Jensen Artists: Selected 2025 Albums for Year-End Roundup Consideration

Selected 2025 Albums for Year-End Roundup Consideration

Lei Liang
Dui (Islandia Records)
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Mystery Sonata
Aequora (Sono Luminus)
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Anna Thorvaldsdottir
UBIQUE (Sono Luminus)
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Leandra Ramm
Watching glass, I hear you (Ablaze Records)
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Matthew Aubin & the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra
Fernande Decruck / Concertante Works, Vol. 2 (Claves Records)
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Anton Mejias & Philip Lasser
The Art of Memory (Deutsche Grammophon)
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Ariel Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Vol. 1 (Orchid Records)
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Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers
UP by Riley Nicholson
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Benjamin Appl
For Dieter: The Past and The Future (Outhere Music)
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Simone Dinnerstein
Complicité (Supertrain Records)
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Maya Beiser
Salt (Islandia Music Records)
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Tamar Sagiv
Shades of Mourning (Sono Luminus)
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Telegraph Quartet
Edge of the Storm (Azica Records)
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Ember
Birds of Paradise (Azica Records)
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Arlene Sierra
Birds and Insects Vol. 4 (Bridge Records)
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Christopher Stark
Fire Ecologies (New Focus Recordings)
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Ensemble Galilei
There I Long to Be (Sono Luminus)
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Clarice Jensen
In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness (FatCat / 130701)
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Ariel Quartet
Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete String Quartets Vol. 2 (Orchid Records)
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Lei Liang – Dui | February 14, 2025 (Islandia Records)
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The Best New Albums Out February 14, 2025 –​​ NPR Music, All Songs Considered 

“Chinese-American composer Lei Liang’s eclectic collection of ten thematic tracks could pass as a soundtrack to an artistic, surrealist film or an intense, psychological drama.” – John Tamillo, The Arts Fuse

“[Dui] is intensely absorbing in the way it invites prolonged immersion and engagement. It is, simply put, a recording of fulsome rewards, and listeners will come away from it feeling well-compensated for their investments of time and attention.” – Ron Schepper, Textura

Dui, is a portrait album of the music of Chinese-American composer Lei Liang. The new record features performances by Maya Beiser, cello; Wu Man, pipa; Steven Schick, percussion; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Zhe Lin, percussion; Mark Dresser, contrabass; and loadbang (Andy Kozar, trumpet; William Lang, trombone; Carlos Cordeiro, bass clarinet; and Jeffrey Gavett, baritone). The album’s title Dui, 對, means “to face.” Dui stages instruments and performance as elements of surprise from distant worlds.

Lei Liang is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, an Aaron Copland Award, a Koussevitzky Foundation Commission, a Creative Capital Award, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He writes about the music on this album, “Composing offers me a chance to explore and foster deeply personal relationships, including the relationship with my own cultural and spiritual heritage. It also presents me the opportunity to face seemingly insurmountable challenges. Who am I without my cultural heritage and without my friendships? I like to think of my music as the ultimate tribute to the past and present bonds that have shaped my life and given it meaning. All of the works on this album were written for and performed by artists who have inspired me. The challenge in composing each piece, however, is unique.”

Mystery Sonata – Aequora | February 28, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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“Carrettin and Gajić work seamlessly as a team, and they bring expressive acuity and technical prowess” – Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone

The Best New Albums Out February 28, 2025 –​​ NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“These composers [on Aequora] may be known to those who follow the contemporary Iceland scene, but most, with the possible exception of Anna Thorvaldsdottir, are going to be new to listeners. That is just one good reason to check the album out; another is the crystal clear sound from Sono Luminus, catching Carrettin's delicate work in his highest register.” – James Manheim, AllMusic

Until the release of Aequora on Sono Luminus, pianist Mina Gajić and violinist Zachary Carrettin have recorded under their given names, occasionally performing live under the duo’s moniker, Mystery Sonata, especially in non-classical settings presenting a diversity of repertoire and styles. Aequora is the first recording the married duo have released as Mystery Sonata, embracing the inherent mystery in presenting contemporary music and new arrangements for the first time. The album is inspired by Iceland and the cultural legacy of its music, featuring works by several prominent Icelandic composers, including Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Daníel Bjarnason, María Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson.

Mina Gajić writes, “Zachary and I traveled to Iceland to experience the landscapes and to meet with several composers, exploring their work and observing where the connections between their interests and ours as a duo seemed congruous. María had been wanting to rework her Aequora, adding a violin to the piano and electronics, and Páll Ragnar Pálsson had been imagining adapting the harp part for piano in his work Notre Dame. Both turned out to be remarkably successful, and rewarding to study and perform. In exploring works to program alongside these, Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s Reminiscence and Daníel Bjarnason’sFirst Escape worked beautifully – solos complementing the other works while providing refreshing contrast to the duo works. We asked Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir to create an entirely new work for us with the goal of providing a contemplative environment for the audience, as a shared meditation, a community-building ritual. She composed an utterly gorgeous work, Re/fractions, casting light on what is possible when the intention is, as she so eloquently stated when we first met, ‘to refrain from adding noise to an already noisy world.’”

Anna Thorvaldsdottir – UBIQUE | February 28, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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“If you don’t know Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s music, you’re in for a real treat. If you had to create a soundtrack for geologic plate tectonics or the lifespan of dwarf stars, and galaxies, and black holes, you might go to Anna Thorvaldsdottir. She’s concerned with big blocks of sound and textures and here, this small group of instruments sounds much bigger than it is.” – Tom Huizenga, NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“There’s an elusive mixture of ritual and instinct to the writing that eschews traditional structure; and while it may not draw direct inspiration from nature in the way that much of Thorvaldsdottir’s music does, there’s no missing its raw unpredictability, with passages of lyric contemplation dissolving into harrowing dissonance.” – Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily

“[Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s] music has a uniquely powerful magnetism.” – Peter Burwasser, The Absolute Sound

Anna Thorvaldsdottir releases the world premiere recording of UBIQUE on Sono Lumiunus, an evening-length chamber work, which was co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Cheswatyr Foundation, Kurt Chauviere, and Density Arts for Claire Chase’s Density 2036 project. The world premiere was given in May 2023 at Carnegie Hall, performed by Claire Chase, flutes; Katinka Kleijn and Seth Parker Woods, cellos; and Cory Smythe, piano; with Levy Lorenzo, live sound. The same musicians recorded the music for this new album.

Anna writes of the piece, “UBIQUE is inspired by the notion of being everywhere at the same time, an enveloping omnipresence, while simultaneously focusing on details within the density of each particle, echoed in various forms of fragmentation and interruption and in the sustain of certain elements of a sound beyond their natural resonance – throughout the piece, sounds are both reduced to their smallest particles and their atmospheric presence expanded towards the Infinite. As with my music generally, the inspiration is not something I am trying to describe through the music as such – it is a way to intuitively approach and work with the core energy, structure, atmosphere and material of the piece.”

Leandra Ramm – Watching glass, I hear you (Featuring the World Premiere Recording of Centuries in the Hours by Lisa Bielawa) | February 28, 2025 (Ablaze Records)
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“Each song [in Centuries in the Hours] is given the first name of the woman whose diary notes are being used. The moods and subjects vary and the women featured age from thirteen to thirty-eight years. These are beautifully written and the vocal and piano writing is very effective.” – Geoff Pearce, Classical Music Daily

The world premiere recording of Centuries in the Hours, a song cycle by composer, producer, and vocalist Lisa Bielawa, is on Watching glass, I hear you, the new album from mezzo-soprano Leandra Ramm, released on Ablaze Records. Bielawa’s song cycle illuminates the lives of American women by setting selections from women’s diaries spanning three centuries. The album also includes song cycles by composers Cyril Deaconoff, Daron Hagen, Douglas Knehans, and David T. Little. All of the works except for Deaconoff’s songs are premiere recordings.

Of the origin of Centuries in the Hours, Bielawa says, “While at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, MA, I uncovered an entire alternative American history, woven together through the experiences of women from all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, of all ages, from all corners of the US and its nascent territories, and from all chapters of our history. I eventually read 72 diaries, representing staggering diversity . . These women showed me an America that was completely unknown to me, invisible yet fully lived, behind the doors and in the corners, for centuries.”

Each song in Bielawa’s Centuries in the Hours reflects the experiences of a different American woman whose life circumstances rendered her historically invisible. The stories of the women represented include Emily French, a divorced and impoverished house cleaner in the 1890s; Betsey Stockton, a formerly enslaved woman en route to Hawai’i in the 1820s; Angeles Monrayo Raymundo, a Filipina teenager in the 1920s with great ambition; Sallie McNeill, a plantation owner’s daughter in Civil War-era Texas; and Sarah Wister, a Revolutionary War-era girl whose family fled Philadelphia. ​​The project meditates on the theme of invisibility: How do we, through performance, make visible the invisible, make things vivid in unexpected ways? To that end, it brings to light written words of women who were “invisible” in their social milieu.

Matthew Aubin & The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra – Fernande Decruck / Concertante Works, Vol. 2 | March 7, 2025 (Claves Records)
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“This is not just another good recording of music with which you are already familiar, it’s an excellent recording of excellent music that you’ve never heard before but would most likely enjoy if you did – and is thus most enthusiastically recommended.” – Karl Nehring, Classical Candor

”[...] All the soloists play with flair and engagement and the Jackson Symphony acquits itself well, Aubin directing with awareness of the modest emotional parameters of Decruck’s music. The recording has been aptly judged too and the conductor’s notes are helpfully to the point." – Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb International

Claves Records releases the world premiere recordings of four works by French composer Fernande Decruck (1896-1954) on Concertante Works Volume 2, featuring the Jackson Symphony Orchestra (Michigan) alongside soloists Jeremy Crosmer, cello; Mitsuru Kubo, viola; and Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord, conducted by Matthew Aubin. The album includes the first commercial recordings of Decruck’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra (1932); Sonata in C# for Alto Saxophone (or Viola) and Orchestra (1943) with viola soloist; The Bells of Vienna: Suite of Waltzes (1935); and The Trianons: Suite for Harpsichord (or Piano) and Orchestra (1946).

For the last decade, Dr. Matthew Aubin (Music Director of the Jackson Symphony Orchestra), has championed efforts to bring Decruck’s music back to orchestral performances, giving orchestras further access and insight into her brilliant work through these recordings and by editing and creating critical editions of her music, published by Éditions Billaudot. As the foremost scholar on Decruck’s music, he has earned multiple research grants to study her significant life and work, and has worked closely with her family

“The works on this album are a diverse representation of Decruck's many compositional voices,” Aubin says. “They're sure to find a place on many a future orchestral program.”

Anton Mejias & Philip Lasser – The Art of Memory | March 28, 2025 (Deutsche Grammophon)
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The Best New Albums Out March 28, 2025 –​​ NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“[T]he rumors about Mejias are true. He keeps up a combination of high energy and deep detail in these much-recorded pieces, and his work is quite pianistic without applying pedals or much else other than articulation. One awaits both further recordings from Mejias and especially his further format experiments.” – James Manheim, AllMusic

“As for Mejias’ Bach pianism, there’s much to savor.” – Jed Distler, Gramophone (June, 2025)

On The Art of Memory – a bold, live recording from the Dresdner Musikfestspiele – Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias deftly interweaves the music of Philip Lasser and J.S. Bach for his first solo album. Mejias takes listeners on a journey that reveals both composers' music in a new light. Lasser’s Twelve Preludes: The Art of Memory was co-commissioned for Mejias by the Dresdner Musikfestspiele and Newport Classical. The album features the world premiere recording of Philip Lasser's Twelve Preludes: The Art of Memory, a companion piece to Book II of J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

J.S. Bach has fascinated Anton Mejias, who is considered one of the most exciting talents on the international classical scene, since his childhood. He says, “In performing Bach I strive to emphasize the incredibly rich emotional side and the heart of the music, without overlooking the intellectual side and the style of the music. The most beautiful thing is that these two sides belong together and it is not about one or the other, but about the fact that both can enrich the other enormously.”

Ariel Quartet – Complete Beethoven String Quartets Vol. 1 | April 7, 2025 (Orchid Records)
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“[A]n invigorating take [by the Ariel Quartet,] on a repertory staple that restores a sense of lightness and unpredictability to works written by a composer who was just getting started in revolutionizing the string quartet genre.” – Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times

“Yet no one [can] deny the physical and intellectual energy of the Ariel [Quartet’s] playing or their sheer technical brilliance. That counts for a lot in Beethoven.” – Richard Wigmore, Gramophone (July 2025)

The Ariel Quartet (Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; Jan Grüning, viola; and Amit Even-Tov, cello) – distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned performances – will release the complete Beethoven String Quartets over two years, culminating in 2027, the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death. For the first volume of the series, the recording includes: Beethoven’s Op. 18 string quartets over 2 CDs – on CD 1, String Quartet in F major, Op.18 No.1; String Quartet in D major, Op.18 No. 3; and String Quartet in B-flat major, Op.18 No. 6; and on CD 2, String Quartet in G major, Op.18 No. 2; String Quartet in C minor, Op.18 No. 4; and String Quartet in A major, Op.18 No. 5.

Formed when the members were just teenagers studying at the Jerusalem Academy Middle School of Music and Dance in Israel, the Ariel Quartet has a long history with the quartets of Beethoven. His String Quartet in C minor, Op.18 No.4 was the very first piece that the group tackled together as thirteen year olds, and the members credit the work for hooking them on the genre, for life.

Of Beethoven’s Op. 18 set, composed between 1798 and 1800, the Ariel writes, “[W]e hear a young Beethoven proving himself on the battleground of his teachers and peers, Haydn and Mozart, while signaling a bold move toward new musical horizons. . . Zooming in and familiarizing ourselves with Haydn’s and Mozart’s quartets of the time, we quickly understand that Beethoven’s set – while adhering to the same rules and principles – is distinctly ‘Beethovenian.’ While this impression can be broken down into factors such as motive-driven development, emotional contrasts, his characteristic expanded harmonic language, structural experimentation etc., the big achievement was his ability to unify these elements into a compositional language that expresses extraordinary emotional depth.”

Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers – UP (by Riley Nicholson) | April 25, 2025 (Independent)
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“I was impressed by the quality of reproduction of the thick textures of this keyboard music.” – Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio

Featured on One Jazz as part of Fuse, with Debra Richards (March 29, 2025)

Pianists Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers have recorded composer D. Riley Nicholson’s UP for two pianos, a work that they commissioned in 2020. Cahill and Myers gave the world premiere performance of the piece at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in September 2022, before recording UP at SFCM in 2024.

Nicholson writes of the work, “UP’s one unifying theme is simply that, ‘up.’ The piece moves ‘up’ in so many directions: literally, opening with an upward motif that gets pinged between pianos in a groovy, dizzying counterpoint; gradually with increasing frequency moving up the circle of fifths; with upbeat syncopations and tempi; constantly one upping itself with a burgeoning energy that trips over itself with virtuosic fits; and many other upward motions and themes. Loosely akin to a theme and variations, each movement is a different interpretation of the theme ‘up,’ and given the frenetic energy of every moment, tranquil interludes provide a necessary buffer between the movements, and give the performers a chance to catch their breath. Even with the addition of these palette cleansing interludes, the entirety of the work is a manic trip that both explores joyous energy and that darker underbelly of positivity when energy and motion become simply too much to be contained.”

Of their shared experience commissioning, performing, and recording UP, Cahill and Myers say,

“When we first spoke with Riley about commissioning a new work from him, we had no idea that it would turn into an epic four-movement piece, which we have grown to know and love as a great work of artistic expression. UP reflects Riley's own style at the piano, with brilliant rapid passagework and interlocking patterns, and it took us several years to find our way into his stylistic approach with all its complexity and intricacy. It's a beautifully powerful piece, and even a global pandemic couldn't stop its path of coming into the world. We are so fortunate to work with Riley, both as a marvelous composer and as an excellent producer of this new album!”

Benjamin Appl – For Dieter: The Past and The Future | May 23, 2025 (Outhere Music)
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“For Dieter is a loving and emotional tribute. And one that will have you not only exploring more of Appl’s work, but also Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

“Benjamin Appl’s tone and expressivity is gorgeous, and you couldn’t ask for better accompaniment than the playing of James Baillieu. But this album is more than that, a meticulous tribute to the great Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau that paints a portrait of the baritone’s life, from pieces he made famous, to obscure songs written by his own family members. A beautiful tribute to one of the most important artists of the 20th century.” – Weston Williams, WFMT

German baritone Benjamin Appl pays tribute to his teacher and mentor, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925-2012), with For Dieter: The Past and The Future, released by Alpha Classics.The repertoire on this monumental release is structured to reflect the major stages of Fischer-Dieskau’s incredible life and includes compositions by his family members Albert and Klaus Fischer-Dieskau, repertoire he sang as a soldier during World War II and as an American Prisoner of War in Italy, and pieces that were composed especially for him, as well as favourite lieder by Schubert. Appl is joined on the recording by one of his frequent collaborators, pianist James Baillieu. ​

Appl writes of his experience working on this project: “It is thanks to curating this 100th anniversary celebratory album and related concerts that I have been able to spend countless hours over the past months and years studying an immense number of his letters, contracts, programmes, diary entries, photo albums and books. These were very personal moments for me, as they brought me closer not only to Fischer-Dieskau the artist but even more so to the man himself; they sharpened my memories of character traits I knew so well and also allowed me to observe new facets of his multi-lavered personality. This project is intended to provide a subjective representation of Fischer-Dieskau as well as to give an insight into the man behind all the great successes and accolades, and onto what moved him and what shaped him as a human being.”

Simone Dinnerstein – Complicité | May 30, 2025 (Supertrain Records)
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“[Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn] spend a pleasant hour gently experimenting with and rethinking a neatly chosen sequence of compositions by Bach.” – Lindsay Kemp, Gramophone

“With Dinnerstein spearheading the project, Complicité registers strongly. Not only are the performances terrific, the music impresses for being more than faithful replications of existing scores but instead arresting re-imaginings that take Bach's pieces into dynamic new realms. The pianist's talent for inspiring those around her is also clearly evident in the engaged performances by [Baroklyn] and the contributions of [Peggy] Pearson and [Jennifer Johnson] Cano.” – Ron Schepper, Textura

“I was seduced by the sound world of this album. There is a relaxed yet sincere quality to the performances that conveys the artists’ desire to make this music feel contemporary and accessible. This is music among friends with the listener feeling very welcome and wishing the evening would not end.” – Oliver Camacho, WFMT

Complicité, out now on Supertrain Records, is the fifteenth album from GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein. This is Simone's first album with the string ensemble she founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, her home borough).

It includes Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053 and his chorales Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617 and Der Leib war in der Erden, BWV 161 (both arranged by Dinnerstein and Baroklyn); Bach’s Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust with continuo realization by Philip Lasser; and In the Air, Lasser’s recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String. Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore, join Simone's and Baroklyn on this deeply felt recording, which embodies Dinnerstein’s artistic vision that music should always be creative and new.

Of the album title, Simone says, “Complicité is a term that I first heard from my son, who studied the teachings of the French theatre practitioner, Jacques Lecoq. Three important ideas that Lecoq communicated to his students were le jeu (playfulness), complicité (togetherness), and disponsibilité (openness). I was so intrigued by these ideas, and the different exercises that my son learned in order to cultivate these skills within ensemble acting, that I decided to try a Lecoq approach with my own musical ensemble, Baroklyn.”

Maya Beiser – Salt | August 1, 2025 (Islandia Music Records)
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“Beiser has built a career around challenging traditional notions of how her instrument is played and thought about in a sometimes stiflingly rigid classical music industry that has traditionally imposed higher barriers on women.” – Leila Fadel, NPR Morning Edition

“Salt is an emotionally charged meditation on memory, mourning and mythic womanhood.” – Thomas May, The Strad

“an extraordinary album that reinforces [Maya] Beiser’s status as one of the most innovative—and intriguing—string players on the contemporary music scene.” – Greg Cahill, Strings

Cellist and producer Maya Beiser, hailed as a “force of nature” by The Boston Globe, released her newest solo album, Salt, on her Islandia Music Records label. This conceptually rich collection centers around the biblical figure of Lot's Wife, exploring themes of memory, witness, and the cost of remembering. On her new album, Maya gives voice to this nameless biblical figure who, for her, became “a symbol of all the women who have been punished for remembering, for feeling too much, for refusing to move on. I imagined her not as a cautionary tale, but as a witness. A woman who couldn’t unsee what she had loved. A woman who dared to turn around.”

The album features Missy Mazzoli's Salt, a powerful mini-opera for alto voice, amplified cello and electronics, featuring text by celebrated screenwriter Erin Cressida Wilson and vocals by the extraordinary performer Helga Davis; Bieser’s arrangements of Gluck’s Melody from Orfeo ed Euridice, Tavener's Lament to Phaedra and Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna; Salt Air, Salt Earth by Clarice Jensen; and Bieser’s reimagining of Meredith Monk's Hocket; her reconstruction of Shedemati, a song from Beiser’s childhood in Israel, performed with the compelling vocal artist Odeya Nini; and Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth, Purcell's When I Am Laid in Earth.

Tamar Sagiv – Shades of Mourning | August 8, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
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The Best New Albums Out August 8, 2025 –​​ NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“Stylistically, [Tamar Sagiv’s] solo music is melodic and oddly timeless, and indeed placeless, somehow evoking both Bach and Dave Holland.” – Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine

“An impressive debut that fuses performance talents and composition in an unusual and fresh way.” – James Manheim, All Music

“Shades of Mourning showcases [Tamar Sagiv’s] virtuosic command of the cello, and she uses that technique to amplify the emotional expression of the material.” – Ron Schepper, Textura

New York City-based cellist and composer Tamar Sagiv releases her new album, Shades of Mourning, on the GRAMMY-winning label Sono Luminus. The album features nine original compositions by Sagiv that explore the multifaceted nature of grief and mourning through deeply personal musical landscapes. Violinist Leerone Hakami and violist Ella Bukszpan collaborate with Sagiv on four of the tracks.

Described by New York Weekly as "an innovative cellist [whose] versatility sets her apart from her peers," Sagiv was drawn to music's unique ability to convey the nuance of complex emotions and lived experiences. Each work on the album illuminates different aspects of the grieving process, from profound loss to unexpected moments of renewal.

Shades of Mourning began in the most intimate of circumstances. "This album began, unknowingly, at my grandmother's deathbed," Sagiv writes in her liner notes. "I didn't realize then that the piece I wrote while she was taking her last breaths would grow into an album, nor did I yet know I was a composer." That first piece became the album's opening track – a passacaglia that Sagiv describes as "a farewell to a woman who shaped my life in ways I'm still uncovering."

Tina Davidson – Let Your Heart Be Broken (Audiobook) | August 12, 2025 (Boyle & Dalton)
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“The real music here is in the words, which cascade across these pages with a gentle, precise rhythm reflected in Davidson’s luminous musical scores. Let Your Heart Be Broken is not the story of a solitary artist obsessed with a craft but rather of the life that informs the art: a humanistic, worldly spirit, creating beauty amid an often-maddening, yet ever-hopeful, world.” – Peter Burwasser, Broad Street Review

Composer and author Tina Davidson’s memoir, Let Your Heart Be Broken, is now available in audiobook format on all major platforms via publisher Boyle & Dalton. The audiobook, read by Davidson herself, features her music woven throughout, interspersed in sections where she discusses the compositions’ creation. This rare look inside a composer’s creative process juxtaposes recordings of Davidson’s music, memories, journal entries, and insights into the life of an artist and mother at work. Let Your Heart Be Broken was published in hardback and paperback in 2023.

“Part of my commitment as a composer is to bring others into my musical world, both through the music itself and by writing about my creative process,” says Tina Davidson. “By weaving my compositions into the chapters of this audiobook containing my journals, I'm creating a bridge between my inner creative practice and the finished work, opening the door for listeners to understand and connect more deeply.”

Davidson, a highly regarded American composer, creates music that stands out for its emotional depth and lyrical dignity. Lauded for her authentic voice, The New York Times has praised her “vivid ear for harmony and colors.”

Telegraph Quartet – 20th Century Vantage Points: Edge of the Storm | August 22, 2025 (Azica Records)
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“Nimble and cohesive, the Telegraph Quartet plays these works with utter conviction, revealing music that, haunted by destruction, insists on forward motion.” – Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, The New York Times

“Edge of the Storm builds on the Telegraph’s reputation for intellectually searching and emotionally charged interpretations. Now quartet-in-residence with the University of Michigan, the ensemble – violinists Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violist Pei-Ling Lin, and cellist Jeremiah Shaw – approaches this music not simply as a historical document, but as a living challenge to engage with the past.” – Thomas May, The Strad

“An impressive series of performances that are not for the faint-of-heart.” – Gary Lemco, The Arts Fuse

The Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) releases its new album, Edge of the Storm, on Azica Records. Edge of the Storm follows the Telegraph Quartet's acclaimed 2023 album Divergent Paths as the second volume in its 20th-Century Vantage Points series. Where the first volume featuring the quartets of Ravel and Schoenberg explored the century's opening decade of unbridled creativity, this new installment examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg.

On Edge of the Storm, the Telegraph delves into the brief but historically significant ten-year period of 1941-51. As Kai Christiansen writes in the liner notes, “Each composer featured on the album lived a unique wartime life that unmistakably influenced their equally unique quartet masterworks of the period.” Together, these quartets form a powerful triptych of wartime experience: Britten's exile and displacement, Weinberg's direct confrontation with genocide and loss, and Bacewicz's emergence from underground resistance into post-war renewal. Each composer's unique response to this defining historical moment creates a cohesive artistic statement about creativity's persistence through one of humanity's darkest periods.

Ember – Birds of Paradise | September 12, 2025 (Azica Records)
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“Written in 1901, [Henriette Renié's] Trio's four movements draw on the style of late 19th century French Romanticism with elements of the modernist ideas that were also developing, conveyed here in an interpretation that is evocative but never mannered.” – Roger Thomas, BBC Music Magazine

“It would be reductionist to say that this is an album showcasing women’s voices. It is so much more than that. Birds of Paradise is a wonderfully evocative and engaging 48 minutes of music performed exquisitely.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

“The principal composition on the album is a trio in B-flat major composed by Henriette Renié…The instrumentation allows for a piano in place of a harp, but the plucked-string sonorities of the harp make for an engaging contrast with the two bowed instruments.” – Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio

Ember (harpist, Emily Levin, violinist Julia Choi, and cellist Christine Lamprea) is an ensemble of modern trailblazers championing new works by living composers and forging paths of connection and community through intimate, personalized concert experiences. The trio’s debut album – Birds of Paradise, released on Azica Records – showcases three compelling works: French harpist and composer Henriette Renié's groundbreaking Trio in B-flat Major (1901), the first major composition written for harp, violin, and cello; the world premiere recording of Angélica Negrón’s Ave del paraíso (2023); and the first recording of Reena Esmail’s Saans (2017) in this new arrangement for harp, violin, and cello created for Ember.“

Birds of Paradise directly confronts the historical stereotyping of the harp as a "feminine" domestic instrument. As Emily Levin explains in the album notes, while the harp was once "considered suitable for the domestic sphere,” its transition to the concert hall was largely championed by male performers playing works by male composers, often overlooking the revolutionary contributions of women performers and composers.

Arlene Sierra – Birds and Insects Vol. 4 (Featuring the World Premiere Recording of Birds and Insects: Book 3 by Sarah Cahill) | September 5, 2025 (Bridge Records)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

"This is music that you need to hear for yourself... Arlene Sierra’s gift is unquestionably brilliant." – Dominy Clements, MusicWeb International

“This is rigorously modern music that is directly appealing, something that is no small accomplishment.” – James Manheim, AllMusic

"Whether you are familiar with the sounds of the titmouse or the black and white warbler or tawny owls, Sierra’s approach to giving them a musical work is enjoyable and provocative.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

Arlene Sierra’s Birds and Insects Vol. 4 is out now on Bridge Records. This is the fourth volume of Sierra’s work recorded as part of Bridge Records’ Portrait Series. The album features pianist Sarah Cahill’s world premiere recording of Birds and Insects: Book 3, as well as the world premiere recordings of Birds and Insects Books 1 and 2, recorded by pianist Steven Beck. Sierra composed Birds and Insects: Book 3 for Cahill in 2022, commissioned by London’s Barbican Centre as part of Cahill’s The Future is Female project.

Sierra's Birds and Insects comprises three books of 5 movements each, composed across a twenty-year period. Like much of her work, it centers on the natural world, addressing the subjects of landscape, evolutionary biology, and the sounds, processes and behavior of birds and insects. Sierra writes, “Each piece features distinct characteristics to fit its title: spelling the name in pitches, employing a transcription of an animal’s song from nature, recalling its physical movement in various ways, or developing ideas drawn from an animal’s cultural symbolism.”

Cahill says: “It was an honor to work with Arlene Sierra on these fascinating pieces which she wrote for my project The Future is Female at the Barbican in 2022, and to make the first recording of them. Arlene was inspired by the female Lovely Fairywren and Canyon Wren who sing. She explains that birdsong was always considered the exclusive domain of male birds because they were only studied by male ornithologists, but that recently female ornithologists have proven that female birds sing as well.”

Christopher Stark – Fire Ecologies | September 19, 2025 (New Focus Recordings)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

The Best New Albums Out September 19, 2025 –​​ NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“The blend of music and recordings begins its life in the haunting opening track. The subsequent pieces reflect tones that are whimsical, ominous and conclude with a sense of renewal.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

“You can be dazzled in the comfort of your home, as Unheard-of//Ensemble has released a stunning recording of [Christopher] Stark’s piece.” – Jeremy Shatan, anEarful

Fire Ecologies is the new album from Christopher Stark – Rome Prize-winning composer, curator, and Associate Professor of Composition at Washington University in St. Louis. This new recording is released on New Focus Recordings and performed by New York based chamber group Unheard-of Ensemble – Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), Daniel Anastasio (piano). The work was premiered on September 18, 2021 by Unheard-of Ensemble at the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY.

In the nearly four years since its premiere, Fire Ecologies has been performed several times throughout the United States with two of its most noteworthy performances taking place at two New York City based EPA Superfund sites. These locations add to the statement of the work itself, aiming to move the conversation about climate change beyond the walls of the concert hall and into nature, striving to bring more attention to the places that need more urgent preservation efforts.

Fire Ecologies incorporates field recordings of the 2020 California wildfires and sounds from Stark’s travels around the U.S. “Nature has always been a central theme in my work because I grew up in western Montana in a very small town at the base of the Rocky Mountains and on the southern shore of a large glacial lake,” Stark writes in an article for Washington University in St. Louis. “But in recent years the inspiration I take from nature has become more complicated as climate change has begun to haunt our planet.”

Made up of six “scenes,” Fire Ecologies evokes many contrasting moods through each one.

“They take their titles from pre-existing, nature-inspired music in an attempt to recontextualize these old pieces through the contemporary lens of global warming,” writes Stark. “For example, the second scene is called Jeux d’eau ( Water Games) after Maurice Ravel, and the fifth scene is called “Dypt inne i barskogen” (“Deep in the Forest”) after Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt.”

Carolyn Surrick & Ensemble Galilei – There I Long to Be | September 26, 2025 (Sono Luminus)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

The Best New Albums Out September 26, 2025 –​​ NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“[Ensemble Galilei’s] sound defies genre classification.” – Frank Housh, Media Room

Ensemble Galilei is a small ensemble specializing in a wide range of music for their particular instrumentation, and includes Isaac Alderson (uilleann pipes, Irish flute, whistles, tenor saxophone), Jesse Langen (guitar), Kathryn Montoya (recorders, whistle, shawm), Jackie Moran (banjo, bodhrán, egg shaker; and founder Carolyn Surrick (viola da gamba). The group performs Renaissance and Baroque, Ancient and recent Celtic (including Scots, Welsh, Cornish, Breton, and Galician music), and Irish music, including some works especially written for them. The ensemble is named after Vincenzo Galilei (ca. 1520-1592), a pioneer in the Greek-inspired movement that created “opera in musica.” He is credited as both simplifying and bringing passion back into music, and was also a leading theoretician of his time. (His son, Galileo Galilei, was the great astronomer.)

Featuring 47 tunes across 34 tracks on two discs, There I Long to Be, the new album from esteemed folk collective Ensemble Gllilei, contains an abundance of jigs, reels, traditional tunes, and early music, as well as works by members of the Ensemble. In addition to the five regular Ensemble members, this recording also features Hanneke Cassel (fiddle, and Ensemble Galilei emeritus member), Tim Langen (fiddle), Ronn McFarlane (lute), and James Oxley (tenor).

Recorded over the course of two years, the music on There I Long to Be encompasses a wide range of musical styles, cultures, and time periods – a combination of the musicians’ individual interests and the group’s focus. What unites it is an artistic vision that is inspired and undeterred, and unique to Ensemble Galilei.

Clarice Jensen – In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness | October 17, 2025 (FatCat/130701 Records)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

“With this album, [Clarice] Jensen reminds us how past and present can combine in potent, emotionally charged ways — how Bach's old school traditions and our new age of electronics can make arresting bedfellows.” – Tom Huizenga, NPR Music

“There is music with the power to transport you instantly into another world—and Clarice Jensen's new album, In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, is most certainly among it. Even the title (inspired by a line from Rilke) feels like a promise: something emerging from the darkness, radiant, dressed in festive attire. And that is precisely how it's supposed to be, when you allow yourself to be drawn into Jensen's soundscapes.” – Sounds Vegan

“Even the most accessible work in the evolving oeuvre of cellist and composer Clarice Jensen is experimental, because it’s about venturing somewhere new. In holiday clothing out of the great darkness moves her sound forward through improvisation, as she uses cello, pedals, and electronics to create loops and layers. The result is a wealth of tonal variety[.]” – Marc Masters, Bandcamp

Cellist and composer Clarice Jensen releases her fourth solo album, In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, via FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint. The new album showcases Jensen’s distinctive compositional approach, in which she improvises and layers her cello through shifting loops and a chain of electronic effects, exploring a series of rich, drone-based sound fields. Pulsing, visceral and full of color, her work is deeply immersive, marked by a wonderful sense of restraint and an almost hallucinatory clarity. Jensen recorded In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness as part of the Visiting Artist Programme at Studio Richter Mahr, the creative space co-founded by Yulia Mahr and Max Richter in Oxfordshire, England.

With In holiday clothing, out of the great darkness, Jensen sets new parameters – placing the acoustic sound of the cello at the fore and affecting the sound only through a few effects (octave displacement, delay, tremolo and looping). Jensen considers the solo cello works of J.S. Bach as a central backdrop to this new album. Bach’s Solo Cello Suites display a rich range of voices created by one instrument. Having found ways to expand the sound and voice of the instrument through electronics, Jensen found it fitting to return to Bach's works – music she has played for many years – as a way to touch back in with the tradition of the instrument. She notes, “It felt necessary to return to the rich acoustic sound of the cello that I've loved and produced for nearly my entire life, and to return to an expression of emotion that's multi-dimensional and sincere.”

Ariel Quartet – Complete Beethoven String Quartets Vol. 2 | November 7, 2025 (Orchid Records)
Listen on Apple Music

“One of the finest musical ensembles performing today, noted for its sophisticated, passionate sound.” – Frank Housh, Media Room

The Ariel Quartet (Alexandra Kazovsky, violin; Gershon Gerchikov, violin; Jan Grüning, viola; and Amit Even-Tov, cello) – distinguished by its virtuosity, probing musical insight, and impassioned performances – will release volume two of their Complete Beethoven String Quartets trilogy on November 7, 2025 via Orchid Classics, with volume three arriving in June 2026 and a special box set release in March 2027.

Volume two of the cycle, recorded across three CDs, includes Beethoven’s Razumovsky Quartets – String Quartet No. 7 in F major, Op. 59 No. 1; String Quartet No. 9 in C major, Op. 59 No. 3; and String Quartet No. 8 in E minor, Op. 59 No. 2 – as well as his String Quartet No. 10 in E-flat major, Op. 74; and String Quartet No.11 in F minor, Op. 95, “Quartetto serioso.”

The Quartet recounts an early experience with Beethoven’s Op. 59, the Razumovsky Quartets, which left a long-lasting impression.

They write, “A memorable milestone in our personal journey with Beethoven was a concert at Frankfurt’s Kaisersaal during the 1999-2000 season, where we performed all three Razumovsky Quartets in a single evening. At sixteen, we approached the challenge with youthful excitement, and through countless hours in rehearsal we began to understand the depth and demands of this music – gradually developing not only the stamina, but the artistic maturity required to bring over two hours of this intricate music to life. Youthful enthusiasm (let’s be honest: fearlessness) alone allowed us to commit to the repertoire for this important concert without hesitation – and luckily, all went well. In hindsight, preparing this music for increasingly demanding opportunities played a crucial role in forging a confident and lasting relationship with this extraordinary canon.”

Dec. 6: Pianist Charlotte Hu Presented by Lynn University Conservatory of Music – Performing the Music of Chopin, Granados, and Debussy

Photo by Dario Acosta available in high resolution here.

Pianist Charlotte Hu
Presented by Lynn University Conservatory of Music
Performing the Music of Frédéric Chopin,
Enrique Granados, and Claude Debussy

Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 7:30pm
Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall (inside de Hoernle International Center)
3601 North Military Trail | Boca Raton, FL
Tickets and information

“praises follow [Charlotte Hu] all around the world” – International Piano

charlottehu.com

Boca Raton, FL – Internationally acclaimed Taiwanese-American pianist Charlotte Hu will be presented in concert by Lynn University Conservatory of Music on Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 7:30pm. The performance will be held in Amarnick-Goldstein Concert Hall, which is inside de Hoernle International Center (3601 N Military Trl ). Charlotte Hu (formerly known as Ching-Yun Hu) has been praised by audiences and critics across the globe for her dazzling virtuosity, captivating musicianship, and magnetic stage presence.

With a fierce dedication to making classical music more accessible, Hu presents captivating programs that tell human stories inclusive of gender and race. By juxtaposing audience favorites with underperformed treasures and newly commissioned works, Charlotte Hu’s recitals consistently offer musical and narrative contrasts that encourage people to listen deeply and discover anew the work of even the most well-known composers.

For this Saturday evening performance, Hu will perform a program dedicated to the music of Frédéric Chopin, Enrique Granados, and Claude Debussy. This program highlights Hu’s past and future, as the Romantic era Polish pianist and composer was the primary inspiration behind her debut solo album Chopin, released on ArchiMusic in 2011. The recording was named Best Classical Album of the Year by Taiwan's prestigious Golden Melody Award.

The timeless music of Claude Debussy will then serve as a delicate bridge between the two halves of the program. Hu brings her musical elegance to the iconic composer of the Impressionist era, imparting various emotions through Debussy’s work, before moving to the decisive and compelling imagery that shapes the music of Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite (1911). Granados composed this richly expressive work in 1911, as he was inspired by the work of artist Francisco Goya. The suite is subtitled Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love). The music is highly technical and extremely challenging but is also regarded as one of the two most iconic works of Spanish piano repertoire – the other being Isaac Albeniz’s Iberia Suite. Granados composer is the inspiration behind Hu’s next album – her second on the PENTATONE label – which will be released in June 2026.

The complete concert program will include: Chopin’s Variations on Là ci darem la mano from Mozart's Don Giovanni, Op. 2; Berceuse in D-flat major, Op. 57; Barcarolle in F-sharp major, Op. 60; and Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 "Heroic"; Debussy’s Suite bergamasque III. Clair de lune; and Selections from Goyescas, Los majos enamorados: No. 5 El amor y la muerte (Love and Death); No. 4 Quejas, o la maja y el ruiseñor (Complaints, or The Maiden and the Nightingale); and No. 1 Los requiebros (Compliments/Flattery).

"I am truly looking forward to visiting Lynn University and performing some of the most amazing works in piano literature—audience favorites like the Chopin works and Debussy, as well as lesser-performed works like the absolutely gorgeous Suite of Goyescas,” says Hu, “I look forward to performing for the audience in Boca Raton and visiting this fantastic university."

More about Charlotte Hu: As a soloist, Charlotte Hu has astounded audiences across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, performing sold-out concerts at many of the world’s most prestigious venues — including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Taipei National Concert Hall, and Osaka’s Symphony Hall. She is a frequent guest at music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, Ruhr-Klavier Festival, and Oregon Bach Festival. Concerto engagements have included performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Taiwan Philharmonic, among others. Recent and upcoming highlights for Charlotte Hu include performances presented by Newport Classical, the Mansion at Strathmore, the Gilmore Piano Festival, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Taipei Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Center, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and the Taichung Opera House.

An active recording artist, Charlotte Hu’s debut album of Chopin works on ArchiMusic was named Best Classical Album of the Year by Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Melody Award, and recordings released on Naxos/CAG Records and BMOP/sound with Boston Modern Orchestra Project have received overwhelming critical acclaim. Her Rachmaninoff album on Centaur/Naxos received a five-star review by the U.K.’s Pianist magazine, which called it “essential listening for Rachmaninoff admirers.” Her latest album, Liszt Metamorphosis, was released by PENTATONE in July 2024. In June 2026, Charlotte will release her next album on PENTATONE, which will feature Enrique Granados’ Goyescas suite in its entirety.

Charlotte Hu is the founder of two piano festivals across two continents: the Yun-Hsiang International Music Festival in Taipei and the PYPA Piano Festival in Philadelphia. Now in its 13th year, PYPA has become an important fixture in the classical music world, cultivating a deeper appreciation for classical music and serving as a cultural bridge between East and West.

At the heart of Charlotte’s success is a story of strength, dedication, and resilience that has powered her dream of becoming a world-class artist. Moving to the United States from Taiwan at age 14 without her parents to begin studies at The Juilliard School was the first of many challenges Charlotte has overcome in building her illustrious career — one that’s included winning top prizes at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition, performing on classical music’s biggest stages, and fostering the next generation of musicians as an advocate for classical music through entrepreneurial and philanthropic initiatives. A tireless advocate for humanity, Charlotte raised $27,000 for youth education charities through a Hope Charity Concert live-streamed on her Facebook page in June 2020. The online concert reached more than 140,000 people across the globe.

A Steinway Artist, Charlotte Hu serves as an associate professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and as an artist in residence at Temple University in Philadelphia, in addition to her busy performance schedule. She is a frequent guest artist, leading master classes and artist residencies at universities and music festivals worldwide. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Germany’s Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, where she studied with Herbert Stessin, Sergei Babayan, and Karl-Heinz Kammerling, respectively.

For more information, visit www.charlottehu.com

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Taiwanese-American pianist Charlotte Hu, who the Philadelphia Inquirer describes as a “first class talent [and] superb pianist,” is presented in concert by the Lynn University Conservatory of Music. Hu will perform a program featuring the music of Frédéric Chopin, Enrique Granados, and Claude Debussy.

Concert details:

Who: Pianist Charlotte Hu
Presented by Lynn University Conservatory of Music
What: Music by Frédéric Chopin, Enrique Granados, and Claude Debussy
When: Saturday, December 6, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: 3601 North Military Trail, Boca Raton, FL 33431
Tickets and information: www.lynn.edu/events/guest-pianist-charlotte-hu-in-recital

Dec. 13: World Premiere of The Star by Robert and Victoria Sirota – Performed by ESSENTIAL VOICES USA Conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman

Photo by Ryuhei Shindo available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/robert-sirota

Composer Robert Sirota: World Premiere of The Star

A New Work for Chorus, Piano, and String Quartet
Music by Robert Sirota and Text by Victoria Sirota

Presented as part of
Sing Christmas! - A Holiday Concert and Sing-Along

Performed by ESSENTIAL VOICES USA
Conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman

Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel
239 West 49th Street | New York, NY
Free and Open to the Public | $20.00 Suggested Donation
More Information

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

www.RobertSirota.com

New York, NY – On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm, in St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel (239 West 49th Street), ESSENTIAL VOICES USA will present the world premiere performance of The Star – a new work for chorus, piano, and string quartet with music by composer Robert Sirota and text by Victoria Sirota.

The performance is part of Essential Voices USA’s Holiday Concert and Sing-Along, Sing Christmas, which is presented through EVUSA’s Community Project – a program that brings concerts and sing-alongs free of charge to the New York City community. The performance features the Essential Voices chorus conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman, accompanied by the Essential Strings. There is a $20 suggested donation but the performance is free and open to the public.

Robert and Victoria Sirota share a multilayered and intertwined life as spouses, musicians, educators, people of faith, and more. The pair have collaborated countless times, performing and writing together, leading to some truly beautiful artistry. Their complementary creative gifts come together again in the making of The Star, a piece written specifically for this joyous performance and gathering of the community for the holidays. 

“The great choral conductor, composer, guru Judith Clurman asked Vicki [Sirota] and me to create a new holiday song for her wonderful choir, Essential Voices USA – a song with a refrain that the whole audience could sing.” says Robert Sirota. “Vicki produced a text which is eloquent, simple, and eminently singable, and I have done my best to write something which does justice to her words.”

Gather us up and bring us home,
Dear Angels from on high.
Restore our dreams. Restore our faith,
In Hope that does not die

Gather us up and bring us home,
Dear Angels from above.
Show us the path of Truth and Light,
Blessed by Eternal Love.

"In The Star, I imagine the light of a single star heralding an angelic choir,” says Victoria Sirota. “Their sweet song mystically carries us to a place of perfect love, love that nurtures, inspires and empowers us to be the fullness of who we have been created to be."

The program will also include performances of Christmas Joy, a collection of holiday favorites arranged by Joshua Clayton and Judith Clurman for chorus and string quartet; the world premiere of a new arrangement of The Wexford Carol, for percussion, cello, and keyboard; and Listen to the World (music by Judith Clurman, lyrics by William Schermerhorn) – a work that encourages greater understanding and inspires hope for a better world. The audience will also be invited to participate in several traditional carol arrangements, accompanied by string quartet arrangements by Jeremy Robin Lyons, as well as holiday classics by Jerry Herman and Irving Berlin. As part of the evening’s sing-along, audience members will also be invited to join the Essential Voices chorus in singing the refrain from The Star.

About Robert Sirota: Over five decades, composer 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.”

Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as 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. Recent commissions include the Neave Trio, Judith Clurman/Essential Voices USA, Jeffrey Kahane and the Sarasota Music Festival, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Palladium Musicum, American Guild of Organists, the American String Quartet, Alarm Will Sound, the Naumburg Foundation, yMusic, and arrangements for Paul Simon. Commissions for Sirota@70 in honor of his 70th birthday include works for Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis & the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, and Sierra Chamber Society.

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, Sirota’s 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.

For complete information, visit www.robertsirota.com.

About Victoria R. Sirota: Victoria Sirota, organist, Episcopal priest and author, holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Boston University and Harvard Divinity School. She has studied organ with Andre Marchal in Paris and Gustav Leonhardt in Amsterdam and has performed organ recitals in the United States, France and Germany. The Rev. Dr. Sirota has taught at Boston University, Yale Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music, and The Ecumenical Institute of Theology at St. Mary’s Seminary and University. Former National Chaplain for the American Guild of Organists and The Association of Anglican Musicians, she is the author of articles, reviews and texts for hymns, cantatas and song cycles. Her book Preaching to the Choir: Claiming the Role of Sacred Musician is available from Church Publishing, and, in addition to recordings on Northeastern and Gasparo labels, her recording of organ works by Robert Sirota Celestial Wind is available from Albany Records.

About ESSENTIAL VOICES USA: Judith Clurman’s Essential Voices USA (EVUSA) is recognized as one of New York’s most distinguished choral ensembles. Comprised of acclaimed professionals and select auditioned volunteers, the ensemble shapes its sound to reflect the unique spirit and character of each project it undertakes. EVUSA has appeared on many of the nation’s most celebrated stages, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting, and the Washington National Cathedral. The group has recorded more than twenty CDs. Through The Community Project, EVUSA presents free concerts and sing-alongs across New York City’s five boroughs, while its Composer Speaks series, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, celebrates and champions new American works. A Grammy nominee and two-time Emmy Award nominee, conductor Judith Clurman has collaborated with many of the world’s leading orchestras at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and beyond. A passionate advocate for new music, she has commissioned and premiered works by more than seventy composers. Judith has served as Director of Choral Activities at The Juilliard School, as vocal specialist for the National Endowment for the Arts/Columbia University Institute of Classical Music, and as co-creator and conductor of The Singing Tree for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on NBC. She currently teaches voice at the Manhattan School of Music, and her compositions and arrangements are performed by major orchestras and choruses nationwide.

The Essential Strings (Suliman Tekali & Rita Wang violins; Caeli Smith viola; and Aaron Wolff cello) was formed for EVUSA’S recent project, Christmas Joy. Christmas Joy and Listen to the World are recorded by EVUSA for Albany Records.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm, Judith Clurman’s ESSENTIAL VOICES USA will present the world premiere performance of The Star – A new work for chorus, piano, and string quartet with music by composer Robert Sirota and text by Victoria Sirota. The performance will be part of an evening of carols, readings, and a community sing-along held in St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel (239 West 49th Street) and features the Essential Voices chorus conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman, accompanied by the Essential Strings.

Concert details:

What: World Premiere of The Star – a New Work for Chorus, Piano, and String Quartet Music by Robert Sirota and Text by Victoria Sirota in Sing Christmas! - A Holiday Concert and Sing-Along
Presented as part of EVUSA’s Community Project
Who: Essential Voices USA and Essential Strings, conducted by Music Director Judith Clurman
When: Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 7:30pm
Where: St. Malachy’s - The Actors’ Chapel, 239 West 49th Street, New York, NY ​​10019
More Information: www.judithclurman.com/wp/news-events

ECM New Series: 2025 Year-End Review

ECM New Series: 2025 Year-End Review

Alexander Knaifel – Chapter Eight | March 14, 2025 (ECM New Series)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

Best New Albums Out March 14, 2025 – All Songs Considered, NPR Music

“[Alexander Knaifel] called the work 'a community prayer,' to be realized 'in the most reverberant church acoustics.' This recording from 2009, made in the Jesuitenkirche in Luzern, Switzerland, certainly fills the bill, and credit goes to the ECM label's engineers, in a difficult live situation, for giving the music the desired sense of growing out of the walls.” – James Manheim, All Music

Chapter Eight: Canticum Canticorum is among the most remarkable compositions of composer Alexander Knaifel. A slowly moving piece that acquires a cumulative power with enveloping and radiant atmosphere, it proposes what Knaifel referred to as a “non-concerto situation.” As the work progresses, the cellist is called upon to renounce the soloist’s role of leadership and to surrender to the total sound at the nexus of the choirs, arranged in cross formation inside the church. Here the cellist is Patrick Demenga who, together with his brother Thomas, made the first of ECM’s recordings of Knaifel’s music in 1998 with Lux Aeterna. The premiere performance of Chapter Eight took place in Washington’s National Cathedral in 1995, with Mstislav Rostropovich in the cellist’s role.

Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, Olari Elts – ÆRIS | May 23, 2025 (ECM New Series)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

“highly expressive and colourful music.” – James McCarthy, Gramophone

“Certainly this is challenging music, and just as certainly, it is beautifully recorded by ECM at the Estonian Concert Hall in Tallinn.” – James Manheim, All Music

Best New Albums Out May 23, 2025 – All Songs Considered, NPR Music

Aeris is the ninth ECM New Series album to feature the vibrant and highly expressive music of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür. Olari Elts, a long-time champion of Tüür’s work, conducts the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra in compelling, intensely-focused performances of Phantasma, De Profundis and Tüür’s tenth symphony “ÆRIS”, which is scored for horn quartet and orchestra.

In Latin, Tüür notes, “æris” means brass while “aeris” means air, “and without this essential element, not a sound would come out of brass instruments. Thus, the title of my tenth symphony focuses mainly on the brass sound that carries the weight of this composition.” Written at the urging of the ensemble German Hornsound in 2022, the symphony is a vast drama of shifting energies and interactions, with the horns effectively “messengers from beyond the horizon, bringing prophecies of imminent irreversible changes.”

Arvo Pärt – Tractus (Limited Edition Heavyweight 2-LP) | May 30, 2025 (ECM New Series)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

“An original and intriguing collection of works, this, with beautiful recorded sound, as always, and outstanding performances of passion and precision guided by the presiding genius of Tõnu Kaljuste.” – Ivan Moody, Gramophone

“Tractus, seems to put an arm around you and whisper, 'In troubled times, music can help.'” – Tom Huizenga, NPR Music

Tractus emphasizes Arvo Pärt compositions that blend the timbres of string orchestra and choir. New versions predominate, with focused performances from the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir under Tõnu Kaljuste’s direction that invite alert and concentrated listening. From the opening composition Littlemore Tractus, which takes as its starting point consoling reflections from a sermon by John Henry Newman, the idea of change, transfiguration and renewal resonates, setting a tone for a recording whose character is one of summing up, looking inward, and reconciling with the past. Compositions included are Littlemore Tractus, Greater Antiphons, Cantique des degrés, Sequentia, L’abbé Agathon, These Words… and Veni creator. An evocative reworking of Vater unser for choir, strings and piano concludes this album.

The compositions included on Tractus are based upon or inspired by scriptural, liturgical or other Christian texts. “The text is independent of us,” Pärt once said. “It awaits us. Everyone needs his own time to come to it. The encounter occurs when the text is no longer treated as literature or artwork but as reference point or model.”

Signum Quartett – A Dark Flaring | July 18, 2025 (ECM New Series)
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"genuinely new experiences for many hearers" – James Manheim, All Music

“On the evidence of this beautifully played and presented programme, string quartet composition is alive and well in Southern Africa.” – Guy Rickards, Gramophone

“The six pieces included on this enthralling album reflect as many different ways of reconciling that most Western European art form – the string quartet – with the heritage of South African culture and history.” – Carlos Maria Solare, The Strad

“I strongly urge you to seek out this release if you are interested in the string quartet and/or the meeting of cultural traditions. It’s been a profoundly refreshing and educative experience.” – Dominic Hartley, Musicweb International

A Dark Flaring marks the Signum Quartett’s return to ECM’s New Series after debuting for the label with striking performances on Erkki-Sven Tüür’s acclaimed chamber music recording Lost Prayers (2020). Here, the quartet has put together a unique programme dedicated to South African composers, born in the 20th century, whose works for string quartet are united by the way they blend respect for the past with an instinct for the future in a wide-flung idiomatic scope. The grid of references unravelled between the six composers here – their dates of birth span from 1903 to 1983 – is as geographically wide as it is idiomatically deep, with large musical bridges connecting inspirations ranging from South African Xhosa and Zulu traditions through the late Renaissance to 19th century Romanticism as well as 20th century impressionists and minimalists. There’s even a nod to popular culture, as Matthijs van Dijk’s (rage) rage against the borrows inspiration for its title from the rock group Rage Against The Machine.

The complicated historical and in the same breath cultural backdrop that goes hand in hand with musical repertory composed over this specific period, in the South African context, is not only impossible to ignore but moreover serves as catalyst, canvas and disrupter – sometimes all at once – for most of the music presented here. The album was recorded at Sendesaal Bremen in March 2022. The CD includes liner notes by South African journalist and music critic Shirley Apthorp.

Rolf Lislevand – Libro primo | August 29, 2025 (ECM New Series)
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“Full of rich expressivity and gleaming virtuosity, Libro Primo from Rolf Lislevand is a beautiful listen. It’s also a valuable contribution to our understanding of music from a period that classical music presenters often overlook.” – Jon Sobel, Blogcritics

On his newest recording for ECM’s New Series, lute virtuoso Rolf Lislevand turns to the revolutionary Baroque literature for archlute and chitarrone, interpreting the works of some of the most significant 16th-17th century lute composers. In striking solo performances, the Norwegian lute player explores the progressive nature of pieces by Johann Hieronymous Kapsberger, Giovanni Paolo Foscarini, Bernardo Gianoncelli and Diego Ortiz. Lislevand takes historically informed liberties in his interpretations throughout the programme, improvising frequently, as was custom at the time, and even contributes his own personal study of the challenging Passacaglia form with his “Passacaglia al modo mio”. Delving deeper into the musical fabric of the time, he also decided on a different tuning for the archlute than is commonly used today, “giving the music an adventurous timbre, more in line with the nuove musiche.”

The modernity of this music’s melodic and rhythmic sensibility throughout can be surprising, not only substantiating Lislevand’s deeper dive into this repertoire, but also revealing a broad idiomatic reach that can still sound highly contemporary today.

Arvo Pärt, Vox Clamantis; Jaan-Eik Tulve, Conductor – And I heard a voice | September 5, 2025 (ECM New Series)
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“The music helps create this supernatural portal between this world and the next and how Arvo Pärt depicts it, is with the utmost wonder and reverence.” Tom Huizenga, – All Songs Considered, NPR Music

“Some of the most outstanding performances I have attended in my life have featured vocal music by Estonian composers performed by Estonian choirs in the acoustic marvel that is Estonian churches – and Vox Clamantis’ new album of works by Arvo Pärt recorded in Haapsalu Cathedral is equally magnificent.” – Amanda Cook, I Care If You Listen

“This superb collection of music for choir composed by Pärt concludes with ‘And I heard a voice’, notable as the only composition by the Estonian composer in which he has set sacred text in his native language, using a translation into Estonian of the Book of Revelation. To the text Pärt has written music that perfectly blends the past with the present, and to which Vox Clamantis bring a gravitas that acknowledges both the compositions and the composer.” – Nick Lea, Jazz Views

And I heard a voice, recorded in Haapsalu Cathedral, Estonia, and released as Arvo Pärt turns 90, shows that the rapport between the choir, Vox Clamantis – conducted by Jaan-Eik Tulve – and composer, rooted in a shared feeling for both ancient plainchant and contemporary music, continues to deepen.

The new album, focusing primarily on recent compositions by Pärt, also reaches back to embrace the Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, written in 1988, and based upon the scriptural verses intoned in the Roman Catholic liturgy during evening prayers in the week before Christmas. In the liner notes, Kristina Kõrver indicates how Pärt allows the character of each text to influence his settings of it. Thus, reference to the Laws of Moses in O Adonai are expressed in a “more archaic sound and ascetic expression”, while Jesse (O Sproß aus Isais Wurzel) incorporates dissonance “like a little flower pushing its way through the pavement”, as Pärt once said.e created a fascinating interplay between the pristine European piano tradition and the American poetry of the Beat Generation.

Dobrinka Tabakova – Sun Triptych | September 26, 2025 (ECM New Series)
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify

The Best New Albums Out September 26, 2025 – All Songs Considered, NPR Music

“superb new album” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

“Her harmonic shifts quite simply melt into each other and leave an imprint on the soul.” – Jean-Yves Duperron, Classical Music Sentinel

Dobrinka Tabakova’s ECM New Series debut, String Paths, made an immediate impact on its release in 2013. Sun Triptych, produced by Manfred Eicher, brings back some of the String Paths ensemble, including close associates violist Maxim Rysanov, violinist Roman Mints, and cellist Kristine Blaumane. Friends and colleagues since conservatory days at the Guildhall School, all now leading soloists in their own right, they have grown up with the expressive language and colors of Tabakova’s music and are among its ideal interpreters.

Dobrinka Tabakova was born in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1980 and moved with her family to the UK in 1991; she has lived in London since then. She studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music Junior Department and at the age of 14 won the Jean-Frédéric Perrenoud composition prize at the Vienna International Music Competition. Tabakova graduated from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and King’s College London, and also participated in master classes with composers including Iannis Xenakis, John Adams and Louis Andriessen.

Zehetmair Quartett – Johannes Brahms: String Quartets, Op. 51 | October 17, 2025 (ECM New Series)
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“wonderful new recording...outstanding performances.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

“[T]he Zehetmair Quartett offer an impassioned and intrepid take on the material, from the throbbing high line of the violins and curved arch of the cello which characterise the opening phrases of the very first movement to the spare romance.” – Christopher Laws, Culturedarm

A central fixture in the world of string quartets for the past thirty years, the Zehetmair Quartett’s ECM recordings of Schumann, Hindemith, Bartók and Hartmann have received luminous praise – Gramophone lauded their Schumann as “Record of the Year”, while The Sunday Times described their Hindemith and Bartók performances as “playing of huge finesse in both pieces,” calling them “a real benchmark”.

For this newest entry into their New Series catalogue, the ensemble turns to Johannes Brahms’s first two string quartets, Op. 51 Nos. 1 and 2 – works of mature reflection and dramatic urgency that reveal Brahms’s mastery of form. Recorded with the Zehetmair Quartett’s characteristic intensity and richly expressive depth, the performances capture fresh and deeply felt readings of these cornerstone chamber works.

Meredith Monk – Cellular Songs | October 10, 2025 (ECM New Series)
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“[Cellular Songs] is non-narrative stuff — sung in no language, just the experimental vocalise that [Meredith] Monk has perfected over decades. Yet in partnership with her regular percussionist and vocalists (one of whom doubles on violin and piano), Monk shows she’s still capable of fashioning sonic surprise and resolution.” – Seth Colter Walls, The New York Times

“While each of these Cellular Songs carry their own patterns of internal logic, the album conceived as a whole tends to prove resolutely defiant, as Monk is joined variously by Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Joanna Lynn-Jacobs and Allison Sniffin, each utilising their voice and playing body percussion while Sniffin also adds strains on the violin and piano and John Hollenbeck accentuates their patter through a deft blend of vibraphone, percussion and crotales.” – Christopher Laws, Culturedarm

“Meredith Monk’s music still has the ability to surprise, and with Cellular Songs the composer is still looking to push the boundaries and explore the possibilities available with the human voice.” – Nick Lea, Jazz Views

Cellular Songs is the first Meredith Monk release with ECM since the extensive box-set Meredith Monk: The Recordings in 2022 and the first recording of new music since 2016’s On Behalf of Nature. It is also the second part of an interdisciplinary trilogy of performance works by Meredith Monk that began with On Behalf of Nature, a meditation on the precarious state of our global ecology.

Cellular Songs turns attention to the very fabric of life itself, and evokes such biological processes as layering, replication, division and mutation. Monk drew inspiration, she has noted, from reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by physician and Pulitzer Prizewinning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, struck by the notion that “a cell is like a miraculous prototype of cooperation, offering an alternative culture or template of human behavior to one of competition and destruction.”

Wu Wei, Martin Stegner, Janne Saksala – Pur ti miro | November 21, 2025 (ECM New Series)
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On ECM New Series release, Pur ti miro, sheng player Wu Wei, violist Martin Stegner, and bassist Janne Saksala play Claude Monteverdi’s Si dolce è’l tormento and Pur ti miro from L’incoronazione di Poppea, J. S. Bach’s organ trio sonatas Nos 1 and 4, and Antonio Vivaldi’s D minor Trio Sonata, in a program completed by “Buremarsj frå Beiarn”, a bridal march from Norwegian folk tradition. “Over time our programme kept growing, even though it’s a challenge to arrange works for this unusual combination of sounds,” says Stenger. “We don’t aim to interpret early music in a strictly historically correct way. All of us come from different musical and cultural backgrounds and it is precisely this diversity that consciously flows into our interpretations.”

Dec 4: Meredith Monk's Cellular Songs Album Listening Party at National Sawdust - Out Now on ECM New Series

Meredith Monk: Cellular Songs

Album Listening Party at National Sawdust
Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 7:30pm
80 North 6th Street | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets & Information 

Out Now on ECM New Series
Listen: https://ecm.lnk.to/CellularSongs

Read The New York Times Review

Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble 

Meredith Monk, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Joanna Lynn-Jacobs, Allison Sniffin, voices; John Hollenbeck, vibraphone, percussion, crotales; Allison Sniffin, piano, violin 

ECM New Series 2751

“As artists, we're all contending with what to do at a time like this. I wanted to make a piece that can be experienced as an alternative possibility of human behavior, where the values are cooperation, interdependence, and kindness, as an antidote to the values that are being propagated right now." – Meredith Monk

Cellular Songs is the first Meredith Monk release with ECM since the extensive box-set Meredith Monk: The Recordings in 2022 and the first recording of new music since 2016’s On Behalf of Nature. It is also the second part of an interdisciplinary trilogy of performance works by Meredith Monk that began with On Behalf of Nature, a meditation on the precarious state of our global ecology. Cellular Songs turns attention to the very fabric of life itself, and evokes such biological processes as layering, replication, division and mutation. Monk drew inspiration, she has noted, from reading The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by physician and Pulitzer Prizewinning author Siddhartha Mukherjee, struck by the notion that “a cell is like a miraculous prototype of cooperation, offering an alternative culture or template of human behavior to one of competition and destruction.”

On Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 7:30pm, National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY will host an album listening party, celebrating this new release. Listeners are invited to sit back and immerse themselves in the world of Cellular Songs, alongside Monk and fellow contributors to the album, in National Sawdust's state-of-the-art sonic environment. CDs will also be available for purchase.

Cellular Songs features the women of the acclaimed Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble (Monk, Ellen Fisher, Katie Geissinger, Joanna Lynn-Jacobs and Allison Sniffin), and some of Monk’s most adventurous and daring writing for voice. The work, at once playful and contemplative, conjures cycles of birth and death throughout. “Some of the pieces have much more dissonance and chromatic harmonies, and the forms are almost like three-dimensional sculptures,” Monk notes. “Earlier, my music had much more to do with layering. Now you can almost see or hear the piece rotating as if it were a sculpture in space, though it's a musical form."

With voices and body percussion among the primary resources, Monk underlines her aim to “boil down what I am doing to its essence”. Songs are wordless, with the exception of “Happy Woman”, which also incorporates piano, violin and vibraphone by Allison Sniffin and John Hollenbeck.

Cellular Songs was premiered at the BAM Harvey Theater, Brooklyn, New York in March 2018. The Financial Times hailed the work as a “deeply affecting meditation on the nature of the biological cell as a metaphor for human society” and “an antidote to the troubled times we live in.”

In the album’s liner notes, writer Bonnie Marranca takes up this theme: “Art takes many forms to address global crises as a way of comprehending reality. Monk’s work has chosen a path different than the response that is a direct statement of conditions, following instead her Buddhist grounding in art as spiritual practice (…) Her work honors the human need for the feelings of love and joy and beauty. In the integrity of its regard, Cellular Songs is of this world but also beyond this world, like all poetic works of the imagination.”

Meredith Monk has been an ECM recording artist since 1981. In 2022, Meredith Monk: The Recordings, a box set of her New Series albums from Dolmen Music to On Behalf of Nature was issued in celebration of her 80th birthday, in an edition incorporating texts, photos, scores and more. In 2023 the full scope of Monk’s interdisciplinary work was the subject of major exhibitions at Munich’s Haus der Kunst and Oude Kerk Amsterdam. 

Cellular Songs was recorded at New York’s Power Station in 2022 and 2024. 

In 2024-2025 Meredith Monk celebrated her 60th Performance Season with a host of events centered in New York City, including the North American premiere of Indra’s Net, the third part of the trilogy of works exploring our relationship with the natural world. This fall she will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Music at the Venice Biennale.

CD booklet includes performance photography by notes by Julieta Cervantes and liner notes by Bonnie Marranca, whose previous publications include the book Conversations with Meredith Monk (New York 2014, revised 2020).

Further information: www.meredithmonk.org

Feb. 24: Composer and Pianist Vadim Neselovskyi Releases New Album PERSEVERANTIA Executive Produced by John Zorn for Tzadik – New Single Out Today

Composer and Pianist Vadim Neselovskyi
Releases New Album PERSEVERANTIA

A Suite for Piano and String Trio in 11 Movements with Ysaÿe String Trio
Executive Produced by John Zorn for Tzadik

First Single & Video Out Today: Refugees
Listen Now | Watch Now

Worldwide Release Dates
Digital: February 24, 2026
CD: February 27, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

“Neselovskyi is a rare mix of classically trained pianist and brilliant jazz improviser, a musical omnivore for whom different sounds have always flowed together.” – PBS Newshour

“Vadim Neselovskyi’s third-stream pianism shares the qualities of a sculpture carved in ice: finely wrought detail, sharply traced; glinting elegance; coolness to the touch; refractions of light. His right and left hands converse with each other in eager, enchanted dialogue. “
– The New York Times

“I truly believe that [Vadim Neselovskyi] is one of the greatest pianist / composers out there right now.” – Jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch

Downloads, Press Photos, and CDs available to press on request
VadimNeselovskyi.com | Tzadik.com

Ukrainian-born, Brooklyn-based Vadim Neselovskyi – composer, pianist, and Professor of Jazz Piano at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA – announces his new album PERSEVERANTIA, executive produced by John Zorn for Tzadik. Neselovskyi’s latest recording is an original suite for piano and string trio in 11 movements, performed together with the Netherlands-based Ysaÿe String Trio (Rada Ovcharova, violin; Emlyn Stam, viola and Willem Stam, cello). The album is scheduled for release on February 24, 2026, commemorating the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine.

The first single from PERSEVERANTIA, titled Refugees, is out today, alongside an accompanying video release. Born out of witnessing Ukrainian families fleeing the war, Refugees transforms anguish into compassion through rare emotional depth. Fusing improvisational fire at the piano with the choral-like resonance of strings, it offers a haunting glimpse of Neselovskyi’s most ambitious work yet.

As a young composer and pianist growing up in Odesa, Ukraine, Neselovskyi discovered that his calling was not to follow any one stylistic path but to become a "creator of music.” He has long since fulfilled that early promise in myriad ways both inventive and unexpected: as a composer whose vision is expansive enough to spark inspired interpretations from jazz trio and symphony orchestra alike; as an improviser carving surprising pathways through the straightahead, the avant-garde, and the indefinable; and as a collaborator valued by peers, mentors and fellow innovators.

Known for his collaborations with Gary Burton, John Zorn, and Fred Hersch, in 2022, Neselovskiy paid tribute to his hometown with ODESA (Sunnyside Records) – a ruminative and poetic solo piano album featuring compositions inspired by Ukrainian landmarks like the Odesa Railway Station, Potemkin Stairs, and Odesa Conservatory. The New York Times described how throughout the album, Neselovskyi “takes care to depict each given scene or concept with a sure compositional hand.” The album was also featured by NPR’s Morning Edition, WNYC's All of It, PBS Newshour, The Boston Globe, and more.

Three years later, both Neselovskyi’s compositional instincts and his sense of resilience have only grown, paving the way for PERSEVERANTIA – an album that tells a story of compassion, empathy, willpower, resistance, sincerity, falsehood, freedom, and the arduous path to it.

Neselovskyi says, “Stylistically, PERSEVERANTIA weaves together the many strands of my life, as a post-classical composer, world-touring jazz musician, and individual inextricably connected to my Ukrainian and Jewish roots, ultimately converging toward a single cohesive artistic statement.”

As a Ukrainian, Neselovskyi is deeply connected to current events. However, this suite is not only about the devastating war; it speaks to everyone, reflecting on timeless human challenges and the best aspects of human nature. Placing exhilarating piano improvisations in the context of gorgeous compositions for classical string trio, PERSEVERANTIA evokes a cornucopia of emotions and striking scenes, encouraging unhurried consideration from beginning to end.

“Composing PERSEVERANTIA was my way of processing everything that has happened in my home country since February 2022,” says Neselovskyi. “Music, particularly instrumental music devoid of lyrics, is a universal language. And while I did not intend for this work to be an easy listening experience, I hope that its message of resilience, empathy, and hope reaches those who choose to listen.”

PERSEVERANTIA is Vadim Neselovskyi’s seventh-length album following his most recent work – 2022’s critically acclaimed ODESA – an emotionally vivid and personal reflection on Neselovskyi’s Ukrainian birthplace and its connection to the composer’s multifaceted life.

Vadim Neselovskyi
PERSEVERANTIA: A Suite for Piano and String Trio

Release Date: February 24, 2026 | Tzadik
Recorded October 16-17, 2024 in Bethlehemkerk, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tracklist:

[1] Before 24 [8:02]
[2] Tanks Near Kyiv [5:44]
[3] March Passacaglia [8:14]
[4] I Don’t Need a Ride [5:18]
[5] Orwell [6:27]
[6] Refugees [6:38]
[7] Dancing As If Nothing Ever Happened [5:59]
[8] Chorale [5:35]
[9] Lviv Funeral [2:56]
[10] Perseverantia [8:26]
[11] After 24 [7:54]

[Total Time: 71:13]

Vadim Neselovskyi, Piano
Rada Ovcharova, Violin
Emlyn Stam, Viola
Willem Stam, Cello

Executive Producer: John Zorn
Engineered by Joeri Saal
Mixed by Christian Heck
Edited by Lukas Lohner
Pre-Mastered by Christoph Stickel
Mastered by Scott Hull
Album Front Cover Photos by Alexander Yakimchuk
Album Back Cover Photos by Arkady Mitnik
Album Design by Heung Heung Chin

About Vadim Neselovskyi: The Los Angeles Times has praised Vadim Neselovskyi’s “extraordinary playing” while The Guardian (UK) called him “the most promising of the young improvisers." Whether as a pianist, composer, improviser, soloist or bandleader, Neselovskyi creates music that is truly inspired and wholly unique. His work has been played by jazz greats like Randy Brecker, Antonio Sanchez, Julian Lage, and Gary Burton, as well as classical artists (Daniel Gauthier, whose recording of Neselovskyi’s “San Felio” won an ECHO Classical Award) and symphony orchestras in the United States and Europe.

Those diverse talents have attracted the attention of revered artists crossing the boundaries of genre, including legendary vibraphonist Gary Burton, who famously enlisted Neselovskyi for his acclaimed Generations Quintet; the prestigious Graz Philharmoniker, which performed his composition “Prelude for Vibes” on their New Year’s program; iconoclastic composer/saxophonist John Zorn, who invited Neselovskyi to contribute to The Book Beriah,the final installment of his Masada project; and French horn/alphorn pioneer Arkady Shilkloper, a profound influence with whom the pianist now shares a longstanding duo collaboration. In the summer of 2022, an orchestral version of *Winter in Odesa*— one of the movements from the *Odesa Suite* — was premiered at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, featuring classical saxophone star Asya Fateyeva and Ensemble Reflektor as part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. The concert was recorded and broadcast by ARTE TV.

About the Ysaÿe Trio: Founded in 2006 by Rada Ovcharova (violin), Emlyn Stam (viola) and Willem Stam (cello) the Ysaÿe Trio performs regularly at the leading festivals and concert halls throughout the Netherlands as well as abroad. “The Ysaÿe Trio performs with conviction, craftsmanship and love. Superb!” Haarlems Dagblad (Haarlem, Netherlands)

Sony Classical in 2025: Albums for Year-End Roundup Consideration

Sony Classical 2025 Albums for Year-End Roundup Consideration

Wiener Philharmoniker & Riccardo Muti: New Year’s Concert 2025
Listen Here

Hans Zimmer: The World of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension
Listen Here

Eugene Ormandy: The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1983)
Buy Here

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason: Fantasie
Listen Here

Guarneri String Quartet: The Complete RCA Collection
Buy Here

Malakoff Kowalski: Songs With Words
Listen Here

Lorin Maazel: Lorin Maazel Conducts the Cleveland Orchestra
– The Complete CBS Masterworks Recordings
Buy Here

Leif Ove Andsnes: Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works
Listen Here

Eugene Ormandy & The Philadelphia Orchestra - The RCA Victor Recordings 1935-42
Buy Here

Esther Abrami: Women
Listen Here

Kevin Olusola: Dawn of a Misfit
Listen Here

Pablo Ferrandez: Moonlight Variations
Listen Here

Anna Lapwood: Firedove
Listen Here

Wiener Philharmoniker & Tugan Sokhiev: Summer Night Concert 2025
Listen Here

John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 1 1969-1990
Buy Here

Terry Riley: The Complete Columbia Recordings
Buy Here

Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas, Kavakos, Emanuel Ax:
Beethoven for Three: Symphony No. 1 / Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost” / Op. 11 Gassenhauer
Listen Here

Jonas Kaufmann: Doppelgänger
Listen Here

Hauser: Cinema
Listen Here

Anastasia Kobekina: Bach: Cello Suites
Listen Here

Martin Fröst: B.A.C.H
Listen Here

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason: Jane Austen’s Piano
Listen Here

Wiener Philharmoniker & Riccardo Muti: New Year’s Concert 2025 | January 10, 2025
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“If, like so many people around the world, you want to waltz your way into 2025, this recording is for you.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

There are few concerts in the world that are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna. 2025’s performance by the Vienna Philharmonic and conducted by Riccardo Muti, was broadcast to over 90 countries around the world, reaching an audience of millions of people. The program featured repertoire from the Strauss family and their contemporaries, with a unique addition: for the first time, a work by a female composer, and a friend of Johann Strauss II, The Ferdinandus-Walzer, composed by the twelve-year-old Constanze Geiger in 1848, was a highlight of this year’s program.

The artistic collaboration with Maestro Muti that began in 1971, has given rise to more than 500 mutual concerts, including six New Year’s Concerts, Philharmonic subscription concerts, memorial concerts, guest performances and tours, as well as numerous opera productions.

Daniel Froschauer, Chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic, emphasized the conductor’s special significance for the orchestra: “Riccardo Muti has held an exceptional position in the history of the Vienna Philharmonic for over fifty years. An honorary member of the orchestra since 2011, Muti has helped shape the repertoire and specific sound of the ensemble in a unique manner.

The tradition of presenting New Year’s Concerts began in 1941. The first concert marking the New Year was given in 1939, albeit on 31 December. The first conductor was Clemens Krauss. The Vienna Philharmonic regards this now traditional event as a way of wishing the world a Happy New Year through the medium of music in a spirit of hope, friendship and peace.

Hans Zimmer – The World of Hans Zimmer Part II: A New Dimension | February 28, 2025
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“Hans Zimmer is famously known for his use of deep bass in his movie scores, and that is on full display in the brand-new release The World of Hans Zimmer – Part II [A New Dimension].” – James Larson, Audioholics

Melding the grandeur of symphonic music with the dynamic power of Hans Zimmer’s cinematic compositions, The World of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension transforms more of his most successful soundtracks into epic new orchestral suites. Highlights include a short, captivating “cello-concerto-like” version of Final Ascent from No Time to Die, a tranquil rendition of A Time of Quiet Between the Storms from Dune II, and a new romantic suite from The Prince of Egypt. Additionally, Zimmer revisits one of his classic 90s soundtracks with a newly crafted suite of The Rock.

The World Of Hans Zimmer – Part II: A New Dimension features Zimmer accompanied by a stellar ensemble of soloists and collaborators, including singers Lebo M, Lisa Gerrard, Gan-ya Ben-gur Akselrod, and Nokukhanya Dlamini; multi-woodwind wizard Pedro Eustache; bass player Juan García-Herreros; guitarist Alexios Anest; pianist Eliane Correa; cellist Mariko Muranaka; violinist Rusanda Panfili; and percussionists Aleksandra Šuklar, Luis Ribeiro, and Lucy Landymore. Together, they perform alongside the Odessa Orchestra & Friends and the Nairobi Chamber Choir, under the baton of conductor Gavin Greenaway.

Zimmer says: “We’re taking music that fans know and love and presenting it with a renewed sense of energy, scale, and emotion. These new orchestral suites are a testament to the incredible musicians I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and the magic that happens when we come together with the orchestra and choir. It’s about capturing those transformative moments in performance.”

Eugene Ormandy – The Columbia Studio Recordings (1964-1983) | January 31, 2025
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“Ormandy knew he had a team of tireless, world-class musicians — an American powerhouse — and was eager to share them with the world. With this kaleidoscopic showcase, it is clear that he succeeded.” – Bruce Hodges, WRTI

“The repertoire ranges from Bach to Mozart to Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Nielsen, Ives and everything in between, and it's all performed at an amazingly high level of consistent excellence. You'll be astonished.” – David Hurwitz, Classics Today

This massive new reissue from Eugene Ormandy’s stereo discography collects all the Columbia Masterworks recordings he made in Philadelphia between the early 1960s and early 1980s, in a new 94-CD box set from Sony Classical. Some of these performances – including the complete recording of Bach’s St. John Passion, Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis, Schubert’s Sixth Symphony and a disc of opera choruses with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, as well as Ginastera’s Concerto for Strings and the ballet music from Massenet’s opera Le Cid – have never appeared before in the digital medium, and they shine a light into new corners of Ormandy’s astonishingly large repertoire. Also new to CD are two late symphonies by Haydn – No. 96 “The Miracle” and No. 101 “The Clock” – a prime example of Ormandy excelling in repertoire not normally associated with him.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason – Fantasie | March 7, 2025
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Best New Albums Out on March 7 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“This is a promising debut revealing a gift for Chopin.” – James Manheim, AllMusic

“a stellar debut recording,” – Jonathan Blumhofer, The Arts Fuse

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason takes listeners on a journey that explores connections across different composers’ sound worlds – whether they met, influenced each other, or simply existed in resonance. She is a musician deeply committed to her craft, relishing the challenges of performance and recording and dedicated to her audience, whether in the concert hall or via her recordings and is a talented young artist for whom mastery isn’t just technical but emotional too.

From Claude Debussy, Frédéric Chopin and Alexander Scriabin to Florence Price, Margaret Bonds and William Grant Still, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason presents a program on her debut solo album Fantasie, which is also very personal to her as an artist.

She says, “I’ve always loved coming up with quite complex programmes which flow really nicely from one piece to the other and all these works mean a lot to me” she says. “By gathering them here for my debut album, I am not only revealing more of myself as a musician, but also sharing the very different styles of music I grew up listening to.”

The Guarneri String Quartet – The Guarneri String Quartet: The Complete RCA Victor Collection | March 21, 2025
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“Sony’s monumental 49-disc box set (compiling the remastered RCA releases) cements Guarneri’s status, spanning the Brahms Piano Quartets and Quintet with Arthur Rubinstein, the early Beethoven set (1967–70), the Bartók set from 1977, and a feast of left-field entries like Dohnányi, Verdi, Grieg, and Smetana.” – Tim Riley, LA Review of Books

“The Guarneri Quartet's legacy for RCA features wide-ranging repertoire choices, extremely high performance standards, famous artistic partnerships (most notably with Artur Rubinstein), and (with one exception) consistent personnel over more than three decades. The result is 49 CDs of sterling music-making, even if you already own some of the most familiar items.” – David Hurwitz, Classics Today

In the early 1960s, four young musicians who had been playing chamber music at Rudolf Serkin’s Marlboro School and Festival in Vermont were encouraged to form a string quartet. In July 1964, the Guarneri String Quartet gave its first concert and less than a year later made its first recordings under contract to RCA Victor. For the next 45 years, with only one change of personnel, the Guarneris performed all over the world and amassed a large, wide-ranging, prize-winning discography. For the first time in a single collection, Sony Classical presents all the recordings made by the Guarneri Quartet for RCA between 1965 and 2005.

HiFi Stereo Review said of the group when they made their complete recording of the Beethoven String Quartets for RCA between 1966 and 1969: “The Guarneri is, without a doubt, one of the most extraordinary string quartets before the public these days: the group has an absolutely stunning sense of both soloistic and ensemble color. Indeed, I can’t think of another string quartet that can match them for sheer sensuous appeal.”

Malakoff Kowalski – Songs With Words | March 21, 2025
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Songs With Words is the new Sony Classical album from vocalist and composer Malakoff Kowalski with pianists Igor Levit, Johanna Summer, and Chilly Gonzales. Songs With Words features miniatures by classical composers coupled with sung poems by American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Reflecting on Felix Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, this thrilling quartet presents a new kind of music, and possibly a whole new genre that has never before appeared in this form either in classical music, jazz, or pop.

Kowalski says of the album: “It took about five years to birth these twelve songs. They were assembled from both famous and lesser-known miniatures by Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Aram Khachaturian, Maurice Ravel, Edvard Grieg, Amy Beach, Germaine Tailleferre, Claude Debussy, and Gabriel Fauré. I kept unearthing timeless, intimate, vulnerable poems from Ginsberg’s oeuvre, and for some reason, again and again, these poems, with little or no reworking, functioned very naturally as song lyrics. The quiet, inner-directed vocals strictly followed the piano’s motifs and themes, while the piano parts, in turn, stuck to their original versions, with only the most imperceptible of alterations here and there.”

The result is a song cycle reminiscent of Tom Waits, Jim Morrison, and David Bowie, infused with the musicality of Bill Evans, Kurt Weill, and Michel Legrand.

Through Songs With Words, Kowalski, Levit, Summer, and Gonzalez have created a fascinating interplay between the pristine European piano tradition and the American poetry of the Beat Generation.

Lorin Maazel – Lorin Maazel Conducts the Cleveland Orchestra: The Complete CBS Masterworks Recordings | March 28, 2025
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“For devoted Maazel fans, this box may well be an attractive package.” – Karl Nehring, Classical Candor

“You have any number of reasons to buy this box. As a Maazel fan, you can place it among the hundreds of other recordings he’s made. It’s a showcase for one of our “big five” orchestras. It has a solid basic-repertory place with its complete Beethoven symphonies alongside the only Tchaikovsky symphonies people care about. Maazel proved that Szell was not irreplaceable, and he also paved the way for a succession of similarly distinguished conductors at that helm. But Maazel’s was a magical decade in Cleveland.” – Byron Nilsson, Words and Music

When he was called to succeed George Szell as music director of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1972, the 42-year-old American conductor was hardly known in his home country. But over the next ten years, as the recordings collected for the first time in Sony Classical’s new 15-CD box set amply demonstrate, this enigmatic genius by the name of Lorin Maazel burnished the Cleveland image and maintained the exalted standards set by Szell, who had elevated his ensemble to pre-eminence among the US “Big Five” orchestras.

Eugene Ormandy & The Philadelphia Orchestra – The RCA Victor Recordings 1935-42 | May 13, 2025
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“[H]earing these newly remastered recordings reveals that the Ormandy/Philadelphia partnership’s salient virtues were well in place during the conductor’s first years as the orchestra’s co-director and (starting in 1938) full music director.” – Jed Distler, Classics Today

Best New Albums Out on April 25 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“gem of a set that offers still more great-sounding reasons to reassess the Ormandy Legacy.” – Byron Nilsson, Words and Music

Sony Classical continues its comprehensive documentation of Eugene Ormandy’s discography with a new 21-CD release of everything he set down in Philadelphia before the ban on commercial recording instigated by the musicians’ union in 1942. By the time the strike ended in 1944, Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra had moved to Columbia Masterworks. As connoisseurs have long known, these early Philadelphia albums are among the most impressive performances Ormandy set down in over 40 years at the orchestra’s helm.

1931 was the breakthrough year for 32-year-old Hungarian immigrant Eugene Ormandy. First, he was engaged by the Philadelphia Orchestra to deputize for his idol Toscanini, who was briefly indisposed. Then, a few months later, he was asked to step in for the conductor of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, also indisposed – but in this case permanently. Soon Ormandy was hired to take over that rising Midwestern orchestra. At the end of his five-year tenure in Minneapolis, which produced a considerable discography for RCA Victor, Ormandy was called back to Philadelphia, this time to become its co-conductor with Leopold Stokowski. In 1936, he began recording regularly for Victor with his new orchestra, picking up the pace in 1938 when he became its sole music director.

Leif Ove Andsnes – Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works | April 11, 2025
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“This album offers a new and fresh examination of one of Liszt's least-understood works, and it is a major release from Andsnes.” – James Manheim, AllMusic

“a splendid project that shows [Leif Ove] Andsnes’s pianism at its best.”  – Ryan Ross, Classical Candor

“The most interesting compositional aspect of Via Crucis is the democratic relationship between piano and choir. The function of the piano is not, as you might expect, an accompaniment to the choir — and hence perhaps why Andsnes became interested in this project. The piano functions as an independent soloist, and in its interactions with the choral ensemble is as a collaborating voice, akin to the role of the piano in chamber music.” – Xenia Hanusiak, Classical Voice North America

On Liszt: Via Crucis & Solo Piano Works, the latest Sony Classical album from Leif Ove Andsnes, the Norwegian pianist unveils the often-forgotten side of the famed virtuoso Franz Liszt - the sacred music that offers a more intimate picture of the man and his deeply held faith.

With acclaimed vocal ensemble the Norwegian Soloists’ Choir, Andsnes has recorded Liszt’s remarkable late work Via Crucis (The Way of the Cross’) for choir and piano. The pianist completes his all-Liszt album with the solo piano work Consolations and two movements from the composer’s Harmonies poétiques et religieuses. Via Crucis is unlike any other work in the repertoire: a concentrated ritual drama, ranging from liturgical chant to Lisztian chromaticism at its most searching and expressive. It sets a pianist and choir in dialogue with one another, each performing alone as well as together.

“This is something very different,” says Andsnes. “It is incredible, the journey Liszt made as a composer, from this very flamboyant virtuosic style to [Via Crucis], which is very bare, with so few notes, but still an incredible tension and beauty. It points forward to the twentieth century while also building on the tradition of sacred music.

Esther Abrami – Women | April 25, 2025
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“Attention grabbing. Stirring, even. When you hear it, you will probably feel something about it. And that’s what French violinist Esther Abrami wants. She wants you to listen to her album, titled Women, and feel something. Because that’s what she wants when she listens to an album." – Olivia Hampton on NPR Morning Edition

“[Esther Abrami] is offering something different from the usual run, and those presenting classical music could benefit from paying attention to what she is doing. Women, released in 2025, is far from a parade of crossover favorites. In fact, there is a good deal of music here that most listeners will not know, some of it arranged for violin and orchestra, chamber ensemble, or piano by Abrami.” – James Manheim, All Music

A tribute to women composers across history and a range of genres, Women, the new album from violinist Esther Abrami, showcases the exceptional talent of 14 remarkable composers, spanning newly composed works and rediscovered masterpieces. The album features Oscar winners Rachel Portman and Anne Dudley, as well as new arrangements of compositions by historic composers such as Pauline Viardot, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Teresa Carreño or Ethel Smyth. Women also includes Transmission, an original composition by Esther Abrami, who has arranged several pieces on the album. At its heart is the world-premiere recording of Ina Boyle’s Violin Concerto, a breathtaking, late-Romantic composition. Esther Abrami carefully chose each piece on Women not only for its musical brilliance but also for the emotional connection it holds for her, highlighting the often-overlooked voices of women in classical music.

Abrami says, “Women is a journey through centuries of music, told through the voices of women who composed, fought, lived, and created despite the odds. The stories of these women inspired me to create; they showed me the importance of leaving your mark for future generations to discover. I hope Women can inspire a new generation of young girls to compose.”

Kevin Olusola – Dawn of a Misfit | May 9, 2025
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“[Dawn of a Misfit] is a kaleidoscope of sounds and feelings that reflect [Kevin Olusola’s] struggle to appreciate the different parts of himself.” – Ayesha Rascoe, NPR Music

“The album showcases the style of performance that Olusola has dubbed “celloboxing,” a way of playing that incorporates some of the rhythmic techniques of vocal beatboxing. The project, as one would expect, is a blend of styles and musical enthusiasms, exhibiting a strong spirit of experimentation, exploration, self-expression, and joyously entertaining play.” – David Templeton, Strings

Kevin Olusola, the dynamic singer, cellist, and beatboxer best known for his work with the 3x-GRAMMY® Award-winning a cappella group Pentatonix, releases his debut solo album, Dawn Of A Misfit on Sony Music Masterworks. The wide-ranging album touches on spirituality, fatherhood, and being a first-generation person in a Western country, all while fusing classical, pop, R&B, and hip-hop. It even includes a nod to Pentatonix with Kevin’s Fifth, a fan-favorite expansion on Beethoven’s 5th that he often performs during their live shows.

Dawn of a Misfit draws on Kevin Olusola’s classical virtuosity and the graceful soulfulness of his vocals, partly fueled by his Nigerian and Grenadian heritage. While recording the new album, he was influenced by a diverse range of artists, including Sting, multi-hyphenate artist Jon Batiste, Nigerian musician Fela Kuti, American singer and actor Harry Belafonte, country-rap artist Shaboozey, cellist Jacqueline du Pré, pianist Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr., and Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff.

Pablo Ferrandez – Moonlight Variations | May 23, 2025
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“Through an intimate sequence of nocturnes, song transcriptions and lyrical miniatures – some newly arranged for cello – that culminate in the Rococo Variations, [Pablo] Ferrández reflects on his fascination with night-time and how it enhances imagination and perception.” – Thomas May, The Strad

“Playing for the first time on a gorgeous-sounding 1689 Stradivarius cello, [Pablo Ferrandez] delivers absorbing melodies with just a hint of rubato delay to keep the listener's attention fixed..” – James Manheim, All Music

“[T]he centerpiece work of this album — Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations — demonstrates a wide spectrum of colors and emotion.” – Oliver Camacho, WFMT

Cellist Pablo Ferrández has realized a twenty-year dream to record Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations on Moonlight Variations, his latest album for Sony Classical, combining the spirited work with melancholy nocturnes to create an album he describes as “night followed by day.”

On his new album, he assembles eleven handpicked gems by composers from Antonín Dvořák to Manuel Ponce that speak of the heightened emotional intimacy of the dark hours. The cellist has arranged songs, piano nocturnes, violin works and an opera aria. In addition to Tchaikovsky’s extended variation set, recorded in Örebro with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Martin Fröst, Ferrández includes movements from Liszt’s Liebestraum and Schumann’s Kinderszenen, transcriptions of piano nocturnes by Chopin and songs by Schubert and Debussy. The album also includes two additional works by Tchaikovsky including the composer’s own arrangement for cello and orchestra of his ‘Nocturne’ from 6 Pieces for Piano. The recording constitutes Ferrández’s first on the 1689 Archinto Stradivarius he recently acquired.

“We made a decision to make our arrangements true to the instrument I’m playing while not removing the piece from its original concept,” says Ferrández. “The idea was to give each piece a personality of its own that suits the cello. I was thinking, of course, of singing - of that more human kind of expression. One reason I love to play lieder is that we always try to sing though the cello.”

Anna Lapwood – Firedove | May 30, 2025
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Best New Albums Out on May 30, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“[Anna] Lapwood’s musical vision comes through as consistent and compelling. Whether playing the organ on Hans Zimmer’s Time or leading the choir in Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love, she is able to draw us into the music, make us share in her reverence for the sheer wonder of melody and harmony,” – Karl Nehring, Classical Candor

“[Firedove is] an unexpected and utterly compelling mix of music, from Vierne to Robbie Williams to Hans Zimmer.” – Meg Bragle, WRTI

“It's not hyperbole to state that with Luna and now Firedove [Anna Lapwood] is invigorating contemporary organ practice with her fresh and imaginative vision. – Ron Schepper, Textura

Already widely celebrated for introducing the organ to new generations of music fans through her extraordinary interpretations of both classical and contemporary works, Anna Lapwood has become known to millions through viral TikTok videos, high-profile collaborations and sold-out live concerts. Her latest recording, Firedove, is the follow-up to her acclaimed Sony Classical debut album Luna, released in September 2023. Firedove effortlessly demonstrates Lapwood’s open-minded approach to music. The album's repertoire choices showcase how this release is Lapwood’s most personal record to date, with a Vierne scherzo sitting alongside a rendition of Robbie Williams’ Angels and Maurice Duruflé’s Prelude and Fugue with Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love.

On how Firedove stands out as an exciting listening experience, Lapwood says,

“There are lots of little easter eggs in there that you wouldn’t expect – even the first appearance of the choir – and a through-line of flight and spreading wings, because this does feel as though I’ve found what I want to say as an artist. I’m very proud of it.”

Wiener Philharmoniker & Tugan Sokhiev: Summer Night Concert 2025 | August 29, 2025
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“[E]njoy a mini-vacation to one of Vienna’s most famous musical events.”
– Nicole Lacroix, WETA

“The Vienna Philharmonic Summer Night Concert 2025 was more than a concert — it was a celebration of art, history, and unity, reminding audiences worldwide why this open-air tradition continues to captivate year after year.” – Leo Hart, Chicago Music Guide

Once again, Sony Classical releases a recording of the Summer Night Concert 2025 with the Vienna Philharmonic, this time conducted by Tugan Sokhiev with tenor Piotr Beczała.

2025’s Summer Night Concert was performed on June 13, 2025. The annual open-air concert took place on the grounds of the Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. With its UNESCO World Heritage setting in the Baroque park of Schönbrunn and the palace as a backdrop, the Summer Night Concert enchanted with its visual charm and outstanding musical quality. The idea of making the very best of classical music accessible to all—offering a gift to music lovers—continues to characterize the event. Today, millions of viewers and listeners in more than 80 countries follow the concert online, on television, and on the radio.

The program for the 22nd Summer Night Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic focused on well-known melodies from opera and operetta, featuring renowned arias alongside popular overtures and interludes. Maestro Tugan Sokhiev and Piotr Beczała as vocal soloist were joined by the Vienna Boys Choir, marking a special premiere in the Summer Night Concert.

In response to the tragic attacks in Graz, Austria this year’s Summer Night Concert opened with Air by Johann Sebastian Bach, replacing the originally scheduled Can-Can from Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld.

John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 1 1969-1990 | August 22, 2025
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“[John Williams’] work has touched the lives of any and all cinephiles, music fanatics, or anyone who even remotely calls themselves a lover of American culture. With their three-volume, 75-disc anthology, Sony Classical has endeavored to honor that prolific body of work as a way to sing the praises of, as they put it, the most beloved composer of our time.” – Lacey Cohen, Screen Rant

“[W]hen it comes to iconic scores and a composer at the very height of his powers, [John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 1 1969-1990] will be hard to beat.” – Clive Paget, Musical America

“For those who love the music of John Williams — which is to say, any self-respecting cinephile — there’s something to get excited about.” – Liz Shannon Miller, Consequence

Sony Classical embarks on a definitive, one-of-a-kind celebration of the music of five-time-Oscar®-winning composer John Williams, with the release of John Williams: The Anthology. The three-volume comprehensive collection will be released as three individual box sets throughout 2025. It will encompass the seven-decade career of the most popular and admired composer of his time, plus feature many of the maestro’s original soundtrack recordings and concert music recordings. The 22 discs in John Williams: The Anthology – Vol. 1 1969-1990 showcase Williams’ music for 27 films that established him as one of the most influential and imaginative composers in the history of film music. They include his unforgettable scores for the first three Star Wars films, Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the first two Indiana Jones adventures, Superman and a range of others from The Reivers (1969) to Home Alone (1990). Three of the scores included in this first volume – Jaws (1975), Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope (1977) and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – won Williams the Academy Award® for Best Original Score. Fifteen more Oscar® nominations were accorded to other scores in Volume 1, as well as five BAFTA Awards, four Golden Globes and 14 Grammy® Awards.

“I have often said that without John Williams, bicycles do not fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches or heroes in red capes. Dinosaurs do not walk the earth. Sharks do not terrorize idyllic summer beaches. And Jedi do not return,” the director Steven Spielberg, the composer’s most frequent collaborator, writes in the foreword for this collection. “Without the magic of John Williams, audiences do not wonder, or weep, or believe. Whether in an elegant concert hall or a darkened cinema, John’s music is instantly recognizable both for its emotional power and its ability to tap into our collective unconscious… to inspire us, to captivate us, and to illuminate our shared journey through the human experience.

Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings | August 22, 2025
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“The release reaffirms Riley’s foundational status in the history of late-twentieth-century music and his unexpectedly broad influence.” – William Robin, The New Yorker

“Palpably, six decades later, Riley’s Columbia recordings connote a time of idealism, of possibilities inhabiting the territory between motion and repose.” – Marc Medwin, Point of Departure

“The reissue of Terry Riley's Columbia recordings in a handsome four-disc box set invites a new appreciation of the hugely influential work the American visionary produced between 1968 and 1980.” – Ron Schepper, Textura

One of the most consequential musicians of the 20th century – the visionary American composer – is celebrated with the Sony Classical release of Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings. The four-disc box set includes Terry Riley’s unique recordings for Columbia Masterworks between 1968 and 1980 that changed the direction and expanded the range of late 20th-century music. Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings box set includes the albums In C (1968); A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969); Church of Anthrax (1971, in collaboration with John Cale of the Velvet Underground); and Shri Camel (1980), all made for Columbia Masterworks at a time when the label was boldly embracing new directions in American music. This collection offers an essential document of Riley’s most transformative period when the pulse of innovation met the possibilities of high-fidelity sound.

In addition to all four complete recordings and rarely seen archival photographs from recording sessions in Columbia’s fabled 30th Street Studios in Manhattan, Terry Riley – The Columbia Recordings includes a 50-page booklet featuring first-hand reflections from David Behrman, the original producer of In C and A Rainbow in Curved Air; and an essay by Thomas M. Welsh, Terry Riley’s longtime manager and archivist; and reprints of all essays and notes from the original vinyl releases. Riley’s rich musical life has continued through the decades to explore the potential of his musical ideas, building on the early success and his four seminal recordings for Columbia Masterworks.

Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma – Beethoven For Three: Symphony No. 1 / Op. 70, No. 1 “Ghost” / Op. 11 Gassenhauer | August 22, 2025
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“Not only can [Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, and Yo-Yo Ma] convey the music’s symphonic breadth, but they also — even more impressive — make this potentially unwieldy creation sound like genuine chamber music.” – David Weininger, The New York Times

“These three players have worked together for enough time that they've jelled as a unit, with a relaxed, confident quality.” – James Manheim, All Music

“The three beloved artists perform the symphonies on three instruments alongside the composer’s canonical piano trios, giving audiences a rare look at Beethoven’s compositional language at its most intimate and raw—all while conveying the power and immediacy of his orchestral works.” – Lisa Flynn, WFMT

Beethoven for Three features pianist Emanuel Ax, violinist Leonidas Kavakos, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma – three musicians in pursuit of the essential elements of Beethoven's musical language, presenting his most iconic symphonies in trio arrangements. By performing the symphonies on three instruments alongside the composer’s canonical piano trios, the artists give audiences a rare look at Beethoven's compositional language at its most intimate and raw—all while conveying the power and immediacy of his orchestral works.

The trio’s latest collaborative release in this series, their fourth, features Symphony No. 1 (Op. 21) and the Ghost (Op. 70, No. 1) and Gassenhauer (Op. 11) piano trios. This new recording marks another milestone in three friends’ journey through the marvels of one extraordinary composer.

“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."

Jonas Kaufman – Doppelgänger | September 5, 2025
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“Kaufmann and Deutsch prove an impeccable Lieder duo.” – Richard Fairman, Financial Times

“Kaufmann approaches these new recordings with a grace and ease that I think we all find in our lives and our work as we get older. The results are quite satisfying.” – Craig Byrd, Cultural Attaché

Just like the album Selige Stunde, the recordings of Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe and Kerner Lieder were made during the first COVID lockdown in 2020. In retrospect, the circumstances were as bizarre as they were artistically creative, and, according to Helmut Deutsch, “made the recordings feel almost like ‘domestic music-making’, which is very different from the usually austere atmosphere of a concert hall or a studio.” For Jonas Kaufmann, it was a welcome opportunity to intensively engage with Dichterliebe once again: “It is an incredible stroke of luck to be able to sing this song cycle both as a young and as a mature singer. Dichterliebe is unique and unparalleled in the entire Lied repertoire.”

Kaufmann had already worked on the famous song cycle during his student years in Munich, while attending Helmut Deutsch’s Lied class. His piano accompanist at the time was Jan Philip Schulze, who is now Professor of Art Song Interpretation at the Hanover University of Music; together, they presented the final result at a recital, which was also recorded. Jonas Kaufmann has chosen six songs from this previously unreleased recording, made in March 1994, as bonus tracks for the Schumann CD – a fascinating contrast to the 2020 recording. These works come together on a new Sony Classical recording from Kaufmann, titled Doppelgänger.

Hauser – Cinema | September 12, 2025
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“With his signature blend of classical elegance and cinematic flair, Hauser is back—this time not just to serenade, but to score our emotions.” – TMRW Magazine

Global cello sensation Hauser releases his brand-new album Cinema, a sweeping homage to some of the most unforgettable film melodies ever written. With his unmistakable artistry and passion, Hauser breathes new life into cinema’s most iconic music.

The 25-track collection, recorded with the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Robert Ziegler, spans decades of cinematic history, reinventing timeless themes through HAUSER’s lush and emotional interpretations. Beyond the music, the project also serves as a cultural bridge, with performance videos filmed in breathtaking locations around the world, reinforcing his mission to connect people across borders through the power of melody. The album features a powerful lineup of iconic themes, including What Was I Made For?, Concerto pour la fin d'un amour, Le Vent, Le Cri, the Mission: Impossible theme, Phantom of the Opera’s Music Of The Night, A Time For Us, and Writing’s on the Wall, the Oscar-winning song from Spectre.

The album also features romantic themes from Somewhere in Time and Out of Africa, as well as deeply personal renditions of hidden gems by legendary European composers, including Nino Rota, Francis Lai, Luis Bacalov, and Vangelis.

Anastasia Kobekina – Bach: Cello Suites | September 26, 2025
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Best New Albums Out on September 26, 2025 – NPR Music, All Songs Considered

“One might call these Romantic renditions, were they not rooted in Bach's time by the historical instruments. They are, above all, personal and deeply felt. To use Kobekina's words, the language is ‘abstract, architectural, rational, logical, and at the same time passionate, emotional, and deeply personal to the performer.’ She lives up to that duality in a set of Bach suites that marks an important step for an exciting young performer.” – James Manheim, All Music

“[Anastasia Kobekina] is the perfect artist to both draw out the mysteries at the heart of these suites as well as leave their ultimate interpretations to the listener.” – Kevin Filipski, The Flip Side Blog

Taking on Bach’s set of six suites for solo cello – an Everest for cellists – Anastasia Kobekina aims to open up ‘a shared space for interpretation, mine and yours.’ As with her previous album for Sony Classical, the hugely acclaimed Venice, Kobekina promises a fresh view of familiar music. On this album, she performs with period instruments, bringing a historically informed perspective to these iconic works.

Bach’s Cello Suites represent the music that has accompanied Kobekina the longest and which she has performed most frequently. ‘The dialectic nature of Bach’s suites – their internal dialogue and contradictions – has always fascinated me,’ says Kobekina. ‘The language is abstract, architectural, rational, logical, and at the same time passionate, emotional, and deeply personal to the performer.’

The works themselves represent the baroque composer’s most inwardly concentrated and revered music. Each consists of a prelude and a suite of dance movements. Adding to the work’s iconic status is the mystery behind its creation. No autograph score exists – only a copy, in the hand of Anna Magdalena Bach, the composer’s second wife – while the work’s original recipient remains unknown.

Martin Frost | B.A.C.H. – October 24, 2025
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“Some of the pieces [on B.A.C.H.] are deeply poignant, some are quite jazzy — even playful — and others are more straightforward. Each one brings a fresh arrangement and sound to what is familiar and beloved music” – Stephanie Elkins, Wisconsin Public Radio

Acclaimed Swedish clarinetist and conductor, Martin Fröst releases his brand-new Sony Classical album, B.A.C.H., dedicated to the music of J.S. Bach. Bach’s music has fascinated Fröst throughout his life, being enchanted and beguiled by its intimate form, even at a very young age. Although Bach never encountered the clarinet, this has proved no barrier for Martin Fröst, who has returned to Bach’s music time and time again throughout his illustrious career. In the past, Fröst devised performance programs entitled ‘Beyond All Clarinet History’ (B.A.C.H.), which intertwined Bach’s timeless melodies with new arrangements and he returns to this original idea here with sparkling new interpretations both for clarinet and a variety of other instruments, such as bass, cello, and theorbo that form the linchpin of his new album.

B.A.C.H. was recorded in an extraordinary setting: an old wooden chapel set in the Swedish countryside, purchased, restored, and turned into a studio and concert venue by Fröst himself and which provided the perfect environment for this extraordinary musical adventure which features a range of fascinating artists including bassist Sebastien Dubé, violist Göran Fröst, cellist Anastasia Kobekina, and lutist Jonas Nordberg alongside a special guest appearance by Benny Andersson of ABBA on piano on the closing track.

With this unique, inventive album, Martin Fröst guides the listener through the enduring landscape of Bach's music. It is an album born of moments of challenge, unexpected discovery, and profound collaboration. Its narrative of connection and the sheer joy of the music and of the collective music-making will hopefully resonate keenly with all who listen.

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason | Jane Austen’s Piano – December 5, 2025
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To which books does a busy professional musician turn for relaxation in between the hectic whirl of rehearsals, performances and travel?

In the case of young rising star pianist, Jeneba Kanneh-Mason, it’s the novels of Jane Austen that provide her with an unending source of enjoyment and contentment as well as revelry in the understated humour and social commentary contained therein. So much so that Jeneba started to reflect on references to music in Jane Austen’s works and more broadly on the music of the time. It started a new train of thought for her: known to be a pianist herself, with which music may Jane Austen have been familiar? Which pieces might she have performed privately?

The result of Jeneba’s fascination with the music of Jane Austen’s time is this brand-new recording for solo piano: Jane Austen’s Piano, scheduled for release on December 5, 2025 on Sony Classical, to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth on December 16, 1775. Jane Austen’s Piano consists of six pieces overall, mirroring the fact that Jane Austen wrote six full, famous and much-loved novels. The recording includes music hand-picked by Jeneba either because of its specific link to Jane Austen or for its significance to the time. It features music by George Frideric Händel (1732-1809), Joseph Haydn (1685-1759), George Kiallmark (1781-1835) and Johann Baptiste Cramer (1771-1858) plus a bonus Jane Austen-related work composed by Dario Marianelli (b. 1963).

Composer Lisa Bielawa Named Howard Hanson Visiting Professor with the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester – Performance with Musica Nova on Dec. 4

Photo by Shawn Poynter available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/lisa-bielawa

Composer, Producer, and Vocalist Lisa Bielawa Named
Howard Hanson Visiting Professor for 2025-2026
with the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester

Lisa Bielawa’s Inacessabili Voce
Performed by Bielawa & Musica Nova Ensemble
Conducted by Music Director Brad Lubman

Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 7:30pm
Kilbourn Hall | 26 Gibbs Street | Rochester, NY
Tickets, Livestream, and More Information

“the formal sophistication and lyrical richness of Bielawa’s music go deep" – The New Yorker

LisaBielawa.net

Rochester, NY – Composer, producer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa (b. 1968) has been named the Howard Hanson Visiting Professor at Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester for the 2025-2026 academic year. Bielawa is a 2023 Guggenheim fellow and Rome Prize winner, who takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. Her music has been described as “ruminative, pointillistic and harmonically slightly tart,” by The New York Times, and “fluid and arresting ... at once dramatic and probing,” by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Throughout the year, Lisa Bielawa will work with Eastman students, and several of her pieces will be performed by Eastman ensembles. The first performance of her visiting professorship will be on Thursday, December 4, 2025 at 7:30pm in Kilbourn Hall (26 Gibbs Street), featuring the Musica Nova Ensemble conducted by Music Director Brad Lubman. Musica Nova and Bielawa will perform her vocal chamber work, Incessabili Voce (2013). The program also includes Overcast Skies by Matthew Lam (2023) and Phlegra by Iannis Xenakis (1975).

In her program notes for Incessabili Voce, Bielawa writes:

“In designing material for the voice, I thought about singing in church, the ecstatic singing of angels, the roar of soldiers, the mannerisms of Greek storytelling in the great oral tradition, the traditions of Gregorian and Anglican chant. The vocal part coaxes cries of various sorts out of the instruments. The texture of the ensemble writing bears witness to my preoccupation, still as lively as when I was six years old, with the sloppy joyfulness of a multitude crying ceaselessly all together – whether angels or soldiers. I let all of these images, texts, traditions and energies enter the piece and mingle together, without strict dramatic intent. It is more of a dreamscape than a story, more cry than word.”

Bielawa is established as one of today’s leading composers and performers, consistently incorporating community-making as part of her artistic vision. In an article which branded Bielawa a “fire starter,” New Music Box reported, “It’s difficult to stand anywhere near composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa and not feel energized by proximity. . . An extrovert to the core, Bielawa acknowledges that her highly social nature has taken her in some specific directions both as a composer and as a musical citizen. Community building and close collaboration with performing artists is often central to her compositional process.” She has created music for public spaces in Lower Manhattan, a bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, KY, the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, on the sites of former airfields in Berlin and San Francisco, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall; she has composed and produced a twelve-episode, made-for-TV opera that features over 350 musicians and was filmed in locations across the country. Bielawa’s 2025-26 season also includes the world premiere of Knoxville Broadcast, the latest iteration of her Broadcast series of large-scale, spatialized symphonies for performance in public spaces.

Of her current work as the Howard Hanson Visiting Professor and this first performance of the season, Bielawa says:

“I can think of no more fulfilling way to enter into the Eastman community than to jump onstage with the students to perform a work created expressly to maximize collaboration and spontaneity between the performers, alongside my longtime and cherished colleague, Brad Lubman. This is the first adventure in what I know will be a joyful and broad-ranging immersion in Eastman musical life.”

More about Lisa Bielawa: Bielawa is the recipient of the Music Award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, an OPERA America Grant for Female Composers, a 2025 commission from The Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, and is a 2025 New Music USA Amplifying Voices composer. She was named a William Randolph Hearst Visiting Artist Fellow at the American Antiquarian Society for 2018 and was Artist-in-Residence at Kaufman Music Center in New York for the 2020-2021 season. During the 2022-23 season, she was a member of the inaugural Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps.

Lisa Bielawa’s music is frequently performed throughout the U.S. and abroad. Her work has recently been premiered at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, SHIFT Festival, Town Hall Seattle, Naumburg Orchestral Concerts Summer Series in New York’s Central Park, National Sawdust, Le Poisson Rouge, Rouen Opera, Helsinki Music Center, Arsenal de Metz, Japan Society, and MAXXI Museum in Rome, among others. Orchestras that have championed her music include the Louisville Orchestra, The Knights, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, American Composers Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and the Orlando Philharmonic; she has also written for the combined forces of The Knights, San Francisco Girls Chorus, and Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by leading ensembles and organizations including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Big Ears, Miami String Quartet, Brooklyn Rider, Seattle Chamber Music Society, American Guild of Organists, American Pianists Association, California Music Center, Akademiska Sångföreningen (Helsinki), Paul Dresher Ensemble, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, the Washington and PRISM Saxophone Quartets, Ensemble Variances (commissioned by Radio France), and more.

The 2025-2026 concert season features the world premiere of Bielawa’s Violin Concerto No. 2: PULSE, written for violinist Tessa Lark and commissioned by the Louisville Orchestra and Boston Modern Orchestra Project, with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica.

Actively composing for the stage as well, Bielawa is currently at work on her Guggenheim Fellowship project, a hybrid film and live action opera called La Ballonniste or Balloon (A Hot Air Opera) – a heartfelt comedy centering on 18th century French opera singer Élisabeth Tible, the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon. Previously, Bielawa received a 2018 Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser, created with librettist Erik Ehn and director Charles Otte.

In addition to being a leading composer, Bielawa has performed as the vocalist in the Philip Glass Ensemble since 1992. A dedicated musical citizen, she was a co-founder in 1997 of the MATA Festival which continues to support young composers. For five years, she served as the artistic director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus, bringing the chorus to the NY PHIL BIENNIAL and introducing the young performers to the music of today through numerous premieres and commissions of leading composers. From 2019-2022, she was the founding Composer-in-Residence and Chief Curator of the Philip Glass Institute (PGI) at The New School’s College of the Performing Arts. She is currently the Howard Hanson Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music

Bielawa’s music has been recorded on the Tzadik, Orange Mountain, Supertrain, Cedille, TROY, Innova, BMOP/sound, and Sono Luminus labels. Born in San Francisco into a musical family, Lisa Bielawa played the violin and piano, sang, and wrote music from early childhood. She moved to New York two weeks after receiving her B.A. in Literature in 1990 from Yale University and became an active participant in New York musical life. For more information, please visit www.lisabielawa.net.

Dec 3: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Presents Holiday Music in the Courtyard

George Steel leads Holiday Music in the Courtyard. Photo by Michael Blanchard, available here.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Presents
Holiday Music in the Courtyard 2025

Wednesday, December 3, 2025 from 6–9 pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Courtyard
25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Tickets: www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/holiday-music-courtyard-2025

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

BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum reimagines the traditional holiday concert with its Holiday Music in the Courtyard celebration, from 6–9pm on Wednesday, December 3, 2025. The performance will take place in the Gardner Museum’s famed Courtyard, while guests are invited to watch from the surrounding galleries, strolling through the Museum to take in the music from every angle. (Please note, this is not a seated concert.)

Led by George Steel, Abrams Curator of Music, this immersive evening will showcase music from across four centuries, celebrating a variety of cultures’ winter traditions. The performance features the acclaimed Vox Vocal Ensemble and the all-star American Brass Quintet, with opportunities for everyone to sing along with familiar carols.

The music and sing-along will run from 7–8 pm, and ticket holders can come early at 6 pm or stay late until 9 pm to enjoy the Museum galleries, shop at Gift at the Gardner, or purchase treats from Café G’s holiday menu of small plates and cocktails/mocktails.

Visible from virtually any gallery in the Palace, the Courtyard is the heart and soul of the Gardner Museum, with changing horticultural displays throughout the year. In December, the festive garden features dark forest greens and shades of red and silver including masses of flowering jade trees, silver dusty miller, green aloe, and the dark red winter blooms of amaryllis, creating a magical setting for Holiday Music in the Courtyard. 

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.

Ticketing Information

Tickets ($20-$85) 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 $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children 17 and under, 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 

Music at the Gardner is supported by Nora McNeely Hurley / Manitou Fund. The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial 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, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Caramoor Celebrates the Season - An Amarcord Christmas on Dec 7, Holiday Rosen House Tours, Gingerbread Decorating, and More

Clockwise L-R: Holidays at Caramoor’s Rosen House by Gabe Palacio; Amarcord by Anne Hornemann; Kimberly Hawkey at a Holiday Tea Musicale by Palacio; Rosen House at the holidays by Palacio; Joseph Parrish at a Holiday Tea Musicale by Palacio. Available in high resolution here.

Caramoor Celebrates the Season in December

December 7: Amarcord Christmas Concert
December 10-21: Holiday Rosen House Tours
December 10-21: Holiday Tea Musicales
December 10-21: Holiday Gift Shop in the Summer Dining Room
December 13: Gingerbread Decorating Class for Families

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts | Rosen House
149 Girdle Ridge Drive | Katonah, NY
Tickets & Information

KATONAH, NY – Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY, celebrates the season in December with An Amarcord Christmas as part of the intimate Rosen House Concert Series on Sunday, December 7, 2025 at 3pm, plus Holiday Rosen House Tours running from December 10 to 21, 2025 at 12:30pm and 1pm (by advance ticket purchase only), and Holiday Tea Musicales from December 10 to 21, 2025 (currently sold out). Additionally, from December 10 to 21, 2025 Caramoor’s Summer Dining Room is transformed into a Holiday Gift Shop, which includes locally made artisan goods, and on Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 10:30am, Caramoor will offer a Gingerbread Decorating Class for families, in collaboration with Feeding Young Foodies. Once the estate of music and art lovers Walter and Lucie Rosen, Caramoor is one of the region’s most distinctive destinations for live performance, cultural engagement, and exploration. The estate’s gardens and grounds are also open year round to visitors, free of charge, for picnicking and walking daily from 10am to 4pm.

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. As part of this Series, Caramoor rings in the season on Sunday, December 7 at 3pm with An Amarcord Christmas, featuring the acclaimed vocal quintet Amarcord from Leipzig, Germany, in a festive program showcasing their remarkable blend and dynamic range. The ensemble, founded in 1992 by former members of St. Thomas's Boys Choir, presents a rich selection of holiday music drawn from across centuries—from medieval and Renaissance gems to contemporary choral works. The program includes traditional carols like Gustav Holst’s In the Bleak Midwinter and God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen, alongside music by Michael Praetorius, Orlando di Lasso, Cornelius Freundt, and more. Known for their masterful interpretations and vocal range spanning an entire orchestra, the five singers bring technical precision and deep emotional resonance to every performance, their voices intertwining with effortless beauty, creating a sound that is at once powerful and ethereal. 

From December 10 to 21, 2025, Caramoor invites guests to step into a holiday wonderland on special Holiday Rosen House Tours at 12:30pm and 1pm daily (by advance ticket purchase only; no tours on December 15). The art-filled Rosen House is decked out for the holidays with enchanting decorations inspired by the cherished Rosen family archive. The House offers a number of treasures, including complete 18th-century rooms, originally from private villas and chateaux in Italy, France, and England. The Burgundian Library is a French 17th-century, paneled room with a brilliant blue groin-vaulted ceiling. An exquisite 16th-century painted Spanish ceiling resides in an alcove off the Music Room. The Formal Dining Room features doors thought to have been designed by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1695-1770), made for a Venetian palace, along with turquoise Chinese export wallpaper featuring birds perched in flowering trees. The Music Room includes Renaissance furniture and architectural elements such as the intricately carved coffered ceiling from a house in Lecce, Italy; a pair of pink marble twisted columns from Verona, once in the collection of William Randolph Hearst; and a magnificent Franco-Flemish tapestry titled “The Holy Family.” With the holiday decor enhancing these extraordinary rooms, Caramoor’s Holiday Rosen House Tours offer a unique seasonal experience steeped in art, history, and beauty.

From December 10 to 21, 2025, Caramoor also offers Holiday Tea Musicales (by reservation only), featuring tea service in the Music Room and seasonal performances, including alumni of Caramoor’s Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program Sophia Baete (mezzo-soprano) and Francesco Barfoed (piano), Kate Morton (mezzo-soprano) with Michele Wong (piano), and Joseph Parrish (baritone), as well as jazz vocalists Kimberly Hawkey with pianist Peter Yarin and Mimi Hilaire with pianist Matt Podd. These popular events are already sold out; the Caramoor website will be updated with availability.

On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 10:30am, Caramoor invites families to celebrate the season with a festive Gingerbread Decorating Class in collaboration with Feeding Young Foodies. Perfect for children ages 4 and up (accompanied by an adult), this cozy, hands-on class offers a creative morning of holiday magic as participants bring their own candy cottages to life while sipping warm hot chocolate. Before the class begins, families can stroll through the Rosen House to gather inspiration from its holiday decor. Each child will take home their own decorated gingerbread house and gingerbread friend, wrapped and ready to display (or eat!). All materials are included: pre-baked gingerbread house pieces, icing bags, candies, and packaging.

Watch Amarcord:

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 in five distinct settings (the Music Room, Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Friends Field, and the Sunken Garden), 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 which draw inspiration from their environment. Caramoor also offers a formal afternoon tea service year-round in the Music Room (by reservation), a seasonal concessions tent, and a selection of public programs such as yoga, art classes, and large-scale community events.

At-a-Glance Calendar: Upcoming Rosen House Concert Series Performances

Friday, November 7 at 7:30pm: Christie Dashiell Quartet
Sunday, November 9 at 3pm: The English Concert
Sunday, November 16 at 3pm: Poiesis Quartet
Friday, November 21 at 7:30pm: The Arcadian Wild
Saturday, December 6 at 8pm: Rosanne Cash - Benefit Concert
Sunday, December 7 at 3pm: An Amarcord Christmas
Sunday, March 8 at 3pm: Schwab Vocal Rising Stars
Friday, March 20 at 7:30pm: Goitse
Sunday, March 22 at 3pm: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
Sunday, April 12 at 3pm: Junction Trio
Sunday, April 19 at 3pm: Steven Isserlis, cello & Connie Shih, piano
Friday, May 1 at 7:30pm: Anat Cohen Quartethinho
Sunday, May 3 at 3pm: Poiesis Quartet
Friday, May 8 at 7:30pm: Solomon Hicks

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

More information about visiting Caramoor: caramoor.org/visit

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.

Nov 23: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Presents Pianist Michelle Cann

Photo by Titilayo Ayangade. Press photos available here.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Presents Pianist Michelle Cann

Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 1:30 pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Calderwood Hall
25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Tickets: www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/michelle-cann-11.23.25

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

BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum concludes its Fall 2025 Weekend Concert Series with the Gardner debut of pianist Michelle Cann, a two-time GRAMMY® Award winner, on Sunday, November 23, 2025 at 1:30 pm. Michelle Cann is lauded as “exquisite” by The Philadelphia Inquirer and “a pianist of sterling artistry” by Gramophone. Her recent engagements include appearances with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orquestra Sinfônica Municipal de São Paulo, and more.

Cann’s program for her first appearance at the Gardner Museum features dazzling music from pianist-composers, including Florence Price’s Sonata in E minor, as well as three 19th-century showpieces from Romantic greats—Felix Mendelssohn’s Fantasie in F-sharp minor, Op. 28; Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1, S. 514; and Frédéric Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 in A-flat major, Op. 47. Cann will also perform Joel Thompson’s “My Dungeon Shook” from Three American Preludes, composed in 2020 and inspired by the words of celebrated author and civil rights activist James Baldwin as well as a traditional spiritual famously quoted by Martin Luther King, Jr. in his "I Have a Dream" speech.

Michelle Cann is a two-time GRAMMY® Award winner for her recordings of the music of Florence Price, the first African American woman to have her music performed by a major symphony orchestra. Recognized as a leading interpreter of the piano music of Price, Cann performed the New York City premiere of Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with The Dream Unfinished Orchestra in 2016 and the Philadelphia premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in 2021. Her recording of the concerto with the New York Youth Symphony won a GRAMMY® Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. She also won a GRAMMY® Award in 2025 for Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, recorded with soprano Karen Slack, which features 19 unpublished songs composed by Price. Her acclaimed debut solo album Revival, featuring music by Price and Margaret Bonds, was released in May 2023 on the Curtis Studio label. Cann is a recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award. She is on the faculty of Curtis Institute of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.

The Fall 2025 Weekend Concert Series is an eleven-concert autumn season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel running from September 13 through November 23, 2025, which features world-class artists 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.

George Steel’s programming for the Fall 2025 Weekend Concert Series 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 2025 At-a-Glance Concert Schedule 

September 13-14: ACRONYM - The Complete Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach
September 21: Junction Trio Plays John Zorn
September 28: Catalyst String Quartet
October 5: Sphinx Virtuosi with Sterling Elliott, cello
October 19: Miranda Cuckson, violin, and Blair McMillen, piano
October 26: Rachel Barton Pine, violin and viola d'amore
November 2: Claire Chase, flutes, with Aisslinn Nosky, violin, Katinka Kleijn, cello, and Alex Peh, piano and harpsichord
This performance is made possible by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs.
November 9: Clayton Stephenson, piano
This program is performed in memory of Willona Sinclair.
November 16: Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano with Myra Huang, piano
This concert is made possible by the generous support of David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder.
November 23: Michelle Cann, piano 

All concerts take place on Sundays at 1:30 pm (except ACRONYM, which performs on both Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 pm) in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).

Ticketing Information

Tickets ($20-$85) 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 $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children 17 and under, 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 

Music at the Gardner is supported by Nora McNeely Hurley / Manitou Fund. The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial 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, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nov 16: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents Sasha Cooke in Of Thee I Sing, including Boston Premiere of American Lament by Jasmine Barnes

Photo by Stephanie Girard. Press photos available here.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Presents Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano with Myra Huang, piano

Featuring the Boston Premiere of American Lament by Jasmine Barnes
Co-Commissioned by the Gardner Museum

Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 1:30 pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Calderwood Hall
25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Tickets: www.gardnermuseum.org/calendar/sasha-cooke-11.16.25

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

BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum continues its Fall 2025 Weekend Concert Series, presenting mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, quite simply one of America's greatest singers, on Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 1:30 pm. Cooke’s program with pianist Myra Huang, titled Of Thee I Sing, celebrates the rich tapestry of American song while offering a nuanced exploration of the still-unrealized American dream. 

The concert features music by iconic 20th and 21st century American composers such as Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Stephen Sondheim, as well as émigré composers Alma Mahler and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Through this poignant juxtaposition, the recital explores themes of identity, wandering, and renewal. From folk-rooted melodies to contemporary reflections, Cooke and Huang bring each work vividly to life, illuminating the many paths that lead toward a sense of home. 

Of Thee I Sing includes the Boston premiere of a new song cycle called American Lament by Emmy Award-winning composer Jasmine Barnes. Co-commissioned by the Gardner Museum and New York’s Park Avenue Armory for Sasha Cooke, American Lament draws text from the famous Langston Hughes poem “Let America be America Again.” In this evocative new work, Barnes depicts the journey of being a “dreamer” in the past and present of the United States—the promises made and forgotten, the yearning for justice, and a steadfast belief in the possibility of a more free and inclusive nation. Jasmine Barnes’s music has been called "beautifully lyrical" by The Telegraph and “the best possible blend of Billie Holiday and Claude Debussy” by The Boston Globe.

Two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke just finished her third summer as Co-Director of the Lehrer Vocal Institute at the Music Academy of the West, and was featured in summer 2025 performances at Ravinia, Grand Tetons, and Saratoga Performing Arts Center. She is seen as one of today’s most compelling and versatile vocalists. She has performed on the world’s leading stages, from the Metropolitan Opera to San Francisco Opera, Wigmore Hall, and Carnegie Hall—and with over eighty orchestras across the globe. A dedicated champion of American music and new voices, she has premiered dozens of works by today’s most influential composers and earned critical acclaim for her imaginative and deeply human interpretations.

Cooke says, “Of Thee I Sing is full of music that captures the beauty, complexity, and spirit of America—from timeless classics to powerful new works, especially Jasmine Barnes’ American Lament. I hope each song invites listeners to reflect and connect in new ways to their own American experience and what America means, then and now. Sharing this journey with Myra and our audiences feels like a celebration of where we’ve been and where we’re going.”

The Fall 2025 Weekend Concert Series is an eleven-concert autumn season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel running from September 13 through November 23, 2025, which features world-class artists 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.

George Steel’s programming for the Fall 2025 Weekend Concert Series 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 2025 At-a-Glance Concert Schedule 

September 13-14: ACRONYM - The Complete Brandenburg Concertos by J.S. Bach
September 21: Junction Trio Plays John Zorn
September 28: Catalyst String Quartet
October 5: Sphinx Virtuosi with Sterling Elliott, cello
October 19: Miranda Cuckson, violin, and Blair McMillen, piano
October 26: Rachel Barton Pine, violin and viola d'amore
November 2: Claire Chase, flutes, with Aisslinn Nosky, violin, Katinka Kleijn, cello, and Alex Peh, piano and harpsichord
This performance is made possible by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs.
November 9: Clayton Stephenson, piano
This program is performed in memory of Willona Sinclair.
November 16: Sasha Cooke, mezzo-soprano with Myra Huang, piano
This concert is made possible by the generous support of David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder.
November 23: Michelle Cann, piano 

All concerts take place on Sundays at 1:30 pm (except ACRONYM, which performs on both Saturday and Sunday at 1:30 pm) in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).

Ticketing Information

Tickets ($20-$85) 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 $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children 17 and under, 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 

Music at the Gardner is supported by Nora McNeely Hurley / Manitou Fund. The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial 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, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Appoints Ashley Lomery as Vice President of Philanthropy

Ashley Lomery, courtesy photo, available here.

Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Appoints
Ashley Lomery as Vice President of Philanthropy

KATONAH, NY – Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY, announces the appointment of Ashley Lomery as Vice President of Philanthropy, effective immediately. Lomery brings nearly thirty years of experience to the position, most recently serving as a philanthropic consulting director with Huron Consulting Group.

Caramoor President and CEO Gillian Fox says, “I am delighted to welcome Ashley Lomery as Caramoor’s new Vice President of Philanthropy. With a deep personal commitment to the arts, Ashley brings both expertise and heart to this important role. Selected from a highly competitive candidate pool, she will provide strong leadership and fresh energy to advance Caramoor’s philanthropic efforts and ensure that this extraordinary place continues to thrive for generations to come.” 

Lomery will lead the Caramoor team in securing crucial philanthropic support to advance and sustain the mission of Caramoor, strategically guiding all aspects of fundraising. With a focus on stewardship, prospect development, and operational excellence, Lomery will build the resources necessary to sustain and grow Caramoor’s programs and impact.

Prior to her work with Huron Consulting Group, Lomery’s over 25-year-career in fundraising has had an emphasis on major and principal giving. At the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ, she oversaw a fundraising team focused on securing funds for scholarships and student success initiatives. She has also worked at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA, several art and design colleges in California and Philadelphia, and two museums. ​Originally from Rome, NY, Lomery earned a bachelor's degree in television and radio production from Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. She has served on the board of directors for both Alisa’s Angels in Tucson and The Clay Studio in Philadelphia, and she has volunteered for the Philadelphia chapter of the Ithaca College Alumni Association and with Casa Alitas in Tucson.

“Performing and visual arts have been a constant thread throughout my life, and I am delighted to join Caramoor and sustain and grow philanthropy in support of its important mission to bring the joy of music, history, art, and nature to the community,” Lomery says. “I look forward to working closely with President and CEO Gillian Fox, the Board of Trustees, and Caramoor staff and volunteers to achieve our ambitious goals.”

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 in five distinct settings (the Music Room, Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Friends Field, and the Sunken Garden), 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 which draw inspiration from their environment. Caramoor also offers a formal afternoon tea service year-round in the Music Room (by reservation), a seasonal concessions tent, and a selection of public programs such as yoga, art classes, and large-scale community events.

Caramoor is a 501c3 charitable organization, primarily supported by the tremendous generosity of its community.

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

Nov. 20: Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera Perform Blue + Bob A Concert Featuring Piano Music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley – Presented by Roulette

L-R: Sarah Cahill, Joseph Kubera
Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera at the Berkeley Arts Center in 2002

Pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera Perform Blue + Bob
Presented by Roulette

A Concert Featuring Piano Music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley

Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 8pm
Roulette | 509 Atlantic Ave. | Brooklyn, NY
Tickets and More Information

SarahCahill.com | JosephKubera.com

Brooklyn, NY – Pianist Sarah Cahill, described as “keen and captivating” by The Washington Post and pianist Joseph Kubera, described by The Village Voice as one of “new music’s most valued performers,” come together on Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 8pm to perform Blue + Bob – a special tribute concert presented by Roulette (509 Atlantic Ave.) as part of its four-night series Music for Two Pianos from November 19-22, which features new, historic, and reimagined compositions by some of the great composers of our time.

Blue + Bob celebrates the work of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley and includes Tyranny’s two-piano gems Decertified Highway of Dreams (1991) and A Letter from Home (2002) and Ashley’s Viva’s Boy (1991) and Details (2b) (1962), along with solo compositions by both composers. Kubera and Cahill worked on these scores with both composers, and will also perform pieces that Tyranny dedicated to each of them, including The Drifter (1994) and Spirit (1996/2002).

“Blue” Gene Tyranny – born Robert Nathan Sheff in San Antonio, Texas – performed a diverse repertoire throughout his career, from the piano music of John Cage and Charles Ives to collaborations with Laurie Anderson and Iggy Pop. Following his involvement with the ONCE Festival of New Music in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he taught and worked as a recording studio technician at Mills College in Oakland from 1971–1982, later moving to New York.

After co-founding the ONCE Group in his native Ann Arbor, Robert Ashley directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College from 1969–1981, before also moving to New York. He was known for his experimental approach to opera, a fruitful source for his collaborations with Tyranny, notably in Perfect Lives.

Robert Ashley and “Blue” Gene Tyranny were both esteemed and beloved teachers in the Mills College Music Department. They were opposites in many ways, but when they met in the early 1960s working with the legendary ONCE Group, while Tyranny was still a teenager, they forged a fifty-year collaboration and lifelong friendship.

About 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 her include John Adams, Annea Lockwood, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF). Recent performances include The Barbican Centre in London, The National Gallery of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and an NPR Tiny Desk concert. She recently premiered Viet Cuong’s piano concerto, Stargazer, with the California Symphony. Sarah’s recordings include Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Piano with Javanese Gamelan, recorded at the Cleveland Museum of Art with Evan Ziporyn, Jody Diamond, and Gamelan Si Betty, and Eighty Trips Around the Sun, a four-disc tribute to Terry Riley. Sarah’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 6 to 8 pm 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.

About Joseph Kubera: Praised in The Wire (UK) for his “instrumental athleticism, technical precision and conceptual lucidity,” and his “capacity to stretch limits and redefine horizons,” Joseph Kubera has been a leading new music pianist for the past four decades. Recently he played at De Singel in Antwerp, at the “Christian Wolff at 90” celebration in New York, and recorded piano music by Laurie Spiegel, Daniel Goode, and Lejaren Hiller. He has directed performances of Julius Eastman’s music in New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, and has worked closely with such luminaries as Morton Feldman, Julius Eastman, Robert Ashley, and La Monte Young. Composers who have written works for him include Larry Austin, Michael Byron, Anthony Coleman, Alvin Lucier, Roscoe Mitchell, and “Blue” Gene Tyranny. A longtime Cage advocate, Kubera has made definitive recordings of Music of Changes and the Concert for Piano and toured widely with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company at Cage’s invitation. He has worked with S.E.M. Ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, and myriad other ensembles in New York City. In addition to his work with Sarah Cahill, he has collaborated with pianists Adam Tendler and Marilyn Nonken and baritone Thomas Buckner. Kubera has been awarded grants through the NEA and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts. He has recorded for Wergo, New Albion, New World, Lovely Music, Tzadik, and many other labels.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera perform a special two piano tribute recital, Blue + Bob, presented by Roulette as part of its four-night series Music for Two Pianos from November 19-22, which features new, historic, and reimagined compositions by some of the great composers of our time. The concert features the music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny (1945–2020) and Robert Ashley (1930–2014) – two esteemed and beloved teachers in the Mills College Music Department.

Concert details:

Who: Pianists Sarah Cahill and Joseph Kubera in Blue + Bob
Presented by Roulette part of its Music for Two Pianos series
What: Keyboard Music of “Blue” Gene Tyranny and Robert Ashley
When: Thursday, November 20, 2025 at 8pm
Where: 509 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11217
Tickets and information: roulette.org/event/music-for-two-pianos-bob-and-blue

Nov. 29-30: Cincinnati Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s Violin Concerto PULSE – Performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Featuring Violinist Tessa Lark Conducted by Music Director Cristian Măcelaru

Photo of Tessa Lark by Lauren Desberg available here & Lisa Bielawa by Shawn Poynter available here.

Cincinnati Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s Violin Concerto PULSE
on November 29 & 30, 2025

Performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Music Director Cristian Măcelaru
Featuring Violin Soloist Tessa Lark

Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 7:30pm
Sunday November 30, 2025 at 2pm
Cincinnati Music Hall | 1241 Elm St. | Cincinnati, OH
Tickets and More Information

Lisa Bielawa: www.lisabielawa.net | Tessa Lark: www.tessalark.com

Cincinnati, OH – Composer Lisa Bielawa’s new work, a violin concerto titled PULSE, will receive its Cincinnati premiere performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, which co-commissioned the new piece. The concerts will be led by Music Director Cristian Măcelaru and will feature violin soloist Tessa Lark, for whom the piece was written, on Saturday November 29, 2025 at 7:30pm and Sunday, November 30, at 2pm in the Cincinnati Music Hall (1241 Elm St.). There will be a pre-concert talk with CSO Associate Principal Timpanist Joe Bricker and Lisa Bielawa as part of "Fresh Ears," a new pre-concert series.

“PULSE is dedicated to the memory of Jim Rosenfield, a Cincinnati native,” says Bielawa. “He was a lifelong music and arts lover, a great friend, a supporter of my work, and the work of so many composers of our time.”

Lisa Bielawa is a Guggenheim Fellow and Rome Prize winner who takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. She has received awards and fellowships from the Koussevitzky Foundation, American Academy of Arts & Letters, OPERA America, American Antiquarian Society, Loghaven Artist Residency, and was part of the inaugural Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps. She received a Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser.

Of her new violin concerto, Bielawa writes, “This concerto was conceived as a way of keeping my finger on the pulse of American life during a period of seismic change and self-examination. Composed over a six-month period starting just before the 2024 presidential election, it is also informed by my immersion during this time in our sentimental history as told through our traditional musics. Tessa Lark’s artistry draws from multiple musical traditions, from Old-time to jazz to the classical avant-garde. I have had the enviable opportunity to hear Tessa play in the Smoky Mountains with Appalachian traditional musicians, at the Blue Note in midtown Manhattan, and on concert stages in concertos and chamber music both new and old.”

Lark, for whom Bielawa wrote this concerto, is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. Increasingly in demand in the classical realm, in 2020 she was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. She is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music and inspiring composers to write for her.

PULSE was co-commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, Library of Congress; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; and Louisville Orchestra; with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica. Support has also been provided by James Rosenfield, Justus Schlichting, Kari and Jon Ullman, New Music USA's Amplifying Voices Program, and the Loghaven Artist Residency. The world premiere performances by Tessa Lark and the Louisville Orchestra conducted by Music Director Teddy Abrams take place on October 24 and 25, 2025.

In addition to PULSE, Lisa Bielawa’s 2025-2026 season features more bold programming, new collaborations, and world premieres of several new works. Knoxville Broadcast, a new installment in Bielawa’s Broadcast series, premiered on October 17 and 18, 2025 in Knoxville, TN in three site-specific performances at Knoxville’s World’s Fair Park presented by Big Ears. On February 26, 2026, Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York will present a Composer Portrait concert dedicated exclusively to Bielawa’s music, including the world premiere of a new work, all performed by Contemporaneous led by David Bloom, with Bielawa singing. She is also currently at work on her Guggenheim Fellowship project, a hybrid film and live action opera called La Ballonniste or Balloon: A Hot Air Opera – a heartfelt comedy centering on 18th century French opera singer Élisabeth Tible, the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon.

Lisa Bielawa’s music has been premiered at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, SHIFT Festival, National Cathedral, Rouen Opera, MAXXI Museum in Rome, and Helsinki Music Center, among others. Orchestras that have championed her music include The Knights, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, ROCO, and the Orlando Philharmonic. Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Rider, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Radio France, Yerevan Concert Hall in Armenia, the Venice Architectural Biennale, American Music Week in Salzburg, the INFANT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, and more. Bielawa consistently incorporates community-making as part of her artistic vision. She has created music for public spaces in Lower Manhattan, a bridge over the Ohio River in Louisville, KY, the banks of the Tiber River in Rome, on the sites of former airfields in Berlin and San Francisco, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. During the pandemic, Bielawa cultivated a virtual community using submitted testimonies and recorded voices from six continents through her work Broadcast from Home, now archived by the Library of Congress.

For Calendar Editors:

Description: Composer Lisa Bielawa’s new violin concerto, PULSE, will be performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Cristian Măcelaru with violin soloist Tessa Lark, on November 29 and 30 at Cincinnati Music Hall. There will be a pre-concert talk with CSO Associate Principal Timpanist Joe Bricker and Lisa Bielawa as part of the CSO’s new pre-concert series, "Fresh Ears." The concert program will also include Tales: A Folklore Symphony by Carlos Simon, Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring by Aaron Copland, and Symphony No. 7 by Antonín Dvořák.

Concert details:

What: PULSE - a new violin concerto by Lisa Bielawa
Who: The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with soloist Tessa Lark
Conducted by Music Director Cristian Măcelaru
When: Saturday, November 29, 2025 at 7:30pm
Sunday November 30, 2025 at 2pm
Where: Cincinnati Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Cincinnati, OH 45202
Tickets and information: cincinnatisymphony.org/tickets-and-events/buy-tickets/cso/2526-cso-season/dvoak-symphony-no.-7/

Poiesis Quartet Begins Residency at Caramoor as the 2025-26 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

Photo of Christie Dashiell by Colville Heskey available in high resolution here.

Poiesis Quartet Begins Residency at Caramoor
as the 2025-26 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence

“Magnetic. These musicians have palpable chemistry and a remarkable warmth.” – San Francisco Classical Voice

“[T]he Poiesis [Quartet] created waves of excitement” – BBC Music Magazine

Information & Tickets: caramoor.org

KATONAH, NY – Fresh from winning the Grand Prize at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition, and just three years after forming, the Poiesis Quartet (violinists Sarah Ying Ma and Max Ball, violist Jasper de Boor, and cellist Drew Dansby) begins its season as the 2025-2026 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, giving the first concert of the residency as part of the Rosen House Concert Series on Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 3pm.

Caramoor 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. Its Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence program was founded in 1999, and annually supports an exceptional emerging string quartet. The year-long residency includes three performances at Caramoor and two 10-day periods (November 11-21, 2025 and April 27-May 5, 2026) in which the Quartet works with students in local schools. One thousand students will benefit from engagements in 11 schools across Westchester County. The Quartet-in-Residence program extends access to the arts for high school students by providing one-to-one mentoring with professional musicians, giving students insight into pursuing a career in the arts. Caramoor also commissions a new work by a composer of the Quartet's choosing – the Poiesis Quartet will premiere the new piece written for the group at Caramoor in summer 2026. 

Formed in 2022 at Oberlin, the Poiesis Quartet (pronounced poy-EE-suhss), has swiftly risen to prominence. In addition to being the Grand Prize winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet, the ensemble is also the winner of the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. Renowned for their cohesive artistry and adventurous programming, the group lives up to its name – poiesis, from the Greek “to make” – with performances that forge new paths in chamber music. Dedicated to championing the voices of emerging and historically underrepresented composers, the Poiesis Quartet brings this vibrant mission to life in their Caramoor residency.

The Poiesis Quartet’s program for its November 16 concert, titled Surfacing, is an exploration of the raw, human responses to existential and life-altering events. Incorporating musical influences as varied as electronic dance music, East Asian folk tunes, R&B, jazz, gospel, and traditional spirituals, four composers take us on a journey through phases of healing and growth, ultimately surfacing from confusion and pain with resilience and a renewed sense of hope. The concert includes String Quartet by Brian Raphael Nabors (2024); String Quartet No. 3 (2014) and String Quartet No. 7, “Surfacing” (2024) by Kevin Lau (commissioned by the Poiesis Quartet); Many Many Cadences by Sky Macklay (2015); Calvary, an African-American spiritual arranged for violin quartet by Max Ball; and String Quartet No. 1, Calvary by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (1956). Tickets are free for audience members ages 18 and under. 

The Poiesis Quartet’s second performance as part of the Rosen House Concert Series takes place on Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 3pm, and includes Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores (2020); Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 2 (1994); and Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5 (1934). Tickets are free for audience members ages 18 and under. 

In addition to the Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence program, as part of its ongoing commitment to mentorship for young musicians Caramoor offers the Evnin Rising Stars program, which has nurtured emerging talent since 1992. Each year, the program’s Artistic Director Marcy Rosen identifies some of the most promising musicians at the cusp of professional careers, bringing them to Caramoor for a weeklong chamber music residency with distinguished artist mentors. This year’s mentors are violinist Ani Kavafian and violist Rebecca Albers. The 2025 Evnin Rising Stars are violinists Isabelle Ai Durrenberger, Clara Neubauer, and Cherry Choi Tung Yeung; violists Samuel Rosenthal and Luther Warren; cellists Annie Jacobs-Perkins and Leland Ko; and pianist Evren Ozel. The Evnin Rising Stars will give two Rosen House Concert Series performances on Saturday, November 1, 2025 at 3pm (featuring music by Boccherini, Ginastera, and Brahms) and Sunday, November 2, 2025 at 3pm (featuring music by Mozart, Shostakovich, and Dvořák). Tickets are free for audience members ages 18 and under. 

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 in five distinct settings (the Music Room, Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Friends Field, and the Sunken Garden), 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 which draw inspiration from their environment. Caramoor also offers a formal afternoon tea service year-round in the Music Room (by reservation), a seasonal concessions tent, and a selection of public programs such as yoga, art classes, and large-scale community events.

At-a-Glance Calendar: Upcoming Rosen House Concert Series Performances

Sunday, October 26 at 3pm: Raphaël Feuillâtre, guitar
Saturday, November 1 at 3pm: Evnin Rising Stars
Sunday, November 2 at 3pm: Evnin Rising Stars
Friday, November 7 at 7:30pm: Christie Dashiell Quartet
Sunday, November 9 at 3pm: The English Concert
Sunday, November 16 at 3pm: Poiesis Quartet
Friday, November 21 at 7:30pm: The Arcadian Wild
Saturday, December 6 at 8pm: Rosanne Cash - Benefit Concert
Sunday, December 7 at 3pm: An Amarcord Christmas
Sunday, March 8 at 3pm: Schwab Vocal Rising Stars
Friday, March 20 at 7:30pm: Goitse
Sunday, March 22 at 3pm: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
Sunday, April 12 at 3pm: Junction Trio|
Sunday, April 19 at 3pm: Steven Isserlis, cello & Connie Shih, piano
Friday, May 1 at 7:30pm: Anat Cohen Quartethinho
Sunday, May 3 at 3pm: Poiesis Quartet
Friday, May 8 at 7:30pm: Solomon Hicks

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

More information about visiting Caramoor: caramoor.org/visit

Feb. 27: Pianist Alexander Malofeev Announces Sony Classical Debut Album Forgotten Melodies – New Single Out Today

© Dovile Sermokas

Pianist Alexander Malofeev Announces Sony Classical Debut Album
Forgotten Melodies

Out Today: New Single Forgotten Melodies I, Op. 38/Vi. Canzona Serenata
Listen Here

“…His intensity overwhelms…[he] makes a monumentally thunderous impression with his music…” – The Los Angeles Times

Worldwide Album Release Date: February 27, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now

Sony Classical is thrilled to announce the debut album of world-renowned pianist Alexander Malofeev titled Forgotten Melodies set for release on February 27, 2026 and available for preorder here. The first single, Forgotten Melodies I, Op. 38/VI. Canzona serenata is out today – listen here.

“A world piano revolution” (Der Standard) at just twenty-three, Alexander Malofeev has already become one of the most captivating pianists of his generation. Praised by Il Giornale for embodying “the piano mastery of the new millennium,” he has performed with leading orchestras worldwide.

Born in Moscow in 2001, Malofeev studied at two of Russia’s most renowned institutions: the Gnessin Special School and the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. In 2014, at just thirteen, he won first prize at the junior edition of the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Today, Alexander Malofeev lives in Berlin. With this recording, he seeks to connect traces of his heritage with those of the present. “I chose Berlin more or less by accident, but previously it had been home to Glinka, Glazunov and Medtner at some point in their lives.”

For his album, Malofeev has selected four composers who were all born in Russia but died far from their homeland: Alexander Glazunov in Paris (1936), Mikhail Glinka in Berlin (1857), Sergei Rachmaninoff in Beverly Hills (1943), and Nikolai Medtner in London (1951).

Yet more than the theme of exile - which shaped the lives of these four composers -what moves Malofeev most is another idea: “They all share a similar feeling of nostalgia,” he explains. “But you cannot really figure out which moment in time they are actually nostalgic for. It’s almost as if they are nostalgic for a very similar setting which never really existed in history. It’s like it is totally made up, almost a dream world - and you can find it everywhere on this album.”

Alongside Medtner’s cycle Forgotten Melodies, the most extensive work on the album is Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Sonata, composed while he was still in Russia and revised nearly two decades later in Switzerland. “I’ve loved Rachmaninoff for as long as I can remember,” Malofeev admits - referring to his composing and piano: “His freedom, his spirit, his hands, his genius.” Malofeev deliberately chose the revised version of the Sonata, as it is shorter, more concise, and more economical in its writing - and therefore closer to Medtner.

Not yet in his mid-twenties, Alexander Malofeev has already stepped into the international spotlight, thanks to his phenomenal technique and, above all, the remarkable expressiveness of his playing. Conductor Riccardo Chailly notes that he is “not just a child prodigy,” recognizing that Malofeev “already possesses depth as well as technical, musical and mnemonic abilities.” The international press has hailed him as a “Russian genius” (Corriere della Sera); his performances are described as a “piano-world revolution” (Der Standard), his “magnetic pull” and ability to create a “weightlessly singing tone” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) already marking him, at such a young age, as a truly exceptional artist.

ALEXANDER MALOFEEV – FORGOTTEN MELODIES – TRACKLIST:

Glinka – A Farewell to Saint Petersburg: No. 10, The Lark
Glinka – Mazurka in C Major
Glinka – Mazurka in C Minor
Glinka – Polka in D Minor
Glinka – Farewell Waltz 
Medtner – I – Sonata reminiscenza 
Medtner – II. Danza graziosa 
Medtner – III. Danza festiva 
Medtner – IV. Canzona fluviala 
Medtner – V. Danza rustica 
Medtner – VI. Canzona serenata 
Medtner – VII. Danza silvestra 
Medtner – VIII. Alla reminiscenza 
Medtner – 2 Fairy Tales, Op. 48: No. 2, Tale of the Elves
Rachmaninoff – 5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3: No. 2, Prélude in C-Sharp Minor - Lento
Rachmaninoff – Fragments, Op.posth
Rachmaninoff – I. Allegro agitato
Rachmaninoff – II. Non allegro 
Rachmaninoff – III. Allegro molto 
Rachmaninoff - 12 Romances, Op. 21: V. Lilacs
Rachmaninoff – 5 Morceaux de fantaisie, Op. 3: No. 1, Élégie in E-Flat Minor
Rachmaninoff – No. 3: Grave
Rachmaninoff – No. 7: Moderato
Rachmaninoff – No. 8: Grave
Glazunov – 3 Études for Piano, Op. 31: No. 3. La nuit
Glazunov – Song of the Volga Boatmen, Op. 97
Glazunov – Idylle, Op. 103 
Glazunov – 3 Miniatures for Piano, Op. 42: Valse - Allegretto

ALEXANDER MALOFEEV 2025 – 2026 PERFORMANCE DATES:

Oct 24 – Frankfurt, Germany – Alte Oper Frankfurt
Nov 9 – Leipzig, Germany – Mendelssohn-Haus Leipzig
Nov 10 – Berlin, Germany – Philharmonie Berlin
Nov 13 – Munich, Germany – Isarphilharmonie Munich
Nov 27 – Bari, Italy – Teatro Petruzzelli
Nov 30 – Trento, Italy – Sala Filarmonica
Dec 14 – Brussels, Belgium – Bozar / Centre for Fine Arts
Jan 12 – Bologna, Italy – Teatro Auditorium Manzoni
Jan 14 – Lausanne, Switzerland – Week-End Musical de Pully
Jan 15 – Grenoble, France – Auditorium du Musée
Jan 17 – Vienna, Austria – Konzerthaus
Jan 21 – Milan, Italy – Milan Conservatory / Sala Verdi
Jan 23 – Paris, France – Salle Gaveau
Jan 28 – Hamburg, Germany – Elbphilharmonie
Jan 31 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 6 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 7 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 8 – Shenzhen, China – Shenzhen Concert Hall / Verbier Festival
Feb 14 – Brussels, Belgium – Festival Musiq3 / Flagey
Feb 25 – Hamburg, Germany – Elbphilharmonie / Großer Saal
Mar 3 – Orlando, FL, USA – Steinmetz Hall
Mar 5 – Houston, TX, USA – Jones Hall

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/.

Alexander Malofeev Official Channels

Official Website
YouTube
Instagram
Facebook

Nov. 7: Caramoor Continues Rosen House Concert Series with GRAMMY®-Nominated Jazz Vocalist Christie Dashiell and her Quartet

Photo of Christie Dashiell by Colville Heskey available in high resolution here.

Caramoor Continues Rosen House Concert Series
with the Christie Dashiell Quartet led by
GRAMMY®-Nominated Jazz Vocalist Christie Dashiell

Friday, November 7, 2025 at 7:30pm
Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts | Rosen House
149 Girdle Ridge Drive | Katonah, NY
Tickets & Information

“one of today's most innovative vocalists and composers” – DownBeat Magazine

“Dashiell possesses a sumptuously rich timbre, a powerful storytelling gift and the ability to craft songs which lodge immediately in the heart.” – Jazzwise

KATONAH, NY – Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, a vibrant cultural destination nestled on 81 acres of historic gardens and woodlands in Katonah, NY, continues its intimate Rosen House Concert Series with a performance by the Christie Dashiell Quartet, led by one of jazz’s most captivating voices, GRAMMY®-nominated vocalist and composer Christie Dashiell, on Friday, November 7, 2025 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.

Christie Dashiell returns to Caramoor with her quartet (pianist Allyn Johnson, bassist Romeir Mendez Mendez, drummer Carroll (C.V.) Dashiell) after an impressive performance as part of the 2024 Jazz Festival. With her soulful sound and remarkable technical skill, she weaves stories that touch the heart and lift the spirit. Washington, DC-born and North Carolina-raised, Dashiell lives at the musical crossroads of jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel and soul. Known for her improvisational prowess and effortlessly rich and clear tone, she has become one of the most sought-after artists on the scene today.

Dashiell’s album Journey in Black was nominated for a GRAMMY® in the Best Jazz Vocal Album category and earned a coveted five-star review from DownBeat. Journey in Black showcases her ability to explore profound themes of freedom, legacy, and joy through her music, and boasts a stellar cast of musicians, including Shedrick Mitchell, Marquis Hill, Allyn Johnson, Romeir Mendez, and Carroll Dashiell III with creative guidance from NEA Jazz Master Dianne Reeves.

Dashiell appeared on season three of NBC’s The Sing-Off as a member of Afro Blue, and she has performed in concert with Esperanza Spalding, Fred Hammond, Smokey Robinson, Geri Allen, Allan Harris, and more. Her latest album, with Terri Lyne Carrington, is We Insist 2025!, a bold reimagining of the seminal 1961 album We Insist! Max Roach’s Freedom Now Suite.

Growing up in a musical family, Dashiell has been singing all of her life. She is the third of four multi-talented and musical children of jazz bassist, Carroll Dashiell, Jr. Her musical lineage is deeply rooted. She honed her skills at Howard University and at the Manhattan School of Music. In addition to performing with her quartet, she works with many artists including GRAMMY-nominated vocal ensemble Sweet Honey in the Rock. She has appeared as a featured artist on Blue Note Record’s Supreme Sonacy, Marquis Hill’s The Way We Play, Wynton Marsalis’ work The Ever Fonky Lowdown and the social-justice compilation album Black Lives: From Generation to Generation. Dashiell tours internationally, performing on some of the world’s most prestigious stages including Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Baku Jazz Festival in Azerbaijan, and Bunkamura Orchard Hall in Tokyo. She is on the faculty at Temple University, Howard University, and The University of the District of Columbia.

This performance is presented in collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center. The concert is underwritten in part by a generous donation from Amy & John Peckham and the Peckham Family Foundation.

Watch Christie Dashiell:

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 in five distinct settings (the Music Room, Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Friends Field, and the Sunken Garden), 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 which draw inspiration from their environment. Caramoor also offers a formal afternoon tea service year-round in the Music Room (by reservation), a seasonal concessions tent, and a selection of public programs such as yoga, art classes, and large-scale community events.

At-a-Glance Calendar: Upcoming Rosen House Concert Series Performances

Sunday, October 26 at 3pm: Raphaël Feuillâtre, guitar
Saturday, November 1 at 3pm: Evnin Rising Stars
Sunday, November 2 at 3pm: Evnin Rising Stars
Friday, November 7 at 7:30pm: Christie Dashiell Quartet
Sunday, November 9 at 3pm: The English Concert
Sunday, November 16 at 3pm: Poiesis Quartet
Friday, November 21 at 7:30pm: The Arcadian Wild
Saturday, December 6 at 8pm: Rosanne Cash - Benefit Concert
Sunday, December 7 at 3pm: An Amarcord Christmas
Sunday, March 8 at 3pm: Schwab Vocal Rising Stars
Friday, March 20 at 7:30pm: Goitse
Sunday, March 22 at 3pm: Víkingur Ólafsson, piano
Sunday, April 12 at 3pm: Junction Trio|
Sunday, April 19 at 3pm: Steven Isserlis, cello & Connie Shih, piano
Friday, May 1 at 7:30pm: Anat Cohen Quartethinho
Sunday, May 3 at 3pm: Poiesis Quartet
Friday, May 8 at 7:30pm: Solomon Hicks

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

More information about visiting Caramoor: caramoor.org/visit

Nov. 16: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Marin – Featuring the Music of Derrick Skye, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven

Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet

Telegraph Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Marin
Featuring the Music of Derrick Skye, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven

Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 5pm
Chamber Music Marin
Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church | 410 Sycamore Ave. | Mill Valley, CA
Tickets and More Information

Telegraph Quartet’s New Album
20th Century Vantage Points Vol. 2: Edge of the Storm Out Now

Review downloads & CDs available upon request.

“precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication” – The Strad

www.TelegraphQuartet.com

Mill Valley, CA – On Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 5pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group The New York Times describes as “full of elegance and pinpoint control,” is presented in concert by Chamber Music Marin. The performance will take place in Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church (410 Sycamore Ave). Known for their technical prowess and appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet bring their fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a program titled From Countryside to Concert Hall – a concert program that showcases how these three composers adapted, adopted, or fully embodied folk music, bringing the rustic and unassuming spirit of that idiom into the bright light of the concert stage. The program includes Derrick Skye’s American Mirror, Part 1; Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 2; and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 – the first of his “Razumovsky” quartets, nicknamed for Prince Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna who commissioned Beethoven to write these pieces.

According to composer Derrick Skye, "American Mirror reflects on the coming together of cultures in our society, which consists of many generations and descendants of refugees, immigrants, and slaves, and how intercultural collaborations are essential to the well-being of American society.” The piece infuses influences from West African, North African, and Eastern European vocal techniques and ornamentations with open harmonies commonly found in Appalachian folk music. Bartók’s second quartet exhibits his immersion into what he called the “purest music” – that of the remote Hungarian countryside – a style he sought to absorb and recreate as a new form of highly complex concert music. The fourth movement of Beethoven's first "Razumovsky" quartet playfully features a theme from his patron's homeland fulfilling the patron’s request – that Beethoven include a Russian theme in each of the Quartets – in a cheeky fashion.

The Telegraph Quartet formed in 2013 with an equal passion for standard and contemporary chamber music repertoire. Described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape” and “powerfully adept… with a combination of brilliance and subtlety,” the Telegraph Quartet was awarded the prestigious 2016 Walter W. Naumburg Chamber Music Award and the Grand Prize at the 2014 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition.

Of bringing this folk-oriented program to Chamber Music Marin, the Telegraph Quartet says:

“We're excited to be sharing three different centuries of classical composers who infused each of their chamber works with folk music. While Beethoven impishly transformed a slow somber Russian folk song into a light-hearted finale, Bartok fully absorbed the Hungarian folk idiom to create an "updated" and truly modernist composition reflecting the apprehension of its WWI context. Derrick Skye's American Mirror is a self-professed reflection of many musical cultures mixing together to create one distinctly new voice that nimbly glides between one and the other.”

In August 2023, the Telegraph Quartet released 20th Century Vantage Points: Divergent Paths, the first in a trilogy of recordings on Azica Records exploring the string quartets of the first half of the 20th century – an era of music that the group has felt especially called to perform since its formation. Divergent Paths 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. The Quartet’s new album, 20th Century Vantage Points: Edge of the Storm is out now on Azica Records. Read the press release online here. This second volume of the trilogy examines music from the turbulent war years of 1941-1951 and features a thoughtfully curated program of works by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg.

More about Telegraph Quartet: The 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.

Beyond the concert stage, the Telegraph Quartet seeks to spread its music through education and audience engagement. The Quartet has given master classes at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music Collegiate and Pre-College Divisions, through the Morrison Artist Series at San Francisco State University, and abroad at the Taipei National University of the Arts, National Taiwan Normal University, and in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. Telegraph has also served as artists-in-residence at the Interlochen Adult Chamber Music Camp, SoCal Chamber Music Workshop, and Crowden Music Center Chamber Music Workshop. In November 2020, the Telegraph Quartet launched ChamberFEAST!, a chamber music workshop in Taiwan. In fall 2020, Telegraph launched an online video project called TeleLab, in which the ensemble collectively breaks down the components of a movement from various works for quartet. In the summers of 2022 and 2024, the Telegraph Quartet traveled to Vienna to work with Schoenberg expert Henk Guittart in conjunction with the Arnold Schoenberg Center, researching all of Schoenberg's string quartets.

For more information, visit www.telegraphquartet.com.

For Calendar Editors:

Concert details:

Who: Telegraph Quartet in Countryside to Concert Hall
Presented by Chamber Music Marin
What: Music by Derrick Skye, Béla Bartók, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Sunday, November 16, 2025 at 5pm
Where: Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church, 410 Sycamore Ave., Mill Valley, CA 94941
Tickets and information: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/millvalleychambermusicsociety/1632606

Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group “full of elegance and pinpoint control” (The New York Times), is presented in concert by Chamber Music Marin. The ensemble will perform a lively concert program titled Countryside to Concert Hall, featuring American Mirror: Part I by Derrick Skye, Quartet No. 2 by Béla Bartók, and Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1 “Razumovsky” by Ludwig van Beethoven.

GatherNYC Announces 2025-2026 Season at Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) – 31 Concerts from October 2025 to May 2026

GatherNYC Launches Expanded 2025-2026 Season in NYC
at Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in Columbus Circle

31 Concerts – Now Held Weekly, Every Sunday Morning at 11AM
from October 26, 2025 through May 31, 2026

“thoughtful, intimate events curated with refreshing eclecticism by its founders, the cellist Laura Metcalf and the guitarist Rupert Boyd, complete with pastries and coffee – The New Yorker

“A sweet chamber music series” – The New York Times

“Impressive Aussie/American led concert series proves music can be a religion.”
– Limelight Magazine

Museum of Arts and Design | The Theater at MAD | 2 Columbus Circle | NYC

Tickets & Information: www.gathernyc.org

New York, NY – GatherNYC, a revolutionary concert experience founded in 2018 by cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, launches its expanded 2025-2026 season at the series’ home venue, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) (2 Columbus Circle). For the first time, GatherNYC will offer weekly concerts, held every Sunday morning at 11am, in The Theater at MAD. Coffee and pastries are served before each performance at 10:30am. Admission for children under 12 is free. The series will present an astonishing thirty-one concerts between October 26, 2025 and May 31, 2026. The season opens on October 26 with a performance by Metcalf and Boyd’s cello and guitar duo Boyd Meets Girl, plus all-star guests Audrey Wright, violin (New York Philharmonic) and Jo-Ann Sternberg, clarinet.

Guests at GatherNYC are served exquisite live classical music performed by New York’s immensely talented artists, artisanal coffee and pastries, a taste of the spoken word, and a brief celebration of silence. The entire experience lasts one hour and evokes the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service – but the religion is music, and all are welcome.

Spoken word artists perform briefly at the midpoint of each concert, many of whom are winners of The Moth StorySLAM events. “It’s an interesting moment of something completely different from the music, and it often connects with the audience,” Metcalf told Strings magazine in a feature about the series. “Then we have a two-minute celebration of silence when we turn the lights down, centering ourselves in the center of the city. Then the lights come back on, and the music starts again out of the silence. We find that the listening and the feeling in the room changes after that.”

Metcalf and Boyd say, “We are thrilled to be offering 31 concerts throughout our expanded 2025-2026 season, by far our largest lineup yet. In these challenging times, we feel it’s essential to provide our community with a gathering place each week where we can enjoy world-class artists together in an intimate, unique setting – complete with spoken word, silence, coffee and a communal, welcoming environment. We look forward to welcoming new and old friends week after week.”

GatherNYC 2025-2026 Schedule – All Concerts Take Place on Sundays at 11AM:

October 26: Boyd Meets Girl + All-Star Guests – A Season Opening Celebration

Artistic Directors of GatherNYC, cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, are joined by New York Philharmonic violinist Audrey Wright, returning for her second performance at GatherNYC, and acclaimed clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg for a vibrant, eclectic program of music by Paul Wiancko, Olivier Messiaen and more.

November 2: Hanzhi Wang, accordion with Ivan Filipchyk, accordion

This concert traces a musical journey from the Baroque era to contemporary times, showcasing the accordion’s remarkable versatility. Beginning with solo works and expanding to the dynamic interplay of two accordions, the program explores the instrument’s orchestral depth and tonal diversity. A highlight of the morning is the duo accordion arrangement of Petrushka, offering a fresh perspective on Stravinsky’s iconic work.

November 9: Matt Haimovitz, cello

Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-GRAMMY-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls, clubs, outdoor festivals, and intimate coffee houses – any place where passionate music can be heard. For his GatherNYC debut, Haimovitz pairs new music from his innovative “Primavera Project” with timeless classics by J.S. Bach.

November 16: The Westerlies

Returning to GatherNYC for the second time, The Westerlies, a singular brass quartet with "a unique reputation for exploring the emotional textures of American music" across sounds and traditions (DownBeat), return to GatherNYC to celebrate the release of their EP Songbook, Vol. 3, a typically virtuosic and eclectic homage to the compositions of their many high-profile friends and collaborators. These nine arrangements showcase not just an ensemble at the peak of their musical powers, but one that is deeply committed to connection and community onstage and off of it.

November 23: Rachel Lee Priday, violin – Fluid Dynamics

During the pandemic, ocean scientist Georgy Manucharyan reached out to violinist Rachel Lee Priday with fascinating videos of fluid dynamics experiments he had captured in his lab. These films struck Rachel as water choreography, seeking a musical response from a group of leading American composers to engage with the ways in which the laws of physics, which unite us all, leave space for individuality, chance, and interpretation. These stunning new compositions written by some of the most acclaimed composers of our time including Leilehua Lanzilotti, Paul Wiancko, Timo Andres, Gabriella Smith and more, reflect how we all derive energy from nature and in turn project our inner lives onto the observed world around us. Threads of minimalism, cyclical structures, unbridled lyricism, motoric energy and physicality run through the entire program.

November 30: Kayla Williams + Friends

Violist, vocalist, and composer Kayla Williams explores a multidisciplinary approach to contemporary chamber music. Her ensemble strives to bridge the gaps between classical, jazz, folk, and roots music bringing each of these musical communities into conversation and collaboration.

December 7: GatherNYC Downtown – Natalie Tenenbaum, piano

In this special offsite performance taking place in a private loft in Manhattan, the superstar pianist Natalie Tenenbaum, known for her fluency in a wide variety of musical styles including classical, jazz, pop, Broadway and more, will share an intimate acoustic set of her original works and improvisations.

December 14: Renaissance String Quartet

Founded in 2021 by violinists Randall Goosby and Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass, the New York City based quartet was formed on the basis of over a decade of friendship at The Perlman Music Program and The Juilliard School. The quartet feels a responsibility to command a diverse repertoire of classic, underrepresented, and new works, so they can contribute to the reclamation, redefinition, and continuation of a musical tradition that belongs to all of us. They represent and articulate an inclusive vision of the future of classical music, which sees a culture of music wherein all lives and histories are welcomed and celebrated. For their first appearance at GatherNYC, the quartet performs music from its debut album Love & Levity.

December 21: Bridget Kibbey, harp

GatherNYC welcomes back acclaimed harpist Bridget Kibbey for her second appearance on the series. In a virtuosic and charming holiday baroque program, Kibbey plays a set of solo transcriptions by J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti alongside her own improvisations and arrangements celebrating the holiday season.

January 4: Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano + Jesse Blumberg, baritone with Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC rings in the new year with a pair of powerhouse vocalists known for their creativity and curiosity. Mezzo-soprano Devony Smith and baritone Jesse Blumberg join GatherNYC artistic directors Rupet Boyd and Laura Metcalf for an eclectic program of music by Schubert, Mazzolli, Falla and more.

January 11: Yasmin Williams, guitar

Yasmin Williams, a young guitar and plucked string virtuoso who is taking the world by storm with her captivating performances, will present a solo performance of her own original compositions, including her distinct and innovative approach to playing the guitar, in a unique blend of folk, blues, classical and Appalachian influences.

January 18: Ember (violin + cello + harp)

GatherNYC is proud to present this newly-formed ensemble consisting of harpist Emily Levin, violinist Julia Choi and cellist Christine Lamprea, in a concert featuring repertoire from their debut album Birds of Paradise, released in fall 2025 to great critical acclaim. With this release, the ensemble challenges the role of the harp as an instrument of femininity and domesticity, centering it in a position of power and strength.

January 25: Isabel Hagen, viola + comedy

Isabel Hagen is a stand-up comedian and classically trained violist. As a stand-up, she has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon multiple times, and as a New Face of Comedy at the prestigious Just for Laughs festival in Montréal. Isabel started stand-up immediately after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Juilliard School. As a violist, she has played in the orchestra of many Broadway shows, and worked with artists such as Vampire Weekend, Bjork, Max Richter, and Steve Reich. You might be wondering if Isabel ever combines comedy and viola. The answer: sometimes!

February 1: Empire Wild

Empire Wild, founded by Juilliard-trained cellists Mitchell Lyon and Ken Kubota, joins forces with acclaimed jazz pianist Addison Frei for a genre-bending program that fuses pop, folk, jazz, and classical traditions into an electrifying, original sound. Honored with the Concert Artists Guild Ambassador Prize, the ensemble captivates audiences with inventive compositions, reimagined classics, and the limitless possibilities of cross-genre collaboration.

February 8: Sonnambula

Praised as “remarkable” and “superb” by the New Yorker, Sonnambula is a historically-informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for various combinations of early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. The ensemble is currently the 2025-26 ensemble in residence at The Frick Collection, and will share music from their recently-released and critically-acclaimed album Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos. Do not miss the chance to hear these rare and beautiful instruments up close!

February 15: Tallā Rouge

Tallā Rouge's brings selections from their debut album, Shapes in Collective Space, to GatherNYC, weaving together a narrative of love, loss, childlike glee, and reflection. Featuring diverse and genre-defying compositions by inti figgis-vizueta, Kian Ravaei, Karl Mitze, and Leilehua Lanzilotti, Tallā Rouge sonically explores the raw emotions that shape our collective humanity — beckoning us to embrace and cherish the impermanence of life.

February 22: Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC’s own artistic directors, cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, take the stage to share several world premieres for the unique combination of cello and guitar by Stephen Goss, Reinaldo Moya and more, as well as works from their upcoming third album release.

March 1: Exponential Ensemble

Exponential Ensemble, led by clarinetist Pascal Archer, is one of the most innovative ensembles on the NYC music scene. Exponential Ensemble’s mission includes commissioning and premiering works by living composers that are inspired by math, science and literacy, and their GatherNYC debut showcases the woodwind players from the Ensemble performing works by French and American composers, including “Wild Birds” by Brad Balliett inspired by wild birds living in New York City’s Central Park!

March 8: Inbal Segev, cello

Inbal Segev, a formidable cello soloist who stands out not only for her captivating sound and stage presence, but also for her curiosity and creativity. She has commissioned and premiered numerous concertos for cello and orchestra, and for this intimate solo performance she invites us into her compelling sound world, playing both her own compositions and music of Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzolli and more.

March 15: Palaver Strings

GatherNYC is proud to present this masterful and creative Portland, ME- based string chamber orchestra. Their program “The Apple of Their Eyes” explores the African-American experience in classical music, through the eyes of Black composers. It begins with William Grant Still’s lush and lyrical Mother and Child, and continues with Perry’s understated Prelude for Piano, arranged for strings. At the heart of the program is Edmund Thornton Jenkins Romance and Reverie Phantasy for Violin and String Orchestra, restored, edited, and arranged by Tuffus Zimbabwe, featuring Palaver violinist Maïthéna Girault. The Apple of their Eyes encapsulates the African-American experience, and celebrates the richness and depth of Black classical music.

March 22: The Knights – An Interactive Family Concert

Following their wildly successful family concert in November 2024, The Knights return to GatherNYC with a new program, also designed for the whole family. “Toy Bricks” is an interactive family concert that highlights playful interactions between stringed instruments, both large and small! Musical games and friendly competition bring friends together in a range of repertoire, culminating in a performance of Paul Wiancko’s Toy Bricks for violin, two cellos, and bass. This program is created and hosted by Knights cellist Caitlin Sullivan.

March 29: String Trios – Miranda Cuckson, violin + Jessica Meyer, viola + Laura Metcalf, cello

This program brings together four electrifying contemporary string trios by living female composers: Jessica Meyer, Missy Mazzolli, Nina C. Young, and Dobrinka Tabakova. These powerful works push the boundaries of what is possible on three stringed instruments.

April 5: Rachell Ellen Wong, violin + David Belkovski, harpsichord

Following their much-loved performance at GatherNYC in 2023 as part of the early music collective Twelfth Night, Wong and Belkovski return to the stage for a charming and intimate recital featuring impeccably performed Baroque gems.

April 12: Boyd Meets Girl and Friends play Clarice Assad & Osvoldo Golijov

This exciting program for flute, guitar and string quartet pair works by two superstar Latin-American composers whose styles contrast and compliment each other. Golijov’s achingly beautiful Tenebrae is juxtaposed with Clarice Assad’s exhilarating Sephardic Suite. Boyd Meets Girl is joined by violinists David Felberg and Jennifer Choi and violist En-Chi Cheng.

April 19: Kebra-Seyoun Charles, bass + composer

Kebra-Seyoun Charles is a distinguished double bass soloist and composer lauded for their counter-classical musical language and their ability to aptly communicate complex ideas and emotions to audiences. For their GatherNYC debut, they will perform a new work entitled “Shango” for bass and percussion duo, interspersed with virtuosic double bass solos.

April 26: Poeisis Quartet

Fresh off their win at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition (arguably the most important competition of its kind in the world), this fast-rising young string quartet will treat audiences to its vital and energetic approach to music-making and programming.

Says Poeisis of their program: “In collaboration with five emerging QTPOC (Queer/Trans People of Color) composers from our alma mater, Oberlin College & Conservatory, the Oberlin Commission Project expands the string quartet canon with approaches to music-making that are too often unheard. This initiative brings underrepresented voices, genres, and influences to the forefront, and also serves as an act of resistance and perseverance. Composer Zola Saadi-Klein's composition is rooted in the Persian Dastgāh music tradition, and through their work they are "acknowledging our queer and ancestral identities can freely coexist beyond the binaries of classical music and societal expectations." As queer musicians and as Oberlin graduates, this project serves as our way of giving back to the communities who raised us and brought us together.”

May 3: Thomas Mesa, cello + JP Jofre, bandoneon

Two of the most exciting soloists working today, Mesa and Jofre come together for a morning of tango and tango-inspired works that spotlight the unusual combination of their instruments, cello and bandoneon, while allowing each performer to shine.

May 10: Curtis Stewart, violin + composer

GatherNYC favorite, Curtis Stewart, returns to the stage with a preview of his much-anticipated project “24 American Caprices.” The 24 American Caprices are inspired by a kaleidoscope of recorded American music, with some honorary American additions...musical aspects of each inspiration are abstracted and imbued with challenging violin techniques emulating the sounds and styles of their origin. In the full meaning of caprice, these violin fragments dance and sing lightly from inspiration to ornamentation, both with flights of fantasy and fastidious settings of referenced material, creating playful musical dialogue around American lineage and individual perspective in Classical music.

May 17: Catalyst Quartet

The GRAMMY-winning Catalyst Quartet, known for their masterful, comprehensive recordings of music by Black composers throughout history, bring their signature polish and style back to GatherNYC for the second time.

May 24: Aeolus Quartet

The acclaimed Aeolus Quartet presents a touching and thoughtful program for their first performance at GatherNYC. From a Bach chorale composed to unite the voices of church congregations to the expansive Overture and Chorale by Andrea Casarrubios inspired by it; from the textural celebration of Montgomery's Strum to the bubbling virtuosity of Bacewicz’s Quartet No. 3 composed in the new world that arose from the ashes of WWII. In this program, storytelling and silence give way to the tender slow movement of Price’s G Major Quartet rooted in the tradition of Black spirituals.

May 31: Season Finale – Musicians from the NY Phil with Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC artistic directors Laura Metcalf and Rupert Boyd once again team up with members of the New York Philharmonic, including returning violist Leah Ferguson, violinist Alina Kobialka and more, to craft an exhilarating program centered around Aaron Jay Kernis’ tour de force for guitar and string quartet, “100 Greatest Dance Hits.” Dance into the summer and celebrate the conclusion of another wonderful season of GatherNYC!

For tickets and information, visit www.gathernyc.org.