Coastal Concerts announces 25th season performance lineup

Coastal Concerts recently announced a stellar array of performers will fill its lineup for 2023-24, the organization’s 25th anniversary season.

All shows will take place at Bethel United Methodist Church Hall, Fourth and Market streets, Lewes, except for performances by Michelle Cann and Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective, which will be held in the Cape Henlopen High School auditorium, Lewes. All shows begin at 2 p.m., Saturdays, with most preceded by Performance Insights with Lani Spahr at 1 p.m.

Pianist Michelle Cann will play Oct. 7. Cann made her orchestral debut at age 14 and has since performed as a soloist with prominent ensembles such as the Atlanta and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony and The Philadelphia Orchestra.

Performing Nov. 11 will be Jiji, guitarist, and Danbi Um, violinist. This powerful duo of young, genre-defying musicians presents a remarkably eclectic concert. Italian Baroque is juxtaposed with 19th-century masterpieces of Paganini. Jazz is paired with the seductive gestures of traditional Spanish song. The paradigm-bending program closes with Astor Piazzolla’s spirited celebration of four eras of tango.

Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective will play Dec. 9. Led and curated by Tom Poster and Elena Urioste, the collective is a fluid ensemble of passionate musicians who believe chamber music has an extraordinary power to bring people together, uniting musicians as equals and drawing listeners into its intimate, transportive world.

Performing Jan. 13 will be the American String Quartet and harpist Mariko Anraku. Recognized as one of the world's finest quartets, ASQ has spent decades honing the luxurious sound for which it is famous. The quartet will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024. In its years of touring, the quartet has performed in all 50 states and in the most important concert halls worldwide. Anraku has held the position of associate principal harpist for the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra since 1995.

Dover Quartet and David Shifrin, clarinet player, will take the stage Feb. 3. Dover Quartet has become one of the most in-demand chamber ensembles in the world. Much sought after as a chamber musician, Shifrin has collaborated frequently with such distinguished ensembles and artists as the Tokyo String Quartet, the Emerson String Quartet, Wynton Marsalis, and pianists Emanuel Ax and André Watts.

Trio Zimbalist will perform March 2. Members of the trio are all distinguished alumni of the Curtis Institute of Music. In demand across Europe and the U.S. as soloists, chamber musicians and recitalists, they form an inimitable ensemble with repertoire spanning from romantic masterworks to today’s most lauded composers.

The Wild Card show will feature the Canellakis Brown Duo April 2. Cellist Nicholas Canellakis and pianist-composer Michael Stephen Brown have been captivating audiences with performances that combine masterpieces from the standard repertoire with original compositions and arrangements. Both Brown and Canellakis have performed for Coastal Concerts’ audiences previously. Among the works in the program for this final concert of  Coastal Concerts’ 25th anniversary season will be the premiere of a piece composed for the occasion by Brown and performed by the duo.