2024-25 Season

“The middle ground: my refuge born from the land living in my heart. Where my home is, living and breathing outside of my body….” So writes Shelley Washington about Middleground, her piece that opens our 24-25 season.

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This year, we bring you music that shares our heart with yours, and where composers share their joys, heartaches and hopes. As we crafted these programs, each of us longed for that certain healing beauty that comes from music that is familiar and has been with us (and probably some of you too) through many ups and downs. This music deepens our experiences and helps us carry on with lighter feet and more tenacity. From Schubert’s sublime Cello Quintet on Program 1, to Mendelssohn’s first Quartet, opus 12 on Program 4, each concert features a cornerstone of the chamber music canon. On Program 2, we continue our bold exploration of the complete Beethoven and Shostakovich string quartets by pairing one of Beethoven’s earliest and one of Shostakovich’s latest works in the genre.

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We also bring you music from composers at the pinnacle of expressing beauty through a modern lens.  On program 3, we introduce you to young composer Kian Ravaei, who begins work this year on a new piece just for Sheffield to premiere in Fall 2025, supported by a Classical Commissioning Grant from Chamber Music America. To close our 24-25 season, we are beyond thrilled to have this year’s commission come from the unparalleled Indian-American composer Reena Esmail. Reena especially writes to bring people together in the space that a piece of music creates. A space that is new each time, and full of possibility. Much like each concert we share with you.

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We hope you’ll enjoy exploring all of the other pieces on the season as well, and we look forward to sharing all of it with you in person. We are so honored to build and experience music and community with you in such a special way. We can’t wait to see you all again!

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With excitement,
Megumi, Sasha, Alex, and Leo