Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Weekend Concert Series Opens in September with Three Performances (Copy)
Clockwise from top left: Teresa Wakim, Ivalas Quartet, Amanda Forsythe, Aaron Sheehan, Jesse Blumberg, ACRONYM, and Kim Leeds. Press photos available here.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Weekend Concert Series
October Performances
October 4: Ivalas Quartet
October 18: ACRONYM – Esther in the Age of Rembrandt
October 25: Celebrating Chrysanthemums
PLUS Thursday Night Music Continues
October 29: Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain
Performed by Alarm Will Sound, Conducted by Alan Pierson
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum | Calderwood Hall | 25 Evans Way | Boston, MA
Information & Tickets: gardnermuseum.org/about/music
For press tickets, please contact Christina Jensen at christina@jensenartists.com
BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum will continue its Fall 2026 Weekend Concert Series with three performances in October. This ten-concert autumn season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel is held on select Sundays at 1:30 pm and runs from September 13 through November 22, 2026. In addition, the Gardner Museum will present its first Thursday Night Music concert of the season on October 29, 2026 at 7 pm. With no intermissions, open seating, and a relaxed atmosphere, these bold, single-set performances offer immersive and adventurous listening experiences. All concerts take place in the Museum’s extraordinary Calderwood Hall—a 300-seat “sonic cube” with three levels of balconies designed so that 80% of seats are front row, creating a uniquely intimate and intense acoustic environment.
The first October concert features Franz Schubert’s monumental “Death and the Maiden” quartet, anchoring the Ivalas Quartet’s program on Sunday, October 4. The Ivalas pairs Schubert with two American works: an early piece in George Walker’s "American" style (Walker died only a few years ago at age 96) and An Elegy: A Cry from the Grave, a moving miniature by Carlos Simon, whose Requiem for the Enslaved had its Boston premiere at the Gardner Museum in 2022. Hailed by The Strad for playing with “tremendous heart and beauty,” the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since its inception in 2017 with a mission to enrich the classical music world by spotlighting past and present BIPOC composers alongside the standard repertory.
In conjunction with the Museum’s exhibition, ACRONYM presents Esther in the Age of Rembrandt on Sunday, October 18, offering rare performances of three Esther cantatas written during Rembrandt’s time. The program includes a work by the remarkable French composer Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre, alongside music by Flemish composer Leonora Duarte, Jewish Mantuan composer Salamone Rossi, Giacomo Carissimi, Johann Heinrich Schmelzer, and Marc-Antoine Charpentier. ACRONYM will perform with a roster of vocal soloists as special guests: Amanda Forsythe and Teresa Wakim, sopranos; Kim Leeds, alto; Aaron Sheehan, tenor; and Jesse Blumberg, baritone.
The Gardner Museum’s annual John Lowell Gardner Chrysanthemum Installation inspires Celebrating Chrysanthemums on Sunday, October 25, an exploration of the flower as artistic muse hosted by the Gardner’s Stanley P. Kozak Director of Horticulture Erika Rumbley and Abrams Curator of Music George Steel, who will also read related poems, letters, and horticultural texts. An all-star cast—mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, pianist Peter Dugan, violinists Katherine Winterstein, Gabriela Díaz, and Mina Lavcheva, violist Cara Pogossian, cellist Jia Kim, flutist Emi Ferguson, and accordionist Cory Pesaturo—performs music by Jules Massenet, Léo Delibes, Giacomo Puccini, Scott Joplin, Dora Pejačević, Nikolai Harito, William Penn, Zbigniew Maciejowski, Ernesto Lecuona, Tōru Takemitsu, Xiaogang Ye, and Juantio Becenti.
In addition to the Weekend Concert Series, the Gardner Museum will present an installment of its bold new Thursday Night Music series on October 29, 2026, featuring the kinetic ensemble Alarm Will Sound conducted by Alan Pierson performing Georg Friedrich Haas’s masterpiece in vain, a 70-minute work for 24 players, much of which is played in complete darkness. Haas wrote in vain in 2000 in response to the rise of far-right parties in his native Austria in 1999. The piece is described as a “modern masterpiece” by Alex Ross in his influential book The Rest is Noise. Alarm Will Sound is a 20-member band committed to innovative performances and recordings of today’s music. They have established a reputation for performing demanding music with energetic skill in the world's leading concert halls. Their performances have been described as “equal parts exuberance, nonchalance, and virtuosity” by The Financial Times.
George Steel’s music programming for the Museum continues founder and legendary arts patron Isabella Stewart Gardner’s vision of bringing together musicians and audiences for inspiring gatherings. Dating to 1927, the Gardner’s Weekend Concert Series is the longest-running museum music program in the country. Much like Isabella Stewart Gardner did in her time, Steel champions unknown repertoire and embraces new works, creates connections and builds community among musicians, and supports them by presenting them in new endeavors and collaborations. His programming also frequently draws on the history of the Gardner Museum, featuring instruments from the Museum’s collection and music by composers who were associated with its founder. In honoring Isabella Stewart Gardner’s musical legacy, Music at the Gardner remains strongly committed to broadening the repertoire of music presented to include previously overlooked and marginalized composers as well as performers of all backgrounds.
Fall 2026 At-a-Glance Concert Schedule
September 13 Rachel Barton Pine, violin
September 20: Twelfth Night Ensemble
September 27: Chamber Music Celebration
This annual concert celebrates the life and legacy of Scott Nickrenz, first Abrams Curator of Music at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
October 4: Ivalas Quartet
October 18: ACRONYM: Esther in the Age of Rembrandt
October 25: Celebrating Chrysanthemums
This performance is made possible by the Anne Hawley Fund for Programs.
November 1: Eleanor Alberga with Green Room Ensemble
November 8: Poiesis Quartet
November 15: Lysander Piano Trio
November 22: Jean Rondeau, harpsichord
This concert is made possible by the generous support of David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder.
All concerts take place on Sundays at 1:30 pm in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).
Ticketing Information
Tickets ($25-$99) go on sale to the general public on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 10:00 am and are available at gardnermuseum.org/about/music or by calling the Box Office at 617 278 5156. All concert tickets include Museum admission.
About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum invites you to escape the ordinary in a magical setting where art and community come together to inspire new ways of envisioning our world. Embodying the fearless legacy of its founder, the Museum offers a singular invitation to explore the past through a contemporary lens, creating meaningful encounters with art and joyful connections for all. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous Courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano Wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115 • Hours: Open Weekends from 10 am to 5 pm, Weekdays from 11am to 5 pm, and Thursdays until 9 pm. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $25; Seniors $22; Students $15; Free for members, children 17 and under, and all named “Isabella” • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org
Music at the Gardner is supported by the Nora McNeely Hurley Foundation. The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial Concert; Scott Nickrenz Concert; Alford P. Rudnick Memorial Concert; David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder; Wendy Shattuck Young Artist Concert; and Willona Sinclair Memorial Concert. The piano is dedicated as the Alex d’Arbeloff Steinway. The harpsichord was generously donated by Dr. Robert Barstow in memory of Marion Huse, and its care is endowed in memory of Dr. Barstow by The Barstow Fund. Music at the Gardner is also supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Joseph Mari, Sallie and Jim McGregor, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.