Celebrity Series of Boston
November 2015 Events
Gil Shaham, solo violin with original films by David Michalek
Sunday, November 1, 2015, 5pm
Sanders Theatre: Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Red line to Harvard Square
Gil Shaham performs the Sei solo, “six alone,” as J.S. Bach labeled his set of three sonatas and three partitas for solo violin in a fascinating multi-media performance at Sanders Theatre. These iconic landmarks of European culture are among the most technically challenging music ever written for the violin. Gil Shaham’s collaborative vision for tackling these masterworks includes newly commissioned films by visual artist David Michalek, creator of the internationally celebrated outdoor installation, SLOWDANCING.
What Makes It Great? With Rob Kapilow, All the Things You Are, American Song
Friday, November 6, 2015, 8pm
NEC’s Jordan Hall: 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Tickets: $40 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line E to Symphony
From Jerome Kern to Aaron Copland, from Broadway to art songs, America produced a stunningly varied and brilliant array of songs in the 20th century in a variety of styles. Rob Kapilow will unpack and celebrate American songwriting with soprano Emily Albrink in this edition of the ever popular What Makes It Great?
Mavis Staples and Joan Osborne, Solid Soul
Saturday, November 7, 2015, 8pm
Berklee Performance Center: 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Tickets: $30 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line to Hynes Convention Center
From her early days with the iconic Staple Singers, when she was on top of the charts with songs like the 1972 #1 hit “I’ll Take You There”, to her recent albums with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Mavis Staples has been a leader in American music for six decades. The “Solid Soul” tour marks her first tour collaboration with multi-platinum recording artist Joan Osborne, the widely celebrated singer-songwriter who dominated Top 40 radio with her hit song “One of Us” and whose albums have garnered seven Grammy nominations.
Bach Collegium Japan with Masaaki Suzuki
Sunday, November 8, 2015, 3pm
NEC’s Jordan Hall: 30 Gainsborough St., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line E to Symphony
Bach Collegium Japan is widely recognized as one of world’s leading interpreters of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. Its inspirational Music Director Masaaki Suzuki founded Bach Collegium Japan in 1990 to introduce the Japanese audience to period instrument performances of great works from the baroque period. They are joined by soprano Joanne Lunn for this performance.
Program:
J.S. BACH: “Brandenburg” Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047
ANTONIO VIVALDI: Concerto in C Major for Recorder, Strings, and Continuo, RV 443
GEORGE FRIDERIC HANDEL: Gloria in B-flat Major, HWV deest
ANTONIO VIVALDI: Oboe Concerto C Major, RV450
J.S. BACH: Cantata No. 51: Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!
Chucho Valdés: Irakere 40
Thursday, November 12, 2015, 8pm
Berklee Performance Center: 136 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Tickets: $30 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line to Hynes Convention Center
Winner of five Grammy and three Latin Grammy awards, the Cuban pianist, composer and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. Irakere is the small, Cuban-style big band that he founded 40 years ago, still going strong with an explosive mix of jazz, rock, classical, Afro-Cuban and traditional Cuban music.
“A pianist of imperial command, possessed of a dazzling, deceptively casual virtuosity.” —The New York Times
Circa, Opus, with Quatuor Debussy
Friday, November 13 | 7:30pm
Saturday, November 14 | 8pm
Sunday, November 15 | 3pm
Citi Shubert Theatre: 270 Tremont St., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line to Boylston
Opus is a work of stunning power, virtuosity and poetry. Fourteen acrobats and a string quartet celebrate the music of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. In Opus, three of his quartets form the musical and dramatic spine of a red-hot fusion of extreme acrobatics, lyrical movement and group choreography. This is groundbreaking work of intense power; a melding of music and bodies at the highest level.
“Opus is cut-glass, caviar circus. It’s black tie and ballgown circus. And it’s an astonishing thing to watch: graceful, bombastic. Profound.” —The Telegraph (UK)
Sunday, November 15, 2015, 3pm
Symphony Hall: 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line E to Symphony
Winner of two Grammys, one Emmy, three SAMAS and one Oscar nomination, Soweto Gospel Choir is one of South Africa’s most accomplished performing groups. This 24-member choir’s signature mix of African gospel, reggae, original arrangements of American pop music has inspired fans worldwide.
Yo-Yo Ma and Kathryn Stott
Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 8pm
Symphony Hall: 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Tickets: $45 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line E to Symphony
The many-faceted career of cellist Yo-Yo Ma is testament to his continual search for new ways to communicate with audiences and to his personal desire for artistic growth and renewal. We are all lucky to have Yo-Yo Ma living in our era, for he is simply the best.
“Yo-Yo Ma did what he always does …played with a passion and intensity that few musicians in the world today can match.” —The New York Times
Jennifer Koh and Shai Wosner, Bridge to Beethoven
Wednesday, November 18, 2015, 8pm
Pickman Hall: 27 Garden St., Cambridge, MA
Tickets: $20 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Red line to Harvard Square
Grammy-nominated violinist Jennifer Koh joins Avery Fisher Career Grant winner and pianist Shai Wosner for Bridge to Beethoven, a project to explore the impact and significance Beethoven and classical music have had on composers and musicians. This program features a new commission from jazz pianist and composer Vijay Iyer as a companion piece to Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” sonata.
Program:
BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Major
VIJAY IYER: “Bridgetower Fantasy” (New commission in conversation with Kreutzer Sonata | East Coast Premiere)
BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 9 in A Major, Opus 47, “Kreutzer”
Seating for this performance is limited.
Children of the Light: Danilo Perez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade with special opening by pianist Joey Alexander
Friday, November 20, 2015, 8pm
Sanders Theatre: Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA
Tickets: $30 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Red line to Harvard Square
Pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade are three jazz masters of their era—each a powerful leader in his own right—who came together under the leadership of tenor saxophone titan Wayne Shorter and have now launched themselves skyward as an all-star trio. Joey Alexander is a 12 year old jazz pianist from Bali with an impeccable sense of swing and a gift for improvising. You will not soon forget this incredible young phenomenon.
“[Children of the Light] is an intentionally leaderless trio with a nonproprietary sense toward the music itself. Their combination of composition and improvising—which they call “compromising”—is a souvenir of their long tenure with Shorter…bring your sunglasses to the show, because there’s more than enough light to go around.” —Downbeat Magazine
Billy Collins and Aimee Mann: An Evening of Poetry, Acoustic Music and Conversation
Saturday, November 21, 2015, 8pm
Sanders Theatre: Memorial Hall, Harvard University, 45 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA
Tickets: $30 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Red line to Harvard Square
Former U.S. Poet Laureate and a Guggenheim Fellow Billy Collins and Oscar- and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Aimee Mann come together for a rare evening of poetry, acoustic music and conversation about their art forms and creative process.
Billy Collins was the inaugural recipient of the Mark Twain Award for Humor in Poetry by the Poetry Foundation. Award-winning songwriter and indie music star Aimee Mann has appeared in the Coen brothers’ film The Big Lebowski, wrote haunting songs for soundtrack to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and has had cameo appearances on The West Wing and Portlandia.
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis
Sunday, November 22, 2015, 5pm
Symphony Hall: 301 Massachusetts Ave., Boston, MA
Tickets: $35 and up
Phone: (617) 482-6661
MBTA: Green line E to Symphony
Hailed as “an extraordinarily versatile orchestra” by The Los Angeles Times, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is composed of fifteen of jazz music’s finest soloists under the leadership of musical director Wynton Marsalis. A powerfully swinging experience!
About Celebrity Series of Boston
Celebrity Series of Boston was founded in 1938 by pianist and impresario Aaron Richmond. Over the course of its 77-year history, Celebrity Series has presented an array of the world’s greatest performing artists, including Sergei Rachmaninoff, Arturo Toscanini, Ignace Paderewski, Artur Rubenstein, Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Fritz Kreisler, Jascha Heifetz, Isaac Stern, Andrés Segovia, Kirsten Flagstad, Marian Anderson, Luciano Pavarotti, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Martha Graham, Ballet Russe De Monte Carlo, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Mstislav Rostropovich, and the New York City Opera Company.
The Celebrity Series has been bringing the very best performers–from orchestras and chamber ensembles, vocal and piano music, to dance companies, jazz, and more–to Boston’s major concert halls for 77 years. The Celebrity Series of Boston believes in the power of excellence and innovation in the performing arts to enrich life experiences, transform lives and build better communities. Through its education initiatives, the Celebrity Series seeks to build a community of Greater Boston where the performing arts are a valued, lifelong, shared experience–on stages, in schools, at home– everywhere. For more information on Celebrity Series of Boston, call (617) 482-2595 or visit us online at www.celebrityseries.org.
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web: stephaniejanespr.com
