Feb. 26: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Launches Thursday Night Music with Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians
Press photos available here.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Announces Thursday Night Music
A New Series of Concerts Held on Thursday Nights at Calderwood Hall
February 26: Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians
Performed by Ensemble Signal led by Brad Lubman
Tickets On Sale Today
Information & Tickets: gardnermuseum.org/about/music
BOSTON, MA – The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum announces a bold new concert series, Thursday Night Music, curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel and held on select Thursday evenings. Thursday Night Music brings a different energy to the concert hall than the afternoon performances of the Museum’s Weekend Concert Series, featuring edgier, more experimental work. With no intermissions, open seating, and a relaxed atmosphere, these single-set performances offer immersive and adventurous listening experiences. All concerts will 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 inaugural Thursday Night Music concert on February 26, 2026 features Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians performed by Ensemble Signal conducted by Co-Artistic Director Brad Lubman. This is likely the first time that this landmark minimalist work will be performed by a professional ensemble in Boston. Reich, a music pioneer and living legend, celebrates his 90th birthday in 2026. He has been called “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker) and “among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times).
Massively ambitious, the hour-long Music for 18 Musicians features four grand pianos, three full-size marimbas, two xylophones, three singers, clarinet, violin, and cello. In this work, Reich drew influences from a wide variety of sources including Balinese gamelan, plainchant, and jazz. It premiered 50 years ago in 1976 and continues to loom large in today’s musical landscape.
The 1998 recording of Music for 18 Musicians on Nonesuch won a GRAMMY Award, and David Bowie named it among his 25 favorite vinyl albums. Ensemble Signal recorded the piece for Harmonia Mundi in 2015. Their album was praised by Reich himself who said, “Signal has made an extraordinary recording of Music for 18 Musicians. Fast moving, spot on and emotionally charged. Take a listen.” The New York Times raved, “Ensemble Signal joyously melds rhythmic precision and transparency of sound with a startling ability to shade colors. It’s like hearing a ritual unfold and made radical once more.”
“Music for 18 Musicians may be the most influential piece of American music written in the last half century, and we’re thrilled to present what is likely its first professional ensemble performance in Boston,” George Steel says. “Bringing Ensemble Signal to the Gardner to perform this hour-long masterwork as we celebrate Steve Reich’s 90th birthday feels like the epitome of what Thursday Night Music is all about: bold, immersive, and unforgettable."
Ensemble Signal was founded by Co-Artistic/Executive Director Lauren Radnofsky and Co-Artistic Director/Conductor Brad Lubman in 2008. Described by The New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind,” Signal regularly performs with Lubman and features a supergroup of independent artists from the modern music scene. The ensemble has appeared at concert halls and international festivals including Lincoln Center Festival, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Series at Walt Disney Concert Hall, BIG EARS Festival, Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall, Lincoln Center, Washington Performing Arts, Cal Performances, Tanglewood Music Festival, Ojai Music Festival, the Guggenheim Museum (NY), NPR Tiny Desk Concerts, and the Bang on a Can Marathon.
Listen to Ensemble Signal’s Recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians: https://lnkfi.re/Musicfor18MusiciansReichSignal
Ticketing Information
Tickets for Music for 18 Musicians on February 26, 2026 will be released in waves on January 8, January 29, and February 12.
Tickets are available at gardnermuseum.org/about/music or by calling the Box Office at 617 278 5156. For additional information including about accessibility, please contact boxoffice@isgm.org.
Performances take place in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).
The next Thursday Night Music concert will take place on May 28, 2026 and will be announced in early April, with the series continuing in the fall.
About Music at the Gardner
George Steel’s music programming for the Museum continues founder and legendary arts patron Isabella Stewart Gardner’s vision of bringing together musicians and audiences for inspiring gatherings. Dating to 1927, the Gardner’s Weekend Concert Series is the longest running museum music program in the country. Much like Isabella Stewart Gardner did in her time, Steel champions unknown repertoire and embraces new works, creates connections and builds community among musicians, and supports them by presenting them in new endeavors and collaborations. His programming also frequently draws on the history of the Gardner Museum, featuring instruments from the Museum’s collection and music by composers who were associated with its founder. In honoring Isabella Stewart Gardner’s musical legacy, Music at the Gardner remains strongly committed to broadening the repertoire of music presented to include previously overlooked and marginalized composers as well as performers of all backgrounds.
About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum invites you to escape the ordinary in a magical setting where art and community come together to inspire new ways of envisioning our world. Embodying the fearless legacy of its founder, the Museum offers a singular invitation to explore the past through a contemporary lens, creating meaningful encounters with art and joyful connections for all. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous Courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano Wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115 • Hours: Open Weekends from 10 am to 5 pm, Weekdays from 11am to 5 pm and Thursdays until 9 pm. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children under 18, everyone on their birthday, and all named “Isabella” • $2 off admission with a same-day Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ticket • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org
Thursday Night Music at the Gardner is sponsored by Barbara and Amos Hostetter.