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.