Performers

STEFAN JACKIW, violin MICHAEL STEPHEN BROWN, piano

We open the season with violinist Stefan Jackiw and pianist Michael Stephen Brown in the annual Andrew Wolf Memorial Concert. This year’s performance celebrates Michael as the newest recipient of the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. Michael’s creativity, curiosity, and collaborative spirit embody the legacy of Bay Chamber’s beloved co-founder.

Hailed by International Piano as “one of the most refined of all pianist-composers,” Michael Stephen Brown is widely admired as an artist of striking originality. He is joined by Stefan Jackiw, one of the most compelling violinists of his generation, described by The Washington Post as possessing “talent that’s off the scale.”

The program moves through a series of deeply personal musical worlds. The miniatures by Brown and Clara Schumann offer quiet reflections shaped by memory, landscape, and intimate lyricism. Ives draws on fragments of American hymns to create music rooted in the sounds of community and shared song. The evening culminates in Brahms’ final violin sonata, written during a summer retreat at Lake Thun and dedicated to his friend Hans von Bülow. For a composer who lived much of his life without a permanent home, Brahms’ deepest sense of belonging was found in music and friendship — nowhere more profoundly than in the artistic bond he shared with Clara Schumann.

Program

MICHAEL STEPHEN BROWN Four Lakes for Children CLARA SCHUMANN Romances for Violin and Piano CHARLES IVES Violin Sonata No. 4, “Children’s Day at the Camp Meeting” JOHANNES BRAHMS Violin Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 108

Tickets

Age 35+: $45 | 22-34: $20 | 21 & Under: Pay What You Wish