Peter Otto, the Nashville Symphony’s new Walter Buchanan Sharp Concertmaster performs works for violin by Johannes Brahms, Krzysztof Penderecki, Ottorino Respighi, and Clara Schumann. Otto is a graduate of The Juilliard School and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock, Germany. His honors include top prizes in the Max Rostal Competition in Berlin and the Kingsville Young Performers Competition in Texas. His teachers have included Christiane Hutcap, Vera Kramarova, and Lewis Kaplan, with other significant musical influences being Roman Nodel, Igor Ozim, and Felix Galimir.

Please note that this event has a nine-ticket limit per household. For groups of ten or more, please submit our group inquiry form and we’ll contact you for assistance.

The Sphinx Virtuosi is a dynamic and inspiring professional self-conducted chamber orchestra that serves as the flagship performing entity of the Sphinx Organization – the leading social justice non-profit dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts. Comprising 18 accomplished Black and Latinx artists, the Sphinx Virtuosi are evolving and transforming the face of classical music through artistic excellence, pioneering programming, and impassioned community engagement. 

Inspired by the poetry of Langston Hughes and Julia Alvarez, Sphinx’s Schermerhorn program showcases the beauty and tradition of excellence inherent in classical music created and performed by Black and Latinx composers for many generations. Sphinx seeks to uplift spirits through sharing the sounds that inspire us and transcend the boundaries of time, history, and struggle.

Program

Quenton Blache: Habari Gani*
Javier Farias: Abran Paso*
Adolphus Hailstork: from Sonata da Chiesa
    Dona Nobis Pacem
    Exultate
Andrea Casarrubios: Herencia*
Jessie Montgomery: Divided performed by Tommy Mesa
Coleridge Taylor Perkinson: Sinfonietta No. 2, “Generations”

* NOTATES NEW WORK FOR SPHINX VIRTUOSI

Please note that this event has a nine-ticket limit per household. For groups of ten or more, please submit our group inquiry form and we’ll contact you for assistance.

Silkroad’s newest initiative, American Railroad, illuminates the impact that the African American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish, and other immigrant communities had on the creation of the U.S. Transcontinental Railroad and connecting railways in North America. Exploring the dissemination of cultures across the United States, the railroad was to North America what the Silk Road was to China, the Far East, and Europe. 

Presented without the Nashville Symphony. 

Frederik Øland, violin | Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, violin | Asbjørn Nørgaard, viola | Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, cello 

This GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble continues to assert its distinction among the world’s finest string quartets. Performing together for 20+ years, this still young, tight-knit quad is admired for impeccable musicianship, sophisticated artistry, exquisite clarity of ensemble, and, above all, an unmatched ability to play as one. Its Schermerhorn premiere will feature Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte; Joseph Haydn’s Quartet op. 77/2: III, Andante; Dmitri Shostakovich’s Quartet no. 4, then transition to performing their acclaimed style of folk music.  

Presented without the Nashville Symphony. 

COUNTERPOINT is a collaboration between pianist and composer Conrad Tao and choreographer and dancer Caleb Teicher. The duo explores the dichotomy of their different perspectives and artistic practices, expanding their individual expressive capacity through a collective experience. Harmonic, rhythmic, and theatrical counterpoint between the artists seeks to map out constellations linking their disparate traditions, driving the imagination and opening the heart. The stylistically diverse music of COUNTERPOINT includes the Aria from Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Art Tatum’s demented stride piano, Arnold Schoenberg’s ironic take on the Viennese waltz, a delicate miniature from Tao and Teicher’s More Forever, and threading it all together, a work that bridges traditions, approaches, and styles—Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.  

Presented without the Nashville Symphony. 

Karen Slack — the 2022 Sphinx Medal of Excellence winner and a featured soloist from The Jonah People — is one of today’s most celebrated sopranos. Widely admired for her voice of extreme beauty and dramatic depth, she returns to the Schermerhorn with her latest work, African Queens. Featuring new music written for her by both African and American composers, each song reflects the beauty, humility, passion, and power of a different queen. Featuring works of Jasmine Barnes, Damien Geter, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, Dave Ragland, Carlos Simon, and Joel Thompson with text by Lorene Cary, Alicia Haymer, Tsitsi Ella Jaji, Deborah D.E.E.P Mouton, and Creative Collaborator Jay Saint Flono.  

Presented without the Nashville Symphony.