Brookville, NY
Gilbert Kalish & the Viano QuartetSun, Nov 16, 2025, 3:00 pm
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts
2 hours, including intermission
This program offers a captivating exploration of 19th-century chamber music, featuring three composers who shaped the Romantic era. Haydn, the father of the string quartet, offers his final contribution to the genre—an unfinished yet strikingly elegant work that showcases his refined late style. Mendelssohn, a master of lyricism and brilliance, follows with his exuberant D major quartet, a youthful display of dazzling virtuosity and heartfelt emotion. The evening culminates with Brahms’s magisterial Piano Quintet, a work of symphonic breadth and fiery passion, where the piano and strings engage in a breathtaking dialogue of power and intimacy.
Program
Joseph Haydn
(1732–1809)Quartet in D minor for Strings, Hob. III:83, Op. 103
(1803)Felix Mendelssohn
(1809–1847)Quartet in D major for Strings, Op. 44, No. 1
(1838)Johannes Brahms
(1833–1897)Quintet in F minor for Piano, Two Violins, Viola, and Cello, Op. 34
(1864)Quick Note
Gilbert Kalish
Viano Quartet
The profound influence of pianist Gilbert Kalish as an educator and pianist in myriad performances and recordings has established him as a major figure in American music-making. This season he appears with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, performs at the Ojai Music Festival, and holds a residency at the San Francisco Conservatory. In 2006 he was awarded the Peabody Medal by the Peabody Conservatory for his outstanding contributions to music in America. He was the pianist of the Boston Symphony Chamber Players for 30 years, and was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, a group that flourished during the 1960s and 70s in support of new music. He is particularly known for his partnership of many years with mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani, as well as for current collaborations with soprano Dawn Upshaw and cellists Timothy Eddy and Joel Krosnik. As an educator and performer he has appeared at the Banff Centre, the Steans Institute at Ravinia, the Marlboro Music Festival, and Music@Menlo; from 1985 to 1997 he served as chairman of the Tanglewood faculty. His discography of some 100 recordings embraces both the classical and contemporary repertories; of special note are those made with Ms. DeGaetani and that of Ives' Concord Sonata. A distinguished professor at SUNY Stony Brook, Mr. Kalish has been an Artist of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 2006.
Praised for their “virtuosity, visceral expression, and rare unity of intention” (Boston Globe), the Viano Quartet has quickly soared to international acclaim as one of the most dynamic and in-demand string quartets of their generation. Winners of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2025, the ensemble has captivated audiences worldwide ever since they were awarded First Prize at the 13th Banff International String Quartet Competition, with appearances at renowned venues such as Lincoln Center, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Toronto’s Koerner Hall, Hong Kong’s City Hall, and London’s Wigmore Hall. The Viano Quartet are members of CMS’s Bowers Program from 2024 to 2027.
Highlights of the Quartet’s 2025–26 season include debut performances at London’s Southbank Centre, the Frick Collection in New York, Dublin’s National Concert Hall, Coast Live Music, Friends of Chamber Music Kansas City, Apex Concerts, the Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, the Fortas Series at the Kennedy Center, Premiere Performances HK, and a mainstage full recital debut at CMS. The quartet also makes return appearances at Stanford Live, Forte Chamber Music, the Beaches Fine Arts Series, the Buffalo Chamber Music Society’s Slee Series (for the second half of their Beethoven cycle), Chamber Music Albuquerque, and the Sanibel Music Festival. The Quartet looks forward to visiting residencies this season at Stanford University through the St. Lawrence Legacy Series, the University of Victoria, Music in the Morning in Vancouver, and the Auditorium Chamber Music Series at the University of Idaho. This season also features collaborations with mandolinist Avi Avital, pianist Sir Stephen Hough, pianist Gilbert Kalish, clarinetist Anthony McGill, guitarist Miloš Karadaglic, and singer-songwriter Vienna Teng.
Equally committed to both beloved masterworks and contemporary repertoire, the Viano Quartet actively collaborates with today’s leading composers, including Sir Stephen Hough, Kevin Lau, Chris Rogerson, and Caroline Shaw. They are set to premiere a newly written string quartet by Indian-American composer Reena Esmail in the summer of 2026. Their first full-length album, Voyager, was released in summer 2025 with Apple Music/Platoon Records, and features Beethoven’s Op. 130 alongside Alistair Coleman’s Moonshot. Their debut EP Portraits was released in 2023 as one of the first albums to be launched on the Curtis Studio label, featuring works by Schubert, Florence Price, Tchaikovsky, and Ginastera.
The Viano Quartet was formed in Los Angeles at the Colburn Conservatory of Music in 2015. Each member of the quartet is grateful for the unwavering support from their mentors at the Curtis Institute and Colburn Conservatory, including members of the Dover, Guarneri, and Tokyo string quartets.