Poems and Confrontations

An Intimate Performance of Chamber Music

What happens when life forces us to confront something we cannot change?

For Rebecca Clarke and Franz Schubert, those confrontations took very different forms. Clarke pursued a career as a composer in an era when women were rarely afforded the same opportunities or recognition as men. Schubert, facing a serious illness with no known cure, was forced to reckon with his own mortality.

Their music offers two strikingly different perspectives on struggle and resilience. Clarke's Poem for string quartet unfolds as an intimate musical reflection, while Schubert's Death and the Maiden, inspired by a poem depicting an encounter between a young woman and Death, moves between defiance, tenderness, and resignation.

Paired with live poetry, these works invite us to consider how we respond to life's inevitable challenges, and whether confronting them can change the way we understand ourselves.