Baruch PAC presents jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner

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December 12: Baruch Performing Arts Center presents Sullivan Fortner, Solo Piano

The Grammy award-winning jazz pianist is recipient of 2026 Bell Jazz Artist Award

Baruch PAC concert is Fortner's only solo show in NYC this season

Fresh from the announcement that he is recipient of the 2026 Larry J. Bell Jazz Artist Award from The Gilmore Foundation, pianist Sullivan Fortner gives a solo performance presented by Baruch Performing Arts Center on December 12, 2025 at 7:30 pm. The concert is Fortner's only solo appearance in New York City this season.

For more than a decade, the two-time GRAMMY Award-winning artist has stretched his deep-rooted talents as a pianist, composer, band leader and uncompromising individualist. Sullivan Fortner is a frequent collaborator with singer Cécile McLorin Salvant and has enjoyed creative associations with Wynton Marsalis, Paul Simon, Diane Reeves, Etienne Charles and John Scofield.

As a leader he has issued five albums, including the critically acclaimed recording with his trio Southern Nights (2025) with Peter Washington and Marcus Gilmore, and is sideman on more than two dozen albums including with Roy Hargrove, Samara Joy and Stefon Harris.

Born and raised in New Orleans, Fortner began playing organ at the age of 7, and went on to earn degrees at Oberlin Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. He received the Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and was named one of Downbeat Magazine’s 25 for the Future in 2016 among numerous other awards.

Sullivan Fortner's solo piano performance on December 12, 7:30 pm is part of the Milt Hinton Jazz Perspectives Series at Baruch PAC. Tickets are $35 general admission ($20 with CUNY ID), available at bpac.baruch.cuny.edu. Baruch Performing Arts Center is at 55 Lexington Ave in Manhattan (enter on 25th Street, between 3rd and Lexington Avenues).Friday, December 12, 2025 at 7:30 pm.

Insider Interview with Cellist Inbal Megiddo

Cellist Inbal Megiddo has just released an album of Bach’s complete Cello Suites on Atoll Records (ACD233). We spoke with her about her approach to these classic works, her mentor Aldo Parisot, life in New Zealand, and more.

"Why another recording of the Bach Cello Suites?" 

"The Suites, to me, are a lifetime." This is how I begin my liner notes, and it captures the essence of why this recording needed to exist. The Bach Suites aren't just six works I've mastered—they're companions on life's path that have grown and evolved with me over decades. Every time I return to them, they reveal new dimensions, changing as I change. 

What makes my approach distinctive is constantly trying to find the freedom within the structure. I view these works as a complete emotional and spiritual journey that mirrors human experience itself. I hear the innocent curiosity of childhood in the G major, the turbulent angst of adolescence in D minor, the confident optimism of young adulthood in C major, the complexity of midlife in E-flat major, the profound reflection of old age in C minor, and finally, transcendence in the D major sixth suite. 

But beyond this personal narrative, there's the fundamental mystery at the heart of these works. Since Bach's original manuscripts are lost, each performer must create their own edition based on surviving copies—Anna Magdalena Bach's, Kellner's, and two anonymous copies. These have minimal dynamic markings and often unclear bowings. While we could mourn the loss of the originals, I believe this mystery is part of the magic. It gives us the sublime freedom to search for beauty and truth in our own way. 

My mentor Aldo Parisot taught me something crucial: you must find your own voice, not imitate others. He would say, "Bach created a masterpiece. Our job isn’t to recreate it, but to create something even more glorious." This recording represents decades of living with these suites, performing them on the world’s stages from Carnegie Hall to the Berlin Philharmonie, and constantly discovering them anew. Just as every day contains both the routine and the unknown, every performance of the Suites is simultaneously known and improvised—the next step in life's ephemeral journey. 

Question 2: Your musical life in New Zealand 

The transition to New Zealand has been transformative in unexpected ways. After performing in the world's major concert halls—Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Berlin Philharmonie—and working with conductors like Barenboim, Mehta, and Mintz, I wondered how moving to the other side of the world would affect my artistic development. 

What I discovered is that first of all, it is entirely possible to continue traveling from here, and I do. So I spend a bit more time on planes. But musical life in New Zealand also is very full. There is a lot going on considering the size of the country, and at very high levels. There is also quite a bit of support for the arts, and audiences are quite adventurous. That may go along with the kiwi spirit – we are at the edge of the world, so experimentation and self-reliance are a must. The beauty of nature, and the bird song that NZ is known for is also something unique, giving space for deep artistic exploration. As Associate Professor at the New Zealand School of Music, I've been able to balance performance, teaching, and creative projects. My work with the Te Kōkī Trio has been particularly rewarding—our Debussy recording was a finalist for Best Classical Album at the Aotearoa Music Awards. 

I've also founded the Cellophonia International Festival here, which brings together cellists from around the world. There's something about New Zealand's geographic isolation that paradoxically creates a hunger for connection and excellence. The audiences here are sophisticated and appreciative, and the musical community is incredibly supportive and collaborative. 

This environment has given me the freedom to pursue passion projects like my upcoming "Forbidden Composers" album—works banned by the Nazis—alongside core repertoire like these Bach Suites. The distance has actually liberated me to take more interpretive risks and to trust my own artistic instincts more fully. In many ways, being in New Zealand has brought me closer to Parisot's teaching about finding your own authentic voice rather than following established traditions. 

Question 3: Studying with Aldo Parisot

My first encounter with Aldo Parisot was at age twelve in a masterclass at the Jerusalem Music Centre. He spoke about circles, breathing, phrasing, passion, and kept repeating this paradoxical phrase: "free, but in tempo!" I left that lesson exhilarated, inspired, confused—and with a hole in my new sweater from his lit cigarette! It was an incendiary lesson in every sense. Four years later, I became his student at Yale. 

What Parisot gave me wasn't just technique—though his technical principles were transformative. He taught me that artistry comes from within. He was fiercely opposed to teachers who create copies of themselves. As he would say, "You don't need a teacher if you have the curiosity and drive to discover yourself." His role was to help us find our own voice. 

His technical approach was revolutionary for me. The concept of circles—in shifting, in bow movement, in musical phrasing—changed everything. He taught that shifts should be like breathing, natural and organic. "Maximum sound!" he would demand, but always with beauty and resonance, never forcing. He had us sing everything first, then find that same expression on the cello. This came from his own training—he studied two years of solfege before even touching the instrument. 

But perhaps the most profound lesson was about the relationship between freedom and structure. That phrase "free, but in tempo" became central to my understanding of Bach. It means maintaining the rhythmic integrity while finding infinite expressive possibilities within each phrase. He would demonstrate how the same passage could be played completely differently while still being truthful to Bach's vision. 

The trajectory change was complete. Before Parisot, I played from instinct. He gave me the tools to channel that instinct into conscious artistry. He taught me to question everything—"Bach was not a saint," he'd remind us, "I respect the man and his work, but I don't worship him." This irreverence paradoxically led to deeper respect for the music. 

His influence extends beyond my playing. In my own teaching at the New Zealand School of Music and as Master Teacher for iClassical Academy, I carry forward his philosophy: technical excellence is mandatory but insufficient. True artistry comes from finding your authentic voice and having the courage to trust it. As my DMA thesis on his teaching methods explores, Parisot didn't just create excellent cellists—he nurtured artists who happen to play the cello. 

Final Thoughts 

This recording of the Bach Suites represents a convergence of everything I've learned and experienced: the technical foundation from Parisot, the musical maturity gained through performing with the world's leading orchestras, and the artistic freedom I've found in New Zealand. These aren't just six suites—they're a complete universe of human experience, and I invite listeners to join me in this never-ending journey of discovery. 

Insider Interview: Suzanne Stumpf and Dan Ryan, Artistic Directors for Musicians of the Old Post Road

The Boston-based chamber ensemble Musicians of the Old Post Road (MOPR) specializes in the period instrument performance of dynamic and diverse music from the Baroque to early Romantic eras. Their latest album "Into the Light" features rediscovered music by the German composer Christoph Graupner (1683-1760), including world premiere recordings. We spoke with MOPR co-artistic directors Suzanne Stumpf and Dan Ryan about the new album, performing on historical instruments, Graupner’s music and his world, and more.

How did you first become aware of the composer Christoph Graupner (1683-1760)?  

The first work we performed by Graupner was a trio sonata for flute, viola d’amore and continuo. We programmed that for a concert on which we featured unusual Baroque instruments. We were very struck by his originality and decided to investigate more of his oeuvre. 

Why do you think his music has been neglected until recently?  

Graupner’s works were locked in a legal battle after his death. Graupner’s heirs wanted to sell his manuscripts to the successors of the Landgrave of Darmstadt, Graupner’s employer. But the successors contended that they already owned the music because Graupner had been employed by the Landgrave, and the concept of intellectual property rights did not exist at the time.  

This was not resolved until late in the 19th century, then the two World Wars limited access to the collection in the first half of the 20th century. The Darmstadt library now has possession of his manuscripts and has made them available. They have been most helpful to us and are very excited about our advocacy efforts. 

What makes his music stand out from his contemporaries? 

Graupner’s musical language and musical devices are very original, and his music can be very dramatic and poignant. He is able to spin out a dramatic musical tale, if you will, using very minimal motivic material. He also makes great use of instrumental textures which he creates using the motifs that he selects for each movement. His harmonic sequences also take unexpected turns.  

Each of the works that we feature on our Into the Light album make use of very unusual musical devices. Some examples include the roles of the treble instruments in his Trio Sonata in B Minor. Rather than using the typical sharing and passing back and forth of main and accompanying themes, he assigns very different roles and motivic material to the flute and violin in the two outer movements of the sonata. In the first movement of his Quartet in G Minor, he uses pervasive, repeated rests in the accompanying parts that create a transparent texture that allows the listener to follow the theme as it is passed among the string instruments. His G Major Sonata for obbligato harpsichord is written with two accompanying instruments—flute and cello—which itself is unusual, but then he leaves the cello out for most of the second movement, and leads the movement into a very haunting texture between pulsing repeated pitches on the flute together with slow arpeggiation in the harpsichord part. And, the flute concerto we include does not have the usual alternating sections between tuttis and solos that are a standard part of most concertos. After the opening tutti, the flute solo begins and continues through the entire rest of the movement until the closing tutti at the end. These are just but a few examples of his originality! 

What are the challenges and/or rewards of performing Graupner’s music? 

Both the challenge and reward of performing Graupner’s works are the uniqueness of his compositional techniques and his musical language. The devices and tools he uses are so off the beaten track of most Baroque compositional techniques that on first reading it is sometimes difficult to understand what he is getting at! However, by spending time deciphering his intention and messages in each work, his musical voice and language come clearer and clearer. This process in itself is very rewarding, and we have truly enjoyed our role in striving to understand his intentions and advocating for the power and genius in his works for modern audiences.  

Musicians of the Old Post Road specializes in “period instrument performances.” Can you give us some details about what that entails? 

Our ensemble specializes in the performance of Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic music on period instruments. We all use historical instruments or replicas in our work together. And we all have the specialized equipment needed for each of those eras as instruments all underwent structural changes across the time period of our repertoire from the 1670s to the 1840s (which by the way is the timeframe that the Old Boston Post Road itself flourished!) The string instruments are typically set up with gut strings, and the bows vary in structure and length. The flutes during those years were most typically made of wood, and the acoustical properties of the instruments are such that there are different personalities that result from playing in different keys.  

We use harpsichords for Baroque music and early pianos for Classical and Romantic repertoire. As specialists on these instruments, we feel that the sound world that they offer is helpful in finding what was in the composers’ ears at the time they were writing—the sound of the historical instruments certainly offers helpful influences in our interpretations. Our audiences are always struck by the beautiful timbres of these instruments and how they bring the music to life. 

Insider Interview with Cellist Louise Dubin

The cellist Louise Dubin is a renowned performer and researcher of cellist-composer Auguste Franchomme (1808-1884). Her new album Passages, out September 5, 2025 on Bridge Records, features world premiere recordings of works by Chopin and Franchomme alongside compositions by Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Francis Poulenc, Charles Koechlin and Philippe Hersant. We spoke to her about Franchomme, his association with Chopin, the new album, and more.

Your first album, The Franchomme Project, has ten world premiere recordings of works by Auguste Franchomme, a composer I’d never heard of before.  How did you first learn of him? What made you want to know more, and how did this first recording project come about?

The idea to record The Franchomme Project began when I gave a lecture recital to defend my doctoral dissertation at Indiana University.  I’d picked Franchomme as my topic after hearing Anner Bylssma’s beautiful recording of some of his nocturnes.  I wanted to see if he’d written other great pieces for the cello. Eventually I found many! It was hard to find information about Franchomme at first, though.  I found one little book written about his connections to Chopin, but it was in Polish, and the computer program I used to translate it did a miserable job.  So I tried to contact the author, Sophie Ruhlmann, to see if she could send me her book in French or English. She turned out to be hard to find too, but in a last ditch attempt I sent a letter to what I hoped might be her snail mail address in France.  She responded by email, saying she’d send me the version of the book written in her native language, French!  When I came to France, on the two research grants from IU, she introduced me to about a dozen of his direct descendants, who showed me their collections, including Franchomme’s personal music library, his practice cello, and unpublished letters and photos. His letters make him very relatable.  For example, he writes in an early letter how tired he was after a day of private cello lessons, chamber music reading with patrons and then an opera performance at night.   I found even more goodies at the BnF (National Library of France) when I went back this spring after my concert in Paris, and I’m transcribing one now to play on our concert on October 25th! The descendants are very enthusiastic to have the music of their ancestor’s music recorded and re-introduced to the world, after being out of print and forgotten for 2 centuries, and I’m happily accepting the task!  At this point I’ve probably collected enough materials for a lifetime of projects.

What was Franchomme’s association with Frederic Chopin? 

He was a good friend of Chopin; they met in Paris when Franchomme was 24 and Chopin was 22, at a small dinner party Liszt threw for the pianist Heller.  Chopin invited Franchomme back to his apartment afterwards, and Franchomme agreed on condition that Chopin play piano, which he agreed to, and they became fast friends.  They wrote a piece together shortly after that on themes of Robert le Diable (the opera by Meyerbeer), and Franchomme soon made suggestions for a piece Chopin had already written: his Introduction and Polonaise Brillante for cello and piano, and Chopin incorporated these into his French edition of the piece.  I recorded the premiere of this version on The Franchomme Project.   Later, Franchomme would play Chopin’s last work, the cello sonata, privately with him before it was published.  Franchomme transcribed many of Chopin’s piano pieces for cello, to Chopin’s delight and approval, and his own compositions and even his fingerings bear Chopin’s influence. After Chopin’s death, he compiled several editions of Chopin’s works, including some unpublished pieces, and transcribed even more of them for cello, including the Etude included on Passages.

Your new album, Passages (Bridge Records, released September 5, 2025), also features French cello works— but this time spans 3 centuries and includes works from our present time.  How did you go about selecting the repertoire for this album?

I wanted to record some other favorite works that I’ve performed recently, particularly the ones that people don’t hear very often.  The Koechlin sonata was a piece I first performed at the Beauvais International Cello Festival; the director asked me to bring an unknown French cello sonata, and this was my choice.  Like the Debussy sonata, which we also include on Passages, it was written during WW I, but the two are very different! Debussy’s language is concise, sometimes sardonic, with typical classical phrase lengths, very clean and energetic, constantly turning on a dime to a new tempo or a new character.  Koechlin was inspired by Zen philosophy, nature (especially light and water), Gregorian chant and other modal music.  Like Franchomme, he earned his keep in many ways: orchestrator (of works by Debussy and Fauré among others), teacher (of Poulenc, Cole Porter and many others), radio announcer, composer… This cello sonata hasn’t been recorded often, maybe because it’s a complex piece to put together with the pianist.  Spencer Myer ate it up and did a terrific job! The first movement is unhurried and reassuring, and meter is quite incidental.  There are multiple instructions throughout the piece to play very evenly without accent, and one bar lasts 24 beats! For us, the second movement is an exploration of grief.  It has quintuplets against 2, 3, and 4 beats, and this rhythmic complexity, combined with dissonances, build up to climaxes of cathartic relief.  The movement ends in an exhausted, quiet peace.  And then a cheerful chant or maybe folk tune is the basis of the last movement.  This sonata is an incredible work, very satisfying to play.

I’m grateful to have recorded the cello duos on this album with Julia Bruskin, a fabulous cellist who’s also featured on The Franchomme Project. We love Hersant’s Caprices – they are like little poems, modelled after Bartok’s violin duos, and some have a similar hint of folk music.  But these duos are more dramatic in their emotion than Bartok’s, and more rhythmically complex.  We’ll play 7 of them at the Passages release concert on October 25th in Manhattan.  The Fauré duo is unpublished, and was first recorded by Steven Isserlis, and our recording is the second.  I met Steven when I was his student at Prussia Cove, and we’ve remained friends—and he kindly sent me a transcription of the manuscript. I’ve also sent him music, including a Franchomme Nocturne, which he recorded.  This duo was a sightreading test Fauré wrote for cellists at the Paris Conservatoire, which he composed when they first hired him.  

And you also included some Franchomme works?

Yes! Since it’s a survey of French cello music from the early 1800s to today, I included three more Franchomme pieces, including his gorgeous transcription of Chopin’s cello etude, all recorded here for the first time ever.

Can you tell us a bit about your efforts to get Franchomme’s compositions back in print?

Sure! I have a few balls in the air right now, but one that’s completed is my book for Dover. They commissioned me to put together a compilation of Franchomme’s cello-piano works and write the introduction.  The works are reproduced from first editions, which include Franchomme’s fingerings and bowings—very distinctively his, and definitely not the kind of fingerings I was taught by my teachers! Lots of slides, up and down, very long slurs of many notes, lots of use of the thumb including on long notes, which means they were not heavily vibrated.  He clearly had a virtuosic thumb position but according to contemporary reviews, he wasn’t a flashy player; he had an easy facility, played with honesty, sincerity and good taste— all things I aspire to do!  The book includes many of the pieces I recorded on The Franchomme Project, as well as the Air Irlandais Variations and the Chopin transcription from this Passages album.  I’m also working on a new article for the NIFC in Warsaw. Over the years I’ve transcribed several unpublished manuscripts of Franchomme’s, including the cello quartets we were the first to ever record, and now I’m completing a new transcription for our New York City concert on October 25th!

What projects are coming up next for you? 

 My next projects are our release concerts in New York: October 25th in Manhattan and October 26th in Tuckahoe, with Julia Bruskin, John Novacek and Philippe Muller.  We’re playing works from both albums, and my new Franchomme transcription. This fall, I’m also recording a completely unknown, really good Romantic cello sonata with John Novacek, which I’m excited about but can’t talk about until it’s done! 

How can people find out more about you, your albums, and other projects?

The best place is www.louise-dubin.com!

Insider Interview with composer Christopher Jessup

Christopher Jessup is an award-winning composer and pianist whose music has been hailed as “lovely” (The New York Times), “imaginative” (Fanfare), and “ethereal” (Textura). With a catalogue spanning orchestral, chamber, choral, and solo works, Jessup revels in capturing a wide range of emotions in his music, especially in miniature form. 

We spoke with Jessup about his earliest experiences with music, his work with the London Symphony and The Crossing, and what he does in his spare time. 

Tell us about your first experiences with music as a child. 

My first experiences with music as a child began with a tiny toy piano. It had only five keys and I played it so much that most of them broke! When I started going to school, I would get there early to practice and improvise on the piano because I didn’t yet have one of my own. I learned to play by ear long before being able to read music. Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington were major early influences for me—surprisingly, jazz was my first love. “Take the A Train” by Duke Ellington, which I taught myself to play, was one of my favorite pieces. 

You are equally accomplished as a composer and a pianist. How does your work as a pianist inform your creativity as a composer, and vice versa? 

Being a pianist heavily influences my work as a composer and can be hugely beneficial when I write. At the same time, I try to break away from writing from the perspective of a pianist so that I can be mindful of playability for other instruments. That can be challenging at times. Certain types of passages that might be easy for a pianist to play in a fast tempo can be extremely difficult or even unplayable for another instrument, like the cello for instance. Ultimately, when I compose, I want to make sure I am bringing out the best in each instrument and allowing the instruments to shine in their own unique way. 

You mention in your bio that you are especially interested in miniature forms of composition. What is it that attracts you to this short form? Can you give a recent example or two?  

I first became interested in writing miniatures after being introduced to Schoenberg’s "Sechs kleine Klavierstücke” in 2016. I was fascinated by how Schoenberg is able to capture an immense amount of emotion and expression in such brief little pieces and with so few notes. The first collection of miniatures I wrote was Cinq États d’Esprit (Five States of Mind) for solo piano. I went on to compose numerous other collections of short miniatures, including Phases for flute, cello, and piano (based on the five natural elements) and my Suite for Viola and Piano. I believe that music does not have to be long in order to be meaningful. In fact, some of the most poignant pieces are incredibly short. A well-crafted miniature can have more of an impact than a 30-minute requiem. 

Your music has been performed and/or recorded by a number of notable ensembles, including the London Symphony Orchestra and Grammy Award-winning choir The Crossing. Tell us some highlights about working with these ensembles. 

Working with the London Symphony Orchestra and The Crossing has been amazing. Having my music accepted and recorded by these esteemed ensembles is an incredible honor. In the LSO’s recording of Svítání, a tone poem for orchestra, the orchestra’s musicianship was breathtaking and their execution of the piece was flawless. The Crossing and Donald Nally recorded Astronomia, which is one of my most difficult pieces. They sang it with complete ease and agility, producing a truly marvelous result. The opportunity to collaborate with these ensembles is a deeply enriching and validating experience for me as a composer. I’ve learned and grown in remarkable ways each time I work with them, and that inspires me to continue to compose.  

Tell us about the compositions that you are currently working on. 

I recently completed a piano trio called Impetus, which was premiered in Los Angeles in August 2025 at the Impulse New Music Festival. I am working on a piece for flutist Lindsey Goodman and pianist Clare Longendyke, which they commissioned. That will be performed in the 2026-27 season.  

On the horizon, I am outlining a new multi-movement choral work with a mental health theme. Mental health is widely misunderstood and stigmatized in our society, and I believe it is my duty as an artist to address topics that are uncomfortable to talk about, and by doing so we can have a big impact. That is what I plan to do with this piece. 

What do you enjoy doing when you are not making music? How does it affect or enhance your work? 

When I’m not composing or playing piano, I love to get out in nature, especially on the water. Not only does it calm my nerves and clear my mind, but it also gives me a tremendous amount of inspiration as a composer. Water is very musical—the rise and fall of the tide and the sound of waves crashing all serve as vital inspiration for my compositions. 

Insider Interview with author Edward Klorman

In a new book about Bach’s Cello Suites, award-winning author Edward Klorman dives deep into both the culture and history of the iconic works. Bach: The Cello Suites is published by Cambridge University Press on September 1, 2025. In this insider interview, we spoke with Klorman about the surprising history of the suites, the challenges of writing for a diverse range of readers who might end up reading the forthcoming book, and one thing he wishes he could have left in the book.

What made you so curious about Bach’s Cello Suites that you wanted to write a book?

A century ago, the Cello Suites were not very widely known. But now, you hear them all the time, not only in concerts, but also in films, on Netflix series, pop covers, in subway stations—you name it! I was curious how this music went from being so obscure to so ubiquitous and iconic, and I was eager to tell that story.

There are so many questions about them that resist straightforward answers. For instance, at which point in his career did he compose them? Did he write them for (or with) a particular cellist? Was Bach familiar with any other solo-cello music that may have inspired him? I wanted to try to get to the bottom of these questions as much as possible. 

You are a violist. What was your experience with these suites for cello over the years?

Like many violists, I began on violin taking Suzuki lessons. The Suzuki violin books include four movements transcribed from the Cello Suites, so my first exposure to this music would have been in elementary school. But once I switched to viola in high school, I began learning one suite every year. The viola is tuned just like the cello, only an octave higher, so the suites adapt very well for the viola. In recent years, I’ve been lucky to play on a beautiful baroque viola with gut strings and a period-style bow, so it’s been an interesting challenge to relearn the suites in a different style.

According to his son C. P. E. Bach, J. S. Bach loved to play the viola, so sometimes we violists like to imagine that he might have used a viola to compose or perform the cello suites—but that is just conjecture!

What were some of the biggest challenges to writing the book?

A big challenge was writing for the diverse range of the readers. 

This book is part of the New Cambridge Music Handbooks series. Each book explores a single piece for many kinds of readers, ranging from musicians and musicologists to musical audiences of all stripes. I try to keep the writing light and engaging for casual readers looking for an all-around guide to this wonderful music.

Then for cellists and cello teachers who played this music for decades, I provide detailed explanations of some thorny questions, like how do we know we are playing the notes, ornaments, and articulations Bach intended. (The answer is, it’s sometimes very difficult to know!) For these readers, I explain what evidence points me to various conclusions. By “showing my work,” I hope readers will come to feel that they can trust me and that they are welcome to re-evaluate sources to come to their own conclusions.

What's the one of the most surprising things you learned from the process?

Let’s start with the question, “what is a cello”? During Bach’s lifetime, instruments called “violoncello” came in many sizes and formats, some with more than four strings. Some were even held at the chest or shoulder, with the support of a strap. Many cellists in Bach’s orbit would have used an underhand bow hold, which is very different from the overhand hold used today.

It’s impossible to know precisely which kind of instrument or playing style Bach might have had in mind (or if he even had a specific approach in mind). In the book, I tell the story of musicians beginning to rediscover the Cello Suites starting around the 1860s. As I researched their performance history, I’m struck how musicians have constantly reinvented new ways they can sound and different ideas for approaching them. For instance, many nineteenth-century musicians added piano accompaniment to “update” Bach’s music to suite their audience’s tastes!

Were there any tidbits that did not make it into the final manuscript that you’d like to share? 

There’s a very evocative description of a solo dancer dancing a sarabande that was published in a 1671 French–Latin dictionary by the Jesuit scholar François Pomey. It has been cited a lot because it’s such an uncommonly rich account, describing the dancer’s dramatic facial expressions, gestures, and so on. But in the course of my research, I learned that the musicologist Rose A. Pruiksma has discovered that this description was not based on an actual dancer witnessed by Pomey. Rather, it was plagiarized from a 1661 French novel by George de Scudéry.

Then there is the whole “controversy” about the claim that the Cello Suites were composed by J. S. Bach’s second wife, Anna Magdalena Bach, who was the scribe of an important manuscript copy of both the Cello Suites and the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin. That claim got a lot of attention about a decade ago, but it’s been thoroughly debunked. Sometimes when you can run the risk of the so-called “boomerang effect, where fact checking a conspiracy theory can perversely have the effect of further spreading the conspiracy. So I left that out of the book and put my energy instead into highlighting the important roles many women have played in the history of the Cello Suites—as performers, transcribers, and teachers, just not as the composer!

Gail Wein featured in new book

A new book features Classical Music Communications founder Gail Wein. The Savvy Musician 2.0 by David Cutler (Oxford University Press, 2025) guides musicians to build careers, lead organizations, found ventures, strengthen viability, and make a difference. Industry challenges are highlighted, but not dwelled upon. Instead, these pages burst with flexible, actionable success strategies that address a comprehensive collection of issues for professionals of all stripes. And one of the chapters features contributions from Gail!

Details available at Oxford University Press, copies available for purchase online here.

Insider interview with pianist Kariné Poghosyan

On June 10, the award-winning Armenian-American pianist Kariné Poghosyan performs an all-Khachaturian recital at Carnegie Hall presented by the presented by The Permanent Mission of the Republic of Armenia to the United Nations. We spoke with her about the significance of Khachaturian’s music, her live-streamed recital series that earned her a loyal world-wide following, and more. Tickets to her June 10 recital are available at CarnegieHall.org.

You are performing a program entirely of music by the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian on June 10 at Carnegie Hall. Tell us about the significance of his music in both his homeland and in 20th century music in general?

Aram Khachaturian once remarked “My whole life, everything that I have created belongs to the Armenian people.” To this day, he remains the heart of the musical life of my homeland! Our greatest concert hall in the capital Yerevan is named after him. He appears on postage stamps and banknotes. His music is an inseparable part of the Armenian DNA. Surprisingly (or perhaps not so surprisingly), I resisted his music while I was living in Yerevan up to the age of 18. I did not truly appreciate something that was just so very close by.

It was not until my mid- 20s in New York in fact, when I had to choose a topic for my doctoral thesis at the Manhattan School of Music, that I felt a calling to explore the rich world of Khachaturian’s music. Needless to say, I was swept off my feet and simply could not get enough of his work! After writing my thesis on Khachaturian’s Piano Works (which I soon hope to publish), I was engaged by the Naxos label to record my first commercial recording with his solo piano works and ballet transcriptions. What attracted me personally to his piano music is the fact that, unlike Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninoff, not only was Khachaturian the dictionary definition of a late-bloomer, but he was never known as a particularly gifted pianist. And yet, he had such a phenomenal natural instinct for the instrument that his piano works feel so comfortable to play. In “pianist shop talk,” we simply would say, “it just feels good under the fingers.”

In spite of much hardship endured because of the Soviet government's restrictions and at times punishments, Khachaturian rose to the status of a global celebrity, traveling the world, having his work celebrated by the greatest orchestras and on the greatest stages, receiving the deep admiration from legends like Hemingway, Salvador Dali, and Charlie Chaplin. 

Khachaturian's story is that of a life-affirming optimist, whose music has filled listeners all around the world with his own joie de vivre. And for all Armenians around the world, he is a role model - a heroic and inspiring survivor, who made the world richer with his timeless work.

As an Armenian-American pianist, what special insights do you bring to this music? You regularly perform Khachaturian’s music around the world. Tell us how his music is received in different parts of the world.

It has been an absolute joy to see the warmest response to the piano music of Khachaturian wherever I have performed it around the world. He is truly a universal composer - his writing is so intuitive, so human, allowing the listener to reconnect to something very core-level within them, whether it is their most vulnerable gentleness or deep inner rigor and power! I have seen audiences of every imaginable origin truly connect to this music and then react with such energy at the end, which has only inspired me to pursue the goal to play incredible music more and more, in as many different parts of the world as I possibly can!

Your repertoire goes far beyond Khachaturian’s music, of course, covering the range of Baroque to 20th-century eras. This year you are in the midst of a monthly recital series with a brilliant concept: Each month your program focuses on a different key; twelve notes, twelve months. Tell us how you came up with this idea and how the series evolves as the year progresses.

This truly groundbreaking project began as a small-scale, exclusively virtual performance for my Patreon members, a global audience tuning in live on Zoom. The very first broadcast in January 2021 was a humble endeavor from my New York apartment, on my 100-year-old Boston Chickering piano, the only technology being my own MacBook Air. I had invested in a proper microphone, but in the hurry of preparations, I used the wrong USB cord and later discovered to my horror that I had plugged in the printer and not the microphone. Thankfully, the grateful audience forgave the technical limitations, and with each recital my monthly viewership grew. 

In 2023, I upgraded the broadcasts to performances from various small concert venues around the city, and since 2024, thanks to securing the support and funding from AGBU and Seta Nazarian, who is supporting the concert series in memory of her mother Artemis Nazarian, as well as Marlene Yerevanian, I was able to accomplish an extraordinary dream and reformat the series into full-scale multi-camera professional broadcasts with top sound engineers.

Without a doubt, my monthly concert series are one of my proudest artistic achievements. These inspirational, innovative monthly events bring together music-lovers for three different experiences – the unique live performances, a chance to learn more about the music and composers, but above all, the feeling of togetherness as they connect with each other in the community. In my own way, I wanted to create a similar experience to Leonard Bernstein’s Young Peoples’ Concerts, except mine would be for people of all ages and backgrounds, tuning in on Zoom from all over the world on the last Sunday each month to experience the joy of live music. My vision is to expand their reach and perhaps be able to present them via PBS or NPR one day.

One of the most inspiring aspects of my monthly series is the degree of artistic freedom and creativity I get to have. I choose a unique fascinating theme each year. In 2022 the theme was Musical Time Travels, inspired by my own geeky sci-fi interests and a book/film script I am working on. Last year, I did several mini-series including a 4-concert “Vienna” series with Schubert, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven programs in each, and then followed by a 4-concert “Chopin” series. This year, I feel had a particularly inspired theme with my “12 Notes!” The amount of music I prepare and therefore the amount of work I have to put in to not only practice and perform, but also coordinate and curate all of the production elements sometimes feels nearly superhuman. Yet, on June 27, 2025 I am preparing to perform my 53rd consecutive monthly recital broadcast, and I cannot be more excited!

During your journey as a concert pianist, what has been a particularly inspiring vision or motto you have come back to?

I was interviewed by The Washington Post a few years back, in which I shared a very special memory from my childhood in Yerevan. As a little girl at around the age of 6, I would place one of my doll cases just so I could see my fingers moving in the reflection of the piano and then ask my Mom to put on an old LP record of the legendary Emil Gilels playing the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven. I would then proceed to pretend to play it myself, as I would mimic the finger movements I imagined Gilels making during his performance. 

Every time in my life when I have a tough day, and my self-belief is extra low, I remind myself of this really peculiar but - what I later came to realize- rather extraordinary phenomenon! There were no pianists in my family! No one was forcing me as a little girl to do this, in fact I had not even started serious piano studies at this point. Yet, I just somehow had the inner need to do these “pretend” performances....really, the very definition of a “Calling”. Then I see that little 6-year-old Kariné look at all the amazing things I am doing now as a pianist and just be over-the-moon happy! 

Concert reviews for JACK Quartet at Cutting Edge Concerts

On March 12, 2025 professor Frank J. Oteri brought students from the class “John Cage and The New School,” which he co-teaches with Joan La Barbara at The New School College of Performing Arts, to Symphony Space for a concert with the JACK Quartet, presented by Victoria Bond’s Cutting Edge Concerts New Music Festival.

Each of the three students who attended were asked to write a review, which are published below.

By Sofía Alvarado

The most immediately noticeable difference in the JACK Quartet’s performance of John Cage’s String Quartet in Four Parts, compared to the other pieces of the night, is how much quieter it was. As if Cage’s piece demanded that silence, if unable to occupy the entire space of the piece, be at least brought into tension not just with the piece itself but also with the others around it. The Philip Glass piece that preceded it, String Quartet no. 5, instead called for the repeating melodies to fill the space, and in so doing seemingly suspended it in time, sending it floating through imagined places. But Cage’s String Quartet leads to a different kind of unmooring: we are brought to a deep awareness of the room we are sitting in, and made aware above all of the passing of time, of the authentically slow and quiet nature of the seasons, and of our experience of the current season that awaits once we exit the room; the JACK Quartet allowed Cage to use them and their instruments as a vessel for absence.

It is Heinz Holliger’s String Quartet No. 2 which brought the final surprising shift in awareness, with the final section of the piece involving the use of breath by the performers. At this point, we are made aware of our own bodies, but pulled through the breath and our attention to it into becoming something no longer human, our breath as an audience also being absorbed into the piece itself. As Kevin Davis writes in A Systematic Dismantling: Heinz Holliger’s Streichquartett, “The quartet is like a breathing thing, a living entity […] with appendages moving in different, unpredictable directions at all times, but yet possessing a highly unified vector; […] the entire quartet as the exhaling of a single, giant lung.” We too, inevitably, are invited to become part of this unhuman lung – before we fall back into silence.

By Kaizan Connor

Going into this concert, I didn't have a great deal of experience listening to string quartets in a live performance setting such as this, but one of the only other times I've been able to experience a string quartet in action was another JACK performance, playing the music of John Zorn. So going into this concert, I did have some expectations of the level of skill that JACK possesses, but I still felt like I had a somewhat naive perspective when it came to this format in general, which conversely granted me the unique ability to evaluate this performance independent of many of the preconceived notions I would have had otherwise; particularly about the selection of music that evening.

Although I knew of JACK's excess in talent as performers, high skill level doesn't necessarily guarantee a successful performance; luckily for me, I found the content of this performance to be highly engaging and inspiring. Particularly, I thought that the order in which the pieces were played contributed greatly to the entertainment component of my experience. To me, it felt as if the entire performance hung on the central axis of the Philip Glass piece, being distinctly tonal and relatively conventional in structure, whilst the surrounding pieces were by comparison much more esoteric and distinctly atonal with the possible exception of the Cage piece. It may also be that the Glass piece was the piece I was most familiar with going in, so the other pieces seemed even more esoteric by comparison.

The evening started off with what felt like an atonal double hit of a mysterious Boulez piece (or arrangement of another Boulez piece?) and Webern's iconic bagatelles. Boulez's style is so extreme and sort of disconcerting, it made for a very striking opener to the evening, particularly the way Boulez inserts silences into his music feels very unique and sort of mysterious; this seamlessly flowed into the elegantly structured, yet still iconoclastic bagatelles of Webern which all sort of ended up feeling like a single atonal gesture, which made the transition into the Philip Glass piece all the more obvious. I don't think it's possible to find a subtle way to insert Philip Glass into the program, but even if there was, I'm glad they didn't because the contrast of the pieces made the program all the more engaging. Glass's 5th string quartet is mostly normal Philip Glass, but with a touch more complexity in the harmony and structure, which I think helps make his music feel a bit more accessible, which I don't feel was a detracting factor in this particular instance. After that was finished there was a brief intermission, and then... John Cage! I really enjoyed his piece. Structurally it reminded me a lot of one of Zorn's game pieces hockey because of the use of limited musical elements, but Cage's piece definitely feels a lot more meditative and truly static. I really enjoyed this one, and I think it would've been a good closer to the program which brings me to... Heinz Holliger! I wasn't familiar with Holliger's music before stepping foot into Symphony Space that evening, and perhaps that made his music all the more difficult because I found that by this point my concentration was waning, and my appetite; growing. Despite these factors, I wouldn't say it was an unenjoyable experience to listen to Holliger's string quartet. It was immediately obvious that he is a very skilled and thoughtful composer, but I don't think I quite had the mental capacity to engage with it by that point.

By Ivan Chen

I know JACK Quartet because they are a collaborator of John Zorn, one of my inspirations for contemporary music. I like how JACK plays Zorn's string quartet. When they play his piece, each section is emotional and always straight to my heart. They always bring organic interpretation and lots of energy to the stage. Therefore, when Frank mentioned this concert to me. I was looking forward to hearing them play Webern, Boulez, Glass, Cage, and Holliger.

This program has an interesting combination. From "Livre 1, 2, 3c" by Pierre Boulez, "Six Bagatelles" by Anton Webern, "String Quartet No.5" by Philip Glass, "String Quartet in Four Parts" by John Cage, to "String Quartet No. 2" by Heinz Holliger. I like the order of the concert. They organized atonal, dissonant pieces for opening and ending, with Glass's and Cage's in the middle. The huge difference between the music, just like a roller coaster, makes the audience build up lots of tension and release.

I particularly enjoyed Glass's string quartet in this concert. As a composer, I am not a huge fan of minimalism. I want music to develop faster rather than stay in one piece for a while (By the way, I still like the slower progress of music, like Toru Takemitsu, but Glass's pieces are too slow for me!) However, his music worked well in this concert because it was so beautiful for his repetitive, tonal, simple pattern after lots of dissonance and tension.

After Glass's piece and intermission, I had a different experience of Cage's piece. Compared to Holliger or Boulez, this piece is also relatively peaceful, harmonic, and less chaotic, but I didn't get it and felt a little sleepy. I think because it was after a twenty-minute, repetitive Glass's piece and an intermission. The longer time let me lose some concentration on this beautiful piece. However, JACK still sounded great on this piece.

I also like the last piece, "String Quartet No. 2" by Heinz Holliger. I didn't know this piece before the concert, but I was surprised by the energy, emotion, and chaos. JACK sounded awesome on techniques, emotional interpretation, and brought me to outer space.  Although this piece is around 25 minutes long without a stop. The organization of the dynamic and articulation was clear. I could visualize the whole structure when I listened. The ending of this piece was gorgeous. The lower-drawn texture was still dissonant, leaving lots of tension and complicated emotions for the audience.

For the interpretation and the program, every piece matches JACK's style a lot. These dramatic, emotional pieces always sounded amazing with JACK's awesome performance and the beautiful reverberation of Symphony Space. Although there is a tiny thing about order for me, it is still an impressive, beautiful concert. Thank you for sharing this beautiful music!

Cleveland Chamber Music Society featured in Russian Magazine

Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartets in Concert April 21-30 Are Not To Be Missed

Presented by Cleveland Chamber Music Society at Cleveland Museum of Art

Originally published in Russian, on Russian Magazine Cleveland, March 2025

The great 20th century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich was prolific – he wrote symphonies, ballets, operas and much more. But it is his 15 string quartets that are both a personal diary and a reflection of Russian history. Shostakovich composed these quartets over half a century, tracing Soviet times from Stalin to Khrushchev to Brezhnev.

On April 21-30, music lovers in Cleveland will have the rare opportunity to hear this cycle performed live. The Cleveland Chamber Music Society, in celebration of its 75th anniversary season, presents the complete Shostakovich string quartets over five evenings, performed by the Jerusalem Quartet. This is a remarkable feat and it’s never been done before in Cleveland.

The performances are April 21, 22, 23, 29 & 30 at 7:30 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art (11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, OH). Each concert features three quartets, and there will be a pre-concert lecture by James Wilding at 6:30 pm each evening.

Praised by BBC Magazine as "an absolute triumph," the Jerusalem Quartet is a regular and beloved guest on the world’s great concert stages. Recent appearances include a Beethoven quartet cycle at Wigmore Hall in London; a Bartok cycle at the Salzburg Festival; their annual String Quartet seminar in Crans Montana Switzerland, and a residency at the Jerusalem Academy of Music. 

We spoke with members of the Jerusalem Quartet about this monumental occasion.

How has the quartet prepared for this series of concerts?

This is our third time in 30 years performing the Shostakovich cycle around the world. These opuses are rooted deeply in our minds and souls. This time, the whole preparation process focused on what can or should be performed differently for creating an even stronger message, character, and atmosphere.

This is the first time the Shostakovich Quartet Cycle will be performed in its entirety in Cleveland. What do you think the audience gets from hearing all 15 quartets in a short span of time?

Coming back to your cultural city to perform this great, maybe the most important, quartet cycle of the 20th century over 10 days makes this project intense both for the public and for us. To experience this cycle chronologically in such a short period of time creates a much stronger, deeper, and more powerful impact on the audiences. In every piece, you get closer to the Shostakovich spirit, you receive more easily his ideas, you start to understand better his musical language. In a way, you get transported to a different world of sonority and atmosphere. Shostakovich wrote these quartets over a span of nearly a half century, from the 1930s to the 1970s.

How does this body of music reflect world history?

For more than five decades, Shostakovich was the foremost composer active in the former Soviet Union. The only possible way to succeed in making such an incredible career in such complicated times is living a double life, and that’s why it is so important in Shostakovich’s music to be able to receive "hidden” messages, to read between the notes and lines. His symphonies, for example, were mostly created as a reaction to major national events, and his quartets are the most personal and intimate pages of his life’s diary. Most of the quartets were dedicated to his family members, closest friends, and colleagues. One can also feel the development in the composer’s writing, which mirrors the development in the history of the Soviet Union.

2025 marks 30 years since the founding of the Jerusalem Quartet. What’s the secret to maintaining a strong bond as an ensemble?

Being “married” for 30 years is always challenging, and do not forget that in a string quartet, there are four partners. Our love and dedication to this magical ensemble, and to the endless repertoire from great masters beginning with the father of string quartets, Joseph Haydn, have kept us together all this time.

The Jerusalem Quartet has a long history of performing in Cleveland, but this is its first time at the CMA. What is most exciting about this debut?

We have performed many, many times in Cleveland in the past decades. This kind of a cycle debuting now evokes special emotions, and we are looking forward to presenting this amazing music to the old and new audiences of Cleveland.

Tickets are available online at ClevelandChamberMusic.org or by phone at (216) 291-2777. Single tickets are $40 for adults ($35 seniors, $5 students), with package-deals available starting at $60.

Yekwon Sunwoo interview in Miroirs CA

Re-posted from Miroirs CA (December 7, 2017)
By Leonne Lewis

Soon after 28-year-old Yekwon Sunwoo won the 15th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Decca Gold released a recording of his performances at the competition called Cliburn Gold, which became number one on Billboard’s Traditional Classical Album charts.

Those who live streamed or attended this year’s Cliburn Competition  were bowled over by Yekwon Sunwoo’s dynamic playing, as were the jury members who awarded him a gold medal with its built-in perks that include three years of concert tours in the US and at international venues and fashion threads - concert attire supplied by Neiman Marcus which is reason enough to practice hours a day for a chance to compete!

Over the next few seasons and beyond, Sunwoo will appear with high-profile groups such as Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Elbphilharmonie, National Orchestra of Cuba, and perform at Aspen Music Festival, Istanbul Music Festival, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and the Gewandhaus in Leipzig.

Sunwoo’s playing was center stage even before his participation in The Cliburn Competition as evidenced by his winning the 2015 International German Piano Award, 2014 Vendome Prize at Verbier Festival and 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competition. Already a seasoned performer, he has given recitals in South Korea, Europe, Costa Rica and appeared with major orchestras including the Houston Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, National Orchestra of Belgium.

He also concentrates on chamber music in collaboration with such artists as members of the Brentano and Jerusalem Strings Quartets, Ida Kafavian, Peter Wiley and released recordings with violinist Benjamin Beilman on the Warner Classics and Analekta labels.

He began piano studies in his native South Korea at age 8 and then relocated to the US in 2005 where he received a bachelor’s degree at The Curtis Institute of Music with Seymour Lipkin, a master’s degree at The Juilliard School with Robert McDonald and an artist diploma at the Mannes School of Music with Richard Goode. He currently studies with Bernd Goetzke in Hannover, Germany.

Yekwon Sunwoo talks about his career with Editor Leonne Lewis.

YOU STUDIED IN SOUTH KOREA AND AT CONSERVATORIES IN THE US. HAVE MENTORS OF THESE SCHOOLS INFLUENCED YOUR APPROACH TO PIANO PLAYING?

I feel extremely fortunate to have such wonderful teachers and they all share the same trait of being genuine and sincere musicians and warmhearted human beings. I am deeply saddened by Seymour Lipkin’s passing two years ago, but have fond memories of working with him at Curtis for six years beginning in 2005, when I was 16 years old. During the time I worked with him, I became more exposed to diverse music and he helped me open up my heart and play as if actually singing with my own voice.

After that, I went to Juilliard to work with Robert McDonald for two years. He has incredibly sensitive ears, which helped me become more attentive in listening to my own sound and the phrasing coming out as intended. Then, I went to study with Richard Goode at Mannes School of Music for two years. From time to time he would be away giving concerts, but whenever he was in town I would come to his house and play for him – and sometimes this went on for two or three hours.

He demonstrated a lot and it was sheer beauty to stand right next to him and hear him play, and I would feel as if I was reborn after each time. His whole life is faithfully dedicated to discovering the true intentions of each composer and I learned so much from him, like not taking every phrase each composer writes for granted.

In the Fall of 2016 I moved to Munich and currently study with Bernd Goetzke in Hannover. I’ve been working with him for just a year now but he has helped me to have more conviction in my music making and especially in shaping each phrase according to the requirements of the composer and understanding the whole structure in a more constructive way. I am forever grateful for guidance from all these teachers. They all made me love music even more deeply so that I can really bring out all emotions through piano playing.

YOU HAVE WON MANY INTERNATIONAL PIANO COMPETITIONS. DOES YOUR APPROACH CHANGE WHEN PLAYING FOR COMPETITIONS OR PERFORMING LIVE CONCERTS?

I believe strongly in not having a different thought process when performing in concerts or competitions. You are there to play your heart out and to share all kinds of emotions that are going through at every second of music making and hopefully convey them to audience members. The only difference might be in these two elements. First, you have to be even more focused and mentally strong when participating in a competition because you are under high pressure and there is the cruel fact that the announcement awaits after each round. Secondly, you are handling a huge amount of repertoire, so you need to understand your physical stamina and how to balance it all at once.

However, it is all about music making in the end and conveying your own interpretation with conviction. Seeking the composer’s intentions and putting all your endeavors into making the music come alive should be the main concern at all times.

SINCE WINNING THE CLIBURN COMPETITION, WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR CAREER AND ARTISTIC GOALS?

Since I first started playing the piano when I was 8-years-old my ultimate dream has always been to become a concert pianist, travel all around the world and share all these feelings through music. Winning the 2017 Van Cliburn Competition has opened up a new chapter for me and this definitely helps my dream continue. I have a personal affinity towards German and Russian repertoire so I would like to focus more on this repertoire for now. Having performed works such as Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms No. 6 and Thomas Ades Traced Overhead, I would also like to explore more contemporary works that are not yet often played. After winning the Van Cliburn Competition, I know that the exciting musical journey will continue.

Insider interview with Jumaane Smith

Baruch Performing Arts Center is in the final stretch of its wide-ranging 2024-25 concert season. On May 16, 2025 at 7:30 pm, jazz trumpeter, vocalist, and composer Jumaane Smith brings his quartet to the hall David Letterman once called "delightful." Smith has performed on 5 GRAMMY-winning records (selling more than 60 million copies), 2 Emmy-nominated TV performances, the GRAMMY Awards with Stevie Wonder, in Steven Spielberg’s "West Side Story," and more. For the last 18 years, he's toured with Michael Bublé as lead trumpeter and featured vocalist.

In this insider interview, we spoke to Smith about studying with Wynton Marsalis, working with legendary artists, and more.

Tell us a bit about your early musical experiences, growing up in Seattle. How did that inform the musician you are today?

My early musical experiences not only shaped the musician I am today, but it’s safe to say that it shaped the person I’ve become and provided refuge at a time when it was most needed. There was a strong musical community in Seattle, particularly where jazz is concerned. My high school had an incredible jazz program and that is how I found the trumpet, and a passion that was much needed during some difficult times.

You went on to study under Wynton Marsalis with a full scholarship to Juilliard’s jazz studies program. What was the biggest lesson you learned studying with him?

Wynton was one of those teachers – very tough, but in the best way. I learned discipline, for sure. There’s no putting into words the level of craft that he showed me as well.

They say don’t meet your heroes, but with the list of names you’ve performed with - including Stevie Wonder, Quincy Jones, and Aretha Franklin – it’s possible that you have had this experience many of times. How do you prepare for something like that?

The best thing I can say is the best way to prepare for something like that is…to prepare! Nothing impresses people more than showing respect for their work. I remember coming to a rehearsal with Stevie Wonder and he was sure we were going to need a long rehearsal to get the music right. The musicians came so prepared that we went through it once and he was so surprised to say we were ready!

How would you describe the style of your own projects and compositions? Who are your influences?

I enjoy playing so many styles of music, but my 2024 album, “Come on Home,” comprised mostly of my original tunes, has a souljazz and funk sound, with a good dose of the blues. That’s what I’m feeling right now and I’m getting some great feedback on it. I love to listen to a wide range of artists but I’ll stick with the ones you might expect for my main influences! Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Ray Charles…

Insider interview with Grammy award winning fiddler Mark O'Connor

On April 25, the three-time Grammy-award winning multi-instrumentalist Mark O’Connor brings his “Beethoven and Bluegrass” program to Carnegie Hall. Joining him onstage are the Vega Quartet and bluegrass musician Maggie O’Connor. The Vega Quartet performs Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 95 and O’Connor’s String Quartet No. 2; Mark and Maggie play bluegrass duos; and all six string players come together to play O’Connor’s famous “Appalachia Waltz.”

We spoke to him about this special program, composing a modern-day classic, and so much more. Tickets to the April 25 concert at Carnegie Hall, presented by Emory Chamber Music Society of Atlanta, available here.

You’re well known as a fiddler, and you’re also a composer of concert music. Tell us a bit about your training. Which genre came first and how do you balance the two?  

This answer will be nearly as complex as your question! In brief, I began with classical guitar instruction at six and studied in this manner until adding fiddle instruction five years later at age 11. I delved into all of the bluegrass instruments as a multi-instrumentalist at that time, including the change from classical finger-style on a nylon-string guitar, to steel-string with a flat-pick. By age 14, I added jazz music studies and began to compose progressive string band type music. After stints with great internationally-known instrumental bands and a session-playing career in Nashville on the fiddle, guitar and mandolin, I returned to the classical music setting for my compositional output wholeheartedly. I composed string quartets, trios, duos, solos, piano trios, orchestral symphonies, suites, nine concertos and more.

How does Beethoven fit into the “Beethoven and Bluegrass” program? That is, how is his music complementary to bluegrass music?

The 11th string quartet (Op. 95) by Beethoven will be performed, as well as my own 2nd string quartet subtitled “bluegrass.” These two pieces will make up half of the program, performed by the wonderful Vega Quartet. The connection of Beethoven to bluegrass music here is principally through my string quartet compositions—with Beethoven being the key inspiration to my own quartet writing even though my music is wholly American music. Mine takes the form of a new style and sound that listeners will not have heard before, but its compositional complexity in form, texture and characteristic setting makes for a remarkable pairing that surprises most everyone by how well it works. To this day, it even surprises me frankly as we’ve repeated the program many times because audiences have loved this unique offering. Rather than a classical music style of string-playing that Beethoven’s music demands, my quartet music compels the musicians to utilize a modernistic musical language and playing techniques that I uncover from my own progressive bluegrass music experiences. This kind of playing instructs my themes and development in the compositions. Audiences pick up on an exciting contrast that exists across 200 years and 2 continents, played by exactly the same four instruments.

Part of this program features you performing duos with your wife Maggie. What are the challenges (and rewards!) of performing as a duo, without a band?  

The duo with my wife Maggie is something we’ve been honing since we met 10 years ago. It first began with just the two fiddles performing my duo compositions. We created an electrifying blend on the originals and for my arrangements of American classics. Given our predisposition for musical exploration, we began to reach further within our duo setting, and this was the challenge you ask about. We wanted to keep growing the duo. We added back into the picture my guitar and mandolin playing I had ignored for years. Then we began to sing more. Maggie’s is an authentic Americana story-telling voice, so it inspired me to write more music. Not just string music but vocal songs. Maggie even plays hand percussion on one of our tunes, and her percussive “chopping” on the violin feels like a whole rhythm section when I solo. We’ve quite literally created a full band out of our duo in performance. For us and our audiences, it is quite the musical journey we’ve taken together across these last ten years. We just kept reaching for more.

The program ends with you and Maggie joining forces with the Vega Quartet for your work “Appalachia Waltz.” This piece is your timeless modern-day classic you composed for Yo-Yo Ma. You must have played this one a thousand times by now.

Likely more than that. “Appalachia Waltz” is now 30-years-old, and I don’t doubt I’ve performed it a hundred times a year. So try three-thousand times! Yo-Yo himself may have played it a thousand times by now! He loves to play this music. Yes, it is extremely lucky that my most famous piece, is also my favorite to play. With composers and songwriters, it is sometimes not the case! But for me, it’s special each time. There is a sense of mystery or intrigue about the music that people pick up on. Where is it coming from, is a common response I think. It sounds to some like a modern-day spiritual. And I think there is a bridge that connects, because you can’t help but feel both nostalgic and optimistic at the same time. It’s quite a splendid moment to hear the Vega string quartet join us for this rendition in the program. Sometimes we’ll comment on how emotional it makes us feel. But most of the time, we just let the music fill the air and see the audience welcome what they hear and take this sensitivity home with them.

Insider Interview with Polish Chamber Orchestra manager Janusz Marynowski

The Polish Chamber Orchestra is on tour across the United States with versatile violinist Daniel Hope, "the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré" (New York Times). The "Journey to Mozart" program includes violin concertos by Haydn and Mozart, Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F minor 'La passione,' and works by Gluck and the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar. Performances are February 23-March 2 in Vero Beach, FL; West Palm Beach, FL; Atlanta, GA; and Beaver Creek, CO. We spoke with PCO manager Janusz Marynowski about the orchestra’s rich history, the upcoming tour, Polish culture, and more.

As manager of Polish Chamber Orchestra, what are your primary duties and/or goals?

The Polish Chamber Orchestra is an orchestra of great tradition, and as the manager of this ensemble, I consider it my primary task to nurture its 50-year heritage, always ensuring projects and performances of the highest artistic standard. We are a large, independent cultural institution of the capital city of Warsaw, the heart of which is the Sinfonia Varsovia symphony orchestra formed by extending the PCO's chamber ensemble. In addition, we manage several chamber ensembles made up of the orchestra's musicians. However, our activities do not end there. We run an orchestra academy for young musicians, implement a number of educational programmes for little music lovers, organise activities for the local community, and host two major music festivals in Warsaw: La Folle Journée de Varsovie and Sinfonia Varsovia To Its City. The orchestra is very active in Poland and abroad, playing around 70 concerts a year, more than half of them outside Poland. We also make recordings, with over 340 albums in our catalogue of excellent labels. Sinfonia Varsovia is also an investor in the construction of a music complex in Warsaw with the largest concert hall in Poland. Ultimately, we will have four concert halls: the main hall with 1,877 seats, smaller hall with 400 seats and two chamber halls, as well as several halls for educational activities.

Tell me how your role with the orchestra has changed over the years, from your time as a performer to now as the manager.

I started working there in 1987, as a double bass musician. At the time, my job was solely to play the double bass. I remember this period as a period of eternal happiness, because being on stage and performing pieces of music together with my orchestra was the greatest form of expression possible for me, it was one hundred per cent artistic freedom on stage. 21 years ago, the orchestra offered me the position of orchestra manager, and after a year of holding the position of both a musician and a manager, I had to decide to devote all my time to the role of a manager. Since then, I have been involved in administering the institution and charting new courses of action. As a result, I unfortunately no longer have time to play the instrument. My life made a 180° turn and sometimes I really miss being a musician, playing in an orchestra. 

How do the Polish Chamber Orchestra musicians, repertoire and performances reflect Polish culture?

From its first concert, the orchestra's repertoire included works by Polish composers such as Grażyna Bacewicz and Andrzej Panufnik. We continue this tradition of performing works by Polish composers. This is a very important part of our repertoire, as the orchestra considers itself to be an ambassador of Polish culture around the world. We are happy to have the chance to present during our upcoming US tour an absolutely phenomenal piece: "Orawa" by Wojciech Kilar, which was written specifically for the Polish Chamber Orchestra. He is a composer known in the US rather as the creator of soundtracks for films such as "Dracula" and "The Pianist". We hope that this piece by a Polish composer in particular will appeal to American audiences. Poland has a long and turbulent revolutionary history, as evidenced by names such as Pułaski and Kościuszko, who also had their contributions to US history. In the world of classical music, the PCO managed by Jerzy Maksymiuk was at its beginnings an equally revolutionary phenomenon, playing expressively and quickly, with the highest technical precision. This was before the wider public got accustomed to playing this way.

Polish Chamber Orchestra has not toured the United States in nearly 20 years.

• What are you most looking forward to on this tour?

• What do you expect to be challenging or difficult about this tour? 

• How do you expect it will be different than your last U.S. tour in 2006?

Twenty years is a long time, many young musicians have joined the ensemble, some have retired. This has a huge impact on the sound of the ensemble, on its identity. We hope, however, that we have retained that original energy and style. I wish for it to sit well with audiences who, after all, have also changed a lot over the years and have a different sensibility. Above all, we are looking forward to meeting them, the wonderful American listeners who have given us such an excellent reception in the past.

I see one particular difficulty this tour faces. I mean the concert in Beaver Creek, which is about 2,500 m above sea level, and in Warsaw we are not used to such high altitudes. Rysy, Poland's highest peak, is exactly 2499 m above sea level. I even found out that special oxygen bottles are being sold at the Beaver Creek shops to help with the symptoms of altitude sickness. We need to investigate this matter thoroughly, as our oboists have reported that there may be problems with their reeds at such a high altitude. 

We are very happy to be performing with such a great artist as Daniel Hope, I have known him for three decades by the way.
He is a world-class artist who belongs among the great stars playing with the Polish Chamber Orchestra, such as Yehudi Menuhin, James Galway, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov....

What else would you like us to know about you and the PCO?

As for me, I have been in love with the orchestra for 38 years. It used to be my dream to exchange at least a few words with a musician of this very orchestra, so I am very proud to come to you with this ensemble. The Polish Chamber Orchestra has always prided itself on the highest quality of artistic performance, the precision of chamber music. The credit goes, of course, to its creator, the legendary Jerzy Maksymiuk. 

What is coming up next for the Polish Chamber Orchestra?

On our return from the USA with the full symphonic ensemble, Sinfonia Varsovia, we will perform at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and in Istanbul with the legendary violinist Pinchas Zukerman, with whom we have the pleasure of working recently. And in the autumn, a tour in Japan with the legendary Marta Argerich and Ivo Pogorelić.

Insider Interview with Vision Duo

Vision Duo (violinist Ariel Horowitz and percussionist Britton-René Collins) perform classical works with a contemporary twist. On March 5, 2025 the duo makes their Baruch PAC recital debut with a wide-ranging program that includes Bizet/Hubay’s Carmen Fantasy, Misty by the jazz pianist Erroll Garner, music by Piazzolla, Vision’s own Horowitz, and others. We spoke to Horowitz and Collins about the unique combination of violin and marimba, the upcoming program, and expanding their repertoire. 

I can’t think of a single piece of classical music written for your unique combination of instruments. What the heck were you thinking when you created this duo? 

Britton-René Collins: Our duo was formed during the pandemic, at a time where many musicians were experimenting and planning for the return of live music performance. We had only known each other through social media, and admired one another’s work. It just made sense for us, as like-minded creatives, to join together and collaborate in a meaningful way. 

How do you balance the difference in timbres and volume between the violin and percussion?  

Ariel Horowitz: We love the dichotomy between the instruments and their vastly different soundworlds, and we enjoy leaning into that – a violin will never sound like a marimba, and vice versa, so it’s very fun to enjoy all of the variety of soundworlds that we can craft together.  

BRC: Although the pairing of a western classical instrument with a modern percussion instrument originating from West Africa could be considered atypical, the violin and marimba blend seamlessly together. Many existing works in the violin/marimba duo repertoire were commissioned by the group “Marimolin” over the span of several decades. Having commissioned, composed, and premiered new works for our duo’s instrumentation together, we share a passion for contributing to the growing body of violin and percussion repertoire. 

Tell us about your program at Baruch PAC? There are many new works, some arrangements and a work by you, Ariel. How did you put together this program?  

AH: We’re so excited for our program at Baruch PAC! Our program, Moxie, is kind of like a musical charcuterie board: we hope there can be something for everyone. We enjoy a variety of styles of music, both as performers and listeners, so our programming reflects our eclectic tastes. You’ll hear music from Blues to Jazz to Opera to Baroque Classical to Indie, and you might even hear some music that we improvise together on the spot: another great passion of ours.  

BRC: The inspiration behind our program came naturally, as our friendship formed through our shared love of multi-genre music. Through our versatile programming, we hope that audiences of all demographics might be able to identify and connect with our performances. 

It appears that all the works that weren’t written for you are an arrangement. What’s your process for picking pieces and making these arrangements? 

AH: Britt and I have a ton of songs that we love for various reasons – musically, lyrically, aesthetically, or the song is significant to one or the other of us (often both)! Usually, from there, we start from improvisation – we rarely write down our arrangements, but enjoy coming up with our tunes through a collaborative jam session.  

Ariel, could you tell us a bit about your work? 

AH: Solitude is a song I originally created back in my own college days, so it feels quite fitting to be able to share it for students in that stage of early adulthood at Baruch PAC. I was quite lonely in those days, though I was surrounded constantly by lots of people. A lot was going wrong in my life at the time, too, so I came up with a mantra: “I am in Solitude but I’m not lonely”. I was improvising a lot on my own in private those days, and singing a lot by myself, too. Through a lot of improvisation processes, including a rather public one in front of a panel at an audition (a story for another time, haha!), the song evolved into what it is now. I’m so glad to get to share this song with my dearest friend Britt as a duo, now, and this song features on my recently released album, Hearth!  

Insider Interview with soprano/pianist Chelsea Guo

On March 6, Baruch Performing Arts Center presents the award-winning musician Chelsea Guo. Equally talented as both a pianist and soprano, Guo will accompany herself in a program that features arias by Rossini, Donizetti, Chopin, and more. We spoke to her about the upcoming recital program, self-accompaniment, and future engagements (including time in Vienna!).

Very few artists can competently accompany themselves on piano. What are the challenges for you to play piano while singing? What are the rewards?

Performing songs self-accompanied feels like a privilege every time I have the chance to do it onstage. It allows me complete spontaneity, flexibility of breath, and freedom for phrasing and expression. Of course, it comes with many technical challenges, the biggest one being independence of the vocal and pianistic mechanisms. While they move together, I need to take special care to preserve the technical aspects that keep the voice supported while also leaning into my finger/foot muscle memory to make sure I'm bringing the right touch and sound to the piano (especially because I can't hear the piano very well while I'm singing). There's a verticality to the physical action of playing the piano that both needs to counteract and support the spin of the voice. But, once all that gets worked through in practice, the result is always worth it to me.

When learning a new piece do you start by learning the vocal part, or the piano part?

I start learning a self-accompanied song by learning both parts completely independently - as if I'm preparing to sing or play them alone. 

You perform a wide variety of styles of music. How do you go about constructing a program?

Constructing programs is the most exciting and most challenging part. There is so much crossover between the vocal and piano literature - so many ideas and connections to explore. The challenge is that I can get a bit too excited about a concept and have to remind myself to keep the audience experience in mind. When I'm programming many styles of music in one concert, I try to keep a common thread going, so either a personal narrative or a musical or intellectual connection.

How did you first get interested in music? At what point did you realize it would be your career?

I was always enamored with music and loved my piano lessons as a kid. I especially loved the storytelling aspect of music, as my mother would come up with narratives to connect me to the piano pieces I was learning. I told her around the age of 11 that I wanted to be a concert pianist. Eventually, I started taking voice lessons to better improve my understanding of piano music, and that ended up becoming part of my path as well. It's been an incredible journey that has led me to a deeper love of this art form every day that I do it!

Later this season, you’ll be spending some time in Vienna as a studio member of the Volksoper Wien. How did this opportunity come about? What you expect you’ll experience while you are there?

This past summer, I was in the studio of Wolf Trap Opera, getting my first taste of opera, when I received an email from the head of the studio at Volksoper Wien. I genuinely thought it was a spam email (why would they know about me?) until I re-read it and it hit me that it was real - they had heard of my name through a wonderful cellist I had worked with previously, seen my videos online, and were inviting me to come audition in Vienna. One thing led to another, and I'm moving there shortly after I perform at Baruch PAC! I'm really excited for my first role there, which is as Mab/Adelaide in The Enchanted Pig by Jonathan Dove, and some others coming up include Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Frasquita in Carmen, among other fun assignments. I expect it will be very busy time and a totally new experience, but I'll still be coming back in between productions to perform recitals and concerts in the States. 

Insider interview with percussionist Michael Yeung

Percussionist Michael Yeung is winner of the prestigious Susan Wadsworth International Auditions by Young Concert Artists. He has toured the world as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestral performer. On January 27 at Baruch Performing Arts Center in Manhattan, Yeung performs a solo recital with an adventurous program featuring arrangements of classics including Debussy's Rêverie and a lute suite by J.S. Bach to Xenakis' 20th-century solo percussion staple Rebonds A and B. We spoke with Yeung about the upcoming recital, the history of the marimba, note perfect performances, and why Georges Aperghis’s Le Corps à Corp is a one-of-a-kind experience for both performer and listener.

How did you choose percussion as your primary instrument?  

“This kid has good rhythm,” – a chance comment my mother overheard from my kindergarten piano teacher. The Hong Kong Percussion Center had just opened in the same year, led by the then recently retired principal percussionist of the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Dr. Lung Heung-wing. That was how things fell into place. Every Saturday evening from the time I was age 6 to 16, I would head to Wan Chai, walk 15 minutes from the subway station, and be in sort of Percussive Disneyland for an hour.  

Against a corner of the room, two rows of djembes lined the bottom of a long shelf, the top of which was crowded with various sound-making knick-knacks: Agogo bells, whirly tubes, caxixis, tuned desk bells, and on and on. In another corner was a phalanx of keyboards: a xylophone, a glockenspiel, a vibraphone, and above all the marimba, which was a Yamaha YM-6100, a glorious five octave instrument with a luxurious sound. I treasured my time there every week. There were no questions asked when, later on, I dropped piano for percussion.  

At what point did you realize that you were interested in music as a career?  

Well, I was always intrigued and interested by the idea (who wouldn’t be if you lived in a Percussive Disneyland every Saturday?), but it was two very difficult pieces that I came across in secondary school that gave me the confidence to keep pursuing music. The first was the xylophone part in James L. Hosay’s Persis Overture, notorious for having the xylophone double the woodwinds in passages with continuous strings of sixteenth notes. So many notes, coming at you so quickly, which you would have to execute without room for error – the xylophone could be heard very prominently over the top of the band. I felt peer-pressured into perfection. The recording of one of our performances is still up on YouTube – to this day more than a decade later, it is still one of the remarkably few “note perfect” performances in my life.   

A few years later, Joseph Schwantner’s Velocities was pretty much the same thing – a continuous string of sixteenth notes – but nine minutes long, four mallets instead of two, and everything dialed up to eleven. I reveled in the challenge and absorbed the piece like a fish in water. Looking back, both these experiences really were as simple as they were formative – proof that I was good at what I do.  

What are the challenges of programming and playing a solo percussion recital?  

A big challenge is that there simply has not been as much music written for us in comparison with say, the piano or the violin. Let’s take marimba music as an example. Some of our oldest pieces came from Japan, commissioned and premiered by the legendary Keiko Abe, over the course of three marimba recitals between 1968-71. That’s just a half century ago. In the States, the National Endowment for the Arts’ solo marimba commission in 1986, merely four decades ago, bore fruit three of the very first and very best pieces for the instrument – one of which was Velocities. And so, nearly all the repertoire for a concert marimbist (besides arrangements) comes from the 21st or the second half of the 20th century – there is no “classical” or “romantic” “tradition” to speak of for the marimba. We face similar challenges to a classical saxophonist. 

1986 was also the year when the modern concert marimba, in its five-octave incarnation, was first built. It was in Japan, by the Yamaha company with guidance from Abe herself. Yamaha, of course, also makes pianos, so imagine if the first grand piano Yamaha made was not in 1902, but three quarters of a century later. In fact, the concept of a “concert marimba” arguably only came up when Guatemalan marimbas attracted the attention of American instrument makers in the Panama International Exposition of 1915 in San Francisco. Another analogy is to imagine Cristofori’s invention of the fortepiano not in 1700, but in 1900; the piano world would be two centuries behind where it is currently. Hopefully this gives an idea of how much the percussion profession is still in its nascency. 

Tell us more about your program at Baruch PAC. How did you select this music, and what connects the pieces?  

I am bringing a healthy mixture of the classical and the contemporary. Again, much of percussion music comes from modern times, and these pieces by Xenakis, Hurel, and Aperghis act as the backbone of my program and an authentic overview to my profession. Interspersed are arrangements of Bach, Debussy, and John Cage, and I use these pieces from the canon of classical music to display the capabilities of keyboard percussion as a fresh, new canvas for these familiar works. 

One idiosyncrasy for percussion programming is that we need to consider not only the music itself, but also the flexibility and ease of the set up for all the equipment that would have to be on stage. Part of what I love about the second half in this program is the simplicity of accomplishing that goal, of connecting each piece with the next with a subtle and elegant walk towards each next instrument, in hopes of never distracting the audience from the music-making experience.   

Your program ends with Georges Aperghis’s Le Corps à Corps, which features vocals. Could you tell us about that piece? What’s it like to perform? What are the lyrics about?  

Le corps is wonderful! I cannot exaggerate how much I swear by this work, it is truly a one-of-a-kind experience both for the performer and the listener. Its text seemingly describes a scene of a horrific accident at a motorcycle race, in a stream-of-consciousness retelling that blurs and disorients the listener’s perception of the tale. To perform Le corps is to be both the story’s narrator and its protagonist, to pour blood, sweat, and tears into a maximally physical effort – it is a virtuosic agility course for my voice, for my body, and of course for my fingers on the zarb, a Persian goblet drum that I had to learn from scratch for this piece, a drum that frames the entire affair. So much drama is drawn from this instrument, and the musical score itself is already an exercise in coordination and concentration. You will see and hear me flitting between playing my zarb, conveying Aperghis’ text, enacting the drama, and diverting the attention of the audience, towards and between these many different moving parts. It is always incredibly rewarding, and incredibly exhausting. I hope people like it. 

Tickets for the January 27 concert are available bpac.baruch.cuny.edu.