The 2025-26 CMLV season launches with an ensemble comfortably ensconced in the tradition of classical chamber music (founded at Juilliard in 2003, has programmed 68 Haydn string quartets and all of Beethoven’s, residency at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, performs at all the right international venues, etc.). And yet, the quartet is also and often wildly unconventional. Funky, even, according to the New York Times. The group played for WQXR’s Valentine’s Day Classical Beer Jam and NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. Their website admits to interest in “electronica, video game music, and contemporary collaborations.” One such alliance, with Pulitzer-prize- winning composer/violinist/singer Caroline Shaw, resulted in two Grammy awards (2020 and 2023) for best chamber music/small ensemble performance. A metaphor for the ensemble’s virtuosic musical melding of past and present may be found in the two instruments violinist Amy Schroeder typically plays. One was created in 1771; the other in 2012. By the way, if the name sounds familiar, violinist Domenic Salerni is the son of composer, conductor, and Lehigh University professor and chair Paul Salerni.

Presented in collaboration with the Lehigh University Music Department

“La Grande Bellezza”

String Quartets by Italians and Italian-Americans

Music by Salerni, Ippolito, and Verdi