Gardner Museum: Renaissance String Quartet

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presented the Renaissance String Quartet on Sunday, May 17, in the closing performance of its Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series in Boston. The 1:30 p.m. concert took place in Calderwood Hall, the museum’s 300-seat performance space, according to the museum’s event listing. The program paired Johannes Brahms, Florence Price and a work by the quartet’s cellist, Daniel Hass. Meet Boston included the concert in its roundup of events for the May 15-17 weekend. ### Which musicians made up the quartet at the Gardner? The Renaissance String Quartet at the Gardner was listed as violinists Randall Goosby and Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin and cellist Daniel Hass. The museum said the four musicians perform together while maintaining separate touring careers as soloists and chamber players. The Gardner’s event page also noted that Goosby had appeared at the museum in a solo recital earlier in April. (gardnermuseum.org) ### What did the group play on Sunday afternoon? The May 17 program opened with Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 51, the museum said. The listing also named Florence Price’s String Quartet No. 1 in G major, written in 1929, and Hass’ String Quartet No. 1, “Love and Levity,” from 2021. In the museum’s description, Hass said his own quartet was “Beethovenian in its thematic and structural tautness,” a characterization published on the event page. (gardnermuseum.org) ### How did this concert fit into the Gardner’s larger season? The Gardner Museum said the Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series ran from January 25 through May 17 and comprised 15 performances curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel. The museum described the Sunday series as dating to 1927 and called it the longest-running museum music program in the United States. The season announcement said Calderwood Hall is designed with three balcony levels and seating arranged so that 80% of seats are in what the museum calls front-row positions. (gardnermuseum.org) ### What did attendance and ticketing look like for this performance? The Gardner’s ticketing page listed the May 17 performance as sold out. The museum said doors to Calderwood Hall would open 45 minutes before the performance and that seating within each ticketed level was first come, first served. Ticket prices on the event page were listed at $85 for adults on the performance level and first balcony, $75 for seniors and $20 for students and children ages 5 to 17, with lower prices on upper balconies. (gardnermuseum.org) ### Why was this concert included in citywide weekend listings? Meet Boston’s events guide for the weekend of May 15-17 included the Gardner performance among the city’s featured cultural events. The tourism organization’s separate event page repeated the museum’s description of the concert as the closing performance of the Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series. That listing also identified the season as a 15-concert run curated by George Steel. (tnew.gardnermuseum.org) ### What comes after the final concert? The Gardner Museum’s public calendar lists a George Stout Memorial Lecture, “Investigating Copies of Early Netherlandish Paintings,” for May 21 at 7 p.m. The museum’s broader calendar also shows additional public programs in June, including a Botanical Talk & Tour on June 10. The music series page identified the Renaissance String Quartet appearance as the final event in the Winter/Spring 2026 weekend run. (meetboston.com) (tnew.gardnermuseum.org)