Featuring Jonathan Crow, violin · Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin · Sharon Wei, viola · Roman Borys, cello · Dior String Quartet

In What Makes It Great?®, composer, commentator, and author Rob Kapilow unlocks great music with insight, humour, and live musical examples. Explore the brilliance of Mendelssohn’s Octet as Kapilow reveals the invention and youthful genius behind one of chamber music’s most exhilarating works. His presentation is followed by a complete performance and audience Q&A.

Part of our Sunday afternoon MUSE (Music Unveiled, Stories, Explorations) series.

“Kapilow is the ideal guide—erudite, engaging, and endlessly illuminating.” — The New York Times

Featuring Meagan Milatz, piano

In What Makes It Great?, master communicator Rob Kapilow and brilliant Canadian pianist Meagan Milatz explore Beethoven’s electrifying Appassionata Sonata, revealing how the composer transforms simple musical ideas through bold and imaginative variations. Part of our Sunday afternoon MUSE (Music Unveiled, Stories, Explorations) series, this illuminating event readies listeners for Danny Driver’s performance of Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations in March 2027.

“Kapilow is the ideal guide—erudite, engaging, and endlessly illuminating.” — The New York Times

Cellist Karen Ouzounian, acclaimed for her work with the Silkroad Ensemble and the Aizuri Quartet, joins composer-pianist Lembit Beecher to close the season’s MUSE series with Mayrig, an immersive multimedia program centered on the human voice. Voices of Ouzounian’s mother and grandmother weave through Armenian music from Anatolia, songs of Lebanon, and the music of Charles Aznavour, alongside new works exploring memory, heritage, and resilience across generations.

The program spans centuries and cultures, opening and closing with Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines. Traditional Armenian songs and early Anatolian recordings appear alongside arrangements of music by Charles Aznavour and Ashot Satyan. Original works by Lembit Beecher are joined by contemporary voices including Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, and Karen Ouzounian, interwoven with recorded voices from Ouzounian’s family. Blending voice, memory, and music, Mayrig unfolds as a deeply human meditation on identity, inheritance, and the passage of time.