The Dazzling Classical Saxophone

An exciting, genre-defying evening with one of the world’s most exciting saxophonists. The program features works both virtuosic and lyrical, including a showstopping arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Featuring:

• Claude Debussy: Rhapsody

• Robert Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73

• Hector Villa-Lobos: Fantasia

• Barry Cockcroft: KuKu

• George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (arr. Jun Nagao)

• Astor Piazzolla: History of Tango

• Astor Piazzolla: La Muerte del Angel (arr. Valentin Kovalev)

Valentin Kovalev (saxophone)

Hailing from Siberia, saxophonist, and content creator Valentin Kovalev is an ebullient and highly eclectic performer whose unique style was developed after studying in Russia, France, and the US.

Visiting professor at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Valentin is an active educator who enjoys teaching masterclasses across North America, Europe, and Asia.

Valentin was recently named a winner and received the Audience Award from the prestigious Concert Artists Guild, a distinguished classical music management organization based in New York City.

Yoni Levyatov (piano)

Pianist and composer Yoni Levyatov made his recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and his New York City concerto debut under the baton of Philippe Entremont. He has appeared with the Jerusalem Symphony, Manhattan Chamber, and Bogotá Philharmonic orchestras; the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas; and the Denver Brass. Mr. Levyatov’s most recent appearances include performances at Steinway Hall, Bargemusic, and the United Nations in New York; St. Mary’s College of Maryland; the Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix; the Grand Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg; the Spiegelsaal of Schloss Rheinsberg in Rheinberg, Germany; Auditorio CajaCanarias in Tenerife, Spain; and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in Israel.

Brahms Clarinet Quintet

The New York Philharmonic Quartet returns with clarinetist Alex Fiterstein for an evening of chamber music treasures. The program features Brahms’ radiant Clarinet Quintet, a beloved masterpiece of the Romantic era, and more.

Featuring:

• Brahms: Clarinet Quintet

• Additional pieces to be announced

New York Philharmonic Quartet

The New York Philharmonic String Quartet comprises four Principal musicians from the Orchestra: Concertmaster Frank Huang (The Charles E. Culpeper Chair); Principal Second Violin Group Qianqian Li; Principal Viola Cynthia Phelps (The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick P. Rose Chair); and Principal Cello Carter Brey (The Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Chair). The group was formed in January 2017, during the Philharmonic’s 175th anniversary season; the New York Philharmonic String Quartet made its debut as the solo ensemble in John Adams’s Absolute Jest in New York in March 2017, and reprised the work on the Orchestra’s EUROPE / SPRING 2017 tour. All four members are multiple prize winners, have appeared as concerto soloists with the Philharmonic and orchestras around the world, and have appeared frequently in the Philharmonic’s chamber music series at David Geffen Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.

Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet)

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein is considered one of today’s most exceptional artists. Fiterstein has performed in recital, with distinguished orchestras, and with chamber music ensembles throughout the world. He won first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant Award. The Washington Post has described his playing as “dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility, and range. Every sound he makes is finely measured without inhibiting expressiveness” and The New York Times described him as “a clarinetist with a warm tone and powerful technique.”

About the Goldmund Quartet

The Goldmund Quartet – Florian Schötz (violin), Pinchas Adt (violin), Christoph Vandory (viola), and Raphael Paratore (cello) – is known to feature “exquisite playing” and “such multi-layered homogeneity” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) in its interpretations of the great classical and modern works of the quartet literature. Its inwardness, the unbelievably fine intonation and the phrases worked out down to the smallest detail inspire audiences worldwide.

Balourdet Quartet

The Balourdet Quartet is acclaimed for their vibrant energy and masterful blend of technical precision and emotional depth that brings a fresh perspective to both beloved classics and modern compositions. Its unique closeness and willingness to take creative risks earned it the 2024 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as Chamber Music America’s 2024 Cleveland Quartet Award. With more than 70 concerts per season, recent highlights include the Balourdet’s debuts at Carnegie and Wigmore Halls, and new string quartets by composers Karim Al-Zand, Paul Novak, and Nicky Sohn through grants from Chamber Music America (2021) and the Barlow Foundation (2023).

Asiya Korepanova (piano)

The pianist who performed the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano works within the composer’s 150th-anniversary year in 2023, Asiya Korepanova is a pianistic powerhouse hailed as a "tremendously gifted pianist who exhibits a singular affinity for Rachmaninoff’s Russian romantic idiom and possesses the blazing technique to fully realize his distinctive scores" (South Florida Classical Review), who is also highly recognized as a composer, visual artist, and poet. A herald of an enormous repertoire encompassing over 60 piano concertos and solo works ranging from early Baroque period to music of living composers, Asiya is a quintessential completist. 

Alexander Fiterstein (clarinet)

Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein is considered one of today’s most exceptional artists. Fiterstein has performed in recital, with distinguished orchestras, and with chamber music ensembles throughout the world. He won first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition and received the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant Award. The Washington Post has described his playing as “dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility, and range. Every sound he makes is finely measured without inhibiting expressiveness” and The New York Times described him as “a clarinetist with a warm tone and powerful technique.”

Nokuthula Ngwenyama (viola)

Nokuthula Ngwenyama (No-goo-TOO-lah En-gwen-YAH-ma), has established herself as a multifaceted artist and collaborator in her roles as both violist and composer, performing as an orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. She was born in Los Angeles, CA of Zimbabwean and Japanese parentage.  Ms. Ngwenyama gained international prominence as a violist when she won the Primrose International Viola Competition at age 16 and then the Young Concert Artists International Auditions, which led to debuts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and 92nd Street Y in New York; she is also a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

Michael Stephen Brown (piano)

Pianist-Composer Michael Stephen Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.” A 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2024 Yaddo Artist, Brown is currently composing Endangered Carnival, a large-scale co-commission premiering in 2026. Winner of the Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has performed as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony and NFM Leopoldinum, and in recitals at iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Louvre, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn.