Pianist David Kaplan opens the fall season with a program exploring the boundary between composition and improvisation, featuring works written for him alongside repertoire that blurs the line between the fixed score and the spontaneous — including Beethoven’s Sonata “Quasi una Fantasia.” A visual art exhibition will complement the performance, adding a second creative voice that responds to the music in color and shape.
The Sitkovetsky Trio performs a program centered on the Romantic era’s fusion of music and poetry, extending into the post-Romantic voice of Dmitri Shostakovich. The program pairs Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio, Op. 70, No. 1 — nicknamed for its eerie slow movement, said to have been inspired by the ghost scene in Shakespeare’s Hamlet — with Schumann’s turbulent, deeply confessional Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 110, and Shostakovich’s youthful Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8, originally titled “Poème” and written at age sixteen as a declaration of first love. Period letters written by the composers, along with poetry connected to the compositions on the program, will be recited by a professional actor between pieces, offering the audience a rare window into the literary and personal world that shaped the music.
Acclaimed violinist Geneva Lewis — a BBC New Generation Artist, Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award recipient, and Avery Fisher Career Grant winner celebrated for performances that “speak from and to the heart” — leads a string trio with Emma Wernig and Jay Campbell in Dmitry Sitkovetsky’s arrangement of Bach’s monumental Goldberg Variations. Selected variations will be accompanied by live dance, adding a physical dimension to one of the towering achievements of the keyboard repertoire reimagined for strings.
The season closes with the Dan Pugach Nonet, bringing large-ensemble jazz energy and original compositions to close out the fall series. A visual artist will create a live painting throughout the performance, translating the music’s energy and improvisation into an evolving work of visual art before the audience’s eyes.
September 12 - 7:30 PM - Rough Point Mansion at 680 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840
Price and availability may vary
September 29 - 7:30 PM - Rough Point Mansion at 680 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840
November 7 - 7:30 PM - Rough Point Mansion at 680 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840
November 14 - 7:30 PM - Redwood Library & Athenaeum, 50 Bellevue Ave, Newport, RI 02840
This All Season Pass (a 14% discount over separate purchases) allows access to all four performances of the Puddingstone Musical Salon Series, Fall 2026:September 9, 2026 Quasi Una FantasiaSeptember 29, 2026 Romanticism and Musical PoetryNovember 7, 2026 Bach’s Art of Variation: The Goldberg for String TrioNovember 14, 2026 Dan Pugach Nonet "Jazz at the Redwood"
Puddingstone T-shirt
These are our Summer Festival shirts, 100% cotton and looking really good.
