Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presents Violinist Randall Goosby on April 12 and the Renaissance String Quartet on May 17
L-R: Randall Goosby, Zhu Wang, Renaissance Quartet. Press photos available here.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Presents Violinist Randall Goosby with Pianist Zhu Wang in April and the Renaissance String Quartet in May
Randall Goosby & Zhu Wang: Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 1:30 pm
Renaissance String Quartet: Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 1:30 pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Calderwood Hall | 25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Tickets: www.gardnermuseum.org/about/music
For press tickets, please contact Christina Jensen at christina@jensenartists.com
BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum continues its Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series, presenting superstar violinist Randall Goosby with pianist Zhu Wang on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 1:30 pm and the Renaissance String Quartet (of which Goosby is a member) on Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 1:30 pm. This fifteen-concert season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel runs from January 25 through May 17, 2026, and 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.
Virtuoso violinist Randall Goosby returns to Calderwood Hall on April 12 with pianist Zhu Wang for an intimate recital of epic music. Two major sonatas bookend the program: Debussy’s elusive and gorgeous sonata is paired with Beethoven’s sunny F major essay in the form. The concert also includes Southland Sketches by Harry Burleigh, who was key in forging a quintessential American musical language, modifying the gorgeous modal inflections of spirituals with the chromatic ambiguities of Wagner’s harmony. Romance by Boston’s Amy Beach, the best of the Second New England School of composers, gorgeously drinks from a similar Wagnerian well. Dvořák’s Four Romantic Pieces provide a bridge between these worlds, showing how Romanticism and folk traditions can be seamlessly interwoven.
Signed exclusively to Decca Classics in 2020 at the age of 24, American violinist Randall Goosby is acclaimed for the sensitivity and intensity of his musicianship alongside his determination to make music more inclusive and accessible, as well as bringing the music of under-represented composers to light. Goosby was recently appointed to The Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division and the Pre-College violin faculty. He began studying violin at the age of seven and made his solo debut with the Jacksonville Symphony at age nine. Four years later, he became the youngest First Prize winner of the Sphinx Competition at thirteen, leading to debut performances with the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and New World Symphony. In addition to his performance at the Gardner Museum, highlights of his current season include debut performances with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, and San Diego Symphony. He returns this season to the San Francisco Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, and New Jersey Symphony, and appears in recital across the country. Of his concerto debut on Decca, Gramophone raved, “There’s an honesty and modesty...This playing isn’t dressed to impress but to express.”
Randall Goosby returns in May, when the Gardner Museum presents the Renaissance String Quartet on May 17, for the closing performance of the Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series. In addition to Goosby, this supergroup includes violinist Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass—four terrific musicians who find time in their busy touring lives as soloists and chamber musicians to perform together. Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor anchors the program with its characteristic blend of passion and intellectual rigor. The concert also includes the great American composer Florence Price’s String Quartet No. 1 in G Major. Price had a special gift for quartet writing; the exquisite and eloquent slow movement of her first quartet shows her love of American song, especially Black spirituals. The program closes with String Quartet No. 1, “Love and Levity,” by Daniel Hass, the cellist in the Renaissance String Quartet. He describes the piece as “Beethovenian in its thematic and structural tautness, but even more so in its motion towards excess.”
The Renaissance String Quartet is driven by a desire to reimagine the role and capacity of the string quartet as a vehicle for change, inspiring audiences, students, and collaborators around the world. Founded in 2021, 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.
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.
Winter/Spring 2026 At-a-Glance Concert Schedule
January 25: Twelfth Night Ensemble
February 1: Romuald Grimbert-Barré, violin; Tommy Mesa, cello; Albert Cano Smit, piano
February 8: Claremont Trio
February 22: Attacca Quartet
February 26: Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians performed by Ensemble Signal - Thursday Night Music
March 1: Goldmund Quartet with Gloria Chien, piano
March 8: Paul O’Dette, lute
March 15: Borromeo String Quartet
March 29: Castle of Our Skins with Daniel Bernard Roumain, electric violin and Val-Inc, sound chemist
April 5: Paul Galbraith, guitar
April 12: Randall Goosby, violin with Zhu Wang, piano
April 18: Boston Children’s Chorus: The Road She Paved
April 19: Imani Winds
April 26: The Butter Quartet
May 10: Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
May 17: Renaissance String Quartet
All concerts take place on Sundays at 1:30 pm, except for Ensemble Signal which performs on Thursday, February 26 at 7 pm and the Boston Children’s Chorus which performs on Saturday, April 18 at 2 pm. All concerts take place in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).
Ticketing Information
Tickets are available at gardnermuseum.org/about/music or by calling the Box Office at 617 278 5156. For additional information including about accessibility, please contact boxoffice@isgm.org.
About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum invites you to escape the ordinary in a magical setting where art and community come together to inspire new ways of envisioning our world. Embodying the fearless legacy of its founder, the Museum offers a singular invitation to explore the past through a contemporary lens, creating meaningful encounters with art and joyful connections for all. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous Courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano Wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115 • Hours: Open Weekends from 10 am to 5 pm, Weekdays from 11am to 5 pm and Thursdays until 9 pm. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children under 18, everyone on their birthday, and all named “Isabella” • $2 off admission with a same-day Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ticket • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org
Music at the Gardner is supported by 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, Joseph Mari, Sallie and Jim McGregor, Nicie and Jay Panetta, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.