CONCERT
starring BLAKE POULIOT & Henry Kramer
APRIL 26, 2025 @ 7:30pm
Violinist Blake Pouliot, a queer virtuoso hailed as “one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime” (Toronto Star) leads an electrifying program designed to galvanize people towards action. At his side is Henry Kramer, a pianist of astonishing depth and fearless precision, praised by The New York Times for his “thrilling, triumphant” performances. Together, these two master musicians will give voice to the sounds of defiance—from Janáček’s appeal for Czech independence the wake of WWI to Pirayeh Pourafar’s contemporary challenge to the rising tides of nativism and xenophobia using the sounds of traditional Persian folk music. The concert ends with the first violin sonata of Sergei Prokofiev, one of Russia’s greatest 20th century composers, written during the ever-tightening grip of Soviet cultural censorship. More than a recital, Music of Political Revolution is a call to arms. It is beauty as resistance, sound as solidarity, and an invitation to feel the pulse of history in the music of now.
