Spieker Center for the Arts Classical Concerts

Prelude Performances showcase Music@Menlo’s International Program artists (ages 20–30), while Koret Young Performers Concerts feature the extraordinary Young Performers (ages 12–19). These events are a great way to introduce younger concert-goers to chamber music; Prelude Performances are shorter, typically without an intermission, and KYPCs showcase select movements from musical masterworks. These performances are free and open to the public; tickets are required and can be reserved from 9:00 a.m. on the event day.

Music@Menlo’s 2017 festival celebrated an instrument that shaped the evolution of classical music, exploring the violin’s history alongside celebrated composers and performers. In a nod to that season, this program unites two towering figures in that evolution: Antonio Vivaldi and Fritz Kreisler.

Music@Menlo 2009 commemorated the extraordinary life and achievements of Felix Mendelssohn on the 200th anniversary of his birth. Drawing inspiration from that landmark season, this all-Mendelssohn program offers a vivid portrait of a composer whose youthful brilliance reshaped chamber music, showing a composer pushing chamber music beyond salon proportions toward something far more dramatic and large-scale.

Koret Young Performers Concerts feature the extraordinary Young Performers (ages 12–19), while Prelude Performances showcase Music@Menlo’s International Program artists (ages 20–30). These events are a great way to introduce younger concert-goers to chamber music; Prelude Performances are shorter, typically without an intermission, and KYPCs showcase select movements from musical masterworks. These performances are free and open to the public; tickets are required and can be reserved from 9:00 a.m. on the event day. Please note: Koret Young Performers Concert programs are not listed in program order. The program order will be updated in the days before the performance.

The 2011 season celebrated the timeless oeuvre of Johann Sebastian Bach, delving into the depths of his art from the perspectives of composers who followed. In this program, a set of fugues for solo piano sets the stage for subsequent works by Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Brahms, all containing fugal writing—a direct link from Bach. John Corigliano’s Fancy on a Bach Air recalls the master’s first suite for solo cello, and the birth of the cello as a solo instrument.

Music@Menlo’s inaugural festival in 2003 was designed as a “road map” of chamber music, taking audiences chronologically from the mid-seventeenth century to modern times. Inspired by that landmark season, this program charts the journey in a single concert, beginning with Telemann and closing with the West Coast premiere of Sir Stephen Hough’s Piano Quintet.

Music@Menlo’s inaugural festival in 2003 was designed as a “road map” of chamber music, taking audiences chronologically from the mid-seventeenth century to modern times. Inspired by that landmark season, this program charts the journey in a single concert, beginning with Telemann and closing with the West Coast premiere of Sir Stephen Hough’s Piano Quintet.