Other Transcendentalists honors one of the 20th century's most iconoclastic composers, Charles Ives, by placing two of his solo piano works in conversation with a set of newly commissioned musical portraits of women who were pivotal figures in American Transcendentalism.

At the center of this focused program is Ives's Second Piano Sonata, better known as the "Concord," which characterizes four giants of American intellectual history who were all at work in New England in the mid-19th century. The first is an evocation of the orator Ralph Waldo Emerson, after which the sonata reflects on Nathaniel Hawthorne's flights of fantasy, educator Bronson Alcott's homespun domesticity, and Henry David Thoreau's potent naturalism and pensive calls for abolition.

This quartet of musical portraits is the inspiration for the works Berman commissioned from Eve Beglarian, David Sanford, Marti Epstein, and Elena Ruehr, who have used the "Concord" as a launching point for portraying women Transcendentalists. 

Beglarian's As syllable from sound uncovers the surprising links between Emily Dickinson's writings with the fiery oratory of Ives and Emerson. Sanford's Underground connects Hawthorne's idea of a Celestial Railroad to the real-life Underground Railroad of Harriet Tubman. Epstein's Piano in the Palace Beautiful is an evocation of Louisa May Alcott's character Beth March, a reimagining of the hymns and wondrous sounds described in Little Women. And Ruehr's Summer on the Lakes in 1843 is a portrait of Margaret Fuller, America’s first female journalist, translator, and travel writer.

As we approach Ives's 150th birthday in 2024, this program sonically refocuses the power of the Transcendentalist era while reframing our understanding of the enigmatic Ives himself, who Leonard Bernstein called "the Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln of American composers." 

Other Transcendentalists also represents the capstone of Berman's life work as an Ives scholar, in which he's served as president and treasurer of the Charles Ives Society, editor of the three-volume The Shorter Piano Works of Ives, and a pianist who for decades has delivered unparalleled performances of Ives's solo piano music.