Phoenix Chamber Music Society 2026-2027 Season Preview

Greg Kostraba: This is KBACH's Heart of the Arts podcast, I'm Greg Kostraba. The Phoenix Chamber Music Society has announced its 2026-2027 season, which includes eight regular-season concerts at Camelback Bible Church, plus the Composer's Choice program, and the weeklong 18th Chamber Music Festival in April. Janet Green is the executive director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Society and she's in the studio to chat about the upcoming season. Welcome, good to have you back.

Janet Green: Good to be here. Thank you, Greg.

Kostraba: You're bringing in a wide variety of ensembles for this upcoming season including the wind quintet WindSync, and the men's vocal ensemble Chanticleer, as well as the Schumann, Harlem, and American String Quartets. How did you decide what groups to bring in this year?

Green: Well, some of them are our favorites. The Schumann Quartet with John Nakamatsu — both of them are an audience favorite. WindSync has become an audience favorite in the last couple of years. Chanticleer — everybody who loves vocal music in the Valley comes out for Chanticleer, it's wonderful. Lincoln Center is always a hit. Harlem Quartet is also one of our favorites, and they're bringing a fusion of classical music and Cuban music that was composed by Aldo López-Gavilán, and he'll be playing.

Kostraba: And who's become a favorite as well, he's been here...

Green: He's wonderful. They're just fun. I love sitting at the back and watching everybody's heads bob around, and the bodies go when the Cuban-infused music comes on.

Kostraba: When you decide to have these groups come in, do they have programs already set that you then choose from, say, several programs that they have available to perform this season? Or do you have particular favorite pieces, you say, "Hey, could you play the Samuel Barber Summer Music, for instance?"

Green: Oh, I did pick the Barber Quartet with the Schumann Quartet. They wanted to do another piece, and I said, "No, what else can you offer?" And when they said the Barber Quartet, it's just one of my favorites. Most of the other people — WindSync, the Fauré Quartet, Lincoln Center — comes with a program. Thank you. You just say thank you for coming, and we're glad we hired you. Chanticleer does the same thing. The others, we can do a little bit of nudging to get another piece or two out of them or something different. But, for the most part, the programs are kind of set. If we've had another piece played recently, we can beg of the quartet — and I do mean beg — "Please, could you find something else?"

Kostraba: Well, let's start off with that WindSync concert. It's October 17th, and it's got the Nielsen Wind Quintet, which is kind of a standard piece in the repertoire, but some very unfamiliar music by Viet Cuong, and Osvaldo Golijov, and Kara LaMoure that brings the entire world to Phoenix.

Green: Kara is the bassoonist in the group, and she does a lot of the arranging. I had a chance to really get to know her during our festival last April. She came and she stayed with us for a week, and does just really interesting arrangements. Golijov — everything that he does, I think, is just wonderful. And Viet Cuong, I was not sure of that at first. First time I heard one of his pieces, I was very pleasantly surprised; it's really very accessible.

Kostraba: And then the Fauré Quartet comes on November 7th — the Fauré Piano Quartet. We talked about the string quartets earlier, it's kind of unusual to have a piano quartet as a set ensemble.

Green: They are probably one of the few that are left. They're from Germany, they've been together for, oh, I don't remember how many years. And there is such a difference because usually you get a string trio and then they're joined by a piano, or you get a piano trio that is joined. These people play together all the time. And we never know when there might be something special that they bring to the concert. They enjoy staying with different ones of us on the board. And the last time they were here, the pianist stayed with our then-president, Cheryl Mandella. And Cheryl has healing bowls — the singing bowls — beautiful things. And the pianist became just entranced with these, and he actually asked Cheryl to join them in the concert to bring her bowl. So, we never know, that could be something that happens at the last minute.

Kostraba: Wow, that's pretty remarkable. And they're playing their group's namesake, they're playing the Fauré Piano Quartet.

Green: Yes. It's really neat, and the Schubert Adagio and Rondo Concertante is just fun, and we don't hear that a lot.

Kostraba: And then we move to the next concert, November 13th, the Schumann Quartet with John Nakamatsu. Like the Fauré Quartet, they're playing a Brahms piano chamber music piece. So, the Fauré Quartet is bringing in the Brahms Piano Quartet No. 1, and the Schumann Quartet's bringing in John Nakamatsu to play the Brahms Piano Quintet, as well as music by Barber, like you mentioned, and a nice Haydn quartet to start things.

Green: It's a wonderful program. I can hardly wait for that one.

Kostraba: And then we mentioned the Harlem Quartet, they're coming with Aldo López-Gavilán on January 8th. And then the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center — typically when CMS comes to a place, you either get one of the co-directors, either Wu Han or David Finckel, but this time they're bringing both of them, kind of unusual.

Green: Yes. This was just a great program. We usually have three programs to choose from that they tour with, and just fit it into the time schedule, and this one, I think it was called Great Piano Masters.

Kostraba: And then Chanticleer comes on February 20th...

Green: We have them about every three years. The audience on the whole loves them. There are still people who think that Chanticleer is not a chamber group because there are 12 men, and I said, "Those men can fit into my chamber and play and sing for me any day of the week." It is the most magical thing that ever happens, and we will just about sell out that audience. Again, their program is set; they're doing American early music, and I will not get the pieces until about a month before they come.

Kostraba: Interesting. So, it's just a concept.

Green: It's a concept, you kind of know what they're going to do. You always know they're going to be more than fabulous. And that morning, that Saturday morning, they will do a masterclass with the Phoenix Boys Choir.

Kostraba: And it's nice that it's not just, you come in, they play a concert, and then they leave, that there's some educational opportunities for them to teach younger people.

Green: Right, and the Harlem Quartet will do the same thing, and there's a good possibility WindSync will — we're working on that right now — to go to a local grade school and do a masterclass for them.

Kostraba: I love your definition of chamber music. You talked about this last time, music that can fit in your chamber, basically in your living room, and 12 men singing certainly can do that.

Green: I get that esoteric question all the time: "What defines chamber music?" And I always just laugh, "Your chamber, it's the old name for your living room, your den, the place that you had soirées." And chamber music is what can fit in there, obviously not a symphony orchestra.

Kostraba: Right, obviously not. And then the season continues on March 5th with the American String Quartet...

Green: And this is their last performance for Phoenix, they are retiring.

Kostraba: And I was just mentioning on the radio yesterday that the Hagen Quartet just retired; they wrapped up earlier this month in Tokyo after 45 years.

Green: Wow. Yeah.

Kostraba: So, American String Quartet wrapping up theirs with my all-time favorite string quartet, by the way — the third Razumovsky, the Op. 59 No. 3 by Beethoven, where you think it's going to end and then all of a sudden Beethoven just says, "Nope, I'm going to keep going a little bit more of this."

Green: "I have more, wait!"

Kostraba: And then you wrap up the season. Typically the festival is earlier, it's in February; this year it's in April. Why the change? Was it because of maybe the schedule of David Shifrin, the musical director of that?

Green: He has been trying to get Edgar Meyer, bass player, who plays with Yo-Yo Ma and Mark O'Connor — he's been trying to get him for several years. Next year, they'll be back in March, but it's when he can get the artists.

Kostraba: Quite a few incredible artists, and a lot of family members, too. You've got the Neubauers, you've got the Meyers. Do you have any say in any of what's coming on for the festival?

Green: No. No, I say, "Yes, Mr. Shifrin," and he laughs at me. That's our agreement: he gets the artists that he wants, he tells us the time. All I do is make sure that we have places to play and coordinate everything and set everything up.

Kostraba: And on the subject of places, you've got the Pasternack Music Salon, that's a typical place; the Abbey on Monrow... your house, for a concert. Your chamber.

Green: My house! I always begin that with welcoming people to my chamber, and it's going to be the family affair — the Neubauers are playing at my house, and I'm really excited about that.

Kostraba: Wonderful. And the Desert Botanical Garden, so nice to have an outdoor venue. Obviously no piano on that one.

Green: No, but they are playing The Rite of Spring, which is very appropriate for April out in the garden. And the Zoraiah Quintet, who will be playing on that, just won every grand prize at the Fischoff, it was just on Mother's Day that they did that. And they're so much fun to watch. I got to see a video of them winning that award, and they choreograph things. They walk around, they play at each other, they play with each other. It's a fascinating visual as well as an auditory concert.

Kostraba: And I can't let the season wrap up because you do have Composer's Choice, which I think is just fabulous every year. This year it's Saturday, March 20th, with Nokuthula Ngwenyama, and she's bringing in the Los Angeles Piano Trio this time.

Green: She brought them in last year, and it was so nice. They are one of the audience's favorite groups. And Thula is now living part-time in California, so she's right there, she can practice with them; they have a really good working relationship right now with the Colburn School of Music. So, I don't ever know, again, until about a month before what they're going to play, but it will be pieces by Thula and pieces by other contemporary, mostly women composers.

Kostraba: And then before each of these concerts at Camelback Bible Church, you have a pre-concert chat. I always think those are fun because if you don't necessarily know much about chamber music or the particular ensemble that's going to be performing that day, you have a chance to hear a nice conversation about the music to kind of get you ready for that.

Green: Right, and the person who is doing the chats now is Barbara Metzger, and she will be doing those. She's a cellist and a gamba player.

Kostraba: Fine. Janet, thanks so much for your time.

Green: Thank you very much.

Kostraba: Janet Green is the executive director of the Phoenix Chamber Music Society, which kicks off its 2026-2027 season with WindSync on October 17th. Tickets and more information about the series and about the society are at phoenixchambermusicsociety.org. For the KBACH Heart of the Arts podcast, I'm Greg Kostraba.