Issuu

Fall 2026

MUSIC

at the

GARDNER

Fall 2026 WEEKEND

TICKET INFORMATION

SEATING SECTIONS AND RATES

Performance Level and First Balcony:

Members

Adults

Seniors

$79

$99

$89

Students & Children

ages 5–17

$25

Second Balcony:

Members

Adults

Seniors

$64

$80

$72

Students & Children

ages 5–17

$25

Third Balcony:

Members

Adults

Seniors

$56

$70

$63

Students & Children

ages 5–17

MEMBER CONCERT PRESALE JULY 29–AUGUST 4

$25

Purchase tickets before they become available to the general public on August 5.

Additional information about seating sections and policies is available online. Concert programs are subject to change; visit gardnermuseum.org for up-to-date information.

Not a member? Join today for discounts and exclusive experiences: gardnermuseum.org/join-give. To receive monthly updates about concerts, performances, and more, visit gardnermuseum.org/signup.

Members receive early access to Weekend Concert Series tickets.

Learn more and buy tickets now at gardnermuseum.org/about/music. Or call the box office at 617 278 5156. Open daily from 10 AM–4 PM. Open until 6 PM on Thursdays; Closed Tuesday.

Dear Friends,

We are delighted to announce our new season of concerts in Calderwood Hall.

Two violinists kick things off: Rachell Ellen Wong, playing Baroque violin, and Rachel Barton Pine, playing Brahms on an instrument he himself selected!

I am thrilled that, thanks to the generosity of his many admirers, we are launching a new annual concert in honor of the late Scott Nickrenz, the Gardner’s first Abrams Curator of Music. Fittingly, it will be a barnburner, featuring the astounding and seldom-tackled Piano Quintet of Leo Ornstein.

For the first time, we are presenting a concert celebrating one of the Museum’s prized cultivars in conjunction with our John Lowell Gardner Chrysanthemum Installation. This concert will be a feast for the senses!

I could extol the virtues of every concert, but instead I hope you will peruse the listings and join us for glorious music. And if you aren’t already a member of the Museum, I hope you’ll take a moment to look over all the benefits membership provides for concertgoers. We’d be very grateful for your support.

Yours, George Steel, Abrams Curator of Music

A Message from George Steel Abrams Curator of Music

Johannes Brahms

Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78 (1878–1879)

Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100 (1886)

Sonata in E-flat major, Op. 120, No. 2 (1894)

with MATTHEW HAGLE, piano

Nicola Matteis

Ayres for the Violin, Book I (1676)

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber

Sonata No. 3 in F major, C. 140 (1681)

John Eccles

A Melancholy Aire from The Mad Lover (about 1700)

Giuseppe Tartini

Sonata in G minor, B.g5, “The Devil’s Trill”: III. Andante, arranged for solo violin (1713)

J.S. Bach

Sonata No. 2 in A major for Violin and Harpsichord, BWV 1015 (1717–1723)

Twelfth Night Ensemble is:

Jean-Marie Leclair

Sonata in D major, Op. 9, No. 3, “Tombeau” (1743)

Francesco Maria Veracini

Sonata in D minor, Op. 2, No. 12, “Sonate accademiche” (1744)

Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer

La Marche des Scythes (1746)

Jacques Duphly

Pièces de clavecin, Livre 2 (1748)

Wanessa Dourado

Conto Bachiano (2023)

Rachell Ellen Wong, violin | David Belkovski, harpsichord | Coleman Itzkoff, cello

SUNDAY

September 13, 2026 1: 30 PM

After her triumphant concert last season, Rachel Barton Pine returns to Calderwood Hall with a recital of Brahms sonatas for the violin— including Brahms’s own violin version of a sonata better known on clarinet, which Pine has been championing. She performs on the astonishing Guarneri “del Gesù” violin that Brahms himself selected for his chamber music partner, Marie Soldat-Roeger.

SUNDAY

September 20, 2026 1: 30 PM

Postponed from January because of the blizzard, Twelfth Night make their awaited Boston debut. Violinist Rachell Ellen Wong is the only Baroque violinist to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. She is a beautiful musician, and one of the finest period-instrument performers around.

Photo credit: Mei Stone

Henry Purcell

SUNDAY September 27, 2026 1: 30 PM

Fantasias for four viols, Nos. 5 & 7 (1680)

Franz Joseph Haydn

String Quartet in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5 (1772)

Leo Ornstein

Piano Quintet, Op. 92 (1927)

Ruth Crawford Seeger

Suite No. 2 for Four Strings and Piano (1929)

The Museum is delighted to announce the endowment of an annual concert to celebrate the life and work of the late Scott Nickrenz, former Abrams Curator of Music at the Gardner. He was a superb violist and a devoted chamber music impresario and evangelist. For this inaugural concert, five marvelous musicians tackle a wide-ranging program, crowned with the thrilling quintet of the Ukrainian-American firebrand Leo Ornstein (1893–2002), whose life bridged three centuries.

This annual concert celebrates the life and legacy of Scott Nickrenz, first Abrams Curator of Music at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

EmmaviolaWernig,

Jay Campbell, cello

Conrad Tao, piano

Geneva Lewis, violin

YooJinviolinJang,

SUNDAY October 4, 2026 1: 30 PM

The excellent Ivalas Quartet perform Schubert’s monumental “Death and the Maiden” quartet, along with two American works: an early work in his “American” style by George Walker, who died only a few years ago at the age of 96; and a moving miniature from Carlos Simon, whose Requiem for the Enslaved had its Boston premiere at the Gardner Museum in 2022.

Franz Schubert

String Quartet No. 14

“Death and the Maiden” (1824)

Quartet is:

String Quartet No. 1 (1946)

George Walker

Carlos Simon An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave (2015)

Ivalas

Reuben Kebede, violin | Tiani Butts, violin | Marcus Stevenson, viola | Pedro Sánchez, cello

SUNDAY October 18, 2026 1: 30 PM

With

Amanda Forsythe & Teresa Wakim, sopranos

special guests: KimaltoLeeds,

Aaron Sheehan, tenor

Giacomo Carissimi

Salamone Rossi

Sinfonia grave à5 (about 1607)

Gagliarda Massara (about 1607)

Leonora Duarte

Sinfonia à5, No. 5 (about 1625–1650)

JessebaritoneBlumberg,

Regina Hester (about 1640–1650)

Johann Heinrich Schmelzer

Balletto, genandt das Narrenspitall (about 1667)

Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Historia Esther (1677)

Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre

Esther (about 1708)

In conjunction with our exhibition of the same name, this program offers rare performances of three Esther cantatas written during Rembrandt’s time, including one by Jacquet de La Guerre, the remarkable French woman composer.

A generation older, the Flemish composer Leonora Duarte came from a PortugueseJewish converso family.

Salamone Rossi, a Jewish Mantuan composer, wrote both instrumental music and the first published polyphonic settings of Jewish liturgical music in Hebrew.

Jules Massenet C’est au temps de la chrysanthème (1882)

Léo Delibes Chrysanthème (1889)

Giacomo Puccini Crisantemi (1890)

Scott Joplin

The Chrysanthemum: An Afro-American Intermezzo (1904)

Dora Pejačević Chrysanthemums (1908)

Nikolai Harito Ottsveli khrizantemy (1910)

William Penn Chrysanthemums (1912)

Zbigniew Maciejowski Chryzantemy złociste (1939)

Ernesto Lecuona Crisantemo (before 1940)

Tōru Takemitsu From far beyond Chrysanthemums and November fog (1983)

Xiaogang Ye December Chrysanthemum (2006)

Juantio Becenti Piano Trio: III. In the Greenhouse (2019)

SUNDAY

October 25, 2026 1: 30 PM

In celebration of the Museum’s annual John Lowell Gardner Chrysanthemum Installation in the Courtyard, we present this exploration of the chrysanthemum as a muse for musicians and writers.

An all-star cast is joined by the Gardner’s Stanley P. Kozak Director of Horticulture Erika Rumbley and Abrams Curator of Music George Steel.

with hosts ERIKA RUMBLEY & GEORGE STEEL

This performance is made possible by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs.

Kara Dugan, mezzo-soprano

PeterpianoDugan, Katherine Winterstein, violin

Gabriela Díaz, violin MinaviolinLavcheva, Cara Pogossian, viola

JiacelloKim, Emi Ferguson, flute

CoryaccordionPesaturo,

with GREEN ROOM ENSEMBLE

SUNDAY November 1, 2026 1: 30 PM

Eleanor Alberga

The Jamaican-British composer and pianist Eleanor Alberga is one of the most exciting composers writing in the UK. For this program, she has assembled a team of marvelous musicians—stars in their own right—to join her in a showcase of her wonderful chamber music.

String Quartet No. 1 (1993)

String Quartet No. 2 (1994)

String Quartet No. 3 (2001)

Piano Quintet No. 2, “Stark” (2022) world-premiere tour

Green Room Ensemble is:

Thomas Bowes, violin | Nathan Meltzer, violin | Jordan Bak, viola | Sterling Elliott, cello

SUNDAY

November 8, 2026

1: 30 PM

The Poiesis Quartet were founded only in 2022, and yet they are already a muchtalked-about force in classical music—come hear what the excitement is all about! They will tackle two landmarks of the repertoire, including Beethoven’s final string quartet, a work full of good humor despite having been written in trying circumstances. They also bring two recent works: a bright and brilliant work from Minnesota-based composer Sky Macklay and a new work commissioned from Jeff Scott, composer and the founding horn player of Imani Winds.

Sky Macklay

Scott

Many Cadences (2014)

Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet in F major, Op. 135 (1826)

Sergei Prokofiev String Quartet No. 1 in B minor, Op. 50 (1931)

Many

Jeff

Tapestry of the Beloved Beatified (2026)

Poiesis Quartet is:

Sarah Ying Ma, violin | Coco Mi, violin | Jasper de Boor, viola | Drew Dansby, cello

Amanda Maier

Piano Trio in E-flat major (1873–1874)

Edvard Grieg

Andante con moto, EG 116 (1878)

Antonín Dvořák

Piano Trio No. 3 in F minor, Op. 65 (1883)

Bongani Ndodana-Breen

Two Nguni Dances (2008)

Lysander Piano Trio is:

Itamar Zorman, violin | Liza Stepanova, piano | James Kim, cello

Louis Couperin

Suite en ré, G.1 (about 1660)

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Prélude (1706)

François Couperin

Selections from L’Art de toucher le clavecin (about 1713)

Premier prélude en do majeur

La Ténébreuse Allemande

La Favorite Chaconne à deux tems (en rondeau)

Jean-Philippe Rameau

Suite en la, RCT 5 (about 1727)

Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer

La Marche des Scythes (1746)

SUNDAY November 15, 2026 1: 30 PM

The terrific Lysander Trio, formed when they were students at Juilliard, are phenomenal chamber musicians. The oldest work on their program is by the remarkable Swedish violinist and composer Amanda Maier, who knew and worked with Brahms and Grieg, among others.

South African composer Bongani Ndodana-Breen, whom the Museum has commissioned, writes music that is at once charming and fiendishly difficult. His sophisticated approach to form and rhythm finds inspiration in the musics of various sub-Saharan peoples (including the Xhosa clan, to which he belongs) as well as the global classical music tradition.

SUNDAY

November 22, 2026 1: 30 PM

Perhaps the world’s most celebrated harpsichordist, superstar Jean Rondeau returns to Calderwood Hall for a survey of French Baroque treasures for the keyboard. Not to be missed!

This concert is made possible by the generous support of David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder.

See details on page 10

The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial Concert; Scott Nickrenz Concert; Alford P. Rudnick Memorial Concert; David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder; Wendy Shattuck Young Artist Concert; and Willona Sinclair Memorial Concert. The piano is dedicated as the Alex d’Arbeloff Steinway. The harpsichord was generously donated by Dr. Robert Barstow in memory of Marion Huse, and its care is endowed in memory of Dr. Barstow by The Barstow Fund. Music at the Gardner is also supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Joseph Mari, Sallie and Jim McGregor, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

25 Evans Way

Boston MA 02115