Coast Live Music

Wines and Winds at Fogarty Winery
2025-10-02 19:00 UTC | CA
6pm Wines and Hors d’Oeuvres, 7pm Performance
A collection of the country’s finest wind players assembles for a celebratory evening of Mozart, wines and delicious bites overlooking the Bay. Our past performance at Fogarty Winery was an experience to remember – we cannot wait to return! Ticket price includes wines, light bites and roundtrip shuttle service from Portola Valley Town Center. (5:30pm departure from PVTC, return post-performance.)

Mozart Serenade No. 11 in E-flat Major, K 375
Ruth Gipps “Andante doloroso” from Wind Octet, Op. 65
Smetana (arr. Tarkmann) Suite from The Bartered Bride

Kemp Jernigan and James Austin Smith, oboes
Alan Kay and Alicia Lee, clarinets
Gina Cuffari and Eleni Katz, bassoons
David Byrd-Marrow and Eric Reed, horns

Beethoven and Brahms with Pianist Bernadene Blaha, cellist Luigi Piovano, and violinist Livia Sohn
2025-05-17 19:00 UTC | Portola Valley Town Center, 765 Portola Rd, Portola Valley, CA, 94028, United States
6:15pm Bubbles, 7pm Performance

Beethoven Cello Sonata No. 3 A major, op. 69
Brahms Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, op. 87

World-renowned cellist Luigi Piovano and pianist Bernadene Blaha join Coast Live Music Founder and Artistic Director Livia Sohn for a springtime program of masterworks by Beethoven and Brahms.

Cathedrals to Courtesans with Harpist Bridget Kibbey
2025-03-28 19:30 UTC | CA
Bridget Kibbey, harp
6:30pm Wind & Light Bites, 7:30pm Performance
Private home in Central Portola Valley, address given out prior to event date
Known for her ability to transcend the harp, illiterate the mysteries of music behind the mic, or lead an ensemble with clarity and panache, Bridget Kibbey is in demand for innovative, virtuosic performances that take audiences on journeys through time, world cultures, musical genres, and emotional depth. She adeptly and divinely interprets the masters, while also being a bold advocate of genre-crossing storytelling and newly-commissioned works. Bridget has a busy and kaleidoscopic touring schedule, from appearances with major orchestras to hosts of curation-meets-performance appearances. She has a special commitment to using music new and old to weave and showcase deep connections across cultures.

An Evening with Stars: Violinist Alexi Kenney and Pianist Amy Yang
2025-01-25 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Portola Valley Town Center, 765 Portola Rd, Portola Valley, CA, 94028, United States
6:15pm Bubbles, 7pm Performance

Witold Lutosławski – Partita
Clara Schumann – Romances, Op. 22
Arvo Pärt – Fratres
George Enescu – Sonata No. 3 in A Minor

One of the foremost violinists of our time, Palo Alto native Alexi Kenney is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with celebrated musicians. Together with powerhouse pianist Amy Yang these world-class artists present a varied program in the intimate confines and exquisite acoustics of our own Portola Valley Town Center.

Described in concert by The New York Times as “a spellbinding, thoroughly honest performance that revealed his architect’s eye for structure and space and a tone that ranges from the achingly fragile to full-bodied robustness”, violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Outside of music, Alexi enjoys hojicha, modernist design and architecture, baking for friends, and walking for miles on end in whichever city he finds himself, listening to podcasts, and Bach on repeat.

A “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show…with effortless finesse” (Washington Post), pianist Amy Yang aspires to affirm connections between the arts and our inner humanity through her committed expressions of music and leadership on and off stage. Ms. Yang is an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Yale School of Music, where she received the Parisot Award for Outstanding Pianist and the Alumni Association Prize. When not serving the various keyboards related to her roles, her intentionally incognito presence may be revealed by a quivering Micron pen as she sketches from the back of concert halls. The work of a lifetime is where she hopes to question, explore, and linger.

An Evening with Anthony Roth Costanzo
2024-10-05 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | TBD, TBD
Metropolitan Opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo, “Vocally brilliant and dramatically fearless” (The New York Times), joins us for an exceptionally intimate recital in a private home. Tickets to this performance are limited!

Baroque Sunset at Fogarty Winery
2024-05-09 18:00 UTC | CA
A cast of superlative performers joins Artistic Director Livia Sohn and Artistic Advisor James Austin Smith for a sunset performance of baroque concerti and ensemble works overlooking the valley at the glorious Fogarty Winery. Light bites and a cash bar precede the performance. Ticket price includes roundtrip shuttle service from Portola Valley Town Center. 5:30pm departure from PVTC, return time post-performance.
Programs:
VIVALDI Concerto for Strings in C Major
ALBINONI Concerto for Oboe and Strings
WALKER Lyric for Strings
CPE BACH Sinfonia in B-flat Major
PRICE Adoration for Oboe and Strings
JS BACH Concerto for Oboe and Violin
Performers:
James Austin Smith, oboe
Livia Sohn, violin
Meesun Hong Coleman, violin
James Thompson, violin
Jonathan Vinocour, viola
Arlen Hlusko, cello
Anthony Manzo, bass
Paolo Bordignon, harpsichord

Ehnes Quartet
2024-01-20 19:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | 765 Portola Rd, Portola Valley, CA 94028, USA, 765 Portola Rd, Portola Valley, CA, 94028, United States
HAYDN String Quartet in G major, Op. 76, No. 1
SCHUMANN String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1
Coast Live Music launches with one of the world’s finest string quartets. Join us for a glass of celebratory bubbles and an evening of extraordinary music-making with the Ehnes Quartet at the Portola Valley Town Center.
Please join us for a complimentary glass of bubbly at 6pm as we toast to this inaugural concert!
Ehnes Quartet
Formally established in 2010 at the Seattle Chamber Music Society, where they maintain a yearly residency, the members of the Ehnes Quartet have played chamber music together in various formations for more than 20 years. The quartet’s highly refined, sensitive and expressive performances have delighted audiences and critics across North America, Europe, and Asia, and have made them one of the most sought-after chamber groups performing today.
James Ehnes has established himself as one of the most celebrated violinists on the international stage. Recent concerto appearances include the New York Philharmonic, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, San Francisco Symphony, London Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Munich Philharmonic. His extensive discography of more than 60 releases has won many awards including 2 GRAMMY awards, 2 Gramophone awards, and 11 Junos. He is the Artistic Director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Royal Academy of Music, and a member of both the Order of Manitoba and the Order of Canada. Ehnes plays the “Marsick” Stradivarius of 1715.
Violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti is equally versatile as chamber musician, concertmaster, soloist, and educator. Former concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra and Oregon Symphony, she has been Director of the McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University since its inception in 2007, where she holds the Caroline Paul King Chair and has developed and curates the Fabian Concert Series. She has premiered concertos for GRAMMY winner Matt Catingub and her Mercer colleague Christopher Schmitz and has served as guest concertmaster for such symphony orchestras as Atlanta, Houston, and Pittsburgh. She has recorded for Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Onyx Classics, CBC Records, BCMF/Naxos and Sono Luminus.
Che-Yen Chen is the first prize winner of the 2003 Primrose Viola Competition. As the founding and former member of the Formosa Quartet, he won the first prize in the 2006 London International String Quartet Competition. A professor of music at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, his previous positions include principal viola of the San Diego Symphony, Mainly Mozart Festival Orchestra, and professor of viola at USC Thornton School of Music. He has given masterclasses and appeared as guest principal viola with various major orchestras across North America. As an avid chamber musician and educator, he frequently participates in major music festivals across North America and Asia.
A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, cellist Edward Arron made his New York recital debut in 2000 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has since appeared in recital, as a soloist with major orchestras, and as a chamber musician throughout North America, Europe and Asia. He is the artistic director of the Performing Artists in Residence series at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts. In January of 2021, his recording of Beethoven’s Complete Works for Cello and Piano with pianist Jeewon Park was released on the Aeolian Classics label. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Mr. Arron has served on the faculty at University of Massachusetts Amherst since 2016.
Schumann:

Haydn:
