Music at Kohl Mansion (MAKM) continues its 39th season January 16 through April 10, with exceptional performances by some of the world’s leading classical music artists in curated programs of cherished masterpieces and contemporary works, many composed by women and artists of color.
With a return to live, indoor performances in Kohl Mansion’s Great Hall, all audience members will be asked to show proof of full COVID-19 vaccination either at the time of purchase or prior to entry to the live concert. MAKM staff and members of the public are required to wear a facial covering at all times while indoors. In order to allow for social distancing, Music at Kohl management will reduce its indoor seating to a maximum of 60% of capacity. Convenient public hand sanitizing stations will be provided.
On Sunday, January 16, 2022, The Mansion will feature the Mesa-Yakushev Duo
Cuban-American cellist Thomas Mesa, one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation and first-prize winner of the 2016 Sphinx Competition, is joined by Russian pianist Ilya Yakushev, with many world-wide awards (2005 World Piano Competition winner) and honors to his credit, including his fiery debut concerts in the San Francisco Symphony’s Prokofiev Festival (2007) under Michael Tilson Thomas (“One of the Top 10 Classical Music Events of the Year,” San Francisco Chronicle).
In their Music at Kohl Mansion debut, Mesa and Yakushev will perform masterful romantic sonatas by Brahms and Rachmaninoff; the California premiere of Seven for solo cello by Spanish cellist-composer Andrea Casarrubios, “a searching, intense, and elegiac tribute to the essential workers during the pandemic” (New York Times) was commissioned by Thomas Mesa, and presented at Carnegie Hall in 2021; for piano solo, the Chopin Nocturne No. 21 in C Minor, Op. posthumous; two excerpts from Suite Española for cello and piano by Joaquin Nin; and Lera Auerbach’s Prelude for Cello and Piano, Op. 47, No. 12.