Close Encounters with Music

An emerging voice in the musical world will be highlighted when Close Encounters with Music presents its Mid-Winter Fireside Concert, Voice of the Baroque—A Close EnCountertenor Saturday, February 24th at 6PM in St. James Place.

American countertenor Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen, who in 2017 received a Richard Tucker Music Foundation grant, made his European debut at the Theater an der Wien and was named a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition, will perform selections of English song from Dowland, Purcell and Handel. He has been identified as one of opera's most promising rising stars.

But that is not all the Close Encounter program will offer. Renowned cellist Yehuda Hanani will address the merging of intellectual rigor and emotion in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Gamba Sonatas.

Quoting his teacher, Pablo Casals, Hanani calls Bach “a miracle.” “He is of his time and timeless,” he explained. “The slow movements reach remarkable spiritual height and the outer movements are bursting with joy.”

Joining Yehuda will be his long-time musical partner, Michele Levin, first prize winner of the Johann Sebastian Bach International Piano Competition in Washington DC.

Tickets are $38 general admission, $15 for students and can be reserved by calling 800-843-07788 or clicking on the link below. Subscriptions for the remaining season’s concerts are also available for purchase through Close Encounters with Music by phone, online or at the concert.