Please note: Due to inclement weather, this concert has been rescheduled from January 31 at 7:30 pm to February 17 at 3 pm. If you have already purchased your ticket, it will be good for the new date. No need for a new ticket. If you cannot attend the new date, please contact the AK Guest Services team at 716.270.8292 for assistance.

1842 was a very prolific year for Robert Schumann, witnessing the composer’s first forays into chamber music. While his wife, Clara, was concertizing in early 1842, Robert spent his time brooding and studying the string quartets of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. On Clara’s return in early April, Robert flew into a compositional frenzy that resulted in what musicologists refer to as his “Year of Chamber Music,” in which he wrote his quartet and quintet for piano and strings as well as several other chamber works.

Robert Schumann Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47 
Robert Schumann Piano Quintet in E-flat Major, Op. 44

Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for AK Members, and $5 for students, and can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

We join the choir of Calvary Episcopal Church for a performance of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem and a new work by Buffalo composer Roland E. Martin.

For more info, visit Calvary Episcopal Church.

The 1960s were a time of social, political, and cultural unrest and this manifested itself in the art and music of the period. Complementing the Albright-Knox’s exhibition Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s, the concert program explores the various musical trends of the 1960s, including Minimalism, phase music, recorded sound, dance, mechanical works, and performance art.

The ensemble will collaborate with Anne Burnidge Dance for this performance.

Luciano Berio O King
John Cage Music for Amplified Toy Pianos
Morton Feldman De Kooning
György Ligeti Poème symphonique for 100 metronomes
Steve Reich Violin Phase

Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for AK Members, and $5 for students, and can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

Kurt Weill and Marc Blitzstein were towering figures in early-twentieth century American theater. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s season-long exploration of the works of Kurt Weill continues with this center stage performance of chamber music composed by each man. Presented in partnership with Buffalo Chamber Players, the audience will sit on the stage of Kleinhans Music Hall surrounding the musicians for a visceral musical experience.

Kurt Weill String Quartet No. 1, Opus 8
Marc Blitzstein Sting Quartet No. 1, “Italian”

For tickets and information, visit the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Do you play an instrument? Then join us for a workshop and performance of Terry Riley’s In C at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery! Premiered in 1964 at the San Francisco Tape Music Center, the Riley’s In C is a reactionary piece to the stifling rigidity of serialism and music academia of the time.

We will begin with a brief workshop explaining the piece, its history, and how our community performance will unfold. All you need is your instrument or your voice, the ability to read music, and an open mind! Non-playing participants are welcome too. Together we will create a memorable performance experience of this seminal minimalist work.

The event is free with $5 Family Funday admission and free for AK members.

Historically, chamber music programs have been predominately strings-only affairs, neglecting the rich repertoire for wind and percussion instruments. However, hidden in the Baroque tradition is a set of works for winds by Telemann highlighting the virtuosity of the early wind instruments. By the twentieth century, composers such as Poulenc and Reich mastered the rich melodic and playful nature of wind and percussion music. 

Francis Poulenc Sextet for piano and winds
Francis Poulenc Sonata for horn, trumpet, and trombone
Steve Reich Nagoya Marimbas
Georg Philipp Telemann Tafelmusik II, Quartet in d minor

Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for AK Members, and $5 for students, and can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

In 1964, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Lukas Foss created the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at the University at Buffalo with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. The Center’s Creative Associates presented a regular concert series in the Albright-Knox’s Auditorium that revolutionized the music world and helped establish Buffalo as the epicenter of contemporary, avant-garde music in the 1960s and 1970s. This program celebrates this exciting time of musical innovation in Buffalo’s history.

Program includes:

John Cage She is Asleep II: Duet for voice and prepared piano
John Cage A Room
Aaron Copland Threnodies for flute and string trio
Henry Cowell Twenty-Six Simultaneous Mosaics
Julius Eastman Stay On It
Morton Feldman Four Instruments for violin, cello, chimes, and piano
Iannis Xenakis Mikka for solo vioin
La Monte Young Compositions 1960 #6

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

Music between the World Wars was bursting with a new creative life, and from cabaret to twelve-tone music, the Weimar Republic brimmed with this energy. This program features some of the popular and eventually banned music and composers of this artistically rich time period, including works by Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, and Kurt Weill.

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

Discover the music of women composers, including those that fought against the societal restrictions limiting their music from the public sphere. The program highlights works from the Baroque to today, including compositions by Isabella Leonarda, Amy Beach, Florence Price, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Sofia Gubaidulina, Missy Mazzoli, and the premiere of a new work written for us by BCP composer-in-residence Rob Deemer based on a letter by Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

In The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, Argentinean-born composer Osvaldo Golijov channels the spiritual life and writings of Isaac the Blind, the 12th-century Kabbalist rabbi of Provence. Scored for klezmer clarinet and string quartet, the work presents Golijov’s musical language that seamlessly blends various styles into a unique, evocative composition that is both contemporary and timeless.

The program also includes Johannes Brahms’s late masterpiece for the same instrumentation, the Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115.

Golijov Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind
Brahms Clarinet Quintet in b minor, Op. 115
Mallonée Net Force (world premiere)

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

We open our 11th concert season with the exotic sounds of Bohemia and its fusion of folk and art music, with works by Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, and Bedřich Smetana.

Dvořák Serenade for Winds, Cello, and Bass, Op. 44
Janáček String Quartet No. 1, "Kreutzer Sonata"
Smetana String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life"

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

Join us Friday, July 21 at 7:30 pm for a special performance celebrating our partnership with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. The concert features the music of Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) in the Albright-Knox’s beautiful Sculpture Court.

The program includes Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater for soprano, alto, strings, and continuo (1736), with soprano Lydia Evans and alto Lynne McMurtry, and a fully staged performance of his comic opera La serva padrona (1733), with soprano Colleen Marcello, baritone James Wright, and actor David Bondrow.

The evening offers a rare opportunity to experience these masterworks performed by an all-star cast in an intimate setting. Seating is very limited and we encourage you to purchase your tickets in advance. Hors d’oeuvres and a cash bar will be available.

Tickets can be purchased online, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

The Buffalo Chamber Players explores the synergy of music and dance in a collaboration with Lehrer Dance, an exciting and innovative professional dance company based in Buffalo, NY.

The Buffalo Chamber Players and Lehrer Dance will collaborate in Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Overture to Les arts florissants, Antonio Vivaldi’s Trio Sonata “La Follia” in D minor, RV 63, and Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suite No.3 in C major, BWV 1009 performed by BPO Associate Principal cellist Feng Hew.

The dance portion of the program will be preceded by instrumental works by three contemporary composers highlighting our local musical talent. BPO bassist Brett Shurtliffe dazzles in Tom Johnson’s fiendishly difficult and aptly titled Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for Solo String Bass, BPO trombonist Timothy Smith sizzles in Corrado Saglietti’s jazz-influenced Suite for alto trombone and string quartet, and the ensemble premieres a new work by BCP composer-in-residence Caroline Mallonée, Curtains of Light: Eight Overlapping Soundscapes for mixed septet.

For tickets, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery or call 716.270.8292.

A whimsical program of animals in music from the Baroque to the contemporary, with works by Luciano Berio, Heinrich Biber, Felix Mendelssohn, Francis Poulenc, and Franz Schubert, with special guests Vocális Chamber Choir and BPO concertmaster Dennis Kim.

Poulenc: Le Bestiaire for voice and mixed ensemble
Biber: Sonata Representativa for violin and continuo
Berio: Opus Number Zoo for woodwind quintet
Mendelssohn: Verleih uns Frieden
Mendelssohn: Christe, du Lamm Gottes
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A Major, "Trout"

For tickets, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery or call 716.270.8292.

We are very excited to be performing at Pausa Art House, a wonderful, intimate venue in Allentown! Come, grab a drink, and enjoy great music.

We are preparing a program of works by BCP composer-in-residence Caroline Mallonée and other surprises, so check back soon for full program details!

Join us for M&T Bank Second Friday at the Burchfield Penney Art Center for a celebration of Julius Eastman and his music. The event is free and open to the public.

5:30 PM: Buddha - Sotto Voce Vocal Collective

6:00 PM: Stay On It - Buffalo Chamber Players

6:30 PM: Buddha - Sotto Voce Vocal Collective

7 PM: Gay Guerrilla - Buffalo Chamber Players and Bufluxus

8 PM: Talk/Book Signing by Renee Levine Packer, author of Gay Guerrilla: Julius Eastman and His Music

8:30 PM: Crazy Nigger - performed and arranged by percussionist Amy Knoles

The Buffalo Chamber Players hosts renowned Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki during his historic visit to Buffalo. Requested by Maestro Penderecki himself, the program includes Cadenza for solo viola, Quartet for clarinet and string trio, and Sextet for clarinet, horn, violin, viola, cello, and piano.

For tickets, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery or call 716.270.8292.

The Buffalo Chamber Players celebrates its tenth anniversary season with special guests JoAnn Falletta on guitar and BPO concertmaster Dennis Kim, with works by Niccolò Paganini, W.A. Mozart, Jean Françaix, and a new work for strings by Western New York composer Rob Deemer.

Deemer Thorne Rooms for violin, viola, and cello
Françaix String Trio
Mozart Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370/368b
Paganini Quartet No. 15 for viola, violin, cello, and guitar

For tickets, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery or call 716.270.8292.

Historically, chamber music repertoire and programming has heavily favored certain instrument combinations, such as the string quartet and the piano trio. Fortunately, some composers also ventured beyond these well-trodden choices, creating exciting and innovative alternatives. We celebrate these with a program of unconventional instrument combinations, with works by Frank Bridge, Michael Haydn, Caroline Mallonée, Sergey Prokofiev, and Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec.

Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes, op. 34 for clarinet, string quartet, and piano
Michael Haydn Quartet in C, P. 115 for English horn, violin, cello, and bass
Caroline Mallonée Throwing Mountains for bass clarinet, cello, bass, and piano
Frank Bridge Lament for two violas
Paul Moravec Tempest Fantasy for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

A reception with Paul Moravec, Caroline Mallonée, and the musicians will follow the performance.

For tickets, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

While composing his chamber concerto Dumbarton Oaks, Igor Stravinsky recounts that he “played Bach regularly and was greatly attracted to the Brandenburg Concertos. Whether or not the first theme of my [first] movement is a conscious borrowing from the third Brandenburg, however, I do not know.” The Buffalo Chamber Players presents Stravinsky’s neoclassical masterpiece alongside works by Classical masters.

Stravinsky: Concerto in E-flat "Dumbarton Oaks"
Bach: Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G
Haydn: Adagio cantabile from Symphony No. 13
Mozart: Trio in E-flat, K. 498 "Kegelstatt"

In addition, we are hosting Florestan Recital Project for the world premiere of Ben Gunn, a portrayal in song of the castaway in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. The work presents three original poems by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon with music by composer Scott Wheeler. We are honored to have Mr. Wheeler in attendance for the performance.

For tickets and information, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

A program exploring the use of color and texture in music, with an emphasis on the works of Impressionist and Minimalist composers. 

Claude Debussy: Sonata for flute, viola and harp
Manuel de Falla: Pantomime and Ritual Fire Dance from El Amor Brujo
Caroline Mallonée: The Butterfly Effect
Maurice Ravel: Chansons madécasses
Arvo Pärt: Fratres and Speigel im Spiegel
La Monte Young: Composition 1960 #7

Ticket holders may enjoy the AK's new exhibit Monet and the Impressionist Revolution at no additional charge from 5 to 7:30pm prior to the performance.

For tickets and information, visit the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

A performance of Mozart's Requiem Mass with St. Paul's Cathedral Choir.

Tickets are $20 general admission/$10 students or a freewill offering at the door. Children under 12 are free with an adult. Purchase tickets online or at the door prior to the performance.

We perform Copland's Piano Quartet (1950) as part of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra's concert presentation "Copland and the Cold War." The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

A collaboration with the Freudig Singers.