Music@Menlo Festival Friends Meetup

The Jim and Mical Brenzel Encounter Series invites you to go beyond the concert hall and explore the heart of chamber music. Led by top musicians and thinkers, these evening talks explore the themes of each festival with great stories, insights, and musical moments. Whether you're a longtime fan or just getting into chamber music, you'll come away inspired.

In this opening Encounter lecture, violinist and educator Aaron Boyd presents a bird's-eye view of the art of chamber music from the sixteenth century to the present. Aaron will offer a plethora of musical examples, and rare, informative visuals will render the colorful and complex evolution of the art form multidimensional and easily comprehensible.

LOCATION: Martin Family Hall, Menlo School, Atherton

In this opening program of the summer festival, violinist Stella Chen performs Saint-Saëns’s glorious Violin Sonata no. 1, alongside Ludwig van Beethoven’s rarely-heard Horn Sonata in F major featuring Kevin Rivard.

PROGRAM
Beethoven | Horn Sonata in F major, op. 17 (1800)
Mendelssohn | Cello Sonata no. 2 in D major, op. 58 (1843)
Poulenc | Clarinet Sonata (1962)
Saint-Saëns | Violin Sonata no. 1 in D minor, op. 75 (1885)

ARTISTS
David Shifrin, clarinet
Kevin Rivard, horn
Stella Chen, violin
Dmitri Atapine, cello
Hyeyeon Park, Chelsea Wang, Shai Wosner, Wu Han, pianos

LOCATION: Spieker Center for the Arts, Menlo School, Atherton

Music@Menlo Summer Festival: This program showcases trio dynamics at their finest, with Bohemian spirit in Dvořák's Terzetto, the rich timbres of Brahms’s Trio in A minor, and a haunting Elegy. Clarinetist David Shifrin returns with pianist Shai Wosner and a festival debut by cellist Jonathan Swensen.

PROGRAM
Dvořák | Terzetto in C major for Two Violins and Viola, op. 74
Brahms | Trio in A minor for Piano, Clarinet, and Cello, op. 114
Suk | Elegy for Piano Trio, op. 23
Smetana | Piano Trio in G minor, op. 15

ARTISTS
David Shifrin, clarinet
Stella Chen, Jessica Lee, Richard Lin, Arnaud Sussmann, violins
Aaron Boyd, viola
David Finckel, Jonathan Swensen, cellos
Gilbert Kalish, Chelsea Wang, Shai Wosner, pianos

LOCATION: Stent Family Hall, Menlo School, Atherton

The Jim and Mical Brenzel Encounter Series invites you to go beyond the concert hall and explore the heart of chamber music. Led by top musicians and thinkers, these evening talks explore the themes of each festival with great stories, insights, and musical moments. Whether you're a longtime fan or just getting into chamber music, you'll come away inspired.

On July 24, oboist extraordinaire James Austin Smith leads a journey through musical history from a wind player’s perspective. The evolution of wind instruments is explored for the first time at the festival, from their beginnings some 40,000 years ago to their coming of age during the Renaissance. From the physics of producing sound to the evolution of wind technology to the great players who inspired composers–this is sure to be one of Music@Menlo’s most memorable Encounters.

LOCATION: Martin Family Hall, Menlo School, Atherton