Alexander Hersh

Celebrated New York-based pianist William Wolfram returns to Guarneri Hall this December for an evening entitled Metamorphosis of Romanticism, with violinist Stefan Hersh (Guarneri Hall Artistic Director) and cellist Alexander Hersh. The program will trace the evolution and breakdown of romantic music in Leoš Janáček’s Pohadka for cello and piano, Arnold Schoenberg’s Fantasy for violin and piano, Franz Liszt’s Chasse Niege and Liebestraum, and Antonín Dvořák’s Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65.

Lost in Translation is our exploration of vocal music transcribed for instrumental ensemble. Cleveland Orchestra English hornist Robert Walters will join NEXUS Chamber Music in a pair of new arrangements for English horn and string quartet: Augusta Read Thomas’ new work Stardust, in its Chicago premiere, and a new arrangement of Gustave Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer by Cliff Colnot and Stefan Hersh.

Stardust is based on four poems written by Emily Dickinson. The distinguished American poet David Yezzi will take the stage to recite the Dickinson poems, and will also share his insights into Mahler’s texts for his Songs of a Wayfarer. Stay after the performance for a discussion of the texts and a Q&A with Augusta Read Thomas and David Yezzi.

Pianist Christopher Goodpasture makes his Guarneri Hall debut in a program with cellist Alexander Hersh that explores two early pieces of Claude Debussy, and seldom heard works of Nadia Boulanger and Alexander Scriabin, alongside Beethoven’s Op. 101, often regarded as the gateway to the composer’s late compositional style.