Independent Arts News Reporting Concordia Chamber Players Presents “Life Stories” on April 12, 2026
Reported on Monday, March 23, 2026.
Pictured Above: L-R: Siwoo Kim – violin, Melissa White – violin, Shaquille Southwell – clarinet, Leonid Plashinov – viola, Michelle Djokic – cello. Photo Credit: Contributed.
NEWSROOM POST: NEW HOPE, PENNSYLVANIA
Grammy-Winning Founding Member of the Harlem Quartet, Violinist Melissa White, Joins Concordia for a Program of Stirring Contemporary and Classic Chamber Works
New Hope, PA – Bucks County’s premier chamber music ensemble, Concordia Chamber Players, is proud to announce an upcoming concert that reaches deep into the personal—works born from grief, memory, community, and the hard-won wisdom of a life fully lived. “Life Stories” takes place on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM at Trinity Church, 6587 Upper York Rd, Solebury, PA, and features a remarkable gathering of world-class artists for an afternoon of chamber music that transforms personal experiences and historical moments into deeply moving musical narratives.
The program opens with Richard Danielpour’s Four Angels for clarinet and string quartet—a searing work of memorial written in April 2020 and commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The piece is Danielpour’s tribute to the four young Black girls killed in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, in September 1963. Premiered by clarinetist Anthony McGill and the Catalyst Quartet, Four Angels stands as one of the most powerful works of contemporary chamber music—music composed, in Danielpour’s own words, “for those who are willing to hear and understand.”
At the center of the program sits one of the most deeply autobiographical works in all of chamber music: Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, “From My Life.” Composed in 1876, the work is Smetana’s musical autobiography—a direct and unflinching account of his inner life, his loves, his creative joy, and his devastating loss of hearing. The quartet’s final movement contains one of the most haunting moments in the entire chamber repertoire: a sustained, piercing high E in the first violin, representing the onset of the tinnitus that would ultimately leave the composer deaf. It is music of extraordinary emotional power and personal courage.
Pictured Above: Melissa White. Photo Credit: Dario Acosta.
The concert concludes with Valerie Coleman’s Shotgun Houses for clarinet and string quartet—an aural history of how Cassius Clay became the legendary Muhammad Ali. Born and raised in the same West Louisville neighborhood as Ali, Coleman traces that journey in three movements: the communal warmth and verbal bravado of a thriving community, a tender ballad to Ali’s mother, and a quietly devastating reckoning with what has since become of that neighborhood. The work carries an additional layer of personal meaning for this particular performance: violinist Melissa White, a founding member of the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet, has her own deep ties to this piece—the original collaboration featured photographs by Thomas Washington, her maternal grandfather, whose images documented both Ali’s life and the visual heart of that West Louisville community. It is a remarkable convergence of history, memory, and music.
Joining Concordia’s Artistic Director and cellist Michelle Djokic for this exceptional program is a constellation of extraordinary talent. Violinist Melissa White is a founding member of the multiple Grammy Award-winning Harlem Quartet, a first-prize laureate of the Sphinx Competition, and a soloist who has graced the stages of Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the White House. Violinist Siwoo Kim, hailed as “incisive and compelling” by The New York Times, made his Carnegie Hall concerto debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and has performed with orchestras around the world. Violist Leonid Plashinov-Johnson, a laureate of the Primrose International Viola Competition and a member of the San Francisco Symphony, studied with the legendary Kim Kashkashian at the New England Conservatory, and brings a rare combination of technical mastery and musical depth. Completing the ensemble, clarinetist Shaquille Southwell, Principal Clarinetist of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and a Juilliard graduate who studied under Anthony McGill—the very clarinetist who premiered both Four Angels and the recording of Shotgun Houses.
Pictured Above: Leonid Plashinov-Johnson. Photo Credit: Contributed.
It is always an honor to share the stage with young musicians. Concordia is especially proud to welcome the music students of Foundation Academies in Trenton, New Jersey — partners in collaboration for many years — to join us for this performance. Their presence on this stage is a testament to the extraordinary power of music to inspire and guide the next generation.
The public is invited to attend a free open rehearsal on Saturday, April 11, 2026 at 3:30 PM at the James A. Michener Art Museum, 138 S. Pine Street, Doylestown, PA. This unique opportunity allows audiences to watch the musicians work through the program together, with artists available for questions—a rare and revealing glimpse into the collaborative process that brings this extraordinary music to life.
Pictured Above: Shaquille Southwell. Photo Credit: Contributed.
TICKET INFORMATION
Tickets for the main performance on Sunday, April 12 at 3:00 PM at Trinity Church are available at concordiaplayers.org/tickets. Students under 18 years are always welcome to our concerts free of charge. As part of our commitment to making chamber music accessible to families, one accompanying adult is also admitted free with each child under 18. For more information about Concordia Chamber Players, please visit concordiaplayers.org.
Concordia Chamber Players was founded in 1997 in New Hope, Pennsylvania by Artistic Director and cellist Michelle Djokic. Michelle’s gifts for creative programming, her ability to communicate key aspects of the music, and the depth of her multi-faceted collaborations appeal to seasoned and new concertgoers alike.
The concerts include a stellar list of guest artists—including a host of Grammy award nominees and winners—performing in various intimate venues throughout beautiful Bucks County. Concordia showcases a range of talent, from veteran musicians to rising young performers, presenting seasons of treasured masterpieces and unexpected gems.
To learn more about the upcoming Stardust concert or to purchase tickets, visit Concordiaplayers.org
