2026-2027 Signature Series
Now in its twenty-seventh season, the Signature Series is Four Seasons’ flagship initiative. Comprising six sets of concerts throughout the year, the Signature Series features classical music’s preeminent performers and personalities in thrilling performance in both Greenville and Raleigh!
The 2026-2027 Signature Series features a star-studded array of musicians performing works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Amy Beach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonín Dvořák, Joseph Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, Giacomo Puccini, Walter Rabl, Clara Wieck Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Giuseppe Verdi. From Bach’s legendary Goldberg Variations to Brahms’s towering Piano Quintet to rare chamber works by Puccini and Verdi, this season is sure to be as memorable as the twenty-six that preceded it.
BRAHMS FOR SIX
Raleigh – Sun, Sept 27 @ 2:00 PM
Our twenty-seventh season opens with two towering monuments of the string repertoire: Johannes Brahms’s magnificent sextets. With six instruments at his disposal, Brahms plumbed the depths of musical expression throughout his String Sextet No. 1 in B-flat Major and String Sextet No. 2 in G Major. By turns bold, solemn, intense, elegant–and featuring dashes of the Hungarian flavor of which Brahms was fond–these singular works set the stage for all string sextets to follow. Founder and artistic director Ara Gregorian (viola) is joined by violinists Xiao-Dong Wang and Carmit Zori, violist Paul Neubauer, and cellists Clive Greensmith and Peter Stumpf for this undeniably enchanting launch of our 2026-2027 season.
SONGS WITHOUT WORDS
Raleigh – Sun, Nov 8 @ 2:00 PM
Join Four Seasons for a stirring and powerful concert featuring the music of Felix Mendelssohn, Clara Wieck Schumann, and Robert Schumann. Felix Mendelssohn’s lyrical Song without Words for cello and piano and the poignant Andante from Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G Minor make for a flawless combination, each exploring by turns both gentle sweetness and turmoil. One of two larger pieces on the program, Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 2 in F Major is a buoyant work full of excitement, loveliness, and charm. The program concludes with Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor, an intensely dramatic work that explores everything from brooding darkness to hopeful beauty, culminating unforgettably with an ecstatic hymn. Join pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, violinist Ara Gregorian, and cellist Zvi Plesser for this remarkably passionate and personal concert.
GOLDBERG VARIATIONS
Raleigh – Sun, Jan 17 @ 2:00 PM
Experience one of the most iconic musical works of all time as you’ve never heard it before. Violinist Hye-Jin Kim, violist Ara Gregorian, and cellist Michael Kannen take the stage to present Johann Sebastian Bach’s Goldberg Variations arranged for string trio. Just as Bach himself once arranged string works of Antonio Vivaldi for keyboard, Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s arrangement brings Bach’s legendary keyboard variations into the world of strings. In the process, new light is shed on the Goldberg Variations as the work takes on novel tone colors and shadings.
(UN)EXPECTED VOICES
Raleigh – Sun, Feb 21 @ 2:00 PM
Join Four Seasons for a concert pairing two very expected voices in chamber music with two very unexpected ones. Joseph Haydn and Johannes Brahms are without a doubt two of the most revered names in the history of chamber music. Haydn, the father of the string quartet, is appropriately represented here by his String Quartet in F Major, Op. 77, No. 2, a work that ranges from grand to quirky to rustic. Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F Minor is powerful, one of its composer’s most revered works. Joining these expected names on the program are two composers known entirely for their operas: Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi. Puccini’s Crisantemi, a single-movement work for string quartet, is a hauntingly gorgeous lament that pairs nicely with the effervescent Prestissimo from Verdi’s String Quartet in E Minor–his only surviving chamber work. The Cooperstown Quartet–violinists Ara Gregorian and Hye-Jin Kim, violist Maria Lambros, and cellist Michael Kannen–are joined on this unique program by pianist Rieko Aizawa.
FROM BOHEMIA TO AMERICA
Raleigh – Sun, Apr 11 @ 2:00 PM
Join Four Seasons on a musical journey from Bohemia to America. Perhaps the most celebrated of Czech composers, Antonín Dvořák instilled in his music the local color of his native Bohemia. His Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major is one of the landmark works in the piano quintet genre and features among its many turns mournful laments, country dances, dramatic intensity, and the composer’s signature lyricism. Amy Beach was not only a trailblazer for generations of women composers who followed in her footsteps, but also one of the most important American composers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor represents a landmark in the history of American chamber music. From its mysterious opening, this remarkable work features everything from gorgeous lyricism to edge-of-your-seat rhythmic drive. Join pianist Thomas Sauer, violinists Jennifer Frautschi and Jesse Mills, violist Ara Gregorian, and cellist Colin Carr as they embark on this musical journey.
GENERATIONS
Raleigh – Sun, May 2 @ 2:00 PM
Our 2026-2027 Signature Series culminates with a concert featuring composers connected across three generations. Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Gassenhauer Trio” was originally written for a novel combination of instruments: clarinet, piano, and cello (although it will be heard here in Beethoven’s arrangement with violin in place of clarinet). Two generations later, Johannes Brahms—seen by many as Beethoven’s successor—contributed his own work for clarinet, piano, and cello in the form of his Clarinet Trio in A Minor. And yet another generation later, Walter Rabl’s Piano Quartet featuring the also-novel combination of piano, clarinet, violin, and cello took first prize in a competition judged by none other than Brahms. Three composers, three remarkable works, connected across generations. Clarinetist Alan Kay, pianist Adam Neiman, violinist Ara Gregorian, and cellist Marcy Rosen take the stage for this thrilling finale of our twenty-seventh Signature Series season.
TICKET INFORMATION