Sheffield Chamber Players

02/19/2026

The hosting drive for our "Reminiscences" program is on and we invite you to open your home to this vibrant celebration of music and community this April!

In the comfort of your living room, surrounded with friends and family, and just a few feet away from the musicians, you’ll be treated to the timeless masterpiece that is Mozart’s “Dissonance” quartet and the world premiere of the rising star Iranian-American composer Kian Ravaei's new work "Neverlands", written just for us. Also on the program is mesmerizing music of Lei Liang and Hanna Havrylets.

Every Sheffield concert is a celebration of great music and community, and a nod to a centuries old tradition of Salon gatherings, where art and ideas were shared freely and our common humanity thus reaffirmed. During this hosting drive we are looking to partner with you to create just such a celebration in April!

The hosting drive will last only 10 days, during which we’ll be happy to answer any of your hosting-related questions. We only have 7 hosting slots to offer and all of them are likely to be assigned once the drive ends. Please let us know of your interest before Feb 27.

Hosting drive:
www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/host-a-concert

About "Reminiscences":
www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/programs/reminiscences

02/03/2026

Looking for a free and kid-friendly activity this month? Check out our Black History Month Family Concert at the historic Strand Theater in Dorchester on Feb 15 at 3pm! This program is presented in collaboration with the young artists of Roxbury’s citystrings_united, and will feature performances by both the professional string quartet of Sheffield Chamber Players as well as the young artists of City Strings. Hope to see you there!

To reserve your seat: www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/city-strings

01/19/2026

On this important day of building community and mutual understanding, we are both inspired to do more and pleased to announce two meaningful projects already in the works. On Feb. 7th, Sasha and Leo will be performing the world premiere of a new double concerto by Kevin Day at Jordan Hall. So many of you have fallen in love with Kevin’s music over the past seasons, and we can’t wait to experience this new large scale work together! Then on Feb. 15, the quartet will be presenting a free Black History Month Family Concert at the historic Strand Theater in Dorchester. This performance is a collaboration with the wonderful students of Roxbury-based City Strings United and features a joint performance of ‘Overture to Springtime’, again by Kevin Day, which he wrote specifically for this collaboration as a multigenerational celebration of music making!

Tickets for Jordan Hall: https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/academics/sites/ila/events/a-new-american-day--artist-residency-and-world-premiere-performa

RSVP for Strand: https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/city-strings

10/31/2025

"Shostakovich’s final string quartet is also one of his most unusual. Cast as six linked slow movements, all in the technically difficult key of E flat minor, it was inspired in part by Haydn’s Seven Last Words, but also contains references to several other works in the string quartet repertory including Beethoven’s C sharp minor quartet op.131 and Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ quartet. In the very closing bars it quotes from the funeral march at the end of Shostakovich’s own Sixth Symphony op.54.

This is one of the most complex and elusive of Shostakovich’s chamber works, at times agonisingly slow, but heart-stoppingly beautiful, spare and concentrated. The overall effect is of a series of different ways of saying farewell or taking leave of the world, each suggesting a different traditional musical genre. "
(Note by Gerard McBurney)

Come hear us perform selections from this rarely heard masterpiece tomorrow at 2pm at the Washington Street Baptist Church in Lynn! Also on the program are string quartets by Bonds and Beethoven.

Admission is free. RSVP at
https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/wsbc-registration

10/29/2025

Thank you for the coverage, Daily Item! Can't wait to open our season in Lynn this Saturday afternoon! Join us at the Washington Street Baptist Church, Lynn MA and don't forget to reserve your seat (RSVP link in first comment).

Sheffield Chamber Players present an intimate string quartet program at Washington Street Baptist Church, Lynn. Free admission, RSVP encouraged.

10/28/2025

"The Op. 18 quartets, finished before Beethoven's 30th birthday, were among the final works of his early period, a time in which he viewed Haydn and Mozart as both examples to emulate and rivals to surpass. In fact, these are masterpieces worthy of standing alongside the most celebrated quartets of Mozart and Haydn and forcefully demonstrate his expressive and communicative gift, a mastery of compositional technique and the sincerity and strength of his musical personality. Classical ideals are valued, yet one often feels his passion and temperament ready to burst the bonds of self-restraint. We now know that his more intensely personal, emotional compositions, which heralded the beginning of the Romantic Age, were only a few years away."
(Source: cellobello)

Come hear us play Beethoven's Op.18 No.2 string quartet as a part of our season opening program "Grace and Enlightenment". Also on the program are works by Bonds and Shostakovich.

Saturday, Nov. 1 at 2:00pm at the Washington Street Baptist Church in Lynn.

www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/wsbc-registration

Beethoven's portrait by Joseph Willibrord Mähler

10/25/2025

Composer highlight:

Margaret Bonds was one of the first Black composers and performers to gain recognition in the United States, she is best remembered today for her popular arrangements of African-American spirituals and frequent collaborations with Langston Hughes. She was the first African American woman to perform with the all-White and all-male Chicago Symphony Orchestra, one of the first African American women to have her music broadcast on European radio, the first African American woman to have her music performed widely in Africa, only the second African American woman in classical music to be elected to full membership in ASCAP, and the first woman Black or white to win three awards from ASCAP.

“[Music] has to be human, and people have to like it; it has to move them spiritually and intellectually.”
— Margaret Bonds, 1964

Starting next weekend our season opening program "Grace and Enlightenment" will feature her short composition "Joy", premiering a new arrangement for string quartet by . Also on the program, string quartets by Beethoven and Shostakovich. Come hear us on Saturday, November 1, at 2:00pm at the Washington Street Baptist Church in Lynn, MA!
https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/wsbc-registration

Stay tuned for more composer highlights from this program coming soon!

10/22/2025

Join us at the Washington Street Baptist Church as we bring our "Grace and Enlightenment" program to the North Shore communities on Saturday, November 1 at 2:00pm.

The program will open with "Joy" by Margaret Bonds, one of the first African-American composers to gain wide acclaim in the U.S. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Dmitry Shostakovich's passing we will perform selections from his transcendental 15th quartet. Written shortly before his death in 1975, it ended up being his final work in the genre. Rounding the program and providing a sharp contrast to Shostakovich is Ludwig van Beethoven's string quartet No.2, a composition full of graceful elegance, virtuosity, and jovial rhythms.

Free with RSVP
https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/wsbc-registration

More info about the program:
https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/programs/grace-and-enlightenment

06/14/2025

Brush up rehearsal for the last concert of Season 11! Join us today at 5pm at in Cambridge. Free, all ages welcome! Link in bio. Will we see you there?

06/13/2025

"...there is suffering, yearning, and loss — but also sense of inner freedom and hope in the music-making itself."

Sheffield supporter and experienced art critic Rebecca Nemser was kind enough to share her thoughts on a recent performance of "Nostalgia". Today, we’re delighted to share her words — and to invite you to the final performance of our season this Saturday, June 14 at 5pm at the New School of Music in Cambridge.

Rebecca writes, "Each composition in Nostalgia...looks to the past for inspiration, and says a little prayer for the sometimes terrifying, sometimes beautiful place where we find ourselves now." Read more on Rebecca's blog https://vissidarte48.blogspot.com/

We hope you can join us for "Nostalgia" at the New School of Music!

06/09/2025

As part of our "Nostalgia" program, we’re proud to share Lyatoshynsky’s String Quartet No. 4 in d minor—a powerful and poignant work rooted in Ukrainian folk melodies.

Written in 1943 during his exile from the Nazi-occupied Ukraine, this quartet conveys a sense of longing which Lyatoshynsky must have felt deeply during the many years of separation from his homeland.

🗓 Saturday, June 14 at 5PM
📍 New School of Music, Cambridge
🎟 FREE and open to all ages | RSVP encouraged
🔗 https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/june14-nsm...

Interested in hosting your own concert? Our next Hosting Drive starts soon—DM us or sign up online to learn more! https://www.sheffieldchamberplayers.org/host-a-concert