With the range of classical music events that awaits us in the first months of this new year (with more to be announced in upcoming months), you should have no problem chasing away those lingering holiday ear worms.
There’s quite a range to choose from, whether you prefer the intimate dimensions of solo and chamber recitals, epic musical adventures in the concert hall or a groundbreaking opera about a pivotal but misunderstood figure from recent history. Here’s a list (by no means comprehensive) of recommendations that are especially appealing.
Seattle Chamber Music Society’s Winter Festival
The Seattle Chamber Music Society earns my vote as the area’s most consistently satisfying music presenter in 2023. To tide us over to the monthlong immersion in passionate, close-up performance that it organizes every July, SCMS offers a Winter Festival spread over two weekends (Jan. 26-28 and Feb. 2-4). It’s shorter, but with many of the same distinguished musicians familiar from the summer, starting with artistic director and internationally acclaimed violinist James Ehnes. You can hear Ehnes perform in all six programs, along with an array of visiting and Seattle-based colleagues. Along with cherished favorites like Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1, the winter edition promises a focus on 20th-century British composers.
Jan. 26-28 and Feb. 2-4; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; $30-$65; subscriptions and streaming options available; free prelude recital starts an hour before each concert; seattlechambermusic.org
“How Sweet the Sound: Black Voices in Orthodox Music”
Cappella Romana has carved out a distinctive niche with its ethereal performances of Byzantine chant and Greek and Russian Orthodox sacred music. The ensemble explores new territory in this first-ever collaboration with Kingdom Sound, a Portland-based gospel choir founded and led by Derrick McDuffey. Orthodox nun and abbess Mother Katherine Weston is a psychotherapist, iconographer and composer who focuses on racial reconciliation. Her work “Bright Sadness” sets Orthodox liturgy to music based on African American spirituals. The program also includes jazz musician and composer Shawn Wallace’s gospel-infused setting of the Eastern Orthodox Vespers written for chorus, Hammond B3 organ and percussion.
Feb. 9; St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 2100 Boyer Ave. E., Seattle; $5-$53; cappellaromana.org
“X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X”
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Anthony Davis wrote this trailblazing debut opera in the mid-1980s, but “X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X” has arguably become even more relevant for our strife-torn era. “In light of America’s ongoing reckoning with racial injustice — past and present — the time is right for us to revisit his life and legacy,” says Christina Scheppelmann, general director of Seattle Opera. “There is perhaps no better art form than opera to explore a life of such cultural and historical significance, and it is long past time that this work, written nearly 40 years ago by a pivotal figure in American music, finally gets the attention it deserves.” This production was co-commissioned by a handful of American companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, where it premiered in November.
Feb. 24-March 9; Seattle Opera at McCaw Hall, 321 Mercer St., Seattle; tickets from $35; see website for related events, including a discussion with Davis; seattleopera.org
Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani
Along with the sheer delight of experiencing a virtuoso at the top of his game, a performance by Mahan Esfahani inevitably expands your musical horizons. The insatiably curious harpsichordist — who was born in Iran, grew up in the United States and has long been based in Prague — is a passionate advocate for the untapped potential of his instrument. His probing interpretations bring a fresh perspective to the vast early music harpsichord repertoire. But a substantial part of his work is committed to collaborating with such contemporary composers as Anahita Abbasi, whose music for harpsichord and electronics shares the program with J.S. Bach, Domenico Scarlatti and Thomas Tomkins.
March 9; presented by Early Music Seattle at Town Hall, 1119 Eighth Ave., Seattle; $18-$63; earlymusicseattle.org
A pair of symphonies by Ralph Vaughan Williams
As luck has it, this spring offers local audiences a rare opportunity to hear live performances of two symphonies by one of the greatest of 20th-century English composers. Guest conductor Gemma New returns to lead the Seattle Symphony in Ralph Vaughan Williams’s “Antarctic Symphony” from 1952. Calling for the largest orchestra he ever used, solo soprano and women’s chorus, it developed from a project to score the 1948 adventure film “Scott of the Antarctic” about Capt. Robert Scott’s ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition into the southernmost continent.
One week later, Seattle Pro Musica concludes its season with the awe-inspiring “A Sea Symphony,” with artistic director Karen P. Thomas conducting the chorus, soloists and the Auburn Symphony. The first and longest of Vaughan Williams’ nine symphonies, this spectacular choral-orchestral work sets texts by Walt Whitman.
Seattle Symphony performs “Antarctic Symphony” on Apr. 25, 27 and 28; Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle; tickets from $35; seattlesymphony.org
Seattle Pro Musica performs “A Sea Symphony” on May 4 at St. James Cathedral, 804 Ninth Ave., Seattle, and May 5 at the Federal Way Performing Arts Center, 31510 Pete von Reichbauer Way S., Federal Way; $42-$52; streaming available with advance registration (free, donations accepted); seattlepromusica.org
