Celebrating Charles Ives at 150 — Joel Sachs, pianist

Pianist Joel Sachs performs masterworks by Charles Ives, one of America’s greatest composers and one of the greatest modernists of the early 20th century. His rarely heard Piano Sonata No. 1 will be preceded by “The Alcotts” and “Thoreau,” the third and fourth movements of his more famous second Sonata, “Concord, Mass., 1840-1860,” a tribute to the literary giants of that little town. Taken together, these compositions offer an unforgettable view of Ives’s unique vision of music that is both universal and deeply American.

Joel Sachs performs a vast range of traditional and contemporary music as conductor and pianist. As co-director of Continuum, and as invited guest conductor, he has appeared in hundreds of performances in the Americas and throughout the Eurasian continent from England to Japan, Korea, China, and Indonesia. One of the most active presenters of today’s composers’ music in New York, in 1993 Sachs founded the New Juilliard Ensemble, conducting and directing it until retirement in 2022. He is now emeritus professor of music at The Juilliard School.