Curtis on Tour

The Nina von Maltzahn Global Touring Initiative

Leading artists of tomorrow touring the world today

Curtis on Tour features extraordinary emerging professional artists performing alongside celebrated faculty and alumni. Grounded in Curtis’s “learn by doing” philosophy and steeped in the school’s distinguished history of artistic excellence, this innovative global touring initiative is an integral component of a Curtis education.

For more than 10 years, Curtis on Tour artists and ensembles have delighted audiences around the globe with performances that are “exhilarating from beginning to end” (Washington Post).

Tour offerings include:

  • Worldwide tours offered year-round
  • Chamber ensembles with diverse and compelling offerings, including: standard instrumentation and programs; unique mixed ensembles performing repertoire that is rarely toured; and new works commissioned specifically for Curtis on Tour
  • Large ensembles, including the Curtis Chamber Orchestra and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, performing with leading international conductors and soloists
  • Emerging artists and established alumni performing as soloists with professional orchestras and presenters (see upcoming Professional Engagements)
  • Ensembles and soloists representing all Programs of Study at Curtis

Now Booking

  • November 2024
    Schubert Octet with Jennifer Koh

    GRAMMY Award-winning violinist and Curtis alumna Jennifer Koh leads an ensemble of emerging artists from Curtis in this exciting program built around Franz Schubert’s masterful Octet. Inspired by Beethoven, the composer’s beloved large-scale chamber work encompasses a wide range of tonal moods across six exhilarating movements in sixty minutes—from joy-filled, jaunty dances to moments of quiet transcendence. The Octet will be performed alongside new works specially commissioned for this tour.

    Tour period: 13-24 November 2024


    Michelle Cann and the Erinys Quartet

    Praised as a “pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone, Michelle Cann, esteemed Curtis alumna and piano faculty member, will perform an electrifying program with the acclaimed Erinys Quartet, the school’s new fellowship quartet in residence. This concert includes Antonin Dvořák’s thrilling Piano Quintet in A major, one of the finest examples of late Romantic chamber music in the repertoire. The Erinys Quartet, whose members have roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, and the United States, was formed at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and begins its highly anticipated two-year residency at Curtis in the fall of 2023.

    Tour period: various


    Guitar Quartet

    GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist and faculty Jason Vieaux, renowned violist and Curtis President Roberto Díaz, and emerging artists perform a crowd-pleasing program for guitar and strings ranging from Piazzolla to Paganini.

    Tour period: various

  • Erinys Quartet 

    The acclaimed Erinys Quartet is the fellowship quartet in residence in the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet program at Curtis. The emerging professional quartet, whose members have roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, and the United States, was formed at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and began its highly anticipated two-year residency at Curtis in the fall of 2023. 

    Tour period: various

  • Erinys Quartet 

    The acclaimed Erinys Quartet is the fellowship quartet in residence in the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet program at Curtis. The emerging professional quartet, whose members have roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, and the United States, was formed at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and began its highly anticipated two-year residency at Curtis in the fall of 2023. 

    Tour period: various


    Immersive Scheherazade

    Immersive Scheherazade, created and produced by the Curtis Institute of Music Performance Innovation Lab, is an experience unlike any other, born of composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s enchanting “Scheherazade”.

    Through interactive content and exquisite surround sound and 4k video, audiences will uncover new depths in Rimksy-Korsakov’s Arabian Nights-inspired work and understand the truly magnificent power of orchestral music.

    Bring this installation to your space and allow local audiences the chance to enjoy a uniquely creative performance exhibit.

Upcoming Tours & Performances

  • Spring 2024
    String Sextet |  North America

    Acclaimed violinist and Curtis faculty member Benjamin Beilman (’12) joins former Dover Quartet violist Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (Viola ’10, ’11), award-winning cellist Oliver Herbert (’19), and emerging professional artists from Curtis for a North American tour. This phenomenal sextet of distinguished Curtis faculty and alumni, alongside exceptionally gifted young musicians, presents an electrifying concert of curated selections, both old and new. The program includes Richard Strauss’s masterful Sextet from his final opera Capriccio, Berg’s colorful and chromatic Piano Sonata in B minor, Brahms’s exhilarating String Sextet No. 2 in G major, and a new work commissioned for this tour. 


    Summer 2024
    Piano Quartet |  Europe

    Renowned Curtis alumni violinist Shanshan Yao (’08), violist Haesue Lee (’21), cellist Jean Kim (’18), and pianist Pallavi Mahidhara (’10) will embark on a tour of Europe in the spring of 2024. This exciting concert features Indian American composer Reena Esmail’s lush, romantic trio for violin, cello, and piano, Saans, inspired by the Franck Violin Sonata, and the wedding of dear friends, alongside Felix Mendelssohn’s first published composition, the charming Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor. The concert concludes with Antonín Dvořák’s ingenious Piano Quartet No. 2 in E flat major, a bold, colorful work of tremendous beauty that flits between dark and light, the elegance of the Viennese classical style, and the folky playfulness of a ländler waltz.

  • In addition to national and international tours, Curtis on Tour manages professional performance engagements for Curtis students and recent graduates, providing emerging artists with the matchless experience of appearing with leading ensembles and presenting organizations.

    Professional engagements are added on a rolling basis as they are confirmed.


    2024

    Feb. 13 | Palm Beach, FL | Henry Morrison Flagler Museum
    Michael Shaham, violin

    Feb. 18 | Virginia Beach, VA | Symphonicity
    Ray Ushikubo, piano

    Feb. 18 | Cleveland, OH | Cleveland Orchestra
    Sarah Fleiss, soprano
    Evan Gray, baritone

    Mar. 9 | Wichita, KS | Wichita Symphony
    Sarah Fleiss, soprano

    April 7 | The Plains, VA | Washington Performing Arts – “Music in the Country”
    Anton Mejias, piano

    April 17 | Philadelphia, PA | Young Musicians Musicale
    Sarah Fleiss, soprano

    May 3-5 | Galveston, TX | Galveston Symphony
    Avery Gagliano, piano

    May 19 | Upperville, VA | Washington Performing Arts – “Music in the Country”
    Elias Ackerly, piano

Past Tours

Since Curtis on Tour was established in 2008, students, faculty, and alumni have performed more than 375 concerts in over 20 countries and 100 cities, across four continents.

Artist share stories and photos from the road, presenters share select video and audio recordings, and local press share concert reviews in this sampling of content from select tours.

Media

Images

01 - 14 The Curtis Symphony Orchestra closed its February 2020 tour of the United States in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.

02 - 14 Members of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra break from rehearsal at Carnegie Hall in February 2020.

03 - 14 Soloist Jonathan Biss (Piano '01) led a master class at Virginia Tech, among other universities, as part of an East Coast tour with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Winter 2020.

04 - 14 A clarinet trio performs for a full house in Santiago, Chile in June 2019.

05 - 14 In 2019 Jordan Dodson (Guitar '13), Maria Loudenitch (Violin '18), and cellist Albert Seo performed at the Siasconset Casino, a perennial stop for Curtis on Tour in Nantucket.

06 - 14 A quartet of vocalists, accompanied by faculty pianists Mikael Eliasen and Miloš Repický, performed at the Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco during a Spring 2019 tour. (Photo: Martyn Selman)

07 - 14 Members of the Curtis Chamber Orchestra warm up backstage at Qualcomm Hall in San Diego before a performance in Spring 2015.

08 - 14 A quartet featuring Grammy Award-winning guitarist and faculty member Jason Vieaux performed at venues in Greece and Asia in October 2016. (Photo provided by Sun-ae Kang)

09 - 14 Fiddlefest in April 2017, led by faculty member Ida Kavafian, included a tour stop at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. (Photo: Andrew Lane)

10 - 14 The Curtis Symphony Orchestra performs at Berlin's Konzerthaus during a nine-city European tour in May 2017. (Photo: Kai Bienert)

11 - 14 The Curtis Symphony Orchestra performs at a new venue in Dresden, Germany during a nine-city European tour in May 2017, with alumnus Peter Serkin as piano soloist. (Photo: Oliver Killig)

12 - 14 A mixed ensemble of instrumentalists and vocalists performs at the Gennadius Library in Athens, Greece in September 2017. Curtis on Tour ensembles appear annually at this festival. (Photo: Manos Skoularikos)

13 - 14 A piano quartet performed works by Brahms and Fauré in European venues in May 2019, including the first Curtis on Tour appearance in Warsaw, Poland. (Photo: David Swanson)

14 - 14 Curtis Symphony Orchestra members explore the area following a rehearsal in Dresden in 2012. (Photo: Jennifer Kallend)

Asia Tour: Flute, Piano, and Strings

U.S. Tour: Woodwinds and Strings Ensemble

Europe Tour: Voice and Strings Ensemble

Student Recital: January 2016 in Philadelphia

About Curtis on Tour

Listen

Enjoy a selection of audio recordings, including repertoire performed for Curtis on Tour, as well as works performed by chamber ensembles and the Curtis Symphony Orchestra.

Learn

In addition to touring activities, Curtis faculty and alumni have created several online lectures, free and available on demand at Curtis.edu/Coursera.

Curtis was the first conservatory to offer a massive open online course (MOOC) on Coursera. Since launching in 2013, Curtis courses have reached a global music community of more than 150,000 people in 185 countries.

Press

  • Winds and Strings Tour: Fall 2023 and Spring 2024

    New York, N.Y.| BlogCritics: December 2023

    “[A] lively mix of periods and styles, and a testament to the high quality of Curtis’s program.”

    Read the full review


    Curtis Symphony Orchestra in the U.S.: Winter 2020

    Durham, N.C. | CVNC: February 6, 2020

    “The Curtis Symphony Orchestra is a young classical ensemble, uniquely gifted and well-trained, advancing in experience every day. Add a renowned conductor like Vänskä and a world-class pianist like Biss and you have an extraordinary concert experience. Those who braved the rainy, stormy night were richly rewarded.”

    Read the full review


    Vera Quartet and Meng-Chieh Liu in the U.S.: Fall 2019–Spring 2020

    Rockport, Mass. | The Boston Musical Intelligencer: November 11, 2019

    “Meng-Chieh Liu…wove magic into every note (or bundle of notes) he sent our way.”

    “The [Vera Quartet] made the most of Beethoven’s dramatic contrasts…”

    Read the full review


    Flute, Guitar, and Strings in New England: July 2019

    Kingston, R.I. | Providence Journal: July 24, 2019

    The touring ensemble opened the Kingston Chamber Music Festival on July 24, 2019 to great reviews, including this one from the Providence Journal, which characterized the concert as a “virtuosic showdown,” adding that “Piazzolla’s “Histoire du Tango” came to life magnificently” and “[Joshua] Smith gorgeously dispatched the Mozart.”

    Read the full review


    Clarinet Trio in Latin America: June 2019

    Santiago, Chile | CNN Chile: June 26, 2019

    President Roberto Díaz appeared on television as part of a tour to Latin America, which included stops in his home country of Chile. (Interview begins at 15:44)


    Reñaca, Chile | Tell Magazine: June 2019

    President Díaz was also featured in print.

    Read the full article


    Piano Quartet in the U.S.: October 2018

    Miami, Fla. | South Florida Classical Review: October 26, 2018

    “With their handling of the shifts between determined attacks and tender, blossoming notes, the musicians brought Brahms’ sprawling score to life.”

    Read the full review


    Piano Quartet in Asia: March 2018

    Hong Kong | Chamber Muse: March 30, 2018

    “Joined by alumnae pianist Natalie Zhu, the Curtis kicked off the Fauré quartet with turbulent emotion, full of swirling musical ideas.”

    Read the full review


    Leonard Bernstein Centenary Celebration Tour: Spring 2018

    Palm Beach, Fla | Palm Beach Daily News: March 19, 2018

    “The quartet did a great job of moving together. In a piece that is easily too sentimental, this group played with the right amount of sincerity.”

    Read the full review


    String Sextet in Latin America: Fall 2017

    Santiago, Chile | El Mercurio: October 21, 2017

    “The scherzo, which seems to pay homage to Beethoven’s humor, and the final rondo were exquisite at the hands of this group of teacher and disciples.”

    Read the translated review


    Curtis Symphony Orchestra in Europe: Summer 2017

    Bremen, Germany | Bremer Nachrichten: May 24, 2017

    “There is no need to mention this brilliant youth orchestra’s flexible modulation and intuitive musicality…They also gave an impressive performance of Krzysztof Penderecki’s Double Concerto for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. Lush sound and subtle rhythmic motor skills led to an electrifying night of music.”

    Read the translated review

  • Curtis students and alumni are making waves throughout the musical world by winning major competitions, appointments, and honors. Learn about recent achievements on the Curtis News page.

Contact

Stay Connected

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General Management
Andrew Lane
Vice President, Touring and Artist Management
(215) 717-3124
andrew.lane@curtis.edu

 

Booking Inquiries (North America)
Julie Gaitens
Booking Representative
(215) 717-3146
julie.gaitens@curtis.edu

 

Brayton Arvin
Artist Manager and Booking Representative
(215) 875-4204
brayton.arvin@curtis.edu

 

Booking Inquiries (Europe)
Julika Castro
Booking Representative, Europe
+49 (0)178-514 43 26
julika.castro@curtis.edu

 

Booking Inquiries (Latin America)
Angélica Fanjul
Fanjul & Ward
+56 9 7978 2364
fanjul@fanjulandward.com

 

Orchestra Tours (Worldwide, except North America)
Viola Frankenfeld
HarrisonParrott
+49 (0)89 6797 10484
viola.frankenfeld@harrisonparrott.de

 

Advancing for Confirmed Engagements
Lingzi Liu
Manager of Touring Operations
(215) 717-3143
lingzi.liu@curtis.edu