BSR Classical Interludes, April 2026

University of Delaware School of Music: Calidore String Quartet with Ricardo Morales
Monday, April 6, 5:30pm
University of Delaware/Gore Recital Hall, 110 Orchard Road, Newark

This vibrant ensemble has played all over the world and held residencies at the University of Toronto, University of Michigan, and Stony Brook University. Currently, they are in residence at the University of Delaware’s School of Music and will be playing in UD’s intimate Gore Hall. This concert will feature sought-after guest artist Ricardo Morales, principal clarinet of the Philadelphia Orchestra, in Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet. The program also includes Mozart’s String Quartet (K.589) and the Italian Serenade of Hugo Wolf.

Artcinia: Vivaldi and Piazzolla
Friday, April 10, 7pm
Settlement Queen Village, 416 Queen Street

This lively program features two famous—and stellar—examples of programmatic music: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is paired with Astor Piazzolla’s four-movement L’Histoire du Tango. Soloist Luigi Mazzocchi has arranged the Piazzolla work for violin and string quintet and leads colleagues Gared Crawford and Joseph Kauffman (violins), Ralph Allen (viola), Jie Jin (cello) and bassist Brent Edmonson in these two colorful works.

Philadelphia Chamber Music Society: Lyric Fest: Benjamin Franklin, Printer
Friday, April 10, 7:30pm
American Philosophical Society/Franklin Hall, 477 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

This upcoming concert is part of Lyric Fest’s Biography in Music series. It’s a retrospective that weaves music of colonial America with newer song settings of Franklin’s witticisms and prose, highlighted with excerpts of his writings. The evening features new commissions by Jennifer Higdon, Melissa Dunphy, and Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg. Vocalists include Jessica Beebe (soprano), Wenzelberg (countertenor), Fran Daniel Laucerica (tenor), and baritone Randall Scarlata, with instrumentalists Laura Ward (piano), Vivian Barton (gamba), and Thomas Schuttenhelm (guitar), all narrated by Suzanne DuPlantis. The concert will also be live-streamed and can be accessed by the link above.

Lenape Chamber Ensemble
Sunday, April 12, 3pm
Delaware Valley University/Life Sciences Auditorium, 700 East Butler Avenue, Doylestown

Continuing their 51st season, for this concert the Lenape Chamber Ensemble features Cyrus Beroukhim and Katie Hyun (violins), William Hakim (viola), Alberto Parrini (cello), Anthony Trionfo (flute), Alan R Kay (clarinet), and pianist Marcantonio Barone in three chamber works. They’ll play Haydn’s String Quartet in G Major, Op. 76, No.1; Elgar’s Piano Quintet in A minor, Op. 84; and John Harbison’s Songs America Loves to Sing the composer’s 2004 inventive collection of familiar American songs arranged for chamber ensemble.

Main Line Early Music: The Publick Pleasure: Manifest Delight
Sunday, April 12, 3pm
Main Line Unitarian Church, 816 South Valley Forge Road, Devon

This concert explores the “playlist” of founding fathers Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, looking at what kind of music they heard, danced to, or played. This engaging ensemble—soprano Lev De Paolo, Edmond Chan (violin), Eve Miller (cello) Steen Zohn (flute), and harpsichordist John Walthausen—will draw from fashionable salons, Parisian concerts, Philadelphia ballrooms, and the rowdy American stage to play the colonial music by Anne-Louise Brillon, James Oswald, Ignaz Pleyel, and others.

Jasper Chamber Concerts: Dreamwalker
Thursday, April 16, 7:30pm
Chestnut Hill Friends Meeting, 20 East Mermaid Lane

This concert closes a season celebrating the Jasper String Quartet’s 20th anniversary and the 10th year of this series. Musicians J Freivogel and Karen Kim (violins), Andrew Gonzalez (viola), and cellist Rachel Henderson Freivogel will feature Break Away by Jessie Montgomery and Brittany J. Green’s Dreamwalker, arranged for the group by the composer. They’ll also play Armadura by Andrea Cassarubios—featuring cellist Samuel Cao—and Beethoven’s String Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 127. Another recent milestone—their album Insects & Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung was Chamber Music America’s 2025 album of the year (listen via a link on their website). Concert admission is free, with a suggested donation.

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