Shriver Hall Concert Series Announces Updated Fall Programming

Shriver Hall Concert Series (SHCS) - Baltimore's premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists - today announces its updated fall programming, featuring a three-concert virtual series. The digital premiere performances include unique live post-concert Q&A sessions with the artists.

The fall season opens on Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 5:30pm EST with a digital premiere performance by the "totally compelling" (BBC Music Magazine) Takács Quartet in movements of works by Mozart, Debussy, Bartók, and Coleridge-Taylor. The performance, recorded at the Chautauqua Auditorium in the Takács' home city of Boulder, Colorado, marks one of the quartet's first performances with new member violist Richard O'Neill, who joined the ensemble in June 2020. O'Neill is An EMMY Award winner, two-time GRAMMY nominee, Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, and a Universal Music/Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, as well as a Goodwill Ambassador for the Korean Red Cross, The Special Olympics, UNICEF and OXFAM. The unique program structure features select movements from pieces, to fit the hour-long digital format.

Renowned pianists Garrick Ohlsson and Kirill Gerstein join forces for the first time for a special collaboration, premiering on Sunday, November 8, 2020 at 5:30pm EDT. The recital features piano duos including the rarely heard Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica; Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Op. 45; and Ravel's La valse. Gerstein, a U.S. citizen, will travel from his home in Berlin to the San Francisco Conservatory and observe all necessary quarantines in order to participate in this duo recital.

Principal clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic and and Avery Fisher Prize-winning clarinetist Anthony McGill collaborates with his brother, flutist Demarre McGill (principal flute of the Seattle, Dallas and San Diego Symphonies, and acting principal of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra) and one of Ireland's leading concert pianists Michael McHale, forming the McGill/McHale Trio. The trio's December 2019 concert at the 92Y premieres in digital concert format on Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 5:30pm EDT featuring works by Poulenc, Debussy, Paul Schoenfield, Guillaume Connesson, and Chris Rogerson.

Concerts can be accessed by purchasing a premium subscription, which comes with an array of exclusive benefits, a standard concert subscription or single digital ticket. Concert access is available for three days following the concerts to all ticket holders. All ticket holders are also invited to a post-concert live chat with the artists-moderated by Executive Director of Shriver Hall Concert Series Catherine Cochran-where they can submit their questions in writing during the session.

"I am thrilled to have the renewed opportunity to present these outstanding artists, albeit in a different way than originally planned," said Cochran. "It is an honor to fulfill our commitment to both our audiences and the artists, and to widely share the music we all so desperately crave during this extended period of uncertainty and isolation. Through the creativity and perseverance of these artists, as well as our Board, staff, and co-presenters, we can present a virtual fall season of unique programming and intimate performances to a larger audience than would normally be able to visit our hall."

Concert Information
Sunday, October 11, 2020 at 5:30pm EST
Concert available On-Demand for ticket holders through Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Link: www.shriverconcerts.org/concert/takacs-quartet

Takács Quartet
Edward Dusinberre, violin
Harumi Rhodes, violin
Richard O'Neill, viola
András Fejér, cello

MOZART: Movement I from String Quartet in D minor, K. 421
COLERIDGE-TAYLOR: Movements I and III from Five Fantasiestücke, Op. 5
BARTÓK: Movement III from String Quartet No. 1
DEBUSSY: Movements III and IV from String Quartet in G minor, Op. 10

Performance to be followed by Artist Q&A

Sunday, November 8, 2020 at 5:30pm EDT
Concert available On-Demand for ticket holders through Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Link: www.shriverconcerts.org/concert/ohlsson-gerstein

Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Kirill Gerstein, piano

BUSONI: Fantasia contrappuntistica
RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45
RAVEL: La valse

Performance to be followed by Artist Q&A

Sunday, December 6, 2020 at 5:30pm EDT
Concert available On-Demand for ticket holders through Wednesday, December 9, 2020
Link: www.shriverconcerts.org/concert/mcgill-mchale-trio

McGill/McHale Trio
Anthony McGill, clarinet
Demarre McGill, flute
Michael McHale, piano

CHRIS ROGERSON: A Fish Will Rise
POULENC: Sonata for Flute and Piano
DVO?ÁK: Slavonic Dance No. 8 (arr. Webster)
GUILLAUME CONNESSON: Techno-Parade
DEBUSSY: "Jardins sous la pluie" from Estampes
POULENC: Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
PAUL SCHOENFIELD: Sonatina

Performance to be followed by Artist Q&A

Ticket Information
Tickets include concert access and on-demand streaming of the concert for three days following, plus access to a post-concert Q&A with artists. Single tickets are available for $15, with three-concert subscriptions available for $30.

Tickets for all three concerts are also available as a premium digital description for $99, which also includes:

-artist encore for each concert
-access to online screening of Strings Attached, a documentary about the Dover Quartet, an alum of SHCS's Discovery Series
-"watch party" of additional concert with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Nicola Benedetti, originally planned for SHCS's fall season
-access to "The World of the Bach Chorales", a new two-part class by Richard Giarusso of the Peabody Institute

About the Takács Quartet
The Takács Quartet, now entering its 46th season, is renowned for the vitality of its interpretations. Based in Boulder at the University of Colorado, Edward Dusinberre, Harumi Rhodes (violins), Richard O'Neill (viola) and András Fejér (cello) perform eighty concerts a year worldwide.

The ensemble recently released a CD for Hyperion of piano quintets by Amy Beach and Elgar to celebrate Geri Walther's fifteen years as the Takács' violist before her retirement. The members of the quartet welcomed Richard O'Neill as their new violist in June. The group continues their role as Associate Artists at Wigmore Hall, performing two concerts there in November and two in May. Other European venues include Vienna, Luxembourg, the Bath Mozartfest, Newcastle, Manchester, and Madrid. In August 2021, the quartet will embark on a month-long tour of Australia and South Korea. Highlights of the 2020-2021 season include performances at New York's White Light Festival, concerts with pianist Jeremy Denk at Stanford, Princeton, Ann Arbor, Boston, and Lincoln Center, and performances in Washington DC, Los Angeles, Berkeley, Philadelphia, Montreal, Vancouver, Cleveland, Portland, and Seattle.

The Takács records for Hyperion Records, and for their CDs on the Decca/London label, the Quartet has won three Gramophone Awards, a Grammy Award, three Japanese Record Academy Awards, Disc of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards, and Ensemble Album of the Year at the Classical Brits.

The members of the Takács Quartet are Christoffersen Faculty Fellows at the University of Colorado Boulder and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and Visiting Fellows at the Guildhall School of Music.

The Takács Quartet was formed in 1975 at the Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest by Gabor Takács-Nagy, Károly Schranz, Gabor Ormai and András Fejér, while all four were students. It first received international attention in 1977, winning First Prize and the Critics' Prize at the International String Quartet Competition in Evian, France. Among its many honors, in 2014 the Takács became the first string quartet to be awarded the Wigmore Hall Medal. In 2012, Gramophone announced that the Takács was the only string quartet to be inducted into its first Hall of Fame, along with such legendary artists as Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein and Dame Janet Baker. Learn more at www.takacsquartet.com.

About Garrick Ohlsson
Pianist Garrick Ohlsson has established himself worldwide as a musician of magisterial interpretive and technical prowess. Although long regarded as one of the world's leading exponents of the music of Chopin, Mr. Ohlsson commands an enormous repertoire ranging over the entire piano literature and he has come to be noted for his masterly performances of the works of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, as well as the Romantic repertoire. To date he has at his command more than 80 concertos, ranging from Haydn and Mozart to works of the 21st century.

In 2018/19 season he launched an ambitious project spread over two seasons exploring the complete solo piano works of Brahms in four different programs. In concerto repertoire ranging from Mozart and Beethoven to Brahms and Barber, he recently returned to the Nashville, Oregon, Dallas, Detroit and Colorado Symphonies, as well as the Bellingham Festival of Music with all Beethoven concerti. Internationally he can be heard with orchestras in Seoul, Helsinki, Zagreb, Tallinn, Manchester, London and Australia.

An avid chamber musician, Mr. Ohlsson has collaborated with the Cleveland, Emerson, Tokyo and Takacs string quartets, including most recently Boston Chamber Players on tour in Europe. Together with violinist Jorja Fleezanis and cellist Michael Grebanier, he is a founding member of the San Francisco-based FOG Trio. Passionate about singing and singers, Mr. Ohlsson has appeared in recital with such legendary artists as Magda Olivero, Jessye Norman, and Ewa Podle?. Mr. Ohlsson can be heard on the Arabesque, RCA Victor Red Seal, Angel, BMG, Delos, Hänssler, Nonesuch, Telarc, Hyperion and Virgin Classics labels.

A native of White Plains, N.Y., Garrick Ohlsson began his piano studies at the age of 8, at the Westchester Conservatory of Music; at 13 he entered The Juilliard School, in New York City. He has been awarded first prizes in the Busoni and Montreal Piano competitions, the Gold Medal at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (1970), the Avery Fisher Prize (1994), the University Musical Society Distinguished Artist Award in Ann Arbor, MI (1998), the Jean Gimbel Lane Prize in Piano Performance from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music (2014), and the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for cultural merit from the Polish Deputy Culture Minister. Learn more at www.garrickohlsson.com.

About Kirill Gerstein
Pianist Kirill Gerstein's curiosity and versatility has led to a powerful engagement with a wide range of repertoire and styles. From Bach to Adès, his playing is distinguished by its clarity of expression, discerning intelligence and virtuosity.

Born in the former Soviet Union, Gerstein is an American citizen based in Berlin. His career is similarly international, with solo and concerto engagements taking him across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Highlights of the new season include the launch of Gerstein's Helsinki Philharmonic Artist-in-Residence season, performances with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and a return to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. In recital, Gerstein will present the 12 études of Debussy and 12 Transcendental Études of Liszt at Berlin's Pierre Boulez Saal as well as on tour in Japan, Portugal, and Belgium. The Boston Symphony recently commissioned a concerto specifically for Gerstein from Thomas Ades.

Kirill Gerstein has collaborated with myrios classics since 2010 and recent projects include a recording of Busoni's monumental Piano Concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, The Gershwin Moment with the St Louis Symphony and David Robertson, Liszt's Transcendental Études, and Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto.

Kirill Gerstein took up the post of Professor of Piano at Berlin's Hanns Eisler Hochschule in October 2018 following 10 years of leading piano classes at the Stuttgart Musik Hochschule. He is also on the faculty of the Kronberg Academy's Sir András Schiff Performance Programme for Young Artists. In response to the impact of the global pandemic, Gerstein launched a series of free and open online seminars titled Kirill Gerstein Invites with the Hanns Eisler Academy featuring conversations with leading musicians, musicologists and philosophers.

Brought up studying both classical and jazz piano, Kirill Gerstein was 14 when he moved to the US as the youngest student to attend Boston's Berklee College of Music. Gerstein furthered his studies with Solomon Mikowsky in New York, Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid, and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. He won the first of a series of prestigious accolades in 2001: First Prize at the 10th Arthur Rubinstein Competition. In 2002, he won a Gilmore Young Artist Award and in 2010 both an Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Gilmore Artist Award. Learn more at www.kirillgerstein.com.

About The McGill/McHale Trio
The McGill/McHale Trio was founded in September 2014 when clarinetist Anthony McGill and his brother, flutist Demarre McGill, were featured artists in a residency at Bowling Green University in Ohio. While there, pianist Michael McHale joined them in concert for the first time, and it was immediately clear that the Trio had a great future in store. Since then, they've released an album on Cedille Records, collaborated with Oscar-winning actor Mahershala Ali, and given concerts in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, and Tulsa, among other cities.

Clarinetist Anthony McGill is one of classical music's most recognizable and multifaceted figures. He serves as the principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic - that orchestra's first African-American principal player - and maintains a dynamic international solo and chamber music career. Hailed for his "trademark brilliance, penetrating sound and rich character" (The New York Times), McGill is an ardent advocate for helping music education reach underserved communities and for addressing issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion in classical music. He was honored to take part in the inauguration of President Obama, performing alongside violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and pianist Gabriela Montero. McGill is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Prize (2020).

Chicago native Demarre McGill is recognized internationally as a soloist, recitalist, chamber and orchestral musician, as well as an educator, and has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Chicago, Seattle, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Grant Park, San Diego and Baltimore symphonies. Now principal flute of the Seattle Symphony, he previously served as principal flute of the Dallas, San Diego, Florida, and Santa Fe Opera orchestras and as acting principal flute of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony. McGill is Associate Professor of Flute at the Cincinnati-College Conservatory and an artist-faculty member at the Aspen Music Festival.

Michael McHale was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and now resides in London, England. Following studies at the University of Cambridge and Royal Academy of Music, McHale has gone on to become one of Ireland's leading concert pianists. He has performed with many major ensembles including the Minnesota and Hallé orchestras, and the Moscow, Bournemouth, BBC, BBC Scottish, Jacksonville and London symphonies. In addition to solo recitals and festival appearances, he collaborates with Sir James Galway, Michael Collins, Dame Felicity Lott, and Camerata Pacifica, among others, and his extensive discography encompasses over 25 solo and chamber music albums.

About Shriver Hall Concert Series
Founded in 1966, Shriver Hall Concert Series has been Baltimore’s premier presenter of chamber music ensembles and solo recitalists with the mission of making music consonant with the highest aspirations of musical art, creating performances and providing educational training programs at the highest level of excellence for more than 50 years. Presenting its coveted Subscription Series each year, free Discovery Series concerts around the Greater-Baltimore area, and other special events, the Series has featured many of the world’s most renowned soloists and ensembles. The Series has been called “Baltimore’s finest importer of classical music talent” by The Sun and is the five-time recipient of Baltimore Magazine’s distinction “Best Classical Music” in its annual “Best of Baltimore” issue. For more information, visit www.shriverconcerts.org. 

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