The Haines Arts Council will bring classical music back to Haines for its season finale performance next month.
Classical duo Evan Drachman, cellist, and Doris Stevenson, pianist, will perform at the Chilkat Center at 7 p.m. Monday, May 22.
“It’s nice to get classical (music) here whenever we have a chance, so we were happy to get this classical concert into our season,” said arts council president Tom Heywood.
Drachman is the founder and artistic director of The Piatigorsky Foundation, a nonprofit that works to “make live classical music a part of the fabric of everyday life for underserved communities throughout the United States,” according to its website.
Heywood said the foundation will cover some of the cost of the local performance.
Drachman has a history of performing in Southeast Alaska, including at Sitka’s Summer Music Festival and Juneau’s Jazz and Classics Festival for more than 20 years.
Drachman is an acclaimed cellist who has released four CDs since the 1990s, with his latest titled “Full Circle,” recorded in 2012.
He has performed with orchestras in Ukraine and Russia. This season, Drachman will perform works by Beethoven, Bruch, Saint-Saens, Faure and Ravel throughout the United States and Mexico.
Pianist Stevenson will accompany Drachman. Stevenson is featured on several CDs with cellists and violinists, including one that was nominated for a Grammy award.
Stevenson has soloed with the Boston Pops, played at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Salle Pleyel in Paris and Suntory Hall in Tokyo.
She is a founding member of the Sitka Summer Music Festival and has participated in other chamber music festivals including the Grand Canyon Festival, Steamboat Springs in the Mountains, Park City International Festival and Chamber Music Los Angeles.
Heywood said the pair commonly perform together on the East Coast.
“Classical cello and piano is always a really lovely and appealing sound,” Heywood said. He added that he is excited to get some use out of the Chilkat Center’s Steinway grand piano.