The 2013-14 classical season offers its usual overstuffed bounty for South Floridians, and this time there is a continuation of the new energy and innovation we saw last season, with a good deal of stress on new composition, orchestras widening their reach, and some of the leading performers of the newest generation making their area debuts.
Here is a look, by genre, at the season ahead:
ORCHESTRA: It has been 10 years since the Florida Philharmonic played its last concert, and in the intervening time, several local chamber groups have stepped in to fill the void. But there are also a host of touring orchestras, and a regular series of winter concerts in Miami presented by the Cleveland Orchestra. Also, Michael Tilson Thomas’ New World Symphony and its attendant academy in Miami Beach have been training new players for 26 years, and now offer concerts at the beautiful Frank Gehry-designed New World Center in Miami Beach.
Closer to home, the Boca Symphonia enters its new four-concert season with a new name: The Symphonia, which will change depending on the venue it plays. It welcomes back former conductor Alexander Platt and pianist William Wolfram (Jan. 12) to its home at the Roberts Theater on the campus of St. Andrew’s School in western Boca Raton for the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 1, plus music of Schubert and Rossini. The same program will be presented Jan. 13 at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens. The group’s most recent conductor, Philippe Entremont, takes the podium on Feb. 9 with French pianist Elodie Vignon for the Chopin Second Concerto, plus Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and John Corigliano’s Voyage.
Former Florida Philharmonic director James Judd is next, joined by violinist Elmar Oliveira on March 16 for the Beethoven Violin Concerto, plus music by Haydn and Samuel Barber. The season closes with a return appearance by Gerard Schwarz for an all-Mozart program (April 6) featuring clarinetist Jon Manasse in the Clarinet Concerto; also on the bill is the Posthorn Serenade and the Jupiter Symphony (No. 41 in C, K. 551). The program repeats April 8 at the Eissey Campus Theatre.
The group also will be the resident orchestra for the Festival of the Arts Boca from March 6-15; details were undecided at presstime. (For ticket information, call 561-376-3848 or visit bocasymphonia.org)
The Palm Beach Symphony, whose executive director, Michael Finn, departed after only one season in a disagreement over the group’s future direction, opens its 40th season at the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach on Dec. 4. Conductor Ramon Tebar leads the orchestra, largely made up of Miami freelancers, in Mozart’s 40th Symphony (in G minor, K. 550) and the Beethoven Fourth Symphony (in B-flat, Op. 60).
A popular pairing these days, Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, is heard Jan. 9 in a concert at the Flagler Museum, to be followed Feb. 3 by a concert of brass and organ music at Bethesda-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, a program as yet undecided. On March 17,xxxx the orchestra plays Mar-a-Lago, with the Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 — a soloist has not been named —plus Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet, Ginastera’s Estancias, and music from zarzuela: Geronimo Gimenez’s La Boda de Luis Alonso. The symphony closes its season April 6 with a concert at the Kravis featuring Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite, Sibelius’ Finlandia and the Roman Carnival Overture of Berlioz. (For ticket information, call 561-655-2657 or visit palmbeachsymphony.org)
The Atlantic Classical Orchestra, based in Fort Pierce and regularly performing at Stuart’s Lyric Theatre and Vero Beach’s Waxlax Center, has released its first CD, an all-Schumann disc, on Elmar Oliveira’s Artek label, an impressive recording that features Oliveira in the composer’s late, overlooked Violin Concerto. This year, conductor Stewart Robertson fulfills his wish to expand into Palm Beach County with a series of open rehearsals for his group at the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens.
A key part of the ACO season this year is its two commissions of new work by the young American composers Garth Neustadter and Jeffrey Parola. Neustadter’s new work shares the opening concert (Jan. 8, Eissey; Jan. 9, Waxlax; Jan. 10, Lyric) with an overture by Mendelssohn, Ginastera’s Variaciones Concertantes and the rarely heard Symphony in D by Gounod, which served as a model for the Symphony in C of his colleague Georges Bizet. The great Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, annual visitors to South Florida, join Robertson and the ACO for the second concert (Feb. 4, 5 and 7) in the Beethoven Triple Concerto; the program also features Mozart’s Symphony No. 39 and the Classical Symphony of Prokofiev.
Parola’s new piece for clarinet and orchestra gets its premiere with soloist Paul Green (March 5, 6 and 8), in the third concert, which will include Green in Debussy’s Premiere Rhapsodie, Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, and Klaus Simon’s chamber reduction of the Mahler First Symphony. Stuart-based pianist Lindsay Garritson joins the ACO for the final concert of the season as soloist in the Mendelssohn First Piano Concerto. Rossini’s Barber of Seville Overture and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony round out the concert. (For ticket information, call 772-460-0850 or visit atlanticclassicalorchestra.com)
The Lynn Philharmonia is the student orchestra of the Lynn University Conservatory of Music in Boca Raton, and it regularly draws large crowds to its concerts, now at the Wold Performing Arts Center on the Lynn campus. It has a new conductor this year in Guillermo Figueroa as conservatory dean Jon Robertson continues adding to the size and ambition of the school.
The six Philharmonia concerts open Oct. 5 and 6 with Robertson leading the students in the Prague Symphony (No. 38 in D) of Mozart, and the Fourth Symphony, known as the Romantic, of Anton Bruckner. The same forces return Oct. 26 and 27 in the Dvorak New World Symphony, Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, and the Orchestral Suite No. 1 of J.S. Bach.
Figueroa makes his season debut with his new orchestra on Nov. 16 and 17, when he will conduct the winners of the conservatory’s concerto competition. The husband-and-wife team of violinist Carol Cole and cellist David Cole join Figueroa and the orchestra in the Brahms Double Concerto on Jan. 18 and 19; also featured is the overture to Mozart’s opera Le Nozze di Figaro, American composer Roberto Sierra’s Fandangos, and the suite from Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier.
More Strauss is scheduled for the fifth concert Feb. 8 and 9, with the German composer’s tone poem Don Juan sharing the bill with the overture to Rossini’s opera William Tell, and the Fourth Symphony of Tchaikovsky (in F minor, Op. 36). The Philharmonia season closes with a guest appearance by the Master Chorale of South Florida on March 22 and 23 for two performances of the Resurrection Symphony (No. 2 in C minor) of Gustav Mahler. (Tickets range from $35 to $50; call 561-237-9000 or visit www.events.lynn.edu)
The South Florida Symphony, which remade itself after years of being the Key West Symphony, added a series at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach last season, and returns there again for its 15th season. Conductor Sebrina Maria Alfonso opens her season with the American cellist Clancy Newman in the much-neglected Cello Concerto of Samuel Barber. Alfonso also has programmed the Introduction and Allegro for Strings of Edward Elgar and the Ninth Symphony (in C, D. 944) of Schubert (Nov. 15, Key West; Nov. 16, Delray; Nov. 18, Fort Lauderdale; Nov. 19, Aventura). Pianist Christopher Taylor joins the orchestra for the second concert with the Concerto No. 3 of Prokofiev (Feb. 3, Delray; Jan. 30, Key West; Jan. 31, Fort Lauderdale; Feb. 1, Aventura). Also featured is the Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 (in E minor, Op. 90) and the symphonic poem Hamlet of Franz Liszt.
Another fine American pianist, Jeffrey Biegel, is the guest on the final seasonal concert, in Shadows, a concerto for piano and orchestra by the part-time Pompano Beach resident Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the fine Miami-born American composer (March 31, Delray; March 27, Key West; March 28, Aventura; March 30, Fort Lauderdale). Mozart’s Haffner Symphony (No. 35 in D, K. 385) and Schumann’s Spring Symphony (No. 1 in B-flat, Op. 38) round out the evening. (Tickets are $35-$55; call 954-522-8445 or visit www.southfloridasymphony.org)
James Brooks-Bruzzese’s Symphony of the Americas opens its 26th-season series of six concerts at the Broward Center with violinist Alejandro Drago (Oct. 15), who will perform his own Mysteries of Buenos Aires, a violin concerto, and his Fantasy on El Dia Que Me Quieras, the tango by Carlos Gardel, the legendary composer and singer from Drago’s native Argentina. Russian-born pianist Alexander Kobrin arrives Nov. 12 for the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 (in D minor, K. 466), part of an all-Mozart program that includes the Marriage of Figaro overture and the Symphony No. 40.
The Cathedral Choir of First Presbyterian Church of Fort Lauderdale joins the symphony Dec. 10 for a program of Christmas music, followed Feb. 11 by a concert featuring two well-known South Florida musicians: Uruguayan-born pianist Ciro Fodere, who will play the Second Concerto of Rachmaninov, and Dutch-born cellist Iris van Eck, who will be the soloist in the Cello Concerto of Edward Elgar. The young Dominican violinist Aisha Syed comes to town March 11 for the Beethoven Violin Concerto (the composer’s Coriolan Overture and Eighth Symphony are also on the bill) and the season closes April 8 with a pops program featuring light symphonic favorites and music from Broadway. (Tickets range from $50-$75; call 954-335-7002 or visit www.symphonyoftheamericas.org)
Miami Beach’s New World Symphony has a stellar array of concerts lined up for the season, including chamber music and music for wind and percussion ensembles. Orchestrally, the season opens Oct. 5 and 6 with the splendid Chinese-born pianist Yuja Wang in Gershwin’s Concerto in F on a program that also includes Gershwin’s Cuban Overture, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, and the Four Sea Interludes from Britten’s Peter Grimes, in honor of the composer’s centenary, and featuring a video by Tal Rosner.
Tilson Thomas conducts the whole Pulcinella score on Oct. 17, joined by three vocal soloists. Video artist Netia Jones provides a live performance of her video installation for the Italian composer Niccolo Castiglioni’s Inverno in-ver, and the concert opens with duets for two violins by another Italian modernist, Luciano Berio. The excellent Polish-American pianist Emmanuel Ax is the special guest from Oct. 25-27, playing Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto twice with the New World, and performing an all-Brahms recital that includes the Handel Variations, the Piano Sonata No. 2, and with some of the New World Musicians, the Piano Quartet No. 3.
The Finnish conductor Osmo Vanska, leader of the Minnesota Orchestra and one of the very finest conductors working today, leads Spanish pianist Javier Perianes and the New World in the Piano Concerto No. 1 of Chopin and the Second Symphony of Vanska’s countryman, Jan Sibelius (Nov. 23-24).
Violinist Leila Josefowicz teams with conductor Mark Wigglesworth (Dec. 14) for the Stravinsky Violin Concerto, and violinist Hilary Hahn teams with James Gaffigan on Jan. 11 for the Turkish Concerto (No. 5 in A, K. 219) of Mozart. Contemporary music specialist Reinbert de Leeuw is joined by soloists from Ensemble Modern for music by Kurtag and Ligeti (Jan. 18), while cellist Matthew Allen is the featured soloist Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in an all-Tchaikovsky program with Tilson Thomas that spotlights the Rococo Variations. Music by Berio and Lukas Foss is heard Feb. 15 with Tilson Thomas and Synergy Vocals, and countertenor Damien Guillon partners with Bernard Labadie in a concert of music by Gabrieli, Vivaldi and Mozart on March 1 and 2.
The wonderful Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta performs the Elgar Concerto with Pablo Heras-Casado on a concert that also features the Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 (March 23-24), and American pianist Garrick Ohlsson is accompanied by the veteran Spaniard Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos in the Rachmaninov Second Concerto; Respighi’s Pines of Rome and Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla overture fill out the program (March 28-29).
Composer Cynthia Lee Wong is the composer in residence this year; her new orchestral work premieres April 26, and Tilson Thomas closes the season with another in his cycle of Mahler symphonies, this time focusing on the Seventh (May 3-4). (Ticket prices vary widely; call 800-597-3331, 305-673-3331, or visit www.nws.edu)
Eduardo Marturet’s Miami Symphony also is celebrating its quarter-century this season with 10 concerts at several different venues in Miami-Dade County, and with a strong focus on new composition. Its opening concert Oct. 20 features Marturet’s own Homage to Waldo, Angel Romero’s Rincones de Espana, based on unfinished music by Jaoquin Rodrigo, and the South Florida premiere of Paul Schoenfield’s Four Parables, with pianist Andrea Boyde.
Special themed concerts come next, with a Thanksgiving-oriented program (Nov. 30-Dec. 1), one of classic film music (Dec. 14-15), Ocean Drive in Vienna (Jan. 19), which features new work by the orchestra’s composers in residence, and a family concert (Jan. 25-26). The young Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra is joined by the legendary Latin jazz flutist Nestor Torres for Arturo Marquez’s Danzon No. 3 (Feb. 15-16), plus pieces by Rachmaninov, Ravel, Prokofiev and Gershwin (the Porgy and Bess Symphonic Picture).
Concertmaster Daniel Andai leads the MISO in the world premiere of FIU composer Orlando Jacinto Garcia’s Voces Celestiales, for two double basses (Jeff Bradetich and Luis Gomez-Imbert), and the season closes May 4 with what is billed as the South Florida premiere of the original version of Scriabin’s Poem of Fire, with an actual color organ (played by Kiran Shiva Akal), plus two other Russian pieces, Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. (Tickets start at $34; call 305-275-5666 or visit www.miamisymphony.org)
And a South Florida classical season would not be complete without a bevy of touring orchestras, beginning with the annual residency of the Cleveland Orchestra at the beautiful Knight Concert Hall in Miami’s Arsht Center. Violinist Gil Shaham plays the Violin Concerto of Korngold (Jan. 24-25), while music director Franz Welser-Möst conducts the Second Symphony of Schubert and assorted dances by Johann Strauss II. The next week (Jan. 31-Feb. 1), the British baritone Simon Keenlyside sings songs by Richard Strauss, and Welser-Möst leads the band in Strauss’ Don Juan, the orchestral suite from Debussy’s incidental music for Le Martyre de Saint Sebastian, and in honor of the centenary of its debut, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.
Residency conductor Giancarlo Guerrero welcomes German violinist Arabella Steinbacher to the hall Feb. 21 and 22 for the First Violin Concerto of Prokofiev on a program that includes Dvořák’s Othello Overture and the Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony. The season ends March 21 and 22 with percussionist Colin Currie in the Percussion Concerto of the American composer Jennifer Higdon, and the women of the University of Miami’s Frost Symphonic Chorale are featured in Holst’s great tone poem The Planets; the concert opens with the overture to Mozart’s wonderful opera Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail. (Tickets vary widely in price; call the Arsht Center at 305-949-6722; visit www.arshtcenter.org or clevelandorchestra.miami.com)
The Estonian National Orchestra leaves Talinn for South Florida in appearances at the Kravis Center (Nov. 13) and the Broward Center (Nov. 16); cellist Narek Haknazarayan plays the Dvořák Concerto. New York’s Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the blind Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii perform the Emperor Concerto of Beethoven at the Kravis (Jan. 19) and Broward centers (Jan. 20); Leonard Slatkin brings the Detroit Symphony to the Kravis Jan. 25 and 26, then the Arsht Center on Jan. 28; pianist Olga Kern is the guest soloist in music by Rachmaninov or Prokofiev.
The great American violinist Joshua Bell appears in his recently appointed as guise as leader of Britain’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields; he’ll play the Brahms Violin Concerto at the Arsht (March 15) and the Kravis (March 16). And Zubin Mehta returns with the Israel Philharmonic at the Arsht (March 23) and the Kravis (March 24); husband-and-wife performers Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth play the Brahms Double Concerto.
Other orchestras coming through at the Kravis are the Moscow City Symphony (Jan. 13) with pianist Alexander Ghindin in the Ravel Concerto; the Haifa Symphony of Israel (Jan. 28-29) with soloists in the Viola Concerto of Israel’s Uri Bracha and the Beethoven Third Piano Concerto; the Buffalo Philharmonic under JoAnn Faelletta (Feb. 9-10) with pianist Philippe Bianconi in the Rachmaninov Third Concerto and Ricardo Morales in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto; and the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin (March 13) with music of Rossini, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky.
At the Broward Center, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic of Russia arrives Feb. 18 with pianist Denis Kozukhin with the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto, and at the Society of the Four Arts on Feb. 12, the wonderful Italian Baroque orchestra Europa Galante performs music by Vivaldi.
CHAMBER MUSIC: While the symphonic season is excellent this season, the chamber music season is every bit as good, with superb veteran groups and exciting newcomers sharing the area’s stages.
The Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival, which has had a summer festival for 21 years, has added a fall festival of three concerts, with two performances apiece at the Wold Performing Arts Center at Lynn University, and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Lake Worth.
The first concerts (Sept. 19 and 20) featured a trio for bassoon, violin and cello by Francois Rene Gebauer, a trio for flute, violin and piano by Martinů, an arrangement for trumpet, clarinet, alto saxophone and piano of Aaron Copland’s Quiet City, and the Mozart Clarinet Quintet.
Two contemporary American composers are on the program for the second concerts (Oct. 10-11), with Clare Shore’s Cycle de Vie for bassoon and string quartet, and two pieces by James Stephenson for trumpet and piano: Remember Forward and Bagatelle. Also on the program is a wind quartet by Jean Françaix, and the Piano Trio No. 3 (in C minor, Op. 101) of Brahms. The third and final concert (Nov. 14 and 15) offers a trumpet concerto by Albinoni, Andre Jolivet’s Pastorales for flute, bassoon and harp, the Bernstein Clarinet Sonata and the Octet of Igor Stravinsky. (Tickets are $20; call 561-237-9000 for Lynn concerts, 800-330-6874 for the St. Andrew’s concerts, or visit www.pbcmf.org.)
The Delray String Quartet, now in its 10th season, has recently been in the recording studio, and its disc of music by Franck (Piano Quintet), Glazunov (Quartet No. 5), and Mahler (an arrangement of the Adagietto from the Fifth Symphony) is due out in the summer of 2014 on the Centaur label, which has recorded Delray second violinist Tomas Cotik and pianist Tao Lin in an expert disc of music by Schubert.
The Delray continues its regular concerts at the Colony Hotel in downtown Delray and All Saints Episcopal Church off Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale. It opens Nov. 8 (All Saints) and Nov. 10 (Colony) with the Hoffmeister Quartet of Mozart (No. 20 in D, K. 499), Verdi’s lone String Quartet, and the Romance in E-flat (Op. 11) by the British composer Gerald Finzi. The fine young South Korean cellist Jonah Kim guests with the Delray (Dec. 8 and 10) in the splendid String Quintet in C (D. 956) of Schubert, and solos in American composer James Grant’s Waltz for Betz; also on the program is the Quartetto Serioso (No. 11 in F minor, Op. 95) of Beethoven.
Borodin’s Second Quartet returns to the Delray programs Jan. 5 and 17 along with another repeat, the Villa-Lobos Fifth Quartet, plus an arrangement of the Wiener Blut waltz of Johann Strauss II. Pianist Tao Lin is the guest for the Dohnanyi Piano Quintet No. 1 (Feb. 7, 9, and 25 at St. Christopher’s in Key Biscayne) and an arrangement of the Keyboard Concerto No. 1 (in D minor, BWV 1052) of J.S. Bach; the program also includes Joaquin Turina’s Escena Andaluza. The season ends March 7 and 9 with the Haydn Quartet No. 23 (in F minor, Op. 20, No. 5), Tchaikovsky’s First Quartet (in D, Op. 11) and the Fourth Quartet of the American composer Kenneth Fuchs. (Tickets vary by venue from $30-$35; visit delraystringquartet.com)
The Society of the Four Arts on Palm Beach has a very fine chamber music season in store, with the Tempest Trio (Dec. 15) of pianist Alon Goldstein, violinist Ilya Kaler and cellist Amit Peled in music by Haydn, Dvorak and Bernstein, while the Brentano Quartet, whose playing was featured in the recent film A Late Quartet, plans Mozart’s Quartet No. 21 (in D, K. 575), Shostakovich’s Eleventh Quartet, and an undetermined quartet by Beethoven at its Jan. 12 appearance.
Los Angeles’ superb Calder Quartet, which a couple years back played an astonishing program at the Duncan Theatre, returns Jan. 19 to the Four Arts and Miles Hoffman’s American Chamber Players, an annual visitor for years, arrives Jan. 26. The exceptional St. Lawrence String Quartet comes to the Gubelmann Auditorium on Feb. 16, and Trio Solisti appears the following week (Feb. 23) in pieces by Turina, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
Britain’s young Elias Quartet performs pieces by Beethoven (Quartet No. 4 in C minor, Op. 18, No. 4), Debussy (his sole String Quartet) and the Third String Quartet of the contemporary British composer Sally Beamish on March 9, and Israel’s Jerusalem Quartet wraps the season March 23 with music by Janacek, Brahms and Mozart. (Wednesday night tickets are $40-$45; Sunday afternoon tickets are $20; Call 655-7226 or visit www.fourarts.org)
Not far away from the Four Arts, the Flagler Museum’s annual series of five concerts opens Jan. 7 with the veteran Shanghai Quartet, and on Jan. 21, South Korean pianist Yoonie Han, joined by members of her new Gloriosa Trio, play music by Piazzolla (Oblivion and La Muerte de Angel), the Piano Trio No. 2 of Joaquin Turina and the Beethoven Archduke Trio (in B-flat, Op. 97).
The fine Cuarteto Latinoamericano plays Brazilian composer Francisco Mignone’s Three Pieces and Villa-Lobos’ First Quartet, Mexican composer Gustavo Campa’s Three Miniatures, and Debussy’s String Quartet on Feb. 4, and Germany’s excellent Atos Trio comes to Whitehall on Feb. 18. Closing out the season March 4 is the Czech Republic-based Talich Quartet, one of the great names in Central European ensembles. (Tickets are $60, and include free valet parking and champagne reception; call 655-2833 or visit www.flaglermuseum.us)
A new series of chamber concerts organized by former Palm Beach Symphony executive director Michael Finn debuts at Mar-a-Lago this season; the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach begins Nov. 21 with the breakout Montenegrin classical guitarist Milos Karadaglic, who made his U.S. debut two years ago at the Festival of the Arts Boca. On Dec. 17, a piano trio featuring violinist Doori Na (a Perlman Music Project alumnus), cellist Joseph Lee and pianist Sean Kennard perform music of Mendelssohn, Handel, Saint-Saens and Ravel. Harpsichordist Paolo Bordignon of the New York Philharmonic is joined by oboists Matthew Dine and Stephen Taylor on Jan. 21 for music by Albinoni, Bach, Mozart and Berlioz.
The Manasse/Nakamatsu Duo, composed of two veteran musicians, clarinetist Jon Manasse and pianist Jon Nakamatsu, gather Feb. 11 for a program of music by Brahms, Bernstein and Paquito d’Rivera, and on March 20, the sensational young piano duo of Anderson and Roe return to Palm Beach County for music by Stravinsky and Mozart.
The society closes its season April 10 with the Trio Les Amies, an all-female threesome of well-known New York players: flutist Carol Wincenc, violist Cynthia Phelps and harpist Nancy Allen. The trio will perform music by Debussy and Ravel. (For more information, call 917-859-6171; a website will soon be operational at www.cmpsb.org).
The Duncan Theatre’s Classical Café series is back in the theater’s black-box Stage West, where the Miami-based Amernet String Quartet, which opened the season last year with fine performances of music of Dohnanyi and Shostakovich, appears Jan. 8 in a concert featuring Milwaukee-based pianist and teacher Stephen Swedish. Another returning artist, violinist Yuki Numata Resnick, a former New World Symphony fellow, arrives Jan. 22 for a program of Bach’s Sonata in G minor, Bartok’s Sonata for Solo Vioin, and the Sequenza VIII of Luciano Berio.
Britain’s excellent Gould Piano Trio is up next on Feb. 19, and the astounding pianist and composer Conrad Tao makes a return visit to the Duncan on March 26 with a solo piano recital. (Tickets are $29; call 561-868-3309 or visit www.duncantheatre.com)
The Chameleon Musicians series in Fort Lauderdale returns Oct. 6 with cellist Iris van Eck, the series founder, and pianist Kemal Gekic in music by Saint-Saens, Mexico’s Federico Ibarra, and Dora Pejacevic, a substantial Croatian woman composer from the early 20th century. On Nov. 24, the Chameleon String Trio — van Eck, violinist Misha Vitenson and violist Michael Klotz — play trios by Beethoven, Penderecki and Dohnanyi.
Van Eck joins the Amernet Quartet on Feb. 23 for string quintet music, and clarinetist Michael Norsworthy is on hand March 30 with van Eck and pianist Misha Dacic for music of Beethoven, Vincent d’Indy and the 20th-century Serbian composer Marko Tajcevic. The season closes May 4 with van Eck, Gekic and violinist Dmitri Pogorelov in trios by Mozart, Schubert and Arno Babajanian, a Soviet Armenian composer celebrated for his film music and popular-style crossover. (Tickets are $35; call 954-761-3435 or visit www.chameleonmusicians.org)
Keith Paulson-Thorp’s Music at St. Paul’s series at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Delray Beach, now in its 26th season, presents one concert a month from now until August; it began Sept. 22 with the Trillium Piano Trio of Jupiter, which played music by Pärt, Bolcom and Rachmaninov; cellist Susan Moyer Bergeron has replaced founding member Benjamin Salsbury. Violinist Tomas Cotik and pianist Tao Lin present a recital of music by Bach, Schubert, Poulenc and Astor Piazzolla on Oct. 20, and on Nov. 17, Paulson-Thorp’s Camerata del Re presents Renaissance and Baroque music by Jewish composers.
The St. Paul’s Choir’s annual Festival of Lessons and Carols (Dec. 22) focuses this year on American Christmas music, and on Jan. 19, violinist Mei Mei Luo is joined by pianist Daphne Spottiswoode for music by Mendelssohn and Dohnanyi. Wellington-based violinist Gareth Johnson, a regular recitalist on this series, is accompanied by Lin for the Brahms Third Sonata and Saint-Saens’ Havanaise on Feb. 2. The young Palm Piano Trio returns Feb. 16 for a concert spotlighting the Piano Trio No. 2 of Shostakovich, and on March 30, the Baroque ensemble Echoing Air presents a concert of music from the English Baroque.
The Amernet String Quartet is in town April 6 for a program as yet unannounced, and on May 18, Miami’s Pulse Ensemble, featuring pianist Marina Radiushina, violinist Scott Flavin and clarinetist Margaret Donahue Flavin, make a second appearance on a Palm Beach County series. Pianist Roberta Rust and soprano Maria Heslop-Ward present a recital of songs by Brahms, Mahler, Manuel de Falla and Enrique Granados, and the Camerata del Re wraps the season Aug. 24 with Baroque music from the Netherlands. (Tickets are $15-$20; call 561-278-6003 or visit www.stpaulsdelray.org)
Patrick Clifford’s Distinguished Artists Series at Palm Beach Atlantic University enters its second season with a lineup that includes musicians of the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival (Nov. 8) and the Omer String Quartet, based at the Cleveland Institute of Music (Feb. 28). Tenor John Matz, a Metropolitan Opera cast member, sings a recital Jan. 24, and the very fine Chicago-based violinist Rachel Barton Pine offers a solo recital on March 21. (Tickets are $20; call 561-803-2970 or email ticketcentral@pba.edu)
The musicians of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra present three programs with two performances apiece at Stuart’s Blake Library and the Vero Beach Museum of Art. Beethoven’s Quartet No. 1 (in F, Op. 18, No. 1) and the Schubert Quartet No. 13 (in A minor, D. 804) are on the bill Jan. 18 (Stuart) and 19 (Vero Beach), and on Feb. 22 and 23, it’s an all-American program featuring piano trios by Amy Beach, Charles Wakefield Cadman and Paul Schoenfield. The final concerts March 22 and 23 present the Ian and Ani Duo of cellist Ian Maksin and pianist Ani Gogova in a program of music from the world of the tango. (Stuart concerts are free; Vero Beach tickets are $40; call 772-460-0850)
The Kravis Center’s chamber music and Young Artist programs this season feature the two-piano Israeli-Palestinian duo of Bishara Haroni and Yaron Kohlberg (Jan. 5), who will perform music by Israeli and Palestinian composers as well as Schubert, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Before that, it’s the marvelous young Dover Quartet (Dec. 9), which just won the Banff Competition, and on Feb. 17, the fine young Korean-American violinist Kristin Lee.
The excellent young Chinese pianist Fei-Fei Dong presents a recital March 10, and the final Young Artist in the series, the guitar twosome DuoSF of Christopher Mallett and Robert Miller, occurs April 7. (Tickets are $30; call 832-7469 or visit www.kravis.org)
The Friends of Chamber Music of Miami series, which has been running for nearly 60 years, opened its 58th season on Sept. 23 with the Ehnes Quartet, founded by Canadian violinist (and Florida resident) James Ehnes, in music of Schubert, Mendelssohn and Shostakovich, and was followed Oct. 1 by the Franco-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris, who played solo works and was joined by violinist Mikhail Simonyan, violist Roberto Diaz, and cellist William DeRosa for the Schumann Piano Quartet (in E-flat, Op. 47).
The great Austro-Canadian pianist Anton Kuerti, who did remarkable things last season of Beethoven miniatures, offers another all-Beethoven concert Oct. 17, with small works and two sonatas (No. 16 in G and No. 28 in A). Ukrainian-born pianist Valentina Lisitsa, a longtime area audience favorite appears Nov. 19 in music of Schubert, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Pianist Joseph Kalichstein, along with violist Roberto Diaz and clarinetist Ricardo Morales, play the two Brahms Clarinet (Viola) Sonatas, and Kalichstein performs one of the early Brahms piano sonatas (No. 2) in a Gusman Hall concert Jan. 5. Kalichstein is back the next month (Feb. 9) with his trio partners, violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson, in works by Mendelssohn, Schubert and Dvořák.
The young Canadian mezzo-soprano Wallis Giunta, accompanied by the veteran pianist Ken Noda, team March 27 for the Weill song cycle The Seven Deadly Sins on varied program including songs by Britten, Monteverdi and Poulenc, Flanders and Swann, Stephen Foster and Cole Porter, and the Beatles’ John Lennon. The 21-year-old pianist Benjamin Grosvenor, who appears on the Four Arts series in March, comes to the FOCM series May 6 in solo works and a performance of the Dvorak A major Piano Quintet with the Escher String Quartet (Individual tickets are $35 ($10 for students), and can be had by going to the society’s Eventbrite link http://focm2013.eventbrite.com/, at the door, or by calling 305-372-2975)
Finally, the Sunday Afternoons of Music series in Miami, now in its 33rd season, features the Amernet String Quartet on Jan. 12, the New Trio on Jan. 26, and violinist Ray Chen and pianist Julio Elizalde on Feb. 16. (Tickets are $35; call 305-271-7150 or visit www.sundaymusicals.org)
CHORAL: The Miami chamber choir Seraphic Fire, which is the only South Florida musical organization of any kind to be recently nominated for a Grammy award (two of them, in 2012), continues its exceptional career of highly celebrated concerts and recordings with an eight-concert series (nine if you count a special Christmas presentation), including a regular series at Boca Raton’s St. Gregory’s Episcopal Church.
Renaissance music associated with the Sistine Chapel opens the season Oct. 16-20, including works by Palestrina and Lassus, directed by choir founder Patrick Dupré Quigley. The young American composer Gregory Spears steps into some daunting shoes Nov. 15-17 with his new, Seraphic Fire-commissioned completion of the Mozart Requiem, left unfinished at the composer’s early death in 1791; this promises to be one of the biggest events of the coming season.
Two Christmas programs follow — the annual program of songs, carols and motets Dec. 11-15, and three performances of the Christmas portion of Handel’s Messiah from Dec. 20-22. The music of France’s Chapelle Royale during the time of King Louis XIV is the subject of concerts set for Jan. 15-19, and from Feb. 14-16, another milestone is tackled with three performances of J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, along with the Cantata No. 147 (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring).
Founding Seraphic Fire countertenor Reginald Mobley is the featured singer March 12-16 in music associated with Farinelli, the 18th-century castrato widely considered one of the finest singers of all time. The Spektral Quartet of Chicago partners with Seraphic Fire April 9-13 (and April 16 in Chicago) for the Seven Last Words of Christ, Haydn’s great Holy Week oratorio, and from May 7-11, the choir focuses on one of the most important bodies of American folk and religious music, the African-American spiritual. (Tickets range from $38-$65; call 305-285-9060 or visit www.seraphicfire.org)
Meanwhile, a Boca Raton native, Brett Karlin, has been named the fourth director in the history of the Master Chorale of South Florida, as well as head of Seraphic Fire’s Miami Choral Academy, which brings choral music to underserved school systems in Miami. The Master Chorale’s two major concerts are performed with The Symphonia of Boca Raton, and are presented at venues in Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties (the Palm Beach concerts are at Lynn University’s Wold Center).
The first program Nov. 22-24 offers as its main work the St. Cecilia Mass of Haydn, along with two other St. Cecilia odes, those by Purcell and Handel; St. Cecilia’s Day is Nov. 22, also the 100th birthday of British composer Benjamin Britten, celebrated this year. Its second major concert, set for April 25-27, features Schubert’s Mass in G as well as two motets by Mozart, the Laudate Dominum and the Ave Verum Corpus.
The chorale also will be heard two other times, in the now-traditional Valentine’s Day concert with the blind Italian poperatic tenor Andrea Bocelli (Feb. 14) and as the chorus for the Lynn Philharmonia’s presentations March 22 and 23 of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony. (Tickets are $30; call 954-418-6232)
Community choruses also have busy seasons planned. The Masterworks Chorus of the Palm Beaches, now in its 37th season, presents its annual performance of Handel’s Messiah on Dec. 15 at the Royal Poinciana Chapel in Palm Beach. On March 2, it offers a “world tour” concert of music at the DeSantis Family Chapel at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and at the same venue on April 13, presents a program of music by the contemporary British composer John Rutter (his Magnificat and Te Deum). (Tickets are $25; call 561-845-9696 or visit www.masterworkschorusofthepalmbeaches.com)
The Delray Beach Chorale presents Voices of the Season on Dec. 5 (Duncan Theatre) and 7 (First Presbyterian Church, Delray), with music from Messiah as well as other Christmas favorites, and on March 29 and April 4, it’s an opera-themed program offering choruses and solo works from favorite operas. (Tickets are $25; visit www.delraybeachchorale.org)
The Robert Sharon Chorale plans four performances of its holiday concert (Dec. 6, 8, 15, and 18) at venues in West Palm Beach, South Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Gardens, and on April 6 and 12 will present Carl Orff’s cantata Carmina Burana at the two Palm Beach State College campuses, in tandem with the Indian River Pops Orchestra (the Eissey on April 6, the Duncan on April 12). (Visit www.therobertsharonchorale.com for more information)
SOLOISTS: In addition to the soloists appearing with other ensembles, there are a number of recitals by other established performers, such as violinist Itzhak Perlman, who has appeared in South Florida each season for many years. He’ll play the Kravis Center twice, on Dec. 16 and 18, and the Arsht Center on Dec. 19. The fine British violinist Daniel Hope pays tribute to the great 19th-century Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim in a recital March 18 at the Broward Center, and pianist Jon Kimura Parker, in his Broward appearance April 24, performs a new transcription of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, which premiered 100 years ago this past May.
Festival Miami, which opens Oct. 1, has a number of solo offerings, beginning Oct. 4 with an appearance by violinist Joshua Bell and bassist Edgar Meyer in Meyer’s new Double Concerto, to be conducted by UM’s Thomas Sleeper. Soprano Hila Plitmann sings Oct. 6 with the Frost Wind Ensemble; the featured work is the Labyrinth of Love, a song cycle by American composer Michael Daugherty. Soprano Elizabeth Caballero is joined by mezzo Robynne Redmon and bass Kevin Short for a recital of operatic music by Mozart, Puccini and Verdi, and pianist Cecile Licad plays an extraordinary program (Oct. 20) of mostly American music by Ornstein, MacDowell, Gottschalk and Mason, along with pieces by Busoni and Chaminade. (Tickets to Festival Miami vary widely; call 305-284-4940 or visit www.festivalmiami.com)
Opera standout Deborah Voigt, who will be in town to receive an award from Florida Grand Opera, sings a solo recital Nov. 15 at the Arsht Center, and the rising Metropolitan Opera star Isabel Leonard comes to the Sunday Afternoons series in her South Florida debut on May 18.
Piano fans will want to welcome Richard Goode back to South Florida for a March 16 concert on the Sunday Afternoons series, while at the Four Arts, tenor Jay Hunter Morris, whose Siegfried in the Met’s recent Ring cycle was much admired, mounts a recital Jan. 22; pianist Benjamin Grosvenor plays the Four Arts on Feb. 9, and Arnaldo Cohen, who played a memorable complete Chopin scherzo cycle at the Four Arts two years ago, returns March 12 for music by Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Ravel and Prokofiev.
The Miami-based Chopin Foundation has an exciting lineup of young pianists on is programs this year, to appear at the Broward County Main Library in Fort Lauderdale and Granada Presbyterian Church in Coral Gables. On the lineup this year are American pianists Corbin Beisner (Nov. 2-3) Drew Petersen (Dec. 7-8); Conlan Miller (Jan. 18-19); and Stuart’s own Lindsay Garritson (Feb. 8-9). The winner of the Paderewski Competition in Poland this November will appear March 15-16, and South Carolinian Micah McLaurin arrives May 17-18.
Other concerts on the Foundation’s special Salon Series at the La Gorce Country Club in Miami Beach feature a Polish duo, violinist Aleksandra Kuls and pianist Marcin Koziak (Nov. 17); the American pianist Claire Huangci (Jan. 12); and Sean Chen, a Broward County-born American who won the bronze medal at this year’s Cliburn Competition (March 30). (The regular series of concerts is free admission; the Salon Series is $45 for non-members; call 305-868-0624)
SPECIAL EVENTS: Lynn University’s eighth annual New Music Festival features as its composer in residence this year Shirley J. Thompson, an English composer of Jamaican descent and was named one of Britain’s 100 Most Influential Black People by the Evening Standard. Thompson is writing a work for the festival, which runs from Feb. 23 -26 and includes an evening of student composition, a panel discussion, and a faculty concert featuring music by Davidovsky, Bolcom and James Stephenson (his Devil’s Tale, a sequel to Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat). (All concerts are free; call 237-9000 for more information.)