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With the eternally young Gilbert Kalish leading the way, the festival's all-star roster delighted an enthusiastic and knowledgeable Center for the Performing Arts audience.

New Yorkers flocked to BAM on Thursday to celebrate the beginning of the Next Wave Festival 2014. Even more discerning audiences were just around the corner at BAM’s Harvey Theater for a program that featured soprano Dawn Upshaw and pianist Gilbert Kalish.

“It’s a contra-alto clarinet,” explained Ben Goldberg to an audience puzzled at the first sight of this long, coiled silver instrument. “But it can be used to clean your sink in an emergency.

The seventh of the Concert Programs at the annual Music@Menlo summer chamber music festival was entitled “Impassioned.