Northwestern University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music will present the 28th year of its renowned Winter Chamber Music Festival over 3 weekends from January 10th through the 26th, 2025 at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive on the Evanston campus. The seven-concert series will feature internationally acclaimed chamber ensembles performing classical and contemporary works.
Three new groups join the series this year: Trio Valtorna, the Vertavo String Quartet and the Viano Quartet. Returning groups include Artists-in residence Dover Quartet, Dudok Quartet Amsterdam, Miró Quartet, and Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion with composer/violin Jessie Montgomery.
The festival is directed by Blair Milton, Bienen associate professor and former 48-year Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist, who founded the event. In an interview on the eve of the winter holidays, Milton discussed his thoughts on the Festival this year, pointing out some highlights of each group in the upcoming concert series. “I am still so grateful to have emerged from Covid! We are so fortunate that all these fine performers agree to come here and to share wonderful music with us. It has been a rewarding, enriching Festival each and every year.”
Wherever he has travelled to teach and perform, Milton has kept his eyes open and ears attuned for excellence in the chamber music performance world, inviting great musical artists to participate in the Festival, keeping after groups until they have openings in their schedules that permit travel to Evanston in January to grace the concert space at charming Pick-Staiger Hall. “I will always remember how, 28 years ago, the superb Maestro Daniel Barenboim first played the Brahms Piano Quintet here; it was during an awful blizzard, but the audience remained, and since that time, our festival has been visited by numerous patrons returning year after year. The experience here is a rare combination of exquisite performances on a safe, lovely campus venue at Arts Circle Drive- and of course, very reasonable ticket prices with free parking”.
2025 Full Program Lineup:
Dover Quartet: Friday, Jan. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Known for their “live-wire intensity” and “keen blend of tonal warmth and incisiveness,” the two-time Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet, made up of musicians Joel Link, Bryan Lee, violin, Julianne Lee, viola, and Camden Shaw, cello, is among the world’s most in-demand chamber ensembles. The program includes 2 pieces by Jerod Impichchaaha’ Tate, a Bienen grad, and a Chickasaw classical composer and pianist, as well as a piece by Jessie Montgomery, one of the most lauded composers in America today. Composer/biolin Montgomery is an immediate past CSO Mead composer-in-residence
Jessie Montgomery, Strum
Jerod Tate, Abokkoli’ Taloowa’ (Woodland Songs)
Jerod Tate, Rattle Songs
Antonín Dvořák, String Quartet No. 12 in F Major, Op. 96 (“American”)
Third Coast Percussion with Jessie Montgomery: Saturday, Jan. 11 at 7:30 P.M.
Grammy-winning composer and violinist Jessie Montgomery joins the Grammy-winning Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion featuring David Skidmore, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin and Sean Connors, all Bienen School graduates. Joining Jessie Montgomery and Third Coast Percussion for the performance of the Harrison concerto is Bienen percussion associate professor She-e Wu.
Praised for their “rare power” and “inspirational sense of fun and curiosity” Third Coast Percussion—celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025—has performed throughout the US and across four continents.
Jlin, Please Be Still
Jessie Montgomery, Lady Justice
Tigran Hamasyan, Sonata for Percussion
Jessie Montgomery (arr. Sean Connors), Suite from In Color
Lou Harrison, Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra
Trio Valtorna: Sunday, Jan.12 at 3 p.m.
Trio Valtorna is recognized for its balance of “gentleness and power.” bringing together the gifts of three internationally recognized artists, Ida Kavafian, violin, David Jolley, horn, and Gilles Vonsattal, piano. Their choices for the program include classical works for horn by Beethoven, and Brahms, and a piece by American composer, arranger and accomplished jazz pianist John Harbison.
John Harbison, Twilight Music for horn, violin, and piano
Ludwig van Beethoven, Violin Sonata No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 12, No. 3
Johannes Brahms, Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40
Vertavo String Quartet: Friday, Jan. 17 at 7:30 p.m.
Internationally recognized for technical mastery and captivating sound quality, Vertavo String Quartet, made up of Øyvor Volle, violin; Annabelle Meare, violin; Berit Cardas, viola; and Bjørg Lewis, cello, are probably the worlds longest formed all female string quartet. They are known for their assiduous work, solid cohesion and ability to tell a story in music. The program includes a piece by Dame Elizabeth Maconchy, considered to be one of the greatest Irish/English composers.
Elizabeth Maconchy, String Quartet No. 3
Maurice Ravel, String Quartet
Benjamin Britten, String Quartet No. 2 in C Major, Op. 36
Viano Quartet: Sunday, Jan. 19 at 3 p.m.
Canadian American Viano Quartet, comprised of violinists Hao Zhou and Lucy Wang, violist Aiden Kane, and cellist Tate Zawadiuk, has won numerous international prizes and held multiple residencies, and have been described as “on a sharply ascending professional flight path”. They aim to “unite the dichotomy between collaborative and soloistic music”, utilizing a charismatic and fiery approach. This concert program combines traditional chamber music selections of Haydn and Beethoven with a piece by vibrant Polish conductor/composer Penderecki, arguably Poland’s greatest 20th-21stcentury composer. Also on the program is a piece by Aaron Jay Kernis, a Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winning American composer.
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2
Krzysztof Penderecki, String Quartet No. 2
Aaron Jay Kernis, Adagio from String Quartet No. 1, “musica celestis”
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Op. 130 with Große Fuge, Op. 133
Dudok Quartet Amsterdam: Friday, Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m.
Prizewinning Dudok Quartet, comprised of Judith van Driel, violin; Marleen Wester, violin; Marie-Louise de Jong, viola; and David Faber, cello, plays music that “is never old or new, but always relevant and present”. They endeavor to unveil “worlds behind the score”, searching for new formats and perspectives. In the program to be presented, they reach back hundreds of years before traditional chamber selections with a piece by 16th century madrigal composer and luteist Carlo Gesualdo, and also present mid-concert a work by British contemporary composer and music educator Bushra El-Turk, named by the BBC as “one of the 100 most inspiring women of today”.
Carlo Gesualdo (arr. Dudok Quartet Amsterdam), “Deh, come invan sospiro”
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 20, No. 3, Hob. III/33
Bushra El-Turk, Three Tributes for String Quartet (US premiere)
Dmitri Shostakovich (arr. Dudok Quartet Amsterdam), selection from Preludes for Piano, Op. 34
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, String Quartet No. 3 in E-flat Minor, Op. 30
Miró Quartet: Sunday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m.
Celebrating 30 years together in 2025, the Miró Quartet is one of America’s most celebrated string quartets, regarded as “furiously committed”, with “exceptional tonal focus and interpretive intensity”. Daniel Ching, violin; William Fedkenheuer, violin; John Largess, viola; and Joshua Gindele, cello, take pride in finding new ways to communicate with audiences of all backgrounds. Their concert will include 2 works from the classical canon aa well as a piece by American composer/pianist/organist George Walker, the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, (in 1996), and a work by another American Pulitzer Prize for Music winner, (in 2013), Caroline Shaw, a contemporary classicist/violinist and singer.
Joseph Haydn, String Quartet in G Major, Op. 77, No. 1
George Walker, Lyric for Strings
Caroline Shaw, Microfictions
Ludwig van Beethoven, String Quartet No. 8 in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2
Winter Chamber Music Festival subscriptions and single tickets may be purchased by phone at 847-467-4000, online or in person at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall during ticket office hours.
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