Experience Musical Excellence at the Bender JCC
2024-2025 POLINGER ARTISTS OF EXCELLENCE CONCERT SERIES | Sundays at 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM
The Bender JCC is pleased to announce that we will be offering free tickets to registrants who are 18 and under years of age with a paying adult. For more information, please contact Marcie Blackman at mblackman@benderjccgw.org or 301-348-3808.
Five remaining concerts you don’t want to miss!
Join us for magnificent well-loved chamber works by Schubert, Franck, Puccini and Dvořák plus lesser-known works by Thomas Adès, Adolphus Hailstork and Pierre Jalbert. Musicians perform in the Gildenhorn/Speisman Center for the Arts’ intimate Kreeger Auditorium.
Single concert tickets now on sale for $50/ticket!
Marcie Blackman: (301) 348-3808 or mblackman@benderjccgw.org
Purchase Polinger Artists of Excellence Concert Tickets
Brannon Cho and Janice Carissa
Cello + Piano | November 17 | 7:00 PM
Leoš Janáček: Pohádka
Cesar Franck: Sonata in A Major FWV 8 (arr.Delsart)
John Corigliano: Phantasmagoria
Bohuslav Martinů: Sonata No. 3 for Cello and piano H. 340
William Hagen and Albert Cano Smit
Violin + Piano | December 8 | 3:00 PM
Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F major, MVW 026
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor
Ying Quartet
String Quartet | March 16 | 3:00 PM
Hugo Wolf: Italian Serenade
Giacomo Puccini: Chrysanthemums
Pierre Jalbert: Icefield Sonnets
Franz Schubert: String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810 “Death & the Maiden”
Lysander Piano Trio
Ensemble | April 6 | 7:00 PM
Joaquín Turina: Circulo, Op. 91
Franz Schubert: Notturno, D. 897
Udi Perlman: Nostos (2022)
Schumann: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 63
Alon Goldstein
Piano | June 8 | 7:00 PM
Bach/Busoni: Choral Prelude
Mendelssohn: Song Without Words
Mozart/Generani: Andante from Divertimenti Op. 138
Janacek: Sonata Oct. 1, 1905
Debussy: Preludes and “The Island of Joy”
Schubert: Sonata in B flat, D. 960
The Polinger Artists of Excellence Concert Series is made possible by the Geraldine and Howard Polinger Concert Endowment Fund.
Questions about concerts at the Bender JCC? Contact Marcie Blackman at mblackman@benderjccgw.org or 301-348-3808!
PARKING – Free parking is available in the Bender JCC parking lot
William Hagen, Violin and Albert Cano Smit, Piano | Sunday, December 8th |
Ying Quartet | Sunday, March 16th |
Lysander Piano Trio | Sunday, April 6th |
Alon Goldstein, Piano | Sunday, June 8th |
Sunday
December 8 | 3:00 PM | $50/Individual concert
William Hagen
William Hagen has performed as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician across the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. Highlights of the 2023/24 season include a return to the Detroit Symphony and a tour of the Netherlands with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta.
“Even in an age when brilliant young violinists seem to grow on trees, Hagen…is a standout. He tossed off the most virtuosic passages of the Saint-Saëns with amazing precision, but he also made music…he always knew where the music was going and why.”
-Dallas Morning News
“[Hagen] brought the audience to its feet…wore his heart on his sleeve and took many of us along to rejoice with him.”
-Violinist.com
Albert Cano Smit
Spanish/Dutch pianist Albert Cano Smit enjoys a growing international career on the orchestral, recital, and chamber music stages. Noted for his captivating performances, storytelling quality and nuanced musicality, the First Prize winner of the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions has appeared as a soloist with the San Diego, Seattle, Montreal, Colorado Music Festival, Las Vegas, Manchester, and Barcelona symphony orchestras, amongst others.
“He established himself as an artist to watch.”
-Montreal Gazette
“A moving young poet” and “A great romantic”
-Le Devoir
Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F major, MVW 026
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Schumann: Violin Sonata No. 2 in D minor
Questions? Please contact Marcie Blackman at mblackman@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3808.
All Bender JCC programs are open to everyone. Contact Kate Falls, Director of Inclusion, at kfalls@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3767 to discuss support and accommodations.
Sunday
March 16 | 3:00 PM | $50/Individual concert
Ying Quartet
The Ying Quartet occupies a position of unique prominence in the classical music world, combining brilliantly communicative performances with a fearlessly imaginative view of chamber music in today’s world. Now in its third decade, the Quartet has established itself as an ensemble of the highest musical qualifications. Their performances regularly take place in many of the world’s most important concert halls; at the same time, the Quartet’s belief that concert music can also be a meaningful part of everyday life has also drawn the foursome to perform in settings as diverse as the workplace, schools, juvenile prisons, and the White House. In fact, the Ying Quartet’s constant quest to explore the creative possibilities of the string quartet has led it to an unusually diverse array of musical projects and interests.
“Precarious balance where sheer agony and triumphant beauty intersect.”
-The Washington Post
“Sustained quietude, peacefulness, and serenity.”
–The New York Times
“The Ying Quartet came as close to the ideal as possible, delivering chamber music of astonishing, refreshing exaltation and exhilaration.”
-The Los Angeles Times
Hugo Wolf: Italian Serenade
Giacomo Puccini: Chrysanthemums
Pierre Jalbert: Icefield Sonnets
Franz Schubert: String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810 “Death & the Maiden”
Questions? Please contact Marcie Blackman at mblackman@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3808.
All Bender JCC programs are open to everyone. Contact Kate Falls, Director of Inclusion, at kfalls@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3767 to discuss support and accommodations.
Sunday
April 6 | 7:00 PM | $50/Individual concert
The Lysander Piano Trio has been praised by The Strad for its “incredible ensemble, passionate playing, articulate and imaginative ideas and wide palette of colors” and by The Washington Post for “an uncommon degree of heart-on-the-sleeve emotional frankness” and “vivid engagement carried by soaring, ripely Romantic playing.” The group has developed a reputation for exciting programming, finding creative ways to connect well-known masterworks with pieces by lesser-known and underrepresented composers, discovering common threads across cultures and times.
“Incredible ensemble, passionate playing, articulate and imaginative ideas and wide palette of colours.”
-The Strad
“vivid engagement carried by soaring, ripely Romantic playing”
-The Washington Post
“polished and spirited interpretations”
-The New York TImes
Joaquín Turina: Circulo, Op. 91
Franz Schubert: Notturno, D. 897
Udi Perlman: Nostos (2022)
Schumann: Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 63
Questions? Please contact Marcie Blackman at mblackman@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3808.
All Bender JCC programs are open to everyone. Contact Kate Falls, Director of Inclusion, at kfalls@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3767 to discuss support and accommodations.
Sunday
June 8 | 7:00 PM | $50/Individual concert
Alon Goldstein
Alon Goldstein is one of the most original and sensitive pianists of his generation, admired for his musical intelligence, dynamic personality, artistic vision and innovative programming. He has played with the Philadelphia orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the San Francisco, Baltimore, St. Louis, Dallas, Houston, Toronto and Vancouver symphonies as well as the Israel Philharmonic, London Philharmonic , Los Angeles and Radio France Orchestra. He played under the baton of such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Jurowski, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Peter Oundjian, Yoel Levi, Yoav Talmi, Leon Fleisher and others.
” A beautifully balanced approach to the score, refined yet impetuous, noble yet spirited”
-The New York Times
Bach / Busoni: Choral Prelude
Mendelssohn: Song without Words
Mozart / Generani: Andante from Divertimenti Op. 138
Janacek: Sonata Oct. 1, 1905
Debussy: Preludes and “The Island of Joy”
Schubert: Sonata in B flat, D. 960
Questions? Please contact Marcie Blackman at mblackman@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3808.
All Bender JCC programs are open to everyone. Contact Kate Falls, Director of Inclusion, at kfalls@benderjccgw.org or 301.348.3767 to discuss support and accommodations.