American pianist (and host of NPR’s From the Top) Christopher O’Riley will play J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations paired with Metamorphosis No. 2 by Philip Glass. Come early to enjoy a game of music trivia.
American pianist (and host of NPR’s From the Top) Christopher O’Riley will play J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations paired with Metamorphosis No. 2 by Philip Glass. Come early to enjoy a game of music trivia.
Join us for Alehouse Sessions, an energetic evening of English 17th-century tavern music. This nontraditional concert will give the audience a window into this tumultuous period through Purcell overtures, English sea shanties, and Scandinavian folk songs thrown in for good measure. These sessions have been hailed as ‘irresistible’ (The Times), ‘superb’ (The Scotsman) and ‘fabulously unrestrained’ (The Guardian), and they have diverted away from the traditional concert model by ‘creating the effect of a late night jamming session’ (BBC Music Magazine). Using their own arrangement of the tunes, the Barokksolistene ‘Alehouse Boys’ will be making their Twin Cities debut in a program combining humor, unrivalled virtuosity, and a flare for improvisation.
Brazilian-American vocalist, composer, and pianist Clarice Assad and her world-renowned father Sérgio Assad (guitar) will perform a jazz-inspired program primarily featuring music from their first recording together called Reliquia. In a review of this recording, All About Jazz states, “Clarice constantly captivates, whether singing in Portuguese, delivering wordless vocals, or taking to the piano bench, and Sérgio, likewise, manages to seduce with his every gesture on guitar.” Clarice’s rising reputation as a composer-performer who comfortably straddles the worlds of jazz, classical, and traditional Brazilian rhythms is quickly catching up with her father’s international prominence as one of the world’s great guitarists. This concert, the first ever Twin Cities performance by this duo, will be a testament to the bonds forged through birth and life, continually strengthened in every small and large gesture of love that takes place between a parent and child.
A well-known name locally and nationally, Libby Larsen was recently recognized as the 2016 McKnight Distinguished Artist. Based out of Minneapolis, she is one of this nation’s leading composers. This one-of-a-kind Schubert Club Mix concert will feature pieces which Libby has written as companion music to comic strip cartoons and other visual media.. The program includes “The Fantom of the Fair” which illustrates a story of the superhero in action at the World’s Fair, “The Peculiar Case of Dr. H.H. Holmes” for baritone & prepared piano with projected drawings, and “Love Tamer” with reconstructed comic strip illustrations. It also features a new piece with lighting design “O Magnum Mysterium” for former King’s Singers member Paul Phoenix.
A well-known name locally and nationally, Libby Larsen was recently recognized as the 2016 McKnight Distinguished Artist. Based out of Minneapolis, she is one of this nation’s leading composers. This one-of-a-kind Schubert Club Mix concert will feature pieces which Libby has written as companion music to comic strip cartoons and other visual media.. The program includes “The Fantom of the Fair” which illustrates a story of the superhero in action at the World’s Fair, “The Peculiar Case of Dr. H.H. Holmes” for baritone & prepared piano with projected drawings, and “Love Tamer” with reconstructed comic strip illustrations. It also features a new piece with lighting design “O Magnum Mysterium” for former King’s Singers member Paul Phoenix.
Join us at Aria for a high energy evening featuring Colin Currie, “the world’s finest and most daring percussionist” (The Spectator, 2013). The Guardian highlights his “athletic percussionism, compulsive showmanship and deep musicality.” His Schubert Club Mix program will feature a wide range of instruments and includes music based on stories by Gabriel García Márquez – interspersed with readings of the texts. Currie is as mesmerizing to watch as he is to listen to – and his broad array of percussion instruments make a fascinating theatrical set.
Join us for this final concert of the Mix season in a brand new venue for this series, Summit Brewery, for a lively evening with New York ensemble Third Sound in their Twin Cities debut performance. Formed in 2015 by composer Patrick Castillo, the ensemble is comprised of Sooyun Kim, flute; Romie de Guise-Langlois, clarinet; Karen Kim, violin; Michael Nicolas, cello; Orion Weiss, piano; and Patrick Castillo, composer. They will bring a mixed program of music including works by Brahms, Schoenberg, and a midwest premiere by Patrick Castillo. In forming the ensemble with his wife Karen Kim, Patrick remarks, “We wanted to assemble a group of musicians whom we could trust with the broad sweep of chamber repertoire, to take everything from Mozart to Schoenberg, to stuff with the ink still wet equally seriously, with total curiosity, and absolutely kill it, no matter what the program.”
Schubert Club Mix kicks off for the season at one of our audience’s favorite locations, the hip and stylish downtown Minneapolis warehouse-converted-event-space Aria. On stage is Scottish violinist Nicola Benedetti, Schubert Club's first annual Featured Artist, together with collaborative pianist Alexei Grynyuk. As a child and teenage prodigy, Nicola racked up award after award, and she hasn't slowed down. Today she is one of the most sought after violinists for solo and orchestral performances. Her Schubert Club Mix performance will explore Brahms's music and life story through the lens of the violin sonatas.
SOLD OUT -
The Harlem Quartet brings a program featuring its distinct mixture of classical and jazz influenced music. Formed in 2006 by the Sphinx Organization, the quartet now performs around the world including a current three-year residency at London’s Royal College of Music. The quartet has been praised for its “panache” by The New York Times and hailed in the Cincinnati Enquirer for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent.” Schubert Club Mix audiences love to hear "new attitude!" By popular demand, we’ll be returning to Summit Beer Hall for this exciting performance. Come early for free brewery tours, food trucks, and, of course, beer.
Based out of New York (but originally from Seattle), the self-described “accidental brass quartet” featuring two trumpets and two trombones takes its name from the prevailing winds that travel from the West to the East. “Skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers” (NPR’s Fresh Air), this Mix performance in our newest venue, Minneapolis’s Machine Shop, will explore jazz, roots, and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both "folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). Expect the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along.
The Grammy Award-winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet plays to sold-out houses worldwide. Their inventive, critically acclaimed transcriptions of concert masterworks provide a fresh look at the music of the past, while their interpretations of works from the contemporary and world-music realms continually break new ground. For this program, we return to the beautiful James J. Hill Center (formerly the Hill Reference Library). In an intimate space, surrounded by thousands of books, you’ll experience a program that promises to transport listeners around the world in a single concert experience.