A premiere by Shruthi Rajasekar highlights the Seraphim Singers’ Nevertheless She Persisted program at Newton’s Eliot Church on Feb. 29/March 1. ReyMash Photography
The new year begins with a flurry of inviting chamber music programs throughout the North Shore and MetroWest areas. Here’s a few of the highlights.
The adventurous Neave Trio has built its identity with repertory based solidly on contemporary music—especially women composers—along with extra-musical collaborations with dancers and video artists. Three performances during the winter months give adventurously minded audiences a chance to see them perform: at Natick’s Center for the Arts (Jan. 26; natickarts.org); on Feb. 7 in Wenham at Gordon College (www.gordon.edu); and in Cambridge at the Longy School of Music (Feb. 14; longy.edu).
Also at Longy, the Celebrity Series presents hotshot duo Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin) and Jay Campbell (cello) on Jan. 23 and 24, with works by Kodaly, Widmann, Ligeti and Ravel (celebrityseries.org).
The Juilliard String Quartet makes a rare New England appearance on Jan. 12 on the Concord Chamber Music Society’s season, with a program that includes Dutilleux’s “Ainsi la nuit” (concordchambermusic.org). Sarasa Chamber Music Ensemble (sarasamusic.org) spotlights the viola in programs on Jan. 18 in Cambridge, and the following afternoon at First Parish in Lexington. Jennifer Stirling and Jason Fisher are highlighted in works by Mozart and Brahms.
Newton Baroque presents Musica Napoletana, featuring soprano Nicole Estima singing arias of Hasse and Pergolesi, on an elegant program of early Italian music at Second Church in Newton on Jan. 11. Newton Baroque’s director/harpsichordist Andrus Madsen leads an instrumental performance of music from the same era on Feb. 15 as well (newtonbaroque.org).
Anne Azéma of Boston Camerata has re-staged even earlier music, the fourteenth century Book of Daniel, and tours with it this season, including a performance at First Church Cambridge on Jan. 25 (bostoncamerata.org).
In Newton’s Eliot Church on Feb. 29 and March 1, Seraphim Singers present Nevertheless, She Persisted. Women composers, poets and storytellers highlight a program that includes a premiere by Shruthi Rajasekar (seraphimsingers.org).
The Boston Artists Ensemble performs in Salem’s Hamilton Hall on Jan. 3 in a program that investigates Mozart’s two string quintets (bostonartistsensemble.org). Guests Peter Zazofsky and Bayla Keyes (violins), with violists Steven Ansell and Beth Guterman Chu, join cellist/director Jonathan Miller. The program repeats on Jan. 5 at St. Paul’s Church in Brookline.
Pianist David Deveau joins the Boston Symphony Chamber Players on Jan. 19 at Jordan Hall (bso.org), performing trios by Reinecke and Brahms.
The intrepid Chameleon Arts Ensemble, a estimable chamber group that constantly explores the less-explored, comes to Salem State University on Jan. 30 (salemstate.edu/events). The program includes Messaien’s bracing “Quartet for the End of Time,” which will be introduced the previous evening by musicologist Andrew Shenton.
The Cape Ann Symphony continues its promising Musicians Unleashed chamber series on Jan. 19 (capeannsymphony.org) at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Gloucester, with a Beethoven trio and Telemann horn concerto.
A highlight of the Metropolitan Opera winter season is the run of Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck,” which will be simulcast in the Shalin Liu Performance Center, home of Rockport Music, on Jan. 11 (rockportmusic.org). Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts in a new staging by William Ketteridge. “Madame Butterfly,” “Porgy and Bess,” “Agrippina,” “Flying Dutchman,” “Tosca,” and “Maria Stuarda” are also part of the spring lineup from the Met.
Rockport Music also hosts Soul of the Americas, with unusual instrumentation (two pianos, cello, percussion), investigating a fascinating program of music by Golijov, Copland, Ginastera, Gershwin and Villa-Lobos (Jan. 19). Palaver Strings presents a Jan. 23 program in Rockport’s Shalin Liu Performance Center as part of their education residency.
That concert includes music that helps nudge the cold, dark season along, including Winter from Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” (with guest soloist Nicholas Kitchen) and works by Mendelssohn, Richter and Widor. Rockport Music also hosts the Vienna Piano Trio on Feb. 23, with Haydn, Brahms and of course Beethoven on the program.
The Newburyport Chamber Music Festival (newburyportchambermusic.org) keeps its summer energy going through the off-season. On March 28 pianist Michael Brown gives a recital, including his own music and compositions by Haydn, Medtner, Ravel and Copland. As with many of NCMF’s events, this will be one of its Hausmusik programs, open to the public.