Music at Kohl Mansion to Present HOLIDAY ROULETTE MEZZO MASH-UP

Music at Kohl Mansion will present a special addition of a joyous seasonal concert, Holiday Roulette: A Mezzo Mash-up! featuring the luminary talents of mezzo-sopranos Nikola Printz and Gabrielle Beteag along with pianist-producer extraordinaire, Ronny Michael Greenberg. This just-announced concert of musical brilliance and holiday cheer is scheduled for Sunday, December 3, at 7 p.m.

Tickets are now on sale and the price of admission includes an elegant post-performance champagne and dessert reception with the artists. The concert will be held against the enchanting backdrop of Burlingame's historic Kohl Mansion, adorned with its renowned holiday lights and decorations, creating a festive atmosphere that perfectly complements the musical celebration.

The musical program will be a delightful fusion of traditional seasonal holiday tunes, opera classics, and songs from Broadway, cabaret, and jazz, all performed with extraordinary talent and a generous dose of humor. The program will feature works by Irving Berlin, Bizet, Mozart, Rossini, Handel, and Humperdinck, among others. Adding to the excitement, the audience will have the opportunity to participate in a unique musical experience by spinning the Holiday Roulette Wheel. This interactive element will allow attendees to select songs for the artists to perform, ensuring a one-of-a-kind experience which the audience will be involved in creating.  

Both mezzos, Nikola Printz and Gabrielle Beteag, are highly accomplished opera and concert singers, and currently members of San Francisco Opera's prestigious Adler Fellowship Program. MAKM previously worked with Nikola Printz in 2020 when she sang Jake Heggie's commissioned work Intonations: Songs from the Violins of Hope in three different Bay Area concerts. As this time, Gabrielle Beteag is currently competing in the 30th Anniversary edition of Operalia, the World Opera Competition, held this year in Cape Town, South Africa. Beteag is one of 34 international finalists in the prestigious competition. Ronny Michael Greenberg, also a veteran of the Merola Opera and Adler Fellowship programs, is a renowned collaborative pianist and soloist, performing across the U.S., as well as a remarkable and highly innovative producer of classical concerts.

JUPITER STRING QUARTET Presents Upheaval, November 19 at 7 p.m.

Music at Kohl Mansion's international chamber music season will continue Sunday, November 19 with the debut of the nationally acclaimed Jupiter String Quartet. For their auspicious engagement, the ensemble will present Upheaval, a very thoughtful and timely program of music and composers reflective of great social political upheaval from the past to the present.

About this program, the ensemble offered up the following commentary:

“Music can provide a profound lifeline for those struggling through times of unrest. The composers in this program grapple with the realities of a world full of upheaval and uncertainty, attempting to provide a path to greater understanding. The Irish-English composer Elizabeth Maconchy was an avowed socialist who supported the Republican forces fighting off Franco in the Spanish Civil War. Her hauntingly beautiful third quartet emerged out of the shadows of 1930s Europe. Carlos Simon's heartbreaking Elegy memorializes the Black American victims of police violence, while Nathan Shield's new quartet, Medusa, written for the Jupiter Quartet for the composer's Guggenheim Fellowship, uses the paintings of Caravaggio as an inspiration for exploring the effects of various types of political and social violence. Beethoven's epic eighth quartet is one of the many works he wrote during a time of immense political turmoil.”

The Sunday, November 19 program will feature:

Elizabeth Maconchy: String Quartet No. 3

Nathan Shields: Medusa

Carlos Simon: Elegy

William Bolcolm: The Graceful Ghost – Just Added

Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2

Nelson Lee and Meg Freivogel, violin; Liz Freivogel, viola; Daniel McDonough, cello

“The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber music scene.” (The New Yorker)

Now enjoying its 21st year together, the Jupiter String Quartet is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music. The quartet has performed across the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and the Americas to critical acclaim in some of the world's finest halls, including New York City's Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London's Wigmore Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria's Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul's Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, the Banff Centre, Virginia Arts Festival, Music at Menlo, Maverick Concerts, Caramoor International Music Festival, Lanaudiere Festival, West Cork (Ireland) Chamber Music Festival, the inaugural Chamber Music Athens, and the Seoul Spring Festival. In 2012, the multi-award-winning Jupiter String Quartet members were appointed as artists-in-residence and faculty at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.

TICKETS:  Single tickets for the Jupiter String Quartet are priced $58 (adult), $55 (senior) and $25 (age 30 and under). Tickets for Holiday Roulette: A Mezzo Mash-up! are priced $75 (premium) and $55 (general), and age 18 and under are free; Holiday Roulette tickets include complimentary champagne and dessert reception with the artists. To purchase tickets, call the Box Office at (650) 762-1130 or online via musicatkohl.org.

PRE-CONCERT:  St. Lawrence String Quartet cellist and educator Christopher Costanza will provide a pre-performance discussion November 19 at 6 p.m. in the Kohl Mansion Library regarding the Jupiter String Quartet concert. Please note there will be no pre-concert talk for the December 3 program. Free, ample public parking is available.

2023-24 SEASON ARTISTS: Israeli Chamber Project, October 22; Jupiter String Quartet*, November 19; Holiday Roulette: A Mezzo Mash-up!*, December 3; Frautschi, Manasse, Nakamatsu Trio, January 28, 2024; Horszowski Trio, February 25; Poulenc Trio with soprano Shawnette Sulker*, March 17; Pianist Joyce Yang, April 7; Pianist Ilya Yakushev with members of the St. Lawrence String Quartet, May 5. All concerts are scheduled for Sundays at 7 p.m. Music at Kohl Mansion's 2023-24 Season is presented at the historic Kohl Mansion's Great Hall, 2750 Adeline Drive, Burlingame.

Major support of Music at Kohl Mansion's 41st Season is provided, in part, by the San Mateo County Arts Commission, Sam Mazza Foundation, Mervyn Brenner Foundation, and many generous individual donors.

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