The Verona Quartet has earned a specific reputation in the critical press — “cohesive yet full of temperament” from The New York Times, “bold interpretive strength” and “opulent sonority” from the Calgary Herald. What Sunday’s September 6 concert at Maverick Concert Hall adds is Alexander Fiterstein, a clarinetist whose prior work with the ensemble makes this a real partnership, not an ad hoc assembly.
About the Show
The Verona Quartet — Jonathan Ong and Dorothy Ro on violin, Abigail Rojansky on viola, Jonathan Dormand on cello — serve as Quartet-in-Residence at Oberlin College and Conservatory and have performed on four continents at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and London’s Wigmore Hall. Their 2023 album SHATTER debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart; a 2026 release featuring Felix Mendelssohn’s string quartets is forthcoming. They hold Chamber Music America’s 2020 Cleveland Quartet Award and have commissioned work from composers including Julia Adolphe, Texu Kim, and Sebastian Currier, alongside a Michael Gilbertson quartet that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. Fiterstein, who chairs the winds department at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, brings a clarinet voice the Washington Post described as “dazzling in its spectrum of colors, agility, and range,” with a chamber musician’s résumé that includes the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and collaborations with Daniel Barenboim, Mitsuko Uchida, and Emanuel Ax. He received the 2009 Avery Fisher Career Grant, won first prize at the Carl Nielsen International Clarinet Competition, and founded The Zimro Project, dedicated to Jewish art music in chamber programs. The two have collaborated before, and the difference between that and a first-time pairing will be audible.
Venue & Logistics
Maverick Concert Hall, a 400-seat Hudson Valley outdoor pavilion in Woodstock’s West Hurley area, is home to the nation’s oldest continuously running summer chamber music festival, dating to 1916. The 2026 season is built around American composers and performers as part of the Declaration of Independence’s 250th anniversary, running through September 13. As an open-air venue, the hall brings acoustic conditions that enclosed concert halls simply cannot produce; afternoon performances carry their own particular weight of light and temperature. The concert begins at 4:00 p.m.
Tickets
No ticket price was available from sources at the time of publication. Buy tickets through the Maverick Concerts website.