Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players

“This was music-making of a very high order”
“at the Jupiter concerts, there is always so much about which to be enthusiastic.”
“the rarities glittered like jewels”

Fred Kirshnit, The New York Sun
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Greetings!     Welcome to Jupiter, where you’ll find heavenly music played by a constellation of stars.     Just as you visit a museum to view art by major and minor masters, you’ll hear music of major and minor composers at Jupiter, in programs designed by our brilliant artistic director Michael Volpert.     The familiar and new discoveries to enjoy are also enhanced by our venue’s great acoustics and convivial ambience.     We thank our generous Patrons and Friends in spades for the privilege of offering these musical feasts made possible by their support. We thank the musicians for learning the repertoire, some of which is very difficult and will leave you gasping with awe and admiration. And we thank all of you for coming to Jupiter to savor its array of delectable concerts. You’ll continue to have: ♦ HEPA-filter air purifiers in operation ♦ Ventilation—as much as possible ♦ Spaced-apart seating for better sight lines ♦ Affordable ticket prices    Ticket reservations are advised to avoid disappointment at the door. Not least, please consider a gift to help Jupiter create the best music making around.    All gifts are tax deductible.    Thank you so much,

Artistic director Michael Volpert and Jens Nygaard circa late 1990s

Why the name Jupiter: When Jens Nygaard named his orchestra Jupiter, he had the beautiful, gaseous planet in mind—unattainable but worth the effort, like reaching musical perfection. Many, indeed, were privileged and fortunate to hear his music making that was truly Out of This World. Our Players today seek to attain that stellar quality.

View Our NEW Season Calendar

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Take a look at our guest artists for this season.
Find out more about the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.

Join us for our next concerts...

Monday, December 16 ♦ 2 PM & 7:30 PM
Romantic Melodists
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway)
Limited Seating

Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservations advised
Call (212) 799-1259 or email admin@jupitersymphony.com
Pay by check or cash (exact change)​​​

William Wolfram piano
Winner of the William Kapell, Naumburg, and Tchaikovsky competitions ~ “Wolfram’s technique is flabbergasting; fiendishly difficult octave passages were as child’s play, and his strength is tempered by an easy poetry.” The New York Times ~ “Wolfram is a dazzling performer.” Kalamazoo Gazette

Vadim Gluzman violin
Winner of the Henryk Szeryng, Tibor Varga, CIEM Geneva, Corpus Christi and Irving Klein competitions ~ “...a commanding technique, spontaneity, and visionary breadth... capable of both delicate nuances and incendiary passion.” The Washington Post  ~ “Gluzman displayed his immaculate prowess like a proud jeweler cutting a diamond of outstanding quality.” Edward Clarke ~ Classical Source

Isabelle Durrenberger violin
Fellow of Ensemble Connect’s 2023–2025 seasons, semifinalist at the 2022 Indianapolis Competition, and 3rd Prize at the 2018 Irving Klein String Competition

Mark Kosower cello
Principal Cello of the Cleveland Orchestra, plays with a “signature sound” and distinctive style that embodies the concept of the complete musician ~ “the music allows Kosower to showcase his stunning virtuosity, passionate intensity, and elegant phrasing” Strings Magazine

Sara Scanlon cello
Grand Finalist of the National YoungArts Competition ~ her many prize winnings include concerto competitions of the Chappaqua Orchestra, Hamden Symphony, and Adelphi Orchestra

Nina Bernat double bass
Won First Prize at the 2019 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition; recipient of the 2019 Keston MAX Fellowship

Vadim Lando clarinet
Winner of the CMC Canada, Yale and Stonybrook competitions ~ “consistently distinguished...vibrant, precise, virtuosic playing” The New York Times

Eric Reed horn
Member of the American Brass Quintet and Ensemble Échappé, a sinfonietta dedicated to 21st century music; he plays regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Orpheus, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s. He is on the faculty at Juilliard, Aspen, and Round Top.

Gina Cuffari bassoon
Co-principal Bassoonist of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, praised for her “sound that is by turns sensuous, lyric, and fast moving” Palm Beach Daily News

Robert KAHN  Violin Sonata No. 2 in A minor Op. 26
   ~ glorious melodies ignite with fervor and turbulence, pierce the heart in the slow movement, and excite with gusto in the finale that was described by musicologist Wilhelm Altmann as a “kind of Bolero”

The late-Romantic Sonata was dedicated to Carl Halir, second violinist in the Joachim Quartet and Kahn’s frequent partner in violin sonata recitals.

Kahn was born in 1865, the son of one of the wealthiest Jewish families in Mannheim. After attending the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin directed by Joseph Joachim, Kahn studied with Joseph Rheinberger at the Musikhochschule in Munich, where he met Brahms in 1887. Brahms was so impressed with Kahn he offered to give him composition lessons. The young man, however, was too overawed to accept. As Kahn explained in 1947, “From my early youth I felt a deep love and veneration for Brahms the musician. To that was added, now that he welcomed me so warmly in Vienna, a deep, even rapturous love for Brahms the man. It filled my entire heart, but I kept it carefully hidden from him in shyness and restraint.” Kahn was also given support by Joachim, Clara Schumann, and the conductor Hans von Bülow (the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by von Bülow premiered Kahn’s one orchestral work). Kahn composed mostly Lieder, chamber, vocal, and choral music which were widely performed and published by major publishers. As a pianist he worked extensively with singers, and was much sought-after as a collaborative pianist with prominent artists, including Josef Szigeti and Adolf Busch. In 1897 Kahn was appointed full professor at the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin, where he taught composition and piano for 36 years. Among his pupils were Arthur Rubinstein and Wilhelm Kempff. He was removed from his position at the Academy in 1934 by the Nazis, who vilified him and suppressed his work. In 1938 Kempff persuaded him to flee to England, where he lived in obscurity in Biddenden, Kent. His creativity unfettered, Kahn continued to write over 1100 piano pieces in his Tagebuch in Tönen (Diary in Sounds) until 1949. He died in 1951. From a distinguished family of bankers and merchants, his seven siblings included Otto Kahn, the financier and chairman of the board of the Metropolitan Opera; and Felix Kahn, a banker, director of Paramount Pictures, and noted violin collector.

Max BRUCH  Septet in Eb Major
   ~ an awesome achievement at age 11, influenced by Beethoven and Schubert—for 2 violins, cello, double bass, clarinet, horn, and bassoon

Bruch wrote his first composition, a song for his mother’s birthday, at age 9. From then on, music became his first love and he wrote many small works as well as an orchestral overture to a projected opera. The biographer Christopher Fifield commented that “the Septet has the early hallmarks of Bruch’s melodic writing, the freshness of his youth, and the charm of his Rhenish background. The scoring is remarkably assured, though he makes no distinctions in the three wind instruments, producing a horn part of some intricacy. In both the large-scale form and harmonic planning, the young Bruch was equally precocious.” His gift of melody was ingrained for life. Sir Donald Francis Tovey enthused, “it is not easy to write as beautifully as Max Bruch…it is really easy for Bruch to write beautifully, it is in fact instinctive for him.… Further, it is impossible to find in Max Bruch any lapses from the standard of beauty which he thus instinctively sets himself.”

Born in Cologne in 1838, Bruch was awarded the prestigious Frankfurt Mozart Foundation Prize at the age of 14, and was well aware of Mozart’s importance. The Prize was recommended by the acclaimed composer and conductor Ferdinand Hiller, founder of the Cologne Conservatory. Hiller had heard a number of his works while visiting the Bruch home on occasion. The prize allowed Bruch to study composition with Hiller as well as piano with Carl Reinecke. At the age of 14, Bruch also wrote a symphony, and he later conducted orchestral and choral societies in Mannheim, Koblenz, Sondershausen, Berlin, Bonn, Liverpool, Breslau, and Wraclaw. His importance as a composer and to German musical life was finally acknowledged in 1890 when he was given a professorship and a master class in composition at the Hochschule für Musik (Berlin Academy), where he taught until his retirement in 1910. He died in Friedenau (now part of Berlin) in 1920. Bruch is best remembered for his Scottish Fantasy, Kol Nidrei, and 3 violin concerti. His music fell out of favor because he rebuffed the New German School, defending Romanticism instead, and carrying the banner for Mendelssohn and Schumann.

BRAHMS  Piano Trio No. 1 in B Major Op. 8
   ~ absolutely ravishing, with a restless, dark character

Originally composed at age 20, shortly after he met the Schumanns, Brahms began revising the Trio in the summer of 1889 while on holiday in Bad Ischl. The original version is the first piece of Brahms’s works that was performed in the United States—in New York on 17 November 1855, six weeks after its premiere in Danzig, Prussia. The revised version (the one now usually performed) premiered on 10 January 1890 in Budapest with Brahms at the piano, violinist Jenö Hubay, and cellist David Popper. His satisfaction is revealed in a letter to Clara Schumann, “I had already sent this piece to the grave and had no interest to play it anymore. Now I enjoy the fact that I did play it, and it was a very pleasurable day.”

Jupiter 2024 - 2025 Season
20 Mondays at 2:00 PM & 7:30 PM
Good Shepherd Church ♦ 152 West 66 Street

View Our Season Calendar

Tickets: $25, $17, $10 ~ Reservation advised
Call (212) 799-1259 or email admin@jupitersymphony.com
Pay by check or cash (exact change)​​

Please visit our Media Page to hear Audio Recordings from the Jens Nygaard and Jupiter Symphony Archive

Concert Venue:
Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church
152 West 66 Street (west of Broadway), New York

“one of the most refined and intelligent church spaces in New York” ~ The New York Times Built in 1893 by Josiah Cleveland Cady, architect of the old Metropolitan Opera House and the American Museum of Natural History

Office Address:
JUPITER SYMPHONY
155 West 68th Street, Suite 319
New York, NY 10023
admin@jupitersymphony.com
(212) 799-1259

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Jupiter in the News

ConcertoNet
“knocked the socks off this listener...It was wondrous chamber music. And the three artists gave it the deserving excitement, volition and imagination.” 
Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet   more...

“the performers were top notch”
“The homey church where these concerts take place, nestled on West 66th Street in the shadow of Lincoln Center, is an intimate and acoustically vibrant place for chamber music.”
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times   more...

Strad Magazine
“A finely forthright, fluent and expressive account of Haydn's Divertimento in E-flat major opened this programme of miscellaneous chamber music in a series known for adventurous programming.”
Dennis Rooney, Strad Magazine   more...

ConcertoNet
“Mr. Nygaard’s cadenza flowed down Mozart lanes and paths, each with beautiful backgrounds. And at the very end, Mr. Nygaard brought forth that martial major theme, like an unexpected gift.” 
Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet   more...

As promised, here are the videos of John Field’s Divertissement No. 1 and Sir Hamilton Harty’s Piano Quintet. Fortuitously, our Jupiter musicians had the good sense to record the rehearsal in an impromptu decision, literally minutes before pressing the record button. Pianist Mackenzie Melemed (replacing Roman Rabinovich at the last minute) learned the music in 2 days! Bravo to him.

Both works are Irish rarities that were scheduled for the March 16 performances which had to be canceled because of the coronavirus epidemic. Even though the entire program could not be recorded because of technical issues, we are pleased to be able to share with you the 2 musical gems. Enjoy.

John FIELD  Divertissement No. 1 H. 13
  ~ simply delicious piano quintet, alternately titled Rondeau Pastoral and better known in its version for solo piano, Twelve O’clock Rondo, on account of the 12 “chimes” at the end ~ by the creator of the Nocturne, which had a major influence on Chopin

We thank the University of Illinois (Champaign) for a copy of the Divertissement music.

Mackenzie Melemed piano
Abigel Kralik violin
Dechopol Kowintaweewat violin
Sarah Sung viola
Christine Lamprea cello

Sir Hamilton HARTY  Piano Quintet in F Major Op. 12
  ~ in a lyrical Romantic idiom, with a distinct, breezy Irish-salted voice

Andrew Clements of the Guardian proclaimed the beautiful Quintet “a real discovery: a big, bold statement full of striking melodic ideas and intriguing harmonic shifts, which adds Brahms and Dvořák into Harty’s stylistic mix, together with Tchaikovsky in some passages.” There’s folk music charm as well, reminiscent of Percy Grainger—notably in the Scherzo (Vivace) with its folksy quirks and nonchalance, and the winding, pentatonic melody in the Lento.

Our gratitude to the Queen’s University Library in Belfast, Northern Ireland, for a copy of the autograph manuscript of the music. Much thanks, too, to Connor Brown for speedily creating a printed score and parts from Harty’s manuscript.

Mackenzie Melemed piano
Abigel Kralik violin
Dechopol Kowintaweewat violin
Sarah Sun viola
Christine Lamprea cello

I Allegro 0:00
II Vivace 10:43
III Lento 14:44
IV Allegro con brio 23:59