Quick Summary

·   We welcome to Cincinnati for the second time one of the world’s great cellists.
·   A two-time Gramophone Award winner, Jean-Guihen Queyras returns with pianist Alexander Melnikov.
·   Jean-Guihen was first here as a member of the Arcanto Quartet which gave one of the most stunning performances any of us had ever heard. Now disbanded, we are bringing its members back individually.
·   (Arcanto first violinist Antje Weithaas will be here with the Israeli Chamber Project on March 24, 2026.
·   We encourage you to listen to Jean-Guihen’s 2023-24 recording of the Bach Cello Suites. Gramophone describes it as “a master at his craft.”
·   Rather than cancel his 2025 U.S. tour, as many European artists did, Jean-Guihen donated his 2025 U.S. tour profits to the Ukraine charity United 24 Foundation.
·   Repertoire: TBA
·   Bottom Line: Riveting artist reaches you with works beyond the standard chamber chestnuts.

Deeper Dive

Jean-Guihen Queyras learned his interpretative approach from Pierre Boulez, with whom his artistic partnership spanned many years. This philosophy, alongside a flawless technique and a clear, decisive sound, shapes Jean-Guihen Queyras’ approach to every performance and his absolute commitment to the music.

Jean-Guihen has performed with orchestras the world over and served as artist-in-residence at with Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Recent tours included the Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, London Symphony, Orchestra de Paris. His 2025 tour with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Yannick Nézet-Seguin included a December concert at Carnegie Hall. His recording of Schumann’s piano quartet and quintet won a 2024 Gramophone Award. Of the release the same year of Queyras second Bach Cello Suites recording, Gramophone extols, “There is the most satisfying sense that Queyras knows the place and function of every single note in each musical sentence but isn’t precious about it.”

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.
• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.

Quick Summary
• The Danish String Quartet, now in its 23rd year, is without a doubt the most in-demand European chamber ensemble in America.
• A twp-time Gramophone Award winner and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year.”
• While most European ensembles do one U.S. tour each season, the Danes have been doing as many as four.
• In spring 2024, they drew Cincinnati’s third largest audience for chamber music since the COVID shutdown.
• Now, DSQ members have young children and will only make one trip to the U.S. next season. We are fortunate to have them. Cincinnati will likely be the smallest city on their 2026-27 tour.
• Repertoire TBA. The New York Times calls them “an exceptional quartet, whatever repertory they play.”
• Bottom Line: Hear why three times as many U.S. presenter want them as their tour can accommodate.

Deeper Dive

The Danish String Quartet, now in its 23^rd year, is unquestionably the most in-demand European chamber ensemble in America. While most do one U.S. tour each season, and some only every other year, the Danes have been doing as many as four. In spring 2024, they drew Cincinnati’s third largest audience for chamber music since the COVID shutdown. Only by luck did we learn from their agent at the Chamber Music America conference in January 205 that due to its members having young children, they would only do one U.S. tour next season. (In a tech-driven world, personal relationships still have value.) We booked them on the spot.  Cincinnati will almost certainly be the smallest city in which they appear. If you want to know why the DSQ is in such demand, ask anyone who has heard them live.

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.

• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.

Quick Summary
• We could not be more excited about the return of the ISQ given their stunning performance with pianist Jeremy Denk here last March. The Strad: “Excitement fills the air around the Isidore.”
• We seldom bring back so young an ensemble so soon.
• Joining the ISQ is one of the world’s most exceptional young cellists in his Chamber Music Cincinnati debut.
• After winning the 2022 Banff Competition, it was as if the Isidore was shot out of a cannon. In each of the past three seasons, they’ve played up to 100 concerts.
• With cellist Sterling Elliot they will play what many regard as the single greatest chamber work, Schubert’s String Quintet, written in 1828, just months before his death.
• Their quartet’s first recording, Adorations, name for a Florence Price works, will be out in April. We can’t wait.
• Repertoire: TBA
• Bottom line: Experience deeply emotional connections to the past, present, and future.

Deeper Dive

If there were an award for the decade’s fastest rise by a young U.S. ensemble, the ISQ would surely win. Formed at Juilliard in 2019 and named for the Julliard Quartet’s Isidore Cohen, they reconvened after the Covid shutdown under the JSQ’s legendary cellist, Joel Krosnick, with coaching by it’s late violist, Roger Tapping, its current cellist, Astrid Schween, and by Joseph Kalichstein, Misha Amory, Donald Weilerstein, and Miriam Fried.

On winning the 2022 Banff Competition, it was as if they had been shot out of a cannon. Their 2023 Chamber Music America showcase performance was attended by many of the nation’s leading chamber music presenters, including CMC. The same year, they were awarded the coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant and have never looked back. During each of the three ensuing seasons, they have played as many as 100 concerts, including last month with clarinetist and former CSO Associate Principal Anthony McGill in Indianapolis.

Sterling Elliot received both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Juilliard, where he studied with Juilliard String Quartet cellist Joel Krosnick and with Clara Kim. Still in his mid-twenties, Elliott has appeared with orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony and the Dallas Symphony, among many.

CMC Subscriptions: Chamber Music’s Greatest Value

• Our “Early Bird” subscriptions for these six concerts are on sale today on our web site and through the Memorial Hall box office. Only you who are receiving this email know about it, giving you first choice of open seats.
• All available seats will be opened to the general public for subscription purchases on Tuesday, February 24.
• Currents subscribers’ seats will be held until June 1, then released to the general public. The six concert price ― $120 in the Orchestra or Balcony ― is one of the nation’s great chamber music bargains. It’s up to 50% off the single ticket price helping to make our concerts more affordable to everyone.

Please remember this affordability pricing in your giving. Only if you do can we maintain pricing at this level.

We hope you are as excited about next season as we are. This may well be our strongest season ever, so we expect subscriptions to sell fast. Single tickets for remaining seats will go on sale June 1.