Winter Chamber Music Festival is back with three award-winning ensembles

• Updated: January 5, 2022 – Cancellation of the Jan. 14 concert by Ariel Quartet with Orion Weiss, piano and Jan. 16 with St. Lawrence String Quartet.
• Link to: Northwestern Now Story

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Northwestern University’s Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music welcomes guest artists back to the stage in Winter 2022, with the return of two popular concert series. 

The Winter Chamber Music Festival (Jan. 22 to Feb. 15, 2022), entering its 25th season, offers a journey through chamber music masterworks past and present.

“After more than a year of separation, we are thrilled to come together again to experience the transformative and unifying power of music,” said founding artistic director Blair Milton, a Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist and an adjunct associate professor at the Bienen School. “This year we are privileged to welcome last year’s artists to celebrate the 25th season of the Winter Chamber Music Festival. If it is true that good things come to those who wait, we anticipate a spectacular series and look forward to the unique collaboration the festival’s performers and audience have enjoyed for years.”

For more than 50 years, pianist Jeffrey Siegel has shared the music and stories behind centuries of piano masterpieces by well-known composers with Chicagoland audiences. Siegel returns with a three-concert Keyboard Conversations series (Feb. 11 to May 20, 2022).

The series and programs are as follows:

Winter Chamber Music Festival
Jan. 22 to Feb. 15, 2022
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston

Celebrating its 25th season, the Winter Chamber Music Festival explores chamber music spanning centuries and continents. This season, the festival welcomes back three award-winning ensembles.

• Miró Quartet
    7:30 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 22, 2022

Winner of an Emmy Award for their multimedia project “Transcendence” and the first ensemble to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the Miró Quartet performed newly commissioned works together with music of Dvořák and Schubert during the 2020-21 season. Their program features music of Samuel Barber, Kevin Puts and Maurice Ravel.

• Ying Quartet
    7:30 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022

The Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet’s recent seasons have featured performances with jazz pianist Billy Childs, a tour of China, concerts for the Philadelphia and Phoenix Chamber Music Societies and appearances as quartet-in-residence at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. Their program features music of Joseph Haydn, Zhou Long, Tan Dun, Vivian Fung and Antonín Dvořák.

• Dover Quartet
   7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022

Bienen School of Music Quartet-in-Residence the Dover Quartet counts among its many honors and awards an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Chamber Music America’s Cleveland Quartet Award, Lincoln Center’s Hunt Family Award and top prizes at the Banff International String Quartet Competition and Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. Their program features music of Joseph Haydn, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten.

Keyboard Conversations with Jeffrey Siegel
Feb. 11 to May 20, 2022
Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston

This three-program series, entering its 52nd season on Chicago’s North Shore, features lively performances and insightful commentary by Siegel.
 
• Music of Joy and Peace: Beethoven, Schumann, Gershwin
   7:30 p.m., Friday, Feb. 11, 2022

Siegel shares a program of music to uplift and to soothe. Beethoven’s“Rage Over a Lost Penny,” Schumann’s gorgeous Aria, Copland’s humorous “The Cat and the Mouse” and Gershwin’s jazzy “I Got Rhythm” are just some of the short works on this program to bring much-needed joy and peace.

• The Glorious Music of Chopin
7:30 p.m., Friday, April 8, 2022

Heroic polonaises, soulful mazurkas, passionate études, dreamy nocturnes, vivacious waltzes and the rarely heard tarantella are featured in this evening of works by one of the world’s most popular, beloved composers.

• Evocative Visions: Rachmaninoff, Debussy, Liszt
7:30 p.m. Friday, May 20, 2022

Visually-inspired musical masterpieces are the focus of this concert; Rachmaninoff’s festive and passionate “Études-tableaux,” Debussy’s visionary “Préludes,” Liszt’s “Au bord d’une source” (By the Water) and “Il Pensieroso,” inspired by Michelangelo’s statue.

Subscriptions are now available and may be purchased by phone at 847-467-4000 or in person at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, 50 Arts Circle Drive in Evanston, during ticket office hours.

Single tickets for the Winter Chamber Music Festival and Keyboard Conversationsâ are $30 for general admission and $10 for full-time students with valid ID. Tickets are available online at concertsatbienen.org.

Ticket office hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and noon to 3 p.m. on Saturday. Reduced ticket office hours during Northwestern University’s winter recess will be posted at concertsatbienen.org/ticket-office.

Bienen School of Music is a member of the Northwestern Arts Circle, which brings together film, humanities, literary arts, music, theater, dance and visual arts.