Concerts
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Monday, February 3, 2025
12 PM
Dmitry Kirichenko began his musical education under a Soviet system that selected only the best, most talented students for artistic study. At the age of 7, he was accepted into the Stolyarsky School of Music. Upon graduation he was accepted to the Moscow Conservatory for college level studies under Professor Zemliansky. One of the leading educational institutions in the world, the Moscow Conservatory is reserved for the most talented music students.
Monday, February 10, 2025
12 PM
Adam Wolff has been playing the piano for most of his life. Starting at the age of 8, he spent ten years studying classical piano performance, music theory, and creative music expression. Raised in New York and Chicago, he returned to New York City in the 80s and spent many years playing music full-time in Manhattan. While living in New York, Wolff studied with several great pianists: Barry Harris (Keeper of the Bebop Flame), Mike Longo (Musical Director for Dizzy Gillespie), and Kenny Werner (Author of Effortless Mastery and a global music legend).
Monday, February 10, 2025
7:30 PM
On Monday, February 10, the Grammy-nominated ensemble AGAVE returns to the Athenaeum with Reginald Mobley, a countertenor noted for his “shimmering voice” (BachTrack) and renowned for his interpretation of baroque, classical, and modern repertoire. AGAVE will present American Originals, a program based on their album of the same name that features music by brilliant yet underrepresented composers and explores how the blending of European, African, and indigenous styles created uniquely American sounds. The ensemble will include Mobley, Co-Director Aaron Westman on violin and viola, Anna Washburn on violin and viola, Kevin Cooper on guitar and theorbo, Katherine Kyme on violin and viola, William Skeen on viola da gamba and violoncello, and Co-Director Henry Lebedinsky on harpsichord and piano.
Monday, February 17, 2025
12 PM
Fred Benedetti was born in Sasebo, Japan, and began playing the guitar at the age of 9. In 1986 he was one of the 12 guitarists chosen worldwide to perform in the Master Class of Andres Segovia at USC. Erica Erenyi completed a Master’s degree and Performance Residency Program in cello performance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a student of Anne Martindale Williams. She received her Bachelor of Music from Biola University in La Mirada, California, as a student of Marlin Owen. More recently, she undertook a course of intensive study with Peter Thiemann in Barcelona, Spain. Erica has performed with International Opera Theater in Italy, Academia Internacional de Música de Solsona, Spain, and the Henry Mancini Institute in Los Angeles. She is active as a freelance musician in San Diego, playing in a variety of genres including theatre productions (with The Old Globe, La Jolla Playhouse, and Broadway San Diego), California Chamber Orchestra, recording projects, and with jazz pianist Danny Green.
Monday, February 24, 2025
12 PM
Check back soon for more info!
Monday, March 3, 2025
12 PM
Classical guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan has premiered over 110 compositions, directs the New Lullaby Project and Spanish classical music & flamenco dance ensemble ¡Con Fuego! His groundbreaking arrangements and recording of the music of John Cage are the first to be sanctioned by the estate and issued by Edition Peters and the UK label Stone Records. He has eight acclaimed solo albums and multiple publications with the American Composers Alliance. He has awards from the Société Académique Arts-Sciences-Lettres of Paris, France for his trailblazing work in music, and was Musician in Residence at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity in Canada. His first album of compositions ‘honey cadence’ was released in April 2022.
Friday, March 7, 2025
7:30 PM
The series continues Friday, March 7, with a San Diego debut by Allison, Cardenas & Nash, a collective trio of top New York City–based artists bassist Ben Allison, guitarist Steve Cardenas, and saxophonist Ted Nash. The trio weave musical conversations that are full of subtlety and surprise. They have released four albums including their latest, Tell the Birds I Said Hello: The Music of Herbie Nichols, which features previously unknown music by Nichols, an underpraised pianist-composer often compared to Thelonious Monk.
Monday, March 10, 2025
12 PM
Colin McAllister is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, where he is a 2021–2022 Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Fellow. His performances as a guitarist and conductor have been hailed as “sparkling…delivered superbly” (San Francisco Chronicle), “ravishing” (San Diego Union-Tribune) and “an amazing tour de force” (San Diego Story), and he has recorded on the Summit, Innova, Centaur, Naxos, Albany, Old King Cole, Vienna Modern Masters, Carrier and Tzadik labels. His research interests include contemporary music performance and pedagogy, musical modernism, and the apocalyptic paradigm as manifested in varying phenomena—literature, music, and art. Wayne Wilkinson is a headliner guitarist that performs and tours across the country and internationally. Throughout his over four decade career, Wayne has shared the stage with iconic jazz musicians, world class performers and a President of the United States.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
7:30 PM
Next up, on Wednesday, March 12, is a return visit by the remarkable Sullivan Fortner Trio, featuring Fortner on piano, Tyrone Allen on bass, and Kayvon Gordon on drums. New Orleans–native Sullivan Fortner has gained wide recognition as one of the most accomplished jazz musicians of his generation. His accolades include the 2015 Cole Porter Fellowship, the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, the 2016 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists and, in 2020, the Shifting Foundation Grant for artistic career development. A Grammy Award–winner, he has earned recognition in multiple DownBeat Critics Polls, winning first place as both Rising Star Pianist and Rising Star Jazz Artist. His broad range of musical associations includes artists such as Roy Hargrove, Stefon Harris, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Ambrose Akinmusire, and Wynton Marsalis.
Monday, March 17, 2025
12 PM
The mini-concert is TBA. Check back soon!
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
7:30 PM
The series concludes on Wednesday, March 19, with the local debut of the Avishai Cohen Quartet, featuring Cohen on trumpet, Yonathan Avishai on piano, Barak Mori on bass, and Ziv Ravitz on drums. Cohen is globally recognized as a player-composer open to multiple strains of jazz and active as a leader, co-leader, and sideman. Aside from the acclaimed work with his quartet, he has also recorded and toured as part of the Mark Turner Quartet, the SFJAZZ Collective, and the 3 Cohens Sextet—with his sister, clarinetist-saxophonist Anat, and brother, saxophonist Yuval.
Monday, March 24, 2025
12 PM
Mike Wofford has recorded and performed with a long list of major artists, including Sonny Stitt, Stan Getz, Joe Pass, Quincy Jones, Benny Carter, Ray Brown, Lee Konitz, Chet Baker, Art Pepper, Joe Henderson, Benny Golson, and James Moody. He was also conductor and pianist for both Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. With this extraordinary career, it is no wonder that DownBeat recognized him as “one of the outstanding pianists of our time.” Joshua White is one of the music scene’s most creative and technically accomplished pianists. Praised by legendary musicians like Herbie Hancock as having “immense talent” and lauded for his “daring and courageous approach to improvisation … on the cutting edge of innovation,” Joshua has distinguished himself as a formidable leader of distinct voice among his peers.
Monday, March 31, 2025
12 PM
Violinst Kenneth Liao will perform with his San Diego Symphony violin colleague Igor Pandurski, who will join him on piano. Violinist Kenneth Liao joined the San Diego Symphony in 2019 after spending two seasons as a Fellow with the New World Symphony. Born in Maryland, Mr. Liao received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Southern California, where he studied with Midori Goto, and subsequently completed a Master of Music degree at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of David Chan.
Monday, April 7, 2025
12 PM
The mini-concert is TBA. Check back soon!
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
7:30 PM
The series continues Tuesday, April 8, with the Great Wall String Quartet performing a program of Mendelssohn, Schulhoff, and Beethoven. Its members share a vision to connect with more immediacy to audiences and to give guidance to the next generation of chamber musicians. In his role at the Deutsches Symphony Orchester Berlin, violinist Wei Lu is one of the youngest concertmasters in a major orchestra. Violinist Qi Zhou is a member of the prestigious chamber orchestra Philharmonisches Kammerorchester Muenchen. Xu Wenbo is the current viola and chamber music instructor at the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra Academy in Hamburg. Hailed in New York Concert Review as “a superb cellist with intense and sensuous sound,” Yao Zhao performs with a dynamism that has secured him a successful career as the principal cello of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra.
Monday, April 14, 2025
12 PM
Seaside Quartetis a virtuoso ensemble comprised of pianist Brenda Martin, violinist Philip Tyler, violinist/violist Päivikki Nykter and cellist Cecilia Kim. They are friends on and off stage, which is apparent in their seamless and graceful ensemble playing. Their deep love and desire to play chamber music was the main reason to form this quartet and take time from their busy schedules to make beautiful music together. Their collaboration and exquisite musical taste has produced highly acclaimed performances in San Diego area. Brenda and Phil serve as professors at the Point Loma University Music Department and Päivikki and Cecilia and freelance musicians.
Monday, April 21, 2025
12 PM
The mini-concert is TBA. Check back soon!
Monday, April 28, 2025
12 PM
Yale Strom is a pioneer among revivalists in conducting extensive field research in Central and Eastern Europe and the Balkans among the Jewish and Roma communities. Initially, his work focused primarily on the use and performance of klezmer music among these two groups. Gradually, his focus increased to examining all aspects of their culture, from post-World War II to the present. From more than 3 decades and 75 such research expeditions, Strom has become the world’s leading ethnographer-artist of klezmer music and history.
Monday, May 5, 2025
12 PM
Sheer passion for chamber music drives Aviara Trio. Comprised of pianist Ines Irawati, violinist Robert Schumitzky, and cellist Erin Breene, this exciting ensemble has been making an indelible impression on the musical landscape of Southern California for the past ten years. Most recently, the trio was invited to perform on Celebrate LA, Los Angeles Philharmonic's 100-year anniversary celebration, at the Hollywood Bowl. With performance degrees from the Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, Yale University, and Rice University, Ms. Irawati, Ms. Breene, and Mr. Schumitzky have studied and performed with some of the world’s finest musical pedagogues including Paul Katz, Claude Frank, Timothy Eddy, Fred Sherry, Joseph Silverstein, Jacques Israelievitch, Sally Thomas, Miriam Fried, Peter Oundjian, and the Juilliard, Miró, American, Tokyo, Cleveland, Borromeo, and Alexander Quartets.
Monday, May 12, 2025
12 PM
Check back soon for more info!
Monday, May 12, 2025
7:30 PM
The series concludes Monday, May 12, with the New Orford String Quartet presenting works by Mozart, Dinuk Wijeratne, and Schubert (Death and the Maiden). Violinists Andrew Wan and Jonathan Crow, violist Sharon Wei, and cellist Brian Manke formed their ensemble with the goal of developing a new model for a touring string quartet: bringing four elite orchestral leaders and soloists together on a regular basis over many years to perform chamber music at the highest level. The Toronto Star has described this outcome as “nothing short of electrifying.” They have seen astonishing success, giving annual concerts for national CBC broadcast and receiving two Opus Awards for Concert of the Year and a 2017 JUNO Award for Best Classical Album. Recent seasons have featured return engagements in Chicago, Montreal, and Toronto, as well as their New York City debut on Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series.
Monday, May 19, 2025
12 PM
Brightfeather is a dynamic and immersive violin-piano duo founded by violinist Benjamin Hoffman and pianist Irene Kim. Through deeply personal performances, Brightfeather is committed to bringing the light, hope, and strength of music to audiences across the globe. The duo has performed throughout the United States as well as in Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and presents repertoire spanning an extensive range of time periods and musical languages.
Monday, May 26, 2025
There will be no mini-concert on Monday, May 26 in observance of Memorial Day. Thank you for understanding, and see you next Monday!
Monday, June 2, 2025
12 PM
“Theirs is a music that transcends genre and that ultimately brands itself as Folias Duo music, full stop” (textura on the recording Heartdance, 2023). Folias Duo is a distinguished musical ensemble, renowned for its remarkable fusion of classical and contemporary influences. Comprising flutist Carmen Maret and guitarist Andrew Bergeron, this married duo has cultivated a unique and enduring performer-composer collaboration spanning two decades. Their exceptional artistry breathes fresh vitality into classical music, infusing it with the rich tapestry of jazz, world music, and improvisation, crafting meticulously curated and evocative compositions. As accomplished composers and performers, Folias Duo continually explores the technical and sonic possibilities inherent in their intimate flute and guitar combination.