DOVER QUARTET with ROMIE DE GUISE-LANGLOIS*, clarinet
tuesday October 7, 2025
CASTALIAN QUARTET
tuesday October 28, 2025
MODIGLIANI QUARTET
tuesday November 18, 2025
THE CANADIAN BRASS
tuesday December 16, 2025
*CMH Debut
MERZ TRIO tuesday January 20, 2026
CUARTETO CASALS tuesday February 10, 2026
GOLDMUND QUARTET* with GLORIA CHIEN*, piano
thursday March 5, 2026
DORIC QUARTET* thursday March 26, 2026
CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER tuesday April 21, 2026
ALL CONCERTS BEGIN AT 7:30 PM IN STUDE CONCERT HALL, BROCKMAN MUSIC AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, RICE UNIVERSITY
PROGRAMS SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Dear Friends,
I recently learned a new musical term: Tempo giusto which means “in correct or right time.” Keeping time is certainly integral to performing the most beautiful chamber music –and the general idea of timing happens to resonate with the astrophile in me (again!). Akin to the notion that all things arrive at the right time in life – as when the “stars align”– I feel certain Chamber Music Houston’s forthcoming season heralds some amazing alignments.
CMH has curated another full season of the finest chamber music ensembles in the world to play repertoire of the highest quality, both acclaimed and innovative. This year we co-commissioned a new Clarinet Quintet by renowned composer Pierre Jalbert with guest clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois – and we are most pleased to announce the return of a highly sought group for the holiday season –The Canadian Brass!
The season launches with back-to-back musicians tied to Rice’s Shepherd School of Music: first Balourdet Quartet, then Dover Quartet playing Jalbert’s newest work with guest clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois. Personally, I am excited to hear Castalian Quartet, Modigliani Quartet, Merz Trio, and Cuarteto Casals again! In March 2026 two quartets make their CMH debuts: Goldmund Quartet with guest pianist Gloria Chen and Doric Quartet.
This year we again close the season with musicians from Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Co-Artistic Director and pianist Wu Han and founding violist of the Dover Quartet Milena Pijaro-van de Stadt return to the concert hall with Chad Hoopes and Richard Lin on violins and Dmitri Atapine on cello.
As you review the upcoming season, consider if this is the right time for you to upgrade to a full subscription, or to give a ticket package to a friend who loves chamber music like you, or to make a donation in any amount. On behalf of the CMH Board of Directors and every member of the community who enjoys our concerts and many outreach events, I know this is the right time to thank you for your ongoing support and dedication to CMH!
Sincerely,
ANGELA WREN WALL Executive Director
Balourdet Quartet 16 Sept 2025
Beethoven Quartet #3 in D major, op.18/3
Quartet #11 in F minor, op.95 (“Serioso”)
Quartet #16 in F major, op.135
“...performed with such exquisitely delightful passion that the whole audience must have been thinking ‘Yes, Yes, YES!’”
THE MILLBROOK INDEPENDENT
Balourdet Quartet opens the season with a tour of Beethoven’s substantive string quartet landscape. Marked #3, the D major is widely considered his first quartet, a bright and gentle step into a realm he would redefine. Sourced from personal turmoil and his impending deafness, the darkness and lyricism of #11 share the stage in one of his most experimental compositions. The evening concludes with #16, the shortest of Beethoven’s late quartets and his last complete major work.
Photo by Kevin W. Condon
Dover Quartet
with Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet
Haydn
Pierre Jalbert
Mozart
Quartet #27 in D major, op.20/4
Clarinet Quintet (CMH Co-commission)
Clarinet Quintet in A major, K.581
“The Dover Quartet players have it in them to become the next Guarneri String Quartet - they’re that good....”
Dover Quartet collaborates with guest clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois (making her CMH debut) on a new CMH-co-commissioned Clarinet Quintet by Rice composer Pierre Jalbert. One of Haydn’s milestone op.20 quartets and Mozart’s groundbreaking Clarinet Quintet bookend the evening’s repertoire respectively, both equally admired and beloved works.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Photo by Claire McAdams
Photo by Roy Cox
Romie de Guise-Langlois
Oct 2025
Castalian Quartet
Mendelssohn Quartet #5 in E-flat major, op.44/3
Dvo ák Selections from Cypresses, B.152
Beethoven Quartet #14 in C-sharp minor, op.131
“...To hear this music, so full of poetry, joy and sorrow, realised to such perfection, felt like a miracle.”
by
THE OBSERVER
The first Hans Keller String Quartet in Residence at the University of Oxford, Castalian Quartet returns with three notable works: a Mendelssohn quartet rife with nimble variations; Dvořák’s string quartet arrangement of his earlier work of 12 love songs based on Moravsky’s poems Cypresses; and last — but certainly not least — Beethoven’s very favorite of his own quartets, an eternally contemporary work written one year before his death. Upon first hearing it, Schubert profoundly concluded: “After this, what is left for us to write?”
Photo
Kevin W. Condon
Modigliani Quartet 18 Nov 2025
Haydn Quartet #67 in F major, op.77/2
Beethoven Quartet #2 in G major, op.18/2 (“Complimenti”)
Brahms
Quartet #2 in A minor, op.51/2
“A gripping and persuasive performance, played with awesome individual and communal brilliance.”
THE STRAD
Playing on period Italian instruments, Modigliani Quartet will grace us with works by giants of the string quartet: Haydn’s #67 with its unusual opening, Adagio, and closing movements; then we sample a charmingly rich work written by a young Beethoven while under the tutelage of Papa Haydn. While the key may point to a previous melancholy Schubert work, Brahms threads lightness, joy, and vulnerable beauty throughout his quartet #2 within a tapestry of canons, polyphony, and counterpoint.
Photo by Jérome Bonnet
Canadian Brass
A Selection of Classics and Holiday Favorites
A Detailed Printed Program Will be Available at the Concert
“...the ‘gold standard’ among brass quintets....”
NPR: TINY DESK CONCERTS
For more than 50 years, various iterations of the Canadian Brass have been entertaining audiences across the globe. Beloved for their sense of humor and masterful playing, these seasoned musicians still manage to sound fresh, still attract young virtuosi, and always have fun with the music, both on stage and off — not to mention their 100+ recordings which have sold collectively more than two million albums. Catch their latest news on Twitter and Facebook!
chambermusichouston.org
Beethoven
Merz Trio
Piano Trio in C minor, op.1/3
Schoenberg Verklärte Nacht, op.4
Dvo ák
Piano Trio #3 in F minor, op.65
“It’s tempting to single out individual members for the way each distinguishes particular passages, but it’s ultimately the trio’s playing as unit that makes the greater impact.”
Merz Trio returns with another powerful program. Sandwiched between Beethoven’s Piano Trio (a conversation of tension and dark lyricism) and Dvořák’s Piano Trio (an emotionally rich venture of intense inner conflict) we find the sweet center: Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (“Transfigured Night”), a journey of tonal richness from D minor to D major, reviving harmonic language reminiscent of both Wagner and Brahms.
by
Photo
Dimitri Mais
10 Feb 2026
Cuarteto Casals
Haydn Quartet #64 in D major, op.76/5 (“Largo”)
Arriaga Quartet #3 in E-flat major
Shostakovich Quartet #3 in F major, op.73
by
“No other quartet can match this group’s four-voiced marriage....”
THE INDEPENDENT
Founded in 1997 in Madrid, Cuarteto Casals regularly performs in the world’s most prestigious concert halls since winning First Prizes at the London and Brahms-Hamburg competitions. We begin with Hadyn’s #64 nicknamed “Largo” because that slow movement is the core of the work in the unusual key F-sharp major. Next we hear child prodigy Arriaga’s #3 revealing an emerging new voice in his quartet modeled from Hadyn and Mozart. The program ends with the heart-rending grief of Shostakovich’s #3 with a repeated passacaglia surrounded by spans of playfulness, yielding a profoundly original quartet.
Counted among leading string quartets of the younger generation worldwide, Goldmund Quartet was recently named “Rising Stars” (2019-2020) by the European Concert Hall Organisation. We start with one of Schubert’s earliest works, unusually homotonal and popular with home musicians. A notable highlight of Weinberg’s masterful #5 is its highly appealing and contrasting movements. Then pianist Gloria Chien (making her CMH debut) tackles Amy Beach’s landmark quintet which calls the piano to emerge victorious within the intensity of the strings.
Photo by Gregor Hohenberg
Gloria Chien
Doric Quartet
Haydn
Andrea Tarrodi
Beethoven
Quartet #23 in F minor, op.20/5
Quartet #3 Light Scattering (2014)
Quartet #10 in E-flat major, op.74 (“Harp”)
“Luminous beauty of sound....”
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
Doric Quartet’s members use specially made original-style bows for a more refined performance of Classical repertoire such as Haydn’s Quartet #23 which opens the program with its dramatic pauses and clever transitions. The inclusion of Andrea Tarrodi’s Light Scattering underscores the ensemble’s commitment to new music as well. Lastly, Beethoven’s Quartet #10 mirrors the transitions of his life at the time: his Scherzo echoes the heroic power of his Fifth Symphony and “Emperor” Piano Concerto (written with Napoleon in mind), while his tender Adagio gives us a first taste of the transcendence yet to come in future slow movements of his later quartets.
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center 21 Apr
Leclair
Arensky
Sonata for Two Violins in E major, op.12/2
Piano Quintet in D major, op.51
Viotti Duo for Two Violins in G major, W4/9
Saint-SaËns
Piano Quintet in A minor, op.14
“Intensely committed performances....”
CMSLC musicians return to close our 66th season with two pairs of works. First, Leclair’s challenging Sonata for Two Violins fuses Italian and French styles in an intimate melodic interplay; equally challenging and virtuosic is Viotti’s charming Duo for Two Violins. The second pairing is Saint-Saëns’ youthful and exacting Piano Quintet, while Arensky’s is full of Russian (and French) flavor, considered by some a mature masterpiece. This season marks the return of more CMSLC artists to be featured in the cmh@home series.
Featuring renowned artists of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Pictured Left to Right : Violinist Chad Hoopes; Violist Milena Pijaro-van de Stadt; Violinist Richard Lin; Pianist Wu Han; and Cellist Dmitri Atapine.
OUTREACH IN OUR COMMUNITY
Join Chamber Music Houston in bringing the world’s greatest chamber musicians to the Houston stage and into our community. Your generous support allows us to further showcase the value music has in our lives through outreach programs for students, seniors, and many who may not be able to reach the concert hall.
Since 2020, our online concert series, cmh@home, has provided 60+ free worldclass concert performances reaching over 800,000 people worldwide!
CMH has provided over 65 private music lessons over the past year to financially challenged high school students in the Houston community. These services are provided by local professionals who support our goal to inspire the next generation of musicians.
Help us bring chamber music into our community and showcase how music has the power to transform lives!
Your support will make a difference and touch many lives.
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In addition to all the mentioned benefits, you have the gratitude of all patrons, musicians, and the CMH Board of Directors for your generous support of Chamber Music Houston.
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