Caroline Shaw
Composer Caroline Shaw beautifully blurs the boundaries of “classical” music expression, blending tradition and innovation to create musical moments that are breathtakingly beautiful. Her music is often playful and unpredictable, always with a deep emotional resonance. She is not afraid to experiment with new sounds and techniques, but does so in ways that are fresh, engaging, and uncommonly accessible.  In 2013, Caroline became the youngest person ever to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music for her composition Partita for Eight Voices. She has also won several Grammy Awards, including two with the Attacca Quartet for the albums “Orange” (2019) and “Evergreen” (2022).  For me what makes her a visionary is that her music is a joy to listen to, sure to continue to inspire and challenge audiences for years to come. Our entire opening night concert at Seligman is devoted to her amazing work; join us and I know you’ll agree!

Get Tickets for Opening Night on September 9

Karen Slack
Soprano Karen Slack is one of the most distinctive voices in modern operatic singing. Not only is her voice itself a splendid instrument (as evidenced by multiple re-engagements are the Metropolitan Opera, for starters). She also uses her voice as a powerful force for good in the world, collaborating with composers, ensembles, and organizations as committed as she is to the cause of social justice. She will headline two programs in her mid-October visit to Chamber Music Detroit. First, she appears alongside the Pacifica Quartet in a work by James Lee III – A Double Standard – that was commissioned for Slack and the Quartet by Carnegie Hall, Chamber Music Detroit, and Shriver Concert Series in Baltimore. The next day she gives a solo recital in Oakland University’s newly renovated Varner Recital Hall entitled “Of Thee I Sing,” curated by Slack as a call for racial justice and an appeal to the healing power of love.

Get Tickets for October 14 at the Seligman PAC 
Get Tickets for October 15 at Oakland University

Jeanette Sorrell
Harpsichordist and conductor Jeanette Sorrell is a true force of nature in the field of early music. Firmly anchored in the city of Cleveland, she is founder and music director of Apollo’s Fire, arguably now the leading Baroque chamber orchestra in the entire country. The source of her seemingly boundless energy is beautifully expressed in the words of her “artistic philosophy” on her own web site:

In a chaotic world, I find that music is indeed a kind of moral law – a language that brings order and harmony to the soul; a language that resonates emotionally and spiritually, touching us as words cannot; a language that helps us connect with what is universal in us all, as the human beings who share this planet…   As musicians, our job is to communicate – to take the listeners with us on an emotional journey. If, at the end of two hours, the audience is moved to tears, or joy, or laughter, or prayer, then we have done a good night’s work.

Get Tickets for December 9

Daniel Hope
With violinist Daniel Hope it’s hard to know where to start; truly he is one of the most visionary artists on the entire planet. I first met Daniel when, as I was finishing my doctorate in 2002 with Menahem Pressler, he became the youngest member of the venerable Beaux Arts Trio. Over 400 trio concerts later, I was present at their last American concert at Tanglewood in 2004 as the trio retired – when Daniel was not yet 40! Since then, his interests and passions have run the gamut and led the field. Following the discovery of his own Jewish heritage (hidden from him in his birthplace in South Africa), he became a major champion of the works of composers who perished in the Holocaust. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, his “Hope from Home” series kept the music flowing to thousands of stranded listeners from his beautiful apartment in Berlin. He has served as artistic director at multiple festivals on both sides of the Atlantic, and lately serves as conductor and leader of several chamber orchestras. His January recital for Chamber Music Detroit is a engagement we have been seeking for a decade – please don’t miss it!

Get Tickets for January 27

Seth Parker Woods
Still relatively young, cellist Seth Parker Woods is carving out a singularly unique place among the artists of his generation, with a growing reputation as a versatile artist and innovator across multiple genres. His projects delve deeply into our cultural fabric, reimagining traditional works and commissioning new ones to propel classical music into the future, inspiring The New York Times to write, “Woods is an artist rooted in classical music, but whose cello is a vehicle that takes him, and his concertgoers, on wide-ranging journeys.” Familiar to many Chamber Music Detroit listeners as the cellist who joined Imani Winds in the April 2022 world premiere of Fallen Petals of Nameless Flowers, Seth joins us for two concerts during our 80th season: a February 23rd unaccompanied solo cello recital that juxtaposes movements of solo Bach with new works featuring electronics and spoken word (Detroit venue TBA), and on February 25th a concert built around Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht at Varner Recital Hall.

Get Tickets for February 23 in Detroit 
Get Tickets for February 25 at Oakland University

BONUS: Richard Goode
Pianist Richard Goode is an old friend to Chamber Music Detroit, having performed here more times than many of us can count. The music he is best known for is not what one might immediately think of as visionary. But his approach to the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, etc., and the impact of his example upon many generations of younger artists, makes him one of the most visionary musical figures alive. Aside from the many avid listeners who adore him, the reverence he inspires from other professional musicians speaks to an honest, probing, and inciteful musicmaking that sets him apart in a class by himself. Goode’s recordings of the complete Mozart Piano Concertos and the complete Beethoven Sonatas are monumental accomplishments in and of themselves, but it is his live performances where the real magic happens. His March 2024 recital for Chamber Music Detroit at Seligman includes perhaps the greatest monument of them all: Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations.

Get Tickets for March 23 at Seligman