Friends of Music Concerts, which is celebrating its 71st season in 2024-25, has engaged a diverse range of classical music artists for Westchester County audiences in spring 2025.
“The second half of our season will see dynamic young solo performers as well as one of the world’s great string quartets marking three decades on concert stages around the world. It’s a musical banquet with choice for every taste,” said FOMC President Susan Harris.
In addition, Harris said, “Our family-friendly, spring Sunday afternoon concerts are accessible for audience members of all ages. What’s more, our patrons are invited to festive post-concert receptions to meet these stellar artists.” Performances are scheduled to take place at Sleepy Hollow High School auditorium, 210 North Broadway, Sleepy Hollow, N.Y., with ample free parking and handicapped access.
The spring season begins on Sunday, March 30, 3 p.m., with mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, accompanied by pianist Francesco Barfoed.
Moore, a previous winner of FOMC’s Young Concert Artists Performance Award, has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera, among prominent companies. Barfoed, with Moore, won first prize in the Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition.
They will present a program of songs that include Mahler’s meditation on love and loss in “Songs of a Wayfarer,” three of Rachmaninoff’s deeply emotional “Six Songs, Opus 38” and Prokofiev’s radiant “Five Poems of Anna Akhmatova.”
Moore and Barfoed also have programmed 20th century composer Yvette Souviron’s “Al banco solitario” and “Carnavalito,” and selections from African-American composer B.E. Boykin’s “Moments in Sonder,” with text from the poetry of Maya Angelou.
This concert is generously sponsored, in part, by the Raymond Han and Paul Kellogg Foundation.
Pianist Harmony Zhu arrives on Sunday, April 6, 3 p.m. A recipient of FOMC’s YCA Performance Award, this brilliant, 19-year-old artist has been hailed as “a deeply musical soul and nimble technician [with] probing sensitivity.” (Chicago Tribune)
She was First Prize Winner of the 2021 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions and a 2024 Gilmore Young Artist. She has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia, Chicago and Detroit orchestras.
Her program will consist of works by Frédéric Chopin, whom she has named as one of her favorite composers. “His music has always been extremely dear to me. It is so profound and noble, but it also really tears at your heart and resonates with the human experience on a deeply personal level,” she said.
The Jerusalem String Quartet, a beloved presence on the world’s great concert stages, performs on Sunday, May 4, 3 p.m.
According to the New York Times, the quartet deploys a strong sense of drama and a striking range of tonal color to create “an extraordinary unity of sound and purpose.” The Times of London described their sound as having “passion, precision, warmth, a gold blend.”
Their program will include: Haydn’s Quartet in B♭-Major, Op. 50, No. 1, Shostakovich’s Quartet No. 12 in D♭-Major, Op. 133 and Brahms’ Quartet in B♭-Major, No. 3, Op. 67.
The Jerusalem Quartet has a special relationship with the Shostakovich canon. In 2025, they will perform all 15 of the Russian composer’s string quartets in a series of concerts in several cities. Just before this concert, they will play the entire cycle over five days under the auspices of the Cleveland Chamber Music Society.
The members hail from Belarus, Ukraine and Israel. They are Alexander Pavlovsky – first violin, Sergei Bresler – second violin, Ori Kam – viola, Kyril Zlotnikov – cello.
Friends of Music Concerts’ fall 2024 season featured the Han, Setzer, Finckel piano trio; the Dover String Quartet with Roberto Díaz, viola; the WindSync wind quintet and the Balourdet String Quartet with Adam W. Sadberry, flute.
Subscriptions and tickets
For the spring season, Friends of Music Concerts patrons may buy a FlexSub mini-subscription of four or more tickets for $35 each and use them in any combination at any concert. Single tickets are $40 for adults and free for those aged 18 and under. Go to www.friendsofmusicconcerts.org and select “Tickets” to order.
