Shriver Hall Concert Series Presents March Concerts Featuring Ian Bostridge, Leif Ove Andsnes & Ivalas Quartet

Shriver Hall Concert Series will present a stunning lineup of three concerts this March.

On Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 5:30 pm, Grammy-nominated English tenor Ian Bostridge returns to Shriver Hall with pianist Julius Drake for a program featuring a variety of composers inspired by William Shakespeare alongside Bostridge's heartfelt rendition of Britten's transcendent Holy Sonnets, with texts by poet John Donne.

According to Ian Bostridge, “Shakespeare has been a part of my life as a performer from the very start. It has been a great joy to rediscover the music in Shakespeare's incomparable texts and the music that has been written over the past four centuries to clothe them, from the simplest songs of his own contemporaries, through the melodic delights of the likes of Haydn, Britten and Finzi to the matchless complexity of the late Stravinsky.” The tenor recorded the album Shakespeare Songs with Sir Antonio Pappano, released on Warner Classics in 2016.

Bostridge makes a triumphant return to both Shriver Hall and Baltimore, last appearing on the concert series in 2009. Renowned for his lyric gifts and “instinct for conveying meaning and emotion with disarming clarity” (The Guardian), his career has taken him to the foremost concert halls, orchestras, and opera houses in the world.

Julius Drake enjoys an international reputation as one of the finest instrumentalists in his field, collaborating with many of the world's leading artists, both in recital and on disc.

On Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 5:30 PM at Shriver Hall, critically acclaimed Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes performs works by Chopin (Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28), Grieg (Sonata in E minor, Op. 7), and Tveitt (Sonata No. 29, Op. 129, “Sonata etere”). Andsnes performs the same program at Carnegie Hall two days following his anticipated concert in Baltimore.

"I am so much looking forward to coming back to Baltimore and to play this diverse recital program,” Andsnes remarks. “The early sonata by Grieg was written shortly after he finished his studies in Leipzig, and it's a very fresh and inspirational piece. Geirr Tveitt was very influenced by Norwegian folk music, and his sonata has folk melodies at the core of the composition, but it's also an epic piece, hugely virtuosic and with a fascinating sound world. To study the Chopin Preludes has been my big project this last year, and I am so happy to play this extraordinary cycle of pieces for the first time complete this season. It is a miracle of tenderness and contrasts, drama and playfulness.”

Leif Ove Andsnes has won acclaim worldwide, playing concertos and recitals in the world's leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and served as music director of California's Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in July 2013, and has received honorary doctorates from New York's Juilliard School and Norway's Universities of Bergen and Oslo.

Shriver Hall Concert Series concludes its 2024-25 free Discovery Series with the Ivalas Quartet, currently the Graduate Resident String Quartet at Juilliard, on March 29th, 2025 at 3:00 PM at UMBC's Linehan Hall. The charismatic rising stars present a program traversing the musical heavens. Regarding the program, Osvaldo Golijov took inspiration for his poignant Tenebrae from a planetarium visit with his son. Inspired by a lecture on physics, Eleanor Alberga's rich and spellbinding quartet explores the ideas of swirling particles and stargazing from outer space. Finally, the group infuses Beethoven's String Quartet in B-flat major with “tremendous heart and beauty” (The Strad).

"We are incredibly excited and honored to follow in the footsteps of all of the great musicians who have performed on this historic Baltimore series,” the Ivalas Quartet remarks. “We look forward to sharing our program First Light, in which we explore works that have a shared connection to outer space and our place in the universe. The program includes Beethoven's monumental Opus 130, Eleanor Alberga's first string quartet, and Osvaldo Golijov's Tenebrae. We are particularly looking forward to introducing those audience members who may not have heard the Alberga or Golijov to these two wonderful works!”

Dedicated to celebrating BIPOC voices, the Ivalas Quartet – mentored by the renowned Takács Quartet – seeks to enhance the classical music world by consistently spotlighting past and present BIPOC composers. Hailed by The Strad for playing with “tremendous heart and beauty”, they have already performed in great concert halls such as Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center.

The Discovery Series, an initiative created specifically for the community, is an annual series of concerts featuring extraordinary young artists emerging on the international scene, with most making their Baltimore debuts on the series. Recitals are presented in different, intimate venues and neighborhoods throughout the region, offering greater access to different local communities.

Shriver Hall Concert Series' season is made possible through generous support from the Maryland State Arts Council, Baltimore County Commission for Arts & Sciences, and Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts.

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Concert Information

Ian Bostridge, tenor and Julius Drake, piano
Sunday, March 9, 2025, at 5:30 pm
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $46 Single Tickets and $10 Students
Link: shriverconcerts.org/bostridge 

JOHN DOWLAND: “In darkness let me dwell”
GERALD FINZI: Let Us Garlands Bring, Op. 18
Franz Schubert: “An Sylvia,” D. 891
SCHUBERT: “Ständchen,” D. 889
Joseph Haydn: “She never told her love,” Hob. XXVIa/34
ROGER QUILTER: “Come away, death,” Op. 6, No. 1
IVOR GURNEY: “Under the Greenwood Tree”
GURNEY: “Sleep”
Erich Korngold: “Desdemona's Song,” Op. 31, No. 1
KORNGOLD: “Come away, death,” Op. 29, No. 1
KORNGOLD: “Adieu, Good Man Devil,” Op. 29, No. 3
Benjamin Britten: The Holy Sonnets of John Donne, Op. 35

A Pre-Concert Talk by JHU Writing Seminar's David Yezzi will take place at 4:30 pm in Shriver Hall before the concert.

The Helen Coplan Harrison Concert

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Sunday, March 23, 2025 at 5:30 pm
Shriver Hall | 3400 N. Charles Street | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: $46 Single Tickets and $10 Students
Link: https://www.shriverconcerts.org/andsnes 

Edvard Grieg: Sonata in E minor, Op. 7
GEIRR TVEITT: Sonata No. 29, Op. 129, “Sonata etere”
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN: Twenty-Four Preludes, Op. 28

A Pre-Concert Talk by The Peabody Institute's Dr. Paula Maust will take place at 4:30 pm in Shriver Hall before the concert.

The Sidney & Charlton Friedberg Concert

Discovery Series: Ivalas Quartet
Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 3:00 pm
UMBC's Linehan Concert Hall | 1000 Hilltop Circle | Baltimore, MD 21218
Tickets: Free, RSVP required
Link: shriverconcerts.org/ivalas 

"First Light” 
OSVALDO GOLIJOV: Tenebrae 
ELEANOR ALBERGA: String Quartet No. 1 
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in B-flat major, Op. 130

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