Sunday, February 1, 2026
5:00 PM
The Ives Collective creates powerful live music experiences that breathe new life into great masterworks while shining a light on overlooked gems of the chamber repertoire. Each concert is lovingly and thoughtfully curated, revealing unexpected connections and fresh perspectives that invite audiences to listen more deeply. Guided by artistic directors Susan Freier and Stephen Harrison, the ensemble is joined by renowned guest artists whose distinctive voices and musical insight elevate every performance, resulting in concerts that are both intimate and expansive, rigorous and richly expressive.
MUSICIANS
Kay Stern, violin: Susan Freier, viola; Stephen Harrison, cello: Elizabeth Schumann, piano; Kyle Bruckmann, oboe.
PROGRAM
Franz Joseph Haydn – Piano Sonata in G, Ho.XVI: 40
Franz Joseph Haydn – String Trio in G Major, Op.53, No.1 (1784)
W.A. Mozart – Quartet for Oboe and Strings in F Major, K.370 (1781)
Robert Schumann – Piano Quartet in Eb Major, Op.47 (1842)
Kay Stern, violin, is currently the Concertmaster of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, a position she has held since 1994. She has served as assistant to Dorothy DeLay at the Aspen Music Festival, assistant to the Juilliard Quartet at the Juilliard School, has been a faculty member at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and the University of San Francisco.
Susan Freier, violin/viola, and Co-Artistic Director of the Ives Collective earned degrees in music and biology from Stanford University as a Ford Scholar and continued her studies at the Eastman School of Music where she co-founded the award-winning Chester String Quartet. The Chester went on to win the Munich, Portsmouth (UK) and Discovery Competitions and was the quartet-in-residence at Indiana University, South Bend. In 1989 Susan returned to her native Bay Area and joined the Stanford faculty and the Stanford String Quartet. She performs with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players and has been an artist/ faculty member at the Newport Music Festival,
Garth Newell Music in the Mountains, Rocky Ridge Music Center, and the Schlern and Orfeo Music Festivals (Italy). Susan teaches and performs at the Mendocino Music Festival and the SoCal Music Workshop.
Stephen Harrison, cello, and Co-Artistic Director of the Ives Collective has been on the Stanford University faculty since 1983. A graduate of Oberlin College and Boston University, he has been solo cellist of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players since 1985. He has toured internationally and recorded on the Delos, CRI, New Albion and Newport Classics labels. Stephen has been on the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival, the Orfeo and Schlern International Music Festivals (Italy) and the Rocky Ridge Music Center. He is currently Principal Cellist at the Mendocino Music Festival and performs and teaches at the SoCal Chamber Music Workshop.
Pianist Elizabeth Schumann has a diverse career portfolio of projects, recordings, and performances that have brought her all over the world as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist. The Washington Post Magazine noted her playing as “deft, relentless, and devastatingly good—the sort of performance you experience not so much with your ears as your solar plexus.”
For more than 20 years, Kyle Bruckmann has asserted an otherwise unparalleled role for the oboe within the realms of Free Improvisation and Creative Music. He is also a dedicated interpreter of Western classical repertoire, active in solo, chamber, and orchestral settings, with a particular commitment to contemporary composition. Bruckmann is a member of performing ensembles including sfSound, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Quinteto Latino, Splinter Reeds, Eco Ensemble, Opera Parallèle, and the Stockton Symphony.