Friends of Music Concerts’ (FOMC), which presents the finest in classical chamber music, opens its 2025-26 season with acclaimed pianist Jeremy Denk and the Isidore String Quartet on Saturday, Sept. 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Sleepy Hollow High School’s Kusel Auditorium, Sleepy Hollow.
A subscription to the seven-concert season is $210 ($30 per ticket), a FlexSub of four admissions good at any concert is $35 per ticket and single concert tickets are $40. Tickets are available here.
In this season, dubbed “Masters and Trailblazers,” both descriptions apply to Denk and the Isidore Quartet. Denk’s first recording in 2012 illuminated the traditional (Beethoven) and the modern (Ligeti) and he’s never stopped exploring new musical worlds along with the classic repertoire.
A year later, his writing on music was cited when he received a MacArthur Fellowship. Later, his memoir “Every Good Boy Does Fine” was a New York Times bestseller. He is a pianist “you want to hear no matter what he performs,” according to the New York Times.
Since forming in 2019, the Isidore Quartet won the 14th Banff International String Quartet Competition and have recently partnered with Denk in several concerts. The quartet possesses “a focus and command beyond their years,” according to Violinist.com. They are: violinists Adrian Steele and Phoenix Avalon, violist Devin Moore, and cellist Joshua McClendon.
At this concert, Denk will perform Sonata in E minor, Op. 90 and Sonata in A-flat, Op. 110 by Beethoven, and Four Pieces, Op. 119 by Brahms. Denk and the Isidore Quartet will perform Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34 by Brahms. This concert is generously sponsored, in part, by White and Williams LLP.
All season performances are scheduled to take place at Sleepy Hollow High School’s Kusel Auditorium, 210 North Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. and audience members are invited to a reception after each concert to mingle and meet the artists.
The remainder of the season’s concerts will take place on Sunday afternoons at 3 p.m.
The Pacifica Quartet with Sharon Isbin, guitar, arrives on Sunday, Oct. 5 With a career spanning three decades, the multiple Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet has achieved international recognition. Sharon Isbin – also a multiple Grammy Award winner – is in the Guitar Foundation of America Hall of Fame.
FOMC presents The Tesla Quartet on Sunday, Oct. 19. Inspired by the creative example of scientist and visionary Nikola Tesla, the Tesla Quartet possesses “superb capacity to find the inner heart of everything they play,” according to The International Review of Music.
The Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio performs on Sunday, Nov. 2. The trio comprises three of classical music’s most highly esteemed artists: pianist Gloria Chien, violinist Soovin Kim, and cellist Paul Watkins, formerly of the acclaimed Emerson Quartet.
The spring season opens with the Calidore String Quartet on Sunday, March 22, 2026. They have released numerous critically acclaimed recordings and received significant awards, including the Avery Fisher Career Grant. This concert is sponsored, in part, by the Raymond Han and Paul Kellogg Foundation.
FOMC welcomes Benett Tsai, cello, and Noreen Polera, piano on Sunday, April 12, 2026. Tsai appears as a recipient of the Friends of Music Concerts YCA Performance Award and in 2023 won the Susan Wadsworth International Auditions in New York. Born in Australia, Polera has appeared at Caramoor and her mastery of the cello-piano repertory is widely known.
Stefan Jackiw, violin and Kevin Ahfat, piano wrap up the season on Sunday, April 26, 2026. One of America’s foremost violinists, Jackiw captivates audiences with playing that combines poetry and purity with an impeccable technique. His piano collaborator, Kevin Ahfat, is the director of OPUS Chamber Music in Toronto.
