Curtis on Tour

Curtis Chamber Orchestra

A conductorless chamber orchestra led from the first chair by Minnesota Orchestra concertmaster and Curtis violin faculty Erin Keefe. The program includes Mozart’s masterful Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra performed by Erin Keefe and Curtis President and renowned violist Roberto Díaz

Bernstein, Bruch, and Schubert

Emerging artists join Curtis President and renowned violist Roberto Díaz to form an ensemble of soprano, clarinet, viola, and piano. The program will include Bernstein’s Clarinet Sonata, Schubert’s “The Shepherd on the Rock,” and selections from Bruch’s Eight Pieces, as well as other pieces for this combination.

Latin American Tour

Emerging artists join Curtis President and renowned violist Roberto Díaz to form an ensemble of soprano, clarinet, viola, and piano. The program will feature works of legendary Curtis alumnus Leonard Bernstein, including his Clarinet Sonata and selections from West Side Story, Schubert’s beloved song “The Shepherd on the Rock,” and selections from Bruch‘s Eight Pieces.

Alumni and Emerging Artists, more information coming soon

Fall 2024
Curtis Symphony Orchestra | East Coast

During our Centennial Season, Curtis Symphony Orchestra will present two special tour performances featuring breathtaking alumni soloists and guest conductors.

Fall 2024 & Spring 2025
Beethoven, Brahms, and more | North America

Named for the Erinyes (a.k.a. the Furies) from the Greek tragedy Oresteia by Aeschylus, and with roots in Estonia, Lithuania, Greece, the United States, and Finland, the acclaimed Erinys Quartet is the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at the Curtis Institute of Music. This fall, the prize-winning quartet joins internationally renowned violist and Curtis president and CEO Roberto Díaz (Viola ’84) and Avery Fisher Career Grant winner and GRAMMY-nominated cellist Peter Wiley (Cello ’74), Bruce Jay Gould, M.D. Chair at Curtis for three exhilarating performances as part of Curtis on Tour, the Nina von Maltzahn global touring initiative of Curtis, featuring Johannes Brahms’s ethereal String Sextet No. 2 in G major, Op. 36, and more. 

March 2025
Guitar Quartet | North America

GRAMMY Award-winning guitarist and Curtis faculty member Jason Vieaux, internationally renowned violist and Curtis president and CEO Roberto Díaz (Viola ’84), and emerging professional artists from Curtis present a thrilling program for guitar and strings. A vibrant collision of global sounds, cultures, and sonic textures, the program begins with Spanish composer and pianist Manuel de Falla’s Suite populaire espagnole, followed by a fiery, crowd-pleasing set featuring two selections by Argentinian legend Ástor Piazzolla, Histoire du Tango and an arrangement of Oblivion, by Piazzolla specialist and bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro.

The concert continues with acclaimed Curtis alumnus Zhou Tian’s (Composition ’05) 10-minute musical journey inspired by classical Chinese landscape paintings, Red Trees, Wrinkled Cliffs, and closes with Niccolò Paganini’s masterful Guitar Quartet in A minor, No. 15, M.S. 42, itself inspired by the expressive Romantic lyricism and jaw-dropping virtuosity of 18th century Italian opera. 

May 2025
Michelle Cann and the Erinys Quartet | West Coast

Praised for their “superb performances” (The Millbrook Independent), the prize-winning Erinys Quartet, the Nina von Maltzahn String Quartet-in-Residence at Curtis, join forces with Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies, Michelle Cann, “a pianist of sterling artistry” (Gramophone), for a stunning recital of late Romantic chamber works by Ludwig Van Beethoven and  Antonín Dvořák, performed alongside a 20th-century masterpiece by trailblazing composer and pianist Florence Price.

The concert opens with Beethoven’s exhilarating String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 18, No. 6, a work of transcendent lyricism and Haydnesque bravado, followed by Price’s haunting Fantasie nègre No. 1, a striking work that blends the richness of African-American folksong with western European classical styles. The afternoon/evening closes with Dvořák’s sublime Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major Op. 81, written at the height of the young composer’s international fame.

May 2025
Debussy, Ravel, and Fauré | Europe

Internationally renowned cellist Gary Hoffman, the Nina and Billy Albert Chair in Cello Studies at Curtis joins some of the school’s esteemed alumni for a tour of Europe in the spring of 2025. A thrilling concert of iconic works and audience favorites, the program features one of Claude Debussy’s final compositions, the Sonata in D minor for Cello and Piano, an elegant, evocative work, at once dark, mysterious, meditative, and playfully whimsical.

Maurice Ravel’s shimmering Piano Trio in A minor follows, a dreamlike work with echoes of jazz, Javanese gamelan, and courtly Baroque dances, all leading to a splashy finale. The concert closes with Gabriel Fauré’s deeply moving Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15, widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated French chamber music works of the late 19th century.

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

November 3 | Evanston, IL | Evanston Symphony
Maya Buchanan, violin

November 10 | Washington, DC | Washington Performing Arts
Sarah Fleiss, soprano
Delvan Lin, piano

November 17 | Costa Mesa, CA | Pacific Symphony
Elias Ackerley, piano

November 17 | New York, NY | The New School, Schneider Concerts
Erinys Quartet, string quartet

November 20 | Philadelphia, PA | Young Musicians Musicale
Erinys Quartet, string quartet

December 5 | Solebury, PA | Delaware Valley Music Club
Erinys Quartet, string quartet

December 8 | Placitas, NM | Placitas Artist Series
Erinys Quartet, string quartet

2025

January 26-27 | Sarasota, FL | Artists Series Concerts of Sarasota
Sarah Fleiss, soprano
Delvan Lin, piano

January 28 | Philadelphia, PA | Friends of Chestnut Hill Library
Erinys Quartet, string quartet

February 21-23 | Kansas City, MO | Kansas City Symphony
Hannah Tam, violin

March 8 | Wakefield, RI | Core Memory Music
Erinys Quartet, string quartet

April 4-6 | Tucson, AZ | Tucson Symphony
Joseph Tancredi, tenor

April 6 | Washington, DC | Washington Performing Arts
Maya Buchanan, violin
Joan Herget, cello
Delvan Lin, piano

May 4 | Washington, DC | Washington Performing Arts
Karlis Bukovskis, piano

2024: Europe

2024: North American Tour: Nantucket and East Coast

2024: Piano Quartet, Europe

2024: Winds and Strings, United States

2023: Taiwan 

2023: Europe

2023: Nantucket and New England

2023: Intimacy of Creativity

2023: Trio Zimbalist

2023: Curtis Symphony Orchestra

2023: Cello Quintet

2023: L’Histoire du Soldat

2022: Eric Owens and Singers from the Curtis Opera Theatre

2022: Soprano and Piano Quartet-Europe

2022: Cello Quintet—U.S.

2021: Flute, Strings, and Piano Virtual Tour—Latin America

2021: Piano Trio—Europe

2021: BROADCAST: Flute, Strings, and Piano—New England

2020: Dover Quartet Virtual Tour—Latin America

2020: BROADCAST: Strings, Guitar, and Voice—New England

2019–20: Vera Quartet and Meng-Chieh Liu, piano—U.S.

2020: Curtis Symphony Orchestra with Osmo Vänskä and Jonathan Biss—U.S.

2019: Woodwinds and Strings Ensemble—U.S.

2019: Flute, Piano, and Strings—Asia

2019: Voice, Strings, and Piano—Europe

2019: Flute, Guitar, and Strings—New England

2019: Clarinet Trio—Latin America

2019: Piano Quartet—Europe

2019: Intimacy of Creativity—Hong Kong

2019: Vocal Quartet—U.S.

2018: Piano Quartet—U.S.

2018: Zorá Quartet—Europe

2018: Leonard Bernstein Centenary Celebration—U.S.

2017: String Sextet—Latin America

2017: Curtis Symphony Orchestra—Europe

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.