A couple of months ago I had the privilege of filming the complete J.S. Bach Viola da Gamba and Harpsichord sonatas performed by Dale Henderson, Bach in the Subways founder, and William Chapman Nyaho, who both met and first performed together in early 2015 as part of a Seattle Bach in the Subways fundraising concert.

For Bach's 326th birthday on March 21, 2011, Dale invited other musicians to join him. The Bach in the Subways movement was born. Every March, the movement grew – from a single cellist playing alone in New York's subways into a global phenomenon. For Bach's 330th in 2015, thousands of musicians in 150 cities in 40 countries offered Bach's music freely in public spaces around the world, and for Bach's 331st in 2016, musicians are again planning to fill the world with music.

In selecting Bach for the Bach in the Subways program, and featured in the video sample from the concert, Mr. Henderson takes his cue from world-renown Catalan cellist Pablo Casals, who in 1890 discovered the music for the then forgotten Bach Cello Suites in a Barcelona thrift shop and made it his mission to give them new life through performance.

In a similar fashion, Mr. Henderson has made it his mission to reinvigorate and re-popularize Bach and classical music in general through his own performances, and by inviting musicians worldwide to bring their artform to the public, sparking millions of singular moments of musical discovery.

In January, I had the honor of filming British Pianist Ian Hobson at Merkin Concert Hall in New York City, who performed a delightful piano recital featuring Chopin's Variations on "La ci darem la mano," Op. 2, the second book of Debussy's Preludes, and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39. This concert was part of Mr. Hobson's Downtown/Uptown series of concerts in New York, featuring a selection of preludes, etudes and variations.

Mr. Hobson began his international career in 1981 when he won First Prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition, after having earned silver medals at both the Arthur Rubinstein and Vienna-Beethoven competitions. Born in Wolverhampton, England, he studied at the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, and Yale University. A professor in the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), Mr. Hobson received the endowed chair of Swanlund Professor of Music in 2000.

He is recognized internationally for his command of an extraordinarily comprehensive repertoire, his consummate performances of the Romantic masters, his deft and idiomatic readings of neglected piano music old and new, and his assured conducting from both the piano and the podium.

For more information about Ian Hobson, please visit his official website at www.ianhobson.net.

A new music ensemble disguised as a wind quintet, the City of Tomorrow performs new and neglected works from 1970 to today. Their debut CD, Nature, was released in May 2015 on Ravello. That disc features works by David Lang, Luciano Berio, Denys Bouliane, and a new piece for wind quintet and conch shells written for COT by Nat Evans.

The City of Tomorrow has performed all over the country, making appearances at Old First Concerts in San Francisco, the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival outside Detroit, and the Old Church in Portland, Oregon.

They have visited numerous universities and music schools, including Berklee College of Music, the San Francisco Conservatory, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and Indiana University.

Recently I filmed a concert given by the quintet. They performed three works, all written for the City of Tomorrow in the past two years. The main event of the night was Leander and Hero, a new major work for wind quintet in nine movements by Hannah Lash, which was supported by a 2014 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant.

Leander and Hero features the clarinetist Rane Moore, who doubles on E-flat clarinet, and the flutist Elise Blatchford, who doubles on piccolo. The two musicians represent birds who have mated for life that tragically become separated in a storm.

The City of Tomorrow also performed John Aylward's quintet, called Daedalus, which was written with the intent of emulating the energy of flight and the faint and fluttery workings of a flying machine.

Aylward utilizes many extended techniques and worked closely with flutist Elise Blatchford to develop the spoken sounds on alto flute.

Finally, the quintet performed a piece by one of their own, oboist Stuart Breczinski.

For more information and complete biography, please visit their official website at www.thecityoftomorrow.org.

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