Pianist Jonathan Biss has been busy touring his "Late Style" project that focuses on pieces written by composers near the end of their lives, an exploration that has generated a lot of interest and excitement.

In 2012, Jonathan Biss sat down with NPR to discuss recording the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas. "There's no doubt in my mind that it exists to communicate feeling. That's what it's about," said Biss on the emotional power of the music. Check out this interview and be sure to catch his performance of Beethoven's masterful final Piano Sonata in a concert with the Brentano String Quartet on Feb 26!

After last night's breathtaking performance with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, violinist Nicola Benedetti took a moment to sign CDs and meet with fans. Thank you for a spectacular evening of music-making!

Violinist Nicola Benedetti appears on the cover of the March issue of Strings Magazine! In a feature article, Benedetti discusses music education, her tour with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, and the music of Antonio Vivaldi. She says Vivaldi's music possesses an "emotional richness that is so often missed: how tender he could be, how intimate, how subtle, how moving…I think that's something that's overshadowed by this fiery, virtuosic personality."

Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun published his 2016 highlights of classical music performance in Baltimore and selected three Shriver Hall Concert Series performances. Smith praised our February concert with Gil Shaham & The Knights that featured the world premiere of Jonathan Leshnoff's Chamber Concerto for Violin and Orchestra as well as the March recital with soprano Nicole Cabell. Smith also noted last month's performance with pianist Helene Grimaud, saying, "Grimaud…offered remarkably refined technique and insightful phrasing." 

Charles Downey of The Washington Classical Review shares his thoughts on pianist Hélène Grimaud's December 4 recital at Shriver Hall. In this haunting program, Grimaud explored works inspired by the sound and movement of water, followed by Brahms' Second Sonata. Downey writes, "Ravel’s Jeux d’Eau and its model, 'Les Jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este' from the third year of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, purled off Grimaud’s fingers with delicacy."

The St. Lawrence String Quartet's performance on Nov 20 here at Shriver Hall is just around the corner! For a preview of one of the pieces you'll be hearing at the concert, check out the group's TED talk at TEDxStanford last year! SPOILER ALERT — we don't mean to ruin the "joke" ;)

Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun reviews our 2016-17 season opener with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Chamber Ensemble.  Of their performance of Schubert's Octet, Smith says, "The Academy musicians seemed to revel in the notes and they shaped an absorbing, virtuosic performance."  We couldn't agree more!

From Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition to Goyescas by Enrique Granados, visual art has long served as an inspiration for musical compositions. This Saturday, pianist and visual artist Roman Rabinovich gives the Baltimore premiere of composer Michael Brown's new work Surfaces, co-commissioned by Shriver Hall Concert Series. Surfaces is based on a series of paintings by the same name that Rabinovich himself created. Says Brown of his composition: "Two or more voices often play the same material in imitation, resulting in canons that resurface throughout. This idea comes directly from Roman's paintings where I see different yet related brush strokes, layered on top of each other and presented simultaneously." Click the above image to enlarge the paintings and click here to read Brown's complete notes on Surfaces.