“When Keisuke told us how eager he was to play the second Fauré Piano Quintet we were all in. Late Fauré is not programmed nearly as often as his early, more extroverted pieces, but Susan and I have grown to love his late style. We’ve never played the second quintet, but the whole idea behind the Ives Collective is to tread new ground with inspired colleagues. When we saw that this was Faure’s Op. 115 we thought programming it with Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet, also Op. 115, made a perfect pairing. Both are late-in-life pieces when both composers were at the height of their powers.” – Stephen Harrison
The Ives Collective, formed in 2015 by Co-Artistic Directors Susan Freier and Stephen Harrison, following the disbanding of the Ives Quartet, is comprised of an impressive and ever evolving roster of musicians who bring together careers worth of experience at great music making organizations such as at the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, New Century Chamber Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Opera Parallèle, and various university faculties and festivals.
At the core of the Collective’s inspiration is its members’ joy in playing richly varied chamber repertoire with longtime friends and colleagues for eager concert attendees. Its roster allows for the programming of virtually all the core string, wind, vocal and piano chamber music repertoire—from vocal duos to clarinet quintets to wind and string octets. While all its members have independent careers as ensemble members, soloists and chamber musicians, they strive for every opportunity to come together and share in this special collaboration aimed at presenting powerful live music experiences through fresh and informed interpretations of established masterworks and under-appreciated gems.