Countdown to 100: Five…

In 2029-30, Chamber Music Cincinnati will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Only four other U.S presenters will have reached that milestone. (Kudos to St. Paul’s Schubert Club, the first to do so, in 1983!)

The six 2025-26 concerts comprise the first of five celebratory seasons that will culminate in a landmark.

Chamber Music Cincinnati and Memorial Hall welcome you to them all!

“…The Miro revel in the music’s daring…” – Gramophone

“…their drive to push themselves to new limits remains unwavering.” – The Strad

“Rewarding in every way.” – Washington Post

Daniel Ching, violin

William Fedkenheuer, violin

John Largess, viola

Joshua Gindele, cello

The Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated and dedicated string quartets, having been labeled by The New Yorker as “furiously committed” and noted by the Cleveland Plain Dealer for its “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity.” For thirty years, the Quartet has performed throughout the world on the most prestigious concert stages, earning accolades from critics and audiences alike. Based in Austin and thriving on the area’s storied music scene, the Miró takes pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds while cultivating the longstanding tradition of chamber music.

Formed in 1995, the Miró Quartet was awarded first prize at national and international competitions including the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Naumburg Chamber Music Competition. Since 2003, the Miró has served as the quartet-in-residence at the University of Texas at Austin’s Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music. In 2005, they were the first string quartet ever awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant. Among their many noteworthy recordings is the Emmy Award-winning, audio-video Transcendence that documents the quartet’s recording of Schubert’s Quartet in G major on rare Stradivarius instruments. The Miró records independently and makes its music available globally through Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube. It’s 2024 recording Home was a Grammy Award nominee.

The Miró Quartet took its name and its inspiration from the Spanish artist Joan Miró, whose Surrealist works are some of the most groundbreaking, influential, and admired of the 20th century.

Countdown to 100: Five…

In 2029-30, Chamber Music Cincinnati will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Only four other U.S presenters will have reached that milestone. (Kudos to St. Paul’s Schubert Club, the first to do so, in 1983!)

The six 2025-26 concerts comprise the first of five celebratory seasons that will culminate in a landmark.

Chamber Music Cincinnati and Memorial Hall welcome you to them all!

“Make no mistake, Goosby is a virtuoso.” – Gramophone

“With his secure technique, natural phrasing, gorgeous tone…Randall Goosby has everything…” —NPR

2024 Salon de Virtuosi grant awardee quartet.

Reimagining the role and capacity of the string quartet as a vehicle for change.

Randall Goosby and Jeremiah Blacklow, violins

Jameel Martin, viola

Daniel Hass, cello

The aging violinist Randall Goosby (he turns 29 on July 6) is at this point known to nearly all Americans who love classical music and to legions beyond our borders. He received degrees from Juilliard in 2020 and 2022 under Itzakh Perlman and Catherine Cho, the former in the year that he was signed by Decca Records. Since then, he has performed with major orchestras the world over, including the Cincinnati Symphony, and similarly played chamber concerts with his duo partner, pianist Zhu Wang. He has been acclaimed by no less than Gramophone, the world’s leading classical music publication as “looking back to a golden age of violin greats,” while at the same time being “a forward-looking ambassador for the future.”

What many people don’t know, and Cincinnatians are about to experience, is that the multi-dimensional Goosby has an exceptionally fine string quartet comprised of Juilliard classmates, collectively mentored by Perlman.

· Jeremiah Blacklow began studying the violin when at three. As soloist and chamber musician, he has performed at cultural centers across the globe, including Carnegie Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Neue Galerie.

· Violist Jameel Martin has performed as a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and for audiences in Austria, China, Canada, Germany, Israel, and across the United States.

· Daniel Haas, an Israeli-Canadian cellist made his solo debut with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at 15. He has appeared soloist with orchestras across North America including at Carnegie Hall. As recitalist and chamber musician, Haas has performed in Amsterdam, Lisbon, Tel Aviv, Budapest, Montreal, and in the U.S. and Canada. A composer, his String Quartet No. 1 had its world premiere in February 2023.

Countdown to 100: Five…

In 2029-30, Chamber Music Cincinnati will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Only four other U.S presenters will have reached that milestone. (Kudos to St. Paul’s Schubert Club, the first to do so, in 1983!)

The six 2025-26 concerts comprise the first of five celebratory seasons that will culminate in a landmark.

Chamber Music Cincinnati and Memorial Hall welcome you to them all!

2025 Grammy Award winners

The first time best classical solo vocal album award for music composed entirely by a Black woman.

“Slack and Cann’s chemistry makes for the warmest of introductions to the jeweled beauty of (Florence) Price’s songs.”- Washington Post

”gorgeously mezzo-like…velvety sumptuousness” – BBC Music Magazine

BEST CLASSICAL SOLO VOCAL ALBUM 2025

Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price Karen Slack, soprano and Michelle Cann, pianist 

The duo didn’t just earn a trophy for “Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price.” They created history. It was the first time in that category that music composed solely by a Black woman won.

About Karen Slack. Praised for her “sizeable voice that captured all of the vacillating emotions” (New York Times), American soprano Karen Slack has appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, where she made her debut in the title role of Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, and San Francisco Opera. She had a featured role as the Opera Diva in Tyler Perry’s movie and soundtrack “For Colored Girls.” Ms. Slack appeared during CMC’s 2022-23 season with the Pacifica Quartet.

About Michelle Cann. Called “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, the world’s most important classical music magazine, Ms. Cann has performed as a soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo. Her 2024-25 engagements included the San Francisco Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. In addition to Beyond the Years with Ms. Slack, Cann’s recording of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with the New York Youth Symphony won a GRAMMY Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. She performed with Chamber Music Cincinnati during both the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons.

Countdown to 100: Five…

In 2029-30, Chamber Music Cincinnati will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Only four other U.S presenters will have reached that milestone. (Kudos to St. Paul’s Schubert Club, the first to do so, in 1983!)

The six 2025-26 concerts comprise the first of five celebratory seasons that will culminate in a landmark.

Chamber Music Cincinnati and Memorial Hall welcome you to them all!

Four-time Gramophone Award Winner including Recording of the Year

“…a show-stopper: gleaming, vocal-like rhetorical freedom combining to dazzling effect.” – Gramophone

“Quatuor Ébène cements its place among elite string quartets.” – Washington Post

“…as satisfying as one could wish for.” – Washington Post

One of the “Ten Greatest String Quartet Ensembles of All Time” – BBC Music Magazine

Pierre Colombet, violin, Gabriel Le Magadure, violin Marie Chilemme, viola, Yuya Okamoto, violoncello

Each season, Chamber Music Cincinnati presents one of the five ensembles remaining active from the BBC-named “Ten Greatest String Quartet Ensembles of All Time.” This season, it is the surprising Cincinnati debut of the Quatour Ébène (surprising only because at 25 they have not been here before). Better late than never, we are confident.

A concert by the Quatuor Ébène is a musical and sensual happening. In the past two decades the quartet has set standards by making familiar repertoire accessible in new ways and by constantly seeking exchange with the audience. Last spring cellist Yuya Okamoto joined the Quartet, adding a new dimension.

Quatour Ébène was founded at France’s Boulogne-Billancourt Conservatory in 1999. After studies with the Quatuor Ysaÿe, Gábor Takács, Eberhard Feltz and György Kurtág, the Ébène’s unprecedented success at the 2004 ARD Music Competition marked the start of their rise to fame. Numerous prizes and awards followed, including the Belmont Prize of the Forberg-Schneider Foundation (2005), the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (2007), and in 2019 the first ensemble ever honored with the Frankfurt Music Prize.

In addition to the traditional repertoire, the quartet explores other music genres. (“A string quartet that can easily morph into a jazz band” – New York Times, 2009). What began in 1999 as a distraction in the conservatory’s practice rooms, improvising on jazz standards & pop songs, has become a trademark. To date, the quartet has released four albums in other genres: Fiction (2010), Brazil (2014), Eternal Stories (2017) and “Waves” (2024), a new project with the electronic sound artist Xavier Tribolet. The free approach to various styles creates a tension that is beneficial to every aspect of their work.

Quatuor Ébène’s recordings of Bartók, Beethoven, Debussy, Haydn, Fauré and the Mendelssohn siblings, have received numerous awards, including Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and the Midem Classic Awards. Together with Antoine Tamestit, they recorded Mozart’s Quintets K. 515 and K. 516, released in spring of 2023 to accolades such as Choc Classica, Diapason d’Or, Gramophone Recording of the Month.

Foremost among their recordings are Beethoven’s 16 string quartets, recorded on six continents between May 2019 and January 2020. Followed their 20th stage anniversary, crowned this achievement by performing the complete Beethoven cycle in venues such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Switzerland’s Verbier Festival, and Carnegie Hall.

In January 2021, the quartet was appointed by the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich to establish a string quartet class as part of the newly founded Quatuor Ébène Academy. More recently, the quartet has joined the Belcea Quartet to perform the Mendelssohn and Enescu octets. For the 23/24 season the Philharmonie Luxembourg has chosen the Quatuor Ébène as resident ensemble. Further recent highlights have been presenting John Adam’s Absolute Jest with the Luxembourg Philharmonic and concerts at the Salzburg Festival, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Athens’ Megaron, London’s Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Instruments & bows

Pierre Colombet plays a 1717 Antonio Stradivari “Piatti” violin, kindly loaned by a generous sponsor through the Beare’s International Violin Society, as well as a 1736 Matteo Goffriller violin generously loaned by Gabriele Forberg-Schneider, who also lent a bow by Charles Tourte (Paris, 19th century).

Gabriel Le Magadure also plays two violins: the “ex-Baron Rothschild” by Peter Guarneri of Venice kindly loaned by the Miller-Porter Collection through the Beare’s International Violin Society, and one .c1740 with a Guarneri label loaned by Gabriele Forberg-Schneider. He plays a bow by Dominique Pecatte (ca.1845) also loaned by Gabriele Forberg-Schneider.

Marie Chilemme plays two violas: the 1734 “Gibson” Stradivari, generously loaned by the Stradivari Foundation Habisreutinger, and one by Marcellus Hollmayr, Füssen (1625) loaned by Gabriele Forberg-Schneider.

Yuya Okamoto plays violoncello by Giovanni Grancino (Milan 1682).

Countdown to 100: Five…

In 2029-30, Chamber Music Cincinnati will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Only four other U.S presenters will have reached that milestone. (Kudos to St. Paul’s Schubert Club, the first to do so, in 1983!)

The six 2025-26 concerts comprise the first of five celebratory seasons that will culminate in a landmark.

Chamber Music Cincinnati and Memorial Hall welcome you to them all!

“Never to pass up an opportunity to hear the Brentano Quartet.” – The Strad

“…a masterclass in eloquence.” – The Guardian

“There’s little else to say except…tremendous praise…pristine intonation……just the right amount of intensity…absolutely beautiful. – The Strad

“…breathtaking and perfectly proportioned: ‘exquisite’ fails to do justice.” – The Strad

“…a rich depth of beauty that comes from only the greatest of artists.” – The Strad

“…tight interplay and rich hues are among this ensemble’s trademarks.” – New York Times

“…wonderful, selfless music-making.” – The Times (London)

Mark Steinberg, violin
Serena Canin, violin
Misha Amory, viola
Nina Lee, cello

Twenty years may be the first truly significant longevity milestone for an international string quartet. Formed in 1992, the Brentano Quartet has performed for thirty-three. They won Naumburg Chamber Music Award and first-ever Cleveland Quartet Award (1995), the Royal Philharmonic Award for Most Outstanding Debut at London’s chamber music temple, Wigmore Hall (1997), and were inaugural members of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s CMS Two (1996).

Their launch was followed by international touring at the most prestigious classical music venues on five continents, including New York’s Carnegie Hall, Washington’s Library of Congress, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw; Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, and the Sydney Opera House. Praise has been bestowed by The New York Times (“luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism”) and the Times (London) (“wonderful, selfless music-making.”)

Their recordings of great works by Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and others include Beethoven’s Quartet, Op. 131, featured in the film “A Late Quartet,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken. In spring 2025, they will perform Haydn’s complete Op. 33 quartets at New York’s Carnegie Hall and in several other U.S. cities.

Countdown to 100: Five…

In 2029-30, Chamber Music Cincinnati will celebrate its 100th Anniversary. Only four other U.S presenters will have reached that milestone. (Kudos to St. Paul’s Schubert Club, the first to do so, in 1983!)

The six 2025-26 concerts comprise the first of five celebratory seasons that will culminate in a landmark.

Chamber Music Cincinnati and Memorial Hall welcome you to them all!

“…riveting and intelligently conceived.” – New York Times

“…made you want to rush home and discover more.” – New York Times

“A sparkling concert of music for mixed ensembles.” – The New York Times

Israeli Chamber Project. Based both in Israel and in New York, the ensemble was created as a means for its members to give something back to the community where they began their musical education and to showcase Israeli culture, through its music and musicians to concert goers overseas. Now in its second decade, the Israeli Chamber Project is a dynamic ensemble comprising strings, winds, harp, and piano, that brings together some of today’s most distinguished musicians for chamber music concerts and educational and outreach programs both in Israel and abroad.

The Israeli Chamber Project has appeared at venues including London’s Wigmore Hall, the Kennedy Center, Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall, and Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, as well as Carnegie Hall, the Morgan Library & Museum, Town Hall and Merkin Concert Hall in New York City. Guest artists on their tours have included Tabea Zimmermann, the Guarneri String Quartet’s Michael Tree and Peter Wiley, as well as international soloists Liza Ferschtman and Antje Weithaas.

Ms. Weithass performs with the ICP on this tour, was first violin in the legendary Arcanto Quartet with Ms. Zimmerman, Daniel Sepec, and Jean-Guihen Queyras. They performed on CMC’s series in 2016. No one present has ever forgotten her performance. In 2024, Gramophone named her recording of Beethoven piano sonatas with pianist Dénes Várjon one of the “50 Greatest Beethoven Recordings.” Weithaas studied at Berlin’s Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler,” where she now teaches. An International Joseph Joachim Violin Competition winner, she became its artistic director in 2019.

Repertoire

Bernard Herrmann: Souvenir de Voyage for clarinet and string quartet

Erwin Schulhoff: Sonata for Flute and Piano [short, quite jazzy and engaging] Intermission

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 Eroica (arranged for flute, clarinet, piano and string quartet by Yuval Shapiro)