2024–2025 Cliburn Concerts Season Announced
Detailed Concert Information
JOYCE YANG, piano
2005 Cliburn Silver Medalist
Thursday, September 19, 2024 l 7:30 p.m.
Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion
Cliburn at the Kimbell Subscription
She first came to international attention in 2005 when, at 19, she took home the Cliburn silver medal, along with special prizes for best chamber music and new work. Seoul-born Joyce Yang has since made more than 1,000 concert appearances in the world’s prestigious venues and with the New York, Los Angeles, and BBC Philharmonics, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Chicago, Philadelphia, Toronto, Sydney, and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras. She’s also a Grammy®-nominated recording artist praised for her “imaginative programming” and “beautifully atmospheric playing” (Gramophone).
Recent years have included an exploration of “art-inspires-art;” she’s curated and performed concerts that highlight the relationship between music and dance, including a major collaboration with the Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. She’s currently artist-in-residence for Grant Park Music Festival and is touring to more than 30 cities this season.
And this fall, the extraordinary, innovative, and elegant Joyce Yang returns to Fort Worth to open our season with Tchaikovsky Seasons, Rachmaninov preludes, and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.
JOSEPH PARRISH, bass-baritone
Cliburn Concerts debut
Wednesday, October 16, 2024 l 8:00 p.m.
Venue TBA
Cliburn Sessions Subscription
“Baltimore native bass-baritone Joseph Parrish is the epitome of the modern musician, critically acclaimed for his rich, warm voice and impeccable technique” (WETA). Hailed for his versatility, Joseph is equally adept on the operatic, concert, and recital stage—and across classical, gospel, pop, and American songbook. The 26-year-old has been called “fast-rising” by The Washington Post, with a concert career that has already included an artist apprenticeship at the Santa Fe Opera; performances at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Madison Square Garden, and Kennedy Center; on New York’s famed Death of Classical crypt series; and with Festival Napa Valley and City Lyric Opera, among others.
Passionate about giving back to the various communities that have nurtured him, Joseph was an inaugural cohort member of the Denyce Graves Foundation’s flagship Shared Voices, a program designed to address diversity, equity, and inclusion through collaboration between Historically Black Colleges and Universities, top conservatories, and schools of music in the United States.
This rising star makes his Cliburn Concerts debut.
GABRIEL KAHANE, piano/singer/composer + CAROLINE SHAW, violin/singer/composer
All-new collaboration
Tuesday, November 12, 2024 l 8:00 p.m.
Venue TBA
Cliburn Sessions Subscription
It’s quite possibly the coolest collaboration imaginable in classical music.
Gabriel Kahane is a musician and storyteller whose work increasingly exists at the intersection of art and social practice. Hailed as “one of the finest songwriters of the day” by The New Yorker, he is known to haunt basement rock clubs and august concert halls alike, and has collaborated with the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Chris Thile, and Paul Simon. He has released five albums as a singer-songwriter and, as a composer, has been commissioned by many of America’s leading arts institutions–including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall, LA Philharmonic, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and Public Theater.
Caroline Shaw is a musician who moves among roles, genres, and mediums, trying to imagine a world of sound that has never been heard before but has always existed. She is the recipient of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize in Music, several Grammy® awards, an honorary doctorate from Yale, and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. She’s written over 100 works in the last decade (for Anne Sofie von Otter, Yo-Yo Ma, Renée Fleming, Dawn Upshaw, LA Philharmonic, and many, many more) and has contributed music to films and tv series including The Humans, Bombshell, Yellowjackets, Maid, Dark, Beyoncé’s Homecoming, Tár, and Dolly Parton’s America.
Now these two artists combine their ingenious, enlightening minds for a new project currently in the works, to include a collaborative piece around Jorge Luis Borges’ 1939 short story, “The Library of Babel.”
SIR STEPHEN HOUGH, piano
2022 Cliburn Juror and Composer of the Commissioned Work
Wednesday, January 29, 2025 I 8:00 p.m.
Venue TBA
Cliburn Sessions Subscription
Thursday, January 30, 2025 I 7:30 p.m.
Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion
Cliburn at the Kimbell Subscription
One of the more distinctive artists of his generation, Sir Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of a composer and writer. Named by The Economist as one of 20 Living Polymaths, he was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2014, and was knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2022.
He has performed with the world’s major orchestras and given recitals at the most prestigious concert halls—including 25 concerto appearances at the BBC Proms; his 50 albums hold four Grammy® nominations and eight Gramophone magazine awards; and he holds positions at Cambridge University, the Royal Northern College in Manchester, and The Juilliard School. Sir Stephen is a prolific composer who has written works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, organ, harpsichord, and solo piano, and has been commissioned by the likes of Wigmore Hall, the Louvre, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quartet, and the Cliburn—for the 2022 Competition, where he also served on the jury. A noted writer, he’s published four books and contributed articles for The New York Times, The Guardian, The Times, Gramophone, and BBC Music Magazine.
This beloved member of the Cliburn Family returns this January to again perform in the gorgeous Kimbell Art Museum—as well as to make his first appearance on Cliburn Sessions.
HAOCHEN ZHANG, piano
2009 Cliburn Gold Medalist
Thursday, February 27, 2025 I 7:30 p.m.
Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion
Cliburn at the Kimbell Subscription
In the 15 years since he won Cliburn gold at the age of 19, Haochen Zhang has captivated audiences in the United States, Europe, and Asia with a unique combination of deep musical sensitivity, fearless imagination, and spectacular virtuosity. He’s already appeared with many of the world’s leading festivals and orchestras including the BBC Proms with Long Yu and the China Philharmonic; the Munich Philharmonic with Lorin Maazel in a sold-out tour in Munich and China; the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; the Sydney Symphony and David Robertson in a China tour; and the NDR Hamburg and Thomas Hengelbrock in a tour of Tokyo, Beijing, and Shanghai.
In recent seasons, he debuted with the New York Philharmonic and Lucerne Festival Orchestra; performed with the Filarmonica della Scala, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Staatskapelle Berlin; toured Asia with The Philadelphia Orchestra and the United States with the Atlanta Symphony; made extensive recital and concerto tours in Asia with performances in China, Hong Kong, and Japan; and gave a concerto performance at Carnegie Hall with the NCPA Orchestra, which was followed by his recital debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall.
And he’s built an already impressive discography, including last year’s release of the Liszt Transcendental Etudes, which Gramophone calls “a performance of unusual focus” that “no lover of Liszt, or of 19th-century piano repertoire more generally, can afford to miss.”
Help us welcome Haochen home.
SIMONE PORTER, violin + BLAKE POULIOT, violin + HSIN-I HUANG, piano
Cliburn Concerts debuts
Wednesday, March 26, 2025 I 8:00 p.m.
Venue TBA
Cliburn Sessions Subscription
Thursday, March 27, 2025 I 7:30 p.m.
Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion
Cliburn at the Kimbell Subscription
Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication–whose “silken-toned virtuosity puts her right up there with the finest interpreters of her generation” (Chicago Classical Review). In the past few years, she has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic; and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Nicholas McGegan.
“Porter’s silken-toned virtuosity puts her right up there with the finest interpreters of her generation.”
— Chicago Classical Review
A tenacious young artist with a passion that enraptures his audience in every performance, violinist Blake Pouliot has performed with the orchestras of Philadelphia, Aspen, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, and Seattle, among many others. Blake’s debut album earned a 2019 Juno Award nomination for Best Classical Album. He has been NPR’s Performance Today Artist-in-Residence and won the Grand Prize at the 2016 Orchestre symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition.
Pianist Hsin-I Huang has made guest appearances at the Hollywood Bowl, LA Philharmonic Chamber Music Series, Aspen Music Festival, Celebrity Series of Boston, Ravinia BGH Classics Series, Grand Teton Winter Music Festival, La Virée classique OSM, Fête de la Musique de Tremblant, and on NPR’s Performance Today.
And next spring, this trio of young classical phenoms each make their Cliburn Concerts debut!
JEAN-GUIHEN QUEYRAS, cello + ALEXANDER MELNIKOV, piano
Cliburn Concerts debuts
Thursday, April 10, 2025 I 7:30 p.m.
Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion
Cliburn at the Kimbell Subscription
Curiosity, diversity, and complete dedication to the music define the work of French-Canadian cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. His approach to music focuses on the principle that composer, performer, and audience must share the same inner motivation to achieve a moving, clear concert experience. This philosophy, alongside a flawless technique and a clear, engaging tone, has formed a foundation for a flourishing, decades-long career: regular performances with renowned orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester, and Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich; an impressive 27 recordings in as many years; and artist-in-residence appointments at Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Vredenburg Utrecht, De Bijloke Ghent, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg.
Pianist Alexander Melnikov’s “fine, highly musical phrasing, his brilliant touch and his desire to interact with the musicians as closely as possible” has led to an extraordinary career as a soloist with orchestras such as Philadelphia, NDR Elbphilharmonie, HR-Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, and BBC Philharmonic, as well as intensive chamber music collaborations. As a solo artist, just last season saw recitals at Berliner Philharmonie, Toppan Hall in Tokyo, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, and Munich’s Prinzregententheater. And his recording of Preludes and Fugues by Shostakovich was awarded the BBC Music Magazine Award, Choc de classica, and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, and was also named one of the “50 Greatest Recordings of All Time” by BBC Music Magazine.
Both of these world-renowned artists make their Cliburn Concerts debut next April.
EMANUEL AX, piano
Eight-time GRAMMY® Award Winner
Tuesday, April 22, 2025 I 7:30 p.m.
Kimbell Art Museum Renzo Piano Pavilion
Cliburn at the Kimbell Subscription
He was born to Polish parents—both Holocaust survivors—in 1949 in what is now Lviv, Ukraine. They moved to Winnipeg, Canada, when he was a young boy and eventually settled in Manhattan in an apartment across the street from Carnegie Hall.
In 1973, he debuted in his adopted hometown. “A young pianist with the hard-to-forget name of Emanuel Ax has one thing going for him before he plays a note,” The New York Times critic wrote. “But brand identification, as advertising men term it, helps in the long run only if the product delivers, and Mr. Ax’s recital at Alice Tully Hall on Monday night fortunately carried the stamp of quality.” That quality created one of the most lasting and impactful careers known by an American pianist.
20 Grammy nominations and eight wins. A touring career that has taken him to every major venue and orchestra in the world. An Avery Fisher Prize. A commitment to new music resulting in a long list of world premieres. Profound chamber partnerships, including five decades of collaboration with Yo-Yo Ma. Honorary doctorates from Skidmore College, New England Conservatory of Music, Yale University, and Columbia University. As the headline of a recent The New York Times profile put it: “For 50 Years, Emanuel Ax Has Made Music Sound Simply Right.”
He’s easily in the top rank of international piano stars, and he returns to the intimate Kimbell Art Museum with a program of Fantasies (Beethoven, Corigliano, Schumann) that he’ll play later that month at Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Symphony Center. Get your tickets right away.
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