Performers

BLAKE POULIOT, violin
HENRY KRAMER, piano

Fresh from their acclaimed Distinguished Debut recital at Carnegie Hall, Blake Pouliot and Henry Kramer bring a bold and emotionally charged program to Hammer Hall. The concert opens with Bao Zhi Yang’s Ambush on All Sides, a tour-de-force reinvention of an ancient Chinese narrative about strategy, betrayal, and the poetry of battle. Derrick Skye’s the spark she left behind, dedicated to his late grandmother, has its roots in traditional Persian music. The program culminates in Prokofiev’s monumental Violin Sonata No. 1. Composed in the aftermath of war and written under the intense scrutiny of Stalinist Russia, the sonata moves between stillness and force. Its final movement (in which the violin is instructed to sound “like the wind in a graveyard”) bristles with a sense of foreboding. Blake and Henry offer a musical journey that is both fearless and poetic.

Program

BAO ZHI YANG Ambush on All Sides
DERRICK SKYE the spark she left behind
SERGEI PROKOFIEV – Violin Sonata No. 1

Tickets: Age 35+: $38 | 22-34: $20 | 21 & Under: Pay What You Wish.