New Experiences

IN THE 2021/22 SEASON

JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ARTISTS FOR HUMANITY EPICENTER

The Jazz Festival at Artists For Humanity EpiCenter, developed out of Celebrity Series' need to creatively source venues for our jazz and contemporary artists and audiences, was a stunning success! Celebrity Series created a pop-up jazz club – with a full bar, art-making opportunities, and dazzling visual arts all over – for a two-weekend series that brought in red-hot young artists Christian Sands, Matthew Whitaker, and Veronica Swift and presented Celebrity Series veterans Anat Cohen and Regina Carter in a vibrant new setting.

PARTICIPANTS SAID: “It was a beautiful and moving performance. Musicians and venue exceeded expectations. Loved the way you set up the venue for the Jazz Festival. Really created an intimate space out of what is a large, open expanse.

FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE

First Church in Cambridge gave us an intimate home for chamber music in the heart of Cambridge, and provided a lovely showcase for two memorable collaborations: Imani Winds and Catalyst Quartet, featuring the Boston premiere of a new work by Jessie Montgomery, co-commissioned by the Celebrity Series of Boston; and Takács Quartet with bandoneon sensation Julien Labro.

GBH CALDERWOOD STUDIO

One of Boston’s best-equipped broadcast studios provided us an exciting new venue for a series of concerts that anchored our digital streaming program and highlighted our strong artist relationships. Adventurous string quartet Brooklyn Rider performed a three-concert series at GBH: with a program that featured a world premiere by Osvaldo Golijov; with tenor Nicholas Phan; and with mandolin phenomenon Avi Avital. Pianist Jeremy Denk returned to GBH for two performances of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Our old friend Rob Kapilow shone the What Makes it Great? spotlight on the works of Lerner and Loewe from GBH’s Fraser Studio when the Calderwood Studio performance with an in-person audience was canceled due to a COVID-19 surge.

“PARTICIPANTS SAID: Performance was fantastic...we were spellbound...also the GBH venue was great and your staff of volunteers were so great... The performance itself was simply amazing (it was Jeremy Denk, after all). I also enjoyed the venue - these smaller venues are perfect for solo performances. More of these would be great.

ANAT COHEN QUARTETINHO

ARTISTS FOR HUMANITY EPICENTER