Corinne Bailey Rae first captured hearts worldwide in 2006 with her breakout hit Put Your Records On, a breezy, soulful anthem that became an instant classic. Her self-titled debut album cemented her as a standout voice in contemporary R&B and jazz-infused pop, earning her Grammy nominations and a devoted global fanbase. Known for her warm, honeyed vocals and deeply personal songwriting, Corinne’s music has always been a blend of elegance, emotion, and effortless cool.
Now, with Black Rainbows, Corinne Bailey Rae takes an electrifying leap into bold new territory. This is Corinne like you’ve never seen or heard before—raw, experimental, and unapologetically powerful. Inspired by the history and artwork of Chicago’s Stony Island Arts Bank, the album fuses punk energy, avant-garde textures, and soul-stirring storytelling, marking a dramatic evolution in her artistry. Black Rainbows is a fearless reinvention, proving that Corinne Bailey Rae is not just an artist of nostalgia, but one constantly pushing the boundaries of sound and expression.
“Phil Cook is a lightning bolt. He is a teacher and captor of music. He carries it within him at all times. No one has taught me more about music in my life than him. He is one of the great performers of our age … as time passes more and more people will find that out. I’m excited every time someone gets to discover Phil’s genius—a thing I’ve had the good fortune of knowing all my life.”—Justin Vernon, Bon Iver
For Phil Cook, it all started with piano. A prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, solo artist, and in-demand musician whose collaborations have run the gamut of genre — as a founding member of beloved band Megafaun to work with The Blind Boys of Alabama, Bon Iver, Kanye West, and Hiss Golden Messenger, to name a few—Cook has always been a musician’s musician. A sweet and affable presence whose musical dexterity elevates every project he touches, Cook’s musical output and true sound has been hard to pin down. But even across all the work he’s done in his decades as a musician, he’s yet to release a proper piano album. In that way, “All These Years” is sort of the first proper introduction to Cook, to the way he can express himself with the most ease and reveal the deepest compartments of his heart.
All These Years is Cook’s first solo instrumental album on his primary instrument, recorded at NorthStar Church of the Arts in Durham, NC by his cousin and collaborator Brian Joseph (Bon Iver, Sufjan Stevens, Indigo Girls). Cook and Joseph have been close their entire lives, with Joseph being one of the people who knows the full depth of Cook’s relationship to the instrument.
Nubya Garcia isn’t an artist you can easily classify. Is it jazz? Sure, the London-born saxophonist,
composer and bandleader grew up studying the genre under the noted pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden
Music. But it isn’t until you listen to albums like 2020’s Source and 2024’s Odyssey that you hear
broader creativity shining through: It’s jazz, classical, dub, R&B and whatever else Garcia wants to
convey. It all comes from a place of exploration and self-study, of wanting to do all the things across all
disciplines while ignoring arbitrary boxes that don’t fit.
Garcia’s sophomore album Odyssey, out in September 2024 via Concord Jazz, is a majestic feat on
which she blends orchestral arrangements with R&B, jazz, broken beat and dub, resulting in a grand,
nuanced record that feels airy and celestial without sacrificing the groove. It’s a deeply personal
offering about her trek to falling back in love with musical composition over the past four years.
Poems of Consumption turns Amazon customer reviews into “pop songs” written, composed, arranged, and produced by H.Sinno and their collaborators. The harsh electronica and lush string quartet are accompanied by video work by Sinno and Matteo Zamagni which further saturates the performance with a relentless barrage of phantasmagorical visuals.
Inspired by Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism, polymath H.Sinno searches for fugitive intimacies and poetic temporalities by jamming Amazon’s 5-star rating system with poetry about their own consumer behavior.
Commissioned by the Barbican Centre and Shubbak Festival in July 2023, Poems of Consumption is a multimedia anti-spectacle that marks H.Sinno’s first lyrical excursion into the English language, as well as the former pop-star’s first solo work since Mashrou Leila.
“breath-taking vitality” — Badische Zeitung
Founded in 2001, Meta4 is one of Finland’s most celebrated string quartets. Their Polarkr(e)is Drifting North program explores works from the sound worlds of the Arctic Circle, from the Inuit themes of American composer Amy Beach’s String Quartet, to works of their fellow Finns Kaija Saarhiaho and Jean Sibelius, paired with Italo-Indian composer Krishna Nagaraja’s Stringar, a piece that combines old and new through Nordic folk dance tunes.
In 2004, the ensemble won first prize and the special prize for the best interpretation of a Shostakovich work at the International Shostakovich String Quartets Competition in Moscow and, in 2007, first prize at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Vienna. The Finnish Ministry of Culture awarded the ensemble the Finland Prize in recognition of its international cultural influence and Meta4 was chosen for the “BBC New Generation Artist Scheme” (2008, 2010).
Program
Kaija Saariaho Fleurs de neige
Amy Beach String Quartet in One Movement
Krishna Nagarja Stringar
Jean Sibelius String Quartet “Voces Intimae”
The Harlem Gospel Travelers are not from Harlem. They came to Harlem, however, from far-flung corners of the five boroughs of New York City, and it was in Harlem, that legendary center of African-American culture, that they found their voices. Since its conception, they have focused on creating music that uplifts, inspires, and spreads the message of love.
“One of the greatest string quartets I have ever heard. They can play anything.”—Ted Nash
New York-based, GRAMMY-award winning Harlem Quartet has been praised for its “panache” by the New York Times and hailed in the Cincinnati Enquirer for “bringing a new attitude to classical music, one that is fresh, bracing and intelligent.” Since its public debut at Carnegie Hall in 2006, the ensemble has thrilled audiences and students in 47 states as well as in the U.K., France, Belgium, Brazil, Panama, Canada, Venezuela, Japan, Ethiopia, and South Africa.
The GRAMMY award-winning quartet returns to San Diego with Echoes of Inspiration, an eclectic program that weaves together works from three different centuries. For this program, the ensemble has selected pieces that each composer wrote to celebrate the influence of their heroes and cultural traditions.
The program is anchored by an early Beethoven work, opus 18 no. 5 in A Major, which intentionally reflects the moods and ideas of Mozart’s quartet in the same key. The musical counterpoint the group has selected, Benjamin Britten’s Quartet No. 2, is a heartfelt tribute to Henry Purcell which Britten composed in commemoration of the 250th anniversary of Purcell’s passing. Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte draws inspiration from the minuet of Haydn’s Quartet Opus 77/2, reflecting both innovation & respect for tradition. Guido Lopez-Gavilan’s Cuarteto en Guaguanco rounds out the program— this exhilarating work is inspired by Afro-Cuban Chant.
Through their meticulous selection of works, this ensemble demonstrates their dedication to combining traditional masterpieces performed at the highest level with complementary contemporary works that are writing the future for classical music. Their ability to seamlessly traverse various musical styles while maintaining a signature sound that also honors both the specific style and context of the work, but also the inspirations behind each piece is a testament to their exceptional musicianship and artistic vision.
Program:
Ludwig van Beethoven: String Quartet in A Major, op.18 no.5
Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel:String Quartet in E-flat Major
Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
Guido Lopez-Gavilan: Cuarteto en Guaguanco
Started in 2016 as an acapella project between Helena Ros and Marta Torrella, Tarta Relena’s electronic-accented folk reimagines the traditional music of the Mediterranean as a growing form unbound by precedent. At ArtPower, the Catalan folk duo will perform from their newly released album, És pregunta.
With a career spanning over three decades, the Brentano Quartet has appeared throughout the world to popular and critical acclaim. The New York Times extols its “luxuriously warm sound [and] yearning lyricism; and the Times (London) hails their “wonderful, selfless music-making.” They bring their “Evocations of Home” program to San Diego—which offers a set of perspectives on the idea of home, culturally, intellectually, emotionally, and geographically. The evening program prominently features a new work by UC San Diego Professor Lei Liang, alongside movements byDvorak, Schubert, Bartok and Monteverdi that evoke a sense of place, identity and heritage.
Program
Antonín Dvořák Dumka from Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 51
Franz Schubert Scherzo from Quartet in G Major, D887
Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi Lamento della ninfa (arr. Lei Liang)
Lei Liang Gobi Gloria
Bela Bartok Scherzo alla bulgarese from Quartet No. 5
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Andante cantabile from Quartet No. 1
Evaristo Ginastera Allegramente rustico from Quartet No. 1
Chou Wen-Chung Larghetto nostalgico from Quartet No. 1, “Clouds”
Lei Liang “Madrigal Mongolia” for String Quartet (2024)
AJ Lee & Blue Summit are an award-winning energetic, charming, and technically jaw-dropping band quickly rising on the national roots music scene. Based in Santa Cruz, California, the group met as teenagers, picking and jamming together as kids at local music festivals and jams until one day, they decided they would be a band. They bring their latest album, City of Glass, to ArtPower.
