2026 Summer Concerts
The Art and Outreach Program at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University is pleased to present a new music series free and open to the public:
Tuesday July 7
Performance by the Jazz Loft
5:00 – 6:00pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, room 103
Featuring Tom Manuel, cornet; Chris Donohue, alto saxophone; John Marshall, tenor saxophone; Joe Devassy, trombone; Dean Johnson, bass; Jon Mele, drums; and Alex Pastrano Sotto, piano
This show will feature a nonet performance of Miles Davis’ Birth of the Cool album.
Tuesday 14
Performance by the Long Island Chamber Music Group
5:00 – 6:00pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, room 103
Program:
The Greatest Hits” for String Quartet
Allegro from String Quartet No. 7, Op. 59 in F Major “Razumovsky
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
Notturno from String Quartet No. 2 in D Major
Alexander Borodin (1833 – 1887
Assez vif. Très rythmé from String Quartet in F major, Op. 10
Maurice Ravel (1875 – 1937)
Allegro from String Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 51 No. 1
Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
Molto Adagio from String Quartet No. 1 “Lyric”
George Walker (1922 – 2018)
Allegro Vivace Assai from String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80
Felix Mendelssohn (1809 – 1847)
Performers
Gergana Haralampieva, violin
Hahnsol Kim, violin
Noémie Chemali, viola
Sam DeCaprio, cello
About Long Island Chamber Music
Tuesday July 21
Performance by Colin Carr (cello) and Wan-Chi Su (piano)
5:00 – 6:00pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, room 103
Program:
Schumann Drei Fantasiestücke
Zart und mit Ausdruck
Lebhaft, leicht
Rasch und mit Feuer
Schubert Arpeggione Sonata
Allegro moderato
Adagio
Allegretto
Beethoven Sonata in D major op 102 no. 2
Allegro con brio
Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto
Allegro fugato
Artist Bios:
Colin Carr
Wan-Chi Su
Tuesday July 28
Performance by the Long Island Chamber Music Group
5:00 – 6:00pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, room 103
Program:
Violin Sonata No. 18 in G Major K. 301 W.A. Mozart (1756 – 1791)
I. Allegro con spirito
II. Allegro
Summerland William Grant Still (1895 – 1978)
Horn Trio, Op. 40 Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897)
I. Andante
II. Scherzo
III. Adagio mesto
IV. Finale: Allegro con brio
Performers
Mika Sasaki, piano
Gergana Haralampieva, violin
Eric Huckins, horn
About Long Island Chamber Music
Tuesday August 4
Piano performance by Leon Livshin (piano) and Sophie Shao (cello)
5:00 – 6:00pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, room 103
Program Description
Composers: Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, Alfred Schnittke, Robert Schumann, Frédéric Chopin
The Price of Belonging Assimilated
Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn were baptized as Christians, changed their name, and devoted their lives to the heart of German musical culture. Alfred Schnittke was born into it, German and Jewish at once, raised in Soviet Russia, and died a Catholic. Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann were close friends with Felix Mendelssohn, yet in their private diaries both wrote openly and profoundly antisemitic texts. And yet Schumann famously called Mendelssohn “a true God” of music. When Mendelssohn died suddenly in 1847, Schumann was devastated. This evening we look directly at that contradiction, and we will try to understand it in its time, and ask what it still tells us about ours. We close with Frédéric Chopin, who never tried to belong at all. He left Poland at twenty and spent the rest of his life in Paris, dying there without ever returning home, his heart sent back to Warsaw after his death while the rest of him stayed in French soil. And yet his own letters are riddled with the same contempt, casual slurs against Jewish colleagues and business partners, even as he counted Jewish musicians among his closest friends. He is the counterpoint to everyone else on this program, not someone refused entry, but someone who never asked for it, and no less caught in the contradiction for that. What it costs to belong, what remains when belonging is refused, what it means to simply never want it, and still carry the prejudice of one’s time. And yet the music on this program speaks above all of it, in a different register entirely, as if none of these borders ever existed. Which leaves us with a question: does it matter, in the end, to know? – Leon Livshin
Tuesday August 11
Performance by the Jazz Loft
5:00 – 6:00pm: Concert in the Della Pietra Family Auditorium, room 103
The Marc Devine Trio w/ Guest Artist Tom Manuel
Marc Devine, piano; Tom Manuel, cornet; Drums & Bass TBD
