The Phillips Collection Announces 2017/18 Music Season

Performances Invite Listeners to Discover the Power of Silence within Music, Full Schedule Below

WASHINGTON—The Phillips Collection announced today the 77th concert season for the museum’s prestigious music series. Beginning in October, the upcoming Phillips Music season includes 32 planned performances across the Sunday Concert and Leading International Composers series.

“Decades since the Phillips hosted its first music gathering, inspired concerts continue to be a treasured part of our museum’s annual programming,” said Director Dorothy Kosinski. “Similar to past seasons, the performances in the coming months are certain to take audiences on a reflective journey that is once again greatly enhanced by the beautiful settings in which the music is heard.”

Some of the world’s most notable musicians have performed as part of Phillips Music over the years, as well as many promising young artists. While performers always make their own selections for the compositions performed, the concerts this coming season share a common thematic thread of discovering the power of silence within music.

“Silence is among the most potent tools an artist can employ and all music lends us the opportunity for silent reflection, alongside sonorous inspiration,” said Director of Music Caroline Mousset. “During the upcoming season for Phillips Music, we look forward to inviting audiences to treasure the silences, whether that be during, between, or after the sound of music itself.”

HIGHLIGHTS FROM SUNDAY CONCERTS

The Sunday Concert series features an impressive roster of award-winning performers, both familiar and new. As the longest continuously-running series in Washington,DC, Sunday Concerts regularly feature works from classical and living composers. This season includes numerous special engagements and debuts.

Formed in Germany by four leading orchestral wind players and pianist Thomas Hoppe, Ensemble 4.1(October 15) will make their DC debut with Phillips Music, performing a selection of quintets for piano and wind alongside pieces for smaller combinations. The first half of the concert will be devoted entirely to chamber works by Francis Poulenc.

Returning to Phillips Music for the third time is Scottish pianist Steven Osborne (October 29), who will perform Messiaen’s monumental cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, completed in 1944.

Winner of a coveted Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2016, American violinist Alexi Kenney (December 3) will be accompanied by Israeli pianist Renana Gutman. Featuring these young artists recognized for their rare musical insights and virtuosity, the concert will include Baroque pieces for solo violin and late- Romantic works for violin and piano.

Praised for their debut album of quartets by Haydn and appearances at concerts and international festivals around the globe, the Munich-based Goldmund Quartett (January 21) will give their first-ever DC performance with Phillips Music. The program will feature pieces by Haydn as well as the second of Beethoven’sRazumovsky Quartets, which is considered one of the composer’s most ambitious middle-period works.

Highly sought after for his interpretation of the Viennese Classics, pianist Shai Wosner (January 28 and February 4) will present two concerts with Phillips Music, allowing audiences the rare chance to hear Schubert’s final six piano sonatas in sequence.

Originally formed in 1934, Smetana Trio (February 25) has

long been comprised of musicians who are also leading soloists. Maintaining that tradition today, the Czech trio currently includes pianist Jitka Čechová, violinist Jiří Vodička, and cellist Jan Páleníček. Their performance at the Phillips will feature pieces by Zemlinsky, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn.

Married in 1985, cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han (March 11) will make their Phillips debut. At the heart of their concert will be Bruce Adolphe’s four-movement composition Couple, which was specially written for the pair in 1998.

Commemorating the centenary of Debussy’s death, pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (April 22) will present a concert dedicated entirely to the composer’s wide range of work.

Presented as part of a citywide centennial celebration and interwoven with personal anecdotes and film clips, Late Night with Leonard Bernstein (May 20) will include some of the American composer’s most intimate music alongside works by Copland, Confrey, Coward, Schubert, and Chopin. Hosted by Bernstein’s daughter Jamie, this original “Multi-Media Cabaret” performance will feature soprano Amy Burton and pianists John Musto and Michael Boriskin.

LEADING INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS

In 2009, the Phillips joined forces with European embassies in Washington, DC, to create a groundbreaking concert series: Leading European Composers. Presenting some of the greatest living composers of today, this unique series allows the composers to introduce their works with performers they specifically select for the occasion. In 2015, Phillips Music broadened its scope and created Leading International Composers, to infuse the concert season with the best of global contemporary music. As part of the Phillips’ partnership with the University of Maryland, featured composers also interact with School of Music students and faculty at The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in College Park.

This year’s featured composer is Turkish pianist Fazıl Say (March 15), and he is also the featured musician for the Sunday Concert on March 18. Performers for this year’s Leading International Composer concert will include University of Maryland School of Music faculty and students.

Say began his piano studies with Mithat Fenmen, who encouraged him to improvise on themes from his daily life alongside his essential piano exercises. This philosophy greatly influenced Say as both a pianist and composer. While studying with David Levine, he fine-tuned his skills as a classical pianist, first at the Musikhochschule Robert Schumann in Düsseldorf and later in Berlin. In 1994, he was declared the winner of the Young Concert Artists international competition in New York. Since then, he has played with renowned American and European orchestras and numerous leading conductors, building a repertoire ranging from the Viennese Classics and the Romantics to contemporary music.

Reflected in his broad range of compositions, Say is inspired by improvisation, jazz, and a passion for Mozart. He is also influenced by Turkish folklore and literature. His compositions include large-scale orchestral works (including four symphonies and several concertos), as well as a wide variety of music for chamber ensemble and large-scale vocal works. Say has been commissioned to compose works for, among others, the Salzburg Festival, West German Radio (WDR), the Vienna Konzerthaus, and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival.

SUNDAY CONCERTS 2017/2018

October 1, 2017 Alexander String Quartet

October 8, 2017 Sergei Babayan, piano

October 15, 2017 Ensemble 4.1, woodwinds and piano

October 22, 2017 Seth Parker Woods, cello

October 29, 2017 Steven Osborne, piano

November 5, 2017 Victor Julien-Laferrière and Guillaume Bellom, cello and piano

November 12, 2017 Van Kujik Quartet

November 19, 2017 Annie Wu and Feng Niu, flute and piano

December 3, 2017 Alexi Kenney and Renana Gutman, violin and piano

December 10, 2017 Tessa Lark and Roman Rabinovich, violin and piano

December 17, 2017 Chalaca Trio, harp, clarinet, and percussion

January 7, 2018 Vadim Gluzman and Angela Yoffe, violin and piano

January 14, 2018 Jason Vieaux and Julien Labro, guitar and bandoneon

January 21, 2018 Goldmund Quartett

January 28, 2018 Shai Wosner, piano

& February 4, 2018

February 11, 2018 Aleksey Semenenko and Inna Firsova, violin and piano

February 18, 2018 Miriam Fried and Jonathan Biss, violin and piano

February 25, 2018 Smetana Trio, piano trio

March 4, 2018 Dublin Guitar Quartet

March 11, 2018 David Finckel and Wu Han, cello and piano

March 18, 2018 Fazıl Say, piano

April 1, 2018 Busch Trio, piano trio

April 8, 2018 István Várdai, cello

April 15, 2018 Schumann Quartett

April 22, 2018 Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, piano

April 29, 2018 Yeol Eum Son, piano

May 6, 2018 David Shifrin and Miró Quartet, clarinet and string quartet

May 13, 2018 Hermitage Piano Trio

May 20, 2018 Late Night with Leonard Bernstein, soprano and two pianos with guest narrator

May 27, 2018 Stephen Kovacevich, piano

LEADING INTERNATIONAL COMPOSERS

March 15, 2018

Fazıl Say, Turkey

VENUE INFORMATION

While the Phillips undergoes a preservation project in the historic house until early 2018, the critically acclaimed concert series will continue next door in the Cosmos Club’s elegant Beaux Arts Warne Ballroom. Upon completion of the project, concerts will return to the Phillips’s iconic music room for the remainder of the season.

Carefully designed to enhance the 1897 building’s historic character and preserve the museum’s celebrated collection for years to come, the project will migrate the house galleries and music room to a fully digitized temperature and humidity control system. Fittingly, it aligns with Duncan Phillips’s

mission to “create a beneficent force in the community where I live—a joy-giving, life-enhancing influence, assisting people to see beautifully as true artists see.”

TICKETING

Reservations are strongly recommended. First tickets (for October concerts) will be released on August 15; please reference ticket schedule table for additional on sale dates. Online reservations are available until 9 am on the morning of each performance. Tickets are $40, $20 for members and students with ID and include museum admission for the day of the concert. Seats are unreserved, and early arrival is recommended. All artists and programs are subject to change. Up-to-date concert details, ticket policies, and venue information is available here: www.phillipscollection.org/music.

	CONCERTS			ON SALE DATE
	October			August 15
	November			September 1
	December			October 1
	January			November 1
	February			December 1
	March			January 1
	April			February 1
	May			March 1