Princeton University Concerts Reveals 2024-25 Season Lineup

Princeton University Concerts (PUC)’s 2024-25 season offers more opportunities than ever before to listen your way to the world’s most celebrated musicians, among friends. From September 2024-April 2025, 22 performances span diverse artists, repertoire, and formats in which to experience chamber music: the mainstage Concert Classics series, which has been running since PUC’s inception in 1894, with audience seated in the 800-seat Richardson Auditorium; Special Events with luminary soloists and exceptional ensembles; the intimate Performances Up Close series, with audience seated alongside the artist on stage in a more informal atmosphere; the Healing with Music conversation-concert series highlighting music’s powerful role in our lives and our world; concerts by the Richardson Chamber Players faculty ensemble; and Family Concerts. The repertoire performed across series ranges from early music to new compositions spanning Baroque, classical, and world music traditions. PUC’s free Live Music Meditation series, Annual Chamber Jam, and community programs beyond the concert hall will be announced over the summer. Information about the 2024-25 Season is available at puc.princeton.edu.

“At Princeton University Concerts, we are continually exploring the endless possibilities of what chamber music might encompass in the hands of the world’s best musicians, from the most established to the trailblazing next generation,” says PUC Director Marna Seltzer. “I am proud that PUC has become a place where you can encounter these artists at all stages of their careers and in many different settings, and next season is no exception.” The upcoming season offers musical experiences that have seldom been a part of PUC’s 131 years of programming including classical guitar, jazz vocals sung to harpsichord and theorbo, solo lute, saxophone, guitar, kamancheh, pipa, and tabla.

“We always try to emphasize that chamber music is fundamentally about human connection and interplay, and we try to infuse that communal spirit in our programming,” Seltzer continues. “In addition to concerts, we will continue our wide breadth of community programming beyond the concert hall, including Do-Re-Meet social events, documentary screenings at The Garden Theater, and book group discussions at the Princeton Public Library, creating both enhanced connection among our loyal audiences and increased points of connection with our music programming.”

CONCERTS CLASSIC SERIES AND SPECIAL EVENTS

Highlights of the 2024-25 Concert Classics series include superstar Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, who finally makes her Princeton University Concerts debut with pianist Denis Kozhukhin, Queen Elisabeth Competition laureate, performing works by Clara and Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra with piano legend Mitsuko Uchida will make a triumphant return on Thursday, March 27, 2025, performing works by W.A. Mozart and Leoš Janáček. Beloved duo baritone Christian Gerhaher and pianist Gerold Huber will make their PUC debuts with a program that explores Robert Schumann’s lesser-known lieder.

The 2024-25 Season also offers PUC audiences opportunities to engage with returning PUC artists in new ways: in new performance formats, and in collaboration with artists making their PUC debuts.

After an unforgettable PUC debut in 2023, jazz vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant returns on Wednesday, October 9, 2024 joined by pianist Sullivan Fortner, flutist Emi Ferguson, theorboist/lutist Dusan Balarin, bassist Yasushi Nakamura, and percussionist Keita Ogawa for a special event fusing the sounds of early music and jazz.

Pianist Benjamin Grosvenor will also make a long-anticipated return to PUC’s series. Like fellow pianist and 2024-25 PUC artist Igor Levit, Grosvenor last came to PUC when he was in his early twenties; now he returns firmly established as one of the leading pianists of our time bringing a program of Johannes Brahms Intermezzi, Op. 117, Robert Schumann Fantasie in C Major, Op. 17, and the monumental Modest Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition.

The Chanticleer Vocal Ensemble will bring PUC audiences their beloved “Chanticleer Christmas” holiday program on Saturday, December 7, 2024 for a festive evening in the Princeton University Chapel. Chanticleer, directed by Princeton University alumnus Tim Keeler, made a memorable PUC debut in Fall 2023, leading the community Chamber Jam, singing for a Live Music Meditation event, and performing a program ranging from Baroque choral music to contemporary covers. This year is a chance to experience their version of a holiday classic—a program ranging from Renaissance masterworks to roof-raising spirituals.

The Ébène and Belcea String Quartets are both returning to PUC on Wednesday, November 13, this time in octet formation playing works by Mendelssohnand George Enescu. The Takács String Quartet returns with legendary pianist and composer Sir Stephen Hough making his long-anticipated PUC debut in a program including Brahms Piano Quintet, Op. 34, which has been characterized as the pinnacle of Brahms chamber music. Also on the program are BeethovenString Quartet in F Major, Op. 18, No. 1, and a new string quartet written by Hough for the Takács Quartet.

Clarinetist Martin Fröst first appeared on the PUC series in 2018 in recital. On Wednesday, April 2, 2025, he will perform as part of a trio with the world-renowned violist Antoine Tamestit and pianist Shai Wosner, both making their PUC debuts. The artists will play their own arrangements of works by Antonín Dvořák, Johannes Brahms, and Georges Bizet, as well as a suite by Wosner—“Dance Mosaic”—comprising a selection of Swedish, Bulgarian, French and other folk dance tunes.

Saxophonist Jess Gillam Will Close the Concert Classics series. Gillam’s warmth lent itself so well to the intimacy of her Performances Up Close in the Fall of 2022 and digital performances during pandemic shutdowns. On Thursday, April 10, 2025, her infectious joy in music-making will be amplified as she becomes the first-ever saxophonist to appear on the PUC’s mainstage Concert Classics series, playing works by Graham Fitkin, Phil Woods, Mel Bonis, Benjamin Britten, and Georg Philipp Telemann.

NEW PATHS FOR HEALING WITH MUSIC

“There is no doubt that music plays an important role in our lives and in our world,” says PUC Outreach Manager Dasha Koltunyuk. “Since the Healing with Music series began in September 2022, it has focused on the many ways in which artists use music to navigate life-changing health challenges, including Long-COVID, cancer, and anxiety. The upcoming third season of the Healing with Music series will now focus on musician-activists who use their art and platforms to engage in civic discussion, and to respond to world events which have touched them personally in profound, often tragic ways. Their points of view reflect a throughline of hope in humanity and the unique way art and music can promote understanding.

“We are extraordinarily fortunate to have Deborah Amos, an award-winning international correspondent for National Public Radio, as moderator for all of next season’s Healing with Music events,” Koltunyuk adds. “Many will remember her from her Healing with Music series debut in conversation with writer Suleika Jaouad and her husband, musician Jon Batiste, at our sold-out event in November 2023. She not only has a unique understanding of the world events to which the 2024-25 season Healing with Music artists are responding, but she is also a fantastic interviewer who is well poised to facilitate these important, sensitive discussions permeated by live music.”

The 2024-2025 season will open on Thursday, September 26, 2024 with the first of three Healing with Music events: “Home Within,” an audio-visual project of Syrian composer and clarinetist, Kinan Azmeh, and Syrian-Armenian visual artist, Kevork Mourad—both members of Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble. Created with the intention of raising awareness for Syrian refugees, the work features original music by the clarinetist with live illustration depicting specific moments in Syria’s recent history. Additionally, they will discuss in conversation with Deborah Amos the impact of war on our sense of “home,” and how they use image and sound to establish a sense of sustained urgency and continued hope for both their homeland and communities around the world.

On Sunday, November 3, 2024 Igor Levit, one of the most extraordinary pianists of our time, will appear on the Healing with Music series to shed light on how he uses his platform and artistry for the betterment of the world. Levit’s work, which has included demonstrations on behalf of social inclusion and climate change and album dedications to social causes, has earned him the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Statute B of the International Auschwitz Committee, and Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. This has also come at a cost—Levit has played under police protection after receiving antisemitic death threats. He is the epitome of a musician-activist, and this event will be a fascinating way to get to know him as an individual.

Since leaving his homeland and family as a teenager with his beloved kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument) in tow, Kayhan Kalhor has built an international reputation as one of the most famous performers and composers from Iran; he’s been nominated for five GRAMMY Awards and won a 2017 GRAMMY Award with Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, of which he is an original member. Kalhor will present his Healing with Music event “Finding Home in Music” on Wednesday, February 12, 2025. The event will shed light on how, while the constantly shifting political situations in Iran and the U.S. have continued to complicate both his personal and his professional life, Kalhor has continuously put his dedication to music and his culture above profound loss, anti-Muslim sentiment, and political unrest.

Healing with Music artist Igor Levit will also perform a solo recital in a Special Event on Wednesday, October 30, 2024 at 7:30PM, playing a program of J.S.Bach, Brahms, and a Liszt transcription of Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A Major, a mammoth artistic feat. Kayhan Kalhor will play kamancheh in concert as part of the DoosTrio on PUC’s Performances Up Close series on Thursday, February 13, 2025. These pairings of concerts and Healing with Music events with the same artists are unique opportunities to get to know these performers as both artists and as individuals—to learn about the causes they are passionate about and their personal stories.

PERFORMANCES UP CLOSE

The 2024-2025 Performances Up Close season features artists who are pushing the boundaries of their genre and becoming the new leaders of their instruments. Since forming in 2019, the Isidore String Quartet has made a meteoric rise, winning the 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition in 2022. Their vision is to revisit, rediscover, and reinvigorate the string quartet repertory, and they will do just that when they make their Princeton debut on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 in a program featuring a recent string quartet by multiple GRAMMY-winner Billy Childs; the monumental sole string quartet (1931) by Ruth Crawford Seeger; and W.A. Mozart’s forward-thinking “Dissonance” quartet. On Wednesday, February 5, 2025, guitarist Raphaël Feuillarte’s debut includes arrangements of classical works, including pieces by J.S. Bach, Françoise Couperin, and Astor Piazzolla, as well as folk music. On Thursday, February 13, 2025 the aforementioned DoosTrio, made up of Kayhan Kalhor on kamancheh, Wu Man on pipa, and Sandeep Das on tabla, will bring PUC audiences the ancient traditions and sounds of Iran, China, and India through a 21st century perspective.

Lutist Thomas Dunford last appeared on the Concert Classics series with The Jupiter Ensemble, but this time audiences will have the opportunity to get to know him and his artistry more directly, performing solo on Sunday, March 23. His program includes his own arrangement of J.S. Bach Suite for Cello in G Major, BW 1007 and Erik Satie Gymnopédie No. 1 and Gnossienne No. 1. It also includes lesser-heard works by composers John Dowland, Marin Marais, Girolamo Kapsberger, and Joan Ambrosio Dalza.

ALL IN THE FAMILY AND RICHARDSON CHAMBER PLAYERS

This season will also feature All in the Family concerts on Saturday afternoons, featuring The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS), and Sunday afternoon concerts with the Richardson Chamber Players, a resident ensemble of Princeton University performance faculty, distinguished guest artists and supremely talented students. Relaxed-format performances curated for ages 3-6 and neurodiverse children, will take place the Lewis Arts Complex on campus on Saturday, October 19, 2024 at 1PM and 3PM, with host Rami Vamos leading us on a kid-friendly exploration of classical music with CMS musicians. On Saturday, March 15, 2025 at 1PM, CMS musicians will be joined by host Bruce Adolphe for a performance curated for ages 6-12 at Richardson Auditorium. The Richardson Chamber Players concerts will take place Sundays, November 24, 2024 and March 2, 2025 at 3PM at Richardson Auditorium, Alexander Hall. Programs for these performances are to be announced.

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