RIVAA Gallery Chamber Music

Feasts for the eye and ear: A new concert series featuring period performance of 18th and 19th century chamber music

RIVAA Gallery presents a new chamber music series in the vibrant  setting of Roosevelt Island’s community art gallery. This musical series will be the only one of its kind offered to audiences in New York City, with a specific focus on Baroque, Classical and Romantic chamber and solo repertoire played on period instruments. From pieces for viola da gamba, to Baroque strings, to Mozartian and Schubert era early pianos, this series invites audiences into the arresting and authentic sound world of historical instruments. The sounds of 18th and 19th century strings and keyboards, played by leading musicians, challenge traditional and mainstream experiences of classical music and revive the excitement, creativity and chemistry of ensemble playing. 

The series is directed by Roosevelt Island resident Yiheng Yang, who is faculty at The Juilliard School of Music and a leading historical keyboard player. Yang’s vision is for world-class music-making and creative collaboration between top historical performance artists, bringing the best of classical music to Roosevelt Island. 

This Spring there will be a two-weekend festival of Romantic Era Music, with chamber masterpieces from the 19th century on period pianos and strings. On Sunday, April 28th at 3pm, a program featuring Aisslinn Nosky, Concertmaster of the Handel and Haydn Society and celebrated violinist, Yiheng Yang, and Eleanor Legault on viola, will center around the music of the  prolific and Brahms-era composer Emilie Mayer. The following weekend on May 5th, sensational period violinist Ravenna Lipchik and Yiheng Yang, fortepiano, perform a program of the wildly passionate violin sonatas of Robert Schumann, in anticipation of the release of their album of Schumann Piano Trios (Trio Ilona, with Kate Wadsworth, cello). 

A summer concert called “Echoes of the Sun King” will be on June 29th, performed by  Arnie Tanimoto, viola da gamba, David Ross, baroque flute, Tami Morse, viola da gamba. 

Next season, fall 2024 – spring 2025, series highlights include the Berwick Fiddle Consort, a solo recital by award-winning fortepianist Hilda Huang, a concert by Nuovo Practica, a New-York based ensemble which plays their own, new compositions written in early music styles, and a Beethoven violin sonata program by European early music luminaries Shunske Sato, Baroque violin, and Shuann Chai, fortepiano. 

Entry is free, and the suggested donation is $25, $10 for students and seniors. Seating is limited. Follow RIVAA Gallery on Instagram @rivaagallery or visit www.rivaagallery.org for the latest announcements and concert information. You can also contact the concerts director, Yiheng Yang at [email protected]