Today the Albright-Knox Art Gallery announced the Buffalo Chamber Players 2017–2018 season, continuing its acclaimed residency at the museum with an expanded concert series in the Albright-Knox Auditorium.

As Buffalo’s preeminent chamber music ensemble, the Buffalo Chamber Players presents innovative music programs performed by our region’s finest performers. Formed by BPO violist Janz Castelo, the group comprises members of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and distinguished area musicians. The Buffalo Chamber Players’ critically acclaimed concerts explore historical masterworks of the chamber music repertoire as well as contemporary works by living composers. Through its performances, the ensemble aims to challenge, redefine, and enhance the public’s perception of chamber music while promoting the City of Buffalo and our region as a culturally vibrant place to live, work, and play.

“We are proud to continue our residency at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, now offering an expanded five-concert series,” said Buffalo Chamber Players Artistic Director Janz Castelo. “After ten years of our performances, audiences have come to expect highly creative programming from the Chamber Players and this season continues this tradition, offering familiar masterworks and composers alongside many surprises!”

For the 2017–2018 season, the ensemble will present five exciting programs:

Bohemian Rhapsody
Thursday, September 28, 2017, at 7:30 pm

The Buffalo Chamber Players opens its eleventh concert season with the exotic sounds of Bohemia and its fusion of folk and art music, with works by Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, and Bedřich Smetana.

Dreams and Prayers
Thursday, November 16, 2017, at 7:30 pm

In The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, Argentinean-born composer Osvaldo Golijov channels the spiritual life and writings of Isaac the Blind, the twelfth-century Kabbalist rabbi of Provençe. The program also includes Johannes Brahms’s late masterpiece for the same instrumentation, the Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115.

A Woman’s Work
Thursday, February 22, 2018, at 7:30 pm

Discover the music of women composers who fought against the societal restrictions limiting their music from the public sphere. This program highlights works from the Baroque to today, including compositions by Barbara Strozzi, Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford Seeger, and Florence Price.

Music of Weimar
Thursday, April 26, 2018, at 7:30 pm

Music between the World Wars was bursting with creative life, and the Weimar Republic brimmed with artistic energy, from cabaret to twelve-tone music. The evening’s program features some of the popular and eventually banned music and composers of this artistically rich time period, including works by Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg, and Kurt Weill.

I Heard It at the AK
Thursday, June 7, 2018, at 7:30 pm

In 1964, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Music Director Lukas Foss created the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts at SUNY Buffalo, which made Buffalo the epicenter of contemporary, avant-garde music in the 1960s and 1970s. The Buffalo Chamber Players presents a program celebrating this exciting time of musical innovation in Buffalo’s history.

Individual concert tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for AK Members, and $5 for students. Season tickets for all five concerts are available at a discounted rate of $80 for general admission and $60 for AK Members through the first concert on September 28. Tickets can be purchased online at www.albrightknox.org, by phone at 716.270.8292, or in person at the Albright-Knox Admissions Desk.

Buffalo Chamber Players at the AK is a partnership between the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and the Buffalo Chamber Players. The programs are made possible by a grant from the Cullen Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the  support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature, the support of Buffalo Chamber Players donors, and the generosity of Albright-Knox Art Gallery patrons. We thank ABC-Amega, Inc. for its generous corporate support.

###