Personal Note is a concert series conceived, curated, and performed by the students of the Concert Curation course. Under the direction of Prof. Yael Kareth, the course empowers young musicians to connect performance with storytelling, audience engagement, and cultural relevance. Participants are invited to rethink the concert as a social and cultural space — to explore what it can communicate and how it can resonate today — while refining their own artistic voices. Questions such as “What story do I want to tell with my music?”, “For whom is it meant?”, or “What kind of aesthetic and emotional experience do I wish to create?” stand at the heart of the process. The result is a series of concerts in an intimate, open atmosphere that fosters a genuine connection between performers and audience.

The first concert of the series, “Homeland,” offers a deeply personal and culturally diverse program that reflects the unique backgrounds of the students. Featuring works by composers connected to the performers’ homelands or inspired by themes of memory, nostalgia, and roots, the evening celebrates the profound connection between music and identity. Pieces such as Prokofiev’s Overture on Hebrew Themes, Bartók’s Romanian Folk Dances, and Bloch’s Prayer are interwoven with contemporary works including Kian Soltani’s Persian Fire Dance and arrangements of traditional songs. This program is not merely a celebration of diversity—it is a musical expression of the cultural heritage, personal and collective.

The word dialogue carries a world of meaning, especially when it comes to music. It may refer to conversation, reflection, or imitation, in music as well as in life. In the second concert of the series, students will explore various musical expressions of dialogue through performance of well-known chamber music pieces, which they will personally introduce as well. They will demonstrate musical conversation between different players or instruments, explore the correspondence between two (or more) musical lines or voices within a composition, reveal the intergenerational dialogue between student and teacher or between composers of different epochs, highlight cultural exploration and exchange through composition, and even expose the inner—almost secret—dialogue a musician has with themself.

Dialogue is also a key word in the microcosmos of the Barenboim-Said Akademie, where the ability to truly listen across different backgrounds, viewpoints, and perspectives is crucial. In a very wholesome way, dialogue plays exactly the same vital role in music-making.

At the core of music lies rhythm—the invisible pulse that drives a piece forward, shapes its character, and unites performers and listeners alike. Heartbeat, the third concert in the Personal Note series explores rhythm as both a physical and metaphorical force in music. How does time manifest differently across styles and composers? How do musicians instinctively synchronize, and should they always follow the same beat? How do personal temperament and even an individual’s own heartbeat influence interpretation? Through a diverse selection of works, the program delves into these questions, tracing the many ways in which rhythm and time shape musical expression and performance, and how this musical element connects musicians and listeners through an instinctive, primal universal language.

All nature has a feeling: woods, fields, brooks
Are life eternal; and in silence they
Speak happiness beyond the reach of books. 

—John Clare

These lines reflect the spirit of Earth, the final “Personal Note” concert of the 2024–25 season: the program is a poetic and musical meditation on the ever-evolving relationship between humanity and the natural world. Featuring two of the most iconic works in the classical repertoire, the concert weaves together music, poetry, and prose drawn from diverse cultures, languages, and time periods. In this unique encounter, familiar sounds are reframed through new poetic lenses, inviting us to reflect on what it means to listen to nature, to speak of it, and to exist within it.