Oct. 23: Vocalist Tui Hirv and Composer / Guitarist Páll Ragnar Pálsson Release Layers – New Album on Sono Luminus

Vocalist Tui Hirv and Composer / Guitarist Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Release New Album Layers
Out on Sono Luminus October 23, 2026

Featuring Ambient Interpretations of Old Nordic Folk Songs
with Guest Artists Sóley, Skúli Sverrisson, Kaktus Einarsson, and Sander Saarmets

Worldwide Release Date: October 23, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

Páll Ragnar Pálsson | Tui Hirv | Sono Luminus

On October 23, 2026, married duo, Estonian vocalist Tui Hirv and Icelandic composer and guitarist Páll Ragnar Pálsson, will release their new album, Layers, on Sono Luminus. This unique concept album brings together the spiritual and historical lineages of several Nordic folk songs, through thoughtful, ambient interpretations that consider the works in their entirety: compositional form, emotional direction, historical context, social significance, and cultural purpose.

Layers showcases the many sides of the history behind music both secular and sacred and how its place in the lives of those who hear it can vary based on the time, place, language, and meaning that surrounds the music when it’s found and integrated into daily life. Through this mindful and meticulously crafted recording, Pálsson and Hirv shed light on the power of folk music to be both a lasting record of people and times past, as well as a living, evolving demonstration of the perspective seen and felt by people of today’s vast and multicultural world.

The album contains 17 folk songs and hymns of various Nordic, Latin, and English origins: Nüüd hingvad inimesed (Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow); Bred dina vida vingar (Thy Holy Wings O Savior); Mitt hjerte alltid vanker (My Heart Will Always Wander); Hátíð fer af höndum ein (Joyous Tides Do Now Begin); There Is No Rose Of Such Virtue; Gjendines bådnlåt (Gjendine’s Lullaby); In the Bleak Midwinter; Nú kemur heimsins hjálparráð (Saviour of the Nations Come); Nüüd südant, inimene (Ye Sons of Men, Oh, Hearken); Jeesus kõige ülem hää (Jesus Is the Best of All Good Things); Kes Jumalat nii laseb teha (If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee); Oh Jeesus, Sinu valu (O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded); Ma vaatan üles mäele (I Gaze Up at the Hill); Kas sureb nii mu kõige armsam elu (Alas, Does My Most Beloved Life Thus Die?); Su hooleks ennast annan ma (My all I to my God commend); Nú er á himni og jörð (Now in Heaven and on Earth); and The Snow it Melts the Soonest.

Contemporary chamber music plays a significant part in Tui Hirv’s artistic profile. While in Estonia, she worked with new music ensembles and occasionally premiered pieces written for her by local composers. Hirv’s collaboration with her composer husband Páll Ragnar Pálsson has been especially fruitful, resulting in more than ten pieces for Hirv as soloist and ensembles of varying scale. They keep developing their musical language, walking new and unknown paths with every project.

After undergraduate studies at Iceland University of the Arts Páll Ragnar Pálsson obtained a Master‘s and doctoral degree from Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre in 2014. Dwelling in the musically intense environment of Tallinn and being a student of Helena Tulve added another cultural layer on Pálsson’s indie rock background from 1990‘s Reykjavik and made him the artist he is today. During his formative years as a guitar player, Pálsson’s sense of sound was refined in recording studios, perceiving music rather in masses of noise than melodic-harmonic patterns, rather in a physical and instinctive than an intellectual and analytical manner. Sounds and textures are thus still central to Pálsson’s music.

As artists that also share foundations in academia, Pálsson and Hirv have explored the long, winding paths of origin behind the songs on Layers and come to a deep understanding of where this music fits in the lives of people from different nations, spanning many generations. Layers of spiritual singing reach seamlessly from Estonia – across the Swedish-speaking areas of Estonia to mainland Sweden and Norway and overseas to Iceland – making a stop in England where similar cultural processes took place earlier. Latin hymns translate into local languages, blend into folk tradition, get picked up again, make their way into art music directly or indirectly, and become a source of inspiration once again.

“For centuries, spiritual singing was an inseparable part of everyday life of mankind,” Hirv explains. “It accompanied the course of day, course of life and course of year – acting as a kind of measure to keep in touch with the flow of time. There were songs to sleep and wake by, to pray for God‘s mercy in all situations possible, and to maintain a harmonious and modest life. These songs travelled through Europe mostly with the help of Protestant pastors and songbooks, but blended into local folk heritage in every parish. Different versions of well-known chorales create a unifying web across Western culture while maintaining a distinct, irreplicable voice of the isolated communities. These songs, either straight from songbooks or transcribed during field trips by scholars of the early 20th century, make up the core of Layers.”

In their endeavor to connect these folk songs with modern day musicality and stylization, like many before them, Pálsson and Hirv chose carefully where to uphold and where to bend the lines of traditional conventions of western music, which give each song its original musical character and social purpose.

“We encounter these songs in an environment where boundaries between social classes, styles of music, scenes and venues get blurred over and over, each time according to a whole different logic,” Hirv says. “We break a few canons, clichés and customs by approaching spiritual hymns with modern equipment, still making the vocals sound natural, timeless and unprocessed, vulnerable and enlightened. In our arrangements, we are aware of the tradition but treat the material with playfulness and a slight sense of irresponsibility. This is the layer we add to the heritage that has shaped our identities as individuals and nations, keeping the very core of human knowledge and spiritual existence alive and relevant.”

Beyond their intention to balance the history of the past and their creativity in the present, Pálsson and Hirv’s arrangements add yet another layer to the hymn tradition.

Hirv explains in the album’s liner notes: “As a melodic element, we use notated transcriptions that educated musicians wrote down on their field trips to record the disappearing vocal heritage of Estonian villages. A big part of Estonian folklore is spiritual and has its roots in the Lutheran tradition. Going to church on Sundays and praising the Lord at home was a general practice. It was a natural part of existence equally in the ethnic Estonian and Swedish communities that lived side by side for many centuries. Texts were written down in psalmbooks but the melodies were learned by ear and passed on within the family.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, during the wave of national awakening, the Estonian student fraternity of Tartu University organized a wide-spread expedition of folk-song gathering all over Estonia that lasted for a number of summers. Secular songs were considered more original and valuable at the time than the ones developed from Lutheran hymns. For Estonian professional music life later on, the folk hymns have proved an invaluable source of inspiration and tokens of identity at difficult times. They underline Estonia‘s connection to Western culture while maintaining an irreplicable, unifying voice.”

More about Tui Hirv: Singer and musicologist Tui Hirv was born in Tallinn, Estonia in 1984. Tui Hirv graduated from Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre with a BA degree in singing in 2007 and MA in musicology in 2009. From an early age and until moving to Iceland in 2013 she was very active in Estonia’s vivid and highly professional scene of choral music. For a period of time she was a member of some of the most renowned vocal groups such as Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and Vox Clamantis. Both ensembles place great emphasis on the music of Arvo Pärt, their fellow Estonian and one of the most performed composers at a global scale. Both ensembles have extensive international reach and regularly record albums for leading labels such as ECM New Series and Harmonia Mundi. The 2014 ECM release of Adam’s Lament led by EPCC’s founding conductor Tõnu Kaljuste contains a version of Pärt’s L’Abbé Agathon for choir and chamber orchestra where Tui Hirv sings lead. The album received the GRAMMY Award for Best Choral Performance.

More about Páll Ragnar Pálsson: Páll Ragnar Pálsson has ongoing collaborations with artists all over the world and his music has been performed by internationally renowned ensembles and orchestras in sought-after venues. In recent years, Páll has collaborated on several occasions with Sono Luminus. Atonement with a selection of chamber pieces was released in 2020, while Concurrence, a collaboration with Icelandic Symphony Orchestra featuring Quake was nominated for the GRAMMYAward in 2021. The Icelandic motion picture Quake directed by Tinna Hrafnsdóttir featured original music by Páll and Eðvard Egilsson, released on an album named Skjálfti by Sono Luminus in 2023. One of the highlights of recent years was the premiere of Páll’s first symphony in April 2026 at the Harpa concert house in Reykjavík commissioned by Icelandic Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Eva Ollikainen.

Layers: Tui Hirv and Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Release Date: October 23, 2026 | Sono Luminus

Tracklist:

1. Nüüd hingvad inimesed (Now Rest Beneath Night’s Shadow)[3:55]
2. Bred dina vida vingar (Thy Holy Wings O Savior)[3:05]
3. Mitt hjerte alltid vanker (My Heart Will Always Wander)[4:47]
4. Hátíð fer af höndum ein (Joyous Tides Do Now Begin)[2:49]
5. There Is No Rose Of Such Virtue [3:53]
6. Gjendines bådnlåt (Gjendine’s Lullaby)[3:40]
7. In the Bleak Midwinter [3:36]
8. Nú kemur heimsins hjálparráð (Saviour of the Nations Come)[3:25]
9. Nüüd südant, inimene (Ye Sons of Men, Oh, Hearken) [5:07]
10. Jeesus kõige ülem hää (Jesus Is the Best of All Good Things)[3:04]
11. Kes Jumalat nii laseb teha (If Thou But Suffer God to Guide Thee)[3:54]
12. Oh Jeesus, Sinu valu (O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded)[3:21]
13. Ma vaatan üles mäele (I Gaze Up at the Hill)[4:01]
14. Kas sureb nii mu kõige armsam elu (Alas, Does My Most Beloved Life Thus Die?)[5:05]
15. Su hooleks ennast annan ma (My all I to my God commend)[3:10]
16. Nú er á himni og jörð (Now in Heaven and on Earth)[2:30]
17. The Snow it Melts the Soonest [3:36]

Total Time: [63:02]

Páll Ragnar Pálsson, Composer, Guitars, Electronics
Tui Hirv, Vocals, Piano (tracks 9, 17)
Sóley Stefánsdóttir, Accordion (track 17)
Skúli Sverrisson, Bass (track 10)
Kaktus Einarsson, Trumpet (track 12)
Sander Saarmets Electronics (track 8)

Executive Producers: Páll Ragnar Pálsson and Tui Hirv
Arrangements: Tui Hirv and Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Recorded and Produced: Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Mixing: Eðvarð Egilsson
Mastering: Daniel Shores
Layout: Joshua Frey
Liner Notes: Tui Hirv and Páll Ragnar Pálsson
Artwork on cover: Valgerður Briem (1914-2002)
Artist portrait: Brynjar Gunnarsson
Recorded in Vesturbær, Reykjavík throughout 2025

Sept. 28: The Birch Festival: Fall Edition 2026 – Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel

L-R: Cellist Jan Vogler, Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, Actor Tamara Hickey

The Birch Festival: Fall Edition 2026
Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel

Yevgeny Kutik, Artistic Director & Rachel Barker, Executive Director

Featured Performance:
Cellist Jan Vogler, Actor and Writer Tamara Hickey, and Violinist Yevgeny Kutik

Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7pm
First Congregational Church Stockbridge | 4 Main Street | Stockbridge, MA
Tickets and Registration Information: www.thebirchfestival.org

Stockbridge, MA — The arrival of the fall season will be brightened by the return of the The Birch Festival to Stockbridge, MA, which presents a featured performance on Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7pm. Birch Festival Artistic Director and esteemed violinist Yevgeny Kutik welcomes acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler and award-winning actor and writer Tamara Hickey, for a collaborative concert at First Congregational Church Stockbridge (4 Main Street). The program will include J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites Nos. 1 and 6, Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, and Handel-Halvorsen’s Passacaglia. Berkshire County Students and a guardian may attend the concert for free. Prior to the concert, the artists will also be presenting a private workshop for students in local public schools.

This fall’s featured performance, Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel, traces a journey from solitude to encounter, and from encounter to transformation. With the musicianship of iconic cellist Jan Vogler, a voice emerges, unfolding in Bach’s first cello suite, before Ravel brings violin and cello into a vivid exchange of tension and discovery. The journey returns to Bach with his sixth suite: the original solitary voice transformed by everything that has come before. Completing the encounter, both violin and cello come together at the end in the exuberant union of Handel–Halvorsen’s Passacaglia. Joining Vogler and Kutik will be the Berkshires’ own Tamara Hickey of Shakespeare & Company for special readings before each piece. Interwoven with the music of Bach and Ravel, these readings will help trace the evening’s themes of Beginnings, Encounter, and Transcendence—bringing music and words together in what will be a particularly special Birch performance. Hickey is an award-winning actor, writer, and theater-maker whose work spans theater, film, and television in the U.S. and Canada. Based in the Berkshires, she is a company member of Shakespeare & Company and creates original theater through her production company, MetaGirl Productions.

“Jan Vogler brings extraordinary artistry and a deeply personal connection to Bach’s Cello Suites, and I’m thrilled to welcome him to the Berkshires for this special program, pairing Bach with Ravel’s gorgeous Sonata for Violin and Cello,” says Birch Festival Artistic Director Yevgeny Kutik. “With Tamara’s readings woven throughout the evening, and the opportunity to bring these artists into our local schools, this is a wonderful expression of what we hope to offer through Birch: discovery, connection, and music that brings our community together.”

The Birch Festival was founded in 2022 by Lenox-based husband-and-wife team Yevgeny Kutik, an internationally renowned violinist who serves as Artistic Director, and Rachel Barker, who is the non-profit organization’s Executive Director. The Birch Festival promotes and propels distinct voices in music, whether through new composition or creative interpretation of old favorites. It offers leading musicians a chance to play and establish relationships in the Berkshires, while recognizing the importance of their work by offering compensation that sustains and values their efforts in this industry. The Birch Festival’s mission is to bring world-leading musicians for artist residencies in Berkshire County schools, and work in tandem with local business and cultural partnerships. Kutik, a Belarusian-Jewish refugee resettled in Pittsfield by the Jewish Federation in the 1990s, named the festival for his grandmother Sima Berezkina, whose last name means “birch tree.” With significance in many global cultures, birch trees symbolize growth, resilience, and adaptability – qualities that Sima embodied.

The Birch Festival will also be presenting its spring festival on Friday, May 14, 2027, in partnership with the Tanglewood Learning Institute, presenting the Boston Conservatory at Berklee Percussion Ensemble in a performance featuring Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra. Tickets are on sale now and more information can be found here.

Follow The Birch Festival on Social Media

Instagram: www.instagram.com/thebirchfestival
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/the-birch-festival/

The Birch Festival’s Fall 2026 Schedule:

Bach & Birds
Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (472 W Mountain Rd, Lenox, MA 01240)
Monday, September 28, 2026 at 9:30am
Registration: www.massaudubon.org/programs/pleasant-valley/104320-bach-birds

As part of its Fall 2026 edition, The Birch Festival will partner with Mass Audubon to present Bach & Birds, a free pop-up performance at Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary in Lenox, Massachusetts. Cellist Jan Vogler will perform excerpts from Bach’s Cello Suites and share insights into these transformative works, surrounded by an exhibition of watercolor paintings of birds from around the world by artist Robin Crofut-Brittingham. The performance will take place in Pleasant Valley’s historic barn, a fully accessible program space. Accessible parking and seating will be available, and coffee will be provided. Made possible through the generous support of an anonymous donor and the partnership between The Birch Festival and Mass Audubon, Bach & Birds is free and open to the public.

The Birch Festival Featured Performance – Encounter: The Bach Suites and Ravel
Monday, September 28, 2026 at 7pm
First Congregational Church Stockbridge (4 Main Street, Stockbridge, MA 01262)
Tickets: www.thebirchfestival.org

Violinist and Birch Festival Artistic Director and Co-Founder Yevgeny Kutik comes together with acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler and award-winning actor and writer Tamar Hickey to perform the emotive and thought-provoking works by J.S. Bach and Maurice Ravel, as well as Johan Halvorsen’s interpretation of Frederic Handel’s Passacaglia, in a program inspired by the themes of solitude, encounter, and transformation. Berkshire County Students and a guardian may attend for free.

About the Artists & Festival Directors:

About Yevgeny Kutik: With a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique” (The New York Times), violinist Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of both standard works and newly composed repertoire. A native of Minsk, Belarus, Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of five. An advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the US, he regularly speaks and performs across the country to promote the assistance of refugees from around the world. Kutik’s discography, all on Marquis Classics, includes The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021), Meditations on Family (Marquis Classics 2019), Words Fail (2016), Music from the Suitcase (2014), and Sounds of Defiance (2012). Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers.  For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com. 

About Rachel Barker: Rachel Barker is an educator and writer. Barker has been awarded spots in writers workshops for both nonfiction and fiction, including the Key West Literary Seminar, the Aspen Institute's Aspen Summer Words, and multiple residencies with Write On, Door County. She has consulted and presented for a number of organizations throughout the country, including the Yale Council for African Studies, Flint Institute of Music, Boston University's African Studies Center, Primary Source, and the Wayland/Weston Interfaith Council on Teaching Religion in Schools. Rachel Barker’s MEd. is from Boston College, where she graduated with a focus on social justice and teaching English language learners. Her undergraduate degree in Anthropology is from Boston University, and she currently studies Religion at Harvard University.

About Jan Vogler: Jan Vogler’s distinguished career has brought him together with renowned conductors and internationally acclaimed orchestras around the world, such as London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. His great ability allowed him to explore the sound boundaries of the cello and to establish an intensive dialogue with contemporary composers and artists. This includes regular world premieres, including works by Tigran Mansurian (with WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov), John Harbison (with Mira Wang and the Boston Symphony Orchestra), Udo Zimmermann (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra), Wolfgang Rihm (Double Concerto with Mira Wang), Jörg Widman (Cello Concerto Dunkle Saiten, dedicated to Jan Vogler himself), Nico Muhly, Sven Helbig and Zhou-Long (Drei Kontinente – Konzert für Cello und Orchester, composed for Jan Vogler) and Sean Shepherd (On a Clear Day based on a cycle of poems by Ulla Hahn, for cello, choirs and orchestra, which was premiered in 2023 with the Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano). The New York Times praises his “soulful, richly hued playing” and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung grants him the ability “to make his cello speak like a singing voice.”

Highlights of Jan Vogler’s career as a soloist are concerts with the New York Philharmonic – both in New York and Dresden at the occasion of the reopening of the rebuilt Dresdner Frauenkirche under the direction of Lorin Maazel in 2005 –, Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh and Montréal Symphony Orchestras, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra dell’ Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic as well as with The Knights. He collaborates with conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Fabio Luisi, Sir Antonio Pappano, Marin Alsop, Valery Gergiev, Thomas Hengelbrock, Manfred Honeck and Kent Nagano.

About Tamara Hickey: Tamara Hickey (she/her) is a 500-hour certified trauma-sensitive yoga instructor who integrates biomechanics, pain science, and somatic movement to guide students toward strength, resilience, and ease. Current role with WAM: Teaching Artist for Yoga Cry It Out event WAM Theatre: First WAM theatre collaboration Selected Theatre Credits Elsewhere: Henry 6, Part II, Much Ado About Nothing, Times Stands Still, Heisenberg, The Tempest, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare & Company); Appropriate (SpeakEasy Stage); God’s Ear, Henry VIII, Pericles, Living in Exile (Actors’ Shakespeare Project); Cabaret (A.R.T.) Additional artistic credits: Film/TV: Defending Jacob, Mother/Android, John & The Hole, The Equalizer 2, The Judge, Olive Kitteridge, Bull.

Creative inspiration: Hickey’s 13 year old daughter, going to the theatre Community Engagement/Activist work: Tamara leads classes and workshops at Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness, Miraval Berkshires, and through her online yoga studio, The Action Space. She is currently pursuing a two-year Meditation Certification with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield. Membership/Affiliations: SAG-AFTRA, AEA, Yoga Alliance Selected training: MFA in Theatre from American Repertory Theatre Awards/proudest achievements: Elliot Norton Award (Best Actress, Best Production) God’s Ear; Tamara recently created, starred in, and produced a one-woman show THIS IS IT with Kate Kohler Amory, which led to the founding of their production company, MetaGirl Productions. Final word: Collaboration is Queen.

OUT NOW: New Single from Violinist Esther Abrami's Sony Classical Album Amour - All by Myself by Céline Dion

Acclaimed Violinist Esther Abrami
Releases New Album Amour on Sony Classical

Album Marks Major Artistic Milestone For Abrami
Who Presents Her First Own Large-Scale Composition

New Single: All by Myself by Céline Dion
Listen Here

Worldwide Album Release Date: October 9, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

Celebrated violinist and social media sensation Esther Abrami will release her new album Amour on October 9, 2026 on Sony Classical. New single, All by Myself by Céline Dion is out now.

Marking a major artistic milestone, ‘Amour’ is the first album where Abrami presents an original own large-scale composition at its core: a self-written nine-part suite. Conceived as an intimate and deeply expressive exploration of love in all its forms, the work captures the full spectrum of emotions, from tenderness and passion to longing and heartbreak, and stands at the heart of a project that blends original music with newly reimagined works for violin and orchestra.

“With ‘Amour’, I wanted to explore love in all its forms – not just the joy and beauty, but also the vulnerability, the longing, the anger and the pain that often comes with it. Writing my own suite of nine movements allowed me to express a range of very personal emotions, while the other pieces on the album reflect how universal these feelings are across time and genres. Love is something that we all experience, for the best and the worst but at the end, that’s what connects us all. I hope this album resonates with anyone who listens to it”, says Esther Abrami.

Beyond the central suite, ‘Amour’ brings together a diverse selection of iconic classical works about love, each newly arranged for solo violin and orchestra. A particular highlight of the album is Nino Rota’s ‘Romeo and Juliet: Love Theme’, featuring the celebrated mezzo-soprano Marina Viotti. Viotti’s vocals add a captivating dimension to the piece as she engages in a duet with Esther’s violin. The programme further includes epic versions for violin and orchestra of Céline Dion’sAll by Myself’ and Georges Bizet’sCarmen: L’amour est un oiseau rebelle from Habanera. New arrangements of Francis Poulenc’sLes chemins de l’amour, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Melodie), and the virtuosic intensity of Tomaso Antonio Vitali’s Chaconne in G minor add even more musical colours to this collection of works centred around love. The album also features a new version arranged by Esther Abrami of Charlie Chaplin’sDésillusion amoureuse from the movie “The Circus”, a poignant composition that reveals the legendary filmmaker’s deeply expressive musical voice.

Throughout her career, Esther Abrami has been known for her ability to connect classical music with a wide and diverse audience, bringing fresh perspectives to the repertoire. With ‘Amour’, she reaches a new artistic dimension, uniting her work as a composer with her unique voice as an interpreter, thus shaping a musical language that is unmistakably her own.

This new chapter in her career follows a period of exceptional success. Since the release of her album ‘Women’ in April 2025, Esther Abrami has become one of the most visible young artists in classical music. Especially in her home country, France, she has appeared on major television programmes, performing for millions of viewers and captivating audiences through a series of highly successful concerts. Her book ‘La musique est (aussi) une affaire de femmes’ has quickly become a genre bestseller and will be released in English and German in September under the title ‘Music is (also) a Women’s Affair’. In recognition of her artistic impact, she will receive an Opus Klassik Award 2026, the most important classical music prize in the German speaking world.

Amour features the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Irene Delgado-Jiménez and will be available for streaming and digital download in stereo and the immersive format Dolby Atmos. The album will also be released as CD and a limited-edition 2x Ecorecord InkPlosion Colour LP – pre-order here.

Amour - Track List

1. Désillusion amoureuse (Charlie Chaplin)
2. – 10. Amour Suite (Esther Abrami)
11. Romeo and Juliet: Love Theme (Nino Rota) – feat. Marina Viotti
12. All by Myself (Céline Dion)
13. Carmen: L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (Bizet)
14. Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs, Op. 41: Lento (Fibich)
15. Les chemins de l’amour (Poulenc)
16. Orpheo and Euridice: Dance of the Blessed Spirits (Gluck)
17. Chaconne in G minor (Vitali)

* City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Irene Delgado-Jiménez

Sept. 18: Cellist Sol Gabetta Releases New Album on Sony Classical – Saint-Saëns & Lalo: Cello Concertos with Les Siècles New Single Out Now

Sol Gabetta Releases New Album on Sony Classical Saint-Saëns & Lalo: Cello Concertos with Les Siècles

New Single Out Now - Listen Here
II. Intermezzo. Andantino con moto – Allegro presto
from Cello Concerto in D Minor by Édouard Lalo

Worldwide Release Date: September 18, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

On September 18, 2026, cellist Sol Gabetta’s new album Saint-Saëns & Lalo: Cello Concertos will be released on Sony Classical – pre-order is available now. Recorded with the French orchestra Les Siècles, performing on period instruments, the cellist presents Camille Saint-Saëns’ two Cello Concertos alongside Édouard Lalo’s Cello Concerto in D minor—three cornerstone works of the Romantic cello repertoire. New single, II. Intermezzo. Andantino con moto – Allegro presto from Cello Concerto in D Minor by Édouard Lalo, is out now - listen here.

Bringing together historically informed orchestral sound with her own distinctive voice, Sol Gabetta explores the contrasting musical worlds of these concertos. Saint-Saëns’ First Concerto and Lalo’s concerto, composed within a span of just a few years, both place a strong emphasis on the orchestra, creating a dynamic dialogue between soloist and ensemble. By contrast, Saint-Saëns’ Second Concerto—written three decades later—emerges as a highly virtuosic and structurally expansive work that demands exceptional technical and expressive range from the soloist.

Known for her expressive intensity and clarity of interpretation, Sol Gabetta shapes each of these works with a strong sense of narrative and colour, highlighting their lyrical qualities while bringing out their distinctive characters. The collaboration with Les Siècles adds a further dimension to the recording, offering a sound palette that reflects the stylistic context of the late 19th century while remaining vivid and immediate.

Saint-Saëns & Lalo: Cello Concertos by Sol Gabetta with Les Siècles will be available from September 18, 2026 on CD, as well as for download and streaming in Stereo and in Dolby Atmos.

Sol Gabetta is one of the leading cellists of her generation, internationally acclaimed for her expressive playing and wide-ranging repertoire. She performs regularly with major orchestras and conductors worldwide and is known for her close engagement with both core repertoire and lesser-known works. She appears with leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and London Symphony Orchestra, and is a frequent guest at major international venues and festivals including the Lucerne Festival and New York’s Lincoln Center. Following her recent return to the United States, she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic and appeared with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, while her international touring activity has also taken her to Asia, including appearances at the BBC Proms Japan. Sol Gabetta performs on a rare Matteo Goffriller cello from 1730.

Repertoire:

Camille Saint-Saëns:
Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 33
I. Allegro non troppo
II. Allegretto con moto
III. Molto allegro

Cello Concerto No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 119
I. Allegro moderato e maestoso – Andante sostenuto
II. Allegro non troppo – Cadenza – Molto allegro

Édouard Lalo:
Cello Concerto in D Minor
I. Prélude. Lento – Allegro maestoso
II. Intermezzo. Andantino con moto – Allegro presto
III. Introduction. Andante – Allegro vivace

Oct. 2: ensemble132 Releases Masques and Marionettes Steinway & Sons Debut – New Single: The Shrovetide Fair is Gramophone Video of the Day

ensemble132 Announces Masques and Marionettes
Steinway & Sons Debut Album Out October 2, 2026

Featuring New Chamber Arrangements of
Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka and Robert Schumann’s Carnaval

Gramophone VIdeo of the Day
Stravinsky's Petrushka, Scene I: The Shrovetide Fair 
Watch Here

Worldwide Release Date: October 2, 2026

ensemble132 | Steinway & Sons

Internationally acclaimed chamber music collective ensemble132 (Sahun Sam Hong, Co-Artistic Director, arranger, piano; Zachary Mowitz, Co-Artistic Director, cello; Abi Fayette, violin; Maria Ioudenitch, violin; and Luther Warren, viola) announces its new album and Steinway & Sons recording debut, Masques and Marionettes. The album is scheduled for release on October 2, 2026.

New single, The Shrovetide Fair by Igor Stravinsky, is Gramophone's Video of the Day – watch here.

A convergence of world-class artists from around the globe, ensemble132 unites with a shared mission to reimagine the chamber music landscape. The only group of its kind to continually create and premiere new standards in the chamber music repertoire with its artist-crafted arrangements, ensemble132 excites the imagination of audiences with its uniquely genre-defying programs and programming.

This artistic vision is on full display with Masques and Marionettes, as Sahun Sam Hong, Co-Artistic Director of ensemble132, pianist, and arranger for the album, embraces intricate and adventurous energy in new imaginings of Igor Stravinsky’sPetrushka for piano quintet, Robert Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9 for piano quartet; as well as Stravinsky’s Two Poems of Konstantin Balmont and Clara Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22, each performed by different ensemble members.

“The music featured on Masques and Marionettes is a truly collaborative creation through and through,” writes Hong in the album’s liner notes. “By design, ensemble132 is a fluid collective; every rehearsal and performance is a fresh inquiry into a composer’s intent, our own evolving sonic landscape, and the nature of musical inevitability.”

In the time leading up to the creation of this album, Hong writes that a single principle steered and shaped how he approached his work writing arrangements for the ensemble: “Great music transcends the confines of instrumentation.” He and the rest of ensemble132 would come to know the depth of what “confines” could mean during the early days of the pandemic in spring 2020, which descended not long after ensemble132’s founding in fall 2019. However, the disruption and instability brought on by the pandemic itself ended up providing a sense of clarity for the ensemble and a sense of purpose to fuel their musical collaboration, strengthening their bond as an evolving group.

“During those unpredictable early days of the pandemic,” Hong says, “our close-knit musical family, then based in Boston, used our music-making as a means of connecting with one another, channeling our collective emotions and anxieties of a world in flux.”

Much the way the world turned to creativity and imagination to find reprieve from the fixed realities of social separation, on Masques and Marionettes, ensemble132 dives into the fantastical, the visionary, the intangible, and the boundless, through the poetry of Balmont, and the music of Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, and Igor Stravinsky.

“Konstantin Balmont’s poetry is steeped in the sensory, the fleeting, and the ethereal,” writes Hong, who explains that Balmont’s poems were included as part of the album “for their distinctive storytelling qualities, reflecting Stravinsky’s vision of storytelling.”

Stravinsky’s Petrushka meanwhile, explores the vast plains of imagination through the story of a puppet empowered by magic and sorcery. Mirroring the iconic harmonic clash of the “Petrushka chord,” the music is filled with wonderful contrasts – its complex rhythms, beautifully simple folk tunes, enchanting textures, jarring distortions make the piece uniquely evocative.

Robert Schumann chose to explore creative possibilities while looking inward. He juxtaposed his musical ideas with figures of his real life relationships with his closest friends and colleagues. Schumann then concludes his Carnaval with another fanciful scenario, driven by an imaginary music society called des Davidsbündler (the League of David), who triumph over the Philistines – a symbol for the music critics of Schumann’s time. Clara Schumann’s Romances take a much more intensely introspective dive into the open and abstract nature of human emotions, brought forth through the unique lens of each pair of ensemble132 artists.

Throughout each of these works, ensemble132 comes together to find new ways to embody the characters, places, feelings, motives, and stories reflected in the music – a goal with the potential to ever evolve, alongside the group’s own dynamics and shifting perspectives with the passage of time. “My hope,” writes Hong, “is that these virtuosic arrangements not only expand the chamber repertoire but push both the players and the listener to rethink the relationship between the artist and their instrument.”

Ensemble132’s debut album fits seamlessly with its mission. Chamber ballets, transcriptions of symphonies and jazz standards, and orchestrations of solo works comprise just a few of ensemble132’s programming highlights. Each member of ensemble132’s dynamic roster brings their unique blend of uncompromising individuality and collaborative spirit to traditional masterworks as well as unearthed gems. The artists of ensemble132 have collaborated closely at music festivals such as Marlboro, Ravinia, Music@Menlo, Verbier, and Taos, and appear regularly with ensembles such as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Catalyst Quartet, Borromeo Quartet, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. They are prizewinners at major competitions such as the Paganini, Joseph Joachim, Tibor Varga, Sibelius, Primrose, Beethoven Vienna, Vendome Prize, and American Pianists Awards. In 2025, ensemble132 became a Steinway Ensemble and was awarded an Artistic Projects Award from Chamber Music America.

ensemble132
Masques and Marionnettes
Release Date: October 2, 2026 | Steinway & Sons

Tracklist:

Igor Stravinsky: Two Poems of Konstantin Balmont (arr. Sahun Hong)

[1] Forget-me-nots (Nyezabudochka-tsvyetochek) [1:27]
[2] The Dove (Golub) [2:01]

Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka for piano quintet (arr. Sahun Hong)

[3] Petrushka, Scene I: The Shrovetide Fair [5:20]
[4] Petrushka, Scene I (The Magic Trick) [2:05]
[5] Petrushka, Scene I (Russian Dance) [2:49]
[6] Petrushka, Scene II: Petrushka's Room [4:21]
[7] Petrushka, Scene III: The Moor's Room [2:44]
[8] Petrushka, Scene III (Dance of the Ballerina) [0:45]
[9] Petrushka, Scene III (Waltz) [3:02]
[10] Petrushka, Scene IV: The Fair Towards Evening [1:12]
[11] Petrushka, Scene IV (Wet-Nurses' Dance) [2:24]
[12] Petrushka, Scene IV (Peasant with Bear) [1:42]
[13] Petrushka, Scene IV (Gypsies) [0:55]
[14] Petrushka, Scene IV (Dance of the Coachmen) [2:08]
[15] Petrushka, Scene IV (Masqueraders) [2:04]

Clara Schumann: Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22

[16] Andante molto [3:08]
[17] Allegretto [3:10]
[18] Leidenschaftlich schnell [3:55]

Robert Schumann: Carnaval, Op. 9for piano quartet (arr. Sahun Hong)

[19] Préambule [2:16]
[20] Pierrot [1:54]
[21] Arlequin [1:05]
[22] Valse noble [2:09]
[23] Eusebius [1:59]
[24] Florestan [1:02]
[25] Coquette [1:53]
[26] Réplique [0:50]
[27] Sphinxes [0:39]
[28] Papillons [0:46]
[29] A.S.C.H. - S.C.H.A. (Lettres dansantes) [0:51]
[30] Chiarina [1:27]
[31] Chopin [1:05]
[32] Estrella [0:34]
[33] Reconnaissance [1:43]
[34] Pantalon et Colombine [0:58]
[35] Valse allemande [0:56]
[36] Paganini – Tempo I ma più vivo [1:23]
[37] Aveu [1:16]
[38] Promenade [2:19]
[39] Pause [0:18]
[40] Marche des Davidsbündler contre les Philistins [3:47]

Total Time: 1:16:46

Sahun Sam Hong, Co-Artistic Director, arranger, piano
Zachary Mowitz, Co-Artistic Director, cello
Abi Fayette, violin
Maria Ioudenitch, violin
Luther Warren, viola

Executive Producers: Eric Feidner, Jon Feidner, Vivian Chiu
Producer: Jesse Lewis
Recording Engineer: Christopher Moretti
Mixing: Christopher Moretti
Mastering: Jesse Lewis
Piano Technician: Paul Rattigan
Art Direction: Jackie Fugere
Cover Design: Timea Kolozsvary
Booklet Design, Cover to Cover Design, Anilda Carrasquillo
Project Coordinator: Renée Oakford
Recorded August 14-17, 2025 at Futura Productions, Roslindale, Massachusetts

ensemble132 is a recipient of a 2025 grant from Chamber Music America’s Artistic Projects
program, funded through the generosity of The Howard Gilman Foundation, for the Recording.

Oct 29: The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain performed by Alarm Will Sound on Thursday Night Music Series

Alarm Will Sound, photo by Michael Clayville. Press photos available here.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Continues Thursday Night Music

A New Series of Concerts Held on Thursday Nights at Calderwood Hall 

October 29: Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain
Performed by Alarm Will Sound, Conducted by Alan Pierson

Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 7 pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Calderwood Hall | 25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Tickets: www.gardnermuseum.org/about/music

BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum continues its bold new concert series, Thursday Night Music, curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel and held on select Thursday evenings. Thursday Night Music brings a different energy to the concert hall than the afternoon performances of the Museum’s Weekend Concert Series, featuring edgier, more experimental work. With no intermissions, open seating, and a relaxed atmosphere, these single-set performances offer immersive and adventurous listening experiences. All concerts take place in the Museum’s extraordinary Calderwood Hall—a 300-seat “sonic cube” with three levels of balconies designed so that 80% of seats are front row, creating a uniquely intimate and intense acoustic environment.

The next Thursday Night Music concert on October 29, 2026 features the kinetic ensemble Alarm Will Sound conducted by Alan Pierson performing Georg Friedrich Haas’s masterpiece in vain, a 70-minute work for 24 players, much of which is played in complete darkness. Haas wrote in vain in 2000 in response to the rise of far-right parties in his native Austria in 1999. The piece is described as a “modern masterpiece” by Alex Ross in his influential book The Rest is Noise. 

“in vain is Haas’s reflection on this situation: music in which peace is repeatedly achieved, only to again and again unravel. The work begins with a maelstrom of descending notes and dissonant, unsettled harmonies which eventually settles into a static and dark place,” writes Alan Pierson in his notes for this performance. “The darkness here is not merely musical—the opening's dissonant harmonies freezing into slowly diverging unisons—but also literal: This is the first of two sections of the work performed in darkness. Haas uses darkness to catalyze novel kinds of listening and playing: With the players unable to see their music, the conductor, or one another, Haas had to develop unconventional ways for musicians to play together.”

Georg Friedrich Haas is one of the major European composers of his generation. His music synthesizes in a highly original way the Austrian tradition of grand orchestral statement with forward-looking interests in harmonic color and microtonal tuning that stem from both French spectralism and a strand of American experimentalism. The result is an exploratory, uncompromising music that is also sensuously attractive. His music appeals to unusually diverse constituencies, from avant-garde composers for its microtonal investigations to casual listeners for its spacious forms and euphonious harmony. Haas has been on Columbia University’s composition faculty since 2013. 

Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member band committed to innovative performances and recordings of today’s music. They have established a reputation for performing demanding music with energetic skill in the world's leading concert halls. Their performances have been described as “equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity” by The Financial Times and as “a triumph of ensemble playing” by the San Francisco Chronicle. The New York Times reports that Alarm Will Sound is “one of the most vital and original ensembles on the American music scene.” The group has an extensive discography, and in 2026, won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance for their recording of Donnacha Dennehy's Land Of Winter.

Alarm Will Sound's performance of Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain is made possible with the friendly support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Ticketing Information

Tickets are available at gardnermuseum.org/about/music or by calling the Box Office at 617-278-5156. For additional information including about accessibility, please contact boxoffice@isgm.org.

Performances take place in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).

About Music at the Gardner

George Steel’s music programming for the Museum continues founder and legendary arts patron Isabella Stewart Gardner’s vision of bringing together musicians and audiences for inspiring gatherings. Dating to 1927, the Gardner’s Weekend Concert Series is the longest running museum music program in the country. Much like Isabella Stewart Gardner did in her time, Steel champions unknown repertoire and embraces new works, creates connections and builds community among musicians, and supports them by presenting them in new endeavors and collaborations. His programming also frequently draws on the history of the Gardner Museum, featuring instruments from the Museum’s collection and music by composers who were associated with its founder. In honoring Isabella Stewart Gardner’s musical legacy, Music at the Gardner remains strongly committed to broadening the repertoire of music presented to include previously overlooked and marginalized composers as well as performers of all backgrounds. 

About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum 

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum invites you to escape the ordinary in a magical setting where art and community come together to inspire new ways of envisioning our world. Embodying the fearless legacy of its founder, the Museum offers a singular invitation to explore the past through a contemporary lens, creating meaningful encounters with art and joyful connections for all. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous Courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano Wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms. 

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115 • Hours: Open Weekends from 10 am to 5 pm, Weekdays from 11am to 5 pm and Thursdays until 9 pm. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children under 18, everyone on their birthday, and all named “Isabella” • $2 off admission with a same-day Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ticket • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org 

Thursday Night Music at the Gardner is sponsored by Barbara and Amos Hostetter.

Sept. 25: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Performs as Featured Soloist with the Louisville Orchestra in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor Conducted by Ziwei Ma

Photo of Yevgeny Kutik by Griffin Harrington available in hi-resolution here.

Violinist Yevgeny Kutik Performs as Featured Soloist
with the Louisville Orchestra

in Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63
Conducted by Ziwei Ma

Friday, September 25, 2026 at 7:30pm
Ogle Center at IU Southeast | 4201 Grant Line Rd. | New Albany, IN
Tickets and More Information

“balanced passion with nuance” – The Strad on Yevgeny Kutik

www.yevgenykutik.com

Louisville, KY — On Friday, September 25, 2026 at 7:30pm, violinist Yevgeny Kutik, who The New York Times describes as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” is the featured soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Ziwei Ma. Kutik will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63. The concert will also feature Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 by Johannes Brahms.

Yevgeny Kutik has captivated audiences worldwide with an old-world sound that communicates a modern intellect. Praised for his technical precision and virtuosity, he is lauded for his poetic and imaginative interpretations of standard works as well as rarely heard and newly composed repertoire.

Kutik holds a special place in his heart for Prokofiev’s work—especially the concerto featured on this program—particularly because of the awe-inspiring personal experience Kutik had while first learning it, which shaped how Kutik came to view and appreciate the 20th century composer as Kutik grew into the artist he is today.

Kutik explains: “It was a particularly memorable violin lesson with my teacher, Roman Totenberg, as we worked on Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Born in 1911, Roman was a violinist and pedagogue, a man whose monumental career put him at the forefront of some of the most important cultural and artistic developments of the 20th century. As the lesson concluded, he very casually mentioned, ‘You know, I once met Prokofiev.’.”

Roman had met Prokofiev at a nightclub in Paris, where artists went to play bridge, to smoke, and to drink. Roman approached Sergei Prokofiev, and said, ‘Mr. Prokofiev, I would love to discuss your music if you might have a spare several minutes.’ Prokofiev simply stared at Roman, and after a moment, replied dryly, ‘You know, I’d rather we just play cards.’

I imagined Prokofiev and my teacher, a young man at the time, playing cards well into the night, swapping stories and telling tales. Roman’s memory of this night never left me. I’ve played a lot of Prokofiev’s music since that violin lesson years ago. More than anything, I’m drawn to the humanity behind the music—to the extraordinary storyteller who paints such vivid pictures that one cannot help but be instantly drawn in and captivated. It is like sitting down with a great book and letting a new world unfold before you, as if by magic.”

More about Yevgeny Kutik: Committed to the music of our time, Kutik regularly gives premiere and repeat performances of major works by today’s most celebrated composers. This season, he gives the world premiere of a new work by Jonathan Leshnoff with pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner presented by Newport Classical. In January 2025, he made his debut with the Las Vegas Philharmonic, led by Michelle Merrill, in a performance of Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No. 2. In 2022 at the Tanglewood Music Festival, he gave the world premiere of Cântico, a work for solo violin by Andreia Pinto Correia co-commissioned for Kutik by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. In 2021, he debuted with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra led by Leonard Slatkin, performing the world premiere of Joseph Schwantner’s Violin Concerto, written for him. The concerto is based on Schwantner’s earlier work, The Poet’s Hour – Soliloquy for Violin, which Kutik recorded on episode six of Gerard Schwarz’s All-Star Orchestra, released on DVD by Naxos and broadcast nationally on PBS.

A native of Minsk, Belarus, Yevgeny Kutik immigrated to the United States with his family at the age of five. His 2014 album, Music from the Suitcase: A Collection of Russian Miniatures (Marquis Classics), features music he found in his family’s suitcase after immigrating to the United States from the Soviet Union in 1990, and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard Classical chart. The album garnered critical acclaim and was featured on NPR's All Things Considered and in The New York Times. Kutik’s recent releases on Marquis include The Death of Juliet and Other Tales (2021) and Meditations on Family (2019), for which he commissioned eight composers to translate a personal family photo into a short musical miniature – a project featured on the cover of Strings magazine. Kutik’s other recordings include his debut album, Sounds of Defiance (2012), and Words Fail (2016), both released to critical acclaim.  

Other recent performance highlights include debuts at the Kennedy Center presented by Washington Performing Arts, and at the Ravinia Festival, as well as recital appearances as part of the Dame Myra Hess Concerts Chicago; at UCLA; Peoples' Symphony Concerts, Kaufman Music Center, and National Sawdust in New York City; the Embassy Series and The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C.; and at the Lobkowicz Collections Prague presented by Prince William Lobkowicz. Festival performances have included the Tanglewood Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Ravinia, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele in Germany, and the Verbier Festival in Switzerland.  

Kutik made his major orchestral debut in 2003 with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops as the First Prize recipient of the Boston Symphony Orchestra Young Artists Competition, and has since performed with orchestras throughout the country including the Rochester (NY) and Dayton Philharmonics; the Detroit, New Haven, Asheville, and Wyoming symphony orchestras; and more. Abroad, he has appeared with Germany’s Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock and WDR Rundfunk Orchestra Köln, Montenegro’s Montenegrin Symphony Orchestra, Japan’s Tokyo Vivaldi Ensemble, and the Cape Town Philharmonic in South Africa.

Passionate about his heritage and its influence on his artistry, Kutik is an advocate for the Jewish Federations of North America, the organization that assisted his family in coming to the United States, and regularly speaks and performs across the United States to both raise awareness and promote the assistance of refugees from around the world.  

Yevgeny Kutik began violin studies with his mother, Alla Zernitskaya, and went on to study with Zinaida Gilels, Shirley Givens, Roman Totenberg, and Donald Weilerstein. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s degree from the New England Conservatory. Kutik is ​​the Artistic Director and co-founder of The Birch Festival – a festival built around connecting and integrating leading musicians with the Berkshire community, while highlighting the unique and original stories of those who make up the Berkshires. His violin was crafted in Italy in 1915 by Stefano Scarampella.  For more information, please visit www.yevgenykutik.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, described as having a “dark-hued tone and razor-sharp technique,” (The New York Times) is the featured soloist in a performance with the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Ziwei Ma. Kutik will perform Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor, Op. 63. The concert program will also feature a performance of Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 73 by Johannes Brahms.

Concert details:

Who: Violinist Yevgeny Kutik
Presented by the Louisville Orchestra
Conducted by Ziwei Ma
What: Music by Sergei Prokofiev and Johannes Brahms
When: Friday, September 25, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Ogle Center at IU Southeast, 4201 Grant Line Rd, New Albany, IN 47150
Tickets and information: https://www.louisvilleorchestra.org/events/detail/prokofiev-brahms-25735

Oct. 4: Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs No Ordinary Light – Presented by Point Reyes Dance Palace

Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution at
jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill

Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs No Ordinary Light
at Point Reyes Dance Palace

Featuring the Music of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, Samuel Adams, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Clarice Jensen, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel

Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 4pm | Point Reyes Dance Palace Main Hall
503 B Street | Point Reyes Station, CA
Tickets and More Information

“Pianist Sarah Cahill commands a near-godlike status among fans of contemporary classical music”
–NPR Music

Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert

www.sarahcahill.com

Point Reyes Station, CA – Pianist Sarah Cahill, called “as tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of” by the San Francisco Chronicle, is presented in concert by Point Reyes Dance Palace on Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 4pm in the Main Hall (503 B Street). Cahill performed her program Mistica for her last visit to Point Reyes Dance Palace in 2025.

For this concert, Cahill will perform a new program titled No Ordinary Light, an emotive project focused on the theme of homage and loss. No Ordinary Light explores how composers over the centuries have paid homage to one another, cherishing and immortalizing through music. This program also honors the experience of personal grief as well as celebrating the memories of our loved ones. New commissioned works are by Samuel Adams, in memory of his mentor and godfather Ingram Marshall, and Clarice Jensen’s Homage to Ryuichi Sakamoto, combined with classical and 20th century works. This concert program will also feature the music of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel. 

“It's always such a joy to perform at the Point Reyes Dance Palace, a beautiful community space with a welcoming audience,” says Cahill.

"The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light."
– Jawaharlal Nehru on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

About the Music on the Program

During the 17th century, Jean-Henri d’Anglebert was a prominent figure in the rising popularity of the harpsichord over the lute. The growing momentum of the former amid the public was further ushered along by Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, the man widely considered to be the father of the French harpsichord school. Chambonnières and his teachings would go on to bolster the recognition of musicians like Louis Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Jacques Hardel, as well as Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, which may be the reason behind why d’Anglebert wrote the Tombeau de M. de Chambonnières, seemingly a gesture of homage from student to teacher upon the latter’s passing.

Tom Constanten is best known for being the first keyboard player for the Grateful Dead. He and Phil Lesh (bassist for the Grateful Dead) studied composition at Mills College with Luciano Berio. Constanten is a classically trained pianist whose playful compositions often conceal encrypted messages and what he calls “time release humor.” In 1977 he wrote a waltz called Dejavalse, and later revisited the material with new approaches. At Mills College, he befriended fellow student William Bolcom, and dedicated Dejavalise to him in 1985. The score is inscribed “to/for (six-eight, who do we appreciate) Bill Bolcom.”

Robert Helps composed Hommage à Fauré as part of Trois Hommages (1972), a trilogy of works and one of his most popular and often recorded works. The first two pieces, which include à Fauré and à Rachmaninoff, expand upon the opulent pianism and poignant harmonies that are hallmarks of the composers to which each piece pays tribute.

Commissioned by Cahill, Samuel Adams’ solo piano work, Prelude (Hammer the Sky Bright), is a tribute to composer Ingram Marshall (1942–2022). A former resident of the San Francisco Bay area, Ingram Marshall’s work greatly influenced a number of composers and musicians from the area, including Adams – who studied with Marshall and considered him his mentor – and Cahill, who frequently performs Marshall's music and commissioned several works from him. Adams says of the work: “Prelude: Hammer the Sky Bright pays tribute to Ingram’s free-form, unpredictable sense of structure and highly impressionistic, almost ambient musical surfaces. His music often embraced the idea that form can be gradual and elusive—like late Sibelius—with the secrets of a piece only occasionally appearing close to its surface, like sunken cathedrals.”

American composer William Bolcom wrote a set of three Ghost Rags for piano, with the first of the trio written in 1970 as a tribute to Bolcom’s late father, whose spirit Bolcom said he often felt nearby while working on the piece. The three works collectively explore the experience of grief and loss, with the first rag being one of the most well-known contemporary rags, particularly of the ragtime revival in the 1970s. The first rag moves with a poised, emotive, lyrical style, fittingly echoing the feeling behind the title of Graceful Ghost Rag.

Gabriel Fauré composed his Barcarolles over a period of four decades, and they show the evolution of his distinct compositional voice. The barcarolle was a traditional boat song of the Venetian gondoliers – its characteristics are a rhythm copying the gondolier’s stroke in the water and a moderate 6/8 time. Fauré used the title of barcarolle but didn’t adhere religiously to the form. One important thing to note about Fauré was that he was ambidextrous – could use both right and left hands equally well – and this comes through in the barcarolles. In more than one piece, the melody is in the middle register, with the high and low registers being used for accompaniment of the central melody. One writer compared this to a mirror image on the water where the major image is in the middle, with reflections at the top and bottom.

The brilliant Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes premiered great works by his good friend Ravel (Gaspard de la Nuit and Jeux d’eau) and Debussy, and was Francis Poulenc’s piano teacher. He composed four Hommages, for Ravel, Fauré, Satie, and Léon-Paul Fargue. The title of his tribute to Fauré, En Verlaine mineur, refers to Fauré’s songs setting poetry by Paul Verlaine, and there is a quote from one of Fauré’s songs embedded in this poignant minuet.

Clarice Jensen says of Ryuichi Sakamoto and how he influences her work: “I count myself so lucky to have met and recorded for Ryuichi Sakamoto in New York City. His music, persona and person inspired me with their sincerity and beauty, depicting at once simplicity and complicated, deep emotion. Despite working with him only a few times, I feel he was a teacher of sorts, and still lives as an archetype for me, inspiring me to not shy from expressing or creating beauty. Each of the movements for Sarah [Cahill] has an embedded motif from Sakamoto's work: Earth - Andata, Fire - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Water - solari.”

In addition to being an adventurous composer and skilled percussionist, Lou Harrison was fond of writing music in honor of his colleagues, friends, and fellow musicians he admired. Homage to Milhaud is inspired by Darius Milhaud, who, like Harrison, was a longtime teacher at Mills College in Oakland. Harrison wrote his Fugue to David Tudor at Black Mountain College while he was teaching there. Harrison often worked with David Tudor, who was himself a pioneering pianist-composer.

Cahill commissioned ​​Maggi Payne’s Holding Pattern in 2001 to honor the centennial birth year of pioneering composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Of Holding Pattern, Payne says: “When Sarah Cahill approached me with the prospect of composing a work for piano in tribute to Ruth Crawford Seeger, particularly in reference to the Nine Preludes which Sarah had just recorded, I was intrigued. Ruth Crawford Seeger’s interest in timbre, particularly as represented in Prelude 6 and 9, spurred this brief work. This delicate timbral exploration’s last sustained notes are those that begin Prelude 6. The Mystico marking of Prelude 6 and the Tranquillo of Prelude 9 are reflected in the character of Holding Pattern.”

Zenobia Powell Perry was a composer, professor, and civil rights activist of African American and Creek Indian heritage. She composed Homage in 1990. The work utilizes a variety of different textures and techniques, including octaves, dense chords, and chromaticism. Homage is dedicated to Perry's former teacher William Dawson for his ninetieth birthday, and is based on the spiritual “I’ve Been Buked and I’ve Been Scorned.”

Francois Couperin’s works tend to bear picturesque titles and reflect certain moods or energies in the way they unfold. Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins, is one of the most well known works of harpsichord repertoire. Though also performed on the modern piano, the work still embodies its topical reference with clever artistic style. The music is written in such a way as to mirror the rhythmic precision of a clock and the references little hammers or mallets. The experience of hearing this piece brings to mind the passage of time in a very direct and palatable way. Les Amusements is another of Couperin’s compositions originally for solo harpsichord and despite the somber air of the melody, the work nonetheless conveys a parallel sense of warmth and subtle sweetness more in line with its title.

Maurice Ravel composed Le Tombeau de Couperin between 1914 and 1917, during and after World War I – a devastating conflict in which Ravel took direct part as a truck driver in the French Army, thus feeling the impact of the war first hand. The music is not only a memorialization of Francois Couperin but the suite is also dedicated to six dear friends of Ravel lost at the cost of the war. Each of the six movements is dedicated to one of those friends and the lives they lived.

About Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).

Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, an investigation and reframing of the piano literature featuring more than seventy compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Metropolitan Museum, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival. Cahill also performed music from The Future is Female for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings.

Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 6 to 8pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of,” is presented in concert by Point Reyes Dance Palace performing No Ordinary Light, an emotive new commissioning project devoted to the theme of homage. The program will feature music by Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, Samuel Adams, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Clarice Jensen, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel.

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by Point Reyes Dance Palace
What: No Ordinary Light - Featuring the Music of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, Samuel Adams, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Clarice Jensen, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel
When: Sunday, October 4, 2026 at 4pm
Where: Point Reyes Dance Palace Main Hall, 503 B Street, Point Reyes Station, CA 94956
Tickets and More information: https://dancepalace.org/event/sarah-cahill-no-ordinary-light-piano-concert/

Oct. 11: Pianist Sarah Cahill Performs No Ordinary Light – Presented by the Myra Foundation as part of Concerts in the Galleries Series

Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution at
jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/sarah-cahill

Myra Foundation Presents:
Concerts in the Galleries with Pianist Sarah Cahill
Performing No Ordinary Light

Featuring the Music of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, Samuel Adams, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Clarice Jensen, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel

Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 2pm | 261 Centennial Dr. Stop 7305 | Grand Forks, ND
Tickets and More Information

“Pianist Sarah Cahill commands a near-godlike status among fans of contemporary classical music”
–NPR Music

Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert

www.sarahcahill.com

Grand Forks, ND – Pianist Sarah Cahill, “as tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of” (San Francisco Chronicle), is presented by the Myra Foundation as part of its Concerts in the GalleriesSeries on Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 2pm at the North Dakota Museum of Art (261 Centennial Dr.). Cahill is a beloved guest artist at this institution, having performed six times in this series, as well as giving a marathon performance of her ongoing investigative project, The Future is Female, in 2018.

This year, Cahill will perform a new program titled No Ordinary Light, an emotive project focused on the theme of homage and loss. No Ordinary Light explores how composers over the centuries have paid homage to one another, cherishing and immortalizing through music. This program also honors the experience of personal grief as well as celebrating the memories of our loved ones. This concert is dedicated to the memory of Laurel Reuter, the visionary founder and longtime director of the North Dakota Museum of Art. New commissioned works are by Samuel Adams, in memory of his mentor and godfather Ingram Marshall, and Clarice Jensen’s Homage to Ryuichi Sakamoto, combined with classical and 20th century works. This concert program will also feature the music of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel. Cahill's residency at the museum includes school outreach activities and a master class.

"The light has gone out, I said, and yet I was wrong. For the light that shone in this country was no ordinary light."
– Jawaharlal Nehru on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi

“The North Dakota Museum of Art is one of the most beautiful and inspiring contemporary art museums in the country, and it's always a great pleasure to perform there in the world-class concert series,” says Cahill.

About the Music on the Program

During the 17th century, Jean-Henri d’Anglebert was a prominent figure in the rising popularity of the harpsichord over the lute. The growing momentum of the former amid the public was further ushered along by Jacques Champion de Chambonnières, the man widely considered to be the father of the French harpsichord school. Chambonnières and his teachings would go on to bolster the recognition of musicians like Louis Couperin, Nicolas Lebègue, Johann Jakob Froberger, and Jacques Hardel, as well as Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, which may be the reason behind why d’Anglebert wrote the Tombeau de M. de Chambonnières, seemingly a gesture of homage from student to teacher upon the latter’s passing.

Tom Constanten is best known for being the first keyboard player for the Grateful Dead. He and Phil Lesh (bassist for the Grateful Dead) studied composition at Mills College with Luciano Berio. Constanten is a classically trained pianist whose playful compositions often conceal encrypted messages and what he calls “time release humor.” In 1977 he wrote a waltz called Dejavalse, and later revisited the material with new approaches. At Mills College, he befriended fellow student William Bolcom, and dedicated Dejavalise to him in 1985. The score is inscribed “to/for (six-eight, who do we appreciate) Bill Bolcom.”

Robert Helps composed Hommage à Fauré as part of Trois Hommages (1972), a trilogy of works and one of his most popular and often recorded works. The first two pieces, which include à Fauré and à Rachmaninoff, expand upon the opulent pianism and poignant harmonies that are hallmarks of the composers to which each piece pays tribute.

Commissioned by Cahill, Samuel Adams’ solo piano work, Prelude (Hammer the Sky Bright), is a tribute to composer Ingram Marshall (1942–2022). A former resident of the San Francisco Bay area, Ingram Marshall’s work greatly influenced a number of composers and musicians from the area, including Adams – who studied with Marshall and considered him his mentor – and Cahill, who frequently performs Marshall's music and commissioned several works from him. Adams says of the work: “Prelude: Hammer the Sky Bright pays tribute to Ingram’s free-form, unpredictable sense of structure and highly impressionistic, almost ambient musical surfaces. His music often embraced the idea that form can be gradual and elusive—like late Sibelius—with the secrets of a piece only occasionally appearing close to its surface, like sunken cathedrals.”

American composer William Bolcom wrote a set of three Ghost Rags for piano, with the first of the trio written in 1970 as a tribute to Bolcom’s late father, whose spirit Bolcom said he often felt nearby while working on the piece. The three works collectively explore the experience of grief and loss, with the first rag being one of the most well-known contemporary rags, particularly of the ragtime revival in the 1970s. The first rag moves with a poised, emotive, lyrical style, fittingly echoing the feeling behind the title of Graceful Ghost Rag.

Gabriel Fauré composed his Barcarolles over a period of four decades, and they show the evolution of his distinct compositional voice. The barcarolle was a traditional boat song of the Venetian gondoliers – its characteristics are a rhythm copying the gondolier’s stroke in the water and a moderate 6/8 time. Fauré used the title of barcarolle but didn’t adhere religiously to the form. One important thing to note about Fauré was that he was ambidextrous – could use both right and left hands equally well – and this comes through in the barcarolles. In more than one piece, the melody is in the middle register, with the high and low registers being used for accompaniment of the central melody. One writer compared this to a mirror image on the water where the major image is in the middle, with reflections at the top and bottom.

The brilliant Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes premiered great works by his good friend Ravel (Gaspard de la Nuit and Jeux d’eau) and Debussy, and was Francis Poulenc’s piano teacher. He composed four Hommages, for Ravel, Fauré, Satie, and Léon-Paul Fargue. The title of his tribute to Fauré, En Verlaine mineur, refers to Fauré’s songs setting poetry by Paul Verlaine, and there is a quote from one of Fauré’s songs embedded in this poignant minuet.

Clarice Jensen says of Ryuichi Sakamoto and how he influences her work: “I count myself so lucky to have met and recorded for Ryuichi Sakamoto in New York City. His music, persona and person inspired me with their sincerity and beauty, depicting at once simplicity and complicated, deep emotion. Despite working with him only a few times, I feel he was a teacher of sorts, and still lives as an archetype for me, inspiring me to not shy from expressing or creating beauty. Each of the movements for Sarah [Cahill] has an embedded motif from Sakamoto's work: Earth - Andata, Fire - Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, Water - solari.”

In addition to being an adventurous composer and skilled percussionist, Lou Harrison was fond of writing music in honor of his colleagues, friends, and fellow musicians he admired. Homage to Milhaud is inspired by Darius Milhaud, who, like Harrison, was a longtime teacher at Mills College in Oakland. Harrison wrote his Fugue to David Tudor at Black Mountain College while he was teaching there. Harrison often worked with David Tudor, who was himself a pioneering pianist-composer.

Cahill commissioned ​​Maggi Payne’s Holding Pattern in 2001 to honor the centennial birth year of pioneering composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. Of Holding Pattern, Payne says: “When Sarah Cahill approached me with the prospect of composing a work for piano in tribute to Ruth Crawford Seeger, particularly in reference to the Nine Preludes which Sarah had just recorded, I was intrigued. Ruth Crawford Seeger’s interest in timbre, particularly as represented in Prelude 6 and 9, spurred this brief work. This delicate timbral exploration’s last sustained notes are those that begin Prelude 6. The Mystico marking of Prelude 6 and the Tranquillo of Prelude 9 are reflected in the character of Holding Pattern.”

Zenobia Powell Perry was a composer, professor, and civil rights activist of African American and Creek Indian heritage. She composed Homage in 1990. The work utilizes a variety of different textures and techniques, including octaves, dense chords, and chromaticism. Homage is dedicated to Perry's former teacher William Dawson for his ninetieth birthday, and is based on the spiritual “I’ve Been Buked and I’ve Been Scorned.”

Francois Couperin’s works tend to bear picturesque titles and reflect certain moods or energies in the way they unfold. Le Tic-Toc-Choc, ou Les Maillotins, is one of the most well known works of harpsichord repertoire. Though also performed on the modern piano, the work still embodies its topical reference with clever artistic style. The music is written in such a way as to mirror the rhythmic precision of a clock and the references little hammers or mallets. The experience of hearing this piece brings to mind the passage of time in a very direct and palatable way. Les Amusements is another of Couperin’s compositions originally for solo harpsichord and despite the somber air of the melody, the work nonetheless conveys a parallel sense of warmth and subtle sweetness more in line with its title.

Maurice Ravel composed Le Tombeau de Couperin between 1914 and 1917, during and after World War I – a devastating conflict in which Ravel took direct part as a truck driver in the French Army, thus feeling the impact of the war first hand. The music is not only a memorialization of Francois Couperin but the suite is also dedicated to six dear friends of Ravel lost at the cost of the war. Each of the six movements is dedicated to one of those friends and the lives they lived.

About Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).

Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, an investigation and reframing of the piano literature featuring more than seventy compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Metropolitan Museum, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival. Cahill also performed music from The Future is Female for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, from the 17th century to the present day, and include many world premiere recordings.

Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 6 to 8pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of,” will perform on the Myra Foundation’s Concerts in the Galleries Series at the North Dakota Museum of Art. Cahill will perform No Ordinary Light, an emotive new commissioning project devoted to the theme of homage. The program will feature music by Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, Samuel Adams, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Clarice Jensen, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel.

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill
Presented by the Myra Foundation as part of the Concerts in the Galleries Series
What: No Ordinary Light - Featuring the Music of Jean-Henri d’Anglebert, Gabriel Fauré, Ricardo Viñes, Robert Helps, Samuel Adams, William Bolcom, Tom Constanten, Clarice Jensen, Lou Harrison, Maggi Payne, Zenobia Powell Perry, François Couperin, and Maurice Ravel
When: Sunday, October 11, 2026 at 2pm
Where: North Dakota Museum of Art, 261 Centennial Dr., Stop 7305 Grand Forks, ND 58202
Tickets and More information: https://dancepalace.org/event/sarah-cahill-no-ordinary-light-piano-concert/

Oct. 2: Caramoor Opens 2026-2027 Rosen House Concert Series with Zimbabwean A Capella Quartet Nobuntu

Photo of Nobuntu by SaDee. Press photos available here.

Caramoor Opens 2026-2027 Rosen House Concert Series
with Zimbabwean A Capella Quartet Nobuntu

Friday, October 2, 2026 at 7:30pm
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts | Rosen House
149 Girdle Ridge Drive | Katonah, NY
Tickets & Information

“[Nobuntu’s] sound was mesmeric. It was a unique, contralto blended unison, its richness the result of years of discipline and training.” – The Royal Gazette

“rich voices and exhilarating rhythms” – Sarasota Herald-Tribune on Nobuntu

KATONAH, NY – Caramoor, a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY, launches its intimate 2026-2027 Rosen House Concert Series with a performance by Zimbabwean a capella ensemble Nobuntu, on Friday, October 2, 2026 at 7:30pm. Caramoor, once the estate of music and art lovers Walter and Lucie Rosen, is one of the region’s most distinctive destinations for live performance, cultural engagement, and exploration. Caramoor’s Rosen House Concert Series runs from October through May, held in the exquisite Music Room of the historic home – a Mediterranean-style villa from 1939 filled with treasures from around the world. Audiences enjoy performances by some of today’s most in-demand artists in the same living room salon setting where the Rosens once entertained their many friends.

Nobuntu, the internationally acclaimed female a cappella quartet from Zimbabwe, brings its vibrant artistry to Caramoor for the first time. Nobuntu’s inventive performances range from Zimbabwean songs to Afro-Jazz and Gospel, utilizing pure voices along with percussion such as the Mbira (thumb piano) and organic, and traditional, authentic dance movements. Named for an African concept valuing humility, love, and unity, the award-winning ensemble preserves its cultural heritage while championing music's power to transcend social and economic boundaries. Beyond the group’s extensive international tours and three studio recordings, Nobuntu leads vital community initiatives at home, empowering a new generation of young women in the arts.

About Nobuntu

Nobuntu was nominated for Best Musician of the Year at the Zimbabwe International Women Awards in London in 2015 and are currently a two-time winner for the Best Imbube Group at the Bulawayo Arts Awards 2017 and 2019. In the last few seasons, the group has performed at festivals and concert halls in Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic and throughout the African continent. The ensemble was a huge critical success at “Trans-Vocal” in Frankfurt and “Voice Mania” in Vienna. Their first tour to Canada, in 2016, included performances in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Victoria.

The word Nobuntu is an African concept that values humbleness, love, unity and family from a woman’s perspective. The ensemble represents a new generation of young African women singers who celebrate and preserve their culture, beauty, and heritage through art. The ensemble’s mission is the belief that music can be an important vehicle for change, one that transcends racial, tribal, religious, gender, and economic boundaries.

Back at home, Nobuntu holds a number of community initiatives, one of which is The Nobuntu Pad Bank where they gather sanitary pads for young women in the arts in underprivileged communities.

Nobuntu has released three recordings – Thina in 2013, Ekhaya in 2016 and Obabes beMbube in 2018. The group has made dozens of television and radio appearances throughout Africa and Europe promoting these recordings and the culture of their homeland.

Watch Nobuntu Perform at the Kennedy Center

Beyond The Music: Yoga, Teas, Talks, & More

Caramoor has expanded its slate of community and family programming, giving visitors more ways to experience this unique setting in addition to its world-class concerts. Highlights for the 2026-2027 season include the continuation through September 5 of Caramoor’s 2026 Rosen House Focus Tour: Inside Lucie's Wardrobeon Fridays and Saturdays, inviting visitors to discover Lucie Rosen's fashions through a docent-led experience. For the first time in over thirty years, Lucie’s unique fashions are displayed in the Rosen House, enlivened by photos and new research. In related programming, on Thursday, September 3, 2026 at 7:00pm in the Music Room at the Rosen House, Caramoor presents Conversations at Caramoor: Spotlight on Lucie’s Jewelry. Beth Carver Wees, Curator Emerita of the American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and co-author of Marcus & Company: Three Generations of New York Jewelers, will place Lucie’s jewelry into historic context and speak about the well-known Manhattan jewelers of the Rosens’ era.

After September 5, 2026 Caramoor offers Rosen House Signature Tours on Fridays and Saturdays, inviting visitors to explore the historic Rosen House through a docent-led experience which shares the stories behind the House’s carefully assembled treasures, including Asian and Renaissance art, period rooms imported from European villas and châteaux, and architectural details that reveal the Rosens’ global tastes and vision for a home that celebrates beauty and culture.

Caramoor will also continue its popular Afternoon Teas, offering a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with crème fraîche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas.Afternoon Tea was one of the English traditions Lucie Rosen enjoyed during her time living in England in the early 1910s. She kept up the practice of inviting friends and guests to tea for many years, using the time for conversation and for planning concerts and other social events. Tea is served in the Music Room, a unique opportunity to relax with friends and family in a breathtaking historic setting.

In addition, Caramoor invites the community to unwind and restore in a serene setting with Yoga in the SunkenGarden in September and Yoga in the Music Room in January. This special yoga series is designed to nurture both body and mind. Each session offers a gentle, mindful practice led by an experienced instructor, with an emphasis on breath, alignment, and presence. Whether you are new to yoga or returning to your mat, these sessions provide a peaceful way to end your day while experiencing Caramoor from a new perspective.

Caramoor also offers family activities in all seasons including making Halloween treats and winter wreaths during Halloween Dessert Decorating Kids Cooking Class and Winter Wreath-Making for Families. In 2027, Young Artists at Caramoor workshops return to let kids explore new media and the forms it can take. Caramoor also offers Rosen House Studio Nights: Art and Aperitifs for adults on select Wednesday evenings, with themes including ceramic tile painting, stained glass mosaics, and jewelry design.

Check the Caramoor website for the schedule of Beyond the Music programs, which is announced on a rolling basis: caramoor.org/events/beyond-the-music

New Collaboration with Juilliard Extension: Six Faculty-Led Lectures at Caramoor

New this season, Caramoor is teaming up with Juilliard to offer a series of six Extension courses, open to all, offering audiences the opportunity to dive deeper into the themes presented on stage throughout the Rosen House Concert Series. Participants will learn from some of the most acclaimed professors and lecturers and engage in thoughtful discussion with fellow music lovers. Classes can be taken individually or as an entire series. Topics include Beethoven to Bartók: The Expanding World of Chamber Music; The String Quartet Across Three Centuries; Music, Faith, and Power in the Baroque World; and more. Details will be announced soon.

About Caramoor

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts is a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY. Once the home of music and art lovers Walter and Lucie Rosen, Caramoor has evolved into one of the region’s most distinctive destinations for live performances, cultural engagement, and exploration – a sanctuary for music, art, and nature.

Each year, Caramoor presents an exciting array of concerts across genres – from classical, opera, and chamber music to jazz, American roots, global sounds, and the American songbook. Caramoor’s acclaimed Summer Season brings audiences together for unforgettable outdoor performances from June into August infive distinct settings (the Venetian Theater, Friends Field, Spanish Courtyard, Sunken Garden, and the Music Room), while the intimate Rosen House Concert Series runs from October through May in the historic Rosen House, a Mediterranean-style villa listed on the National Register of Historic Places and filled with treasures from around the world. With a mission to engage audiences of all ages, Caramoor also offers a selection of concerts and programs for families and our youngest listeners. 

Caramoor is a place where music, history, and nature come together to create moments of beauty and connection for all who visit. In addition to hearing concerts, visitors to Caramoor can tour the spectacular Rosen House, explore its intriguing collections, enjoy a picnic, and experience the lush gardens and grounds – including Caramoor’s unique collection of site-specific Sound Art, permanently installed sound sculptures that draw inspiration from their environment. Caramoor also offers a formal afternoon tea service year-round in the Music Room (by reservation), the seasonal concessions Bravo Bar, and a selection of public programs such as yoga, art classes, and large-scale community events.

Ticketing Information

Concert tickets are available for purchase online at caramoor.org; by phone at 914.232.1252 Tuesdays through Fridays from 10am-4pm; and on site from the Box Office two hours before each performance.

Caramoor is located at 149 Girdle Ridge Road in Katonah, NY. 

How to get to Caramoor: caramoor.org/visit-us/amenities

More information about visiting Caramoor: caramoor.org/visit

At-a-Glance Calendar: 2026-27 Rosen House Concert Series Performances

Friday, October 2, 2026 at 7:30pm: Nobuntu
Friday, October 16, 2026 at 7:30pm: Bandits on the Run
Sunday, October 18, 2026 at 3:00pm: Countertenor Iestyn Davies and Harpist Oliver Wass
Sunday, October 25, 2026 at 3:00pm: Pianist Jonathan Biss
Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, 2026 at 3:00pm: Evnin Rising Stars
Friday, November 6, 2026, 7:30pm: Aaron Diehl
Sunday, November 15, 2026 at 3:00pm: Renaissance Quartet
Saturday, December 5, 2026 at 8:00pm: Guitarist Julian Lage - Benefit Concert
Sunday, December 6, 2026 at 2:00pm and 4:00pm: Christmas with Cantus
Sunday, March 7, 2027 at 3:00pm: Schwab Vocal Rising Stars
Sunday, April 4, 2027 at 3:00pm: Viano Quartet
Friday, April 9, 2027 at 7:30pm: The Summer Camargo Quintet
Sunday, April 11, 2027 at 3:00pm: ACRONYM and Countertenor Reginald Mobley
Saturday April 17, 2027 at 7:30pm and Sunday, April 18, 2027 at 3:00pm: The Other Mozart with Creator &Actress Sylvia Milo
Sunday, April 25, 2027 at 3:00pm: Pianist Inon Barnatan
Sunday, May 2, 2027 at 3:00pm: Renaissance Quartet
Friday, May 7, 2027 at 7:30pm:Sister Sadie
Friday, May 14, 2027 at 7:30pm: Cabaret in the Music Room with Vocalist Mandy Gonzalez

For Caramoor’s complete schedule: caramoor.org/events

Caramoor’s Rosen House Concert Series runs from October through May, held in the exquisite Music Room of the Rosens’ historic home – a Mediterranean-style villa from 1939 filled with treasures from around the world. Photo by Gabe Palacio available in high resolution here.

Sept 18: Newport Classical Opens 2026-27 Chamber Series With Multi-Instrumental Quartet Invoke in American Voices

Photos available in high resolution here.

Newport Classical Launches 2026-2027 Chamber Series

Opening Night: Invoke performs "American Voices"
Friday, September 18, 2026 at 7:30pm

"Invoke isn’t your average string quartet. Not content to limit themselves to the typical pair of violins with a viola and cello, they’ve explored the sounds of banjos and mandolins and even their own voices.” –KMFA

Information & Tickets: www.newportclassical.org

Newport, RI – Following its successful 57th annual summer festival, Newport Classical launches its sixth full-season Chamber Series, which features twelve concerts held on select Fridays between September 2026 and June 2027, at the organization's home venue, Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn St.). The 2026 Chamber Series Opening Night features multi-instrumental quartet Invoke, performing on Friday, September 18, 2026 at 7:30pm.

Invoke encompasses traditions from across America, including bluegrass, Appalachian fiddle tunes, jazz, and minimalism. Strings Magazine reports that the “remarkable string quartet …simply cannot be contained by any one label.” Fueled by their passion for storytelling, Invoke weaves these styles together in their program American Voices, reflecting on the 250th Anniversary of the United States, featuring some of this nation’s most influential musical figures including William Grant Still, Florence Price, Duke Ellington, and more, alongside original works composed by and for the group. 

Based in Austin, Texas, Invoke is a mainstay of the Austin music scene and a regular at SXSW while also touring nationally, performing at leading venues including Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, Moss Arts Center, Green Music Center, and more. Earlier this year, the group performed with folk legend Judy Collin, pianist Lara Downes, Grammy-winning singer and poet Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir in a special performance of This Land: Reflections on America, presented by Cal Performances. Their 2023 album Evolve & Travel showcased the group’s original works, and was described by All Music as, “An intriguing entry for those wishing to sample the growing interface between classical music and progressive bluegrass.”

Watch Invoke in Sunwalker

Newport Classical's Chamber Series takes place at Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport, known for its striking architecture and excellent acoustics. The Chamber Series reaffirms Newport Classical's commitment to year-round classical music programming. Audiences are invited to enjoy performances by world-class classical musicians in a relaxed setting, with complimentary wine generously provided by Gold's Wine and Spirits served during intermission. Both performers and audience members alike have described these concerts as some of their favorites. “The venue was the perfect place for a magical evening,” raved one attendee, while others have described their experiences as “amazing and very entertaining,” “riveting,” and “an absolute delight.”

As part of Newport Classical's desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series will also go into the Newport-area public schools to perform for and speak with students, through Newport Classical's Music Enrichment and Engagement Initiative.

Up next, on October 9, the rising Trio Azura, a recent Grand Prize and Gold Medal winner at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition that has been praised by Gramophone for “intelligence and imagination,” invites audiences to explore the world of the piano trio across eras from the Impressionist and Romantic works of Maurice Ravel and Felix Mendelssohn to the contemporary voice of Jennifer Higdon. The Boston-based Rasa String Quartet makes its Newport Classical debut on October 23 with "Portraits of an American Patchwork," a musical quilt that weaves together the cultural traditions that have shaped the nation’s identity, spanning jazz, bluegrass, Latin pop, Indigenous traditions, global folk music, and classical favorites, including music by Billy Strayhorn, Shelley Washington, Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate, William Grant Still, Hong Nan-pa, and Bad Bunny. Pianist Michael Leonardo Davidman, winner of the 2025 American Piano Awards and praised by Upstage for his “thunderous authority and loads of interpretive nuance,” makes his Newport debut on November 6 with a program of J.S. Bach, Franz Schubert, César Franck, and Franz Liszt. On November 20, Raphaël Feuillâtre, hailed as one of the leading classical guitarists of his generation, performs “Latin Passions,” a vibrant survey of Spanish and Latin American repertoire by Francisco Tárrega, Isaac Albéniz, Astor Piazzolla, Heitor Villa-Lobos, and more.

The Newport Classical Chamber Series continues in 2027 with cellist Sterling Elliott and pianist Elliot Wuu on January 29, in the sonatas of Maurice Ravel, Richard Strauss, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Elliott, a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, has been described by The Millbrook Independent as a cellist who has "risen beyond hopeful promise," while Wuu, a 2018 Gilmore Young Artist, is recognized for his “power, speed and finesse” (Tribune Star). On February 19, flutist Anna Urrey and harpist Kristi Shade perform a program of Nino Rota, Lili Boulanger, Jules Mouquet, Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, and Astor Piazzolla, exploring the coloristic possibilities of flute and harp across centuries and styles. Urrey has appeared at leading venues including Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, and National Sawdust. A sought-after collaborator, Shade has appeared with artists ranging from Andrea Bocelli and John Legend to Florence + The Machine. The Dorian Wind Quintet, praised by the Los Angeles Times for delivering “chamber music as it was meant to be,” performs on March 12 in “Preludes and Variations,” pairing J.S. Bach chorale arrangements with Antonín Dvořák's Wind Quintet, Op. 105 and a set of Anniversary Variations by Richard Rodney Bennett, George Perle, Billy Childs, Bruce Adolphe, and Lee Hoiby on a theme from a wind quintet by Antonin Reicha written specifically for the Dorian Wind Quintet to celebrate the ensemble’s 40th anniversary. Versatile artist Chelsea Guo, the first musician to win the Young Concert Artists auditions in both voice and piano, and hailed by Gramophone as “clearly a special talent,” takes the stage on April 9 in a program of Frédéric Chopin, Pauline Viardot, Johannes Brahms, and Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe, singing while accompanying herself on piano.

On April 23, Newport Classical presents violinist Rubén Rengel and Friends, with pianist Gabriel Chakarji and percussionist Juan Diego Villalobos, who come together for an evening celebrating the music of Latin America, from their native Venezuela to the vibrant traditions displayed throughout the region. Rengel was the winner of the Robert F. Smith Prize at the 2018 Sphinx Competition, and has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and more. Accordionist Radu Ratoi, winner of the 2024 Young Concert Artists “Susan Wadsworth” International Auditions and recipient of Denmark’s prestigious Léonie Sonning Talent Prize, has established himself as a pioneer in expanding the accordion’s repertoire. He is joined by violinist Alexandra Tirsu, a 2021 ARD Competition prizewinner, on May 7 for a program of J.S. Bach, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Antonio Vivaldi, Astor Piazzolla, and more. The 2026-2027 Chamber Series concludes on June 4 with violinist Njioma Grevious, a Juilliard graduate and founding member of the Abeo Quartet, who appears regularly at Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and the Concertgebouw. In Newport, she presents a program featuring the music of J.S. Bach, Johannes Brahms, W.A. Mozart, Oliver Messiaen, Edvard Grieg, and Clarence Cameron White. Grevious has been praised for her “violin pyrotechnics” and “sheer intensity” by the Washington Classical Review.

The 2027 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 1-18, 2027.

Newport Classical 2026-2027 Chamber Series Schedule At-A-Glance:

September 18: Opening Night: Invoke performs "American Voices"
October 9: Trio Azura performs "Piano Trio Through Time"
October 23: Rasa String Quartet performs “Portraits of an American Patchwork”
November 6: Michael Leonardo Davidman, Winner of the American Piano Awards
November 20: Guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre performs "Latin Passions"
January 29: Cello Sonatas with Sterling Elliott and Elliot Wuu
February 19: Anna Urrey & Kristi Shade perform Works for Flute and Harp
March 12: Dorian Wind Quintet performs "Preludes and Variations"
April 9: Voice and Piano with Chelsea Guo
April 23: Rubén Rengel and Friends
May 7: Radu Ratoi & Alexandra Tirsu perform Vivaldi, Piazzolla, and more
June 4: Chamber Series Finale: Violinist Njioma Grevious 

Complete concert details can be found at www.newportclassical.org/concerts. All Chamber Series concerts are held on select Fridays at 7:30pm at Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn Street).

About Newport Classical

Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.

Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 56 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of live performing arts on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long. 

Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Enrichment and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools and community organizations to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.” 

In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, Clarice Assad, and Cris Derksen.

After a year-long community-driven process, and rooted in the organization’s mission “to celebrate the living art form of classical music in intimate and iconic locations,” Newport Classical released its 2025-2028 Strategic Plan, presenting a clear roadmap to become a stronger, healthier, and more vibrant organization that enhances its programs and community engagement, promotes responsible financial growth and sustainability, and centers artistic excellence in every decision, as the organization aspires to open its doors even wider.

Oct 2: Sono Luminus Releases Her Only Light - Songs of Connie Converse - Vocalist Emmy Bean & Composer/Arranger Ronnie Kuller

Her Only Light: Songs of Connie Converse
Vocalist Emmy Bean | Composer/Arranger Ronnie Kuller

Release Date: October 2, 2026
Sono Luminus

13 brand new arrangements of the music of Connie Converse, a pioneering singer-songwriter whose work as a composer has been largely overlooked until now. The full scope of her genius is revealed in this album of chamber music arrangements that draws together the golden threads of Converse's legacy into a tapestry of wonder, sorrow, and whimsy.

www.heronlylight.com | www.sonoluminus.com

CDs or press downloads available upon request.

Chicago, IL — The generative, ten-year collaboration between vocalist Emmy Bean and composer/arranger Ronnie Kuller is making its recording debut with Her Only Light, a new album to be released worldwide on Sono Luminus on October 2, 2026. Her Only Light features the folk songs and art songs of the enigmatic artist Elizabeth Eaton “Connie” Converse (b. 1924), whose music was largely unperformed and unrecorded in her lifetime, the pages lying dormant in the storied filing cabinet she left behind as an archive upon her mysterious disappearance in 1974.

Her Only Light realizes Converse’s harmonically adventurous, formally fluid works in newly orchestrated brilliance by Kuller, delivered empathetically by Bean with contributions by Sarah Plum, violin; Vannia Phillips, viola; Melissa Bach, cello; Lauren Hayes, harp; Emily Rach Beisel and Katherine Jimoh, clarinets.

Connie Converse was born in Laconia, New Hampshire in 1924. She was, according to her brother, a polymath genius, but dropped out of college to move to New York City. There she took up music, and — her biographer Howard Fishman writes — became “a master of the acoustic guitar,” writing tunes and lyrics that upend “the traditional format and subject of the song form.” Her efforts gained her the appreciation of musical connoisseurs, and in 1954 landed her an appearance on Walter Cronkite’s CBS morning show. In 1961, she moved to join her brother in Ann Arbor, Michigan. There she continued to compose music, play casually with friends and family, work as an editor, and engage in political activism until her disappearance in 1974, when — at the age of 50 — she wrote goodbye notes to friends and family and vanished, never to be heard from again. 

While the fanbase for Converse’s folk-oriented oeuvre continues to expand exponentially, in part due to the recent re-release of her kitchen table recordings on Third Man Records (How Sad, How Lovely), her art songs have been heard with less frequency. Referred to by Converse as her “guitar songs” (folk song) and her “piano songs” (art song), Kuller and Bean discovered that these approaches had far more in common than their genre monikers might suggest. Bean writes:

“The guitar songs are no less solid, no less fully realized than the ones she wrote on piano. They completely stand on their own, and they welcome any singer with the imagination and humility to hear them and be with them. The reward of singing them is to be inside Connie's mind for a moment, to feel such great joy and such deep empathy, and to be able to smile at things that are so, so sad.”

Regarding the experience of inhabiting Converse’s deeply personal, often devastating but always witty writing, Bean goes on to explain: 

“I was surprised to find how Connie's songs invite another singer into them. Some songs belong so intimately to their writer's voice—especially folk singers or singer-songwriters—that it feels wrong to sing them or hear them sung by others. It wasn't until we got into the studio that Ronnie and I figured out that I could be the same singer throughout; there was no need to over-stylize the art songs or under-sing the folk songs. Together we were able to find an approach that honored the depth of her writing in both contexts, and that kind of broke the spell of genre over the whole thing.”

“When How Sad, How Lovely was first released, I was captivated by the beauty and immediacy of Connie's songs to such a degree that they became part of me," says Kuller. “As I continued learning and singing them, I found that they rewarded close study: graceful chromaticism and time-stretching, unexpected harmonic shifts, every element carefully considered and in service of the deceptively simple whole. Connie's Piano Songs initially presented themselves as a radical departure, but as I listened more closely, I could hear how the compositional language of her guitar songs had developed into something even more adventurous, and I was excited to find the throughlines and connect the dots. During the dormancy of the pandemic, yearning for closeness and meaning and music, Emmy and I conjured up Her Only Light to save us from our solitude, a project in which we would use a carefully chosen palette of lush orchestral color to imagine for Connie's songs an alternate existence. It was a joy to build this pedestal that is also a bridge connecting the full breadth of Connie's incredible compositions.”

Bean says, “The song ‘Father Neptune’ became important to me during quarantine. Her lyrics paint a picture of a woman whose relationship to her man is defined by distance and longing and even queerness (all those bearded men on the ship, no need for wives ‘except on shore’...) and her own belief – he might as well be imaginary, but his presence, even if only in her imagination, keeps her alive, keeps her heart beating. She says so much in so few words here, and those words are so funny and so true; I felt a kind of kinship to her as I turned that song over and over in my head, and I wanted to sing it to everyone I knew. So I guess that was the moment I knew I wanted to take this on as a project.”

Between Kuller’s beautifully nuanced arrangements and Bean’s sumptuous delivery, the result is an entrancing one, illuminating an altogether new perspective of an artist unfairly neglected in her lifetime for both longtime devotees and new listeners alike. 

Ronnie Kuller is a composer, arranger, pianist and accordionist who has performed with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Joffrey Ballet, the Chicago Philharmonic, and Mister Tom Musick, and whose compositions have been performed at Ear Taxi Festival and recorded onto wax cylinder at Edison National Historical Park. She lives in Chicago with her wonderful husband Patrick and amazing daughter Sylvie.

Emmy Bean is a singer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist. She writes songs and performs as a soloist and with the trio 80 Foots. She has been seen in Facility Theater’s Little Match Girl Passion , Theater Oobleck’s Baudelaire in a Box, and The Carter Family Family Show with the Neo-Futurists. She has collaborated with ~Nois saxophone quartet, Stacy Rene Erenberg, Erica Mott, Naima Lowe, Opera-Matic, and Beyond This Point. She improvises with the vocal ensemble Tender.

Sarah Plum, violin
Vannia Phillips, viola
Melissa Bach, cello
Lauren Hayes, harp
Emily Rach Beisel, clarinets
Katherine Jimoh, clarinet

For more information, visit: www.heronlylight.com

[liner notes linked here]
[complete descriptions of each track linked here]

Her Only Light: Songs of Connie Converse
Sono Luminus Records | Release Date: October 2nd, 2026 

1. Talkin Like You (Two Tall Mountains)
2. I Have Considered the Lillies
3. Vanity of the Vanities
4. The Rainmaker
5. Father Neptune
6. Incommunicado
7. anyone lived in a pretty how town (text by e.e. cummings)
8. Cassandra’s Entrance
9. The Age of Noon
10. Song for Old Wars
11. She Think of Heaven
12. She Devises a Lullaby
13. One by One

Engineered and mixed by Mathieu Lejeune at Lost Boy Sound, Chicago, IL
Produced by Ronnie Kuller and Emmy Bean
Assistant Producer: Emma Hospelhorn
Cover photograph by Elizabeth Converse
Artwork by Lizi Breit
Layout: Joshua Frey  
Liner notes: Doyle Armbrust
Executive producer: Collin J. Rae

Oct 9: ECM New Series Releases The Tallis Scholars - Live in Venice

The Tallis Scholars
Live in Venice

Works by Monteverdi, Palestrina, Lotti, Allegri, Komitas, Pärt
Peter Phillips, conductor

ECM New Series 2732/33
Release Date: October 9, 2026
Digital and CD/Blu-ray Set

Downloads and CD/Blu-ray Set available upon request.

The Tallis Scholars, founded by their conductor Peter Phillips in 1973, belong among the world’s preeminent chamber choirs and have championed the sacred vocal music of the Renaissance like no other ensemble. Here they are captured in a remarkable concert recorded on 14 July 2017 in the glorious Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Issued as a 1-CD/1-Blu-ray set, the release offers both an intimate listening experience and the rare opportunity to witness the performance from within the basilica itself, where the acoustics of the historic space become an integral part of the music.

Renaissance polyphony permeates this programme, which was conceived around the 450th anniversary celebrations of Claudio Monteverdi’s birth in 2017. Alongside music by Monteverdi himself are compositions by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Antonio Lotti and Gregorio Allegri, among them Allegri’s celebrated Miserere and Palestrina’s Magnificat – works with which the Tallis Scholars have become closely identified over the years. Yet the programme also reaches beyond the Renaissance, placing this great tradition of sacred polyphony in dialogue with music of a very different historical and cultural origin.

In the concert’s programme note, printed in the CD-accompanying booklet, Peter Phillips speaks of “old favourites and some very new ideas”. The new ideas are represented by Arvo Pärt’s Nunc dimittis on the one hand, (The piece, composed in 2001, also appears on the label in a performance by Vox Clamantis, on the ensemble’s 2025 album And I Heard A Voice.) and on the other by the music by Komitas, whose works the Tallis Scholars performed as a gesture of solidarity with the Armenian community of Venice. Phillips and the ensemble “wish to pay tribute to the centuries-old heritage of the Armenian community in Venice”, creating a connection between the musical traditions of the city and the living cultural memory of its Armenian presence.

The composers represented here illuminate the rich and varied history of sacred vocal music. Monteverdi stands at the threshold between Renaissance polyphony and the emerging Baroque, bringing the contrapuntal inheritance of the sixteenth century into a new expressive language. Palestrina, by contrast, became the defining figure of the Roman Renaissance, his lucid polyphony long regarded as an ideal of liturgical writing. Antonio Lotti, born and active in Venice, continued the Venetian tradition into the eighteenth century and served as maestro di cappella at San Marco, making his presence in this particular setting especially resonant. Gregorio Allegri, a Roman composer and singer associated with the Sistine Chapel, is remembered above all for his Miserere, whose restrained setting of Psalm 51 became one of the most famous sacred works of the Western tradition.

Alongside these European masters stand two works by Komitas (Soghomon Soghomonian), the Armenian priest, composer and pioneering ethnomusicologist whose work preserved and transformed the musical heritage of Armenia. Like Pärt, his compositions bring a modern, deeply personal voice to a programme otherwise rooted in centuries-old Western sacred polyphony. 

The Tallis Scholars are in the midst of an international tour as this album is released, with concerts in Bogotá, Colombia (1 Oct.); Florence, Italy, at the Teatro Niccolini (25 Oct.); and Cambridge, UK, at King’s College Chapel (28 Oct.), followed by performances in South Korea and China in November.

For more information on Steve Reich, please visit stevereich.com.

OUT NOW: Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing Releases Bruch – New Album with The Oslo Philharmonic and Gergely Madaras on Sony Classical

Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing Releases Bruch
New Album with The Oslo Philharmonic and Gergely Madaras
Out Now on Sony Classical
Listen Here

Worldwide Album Release Date: Out Now

Eldbjørg Hemsing’s new album Bruch is out now on Sony Classical – listen here. Recorded with the Oslo Philharmonic under the direction of Gergely Madaras, the violinist—known for her creative approach to repertoire—presents Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 alongside the Romance, Op. 85, originally written for viola and orchestra, as well as a new arrangement of In der Nacht, Op. 72 for solo violin and orchestra. The recording reflects Hemsing’s long-standing engagement with one of the major works of the Romantic violin repertoire. She first performed the concerto with the Oslo Philharmonic as a child; now she considers her interpretation ready to be recorded. 

“The Bruch Violin Concerto has been a lifelong companion for me—I have essentially grown up with this piece. What is remarkable is how many colours, emotions, and layers of meaning have revealed themselves to me over the years. I feel that I have now reached a point in my relationship with the work that justifies making a recording,” says Eldbjørg Hemsing.

Known for her expressive tone and technical precision, Eldbjørg Hemsing places the vocal quality of the work at the centre of her interpretation, clearly shaping its contrasting characters. In doing so, she emphasizes the particular balance between virtuosity and musical expression in Bruch’s writing:

“What I love most about this concerto is its warmth and its deeply human ‘voice’. Bruch understood the violin in a very natural way. The concerto is virtuosic, but the technical challenges are always in service of the music. That is what makes it so special to me: it allows the violin not only to shine, but truly to sing. Each movement opens up its own world. For me, the second movement is the heart of the concerto… full of tenderness and a sense of calm,” Hemsing explains.

The program is complemented by two works that further illuminate Bruch’s lyrical sound world. The Romance, Op. 85, was originally composed for viola and orchestra; for this recording, however, Hemsing combines Bruch’s own arrangement for violin and piano with the original orchestral score. Notably, the violin part fits the work exactly as written, without any transposition. The album closes with a new arrangement for violin and orchestra by Jan-Peter Klöpfel of Bruch’s song In der Nacht, Op. 72.

Bruch by Eldbjørg Hemsing with the Oslo Philharmonic and Gergely Madaras will be released on Sony Classical and will be available from August 28, 2026 as a stream and download in stereo and Dolby Atmos, as well as on 180g vinyl.

Repertoire:

Max Bruch:
Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 26
I. Vorspiel. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio
III. Finale. Allegro energico

Romanze, Op. 85 for Violin & Orchestra

In der Nacht, Op. 72 (arranged for Violin & Orchestra by Jan Peter Klöpfel)

Sept. 11: Pianist Lucas Debargue Releases Gershwin Variations New Album on Sony Classical – New Singles Out Today

Pianist Lucas Debargue Releases New Album on Sony Classical Gershwin Variations

New Singles Out Today:
Rhapsody in Blue – Agitato e misterioso
The Man I Love – Mirage
Listen Here

Worldwide Album Release Date: September 11, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

In Concert at Ladies Morning Musical Club in Montreal on October 25, 2026
In Concert at Lincoln Center in New York City on October 29, 2026

Lucas Debargue presents Gershwin Variations, an ambitious tribute to George Gershwin in two parts: One recorded with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Elim Chan, the other devoted to the pianist's original creations inspired by Gershwin's songs.

Internationally acclaimed pianist Lucas Debargue's Gershwin Variations stand as an ambitious and unprecedented project, born from the desire to explore a radically different universe after recording Scarlatti sonatas and the complete solo piano works of Fauré. This double album – to be released September 11, 2026 on Sony Classical and for which pre-order is available now – is an ode to George Gershwin, an unclassifiable composer standing at the crossroads of classical music and jazz, whose singularity inspired Lucas to create a work equally impossible to categorize.

The album is divided into two parts, both equally grandiose and virtuosic… yet each with its own distinct identity.

The first part, recorded at the Philharmonie de Paris on Stephen Paulello’s unique SP/287 piano, features some of Gershwin’s most iconic works, including the Concerto in F with the Orchestre de Paris conducted by Elim Chan, the Three Preludes for Piano, and a highly personal version of Rhapsody in Blue, enriched with the pianist’s own cadenzas.

The second part, recorded at the Paulello Studio, is entirely devoted to twelve virtuosic études composed by Lucas from Gershwin’s most popular songs, spanning all chromatic keys. This cycle represents the most ambitious creation of his career as a pianist to date, affirming a deep commitment to freedom and invention, while placing itself in the tradition of the great composers who wrote their own études.

The Gershwin Variations is neither a classical album nor a jazz album, but a hybrid work reflecting the anticonformist spirit and the American dream embodied by Gershwin. Lucas offers a bold and poetic reinterpretation in which counterpoint, shifting harmonies, and unconventional rhythms reveal the richness of Gershwin’s melodies. He invites listeners to rediscover a repertoire where popularity is never synonymous with triviality, and where music becomes a space for freedom, daring, and vitality.

Lucas Debargue says: “I wanted to create an album that captures the spirit of constant transformation that breathes life into music in general—and into Gershwin’s music in particular. It features moments of spontaneous improvisation, original compositions, and interpretive choices that leave no trace in the original scores. That is why I decided to title it Gershwin Variations.”

TRACKLIST

CD 1

Rhapsody in Blue, 3 Preludes, Concerto in F
Lucas Debargue – piano
Orchestre de Paris, Orchestra
Elim Chan – conductor

George Gershwin (1898-1937)

1. Prelude I - Allegro ben ritmato e deciso
2. Piano Concerto in F - I. Allegro
3. Piano Concerto in F - II. Adagio – Andante con moto
4. Piano Concerto in F - III. Allegro agitato
5. Prelude II - Allegro ben ritmato e deciso
6. Rhapsody in blue - Molto moderato (Cadenzas: Lucas Debargue)
7. Rhapsody in blue - Meno mosso e poco scherzando (Cadenzas: Lucas Debargue)
8. Rhapsody in blue - Andantino moderato (Cadenzas: Lucas Debargue)
9. Rhapsody in blue -- Agitato e misterioso (Cadenzas: Lucas Debargue)
10. Prelude III - Allegro ben ritmato e deciso

[Total Time: 55:02]

CD 2

12 Virtuoso Etudes on Gershwin Songs
Lucas Debargue, piano

Lucas Debargue
1. Embraceable You - Rumba, in E
2. Fascinating Rhythm - Valse, in A
3. Someone To Watch Over Me, in D - Pavane
4. Someone To Watch Over Me, in D - Gaillarde
5. It Ain’t Necessarily So, in G - Fantaisie
6. It Ain’t Necessarily So, in G - Chaconne
7. It Ain’t Necessarily So, in G - Fugue
8. Liza - Gavotte § Double, in C
9. But Not For Me, in F – Prelude
10. But Not For Me, in F – Perpetuum Mobile ****
11. I Want To Stay Here (I love you Porgy) Adagio Dekadent, in B-flat
12. The Man I Love - Mirage, in E-flat
13. They Can’t Take That Away From Me - Romance, in A-flat
14. I Got Rhythm (I Really Got Rhythm !) - Boom Bap, in D-flat - Part I
15. I Got Rhythm (I Really Got Rhythm !) - Boom Bap, in D-flat - Part II
16. I Got Rhythm (I Really Got Rhythm !) - Boom Bap, in D-flat - Part III
17. Lady Be Good - Berceuse, in F-sharp

Summertime - 20 Concert Variations & Finale, on a Theme of George Gershwin, in B
18. Summertime - Introduction
19. Summertime - Thème
20. Summertime - Variation 1: Tempestoso
21. Summertime - Variation 2: Tango
22. Summertime - Variation 3: Scherzino
23. Summertime - Variation 4: Polonaise
24. Summertime - Variation 5: Féroce
25. Summertime - Variation 6: Scintillante
26. Summertime - Variation 7: Nocturne
27. Summertime - Variation 8: Marcia Funèbre
28. Summertime - Variation 9: Sicilienne
29. Summertime - Variation 10: Intermezzo
30. Summertime - Variation 11: Reggae
31. Summertime - Variation 12: Con Fuoco
32. Summertime - Variation 13: Caccia
33. Summertime - Variation 14: Choral
34. Summertime - Variation 15: Toccatina
35. Summertime - Variation 16: Bossa Nova
36. Summertime - Variation 17: Largo Recitativo
37. Summertime - Variation 18: Teneramente
38. Summertime - Variation 19: Fugue
39. Summertime - Variation 20: Tarentelle
40. Summertime – Finale: Alla Marcia

[Total Time: 55:29]

ABOUT LUCAS DEBARGUE

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Oct. 16: Acclaimed UK Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason Releases Songs Without Words EP on Sony Classical – First Single Out Today

Press Photo of Jeneba Kanneh-Mason by Johanna Berghorn
Not final EP Artwork

Acclaimed UK Pianist Jeneba Kanneh-Mason
Releases Songs Without Words EP on Sony Classical

Camille Saint-Saëns’ Theme from Samson and Delilah
(Arr. by Nina Simone)

First Single Out Today - Listen Here

Today, from acclaimed young pianist, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, comes the first single from her forthcoming EP Songs Without Words, scheduled for release on October 16, 2026 on Sony Classical. Thoughtfully curated by the artist, the EP brings together music by Felix Mendelssohn, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, Camille Saint-Saëns and Nina Simone, continuing Jeneba's passion for championing overlooked voices and tracing the evolution of the Songs Without Words tradition across generations, musical styles and genres. Jeneba Kanneh-Mason's first single, Saint-Saëns' Theme from Samson and Delilah, arranged by Nina Simone, is out today, August 28, 2026 - listen here.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, of whom Gramophone wrote: “her future will surely be dazzling” and who impressed BBC Music Magazine with her “sparkle and self-possession”, has chosen a remarkable piece as the first single from this EP. In a tribute to the legendary pianist, singer, songwriter and activist, Nina Simone (1933-2003), Jeneba performs Saint-Saëns’ (1835-1921) popular aria ‘Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix’ (‘Softly awakes my heart’) from his opera ‘Samson and Delilah’, Op. 67. Nina Simone famously performed her own arrangement of this work as a solo piano piece during her 1963 debut solo concert at New York’s Carnegie Hall, enriching the piece with embellishments and improvisatory flourishes. Jeneba honours this seminal artist with a transcription of that singular 1963 live performance.

Of this first single, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason remarks, "I've always loved Nina Simone, and when I discovered her solo piano version of Saint-Saëns' 'Mon coeur s'ouvre à ta voix', I was completely captivated. I love the freedom and individuality she brings to the music, while never losing sight of the original melody. Including a transcription of her performance on this EP felt like a natural way to celebrate her artistry alongside the more traditional Songs Without Words, bringing together so many of the musical worlds that inspire me."

To acknowledge the origins of the genre Songs Without Words, the theme of her forthcoming EP, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason has chosen Felix Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words in G major, Op. 62 No. 1 Andante espressivo. Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) and his sister, Fanny Hensel Mendelssohn (1805-1847), were among the first composers to write ‘Lieder ohne Worte’, Felix Mendelssohn writing eight volumes of six songs, which became hugely popular.

Continuing her commitment to championing music by black women composers and bringing their often-overlooked repertoire to a wider audience, Jeneba returns to African American composers, Florence Price (1887-1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), both of whom were featured on her debut album, ‘Fantasie’. For Songs Without Words, she has chosen two rarely recorded works by Price: Song Without Words in G major ‘Pleading’ (c. 1928) and the lyrical yet dramatic Song Without Words in A major (1932). These sit alongside Bonds' The Bells, the second movement from her ‘Spiritual Suite for Piano’ and based on the spiritual Peter, Go Ring Dem Bells, which Bonds developed into an elaborate piano piece.

Having made her mark in March 2025 with her debut album on Sony Classical, Fantasie, featuring works by Frederic Chopin, Florence Price, Margaret Bonds, William Grant Still, Claude Debussy and Alexander Scriabin, of which International Piano magazine noted “…This is a debut recording of exceptional bravura and insight… Already she compels attention”, this much in demand young artist and member of the supremely talented Kanneh-Mason family of musicians, followed it in December 2025 with an exceptionally fine self-curated EP ‘Jane Austen’s Piano’, exploring the musical world of fellow pianist and world-famous author, Jane Austen, to celebrate the 250th anniversary of her favourite writer’s birth.

Single Artwork for Saint-Saëns' Theme from Samson and Delilah, arranged by Nina Simone

TRACKLIST:
1. Felix Mendelssohn: Lieder ohne Wrote V, op. 62: I. Andante espressivo
2. Florence Price: Song Without Words in A Major
3. Margaret Bonds: Spiritual Suite: II. The Bells
4. Florence Price: Song Without Words in G Major ("Pleading”)
5. Camille Saint-Saëns: Theme from Samson and Delilah (arr. Nina Simone)

OUT TODAY: Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma Announce Fifth Album in Beethoven For Three Series on Sony Classical

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma
Announce Fifth Album in Beethoven For Three Series

Symphony No. 3 Eroica and Leonore Overture No. 3
with Violist Antoine Tamestit
Arranged for Piano Quartet by Shai Wosner
Out Today - Listen Here

Worldwide Album Release Date: Out Today

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma announce the fifth album in their acclaimed Beethoven for Three series, which is out today, August 28, 2026 on Sony Classical. Pairing Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, Eroica, with Leonore Overture No. 3 from the composer’s only opera, Fidelio, this new recording marks another milestone in three friends' journey through the marvels of one extraordinary composer. This installment welcomes celebrated violist Antoine Tamestit into the ensemble for the first time.

Beethoven for Three features three friends in pursuit of the essential elements of Beethoven's musical language, presenting his most iconic symphonies in arrangements for small groups. By performing the symphonies on three (and now four) instruments, the artists give audiences a rare look at Beethoven's compositional language at its most intimate and raw.

"We all feel that being able to participate in a symphony is such a wonderful thing to do," says Ma. "One of the things that has separated people since recording began is the categories that we put people in, in which chamber musicians, orchestra players, people who play concertos, people who do transcriptions, people who compose, people who conduct, are all viewed as separate categories with no overlap. That siloed thinking discourages actual creativity and collaboration between people. And so, we feel that one of the things that is really important to do today is to actually go back to the first principles of music, the simple interaction between friends who want to do something together."

"The beginnings of all this music were first arranged," says Ax. "It used to be completely normal that the first release of a symphony would not be the full score. You wouldn't get that music until dozens of years later. You would get the arrangement for one piano four hands, or trio, or quartet, that was done by the composer and handed to the publisher. And that's how you got to know the music."

An avid performer of chamber music, violist Antoine Tamestit joins the group following a recent collaboration with the trio in recital at the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, opening the 2025–26 Tanglewood season. Tamestit, a founding member of Trio Zimmermann with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltéra, has a rich, deeply colored tone and formidable technique that have made him one of the most sought-after violists of his generation, with premieres including Jörg Widmann's Viola Concerto, which was written for him.

Pianist and composer Shai Wosner’s arrangements have become central to the project's distinctive sound and reflect the tradition of Beethoven's own era, when symphonic works were commonly disseminated through chamber arrangements. Wosner has arranged Beethoven's Symphonies Nos. 1, 4, and 6 for the trio in addition to this new arrangement of "Eroica" for quartet. His arrangement of the Sixth Symphony, "Pastorale," was singled out by Gramophone for the way it honors Beethoven's original writing without being confined by it. Wosner's own honors as a pianist include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

This new album brings together two defining masterpieces from Beethoven's heroic period, the "Eroica" Symphony's journey from struggle to triumph and the Leonore Overture's vivid musical drama capture a composer expanding the possibilities of Classical form and paving the way toward the early Romantic era.

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 Eroica represents one of the most profound artistic statements of the composer's heroic period. Originally conceived as a tribute to Napoleon Bonaparte, whom Beethoven admired as a champion of the ideals of the French Revolution and the promise of a new age, the symphony underwent a profound transformation when Napoleon crowned himself emperor in 1804. Disillusioned by what he viewed as Napoleon's abandonment of those ideals, Beethoven famously erased the dedication and instead presented the work as a broader exploration of heroism itself.

Complementing the “Eroica” on the album is Beethoven's Leonore Overture No. 3, originally conceived as an overture to Fidelio. First composed around 1803, the opera underwent nearly a decade of revision before achieving success in its final 1814 version. In the process, Beethoven wrote four overtures for the work: three now known as the Leonore Overtures, named after the opera's heroine, and a fourth, the Fidelio Overture. Of the four, Leonore No. 3 has become the most celebrated as a standalone concert work. The piece references the dramatic climax of the final act of Fidelio, distilling the essence of Beethoven's heroic-humanist opera into a concentrated fifteen minutes of potent, exhilarating music.

Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first performed together as a trio at the 2014 Tanglewood Festival, playing a program of Brahms's piano trios; their first recording effort, Brahms: The Piano Trios, was released in 2017 to universal critical acclaim, with Gramophone observing that the performances "get straight to the heart of Brahms's music, relishing its pull of opposites."

Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 3 Eroica and Leonore Overture No. 3
Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos, Emanuel Ax, Antoine Tamestit

Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, Op. 55 Eroica

1. I. Allegro con brio
2. II. Marcia funebre. Adagio assai
3. III. Scherzo. Allegro vivace
4. IV. Finale. Allegro molto

5. Leonore Overture No. 3 in C Major, Op. 72b

The concept of Beethoven for Three has its origins at the 2021 Tanglewood Music Festival, where Ax, Kavakos, and Ma first performed Beethoven's Symphony No. 2 in trio format. The performance was an instant success, leading to the first release in the series, Beethoven for Three: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5, released December 3, 2021 on Sony Classical, featuring an arrangement of Symphony No. 2 attributed to Beethoven's friend and student Ferdinand Ries, working under the composer's supervision, alongside a new arrangement of Symphony No. 5 by contemporary English composer Colin Matthews. Gramophone noted that "the performance by Ax, Kavakos and Ma is not just aptly intense—the opening Allegro con brio is as involving as any orchestral performance I've heard—but also incredibly sensitive to the music's crucial juxtapositions, as one can hear in the Andante con moto, where they so deftly balance delicacy and heroic swagger—note the vulnerability in Kavakos's tone at 1'42"—in a way that I find deeply moving."

The second installment, Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale" and Op. 1, No. 3, followed on November 11, 2022, offering listeners two very different sides of the composer using the same three voices: the brilliant exploration of each instrument's expressive capabilities in the C Minor piano trio, and, in the "Pastorale," lovingly reimagined for trio by Shai Wosner, a vision of the piano, violin, and cello transcending their own identities to become, in turn, bird, brook, and storm. The Strad noted that "the blend and balance between these three hugely experienced players is just about ideal in the relaxed outer movements [of Symphony No. 6] and in the 'Scene by the Brook', while the 'Peasants' Merrymaking' is as rustic and playful as the 'Storm' is disruptive...This is Ax's stamping ground and he brings his string-playing friends along with him for a performance that beguiles and delights from beginning to end."

The third volume, pairing the unforgettable "Archduke" trio with Symphony No. 4, again arranged by Wosner, was released March 15, 2024. The London Times wrote, "Ax's ten fingers provide most of the symphony's harmonic support, leaving Ma and Kavakos free to concentrate on melodic charms and quirks. All unite in ensemble verve and kaleidoscopic hues... intimate chamber music playing doesn't come much better than this."

The fourth volume, released August 22, 2025, featured Symphony No. 1 (Op. 21) alongside the "Gassenhauer" (Op. 11) and "Ghost" (Op. 70, No. 1) piano trios — three works spanning more than a decade of the composer's output, from his early years well into his "middle" period.

Sony Music Masterworks comprises Masterworks, Sony Classical, Milan Records, XXIM Records, and Masterworks Broadway imprints. For email updates and information please visit www.sonymusicmasterworks.com/.

APPROVED PR IMAGE (Credit: Vincent Tullo): Download
Left to Right: Leonidas Kavakos, Emanuel Ax, Antoine Tamestit, Yo-Yo Ma

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OUT TODAY: Composer Robert Sirota Releases Contrapassos New Album on Azica – World Premiere Recordings Performed by the Telegraph Quartet and Soprano Abigail Fischer

Composer Robert Sirota Releases Contrapassos
New Album Out Today on Azica

World Premiere Recordings
Performed by the Telegraph Quartet and Soprano Abigail Fischer

Worldwide Release Date: Out Today

Downloads and CDs available to press on request

“[Robert] Sirota’s compositional voice has a distinctive tartness and rhythmic bite.”
– Anthony Tomassini, The New York Times

Robert Sirota | Telegraph Quartet | Abigail Fischer | Azica

Two of Robert Sirota’s chamber works, Contrapassos for String Quartet and Soprano (2019) and String Quartet No. 3, Wave Upon Wave (2018), will be released on August 28, 2026 on a new album on Azica Records. This is the eleventh album featuring Sirota’s music, and his second for Azica, following the release of 212: Symphony No. 1 earlier this year. Contrapassos, which was commissioned by the Sierra Chamber Society and includes text by Stevan Cavalier, is performed by the Telegraph Quartet with soprano Abigail Fischer. Wave Upon Wave is performed by the Telegraph Quartet.

Over five decades, Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”

Sirota states: “Collaborating with the Telegraph Quartet and Abigail Fischer in the creation of these works has been a deeply rewarding and satisfying experience. After several years of delay, I am delighted that this recording is now a reality.”

Robert Sirota composed his third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave, in 2017. Commissioned by the Naumburg Foundation, the award-winning Telegraph Quartet gave the world premiere in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 2018. Wave Upon Wave is the third work in a trilogy that Sirota began with his first string quartet, Triptych, in 2002. Sirota describes all three quartets as “a long journal entry reflecting a response to our times,” with Wave Upon Wave focusing on “our fears, our hopes, and our prayers that we will triumph over the forces of darkness which threaten to overwhelm us,” writes Sirota in his program notes. Of the sold out world premiere performance at Carnegie Hall, New York Daily Music described the work as, “chillingly cinematic.” The San Francisco Classical Voice described Wave Upon Wave as being shaped by a “variety of moods” and “heartbeat rhythms” throughout the work’s movements.

In 2019 Sirota composed Contrapassos. Due to the pandemic lockdown, the performance date endured almost as many changes as the music itself, which is inspired by the imagery of Dante. After several postponements of the initial 2020 world premiere, the Telegraph Quartet and soprano Abigail Fischer were finally able to come together and give the highly anticipated world premiere in July 2022.

“[Contrapassos] begins with memories of the quotidian joys of childhood, quickly turning to darkness and thoughts of early death by suicide, heart attacks in middle age, and final judgment,” says Sirota. “And yet throughout, there is the vigorous embrace of abundant life, of the beauty of our world, and of our striving for faith.” In performance, Contrapassos reflects a seamless collaboration between poetry, vocal, and instrumental music. 

Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as The Cecilia Chorus of New York, Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, and Blair String Quartets; the Neave, Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Commissions for Sirota@70 in honor of his 70th birthday included works for Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis & the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, and Sierra Chamber Society.

Additional recent commissions include the music for Rising, an evening-length dance collaboration with choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance, and the Neave Trio; A Migrant’s Dream, a choral work commissioned by Judith Clurman for Essential Voices USA; Sirota’s third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave for the Naumburg Foundation; his fourth string quartet Contrapassos for the Sierra Chamber Society, Immigrant Songs for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; Luminous Bodies performed by Jeffrey Kahane and yMusic at the Sarasota Music Festival; Hafez Songs for Palladium Musicum; O Blessed Holy Trinity for choir and organ, for Trinity Episcopal Church, Indianapolis; and his Cello Sonata No. 2, for Benjamin Larsen and Hyungjin Choi. Sirota’s arrangements of songs for Paul Simon and yMusic were performed on Simon’s farewell tour, including an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Sirota is a recipient of grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His works are recorded on Navona Records, Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Hal Leonard, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.

Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.

A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.

The Telegraph Quartet has performed in concert halls, music festivals, and academic institutions across the United States and abroad, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s Chamber Masters Series, and at festivals including the Chautauqua Institute, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and the Emilia Romagna Festival. The Quartet is currently the Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan.

Notable collaborations include projects with pianists Leon Fleisher and Simone Dinnerstein; cellists Norman Fischer and Bonnie Hampton; violinist Ian Swensen; and the St. Lawrence Quartet and Henschel Quartett. A fervent champion of 20th- and 21st-century repertoire, the Telegraph Quartet has premiered works by Osvaldo Golijov, John Harbison, Robert Sirota, and Richard Festinger.

The Telegraph Quartet released its celebrated debut album Into The Light in 2018 and is currently recording an extensive three-album series titled 20th Century Vantage Points for Azica Records, exploring string quartets of the 20th century. The first volume, Divergent Paths (2022), features two works that (to the best of the Quartet’s knowledge) have never been recorded on the same album before: Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major and Arnold Schoenberg’s String Quartet No. 1 in D minor, Op. 7. In August 2025, the Telegraph released the second volume, Edge of the Storm, which examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg. Volume three will be released in fall 2027. In addition, the Telegraph releases recordings of the string quartets of Robert Sirota in summer 2026 (Azica Records) and of Kenji Bunch in spring 2027 (Phenotypic Records).

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet is deeply committed to education, mentorship, and meaningful audience engagement. The ensemble has presented masterclasses globally, including for the Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and internationally at Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

As Quartet-in-Residence at the University of Michigan, Telegraph has also launched an initiative designed to help emerging musicians bridge the gap between academic study and professional life. Through this program, selected chamber music students join the Quartet on tour, gaining professional experience by rehearsing, traveling, and performing alongside the ensemble.

The Quartet has also served as artists-in-residence at Gretna Music, the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, Telegraph launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan. That same year, the ensemble created TeleLab, an online video series in which the musicians collectively explore and break down the individual components of selected string-quartet movements. TeleLab has since expanded into an in-person lecture-demonstration and performance program.

In the summers of 2022 and 2024, the Telegraph Quartet traveled to Vienna to work with Schoenberg specialist Henk Guittart in collaboration with the Arnold Schönberg Center, undertaking an in-depth study of Schoenberg’s complete string quartets.

For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

About Abigail Fischer: Abigail Fischer is an internationally acclaimed American soprano celebrated for performances of exceptional emotional depth, dramatic honesty, and vocal artistry. The New York Times praised her “disarming intimacy,” and chief classical music critic Zachary Woolfe wrote, “Ms. Fischer sings with a passionate restraint that has no equal in her generation. You didn’t want her to stop.”

Known for her versatility across opera, concert repertoire, and contemporary music, Fischer has been featured at Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Baroque, American Bach Soloists, Ars Lyrica Houston, Da Camera of Houston, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Beijing Music Festival, Teatro Comunale di Bolzano, and the Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival. Her performances have taken her to Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, and major festivals throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.

As a defining interpreter of contemporary opera, Fischer created the leading role in Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s Song from the Uproar, and Du Yun and Royce Vavrek’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Angel’s Bone. She has premiered works by Nico Muhly, Elliott Carter, John Zorn, Bernard Rands, David Lang, Harold Meltzer, Robert Sirota, and performed Toshio Hosokawa’s Hanjo and The Raven in Trento, Italy.

Fischer has enjoyed a vibrant concert career spanning Bach, Handel, Mozart, Purcell, Mahler, Berg and George Benjamin. Highlights include Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Magnificat, Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder, and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder. Before transitioning to soprano, Fischer spent fifteen years performing professionally as a mezzo soprano, singing repertoire from Dido and Aeneas, Cenerentola and Carmen, while also working as a professional choral singer and cellist in New York.

A graduate of Vassar College and the Eastman School of Music, Fischer also trained at the Marlboro Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and Tanglewood Music Center.

Fischer’s work has expanded from interpreting the music of others to creating original musical experiences of her own. Today, through her Earthshine project, Fischer composes, performs, and facilitates immersive musical experiences integrating conscious breathwork, sound meditation, vocal improvisation, nervous system awareness, intuitive development, emotional energy release, shamanic journeying, inner child healing, shadow work, and voice activation. She has guided hundreds of individuals and groups through retreats, ceremonial concerts, and transformational experiences, continuing to explore music’s extraordinary capacity to awaken beauty, authenticity, healing, and wonder.

Contrapassos by Robert Sirota| Azica
Telegraph Quartet, Soprano Abigail Fischer
Release Date: August 28, 2026 (Worldwide)

String Quartet No. 3 - Wave Upon Wave

1. I. Relentless [5:07]
2. Interlude 1 Adagio Expressivo [1:20]
3. II. eighth note = 104 [3:22]
4. III. Rapido [2:24]
5. Interlude 2 Appassionata [0:49]
6. IV. quartet note = 72 [5:59]

Contrapassos

7. I. Dreamlike [4:37]
8. II. quarter note = 76 [3:56]
9. III. quartet note = 104, IV. quartet note = 60 [4:03]
10. V. Tempo Giusto, Dirgelike VI. quarter note = 96 [5:19]
11. VII. quarter note = 104 [1:40]
12. VIII. quarter note = 80 [2:52]

Total time [​​41:28]

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Weekend Concert Series Opens in September with Three Performances

Clockwise from top left: Rachel Barton Pine, Twelfth Night Ensemble, Geneva Lewis, Jay Campbell, YooJin Jang, Conrad Tao, and Emma Wernig. Press photos available here.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Weekend Concert Series
September Performances

September 13: Rachel Barton Pine, violin
September 20: Twelfth Night Ensemble
September 27: Chamber Music Celebration

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Calderwood Hall | 25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Information & Tickets: gardnermuseum.org/about/music

For press tickets, please contact Christina Jensen at christina@jensenartists.com

BOSTON, MA  – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will launch its Fall 2026 Weekend Concert Series with three performances in September. This ten-concert autumn season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel is held on select Sundays at 1:30pm and runs from September 13 through November 22, 2026. The season features world-class artists performing in the Museum’s extraordinary Calderwood Hall—a 300-seat “sonic cube” with three levels of balconies designed so that 80% of seats are front row, creating a uniquely intense and intentional listening experience.

The Fall 2026 season opens on Sunday, September 13 with acclaimed violinist Rachel Barton Pine, praised by The New York Times for her “bravura technique and soulful musicianship,” returning to Calderwood Hall after her triumphant concert last season. Joined by pianist Matthew Hagle, she presents a recital of Johannes Brahms’s violin sonatas—including Brahms's own violin version of a sonata better known on clarinet, which Pine has been championing. She performs on the astonishing Guarneri "del Gesù" violin that Brahms himself selected for his chamber music partner, Marie Soldat-Roeger. 

The long-awaited Boston debut of Twelfth Night Ensemble follows on Sunday, September 20, in a program postponed from January due to the blizzard. Violinist Rachell Ellen Wong—the only Baroque violinist to be awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant—joins harpsichordist David Belkovski and cellist Coleman Itzkoff in Baroque works by Nicola Matteis, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, John Eccles, Giuseppe Tartini, J.S. Bach, Jean-Marie Leclair, Francesco Maria Veracini, Joseph-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer, and Jacques Duphly, alongside contemporary composer Wanessa Dourado's Conto Bachiano from 2023. Inspired by Shakespeare’s play of the same name, Twelfth Night strives to invoke a spirit of boundless revelry, celebration, and community in their programming.

A new annual tradition begins on Sunday, September 27, with the inaugural Chamber Music Celebration, endowed to honor the life and work of the late Scott Nickrenz, the Gardner's first Abrams Curator of Music and a superb violist and chamber music impresario and evangelist. Violinists Geneva Lewis and YooJin Jang, violist Emma Wernig, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Tao present a wide-ranging program featuring music by Henry Purcell and Franz Joseph Haydn, Ruth Crawford Seeger's Suite No. 2 for Four Strings and Piano, and crowned by the thrilling Piano Quintet of Ukrainian-American composer Leo Ornstein, whose life bridged three centuries.

George Steel’s music programming for the Museum continues founder and legendary arts patron Isabella Stewart Gardner’s vision of bringing together musicians and audiences for inspiring gatherings. Dating to 1927, the Gardner’s Weekend Concert Series is the longest-running museum music program in the country. Much like Isabella Stewart Gardner did in her time, Steel champions unknown repertoire and embraces new works, creates connections and builds community among musicians, and supports them by presenting them in new endeavors and collaborations. His programming also frequently draws on the history of the Gardner Museum, featuring instruments from the Museum’s collection and music by composers who were associated with its founder. In honoring Isabella Stewart Gardner’s musical legacy, Music at the Gardner remains strongly committed to broadening the repertoire of music presented to include previously overlooked and marginalized composers as well as performers of all backgrounds.

Fall 2026 At-a-Glance Concert Schedule

September 13 Rachel Barton Pine, violin
September 20: Twelfth Night Ensemble
September 27: Chamber Music Celebration
This annual concert celebrates the life and legacy of Scott Nickrenz, first Abrams Curator of Music at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
October 4: Ivalas Quartet
October 18: ACRONYM: Esther in the Age of Rembrandt
October 25: Celebrating Chrysanthemums
This performance is made possible by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs.
November 1: Eleanor Alberga with Green Room Ensemble
November 8: Poiesis Quartet
November 15: Lysander Piano Trio
November 22: Jean Rondeau, harpsichord

This concert is made possible by the generous support of David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder.

All concerts take place on Sundays at 1:30 pm in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).

Ticketing Information

Tickets ($25-$99) go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 10:00 am and are available at gardnermuseum.org/about/music or by calling the Box Office at 617 278 5156. All concert tickets include Museum admission.

About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum invites you to escape the ordinary in a magical setting where art and community come together to inspire new ways of envisioning our world. Embodying the fearless legacy of its founder, the Museum offers a singular invitation to explore the past through a contemporary lens, creating meaningful encounters with art and joyful connections for all. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous Courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano Wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115 • Hours: Open Weekends from 10 am to 5 pm, Weekdays from 11am to 5 pm, and Thursdays until 9 pm. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $25; Seniors $22; Students $15; Free for members, children 17 and under, and all named “Isabella” • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org

Music at the Gardner is supported by the Nora McNeely Hurley Foundation. The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial Concert; Scott Nickrenz Concert; Alford P. Rudnick Memorial Concert; David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder; Wendy Shattuck Young Artist Concert; and Willona Sinclair Memorial Concert. The piano is dedicated as the Alex d’Arbeloff Steinway. The harpsichord was generously donated by Dr. Robert Barstow in memory of Marion Huse, and its care is endowed in memory of Dr. Barstow by The Barstow Fund. Music at the Gardner is also supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Joseph Mari, Sallie and Jim McGregor, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.

Oct. 9: Composer and Multi-Instrumentalist David Crowell Releases This World and Another – New Album on Better Company Records

Composer and Multi-Instrumentalist David Crowell
Announces New Album This World and Another
Out on Better Company Records October 9

Featuring Pianist Vicky Chow, Guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi,
and Unheard-of Ensemble

“[David Crowell’s music] glistens, sparkles, and dances with joy.”
–John Lewis, The Guardian included in the “10 Best Contemporary Albums of 2024”

“Impressively diverse…wholly novel. [David] Crowell brings together musicians with whom he has collaborated in the past, creating a satisfying whole that will be essential for followers of post-minimalism and where it is going.” –AllMusic on David Crowell’s 2024 album Point / Cloud

“[David] Crowell focuses his integrity most upon what he can shape most effectively, where his ear goes, where the sound goes, on how he develops a sonic community.” –Arteidolia

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New York, NY – New York-based composer, saxophonist, and guitarist David Crowell announces This World and Another, a new album to be released on October 9, 2026 via Better Company Records. The album features his music performed by pianist Vicky Chow, guitarist Gregg Belisle-Chi, Unheard-of Ensemble, and Crowell himself, and includes the works Memories of the Imagined, Exoplanet, and This World and Another. The first single from the album, Memories of the Imagined (II), will be released on September 17, 2026.

Following the release of Point / Cloud in 2024, which The Guardian describes as “music that glistens, sparkles, and dances with joy,” the works on Crowell’s new album This World and Another consider the passage of time and how human memories – which have both essential truths and misremembered details – shape our perception of chronological movement and recollection of the past. “I recorded samples of the acoustic instrumentalists in each piece and then processed them into the electronics you hear on the album,” Crowell says. He describes each piece as representing an alternative reality, and as the artists perform they encounter a vision of themselves in the electronics, heavily altered but recognizable in the same way that people understand the distorted reality of their dreams.

Over the album’s ten tracks, Crowell shares three new works. Memories of the Imagined, composed for Unheard-of Ensemble harkens back to Point / Cloud’s finale, 2 Hours in Zadar. Both pieces feature singing cellist Iva Casian-Lakos alongside electronics, but Memories of the Imagined diverges from its predecessor in how it channels the floating, ethereal atmosphere into a more driven, frequently pulse-based musical world. “As the music progresses,” says Crowell, “performers are drawn progressively deeper into the complex, hazy swirl of electronics, only to emerge from the dream with cathartic clarity.”

“The contemplative, introspective nature of Memories of the Imagined is largely cast aside in Exoplanet,” says Crowell. While the music retains a degree of manipulated sampling, Crowell’s alto and tenor saxophones, alongside Gregg Belisle-Chi’s expressive guitar, embrace a heavy bassline and distinct beat-oriented direction, placing nostalgic saxophone loops and padded chordal textures at the forefront alongside dynamic and lively improvisation.

For the finale and the album’s title work, pianist Vicky Chow demonstrates stunning virtuosity as she navigates a dichotomy of electronic sounds, from noisy interruptions and interjections to graceful and melodic loops. Chow takes her piano on a sonic journey lined with disparate textures – metallic, chiming, glassy – an inspiring demonstration of transformation that encourages introspection and reflection. Crowell describes Chow’s elegant performance as “winding its way through a varied and occasionally intimidating landscape, ending the album as it began, with a beautifully played, introspective solo piano passage.”

This World and Another is a multilayered expression of sound, experience, memory, and the relationships that exist between each. The music showcases how these elements connect with and shape one another, uncovering new perspectives and highlighting the unique worlds – both internal and external – that form in the wake of writing, performing, and interpreting the music and stories David Crowell is striving to tell.

About David Crowell: David Crowell’s work crosses stylistic boundaries, encompassing contemporary classical composition, improvisation, jazz, and experimental rock and pop. Artistic processes vary piece by piece, from composing purely for acoustic instruments to the use of electronics and manipulations of originally sampled sound. Improvisation plays an important role in generating material, either to exist on its own terms or for later development in a more deliberate compositional manner. The New York Times has called his music “coiled and contained, but pulsing with small, ecstatic fibrillations.” His music has been released on New Amsterdam, Better Company, Innova, National Sawdust Tracks, Coviello Classics, and Skirl.

Crowell’s music has been performed at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, Park Avenue Armory, Bravo! Vail, Lucerne Festival Spotlights Series, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Dumbarton Oaks, Library of Congress, Phillips Collection, Kennedy Center REACH, Bang on a Can Summer Marathon, the London Jazz Festival, Cortona Sessions for New Music, Kultursommer Wien, Caramoor Festival, Cleveland International Classical Guitar Festival, American Music Festival (EMPAC), Tribeca New Music Festival, MATA Festival, National Sawdust, Merkin Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, Barbes, and Joe’s Pub. Commissioning ensembles and institutions have included A Far Cry, JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, New Morse Code, NOW Ensemble, icarus Quartet, Ensemble Illyrica, Dumbarton Oaks, Da Camera Los Angeles, Tribeca New MusicFestival, Arts at the Park, Boston Conservatory, University of Massachusetts, University of North Texas, University of Kentucky, and the University of Wisconsin.

Crowell’s music has been supported through composer fellowships, grants, and residencies at Dumbarton Oaks, New York State Council on the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Canada Council for the Arts, I-Park Foundation, Ellis-Beauregard Foundation, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Bang on a Can Summer Institute and the Mizzou International Composers Festival. He has presented numerous lectures on his work, including at Dumbarton Oaks, Manhattan School of Music, Duquesne University and California State University (Sacramento) where he was the featured composer at the Festival of New American Music.

As a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble (2007-16), and performing on saxophones and flute, Crowell toured four continents during the 2012-15 revival of Einstein on the Beach, cited by Alex Ross of The New Yorker as “the music event of the year ... a creation of timeless artifice ... whose beauty blazes on.” Crowell’s genre-defying, composer-led band, Empyrean Atlas, has been featured numerous times on WNYC’s New Sounds, and on Soundcheck for a live performance and interview with John Schaefer. Crowell received a PhD in composition at Stony Brook University and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Saxophone Performance from the Eastman School of Music.

Track List:

This World and Another
Music by David Crowell
Release Date: October 9, 2026
Better Company Records

Featuring David Crowell (Saxophone and Electronics), Vicky Chow (Piano), Gregg Belisle-Chi (Guitar), and Unheard-of Ensemble

1. Memories of the Imagined (I)
2. Memories of the Imagined (II)
3. Memories of the Imagined (III)
4. Memories of the Imagined (IV)

Performed By Unheard-Of Ensemble: Iva Casian-Lakos (Voice, Cello), Matheus Souza (Violin), Ford Fourqurean (Bass Clarinet), Daniel Anastasio (Piano).
Engineered By Mike Tierney at The Bunker, Brooklyn, NY.

5. Exoplanet

Performed by David Crowell (Saxophones), Gregg Belisle-Chi (Guitar).
Engineered by David Crowell at Kensington Manor, Brooklyn, NY.

6. This World and Another (I)
7. This World and Another (II)
8. This World and Another (Interlude)
9. This World and Another (III)
10. This World and Another (IV)

Performed by Vicky Chow (Piano).
Engineered by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY.

Total Time: [43:24]

David Crowell, electronics and saxophone; Vicky Chow, piano; Gregg Belisle-Chi, guitar; Unheard-of Ensemble: Ford Fourqurean, clarinet; Matheus Souza, violin; Iva Casian-Lakos, voice & cello; Daniel Anastasio, piano

All music by David Crowell
Produced and Mixed by David Crowell

Additional Mixing on Exoplanet by Christopher Botta

Mastered by Christopher Botta.
Cover Art by Rebecca Crowell
Album Design by Carlo Costa