JULY 21, 2026, BRENTANO QUARTET
With a career spanning over three decades, the BRENTANO QUARTET has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism; and the Times (London) hails their “wonderful, selfless music-making.” Known for its unique sensibility, probing interpretive style, and original programming, the Quartet has performed across five continents in the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals, thus establishing itself as one of the world’s preeminent ensembles.
Dedicated and highly sought after as educators, the Quartet has served as Artists-in-Residence at the Yale School of Music for the past decade. They also lead the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and appear regularly at the Taos School of Music. Previously, the Quartet served for fifteen years as Ensemble-in-Residence at Princeton University.
In the 2024-25 concert season, the Quartet will premiere a program called “Evocations of Home,” featuring a new work by Lei Liang in honor of the late composer Chou Wen-chung. 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. Other recent projects include “Dido Reimagined,” a monodrama for quartet and voice with soprano Dawn Upshaw, composed by Pulitzer-winning composer Melinda Wagner and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, as well as a viola quintet, “Heart Speaks to Heart,” by composer James MacMillan.
Formed in 1992, The Brentano Quartet has received numerous accolades, including, in 1995, the prestigious Naumburg and Cleveland Quartet Awards. They have been privileged to collaborate with such artists as soprano Jessye Norman and mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, as well as pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Jonathan Biss. The Quartet has commissioned works from some of the most important composers of our time, including Bruce Adolphe, Matthew Aucoin, Gabriela Frank, Stephen Hartke, Vijay Iyer, Steven Mackey, and Charles Wuorinen.
The Quartet’s notable recordings include Beethoven’s Quartet, Op. 131 (Aeon) which was featured in the 2012 film “A Late Quartet,” starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Christopher Walken, and a 2017 live album with Joyce DiDonato, “Into the Fire—Live from Wigmore Hall” (Warner.) Their most recent release features the K. 428 and K. 465 (“Dissonance”) Quartets of Mozart for the Azica label.
The Quartet is named for Antonie Brentano, whom many scholars consider to be Beethoven’s “Immortal Beloved,” the intended recipient of his famous love confession.
JULY 28, 2026, TODD AND FRIENDS
Festival Music Director Todd Crow, piano, will host acclaimed musicians Stephanie Chase, violin, Dov Scheindlin, viola, Mark Shuman, cello, and Nina Bernat, double bass.
Pianist TODD CROW has been widely acclaimed for performances in North and South America and Europe. The New York Times has described his playing as “heroic, [showing] endless flair, color and stamina.” The Times of London has called his playing “spine-chilling” and “exhilarating,” and The Wall Street Journal raved that his playing exhibited “stunning control and a wonderful sense of musical architecture.” In recent years he has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, England, Italy, Israel, the Czech Republic, and elsewhere, and in recital or chamber music at the Berlioz/Dutilleux Festival in Manchester, England, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, London’s Wigmore Hall, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. He has performed frequently with such groups as the Brentano, Borromeo, Composers, Concord, Shanghai, Miami, Daedalus, Jupiter, Miró, Parker, Dover, Pacifica, and Escher String Quartets, the New York Philharmonic Ensembles, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, a
nd with many eminent soloists including famed jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the American Symphony in 1992 and his London orchestral debut at the Barbican Centre with the London Philharmonic in 1986. He has been heard on BBC Radio for many years in both live and recorded performances, and on National Public Radio in the USA, as well as many other American radio stations.
Since 1996, he has been music director and pianist of the Mt. Desert Festival of Chamber Music in Northeast Harbor, Maine, now looking forward to its 63rd season. In addition to frequent appearances at the Bard Music Festival, he has been heard at the Casals Festival, Music Mountain, Maverick Concerts, and other festivals. His CDs include sonatas of Haydn and Schubert, Liszt’s transcription for piano solo of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, works of Sergei Taneyev and Dohnányi, the complete works for cello and piano by Mendelssohn (with cellist Mark Shuman), Ernst Toch’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the NDR-Hamburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leon Botstein, and “Todd Crow: The BBC Recordings,” Volume 1 (music of Mendelssohn, Mendelssohn/Liszt, Moscheles, and Schumann) and Volume 2 (piano variations of Brahms and Dvorak), both originally recorded for BBC Radio. Released in 2016, a CD entitled “Of Love of You–A Tribute to Emery W. Harper” features world premiere recordings of new American works for piano, soprano, and bass-baritone by Bolcom, Liebermann, Rands, Stucky, Del Tredici, Wyner, and others. And in March 2018, his CD “Frédéric Chopin: The Late Mazurkas” (MSR Classics MS1629) was released, a recording of twenty-one mazurkas from the composer’s later years. Todd Crow can also be heard on the Albany, ASV, Bridge, First Impression, Golden String, New World, and Toccata Classics labels.
STEPHANIE CHASE, violin, is internationally recognized as “one of the violin greats of our era” (Newhouse Newspapers) through solo appearances with over 170 orchestras that include the New York and Hong Kong Philharmonics and the Chicago, San Francisco, Atlanta and London Symphony Orchestras. Born in Illinois, Stephanie Chase’s early violin teachers were her mother and Sally Thomas, and she was renowned as a child prodigy through concert performances starting at age two. She made her debut with the Chicago Symphony at eight and began extensive national concert touring while in her early teens. Ms. Chase often performs in the dual roles of violin soloist and conductor, and she is a favorite guest of chamber music festivals such as Bravo! Vail, Bargemusic, and Caramoor. Her violin was made in 1742 by Petrus Guarnerius of Venice, which she pairs with a bow made by Dominique Peccatte.
DOV SCHEINDLIN, viola, is a member and Artistic Director of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and an Associate member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has been violist of the Arditti, Penderecki and Chester String Quartets. He has performed in 28 countries around the globe, and won the Siemens Prize in 1999. He has appeared as soloist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and has recorded extensively for EMI, Teldec, and others. He won the Gramophone Award in 2002 for the Arditti Quartet’s recording of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Pulse Shadows. He has premiered chamber music by Britten, Carter, Kurtág, Adès and others. He has performed at festivals such as Salzburg, Luzern, and Tanglewood with members of the Juilliard, Alban Berg, Tokyo, and Borodin String Quartets. Dov Scheindlin lives in New York and plays a viola by Francesco Bissolotti of Cremona, made in 1975.
MARK SHUMAN, cello, has performed as a chamber musician and soloist in concert halls throughout the world. For many years a member of the Composers String Quartet, he is also a founder of the period instrument group The Aulos Ensemble. He has worked with a broad spectrum of artists ranging from Elliott Carter and Raymond Lepard to Streisand and Lenny Kravitz. In his efforts to expand the cello repertoire, Mr. Shuman has sought out contemporary and previously neglected works and has recorded the cello music of the Spanish composer and virtuoso Gaspar Casado. A native New Yorker, Mr. Shuman is a graduate of The Juilliard School. He studied cello with Leonard Rose and Harvey Shapiro, and chamber music with Artur Balsam, Emanuel Bay, Joseph Fuchs, Felix Galimir and Sascha Jacobsen. He is currently a member of the New York City Opera Orchestra and on the faculty of Columbia University.
American double bassist NINA BERNAT, acclaimed for her interpretive maturity, expressive depth and technical clarity, has carved out a distinctive career as a soloist, redefining the role of her instrument on the world stage. She was hailed by the Star Tribune as a “standout” for her recent concerto debut with the Minnesota Orchestra, praising her performance as “exhilarating, lovely and lyrical… technically precise and impressively emotive.” In 2023, Nina was awarded both the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant and first prize at the Concert Artists Guild Elmaleh Competition. Her recent accolades also include top prizes at the Barbash J.S. Bach String Competition, Minnesota Orchestra Young Artist Competition, Juilliard Double Bass Competition, and the International Society of Bassists Solo Competition. She has given New York recital debuts at Weill Recital Hall and Merkin Hall, and has appeared as soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra and Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra.
AUGUST 4, 2026, PARKER QUARTET
The PARKER QUARTET was founded on the strength of friendship and a shared dedication to the art of chamber music. Although we officially came together as undergraduates at the New England Conservatory in 2002, the ensemble’s roots were planted earlier—at summer festivals where we played together in various configurations. These festivals, with their immersive, focused environments, became formative spaces: places where time seemed to pause, and where the combination of music, camaraderie, and rigorous exploration brought us together. That spirit of connection and curiosity remains a guiding force in our work today.
Our time as students was r
ich with discovery, shaped by exceptional mentorship. Whether at NEC, in international summer programs, or during our training with ProQuartet in France, we were fortunate to learn from artists who exemplified both musical excellence and a profound commitment to the string quartet tradition. Influences from members of the Cleveland, Takács, Juilliard, Tokyo, Hagen, Alban Berg, and Artemis Quartets—as well as from renowned pedagogues like Kim Kashkashian and Lucy Chapman—have left a lasting imprint on our playing and teaching. Their example informs our work with the next generation of musicians in our roles at Harvard University, the University of South Carolina, the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and beyond.
In the early years of our career, following our win at the Bordeaux International String Quartet Competition, we embarked on extensive international touring. Performances throughout Europe, and later in Asia and South America, exposed us to a wide range of musical traditions, acoustic environments, and cultural perspectives. These experiences deeply shaped our interpretive approach, refining not only our sound but also our awareness of spatial and interpersonal dynamics in performance.
Our commitment to adventurous repertoire led us to record the complete string quartets of György Ligeti in 2009—a project that challenged us artistically and expanded our ensemble’s expressive range. Though we undertook the recording with no expectation of recognition, the album ultimately received the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance, affirming our belief in the value of risk-taking and deep artistic inquiry.
Now in our third decade as a quartet, we continue to develop programs and collaborations that are intellectually engaging, emotionally resonant, and artistically vital. Alongside the milestones of our personal lives—marriages, children, and continued individual growth—the quartet has remained our artistic home: a space of ongoing dialogue, refinement, and renewal.
To us, a musical home is defined by trust, shaped by legacy, and sustained by a shared commitment to discovery. That ethos continues to inspire our work, both onstage and off.
AUGUST 11, 2026, ESCHER STRING QUARTET
The ESCHER STRING QUARTET has received acclaim for its profound musical insight and rare tonal beauty. A former BBC New Generation Artist and recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, the quartet has performed at the BBC Proms at Cadogan Hall and is a regular guest at Wigmore Hall. In its home town of New York, the ensemble serves as season artists of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Highlights of the 2025-2026 season find the Escher Quartet performing in many of the great venues and organizations in the United States, including Alice Tully Hall, The Morgan Library, Ensemble Music Society Indianapolis, Buffalo Chamber Music Society, Arte Musica Montreal, Clark Library Los Angeles, and the Savannah Music Festival, among others. In addition to their North American engagements, the quartet returns once again to Wigmore Hall for a BBC live broadcast recital as well as other engagements in Germany and continental Europe.
The Escher Quartet has made a distinctive impression throughout Europe, with recent debuts including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, London’s Kings Place, Slovenian Philharmonic Hall, Les Grands Interprètes Geneva, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Auditorium du Louvre. The group has appeared at festivals such as the Heidelberg Spring Festival, Budapest’s Franz Liszt Academy, Dublin’s Great Music in Irish Houses, the Risør Chamber Music Festival in Norway, the Hong Kong International Chamber Music Festival, and the Perth International Arts Festival inAustralia. Alongside its growing European profile, the Escher Quartet continues to flourish in its home country, performing at the Aspen Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Bowdoin Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, OKM Festival, Chamber Music San Francisco, Music@Menlo, and the Ravinia and Caramoor festivals.
AUGUST 18, 2026, ARIEL QUARTET, with MORAN KATZ, clarinet
Recent highlights include the Ariel Quartet’s sold-out Carnegie Hall debut, a series of performances at Lincoln Center together with pianist Inon Barnatan and the Mark Morris Dance Group, as well as the release of a Brahms and Bartók album for Avie Records. In 2020, the Ariel gave the U.S. premiere of the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Daniil Trifonov, with the composer as pianist for the Linton Chamber Music Series in Cincinnati.
The Quartet has dedicated much of its artistic energy and musical prowess to the groundbreaking Beethoven quartets and has performed the complete Beethoven cycle on six occasions throughout the United States and Europe. The Ariel Quartet regularly collaborates with today’s eminent and rising young musicians and ensembles, including pianist Orion Weiss, cellist Paul Katz, and the American, Pacifica, and Jerusalem String Quartets. The Quartet has toured with cellist Alisa Weilerstein and performed frequently with pianists Jeremy Denk and Menahem Pressler. In addition, the Ariel served as Quartet-in-Residence for the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival, the Yellow Barn Music Festival, and the Perlman Music Program, as well as the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at the Caramoor Festival.
Formerly the resident ensemble of the Professional String Quartet Training Program at the New England Conservatory, from which the players obtained their undergraduate and graduate degrees, the Ariel was mentored extensively by acclaimed string quartet giants Walter Levin and Paul Katz. It has won numerous international prizes in addition to the Cleveland Quartet Award: First Prize at the prestigious Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Graz/Austria, Grand Prize at the 2006 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and the Székely Prize for the performance of Bartók’s String Quartet No. 4, and Third Prize at the Banff International String Quartet Competition. About its performances at the Banff competition, the American Record Guide described the group as “a consummate ensemble gifted with utter musicality and remarkable interpretive power” and noted, in particular, their playing of Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in A minor, Op. 132, as “the pinnacle of the competition.”
The Ariel Quartet has received significant support from the American-Israel Cultural Foundation, Dov and Rachel Gottesman, and the Legacy Heritage Fund. Most recently, they were awarded a grant from the A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Family Foundation.
MORAN KATZ, clarinet, was the first prize winner of the 2013 Ima Hogg Competition sponsored by the Houston Symphony. She has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, China Philharmonic, SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg, and Collegium Musicum Basel, and has performed at the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series in Chicago, and the Chamber Music Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. Holding multiple degrees from the Juilliard School, she is clarinetist for the internationally acclaimed new music ensemble “Continuum”, a member of Carnegie Hall’s Affiliate Ensemble “Decoda” and a co-founder of the innovative “Ensemble Mélange” (previously known as “SHUFFLE Concert”).