The Arazzo Music Festival returns to The Wadsworth for its fifth anniversary season finale, presented in the majestic Morgan Great Hall. This exhilarating evening of chamber music features the award-winning Callisto Quartet in a program titled "Roots Reimagined," which explores the transformative power of heritage and innovation.

What does it mean to inherit a tradition and then reshape it? Roots Reimagined examines how three composers, across centuries and cultures, transform the string quartet into a medium profoundly greater than what they received. Each work on this program draws deeply from its foundational roots while boldly redefining what those roots can become. The journey begins with Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet in A Major, Op. 18, No. 5. In this early masterpiece, Beethoven honors the classical models passed down from Haydn and Mozart, yet he begins to stretch their emotional and structural limits, dashing the expectations of the time and pushing the genre toward a new frontier.

The exploration of heritage continues with Reena Esmail’s Ragamala, a powerful bridge between cultures. Esmail weaves the intricate, soul-stirring melodies of Hindustani classical music into the traditional fabric of the Western string quartet, creating a vibrant and unique musical tapestry. The program reaches its peak with Edvard Grieg’s String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 27. Grieg takes the Romantic quartet and infuses it with the turbulent, emotionally thrilling rhythms and colors of Norwegian folk music, resulting in a work of immense drama and national identity that redefined the Scandinavian sound.

Admission is free with registration required. Tickets will be available HERE.

Presented with support from Robert Connell and Michelle Duffy, with additional support provided by the Saunders Foundation Endowment for Music and the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation Fund at The Wadsworth.