Spring – the joyous beginning of the natural cycle makes people radiant, light at heart, hopeful, and sometimes sweetly pained. 

Songs about spring have proliferated from ancient to modern times.

Enjoy these beautiful songs of spring on the day of the new moon, surrounded by the flower-themed paintings.

The New Asia Chamber Music Society presents an inspirational concert in collaboration with the Sullivan String Quartet, including music of Dvorak, Shostakovich, and Schubert. Dvorak's Cypresses are delicate musical gems based on early songs for voice and piano. Schubert's Cello Quintet is a towering composition that conveys a panoramic vista of all human existence. Though it was composed when Schubert was facing death, his music expresses a spiritual joy that transcends the human condition. Shostakovich's Piano Quintet is a musical epic that expresses the drama and the angst of being alive during the mid-twentieth century. Residents of both East and West had to endure the traumas of World War II and the Cold War, as well as the stifling effect of technocracy on human spirituality. Shostakovich and his contemporaries wrote music that testifies to the resilience of the human spirit under the most barren and hopeless conditions.

"to you yourself, my very dear friend" —W.A. Mozart

This program is an exploration of sources of musical inspiration and the human and musical connections that feed them. Each work on the program carries with it a dedication or quote that gives us insight into the personal relationships or artistic influences that helped shape the creative process. Through these clues, we can come to understand the feelings, traditions and motivations that contributed to these compositions, highlighting the personal, political and practical stories behind some of the most beautiful and beloved works of the violin and piano repertoire.

The Stride Arts series, Modern Art Meets Chamber Music, continues into this new year with Memories and Modernity, a concert by The Terra String Quartet, on the opening night of Judi Harvest’s Solo Exhibition, Nature. We await the sparks these artists will create to ignite our passions for music and art in 2022. 

The Terra String Quartet presents a bold and exciting program featuring Benjamin Britten’s and Sofia Gubaidulina’s second string quartets and the beloved ninth string quartet by Ludwig van Beethoven. Together these pieces explore the relationship between tradition and modernity and ways in which all artists both take inspiration from their predecessors and push against the boundaries of their time in an effort to create and inspire a new understanding of their surroundings and their art form.

American-born, multidisciplinary artist Judi Harvest— whose extensive catalog oeuvre includes an amazing collection of abstract paintings, sculpture, works on paper, and multimedia works—is a legend who is just as energetic, inquisitive, and imaginative today as when she first began her career more than 40 years ago. Harvest has created works that are among the most technically profound and playfully vibrant in contemporary art. Among other things, she is known for her detailed Murano glass sculptures - from fruits such as tomatoes and pomegranates to insects such as honeybees - in fascinating, lifelike forms, meticulously sculpted using centuries-old Italian glassmaking techniques.

As we approach the final month of 2021 and the beloved holiday season, Stride Art’s Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series has accompanied you from spring to winter. From the day when New York City finally allowed our space to reopen to the public to now, from Awakening to The End of Time, our gallery has been home to countless moments of artistic enrichment and musical delight. We are honored to have provided a center for art, friends, conversation, and passion.

Let us gather once again before the holidays for a spectacular Winter Rhapsody, the seventh episode of our series and the last concert and the art exhibition opening of 2021. The concert will be brought to us by Shelest Piano Duo, a husband and wife team praised for their "stirring performances of rare repertory" by Fanfare Magazine. At the same time, The End of the Year 2021 Exhibition will represent all Stride Arts artists and pay tribute to an incredible 2021! Let us collectively show a most sincere thank you to all our friends, audience members, and collectors.

Join Stride Arts in welcoming Hallo-weekend this year with a most unique episode of the Modern Arts Meets Chamber Music series: The End of Time by Salon Séance and In The Air by artist Kerstin Roolfs. From a comfortable gallery exhibiting abstract, automatic drawings and paintings by Kerstin Roolfs, dive into the history and emotional depth of classical music through a séance conducted in the form of concert theater. Creatively curated by world-class artists of numerous disciplines, Salon Séance’s special program delivers a connection between the soul and classical music one can only experience for themself. Surrounding this special musicianship will be Kerstin Roolfs’ abstract watercolor series and her newest works inspired by the pandemic.  Let us celebrate Halloween in séance-inspired attire as we trace through the automatic, free-spirited strokes of Roolf’s works and embark on a timeless musical journey with Salon Séance.

The Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series presents MOON, a violin recital by Peiwen liao and an photography exhibition opening by Peter Andrew Jeschke. 

Come join us for the Mid-Autumn Festival/Moon Festival with our artist and musicians as we honor this holiday with music of celebration, love, and nostalgia. You will be treated to music by American female composer Amy Beach, German composer Johannes Brahms, and a selection of treasured Chinese songs. The charm in Amy Beach’s Romance is perhaps one of its greatest assets as it tugs away at your heartstrings throughout the work. Brahms’s passion, fueled perhaps by his forbidden love for Clara Schumann, is on full display in his Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor. And lastly, this medley of Chinese pieces takes the listeners deep into the themes of homecoming, community, and love – all of which are central to the Mid-Autumn Festival. Perhaps, at the end of this concert, you will come away with a bountiful “harvest” of music and enrichment. Throughout it all you will be surrounded by exquisite artworks by Peter Andrew Jeschke that tell stories behind the meaning of the Moon Festival.

The Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series continues with a solo piano concert, Romantic Landscapes, adorning the exhibition opening of Melody in Smoke by New York-based Armenian painter Mher Khachatryan. Italian-born pianist Sandro Russo, acclaimed for his profound sense of poetry and distinctive style, will present a rich collection of Romantic masterpieces, featuring works by Schumann, Chopin, as well as four of the most dazzling and highly evocative Transcendental Etudes by Liszt. Surrounding the music will be Mher Khachatryan’s mesmerizing interpretation of the lingering connection between darkness and light, the living and the dead, the past and the present: smoke. Created from extinguished flame, smoke carries the remnants of light and life, hinting life’s fragility. Through masterful oil painting, Khachatryan’s captures the ethereal, delicate, and elusive nature of smoke, reminding us to stay connected to this world and the one beyond. 

The third exhibition opening of our Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series, Vibrancy, will feature a salon concert performed by The New Asia Chamber Music Society (NACMS). Founded in 2010 by a group of young Asian-American virtuosi, the NACMS has a mission of bringing audiences exciting chamber music performances of the highest caliber and innovation. Musicians of NACMS are prize winners of world-renowned international competitions, praised by The New York Times and The Washington Post, and graduates from America’s most prestigious music schools, including The Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute. As their first in-person performance in New York since the pandemic started in 2020, Vibrancy will feature a celebratory repertoire of works by Beethoven, Caroline Shaw, Piazzolla, Dvorak, and others, ranging from duet to piano quintet. Bringing together musical flavors from around the globe, this program is aimed to enlighten listeners with the richness of various musical traditions.

The artistic highlight of Vibrancy features two creatively and visually inspired female artists: Katherine Maude Thomas and Sara Sill. Sill’s background in architecture and music is apparent in her work. Nature, which abounds in unexpected yet harmonious patterns, colors, and shapes, is also a frequent source of inspiration. Similarly, Thomas finds inspiration in natural forms, from Earth’s minerals, elements, and geodes, and channels their positive energies through her work. Although seemingly modest in size, their works are rich with numerous layers, depth, and materials within them. They prove to us the notion that grand things can come in small packages, or through vibrant pieces of artistic expression.

The second concert of our Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series, the opening exhibition of A Midsummer's Night's Dream, will feature a private concert performed by the founders of aTonalHits, Illya Filshtinskiy (piano) and Katha Zinn (violin).  The talented team of artists at Stride Arts will bring you works of different art forms and different expression styles, all full of summer enthusiasm, while aTonalHits’s music represents an offering to the new summer, where we can once again join together and celebrate all the many joys life has left to give!

Being the inaugural exhibition of our Modern Art Meets Chamber Music series, the opening exhibition of Awakening will feature a private concert performed by the internationally esteemed violinist Pei-Wen Liao. Mr. Hall's powerful artworks will wake our conscience to humankind's irresponsible relationship with Mother Earth, while Ms. Liao's music will bring us on a trip to celebrate the awakening of spring. Join us on May 27th, 5:30 pm for the opening reception of Awaken, where you can meet and hear from the artist Stephen Hall, followed by Pei-Wen Liao's solo concert, A Celebration of Spring. As we present two very special talents, enjoy an evening of eye-opening art and heartwarming live music.