Yefim Bronfman will perform at Howland Center
Akiko Sasaki, music director of the Howland Chamber Music Circle, is crushing it. For the second year in a row, she has booked a pianist used to performing in the world's grandest halls for a recital on the music circle's Steinway grand at the Howland Cultural Center in Beacon.
Last year, she landed Emanuel Ax. On Feb. 4, Yefim Bronfman will arrive in Beacon after touring Asia and Europe and playing Carnegie Hall. Bronfman, 67, who was born in the Soviet Union and immigrated to Israel at age 15, has been nominated for six Grammy Awards and won in 1997 for a recording with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic of the three Bartók piano concerti.
His program will be announced later. In October, Ax performed two Beethoven pieces and another by Robert Schumann - consisting of thousands of notes - off the top of his head. He also played two modern pieces by Arnold Schoenberg.
The season, which features a bunch of other Grammy winners, opens Sept. 14 with a Beethoven tribute by violinist Joseph Lin and Friends that has already sold out. Bronfman's visit is on top of the Music Circle's annual piano series-within-a-series. Sasaki, a pianist herself, is featuring Fei Fei (Jan. 11), Timo Andres and Aaron Diehl (Jan. 25), Jeremy Denk (Feb. 15, also sold out) and Isata Kanneh-Mason (May 17).
Sasaki has also arranged some wild combos - for classical music. Two Grammy winners will appear onstage together on April 26 when mezzo soprano Fleur Barron (2025 for Best Opera Recording) teams up with the Parker Quartet (2011 for Chamber Music Performance).
"Voice and string quartet collaborations are not common, but they do exist and can be very powerful," says Sasaki.
Another unusual pairing will take place Oct. 12 when Stephen Banks joins the Verona Quartet on saxophone, an instrument more commonly associated with jazz, soul and funk. The quartet appeared at the Howland Center in 2022, and Sasaki learned that it had worked with Banks on a composition by Christopher Theofanidis. In addition to Banks' adaptation of a Mozart work and an original piece, the concert will include Theofanidis' Visions of the Hereafter (after Hieronymus Bosch).
The Akropolis Reed Quintet, the first ensemble of its kind to win a Grammy, presents another unorthodox combination: oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone and bass clarinet (Nov. 2). Brazilian guitarist Plinio Fernandes will appear with flutist Brandon Patrick George (a Grammy winner with Imani Winds) on May 3.
Although guitar ensembles are a thing, the Galvin Cello Quartet (March 29) is a rare bird consisting of young musicians from diverse backgrounds playing the same instrument. As some fans fret about the future of classical music, almost all the performers during the 2025-26 season demonstrate that the genre is adapting.
The Howland Cultural Center is located at 477 Main St. in Beacon. Tickets are $25 ($10 for students younger than 26) at howlandmusic.org/tickets; those for the Bronfman performance are $60 ($15 for students). Each concert is followed by a reception
