Presented in a beautiful Brookline home, this special Collage evening always includes an illuminating and entertaining interview of a prominent musical personality by music director David Hoose, as well as exciting music, conviviality, and delicious deserts. The multifaceted musician and violinist Joel Smirnoff will join us in conversation and will perform works by Aaron Copland and Louis Gruenberg with Collage pianist Christopher Oldfather.
Past guests have included John Harbison, Yehudi Wyner, Gunther Schuller Charles Fussell, Richard Dyer, Janna Baty, Robert Levin, Peter Child, John Heiss, Andy Vores, Osvaldo Golijov, and Michael Gandolfi.
A reception will follow with a raffle, elegant desserts and savory treats
Limited seating is available so buy your tickets now! RSVP by April 23rd.
* The private home address will be provided in an email after you buy tickets.
Special Guest Joel Smirnoff
Conductor, violinist and eminent pedagogue Joel Smirnoff, a native of New York City, served as President of the Cleveland Institute of Music from 2008 until 2016. A member of the Juilliard String Quartet for 23 years, he joined as violinist in 1986, coming from the Boston Symphony violin section and from Collage New Music, with which he performed for six seasons. As a musiceducator, Mr. Smirnoff served the faculties of The Juilliard School and Tanglewood Music Center.
Mr. Smirnoff has become a highly acclaimed conductor with an impressive and wide-ranging repertoire. In the summer of 2000, Mr. Smirnoff made his official American conducting debut with the San Francisco Symphony. Engagements quickly followed with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Phoenix Symphony, the Louisiana Philharmonic, the Chicago Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and others. Internationally, he has conducted the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, the Basel Sinfonietta, and Beijing Symphony Orchestra.
In 2011, Mr. Smirnoff received the Lifetime Grammy Award for his many recordings with the Juilliard String Quartet. As a versatile classical and jazz performer, he appears frequently as improvising jazz soloist with Tony Bennett and has also been guest soloist with Gunther Schuller and the American Jazz Orchestra, and the Billy Taylor Trio.
Collage Pianist Christopher Oldfather
For more than thirty years, pianist Christopher Oldfather has devoted himself to the performance of contemporary music. He has participated in innumerable world premiere performances, featuring every possible combination of instruments, and in cities all over America. He has been a member of Collage since 1979, and New York City’s Parnassus since 1997. He performs with the Met Chamber Ensemble and is keyboard chair of the American Composers Orchestra. He appears regularly in Chicago and has joined singers and instrumentalists in recitals throughout the United States.
In 1986, he presented his recital debut in Carnegie Recital Hall, and since then, he has pursued a career as a freelance musician, which has taken him as far afield as Moscow and Tokyo, and has seen him play virtually every sort of keyboard ever made, including the chrome-lodeon, a forty-three note to the octave keyboard instrument. He is known as one of the leading interpreters of contemporary works for the harpsichord. Chris has appeared as soloist with the New York Philharmonic, the New World Symphony, and Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany.
* The private home address will be provided in an email after you purchase tickets.