Barbara & William Karatz Chamber Concert Series 2025‒2026 Season | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (October 20–May 4)

We are excited to present the 2025–2026 season of the Athenaeum’s Barbara and William Karatz Chamber Music Series, which features artists who have established themselves as favorites with our audiences and those we enthusiastically welcome for the first time. Our season opens October 20 with cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia, who wowed us a couple seasons ago with a solo recital and will return with pianist Victor Santiago Asuncion in an adventurous program of duos. The season also features two remarkable string quartets (longtime Athenaeum favorites, the Maxwell Quartet, on November 17 and gut string heroes, the Diderot Quartet) on April 14; star pianist Conor Hanick on March 16; early music experts, the Artifex Consort, on May 4; and two of our important teachers, violinist Andrés Cárdenes and cellist Steven Doane, joined by local favorite pianist Ines Irawati, on February 23. Putting these concerts together has been a true labor of love, and we can’t wait to welcome you back in October!

Monday, October 20, 2025—Santiago Cañón-Valencia (cello) with Victor Santiago Asuncion (piano)

Superstar cellist Santiago Cañón-Valencia returns to open our season with a dreamy duo program of French sonatas, unique transcriptions, and Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne (adapted from his ballet Pulcinella). Cañón-Valencia is a BBC Next Generation Artist and Tchaikovsky Competition silver medalist; his skill is hailed by The Strad as “technically flawless … totally under the skin of the composers’ idioms.”

Monday, November 17, 2025—Maxwell String Quartet

A longtime favorite on the Athenaeum chamber music series, the Maxwell String Quartet returns with a colorful program that opens with their signature dose of Scottish folk tunes, followed by Edmund Finnis’s first quartet, a poetic work that draws inspiration from the choral music of William Byrd, which closes the first half in an arrangement by the Maxwell String Quartet. Brahms’s epic second quartet rounds out this exciting evening.

Monday, February 23, 2026—Andrés Cárdenes (violin), Steven Doane (cello), Ines Irawati (piano)

This special “lineage” program combines world-class performers and pedagogues in their debut performance as a trio, featuring romantic lyricism alongside playful folk melodies, culminating in Dvorak’s always riveting “Dumky” piano trio.

Monday, March 16, 2026—Conor Hanick (piano)

We eagerly welcome pianist Conor Hanick to the Athenaeum for the first time for an adventurous solo recital featuring Charles Ives’s monumental first sonata and two Schubert Impromptus paired with a new revision of Samuel Carl Adams’s Three Impromptus (a West Coast premiere) inspired by Schubert.

Tuesday, April 14, 2026—Diderot String Quartet

The Diderot String Quartet will make their Athenaeum debut with a journey to 18th century Vienna, featuring masterpieces by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. One of the premiere ensembles performing on gut strings and historical instruments, this dynamic group (Adriane Post, violin; Johanna Novom, violin; Kyle Miller, viola; Paul Dwyer, cello) breathes new life into old works.

Monday, May 4, 2026—Artifex Consort

Specializing in the rich and varied “sound-world” of the late 17th century, the Artifex Consort (Malachai Komanoff Bandy, Rebecca Landell, and Eva Lymenstull, bass viols; John Lenti, theorbo; Ian Pritchard, keyboards) closes our season with works showcasing the viola da gamba as an ensemble instrument outside of the English consort tradition, during the height of its later flourishing in parts of England and Germany. The program features virtuosic music for two bass viols by Christopher Simpson and Johannes Schenck, alongside lush and ingenious—though little-known—works for three bass viols by Benjamin Hely and Johann Michael Nicolai.

All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon & Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.

The Diderot String Quartet concert is generously sponsored by Sally and Einar Gall.

Athenaeum Members: Unlock exclusive video access to the 2023–2024 Chamber Concert Series, featuring pre-concert talks and performances. Dive into the music with behind-the-scenes insights and captivating performances from world-class artists. Please contact the Athenaeum for the password to access these videos.

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