduring jazz visionaries of our time.

Lloyd, over his long career, has been a seeker, almost a mystic: always searching for meaning and new ways to express himself. He has said that his playing at any moment is a reflection of his life in real time: we can’t wait to hear what 85 sounds like to Charles Lloyd.

“This music is our indigenous art form. It is a living art. It has always been my inspiration and consolation. I hope I can do the same for others. I am in service.”

–Charles Lloyd

“Jean-Yves Thibaudet’s piano, Lisa Batiashvili’s violin and Gautier Capuçon’s cello stitched their individual strands of sound into a sumptuous fabric.” –ArtsDesk

Jean-Yves Thibaudet piano

Lisa Batiashvili violin

Gautier Capuçon cello

Friday | October 20 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Lisa Batiashvili, and cellist Gautier Capuçon are longtime friends and well-matched musical partners who first came together to tour as an all-star trio in 2018. They drew praise for their insightful performances, their canny repertoire selections, and their musical blend as a trio, despite their considerable individual star power as soloists.

Program:

Joseph Haydn Piano Trio No. 44 in E Major, Hob. XV/28

Maurice Ravel Piano Trio in A minor

Felix Mendelssohn Piano Trio No. 2 In C minor, Op. 66

Audra McDonald

“Talent this manifold is too miraculous to deconstruct, but there is at the heart of McDonald’s art a moral radiance, a desire to align beauty with truth and justice.”

–Los Angeles Times

An Evening with Audra McDonald

Sunday | October 22 | 5pm

Symphony Hall

Audra McDonald returns to Boston in a one-night-only engagement, with an orchestra of local musicians. An icon on stage and screen, the six-time Tony Award-winning McDonald lends her luminous voice and committed stage presence to Broadway favorites, standards, and much more.

Grupo Corpo

Saturday | October 28 | 8pm

Sunday | October 29 | 3pm

Boch Center Shubert Theatre

Brazil’s world-renowned contemporary dance ensemble Grupo Corpo returns to Boston for the first time since 2018 with a program that shows off the glorious diversity of cultures in Brazil, with a focus on Afro-Brazilian themes and aesthetics.

Gira, evokes rituals from the Umbanda religious practice, a uniquely Brazilian faith blending West African and Catholic religious practice that originated in Rio de Janeiro in the 1920s. Choreographer Rodrigo Pederneiras merges celebrants’ spinning movements and ritual gestures with his deep background in contemporary dance to create a profound and compelling statement about humanity’s relationship to the divine, or the supernatural.

Gil Refazendo, with choreography by Rodrigo Pederneiras, takes as its inspiration the music of Gilberto Gil, the Bahian composer, performer, and activist called “the godfather of Brazilian music.” Gil was created in 2019 but was completely reworked in 2022 into Gil Refazendo: the music and dance are renewed, reimagined, and rebuilt in response to the pandemic years. Experience iconic Brazilian songs in a new way with this high-energy, uplifting work!

Grupo Corpo

Program: Gira (2017)

Gil Refazendo (Gil originally created 2019, revised 2022)

Dafnis Prieto featuring Luciana Souza

Dafnis Prieto featuring Luciana Souza Cantar

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

“[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.

Alisa Weilerstein’s FRAGMENTS project has been co-commissioned by Celebrity Series of Boston.

Alisa Weilerstein

–The New York Times

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.

“I would like to bring back an element of surprise and spontaneity, and to break down a couple of these barriers about the preconceived idea of what a piano recital is.”

–Sir András Schiff

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.

Renée Fleming soprano

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)

Karim Sulayman & Sean Shibe

Daniil Trifonov

Daniil Trifonov piano

Wednesday | November 15 | 8pm

Symphony Hall

Combining consummate technique with rare sensitivity and depth, Daniil Trifonov’s performances are a perpetual source of awe, and he’s one of the world’s most in-demand recitalists, orchestra soloists, and chamber music partners.

Daniil Trifonov, called “without question the most astounding pianist of our age” by London’s Times, lends his staggering interpretive talent and dazzling technique to selections by Rameau, Mozart, and Mendelssohn, as well as Beethoven’s Hammerklavier sonata. His appearances are always a special occasion: don’t miss Daniil Trifonov’s first-ever solo recital on our biggest stage for music!

Program:

Jean-Philippe Rameau Suite in A minor

W.A. Mozart Sonata No. 12, K. 332

Felix Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses

Ludwig van Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 29, Op. 106, “Hammerklavier ”

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Friday | November 17 | 8pm

Berklee Performance Center

Molly Tuttle, praised for her “expressive, crystalline voice and astounding flat-picking guitar skills” (Rolling Stone Country), is a standout in roots music’s new generation and the first woman to be named Guitar Player of the Year by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Tuttle and Golden Highway were awarded Best Bluegrass Album at the 2023 Grammy Awards for Crooked Tree DC Concert Review praised the band’s chemistry and the special magic that they bring to a live performance: “Tuttle’s studio albums are beautifully crafted recordings, but her live performances are where she and her band truly come to life, and they masterfully interact with one another and delight the audience in the process.”

Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix

Lakecia Benjamin and Phoenix

Friday | December 1 | 8pm

Berklee Performance Center

Lakecia Benjamin, voted Rising Star Alto Saxophonist in the 2020 DownBeat Critics Poll and selected among 2020’s “25 for the Future” by the same publication, fuses traditional conceptions of jazz, hip hop, and soul to create electrifyingly danceable grooves.

Benjamin’s Phoenix album and tour tell a personal story of recovery and emergence. She says, “when we came out from the pandemic we weren’t allowed to be broken…we had to be these beautiful absorbent birds and get to work. I wanted to highlight each month of that.”

“The alto saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin plays jazz that is sprinkled with the rich flavors of funk and soul—she’s a crafty traditionalist who remains in step with the rhythms of the young generation.”

–New Yorker

Diana Adamyan violin

Renana Gutman piano

Thursday | December 7 | 7:30pm

Longy’s Pickman Hall

DEBUT SERIES

Armenian violinist Diana Adamyan is quickly gaining an international reputation as one of her generation’s most outstanding violinists. After winning First Prize at the 2018 Yehudi Menuhin International Competition, the world’s most prestigious prize for young violinists, she went on to receive First Prize in the 2020 Khachaturian International Competition. Adamyan takes the Pickman Hall stage alongside Boston-based pianist Renana Gutman, a faculty member at Longy School of Music.

“Diana Adamyan is a name you will hear again…following her career promises to be a joy,” wrote Seen and Heard International. Be there when this phenomenal young artist makes her Boston recital debut.

Program:

W.A. Mozart Sonata in B-flat Major, K. 378

Jean Sibelius Pieces for violin and piano, Op. 81

Jean Sibelius Humoresque No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 89

Edvard Baghdasaryan “Rhapsody” for violin and piano

Camille Saint-Saëns Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 75

“One of the most thoughtful and reliably interesting artists of our time.”

–Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A remarkable figure, as much a thinker as a player...and as much admired for his pioneering, sometimes challenging programming as he is for his brilliantly perceptive playing.”

–The Scotsman

Jeremy Denk piano

Saturday | December 9 | 8pm | NEC’s Jordan Hall

Sunday | December 10 | 3pm | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center

Pianist and author Jeremy Denk curates a program that unites female composers across the centuries. Works by Louise Farrenc and Clara Schumann, French Romantic holdout Cécile Chaminade, American pianist and composer Amy Beach, and modernist-turnedfolk-revivalist Ruth Crawford Seeger sit alongside works by acclaimed contemporary composers Tania León, Meredith Monk, Phyllis Chen, and Missy Mazzoli.

Denk pulls these diverse works and composers together to tell a story of women’s genius—both recognized and neglected in their own times and remembered and forgotten in ours—and lends his insight, technical panache, and expressive style to this era-spanning program.

Music From The Sole I Didn’t Come to Stay

Friday | January 12 | 8pm

Saturday | January 13 | 2pm & 8pm

NEC's Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre

Music From The Sole is a tap dance and live music company that celebrates tap’s connections to Afro-Brazilian music and dance, and other influences across the African Diaspora. Jointly founded by Brazilian tap dancer and choreographer Leonardo Sandoval and American composer and bassist Gregory Richardson, the company aims to bring tap dance—America's original vernacular dance—and its lineage to the widest possible audience.

I Didn’t Come to Stay, a work for eight dancers and five-piece band, earned a spot on the New York Times’ Best Dance Performances of 2022 list. It explores tap’s connections to house, samba, Brazilian funk, and jazz. The artists embrace these forms' shared roots in the African diaspora to reflect on racial and cultural identity, while also celebrating the joy, strength, depth, and virtuosity of Black dance and music.

Music From The Sole

“An unforced crowd-pleaser, original and true to itself. …this sense of togetherness and collective joy extended throughout the work.”

–The New York Times

FRIDAY, JANUARY 12: You’re invited! Join us at the Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre for a post-performance reception and artist conversation on Friday evening. Open to all Friday-evening ticket holders.

Ashwini Ramaswamy

Let the Crows Come (with live music)

Friday | January 19 | 8pm

Saturday | January 20 | 2pm

NEC’s Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre

Evoking potent symbolism of the crow as a messenger between life and death, transcending space and time, Ashwini Ramaswamy explores memory, dislocation, ancestry, and more in Let the Crows Come.

Ramaswamy, who comes from a family of Bharatanatyam teachers and practitioners, remixes and recontextualizes this Indian classical dance alongside two other artists representing seemingly disparate techniques and traditions. Alanna Morris performs with an Afro-Caribbean Modern technique, and Berit Ahlgren performs using the Gaga technique developed by Ohad Naharin.

Together, the three women illustrate the transmission of memory and ideas from person to person, generation to generation, culture to culture: movements from Bharatanatyam dance are passed between them, transformed by each dancer’s training and their artistic interpretations.

“...a fascinating, beautifully developed exchange of dance styles...”

–The Washington Post

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20: You’re invited! Join us at the Plimpton Shattuck Black Box Theatre for a post-performance reception and artist conversation on Saturday afternoon. Open to all Saturday-afternoon ticket holders.

Anthony Roth Costanzo countertenor

Bryan Wagorn piano

Friday | January 19 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Described by the Telegraph as “Super-cool, multi-talented and dauntlessly adventurous,” American countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo returns to Boston for an all-new recital program with pianist Bryan Wagorn.

A recent Grammy Award winner for his fearless and stunning portrayal of the title character in Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, Anthony Roth Costanzo has drawn public and critical acclaim for his unforgettable performances and the brilliance, power, and agility of his voice.

Costanzo’s program promises dramatic commitment and incisive characterizations; “very few singers can bring such high-caliber acting to a concert appearance,” wrote Opera News

Anthony Roth Costanzo

Hélène Grimaud

“True to form, Ms. Grimaud proved a focused, at times ferocious, pianist who favors a big, steely sound and bold, unsentimental playing.”

–The New York Times

Hélène Grimaud piano

Saturday | January 20 | 8pm | NEC’s Jordan Hall

Sunday | January 21 | 3pm | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center

French pianist Hélène Grimaud enjoys a busy and varied career on the world’s concert stages as an orchestral soloist, a chamber music partner, and a solo recitalist. With her combination of sheer strength and power tempered by her interpretive subtlety and technical control, she’s an impressive pianist in any setting.

Grimaud’s Boston-area recital debut shows off her expressive skills and technical control: the many moods and the brilliant variations heard in Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 30, the colors and soulfulness of Brahms’ late piano works, and the pyrotechnics of Busoni’s transcription of Bach’s Chaconne

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven

Johannes Brahms

Piano Sonata No. 30, Op. 109

Three Intermezzi for piano, Op. 117

Johannes Brahms Fantasies, Op. 116

J. S. Bach / Ferruccio Busoni Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis

Max Roach Centennial Celebration

Sunday | January 28 | 5pm Symphony Hall

Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra pay tribute to one of the greats when they celebrate the centennial of drummer and composer Max Roach. Roach, a pioneering legend and innovative master musician and bandleader, spanned a diverse range of styles and influenced generations to follow with his artistry and his commitment to activism.

“Only a group of musicians who have toured together for so long—with several original members still on the bandstand—could have attained this kind of synchronicity in intricate passagework.”

–Chicago Tribune

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra

Cécile McLorin Salvant

“I think what I try to do is more akin to revealing secrets than telling stories. Revealing secrets is also the snake’s role in the Garden [of Eden]. The snake brings secrets, knowledge, pain, and mayhem.”

Cécile McLorin Salvant

Friday | February 2 | 8pm Sanders Theatre

Brilliant jazz vocalist, composer, and lyricist Cécile McLorin Salvant weaves a tale of women’s secrecy under the male gaze in her latest project, Mélusine. Salvant takes as her inspiration the European folk legend of Mélusine, the woman cursed to spend one day each week as a half-snake.

Featuring a mix of originals and reorchestrations of songs dating back to the twelfth century, Salvant brings her wide-ranging intellect, powerfully expressive voice, boundless creativity, and theatrical imagination to songs sung in French, English, Haitian Kreyól, and the ancient Southern French language Occitan.

Experience the profound vision of a major talent with this fascinating song cycle from one of today’s most acclaimed singers in any genre.

–Cécile McLorin Salvant

What Makes It Great? with Rob Kapilow featuring A Far Cry

Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings

Saturday | February 3 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

If you’ve heard Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, you know it’s full of gorgeous moments and sweeping feeling, but have you ever wondered what, specifically, makes it great and keeps avid listeners coming back again and again?

Rob Kapilow, with the support of A Far Cry, explores the work in the context of Tchaikovsky’s life and career. He unpacks and illustrates some of Tchaikovsky’s compositional choices and provides illuminating biographical and historical context about the composer, and how he negotiated the various political and artistic movements of his time.

Boston’s A Far Cry chamber orchestra returns for their second performance alongside Kapilow. The self-conducted, democratically governed, and adventurous ensemble was praised by the Boston Musical Intelligencer for its “top-drawer playing.”

“This was a totally engaging event. … [Rob Kapilow] was perfectly paired with A Far Cry, one of the most intelligent, musical, and fun ensembles here in Boston.”

–What Makes it Great? Audience Member, 2023

What Makes It Great?

Víkingur Ólafsson

Víkingur Ólafsson piano

Saturday | February 10 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

After a rapturously received sold-out Celebrity Series debut in 2022, pianist Víkingur Ólafsson returns to one of the composers that has defined his career to date, and puts his own stamp on an iconic work for the Baroque keyboard: Bach's Goldberg Variations.

Drawing out the underlying structures and illuminating extraordinary moments, Ólafsson reflects and refracts well-known works to make us hear them in new ways. With its rigorous form and opportunities for flights of virtuosic expression, what will this suite become in the hands of one of Bach’s most innovative and thoughtful interpreters? Let’s find out together.

Program: J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations

“...his performance of the Goldbergs exceeded my wildest expectations.”

–Bachtrack

Takács Quartet

Friday | February 16 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

The Takács Quartet are renowned around the world for their elegant, incisive accounts of the classic quartet repertoire and for their appetite for new music. Their program for this engagement offers two notable classical era string quartets—Haydn’s luminous “Sunrise” Quartet and the second of Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” Quartets, a bold and tempestuous showpiece for the whole ensemble.

Paired with these quartets, the ensemble performs an exciting new Celebrity Series co-commission from American violist and composer Nokuthula Ngwenyama, an Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient for her prowess as a performer. Her work as a composer has been praised by Gramophone magazine for “providing solidly shaped music of bold mesmerizing character.”

Program:

Joseph Haydn String Quartet, Op. 76, no. 4 “Sunrise”

Nokuthula Ngwenyama New work, Celebrity Series co-commission

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet, Op. 59, no. 2 “Razumovsky”

Takács Quartet

Justin Austin baritone

Howard Watkins piano

Wednesday | February 21 | 7:30pm

Longy’s Pickman Hall

DEBUT SERIES

Praised in Opera News as “a gentle actor and elegant musician” and in The Wall Street Journal for his “mellifluous baritone,” vocalist Justin Austin is quickly making a name for himself on opera, oratorio, musical theater, and concert stages around the United States and Europe.

He has appeared in Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Treemonisha, and the musical adaptation of Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel. In concert, he is a featured vocalist in Our Song, Our Story, Damien Sneed’s touring recital program that pays tribute to the artistry of Black composers past and present.

Austin’s beautifully “burnished” (The New York Times) baritone voice and compelling stage presence make this recital a can’t-miss Boston debut from a young artist who is rapidly scaling the heights of the operatic world.

“This remarkable group is not to be missed, and its members play (and sing) with joy, mastery, creativity, and supreme artistry in all that they do; truly, no one else is like Time For Three.”

–The Strad

Time For Three

Time For Three

Charles Yang violin / vocals

Nicolas “Nick” Kendall violin / vocals

Ranaan Meyer double bass / vocals

Saturday | February 24 | 8pm

Sanders Theatre

Defying convention and boundaries, Time For Three stands at the busy intersection of Americana, modern pop, and classical music. To experience Time For Three (TF3) live is to hear the various eras, styles, and traditions of Western music fold in on themselves and emerge anew.

Time For Three—Charles Yang (violin, vocals), Nicolas “Nick” Kendall (violin, vocals), and Ranaan Meyer (double bass, vocals)—have found a unique and captivating niche. The Sydney Morning Herald praised their “brilliant classical technique, stylistic eclecticism, improvisatory flair, and imaginative wildness to produce performances of energy, humour, and fun.”

Whether they’re performing contemporary music, jazz, classical, or pop covers, Time For Three will dazzle you!

Arturo Sandoval and Pedrito Martinez

Friday | March 8 | 8pm

Berklee Performance Center

Celebrate two generations of brilliant Cuban musicians when Arturo Sandoval and Pedrito Martinez share a double bill at Berklee Performance Center.

Grammy award-winning trumpeter Arturo Sandoval is an undisputed legend. A protégé of Dizzy Gillespie, who helped him defect from Cuba, Sandoval redefined the sound of Cuban jazz as a founding member of Irakere. He is also a classically trained trumpeter who has appeared with symphony orchestra's and premiered John Williams' Trumpet Concerto.

Master percussionist Pedrito Martinez, born in Havana, is a specialist in rumba and Afro-Cuban percussion. He brings his folkloric music to partnerships with musicians from around the world, among them Wynton Marsalis, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews, Eddie Palmieri, and Paquito D’Rivera.

Sierra Hull

Saturday | March 9 | 8pm

Sanders Theatre

Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and brilliantly talented multi-instrumentalist Sierra Hull returns with her band for an evening of virtuosity, honesty, and heart.

Her work as a singer-songwriter and bandleader builds on this impressive foundation; she creates music inspired and informed by bluegrass but with a soundscape and point of view all her own. Folk, pop, and bluegrass come together with Hull’s heartfelt and clever lyrics and often-ethereal vocals for an unforgettable evening of music.

Sierra Hull

Jess Gillam saxophone

Thomas Weaver piano

Tuesday | March 12 | 7:30pm

Longy’s Pickman Hall

DEBUT SERIES

English saxophonist Jess Gillam is delighting the music world with her outstanding talent and irresistible personality. She has been forging her own adventurous path since she shot to fame as the first saxophonist to reach the finals of BBC Young Musician Competition and the youngest-ever soloist to perform at the Last Night of the Proms. Passionate about inspiring and bringing joy to people through music, Gillam invites audiences around the world on journeys of musical discovery through her electrifying performances and eclectic programming.

“[Jess Gillam’s] performance…was a miracle of breath control, with tiny tendrils of sound peeling away from, and then back to, silence.”

–The Telegraph

Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age

Friday | March 15 | 8pm Sanders Theatre

Scottish-American polymath Alan Cumming returns with his new cabaret show Alan Cumming Is Not Acting His Age, an evening of story and song celebrating and exploring his puckish, eclectic spirit and joie de vivre, with a joyful and mischievous exploration of that most communal of pastimes: aging!

Cumming has performed in concert halls across the globe, including the Sydney Opera House, the London Palladium, the Hollywood Bowl, and Carnegie Hall. He’s played God, the Devil, Hitler, the Pope, a teleporting superhero, Hamlet, all the parts in Macbeth, and the EmCee in Cabaret in the West End and on Broadway.

Alan Cumming

Miho Hazama and m_unit

Miho Hazama and m_unit

Saturday | March 16 | 8pm

Berklee Performance Center

Grammy-nominated composer and conductor Miho Hazama is one of the most promising and talented composers/arrangers of her generation. Lauded in DownBeat as one of “25 for the Future,” Hazama creates inventive, complex, and surprising compositions for m_unit, the 13-piece jazz chamber orchestra that she leads.

“Hazama’s boldly organic and singularly exciting collective is a breath of fresh air. Her uncanny ability to remain intellectually stimulating and vibrantly spirited is what makes her work singularly innovative.”

–All About Jazz

Orchestre de Paris

Klaus Mäkelä music director and chief conductor

Yunchan Lim piano

Sunday | March 17 | 7pm

Two young superstars lead the way when the Orchestre de Paris makes a return to Celebrity Series for the first time since March 1994 with three important pieces that were all premiered in the City of Light.

Conductor Klaus Mäkelä, just twenty-eight, already has a major career, with appointments in Paris and Oslo, and an artistic advisor role at Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw.

Yunchan Lim, who in 2022 became the youngest pianist to win the Cliburn Competition, takes the soloist part for Prokofiev’s breathtaking, fiendishly difficult Second Piano Concerto.

Debussy’s tone poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune opens the performance with a beautifully drawn moment of lightness, ease, and color. Stravinsky’s thrilling Firebird, heard in its complete version, brings this performance to a jaw-dropping close.

Program:

Claude Debussy Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Sergei Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2

Igor Stravinsky The Firebird

Orchestre de Paris

STAVE SESSIONS

Stave Sessions celebrates contemporary music of all kinds in a relaxed club setting at the Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre in Davis Square.

Nathalie Joachim | Wednesday | March 20 | 7pm

In Ki moun ou ye, flutist, vocalist, and composer Nathalie Joachim takes us through an intimately staged song cycle that ponders the titular question: “Who are you?” Performed in both English and Haitian Kreyòl, the immersive work weaves a vibrant tapestry of Joachim’s live voice and intricate electronically sampled vocal textures. Ki moun ou ye invites listeners into an exploration of personal history and draws upon the voice’s historic and ongoing role as a tool for survival, healing, preservation of self, fellowship, and an affirmation of freedom.

Nathalie Joachim JIJI

JIJI | Thursday | March 21 | 7pm

“One of the 21 composers / performers who sound like tomorrow” (The Washington Post), JIJI is equally at home on acoustic and electric guitar, and is the first guitarist to win the prestigious Concert Artists Guild Award in 30 years. She is a must-hear, once-in-ageneration artist. Her program, Classical Goes Electric, begins in the Italian Renaissance and ends in the present day, bringing together composers like Paganini, Tania León, Steve Reich, and JIJI herself.

Chromic Duo | Friday | March 22 | 7pm

Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan, as Chromic Duo, use toy pianos, “real” pianos, electronics, and multimedia to uncover truths and reimagine human connection. Their program Room of Oceans invites audiences to reflect on the question, “how can we create moments of connection and empathy?” Through a series of new commissions and nature-inspired works by Chopin, Ravel, Olafur Arnalds, and Brian Eno, and commissions from Cassie Wieland and Nyokabi Kariũki, Chromic creates a space for audience members to reflect on their current state of being and experience an undercurrent of dynamic emotions.

Mark Lettieri Group | Saturday | March 23 | 7pm

Five-time Grammy winner Mark Lettieri makes his in-person Celebrity Series debut with his group in this Stave Sessions concert. He creates acclaimed guitar-based instrumental music and is a member of leading jazz fusion collective Snarky Puppy and The Fearless Flyers. As a session musician proficient in a multitude of styles, he has recorded and performed in virtually every genre of popular music with both independent and major-label artists.

STAVE SESSIONS

Chromic Duo Mark Lettieri Group

Bruce Liu

Bruce Liu piano

Saturday | March 23 | 8pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Pianist Bruce Liu, launched on the fast track to classical superstardom when he won the 18th Chopin Competition in 2021, makes his Boston recital debut at Jordan Hall.

With a program that spans the centuries—from the French Baroque to the 1980s—Liu will demonstrate the versatility and virtuosity that will make him a must-hear artist for decades to come.

Program:

Jean-Philippe Rameau Selected short works

Frédéric Chopin Variations on "Là ci darem la mano" from Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Op. 2

Maurice Ravel Miroirs

Franz Liszt Réminiscences de Don Juan, S. 418

“Liu’s awesomely effortless virtuosity consistently oozes charisma and insouciance.”

–Classics Today

Isidore String Quartet

Wednesday | March 27 | 7:30pm | Longy’s Pickman Hall

Thursday | March 28 | 8pm | Meadow Hall at Groton Hill Music Center

DEBUT SERIES

This red-hot young quartet was founded in 2019 at the Juilliard School and was launched on their current trajectory by winning one of the most prestigious awards in chamber music at the 2022 Banff Competition. Their artistry and limitless potential were further recognized when they were awarded a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Hailed for their “blazing virtuosity” by Violinist.com, the Isidore Quartet aims to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the string quartet repertoire by creating enjoyable, approachable, and intimate concert experiences.

The Quartet’s Banff triumph has opened doors for a debut tour around the country, as well as appearances at major festivals across Europe. This playful, adventurous, and talented group is in the earliest stages of what promises to be a major career: be there for the Isidore String Quartet’s local debut concerts.

Program:

Joseph Haydn String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20, no. 2

Billy Childs String Quartet No. 2, “Awakening”

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132

Isidore String Quartet

Patti LuPone

“LuPone’s ability to completely immerse herself in a song; to hold the moment and draw the audience to her incredibly nuanced interpretation of the lyrics, is a joy to experience.”

–Australian Arts Review

Patti LuPone A Life in Notes

Tuesday | April 2 | 8pm Symphony Hall

Spend an evening with a true Broadway legend as three-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone returns to Celebrity Series with a brand-new program, A Life in Notes. In this personal musical memoir, LuPone, backed by her band, shares the indelible songs that define her life on and off the stage.

Vertigo Dance Company MAKOM

Friday | April 5 | 8pm

Saturday | April 6 | 8pm

Boch Center Shubert Theatre

Standout Jerusalem-based contemporary dance company Vertigo returns to Boston with Artistic Director Noa Wertheim’s newest work MAKOM. The work, whose title derives from the Hebrew for “place,” is described as “a perpetual search of a return to the place that brings us closer to ourselves.”

The evening-length piece—with its tension between the center and the extremities, between form and content, between inside and outside, and between construction and destruction—beautifully dramatizes the striving for unity and wholeness that speaks profoundly to the human condition.

“Vertigo reaches dizzying heights”

–Boston Globe

Christian Tetzlaff & Kirill

Sunday | April 7 | 3pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

Violinist Christian Tetzlaff and pianist Kirill Gerstein join forces for a program featuring three major sonatas by Janáček, Bartók, and Brahms, as well as György Kurtág’s spare yet atmospheric Tre Pezzi. Rounding out the program is a new piano suite by Thomas Adès based on his opera The Tempest. Tetzlaff and Gerstein premiered the work in Europe in 2022 and will give the Boston premiere at this concert.

Program:

Leoš Janáček

Johannes Brahms

Violin Sonata

Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108

Thomas Adès Suite from The Tempest

György Kurtág

Béla Bartók

Tre pezzi, Op. 14e

Violin Sonata No. 2, BB 85

Christian Tetzlaff violin and Kirill Gerstein piano

Yo-Yo Ma cello and Kathryn Stott piano

Tuesday | April 9 | 8pm Symphony Hall

Yo-Yo Ma is an icon around the world for his staggering talent, extraordinary technique, and zest for musical partnerships. Whether he's appearing as an orchestral soloist or collaborating with the biggest stars in bluegrass, he draws audiences in with his compelling, committed performances.

On the recital stage, Ma has a long and fruitful performing and recording partnership with pianist Kathryn Stott. Internationally recognized as one of Britain’s most versatile and imaginative pianists, the Washington Post wrote Stott is “every bit Ma’s equal, playing with striking individuality.” Together they have toured the globe and released multiple albums. They make their first appearance together at Symphony Hall since 2015. Together, they perform works by Gabriel Fauré, Sérgio Assad, Antonín Dvořák, Arvo Pärt, Dmitri Shostakovich, and César Franck.

Be there when Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott share a virtuosic and moving evening of music!

Yo-Yo Ma & Kathryn Stott

“Ma and Stott played… with a single-minded sense of ensemble that goes beyond well-rehearsed and clearly marked musical choices to the respect and affection of good friends who have made music together for nearly four decades—all in all, a grand evening.”

–Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

David Sedaris

An Evening with David Sedaris

Friday | April 12 | 8pm Symphony Hall

David Sedaris’ life has been an open book, and, through decades of his essays and diaries, he’s made us consider the absurdities of human nature and modern life: family, travel, relationships, aging, the pandemic and political upheavals…all of it. By turns misanthropic and poignant, Sedaris deploys his precise prose and keen observational skills to make you laugh, think, and be deeply moved.

Come laugh along with fellow fans when David Sedaris returns to Symphony Hall to read new and unpublished selections, take questions, and sign books.

Brentano String Quartet

Sunday | April 14 | 3pm

NEC’s Jordan Hall

“My best advice is never to pass up an opportunity to hear the Brentano String Quartet,” raves The Strad, citing the group’s intensity, commitment, and intelligent interpretations.

Since their inception in 1992, the Brentano String Quartet has appeared around the world to popular and critical acclaim. “Passionate, uninhibited and spellbinding,” raves the London Independent; the New York Times extols the Quartet’s “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism.”

Their Boston program spans the standard quartet repertoire, from Mozart to Shostakovich, bringing together works from three centuries and vastly different styles.

Program:

W.A. Mozart String Quartet No. 20 in D Major, K. 499

Dmitri Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110

Felix Mendelssohn String Quartet in D Major, Op. 44, no. 1

“Such was their ferocity on Saturday night that the instruments almost burst into flames…Make no mistake: the Brentanos are a magnificent quartet…This was wonderful, selfless music-making.”

–The Times (London)

Brentano String Quartet

Bamberg Symphony

Jakub Hrůša conductor

Lukáš Vondráček piano

Tuesday | April 23 | 8pm

Symphony Hall

Jakub Hrůša, a “serious, thoughtful conductor” (ArtsDesk) whose star is on the rise around the world, leads the Bamberg Symphony in this all-German, all-Romantic program. The orchestra has appeared on the Series once before, in October 1983, and it’s a rare treat to welcome them back to Boston.

The Bamberg Symphony celebrates its Bohemian roots and touts its unique quality: the “Bamberg sound.” It’s at once dark and lustrous, with rich lower strings and distinctive horns. The orchestra lends its might and expressiveness to two works by Wagner that open and close the program: the Lohengrin prelude and the Tannhäuser overture.

The orchestra recorded Brahms’ Third Symphony in 2019, with Hrůša drawing praise from Gramophone for the “suppleness and warm intimacy” of his account.

Pianist Lukáš Vondráček joins the orchestra for Schumann’s Piano Concerto. In his most recent Boston appearance in 2022 with the BSO, also under Hrůša’s baton, the Boston Globe praised his “glittering, featherweight passagework” and “overall command of the work’s dark, rhetorical drama.”

Program:

Richard Wagner Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin

Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3

Robert Schumann Piano Concerto

Richard Wagner Overture toTannhäuser

SHINE! Gala

Saturday | April 27

The Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts

SAVE THE DATE!

Celebrity Series looks forward to another unforgettable SHINE! Gala, taking place on Saturday, April 27, 2024 at the Cyclorama at the Boston Center for the Arts.

The 2024 SHINE! Gala will celebrate the power of the performing arts to foster meaningful connection and collaboration in our increasingly divided world. Join us to commemorate Celebrity Series’ vision to connect and inspire through our mission to bring the arts to everyone and everyone to the arts with dinner, dancing, inspired performances, and more than a few surprises!

Young professional, cabaret, and Gala experiences will be available, starting at $250. More information will follow in the autumn; in the meantime, save the date for a celebration not to be missed!

SHINE! Gala

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Thu – Sun | May 2 – 5 | 8pm, 8pm, 2pm & 8pm, 3pm

Boch Center Wang Theatre

An Ailey performance is always a special experience. From the moment the house lights dim until the jubilant curtain calls at the end of Revelations, a performance by the “phenomenal” and “electrifying” (TV host Tamron Hall) dancers of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will excite you, inspire you, and uplift you.

Dance magazine wrote, “the Ailey brand has remained synonymous with authenticity, artistic integrity, inclusive storytelling and culture of the highest quality” for decades.

In what has become a beloved spring tradition, the company returns to Boston with classic works by Mr. Ailey, notable selections by other modern and contemporary choreographers, and new commissions that carry forward the founder’s and the company’s legacy and depict the many facets of Black American life, culture, and history.

–The Boston Globe

“Ailey’s choreography feels so contemporary that “Revelations” continues to grip audiences 60 years on.”

Duets – Dianne Reeves, Chucho Valdés, and Joe Lovano

Saturday | May 4 | 8pm

Berklee Performance Center

Three all-time greats come together for a rare evening of intimate duets. Winner of seven Grammy and four Latin Grammy Awards, the Cuban pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz and a perennial Celebrity Series audience favorite.

Five-time Grammy Award-winning vocalist and 2018 NEA Jazz Master Dianne Reeves is “the most admired jazz diva since the heyday of Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday,” according to the New York Times. Her arsenal of talents is richly on display in every song of her limitless repertoire.

Hailed by the New York Times as “one of the greatest musicians in jazz history,” Grammy Award-winning saxophone titan Joe Lovano has distinguished himself as a prescient and pathfinding force in jazz for decades.

Duets –Reeves, Valdés, Lovano

“A not-to-be-missed rare opportunity to see three masters of the form on the same stage.”

–Jason Moran

Arts for All! Programs

Neighborhood Arts

Neighborhood Arts partners with local artists and community organizations to present free performances and interactive workshops in neighborhoods across the Boston area including Dorchester, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Roslindale, Roxbury, the South End, and Cambridge.

A full season of Neighborhood Arts programming will be announced in Summer 2023!

Visit celebrityseries.org/neighborhoodarts to learn more.

Take Your Seat

Take Your Seat provides free and discounted tickets to our performances via partnerships with Boston-based community organizations. Know a community organization that could benefit? Visit celebrityseries.org/takeyourseat for more information.

Artist Connections

Masterclasses, lectures, demonstrations, and workshops bring Celebrity Series touring artists to schools, universities, conservatories, and community spaces, offering students of all ages interactive experiences with world-class artists.

Visit celebityseries.org/artsforall for information about all of our community engagement work.

Mission, Vision, Equity

Mission

To present performing artists who inspire and enrich our community.

Vision

We believe in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experience, transform lives, and build better communities. We envision a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, life-long, shared experience—on stages, on streets, in neighborhoods—everywhere.

Equity

Celebrity Series of Boston recognizes that many existing systems of power grant privilege and access unequally, and that equity is crucial to the long-term viability of both the arts and culture sector and communities-at-large. Our Racial Equity Plan describes our commitment to ensure that everyone who wants has equal access to a full, vibrant creative life, which is essential to a healthy and democratic society. To learn more about our ongoing efforts, see celebrityseries.org/equity.

How to Become a Subscriber

Become a subscriber with the purchase of tickets to just three in-person performances in the 2023/24 season. Select at least three performances and pay a one-time $15 subscription fee. You will be a subscriber for the entire 2023/24 season—eligible for all associated benefits and services including early access to seats before the general public, guaranteed lockedin pricing, flexible ticket exchange privileges, and no extra service fees. See page 3 to learn more about subscriber benefits.

Scan this QR code with your smartphone camera or visit celebrityseries.org/subscribe to become a subscriber today! Just three simple steps to subscribe!

1. Log in to your Celebrity Series account

2. Pick three performances or more

3. Select your favorite seats!

Need additional assistance with your subscription purchase? Our Audience Services Representatives are here to help! Give the Celebrity Series box office a call between 10am and 4pm Monday through Friday at (617) 482-6661.

Flexible payment plans are available! If you book in May or June and would like to pay for your subscription in three easy installments, call the Celebrity Series Box Office.

SCAN ME!

Become a 100% Subscriber

Help Celebrity Series bring the arts to everyone and everyone to the arts by becoming a 100% Subscriber. Your gift will help people of all ages and backgrounds experience the creative power of the performing arts.

Become a 100% Subscriber today by making a gift of $100 or more with your subscription.

Celebrity Series offers an array of membership benefits for donors beginning at $100. Learn more about membership on page 4.

Your Gift at Work

Your gift to Celebrity Series will help us present the artists featured in our 2023/24 season and invest in Boston-area artists and communities through our Arts for All! community programming such as Neighborhood Arts, Take Your Seat, Public Performance Projects, and Artist Connections. Read more about Arts for All! on page 56.

Thank You To Our Supporters

2023/24

SEASON SPONSORS

Stephanie L. Brown Foundation and Susan & Michael Thonis

Anonymous (4) | Amy & Joshua Boger | Jill & David Altshuler | Leslie & Howard Appleby

Stephanie L. Brown Foundation | Julia Byers & Steven Holtzman | Amy & Ethan d'Ablemont Burnes

Kathleen & Chris Gaffney | Harriet & David Griesinger | Yvette & Lawrence Hochberg

Andrea & Fred Hoff | George & Lizbeth Krupp | Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation

Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency | Eleanor & Frank Pao | Stephen C. Perry & Oliver Radford

The Rabb Family Foundations | Reuben Reynolds | Royal Little Family Foundation | Sally S. Seaver, PhD Stifler Family Foundation | Belinda Termeer | Susan & Michael Thonis | Yawkey Foundation

Celebrity Series Boards

Board of Directors

Joshua Boger, PhD, Chair+

Jill S. Altshuler

Howard Appleby

Stephanie L. Brown+

Michael S. Canning+

Joanne Cheng

Amy d’Ablemont Burnes

Margaret Eagle

Kathleen Gaffney

Randolph Hawthorne+

Dr. Joan Helpern Goldberg*

Yvette Hochberg

Andrea Hoff

John Patterson

Stephen C. Perry*

Dr. Beth Pinals

Leontyne Price, Honorary Director

Melinda Rabb

Michael Raizman*

Reuben Reynolds

Sharon L. Rich*

Peggy Simon, ex officio

Lawrence Stifler*

Mary Elisabeth Swerz+

Belinda Termeer

Susan Thonis+

Yukiko Ueno

Dorothy Altman Weber*

Janet Zwanziger*

Board Emeriti

Caroline Collings

Benjamin H. Lacy

Jann E. Leeming*

Norman C. Nicholson, Jr.

Eleanor Y. Pao

Walter W. Pierce* ★

Nancy Richmond Winsten*

Arnold B. Zetcher

Board of Advisors

Peggy Simon, Chair

Dr. Michael Silverman, Vice Chair

Leslie Appleby

Meryl Beckingham

Marilyn Benson*

Diana L. Bourgeois

Joseph C. Cefalu

Fernadina Chan

Geoff Chasin

Debra M. Corrado

Jolyon Cowan

JoAnne Dickinson*

C. Nancy Fisher

Gail Flatto

Susan Y. Friedman

Alexandra Fuchs

Gabor Garai

Glenda Garrelts Mattes

Ellen Glanz

Dr. Peter H. Gordon*

Rosalind E. Gorin

Harriet Griesinger

Teri Groome

Zachary R. Haroutunian

Stephen C. Harrison*

Paul Hartung

Betty Hillmon

Ilisa Hurowitz

Heidi Hutton

Maurice Joffe

Sandy Johnston

Rachel V. Kemp

Nathan Kono

Kate Kush*

Fred Ledley

Stephen Leonard*

Margot LeStrange*

York Lo

Valeria Lowe-Barehmi

Joelle Lurie

Theresa C. McLoud, MD

Dr. Michael Merport

Marilyn Miller*

Dr. Gordon Moore*

John P. Mordes, MD*

Elsa Mosquera Sterenberg

Ruth Nemzoff*

James L. J. Nuzzo

Ellen Offner*

Stella J. Owen

Rich Parker, MD*

James Perrin

Suzanne Priebatsch

Oliver Radford*

Mona J. Roberts*

Millard Rose

Abby Rosenfeld*

Barbara Russell

Sally S. Seaver, PhD*

Sandra Shapiro*

Susan Shapiro Magdanz*

Dr. Samuel J. Shubrooks, Jr.*

Lori Solon

Joel A. Stein*

Marylen R. Sternweiler*

Jeffrey A. Thomson*

Sarah Rainwater Ward

Wendy L. Watson

Barnet Weinstein

Sharon R. Weinstein, MD

Peter J. Wender*

Sarkis Zerounian

+ Denotes Executive Committee

* Denotes 25+-year subscriber

★ Deceased

Klaus Mäkelä music director and chief conductor Orchestre de Paris