BBCMS presents “The Power of Music: Cello and Piano Concert Series” for the summer of 2026. The series features two concert programs of carefully curated musical works centered around the themes of healing, love, and joy—exploring how music can mend hearts and evoke deep emotion. Each concert will be an hour long and will include commentary and a Q&A session.

Program I

F. Chopin Nocturne in E-flat Major Op. 9 and No.2

L. Beethoven 7 Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” WoO 46

J. Brahms Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor Op.38

I. Allegro ma non trope

C. Franck/J.Delsart Sonata in A Major

IV. Allegretto poco mosso

The 2026 Chamber Music Series sponsored by Saul B. And Naomi Cohen Foundation, will feature a strong trio: Thomas Cooper (violin), Abigail Elder (viola), and Jiyoung Lee (cello) performing:

R. Strauss Variations on a Bavarian Folksong, for string trio

L. Beethoven String Trio in E flat Major, Op. 3

W. A Mozart Divertimento K. 563

Program

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Souvenir d’un lieu cher for violin & piano, Op. 42

• Herbert Howells, Rhapsodic Quintet for clarinet & strings, Op. 31 (1919)

• Stephen Albert, To Wake the Dead: Six Sentimental Songs and an Interlude after Finnegans Wake for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello & piano

• Louis Vierne, Piano Quintet in c minor, Op. 42 (1917)

Tchaikovsky shares misty reflections of a dear place, and Howells contemplates an England, and a way of life, destroyed by the First World War. Vierne’s epic, late-Romantic treasure is a powerful and emotionally charged work conceived as a votive offering for his son who was killed in action. Stephen Albert adapts James Joyce’s nearly incomprehensible text – with its wordplay, dreamlike ambiguity, and half-remembered fragments – into a moving exploration of love, loss, and the cyclical nature of life itself.

Program

• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Souvenir d’un lieu cher for violin & piano, Op. 42

• Herbert Howells, Rhapsodic Quintet for clarinet & strings, Op. 31 (1919)

• Stephen Albert, To Wake the Dead: Six Sentimental Songs and an Interlude after Finnegans Wake for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello & piano

• Louis Vierne, Piano Quintet in c minor, Op. 42 (1917)

Tchaikovsky shares misty reflections of a dear place, and Howells contemplates an England, and a way of life, destroyed by the First World War. Vierne’s epic, late-Romantic treasure is a powerful and emotionally charged work conceived as a votive offering for his son who was killed in action. Stephen Albert adapts James Joyce’s nearly incomprehensible text – with its wordplay, dreamlike ambiguity, and half-remembered fragments – into a moving exploration of love, loss, and the cyclical nature of life itself.

March’s First Monday concert welcomes special guest artist Paul Watkins in the dual roles of cellist and conductor in a program that speaks across time and memory.

Hear Beethoven’s familiar Eroica in an entirely new way with Shai Wosner’s ingenious reduction for piano quartet featuring Watkins and First Monday’s new Co-Artistic Directors. Strauss’s transcendent late work for 23 solo strings, written during the final months of World War II, elegiacally reflects on the incalculable losses and contains echoes of the Marcia Funebre from Beethoven’s Eroica. And Earl Kim, for many years a Boston creative fixture, reflects on his experiences as a combat intelligence officer in the US Air Force — in particular, flying over the  destruction of Nagasaki 24 hours after the bomb was dropped — in his 1981 work Now and Then. 

The live stream of this event is available to NEC Community members only. To watch the stream, please click the “Streaming Access” button at the top of the page and enter the NEC Community streaming password on the video window labeled “NEC-Produced Stream” when prompted.

All are invited to attend a special Meet the Artist preconcert talk at 7:00 p.m. in Jordan Hall. First Monday Artistic Co-Chair Soovin Kim will be joined in conversation by special guest cellist and conductor Paul Watkins. 

Ludwig van Beethoven - Symphony # 3, Op 55 “Eroica,” Arr. for Piano Quartet by Shai Wosner

Soovin Kim, violin
Nicholas Cords, viola 
Paul Watkins, cello 
HaeSun Paik, piano 

Earl Kim - Now and Then 

Mara Riley, soprano
Krysten Keches, harp
Cynthia Meyers, flute 
Cara Pogossian, viola


Richard Strauss - Metamorphosen, study for 23 solo strings, TrV 290, AV 142

Paul Watkins, conductor

Violin:
Julianne Lee 
Soovin Kim 
Kristopher Tong 
Samuel Andonian
Hannah Chaewon Kim 
Yeolim Nam 
Kina Park 
Anait Arutunian
Li-Mei Liang
Julia Glenn 

Viola:
Wenting Kang 
Paul Laraia 
Luther Warren 
Cara Pogossian 
Nicholas Cords 

Cello:
Blaise Déjardin
Jiyoung Lee
Christine Lamprea 
Carol Ou 
Lluís Claret 

Bass:
Caleb Quillen
Brian Thacker
Moiss Carrasco