Athenaeum Music & Arts Library

<h3>Monday, February 23, 2026</h3>
<h3>7:30 PM</h3>

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This special “lineage” program combines world-class performers and pedagogues in their debut performance as a trio, featuring romantic lyricism alongside playful folk melodies, culminating in Dvorak’s always riveting “Dumky” piano trio.

<h3>Program:</h3>
Antonin Dvořák (1841–1904) Sonatina for Violin and Piano in G Major, op. 100 (1893)
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897) Cello Sonata No. 2 in F Major, op. 99 (1886) 
Intermission
Dvořák Piano Trio No. 4 in E Minor, op. 90, “Dumky” (1890) 


All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon &amp; Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.

Local Event: Chamber Music at the Athenaeum: Andrés Cárdenes (violin), Steven Doane (cello), Ines Irawati (piano)

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Chamber Music at the Athenaeum: Andrés Cárdenes...

Monday, February 23, 2026
7:30 PM

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This special “lineage” program combines world-class performers and pedagogues in...

Chamber Music at the Athenaeum: Andrés Cárdenes (violin), Steven Doane (cello), Ines Irawati (piano)

<h3>Monday, March 16, 2026</h3>
<h3>7:30 PM</h3>

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We eagerly welcome pianist Conor Hanick to the Athenaeum for the first time for an adventurous solo recital featuring Charles Ives’s monumental first sonata and two Schubert Impromptus paired with a new revision of Samuel Carl Adams’s Three Impromptus (a West Coast premiere) inspired by Schubert. 

<h3>Program:</h3>
Franz Schubert (1797–1828) Two Impromptus, op. 142 
Samuel Carl Adams (b. 1985) Three Impromptus (2016, rev. 2025) 
Intermission
Charles Ives (1874–1954) Piano Sonata No. 1 (1902–1910)

Pianist Conor Hanick is regarded as one of his generation’s most inquisitive interpreters of music new and old whose “technical refinement, color, crispness and wondrous variety of articulation benefit works by any master” (New York Times). Hanick has recently worked with conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen, Ludovic Morlot, Alan Gilbert, and David Robertson; collaborated with the San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Alabama Symphony, Orchestra Iowa, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Juilliard Orchestra; and been presented by the Gilmore Festival, New York Philharmonic, Elbphilharmonie, De Singel, Centre Pompidou, Cal Performances, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Park Avenue Armory, and Ojai Festival, where in 2022 with AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company) he served as the festival’s artistic director.

A fierce advocate for the music of today, Hanick has premiered over 200 pieces and collaborated with composers ranging from Pierre Boulez, Kaija Saariaho, and Steve Reich to the leading composers of his generation, including Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tyshawn Sorey, Anthony Cheung, and Samuel Carl Adams, whose piano concerto No Such Spring he premiered in 2023 with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony. This season Hanick presents solo and chamber recitals in the United States and Europe, including concerts at the Wallis, Cal Performances, Segerstrom Center, Stanford Live, Guild Hall, Musikverein, and elsewhere. He appears with the Phoenix and Alabama Symphonies; collaborates with Julia Bullock, Seth Parker Woods, Timo Andres, and the JACK Quartet; and premieres solo and chamber works by Tania León, Nico Muhly, Matthew Aucoin, and others.

Hanick is the director of solo piano at the Music Academy of the West and serves on the faculty of The Juilliard School, Mannes College, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He lives with his family in the Hudson Valley.

All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon &amp; Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.

Local Event: Conor Hanick (piano) | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (March 16) 

Conor Hanick (piano) | Chamber Concert |...

Monday, March 16, 2026
7:30 PM

get tickets
We eagerly welcome pianist Conor Hanick to the Athenaeum for the first time for an...

Conor Hanick (piano) | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (March 16) 

<h3>Tuesday, April 14, 2026</h3>
<h3>7:30 PM</h3>

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The Diderot String Quartet will make their Athenaeum debut with a journey to 18th century Vienna, featuring masterpieces by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. One of the premiere ensembles performing on gut strings and historical instruments, this dynamic group (Adriane Post, violin; Johanna Novom, violin; Kyle Miller, viola; Paul Dwyer, cello) breathes new life into old works.

<h3>Program:</h3>
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) Quartet No. 27 in D Major, op.20, no. 4 (1772)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Quartet No. 15 in D Minor, K. 421 (1783) 
Intermission
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) Quartet No. 6 in B-flat Major, op. 18, no. 6 (1800)

The Diderot String Quartet—named after the 18th century French philosopher, and Boccherini enthusiast, Denis Diderot—brings a fresh approach to works of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Wall St Journal called a performance “emotional, riveting, and ultimately cathartic.” The quartet came together in 2012, after having first met at Oberlin Conservatory and The Juilliard School. The four musicians share a background in historical performance and a passion for the string quartet genre; they found the thrill of exploring the quartet repertoire on period instruments to be irresistible. 

Recent and upcoming engagements for the Diderot String Quartet include Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Lincoln Friends of Chamber Music (NE), Chamber Music Corvallis (Oregon), Pegasus Early Music / NYS Baroque, Connecticut Early Music Festival, Friends of Chamber Music Vancouver and Early Music Vancouver, Early Music Society of the Islands (Victoria, British Columbia), Belvedere Series (Virginia), Helicon Foundation (New York City), Music in the Somerset Hills (Bernardsville, New Jersey), Rockefeller University’s Tri-Institutional (Tri-I) Noon Recital Series (NYC), Carmel Bach Festival (California), Electric Earth Concerts (Peterborough, New Hampshire), and The Crypt Sessions and Music Before 1800 in New York City. The quartet has also been featured in performance at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Morgan Library in New York.

Diderot String Quartet served as Quartet-in-Residence at Washington National Cathedral for five seasons and served as guest faculty for Oberlin’s Baroque Performance Institute. The quartet commissioned and premiered Small Infinities, a new work for gut strings from composer Lembit Beecher, and collaborates frequently with internationally acclaimed artists, including Jesse Blumberg, Dashon Burton, David Breitman, Avi Stein, and Harry Bicket. Diderot has a forthcoming album of string quartets by Haydn (op. 20, nos. 2 and 4).

This concert is generously sponsored by Sally and Einar Gall.

All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon &amp; Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.

Local Event: Diderot String Quartet | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (April 14) 

Diderot String Quartet | Chamber Concert |...

Tuesday, April 14, 2026
7:30 PM

get tickets
The Diderot String Quartet will make their Athenaeum debut with a journey to 18th...

Diderot String Quartet | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (April 14) 

<h3>Monday, May 4, 2026</h3>
<h3>7:30 PM</h3>

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Specializing in the rich and varied “sound-world” of the late 17th century, the Artifex Consort (Malachai Komanoff Bandy, Rebecca Landell, and Eva Lymenstull, bass viols; John Lenti, theorbo; Ian Pritchard, keyboards) closes our season with works showcasing the viola da gamba as an ensemble instrument outside of the English consort tradition, during the height of its later flourishing in parts of England and Germany. The program features virtuosic music for two bass viols by Christopher Simpson and Johannes Schenck, alongside lush and ingenious—though little-known—works for three bass viols by Benjamin Hely and Johann Michael Nicolai.

An ensemble dedicated to mediating theory and practice in spirited performance, Artifex Consort shares its name with the 17th century alchemical adept hard at work in both the library and the laboratory, the perennial student whose rigorous craft centers on cultivating and sharing knowledge through Nature’s artful imitation. This mission lends itself particularly well to reanimating lesser-known works of the 17th century Hamburg school of contrapuntists (Johann Theile, Johann Adam Reincken, Dieterich Buxtehude, and their circle), but the ensemble finds an equal home in the rich viol repertories of the French baroque and English consort traditions.

Artifex's base in Claremont, California invites blended inspiration from the cultural riches of metro Los Angeles and the rugged foothills of the San Gabriel mountains.
 
All concerts are preceded by a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m. and are followed by a reception with the artists in the Sharon &amp; Joel Labovitz Entry Hall.

Local Event: Artifex Consort | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (May 4)

Artifex Consort | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum...

Monday, May 4, 2026
7:30 PM

GET TICKETS
Specializing in the rich and varied “sound-world” of the late 17th century, the...

Artifex Consort | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (May 4)

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Chamber Music at the Athenaeum: Andrés Cárdenes (violin), Steven Doane (cello), Ines Irawati (piano)

FEB

23

6:45 PM

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St, San Diego, CA

Conor Hanick (piano) | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (March 16)

MAR

16

6:45 PM

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St, San Diego, CA

Diderot String Quartet | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (April 14)

APR

14

6:45 PM

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St, San Diego, CA

Artifex Consort | Chamber Concert | Athenaeum Music & Arts Library | La Jolla (May 4)

MAY

4

6:45 PM

Athenaeum Music & Arts Library, 1008 Wall St, San Diego, CA

Preview Kindergarten at The Children's School

Crossing Over with Psychic Medium John Edward live in San Diego, CA!