Online Concerts

28 February 6:30 – 8:30 PM CST

Cellist Sydney Lee with Pianist Chelsea Wang

Cellist Sydney Lee is quickly gaining recognition as an emerging young artist, captivating audiences worldwide. Since her solo debut at age 13 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, she has performed extensively at major concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Sydney is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and Northwestern University, where she is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree.

This concert is presented in partnership with Meadowmount School of Music as part of the inaugural Gurrena Fellowship from Meadowmount. Get tickets now.

J.S. Bach: Chaconne, BWV 1004
Francis Poulenc: Sonate pour violoncelle et piano, FP 143
Clara Schumann: 3 Romances Op. 22
Nicolo Paganini: Le Streghe, Op. 8

If you can’t attend in person, view the live stream on this page (available during the concert and for one week after). The video player will appear below once you log in. Not a member yet? Subscribe now (free).

Click here to watch online.

Online Programs and Events

21 February 1:30 PM – 3:30 PM CST

The Gentle Art of the Haiku and the Haibun with Diane Frank

In this generative workshop, poet, and writer Diane Frank will guide you to write haiku and haibun in the Japanese minimalist tradition.

Diane Frank is author of eight books of poems, three novels, and a photo memoir of her 400 mile trek in the Himalayas. Her books While Listening to the Enigma Variations: New and Selected Poems and Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines were published by Glass Lyre Press. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she dances, plays cello, and creates her life as an art form.

Free

Click here for more information.

19 February 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM EST

A Communion of Grief and Gratitude – Jami Sieber (electric cellist, composer, vocalist) and Kim Rosen (author, poet, spoken word artist)

An immersive experience in a river of music and poetry, deep conversation, writing, and sharing on the themes of grief, gratitude, and letting go.

Buddhism teaches that there are three Heavenly Messengers: Aging, Sickness, and Death. In the last few years, they have confronted each of us — on personal and planetary levels. This is an opportunity to come together in a deep listening community to allow the medicine of music and poetry to help us to turn towards our losses and discover the joy, aliveness, connection, and gratitude that comes with welcoming them fully.

Jami and Kim’s latest album, Feast of Losses, is an ode to this moment in history; a seamless interplay of poetry and music that is uplifting, tender, deep, danceable, and even deliciously funny at times. As we recognize and feel our heartbreak, we find our connection back to ourselves and one another.

Jami Sieber is a musician and composer who uses voice and an electronic cello, which she describes as “a cello having an out-of-body experience” since it has no sound box (or lower body), just a fingerboard with strings connected to an electronic amplifier and a looper. Since becoming a solo artist since 1994, she’s collaborated with an extraordinary spectrum of dancers, actors, poets, visual artists, improvisers, vocalists, and instrumentalists and has composed for film, theater, and dance. She’s been an invited guest artist in China, Russia, the Balkans, Italy, France, and Thailand and has recorded at least seven CDs.

Kim Rosen, M.F.A., has awakened listeners around the world to the power of poetry to heal and transform individuals and communities. She is the author of Saved by a Poem: The Transformative Power of Words. Her work has been published in O Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Spirituality and Health Magazine, The Huffington Post, Feminist.com, HealYourLife.com, and The Texas Review, among others, and she was a recipient of the 2001 Robinson Jeffers Tor House Prize for Poetry. In 2010 she founded the Safe House Education (S.H.E.) Fund to give Maasai girls who have fled Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Early Childhood Marriage an opportunity to go to college and transform the oppression of women in their families, their tribe, and the world.

All Sacred Inclusion Network events are offered by donation. We want all of our participants to have “skin-in-the-game” and not simply be window shoppers. Should — for any reason — you don’t wish to pay the suggested donation, simply click ticket and choose the pay-what-you-like option.

Click here for tickets and more information.

4 March, 13 May, 16 September, and 2 December 2023 (Saturdays) | 6.00 PM – 8.15 PM GMT

Online Timeline Series – Cellist Catherine Black

We all want to be as rounded a musician as possible and that’s a pretty big ask. We all have our preferences, and the groups & orchestras we play in, take us down certain paths which enrich and educate us, but sometimes we find a hole in our knowledge!

The Online Time Line Series has really found a place in your lives. Join us to learn more about a remarkable piece of music, its composer, an era, its style that may otherwise have passed you by. Musical architecture, polyphony, phrasing, the place of music in society are all a part of this quest for a better understanding and roundedness.

We will play, discuss & explore from your – the player’s point of view – a particular piece of music from the wide library of Unsung Heroes Cello Ensemble scores. These now range from Josquin and John Taverner (1490–1545), through to Tchaikovsky & Elgar and far into the twentieth century.

Though there are some restrictions online, we can all play using the mute button, though not as a group. This is an exciting opportunity for players to have the chance to play as many parts as they wish as we play together.

You may want to bring a notebook too and I do send out further notes to help you continue the development after the class. I see this as a massive opportunity for us to do detailed work that really moves you on, because we have these apparent restrictions.

Just a thought: you may think a particular composer, (say Josquin for instance) isn’t for you. Don’t rule things out too easily as all these people, whose music I want to share with you, have so much light to shine for us. As cellists, there is so much music we miss because we have so much already written for us. This is an opportunity that I personally have loved developing.

Your score is sent to you on booking your place and there are 15 places per class so we keep the lesson small, detailed and personal.

Do look at all the parts if you can, so you get under the skin of the music.

Venue: Zoom (waiting room opens at 5.45 PM for tuning)

Fee: £25 per class

Click here to register and get more information.

13 March 18:00 GMT

Composed some three centuries ago, yet hardly known until the last 100 years, Bach’s Cello Suites have captured the imaginations of music-lovers across the globe. They bear few indications of how they should be played, instead leaving the interpretation to the performer. It is impossible to know the full history of the suites, and this uncertainty has left them shrouded in an air of mystery.

In this fascinating masterclass, Steven Isserlis, the internationally renowned and award-winning cellist, invites you to explore the suites. As well as hearing excerpts, you will begin to discover the story of the suites – why they languished in obscurity for so many years, and whether there might be an underlying narrative to the music.

Steven’s book The Bach Cello Suites: A Companion is available to pre-order in paperback. You can purchase a book and ticket for the combined price of £58.52 including P&P. The book is due to be published in March 2023.

Registration starts at £51.83. For more information, click here.

25 March, 22 April, 3 June, 23 September, 11 November | 6:00 PM–8:15 PM GMT

2, 9, 23, 30 April 10 AM ET

Join Professor Peled for four 60-minute sessions via Zoom. This is a group class where you learn the principles and techniques found in his book, “The First Hour — A Cellist’s Daily Technical Regimen.” Play along with Professor Peled as he demonstrates live the exercises that will help take your playing to the next level. Each session is recorded in high quality and your registration fee gives you access to each session video throughout the duration of the course.

Dates: April 2, 9, 23, and 30, 2023
Time: 10:00 a.m. ET (each session is recorded)
Fee: $500 USD ($400 USD for previous participants in the Amit Peled First Hour Online Courses or Online Cello Academy)
To Register: Send an email to Julia@ctmclassics.com
Required: You will need to purchase a copy of “The First Hour” book by placing your online order here. Please order by March 1, to allow enough time for shipping.

For more information, visit the class website.

31 July -6 August