Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single Laertes Out Now
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single Laertes Out Now
Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli
Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical
New Single: Laertes Featuring Cellist Raphaela Gromes
Out Now | Watch Music Video Here
Album Release Date: February 20, 2026
Pre-Save | Listen Here
Whether Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Philip Glass or Arvo Part– the works of these composers have inspired Olivia Belli, one of the most captivating voices in the neoclassical scene. Equally, art and literature open new worlds for her, fueling her creativity as a composer. The starting point for her Sony Classical album Daimon –– to be released on February 20, 2026 –– was Homer’s Odyssey. “It was Odysseus’ fate to return to his homeland Ithaca,” says Olivia Belli. “That’s where his wife and son were – everything that defined him.” New single, The Laertes featuring cellist Raphaela Gromes is out now. Watch the accompanying music video here.
The idea that every life is essentially a journey, one that inevitably leads us toward our true purpose, deeply fascinated the Italian artist from the picturesque Marche region. From this concept emerged the piano concerto Daimon – recorded with a string orchestra and inspired by Italian Baroque music. It consists of three movements: The Departure, The Journey, and The Return. The second movement, The Journey, stands out in particular. It reflects the trials, hardships, and suffering faced not only by Odysseus but also by Olivia Belli herself on her path to catharsis. These emotional highs and lows unfold in strikingly epic soundscapes.
Olivia Belli consciously wove her own biography into the concerto. Daimon spans her life from adolescence to the present. As the daughter of a bank manager, she moved frequently as a child. Despite discovering exciting cities, she always felt something was missing – though she couldn’t quite name it.
That changed at age 14, when an accident left her bedridden for several months. “During that time, I was thrown back on myself. With no distractions, I realized what I truly needed: music and nature.” She had reached the point Socrates once described: “You must know who you are before you go out into the world.” In other words, Olivia Belli had found what the Greek term daimon expresses – her calling. Since then, she has never lost sight of her purpose.
Olivia Belli studied with distinguished pianists and pedagogues including Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Demus, Franco Scala, and Piero Rattalino, and also pursued composition studies, enriching her artistic identity. She has performed at acclaimed events such as the Piano Nights in Amsterdam, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Steinway & Sons Piano Series at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room). Olivia Belli has also composed works for various artists, including Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen, French cellist Gautier Capuçon, and British organist Anna Lapwood. Above all, she has continually embarked on sonic explorations for her own recordings – often inspired by nature or Greek mythology. Her latest creative phase, especially with the piano concerto Daimon, has produced something truly exceptional for a neoclassical artist. Rather than relying on force and orchestral grandeur, this work calls for sensitivity – expressed in Olivia Belli’s unmistakable musical language. She favors gentleness, nuanced emotion, and pastel tonal colors.
Following Daimon, her recording continues with the Ithaca Suite, another musical journey into ancient Greece. This piece portrays the characters Odysseus encounters upon his return – including his father Laertes and his son Telemachus. In these Rencontres, cellist Raphaela Gromes, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, and saxophonist Jess Gillam shine as guest musicians. Olivia Belli not only contributes her musical signature but also embraces the collaborative spirit with her fellow artists. Her openness to shared creative processes and her refined sense for musical dialogue make her a sought-after partner – both as a pianist and composer. This artistic connection is also reflected in Olivia Belli’s own compositions, where she interweaves personal themes with universal emotions.
Odysseus’ wife Penelope is honored by Olivia Belli with a piano solo at the heart of the Ithaca Suite, its melody gently oscillating between melancholy and hope. “There is no Odysseus without Penelope,” the musician reflects. “Knowing you’re not alone is essential. We exist above all thanks to the people by our side.”
The album concludes with a sonata that openly reveals its unpretentious beauty: the Sonatina for Nausicaa. Nausicaa was the daughter of the Phaeacian king. She did not shy away when she found the shipwrecked Odysseus on the shore, but instead offered him clothes and food. “Nowadays, few would invite a homeless person into their home,” Olivia Belli observes. “For many, a person’s worth is measured primarily by success or money. Yet we all have our own unique calling.”
Daimon: Piano Concerto, Ithaca Suite & Sonatina for Nausicaa
Release Date: February 20, 2025
Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra Daimon
1 I. The Departure
2 II. The Journey
3 III. The Return
Ithaca Suite
4 I. Proci
5 II. Telemachus
6 III. Eumaeus
7 IV. Penelopeia
8 V. Eurycleia
9 VI. Laertes
10 VII. Pax Athenae
Sonatina for Nausicaa
11 I. Semplice
12 II. Andantino
13 III. Allegretto
Olivia Belli & Eldbjørg Hemsing – Telemachus (Official Music Video)
# # #
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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.
March 6: Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album Arise, Shine – Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
March 6: Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album Arise, Shine – Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Anna Lapwood Returns with New Sony Classical Choral Album
Arise, Shine
Featuring The Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge
Album Release Date: Friday, March 6, 2026
Pre-Order Available Now
Following a stellar 2025, sensational musician Anna Lapwood starts 2026 with the announcement of her brand-new choral album, Arise, Shine – pre-order here. This new recording follows her 2025 chart topping album, Firedove, and sees Anna conducting her beloved Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge for the very last time.
Arise, Shine will be released on Friday, March 6, 2026 on Sony Classical and comes at a pivotal moment in Anna’s career, marking the conclusion of her tenure as Director of Music at Pembroke College, Cambridge, a role she held for nine years until the end of the summer term in 2025. The album is a deeply personal project, highlighting Anna’s close connection to The Pembroke College Chapel Choir and her committed mentoring of the students. The album features a rich and varied programme, including two original compositions by Anna – Arise, Shine and An Irish Blessing – written in response to special people and key moments during her time with Chapel Choir of Pembroke College, Cambridge.
Of the album, Anna notes:
“As I was preparing to leave Pembroke, I felt it was really important to do one final album with the Chapel Choir to mark their incredible hard work over the course of the last nine years. The choir has grown so much in that time - both in size but also in ambition and identity, and I have learned so much from working with these singers. I wanted to curate an album that felt like it summed up just a little of what makes Pembroke unique, pairing traditional repertoire with modern reinterpretations, and showcasing music written by young composers from within Pembroke Choir and beyond. It feels particularly special to include a piece written by Maryam Giraud who was one of my first girl choristers when I set up the Girls’ Choir, and who is now an undergraduate at the College. Her piece sets a text written by Cassidy McKinlay, one of our other altos, and it’s this kind of creative teamwork that I feel sums up Pembroke so beautifully. This is an album that is all about the unique warmth of making music with friends and being able to share that experience with others”.
The track list reflects Anna’s fascination with contrasting interpretations of sacred texts, pairing works such as Ubi Caritas by Maurice Duruflé and Ola Gjeilo, and O Sacrum Convivium by Olivier Messiaen and Lucy Walker. Walker, a former alto in the choir who knows its sound inside out, has become its most-performed living composer and contributes several works to the album. Other Pembroke highlights include Rain, a joint project between two more Chapel Choir altos where Maryam Giraud sets a text written by her fellow chorister, Cassidy McKinlay. Giraud’s journey from a young singer in the Girls’ Choir, founded in 2018, to composer on this album is a testament to Anna’s commitment to nurturing talent and creating opportunities for women and girls in music. The album also features Abide With Me by Maggie Kaposamweo, a young composer living in Zambia. Anna set up an online mentoring scheme for Maggie with Lucy Walker, and the commission fee for this composition helped fund Maggie’s music studies at the University of Lusaka, Zambia.
2025 was an extraordinary year for Anna Lapwood. Her album Firedove soared to No.1 on the Official Classical Artist Album Chart. She became the Royal Albert Hall’s first-ever Official Organist, premiered Max Richter’s new concerto Cosmology alongside Kristina Arakelyan’s Toccata and captivated audiences with her all-night BBC Proms event From Dark Till Dawn. International acclaim continued to grow with a landmark performance in Cologne, Germany, drawing a crowd of 13,000 people, forming a one-mile queue around the city.
Beyond the concert hall, Anna’s infectious enthusiasm for music has reached new audiences and she has achieved some remarkable milestones, including an appearance at New York Fashion Week, being featured on the Sunday Times Power List, and even giving Hollywood icon Tom Cruise an impromptu organ lesson. She rounded off 2025 with a sold-out nationwide tour ‘Christmas with Anna Lapwood’ and a Royal Albert Hall headline Christmas show.
ARISE, SHINE : TRACKLISTING:
1. Arise, Shine
Composer: Anna Lapwood
2. Adoro Te Devote
Composer: Cecilia Mcdowall
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
3. Miserere
Composer: Gregorio Allegri
4. Regina Caeli
Composer: Lise Borel
5. Rain
Composer: Maryam Giraud
Lyricist: Cassidy Mckinlay
6. Ubi Caritas
Composer: Maurice Duruflé
7. Silent Night
Composer: Franz Xaver Gruber
8. The Lord’s Prayer
Composer: Lucy Walker
9. O Sacrum Convivium
Composer: Olivier Messiaen
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
10. Ubi Caritas
Composer: Ola Gjeilo
11. A Hymn For St Cecilia
Composer: Lucy Walker
Lyricist: Ursula Vaughan Williams
12. Abide With Me
Composer: Maggie Kaposamweo
Lyricist: Maggie Kaposamweo & Henry Francis Lyte
13. O Sacrum Convivium
Composer: Lucy Walker
Lyricist: Saint Thomas Aquinas
14. An Irish Blessing
Composer: Anna Lapwood
15. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Composer: Harold Arlen
Lyricist: Yip Harburg
Visit: www.annalapwood.co.uk
March 15: The Jupiter String Quartet Performs Reverberations of Nature – Presented by University of Florida Performing Arts
March 15: The Jupiter String Quartet Performs Reverberations of Nature – Presented by University of Florida Performing Arts
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string
The Jupiter String Quartet Performs Reverberations of Nature
Presented by University of Florida Performing Arts
Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 2pm
Squitieri Studio Theatre
at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts
3201 Hull Road | Gainesville, FL
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Gainesville, FL – On Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 2pm, the Jupiter String Quartet – internationally acclaimed winners of the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, who are known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) – will be presented in concert by University of Florida Performing Arts in the Squitieri Studio Theatre at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts (3201 Hull Road.)
Based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Mélanie Clapiès and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Founded in 2001, the ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music, and exudes an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed musical chemistry to Reverberations of Nature – a program highlighting the connection between music and wonders of nature. The performance will include String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 “The Bird” by Franz Joseph Haydn; Quartet No. 1 by Alberto Ginastera, and Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Throughout music’s history, composers have been inspired by the natural world. The Jupiter Quartet presents nature-inspired works spanning over 200 years. Haydn’s delightful C Major Quartet received its nickname, “The Bird,” from its chirping and playful character which pushes against the stricter traditions of the form. Following the Haydn, Alberto Ginastera’s rhythmically intense Quartet No. 1 brings forth bold and dramatic energy, showcasing the Jupiter Quartet’s shrewd technique and expressive musicianship. Beethoven’s sublime Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1, the first of Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” quartets, is nicknamed for Prince Razumovsky, the Russian ambassador to Vienna who commissioned Beethoven to write these pieces. The piece playfully features a theme from the patron's homeland, fulfilling his request that Beethoven include a Russian theme in each of the Quartet.
Of the program and bringing it to the University of Florida, the Jupiter Quartet says:
”We are thrilled to bring this dynamic program to the UFPA audience. It features three of our favorite works—the charmingly beautiful Haydn “Bird” quartet, the brilliantly folksy first quartet of Alberto Ginastera, and one of Beethoven’s most epic quartets, Op. 59 No. 1. We hope the program will provide space for both reflective beauty and for celebratory energy in the listeners.”
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented in concert by University of Florida Performing Arts. The award-winning ensemble will perform a program titled Reverberations of Nature, highlighting the connection between music and wonders of nature. The performance will include: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 “The Bird” by Franz Joseph Haydn; Quartet No. 1 by Alberto Ginastera, and Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by University of Florida Performing Arts
What: Reverberations of Nature: Music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Alberto Ginastera, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 2pm
Where: Squitieri Studio Theatre at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, 3201 Hull Road, Gainesville, FL 32611
Tickets and information: https://performingarts.ufl.edu/events/jupiter-string-quartet/
March 12: Jupiter Quartet Performs Reverberations of Nature – Presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
March 12: Jupiter Quartet Performs Reverberations of Nature – Presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string
Jupiter Quartet Performs Reverberations of Nature
Presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 7:30pm
University of Illinois | Foellinger Great Hall - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
500 S Goodwin Ave. | Urbana, IL
Tickets and Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Urbana, IL – The Jupiter String Quartet –– whose playing The Washington Post describes as “characterful, illuminating and utterly committed” –– will perform at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday, March 12 at 7:30pm. Based at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, consisting of violinists Mélanie Clapiès and Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), and cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law). Founded in 2001, the ensemble is firmly established as an important voice in the world of chamber music, and exudes an energy that is at once friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous.
The Jupiter Quartet brings its well-honed musical chemistry to Reverberations of Nature – a program highlighting the connection between music and wonders of nature. The performance will include String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 “The Bird” by Franz Joseph Haydn; Quartet No. 1 by Alberto Ginastera, and Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Throughout music’s history, composers have been inspired by the natural world. The Jupiter Quartet presents nature-inspired works spanning over 200 years. Haydn’s delightful C Major Quartet received its nickname, “The Bird,” from its chirping and playful character which pushes against the stricter traditions of the form. Alberto Ginastera’s rhythmically intense Quartet No. 1 brings forth bold and dramatic energy, partially inspired by the folk figure of the “guacho”—a free-riding cowboy of the Argentinian plains.. Beethoven’s sublime Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1, the first of Beethoven’s “Razumovsky” quartets, is nicknamed for Prince Razumovsky, a fine cellist and the Russian ambassador to Vienna who commissioned Beethoven to write these works. The piece playfully features a theme from the patron's homeland, fulfilling his request that Beethoven include a Russian theme in each of the Quartet. As always, Beethoven’s music draws inspiration from the beauty and drama of the natural world.
The Jupiter Quartet says of this uplifting program, ”Reverberations of Nature features three of our favorite works—the charmingly beautiful Haydn “Bird” quartet, the brilliantly folksy first quartet of Alberto Ginastera, and one of Beethoven’s most epic quartets, Op. 59 No. 1. We hope the program will provide space for both reflective beauty and for celebratory energy in the listeners.”
More About Jupiter String Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Caramoor International Music Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival, the Banff Centre, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The Jupiter String Quartet feels a strong connection to the core string quartet repertoire; they have presented the complete Bartok and Beethoven string quartets on numerous occasions. Also deeply committed to new music, they have commissioned string quartets from Nathan Shields, Stephen Andrew Taylor, Michi Wiancko, Syd Hodkinson, Hannah Lash, Dan Visconti, and Kati Agócs; a quintet with baritone voice by Mark Adamo; and a piano quintet by Pierre Jalbert.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The Arts Fuse acclaimed, “This joint album from the Jupiter String Quartet and Jasper String Quartet is striking for its backstory but really memorable for its smart program and fine execution.” The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet will record their next album with Judith Sherman, featuring the world premiere recordings of Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores, Stephen Taylor’s Chaconne/Labyrinth, and Kati Agócs's Imprimatur, which were all composed for the Jupiters.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, described by The New Yorker as having “technical finesse and rare expressive maturity,” is presented in concert by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts. The award-winning ensemble will perform a program titled Reverberations of Nature, highlighting the connection between music and wonders of nature. The performance will include: String Quartet in C Major, Op. 33 No. 3 “The Bird” by Franz Joseph Haydn; Quartet No. 1 by Alberto Ginastera, and Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by Krannert Center for the Performing Arts
What: Reverberations of Nature: Music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Alberto Ginastera, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 2pm
Where: University of Illinois, Foellinger Great Hall - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, 500 S Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL
Tickets and information: https://krannertcenter.com/events/jupiter-string-quartet-5
Feb 20: Newport Classical Continues Chamber Series with Verona Quartet at Newport Classical Recital Hall Downtown
Feb 20: Newport Classical Continues Chamber Series with Verona Quartet at Newport Classical Recital Hall Downtown
L-R: Blake Pouliot, Henry Kramer, Trio Zimbalist. Photos available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Continues 2025-2026 Chamber Series
Verona Quartet Performs Scarlatti and Beethoven
Friday, February 20, 2026 at 7:30pm
Information & Tickets: www.newportclassical.org
Newport, RI – Newport Classical continues its fifth full-season Chamber Series, which features twelve concerts held on select Fridays between September 2025 and June 2026 at the organization’s home venue, the Newport Classical Recital Hall (42 Dearborn St.), with a performance by the Verona Quartet on Friday, February 20, 2026 at 7:30pm.
Celebrated by The New York Times as an “outstanding ensemble… cohesive yet full of temperament,” the Verona Quartet has captivated audiences worldwide with their “sensational, powerhouse performance[s]” (Classical Voice America). Recipient of Chamber Music America’s esteemed Cleveland Quartet Award, the ensemble makes a much-anticipated Newport Classical debut with a program that traces a vivid stylistic arc. Beginning with Scarlatti’s graceful Baroque sonata and Augusta Read Thomas’s radiant Clara’s Ascent, the journey unfolds through Janáček’s searingly expressive Kreutzer Sonata before culminating in Beethoven’s noble String Quartet Op. 127.
The Verona Quartet has appeared across four continents, captivating audiences at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (New York City), Kennedy Center, Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.), Jordan Hall (Boston), Wigmore Hall (U.K.) and Melbourne Recital Hall (Australia), and has performed at festivals including La Jolla Summerfest, Chamber Music Northwest, Caramoor, the Texas Music Festival, Bravo! Vail, and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. The quartet’s album SHATTER debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Traditional Classical Chart.
The ensemble describes their performances as “emanating from the spirit of storytelling.” The quartet’s name “Verona” pays tribute to William Shakespeare, one of the greatest storytellers of all time.
Newport Classical's Chamber Series takes place at Newport Classical Recital Hall in downtown Newport, known for its striking architecture and excellent acoustics. Audiences are invited to enjoy performances by world-class classical musicians in a relaxed setting, with complimentary wine generously provided by Gold's Wine and Spirits served when the doors open at 7:00pm and again during intermission. New this season, following the performance, audience members are invited to join the artists for an intimate reception at The Brenton Hotel, featuring complimentary wine and charcuterie, with additional food and beverages available for purchase.
Both performers and audience members alike have described these concerts as some of their favorites. “Beautiful concert, high artistry and exciting programming . . . a deeply moving and soulful experience, with a rousing and brilliant virtuosity that kept you on the edge of your seat,” raved one attendee.
As part of Newport Classical's desire to create connections between classical music, the artists who perform it, and the Newport community, all musicians performing on the Chamber Series will also visit a local school or organization to present their talents and meaningfully engage with students and community members of all ages through Newport Classical's Music Enrichment and Engagement Initiative. While in Newport, the Verona Quartet will engage K-4 students at St. Michael’s Country Day School.
The Chamber Series continues on March 13, when baritone Benjamin Appl, whose voice “belongs to the last of the old great masters of song” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and whose artistry has been described as “unbearably moving” (The Times), presents Schubert's hauntingly beautiful Die Winterreise with his frequent collaborator, pianist James Baillieu. Ars Poetica, an ensemble of acclaimed instrumentalists and vocalists with a passion for historical music, explores "Dance and Transfiguration" on March 27 with their colorful array of Baroque instruments. Violinist Yevgeny Kutik, praised for his "dark-hued and razor-sharp technique" (The New York Times), makes his Newport Classical debut on April 10 alongside returning pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner in works by Debussy, Prokofiev, and Grieg. Rising-star pianist James Zijian Wei, first-prize winner at the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, makes his highly anticipated Newport debut on May 8 with a program featuring Ravel, Liszt, and more. The Chamber Series concludes on June 5 with flutist Amir Hoshang Farsi and pianist Chelsea Wang, both Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect alumni, presenting a program of sparkling impressionism featuring works by Fauré, Lili Boulanger, and contemporary composers Reena Esmail, Ian Clarke, and Yuko Uebayashi.
The 2026 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 2-19, 2026.
About Newport Classical
Newport Classical is a premier performing arts organization that welcomes people of every age, culture, and background to intimate, immersive musical experiences. The organization presents world-renowned and up-and-coming artistic talents at stunning, storied venues across Newport – an internationally sought-after cultural and recreational destination.
Originally founded in 1969 as Rhode Island Arts Foundation at Newport, Inc., Newport Classical has a rich legacy of musical curiosity having presented the American debuts of hundreds of international artists and is most well-known for hosting three weeks of concerts in the summer in the historic mansions throughout Newport and Aquidneck Island. In the 56 years since, Newport Classical has become the most active year-round presenter of live performing arts on Aquidneck Island, and an essential pillar of Rhode Island’s cultural landscape, welcoming thousands of patrons all year long.
Newport Classical invests in the future of classical music as a diverse, relevant, and ever-evolving art form through its four core programs – the one-of-a-kind Music Festival; the Chamber Series in the Newport Classical Recital Hall; the free, family-friendly Community Concerts Series; and the Music Education and Engagement Initiative that inspires students in local schools to become the arts advocates and music lovers of tomorrow. These programs illustrate the organization’s ongoing commitment to presenting “timeless music for today.”
In 2021, the organization launched a new commissioning initiative – each year, Newport Classical will commission a new work by a Black, Indigenous, person of color, or woman composer as a commitment to the future of classical music. To date, Newport Classical has commissioned and presented the world premiere of works by Stacy Garrop, Shawn Okpebholo, Curtis Stewart, Clarice Assad, and Cris Derksen.
March 13: Maya Beiser Performs Terry Riley’s In C at the MFA Boston with Percussionists Jamey Haddad and Matt Kilmer
March 13: Maya Beiser Performs Terry Riley’s In C at the MFA Boston with Percussionists Jamey Haddad and Matt Kilmer
Maya Beiser Performs Terry Riley’s In C at the MFA Boston
with Percussionists Jamey Haddad and Matt Kilmer
“One of the freshest and most satisfying versions [of In C] I have ever heard." – The Boston Globe
“[Maya Beiser’s In C is] mesmerizing and graceful…supremely exhilarating…” – NPR, All Things Considered
“A fresh and revelatory take on a six-decade-old magnum opus.” – The New York Times
Friday, March 13, 2026 at 7pm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston | Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium
465 Huntington Ave. | Boston, MA
Tickets and More Information
Maya Beiser x Terry Riley: In C
Press download and CDs available upon request. Hi res photos available here.
Boston, MA – On Friday, March 13, 2026 at 7pm, cellist and producer Maya Beiser – who has been called a “cello rock star” by Rolling Stone and praised as “a force of nature” by The Boston Globe – performs Terry Riley’s iconic work In C as recorded on her bestselling 2024 album, with percussionists Jamey Haddad and Matt Kilmer at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in the Harry and Mildred Remis Auditorium (465 Huntington Ave.). Beiser recreates In C as a series of ever-evolving cello loops, constructing a hypnotic, rapturous soundscape that reenvisions this classic 1964 minimalist masterpiece.
A frequent performer in Boston, Beiser last headlined the sold-out performance of Bowie Cello Symphonic Aura: Blackstar Visualized — composer Evan Ziporyn’s reimagining of David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar — with Ziporyn and Ambient Orchestra presented by Global Arts Live in January 2026, honoring the 10th anniversary of Bowie’s passing.
As NPR puts it, “[Maya Beiser’s Terry Riley] album is a musical journey for mind and body—both a stimulant and a sedative. It offers many engaging stopovers, from an oasis of calm where the pulse evaporates, to Led Zeppelin–like headbanging reminiscent of Kashmir, to moments where the cello loops interleave with the sweet delicacy of Vivaldi. If you have a spare hour to let this singular, hypnotic music wash over you, the world might just seem a little brighter.”
“To me,” Maya Beiser says, “Terry Riley’s In C is an amalgamation of an ‘open source’ and ‘sacred text.’ In creating this album I was interested in finding the serendipitous rhythmic and melodic connections that emerge when reconstructing In C’s 53 melodic cells as a series of cello loops, floating above continuous C string cello drones. The cello’s lowest, most lush string, with its overtones and harmonics, forms the depth and resonance of the album.”
Terry Riley describes Maya's performance on the recording as, “stunningly beautiful.” He says, “The overall shape flows so naturally and her cello sound is so warm and powerful.”
Strings writes that Beiser “has blazed a new path,” describing the album as “a sonic tsunami that runs from soft ripples to towering waves of sound.”
About Maya Beiser:
Hailed by The Washington Post as “the reigning queen of avant-garde cello,” Maya Beiser is a cellist, sound artist, and musical innovator whose work has redefined the scope of contemporary classical performance. Raised on a commune in the Galilee Mountains of Israel by her Argentinean father and French mother, Beiser grew up immersed in the music and rituals of Jews, Muslims, and Christians—an early fusion of worlds that continues to shape her boundary-defying artistic vision.
A Yale graduate and United States Artists Distinguished Fellow, Beiser has performed on the world’s most iconic stages, from Carnegie Hall to the Barbican, challenging norms and reinventing the solo cello as an expansive sonic canvas. Her fifteen solo albums—many topping classical charts—span reimagined masterpieces, original works, and cinematic collaborations. She is the featured soloist on numerous film soundtracks and a sought-after collaborator across genres and continents.
As the founder of Islandia Music Records, Beiser creates projects with deep cultural, spiritual, and social resonance—pushing the art-music genre into uncharted territory.
For more information, visit www.mayabeiser.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Concert details:
Who: Cellist Maya Beiser with Percussionists Jamey Haddad and Matt Kilmer
What: Terry Riley’s In C – as recorded on Beiser’s 2024 Islandia Records album
When: Friday, March 13, 2026 at 7pm
Where: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; 465 Huntington Avenue; Boston, MA 02115
Tickets and More information: www.mfa.org/event/music/maya-beiser-presents-terry-rileys-in-c?event=152451
Caramoor Presents Eight Classical, Jazz, and Folk Concerts this Spring and Launches Beyond the Music - Yoga, Teas, Talks, and More
Caramoor Presents Eight Classical, Jazz, and Folk Concerts this Spring and Launches Beyond the Music - Yoga, Teas, Talks, and More
Rosen House Concert Series by Gabe Palacio. Available in high resolution here.
Caramoor Continues Rosen House Concert Series this Spring and Announces Expanded Public Programs
Rosen House Concert Series Features Eight Concerts from March to May
Caramoor Launches Beyond the Music: Yoga, Teas, Talks, and More
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, continues its intimate Rosen House Concert Series with eight performances featuring classical, jazz, and folk music from March through May 2026. In addition, Caramoor announces expanded public programs, going Beyond the Music with Yoga, Teas, Talks and More and giving the community more opportunities to experience this special location. 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.
Rosen House Concert Series: March-May 2026
Caramoor’s Rosen House Concert Series is 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.
The spring Rosen House Concert Series opens on Sunday, March 8, 2026 at 3pm, with the Schwab Vocal Rising Stars’ culminating performance, To the Sea. Every year, Schwab Vocal Rising Stars' Artistic Director Steven Blier selects four promising singers and a pianist for a week-long Caramoor residency that includes daily coaching, rehearsals, and workshops, culminating in this concert in the Music Room. Assisted by Bénédicte Jourdois and developed in conjunction with the New York Festival of Song, this year’s program, To The Sea, is a hymn to the lure (and the menace) of the ocean, including works by Elgar, Guastavino, Rachmaninoff, Pauline Viardot, and Debussy. This year’s Schwab Vocal Rising Stars are Shiyu Zhuo, soprano; Anna Maria Vacca, mezzo-soprano; Nathan Romportl, tenor; Will Kim, baritone; and Luis Villarreal, piano. Tickets are free for audience members ages 18 and under.
On Friday, March 20, 2026 at 7:30pm, powerhouse Irish quintet Goitse performs at Caramoor as part of the Rosen House Concert Series. Born from Limerick’s Irish World Academy, these five exceptional musicians are taking traditional music to thrilling new heights. They have won hearts (and numerous awards) with their perfect blend of time-honored Irish tunes and their own fresh compositions. When Áine McGeeney’s expressive fiddle playing and vocals meet Colm Phelan’s award-winning bodhrán rhythms, something magical happens. Add Conal O’Kane’s masterful guitar work, Alan Reid’s versatile multi-instrumental talents, and Daniel Collins’ lively accordion, and audiences will be tapping their feet from start to finish.
The acclaimed Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson is next on the Concert Series, performing on Sunday, May 22, 2026 at 3pm. Ólafsson’s rare blend of technical mastery and poetic sensitivity has captivated audiences around the globe. Hailed for his visionary artistry, he has amassed over one billion streams and earned some of the highest accolades in classical music, including the 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for his Goldberg Variations, BBC Music Magazine’s Album of the Year, and two Opus Klassik Awards for Solo Recording of the Year. He has also been named Gramophone’s Artist of the Year, Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year, and received the prestigious Icelandic Export Award, presented by the President of Iceland. Ólafsson’s Caramoor recital is an exploration of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 109, which he contextualizes with the same composer’s E minor sonata, Op. 90, and works in both keys by Bach and Schubert.
The Junction Trio is next on the Rosen House Concert Series, performing on Sunday April 12, 2026 at 3pm. These three extraordinary soloists redefine chamber music with fearless creativity and electrifying synergy. Since coming together in 2015, violinist Stefan Jackiw, cellist Jay Campbell, and pianist Conrad Tao have dazzled audiences with performances that blend technical brilliance, emotional depth, and an adventurous spirit. Whether interpreting classical masterworks or trailblazing contemporary works, including music by Tao himself, the trio brings a fresh, dynamic energy to the stage. Their critically acclaimed appearances at Carnegie Hall, the 92nd Street Y, and Toronto’s Royal Conservatory have affirmed their place as one of today’s most exciting ensembles. At Caramoor, they perform Tao’s Eventide along with Piano Trios by Ravel and Schumann.
On Sunday, April 19, 2026 at 3pm, internationally renowned cellist Steven Isserlis and pianist Connie Shih present an afternoon of deeply expressive, masterfully performed music. Celebrated for his poetic tone, profound insight, and charismatic presence, Isserlis brings exceptional depth to a wide-ranging repertoire – from beloved Romantic masterpieces to rediscovered gems – captivating audiences with intelligence, warmth, and artistry. Honored with a CBE and a place in Gramophone’s Hall of Fame, Isserlis continues to shape the future of his art with a rare blend of historical awareness and contemporary vision. This is a not-to-be-missed chance to hear his interpretation of works by Beethoven, Schumann, Fauré, and Boulanger.
The Anat Cohen Quartetinho performs on Friday, May 1, 2026 at 7:30pm, presenting its signature blend of jazz, Brazilian rhythms, and chamber music. Led by Grammy-nominated clarinetist Anat Cohen, the ensemble features Vitor Gonçalves on piano and accordion, Tal Mashiach on bass and guitar, and James Shipp on vibraphone and percussion. Together, they create an intimate, richly textured sound that weaves lyrical improvisation with global influences. Known for their expressive virtuosity and musical storytelling, they invite audiences on a joyful journey through sound.
Following their Caramoor debut in the fall, which was named one of the best performances of 2025 by The New York Times, the Poiesis Quartet, the Caramoor 2025-26 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, returns on Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 3pm with another program that showcases their fresh take on chamber music. Formed at Oberlin in 2022 and now based in Cincinnati, this award-winning ensemble has quickly gained national attention, with honors including the Grand Prizes at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet and the 2023 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competitions, and joining the Concert Artists Guild roster in 2024. Known for their rich, cohesive sound and adventurous programming, the quartet breathes new life into classical masterworks while amplifying bold, contemporary voices. Their May program includes Michi Wiancko’s To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores; Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 2; and Béla Bartók’s String Quartet No. 5. Tickets are free for audience members ages 18 and under.
Presented in collaboration with City Winery, 29-year-old guitar sensation Solomon Hicks concludes the 2025-2026 Rosen House Concert Series at Caramoor on Friday, May 8, 2026 at 7:30pm. Labeled a “guitarist to watch” by WXPN, Hicks has been a prodigy since picking up the guitar at age six. He blends blues, jazz, and rock with soulful vocals and jaw-dropping technique, and his debut album Harlem, produced by Grammy-winner Kirk Yano, earned him the 2021 Blues Music Award for Best Emerging Artist. He has shared the stage with icons like Jeff Beck, Ringo Starr, and Mavis Staples, wowing audiences around the world with his electrifying performances. A favorite at Caramoor’s 2024 American Roots Music Festival, this rising star returns to breathe new life into classic sounds in our Music Room.
Beyond the Music: Yoga, Teas, Talks, & More
Conversations at Caramoor
Caramoor presents Steven Blier in Conversation with David Pogue on Thursday, March 5, 2026 at 7pm in the Music Room. In this engaging evening, Blier will discuss his recently published memoir From Ear to Ear: A Pianist’s Love Affair with Song, named a Wall Street Journal Best Book of the Year. From Ear to Ear recounts Blier’s musical journey, from impromptu piano gigs in the 1960s to a celebrated career collaborating with some of the greatest voices of our time, including Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman, and Cecilia Bartoli, while offering rare insight into the art of song interpretation and the life of a collaborative pianist. Woven throughout is a deeply personal story of resilience, as he reflects on living and performing with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, sustained by determination, humor, and a lifelong devotion to music. Blier co-founded New York Festival of Song in 1988, a vibrant concert series that dips freely into six decades of vocal music from all genres, and is the Director of Caramoor’s Schwab Vocal Rising Stars mentoring program. David Pogue is an Emmy-winning correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, a New York Times bestselling author, a five-time TED speaker, and host of 20 NOVA science specials on PBS.
On April 15, 2026 and May 20, 2026 at 7pm, Caramoor presents Studio Nights: Art and Aperitifs in the Music Room. On April 15, participants are invited to study form, pattern, and design while creating a watercolor painting based on Caramoor’s remarkable collection of vases and vessels, from grand ginger jars to classical urns and stone pitchers. The May 20 class introduces the fundamentals of charcoal portrait drawing using busts from the Rosen House collection as reference, including portraits of Lucie and Walter Rosen and other historic figures. Participants will explore proportion, light, and shadow while working in a bold and expressive medium.
In collaboration with the Herb Society of America, NY Unit, Caramoor presents What's the Tea? on May 7, 2026 at 6pm in the Music Room. This engaging evening of conversation, community, and hands-on exploration will be centered around the rich and ever-evolving world of tea and will feature a lively panel discussion with experts to explore tea from root to cup. Following the panel, participants can continue the experience with guided tea sampling and an interactive tea-blending workshop, and will learn the fundamentals of crafting balanced, intentional blends while creating custom tea to take home.
Great for Families
In collaboration with The Rewilding School, Caramoor presents Mystery of the Missing Music: A Caramoor Tabletop Adventure for Teens on March 11 and 25, and April 8 and 22, 2026 at 4:30pm. Unravel an imagined Caramoor mystery of Lucie’s missing theremin in an immersive role-play tabletop game series that weaves together historical detail, creative storytelling, and collaborative problem-solving. Players will encounter real figures from Caramoor’s history and explore the forces that shaped the Rosens’ world and the legacy of Caramoor as a center for music and the arts. This four-session series takes place across Caramoor’s historic spaces, with sessions held in the Music Room and Spanish Courtyard. Recommended for teens ages 14-17. Capacity is limited to eight participants.
Caramoor presents Little Artists at Caramoor on April 15 and May 20, 2026 at 4:30pm in the Music Room. In the April 15 class, young artists will explore the expressive possibilities of watercolor while drawing inspiration from Caramoor’s collection of decorative vases and vessels. Guided by observation and imagination, participants will design and paint their own vase-inspired artwork while learning basic watercolor techniques. In a hands-on class on May 20, participants will learn the fundamentals of sculpting a bust using air-dry clay. After looking closely at examples from the Rosen House collection, young artists will create their own sculptural forms, focusing on shape, proportion, and creative expression.
Nature & Wellness
Yoga and Sound Healing at Caramoor
Caramoor invites the community to unwind and restore in a serene setting with Yoga in the Music Room, a special yoga series designed to nurture both body and mind, on February 3, 10, and 17, 2026 at 5:30pm. Surrounded by the elegance of this intimate space, each session offers a gentle, mindful practice led by an experienced instructor, with an emphasis on breath, alignment, and presence. The acoustics and atmosphere of the Music Room create a uniquely calming environment, inviting participants to slow down and reconnect. Whether you are new to yoga or returning to your mat, these sessions provide a peaceful way to end your day while experiencing Caramoor from a new perspective. Please bring a yoga mat and wear comfortable clothing. Yoga at Caramoor continues with Sunset Yoga in the Sunken Garden on May 12, 19, and 26, 2026 at 6:30pm.
In collaboration with Majestic Hudson, Caramoor presents a Candlelit Sound Healing Experience on February 20, 2026 at 5:30pm in the Music Room. This 75-minute immersive experience offers an evening of deep relaxation and gentle reflection, honoring Caramoor’s creative legacy through mindful presence. Jennifer Llewellyn, the founder of Katonah’s Majestic Hudson, will guide the session. Her work weaves together mindfulness and deep listening to create transformative spaces for rest and re-connection.
Tours & Teas
New in 2026, every Friday and Saturday throughout the Spring, Caramoor will offer Rosen House Signature Tours at 10am, inviting visitors to explore the historic Rosen House through a docent-led experience which shares the stories behind the House’s carefully assembled treasures, including Asian and Renaissance art, period rooms imported from European villas and châteaux, and architectural details that reveal the Rosens’ global tastes and vision for a home that celebrates beauty and culture. The Signature Tour will take visitors through key rooms of the House, offering insight into the personal history of the Rosen family and the cultural significance of the spaces they inhabited. Highlights include the Burgundian Library with its groin-vaulted ceiling and the Music Room with its Renaissance furnishings and a magnificent Franco-Flemish tapestry. Along the way, docents will share the stories of the Rosens’ musical gatherings and the artistic legacy that continues to inspire Caramoor’s programs today. Whether seeing the House for the first time or returning for a new perspective, the tour brings the Rosen family’s vision and spirit vividly to life.
Inspired by founder Lucie Rosen’s love of the English tea tradition, Caramoor continues its popular Afternoon Teas in February, offering a variety of tea sandwiches, scones with créme fraiche and preserves, delicious desserts, and a selection of fragrant teas. Valentine’s Day Teas on February 13 and 14 featuring pianist Tim Regusis and the Lunar New Year Tea on February 15 are already sold out; the Caramoor website will be updated with availability. On February 22 at 11am, Caramoor invites families to a special Teddy Bear Family Tea, a memorable tea party for children and their favorite teddy bears, dolls, or plush companions, which will include hot chocolate and a Caramoor Activity Book filled with fun and creative ways to explore the Music room. Afternoon Teas will return on May 15, 22, and 29, 2026 at 1pm.
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.
Upcoming Rosen House Concert Series
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 including Beyond the Music events, visit: 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.
March 15: Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with the Olympia Symphony in Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons Conducted by Rei Hotoda
Violinist Kristin Lee is Featured Soloist with the Olympia Symphony in Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons Conducted by Rei Hotoda
Photo by Lauren Desberg available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/kristin-lee
Violinist Kristin Lee
is Featured Soloist with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Rei Hotoda
in Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 3pm
Capital High School Performing Arts Center | 2707 Conger Avenue NW | Olympia, WA
Tickets & Information
Kristin Lee: www.violinistkristinlee.com
Olympia, WA – Violinist Kristin Lee – praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy” – is presented in concert with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra on Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 3pm conducted by Rei Hotoda, who makes her debut with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in this performance. Lee is the featured soloist in Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons The concert program, titled Transform, also includes Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss. The performance will take place in Capital High School Performing Arts Center (2707 Conger Avenue NW). Lee last performed with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra in 2024.
A violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique, Kristin Lee enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
Through both her work as a classical soloist, and her role as the Artistic Director of Emerald City Music – a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State – Lee has embraced works that showcase diversity of styles, composers, and time periods. Her adventurousness with programming and curation make this performance of Max Richter’s contemporary reimagining of Vivaldi’s iconic Four Seasons a perfect demonstration of Lee’s appreciation of the traditional classical canon and music from the modern era. Richter’s work blends the past and the present, and is performed in celebration of the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s original.
“I am delighted to return as soloist with the Olympia Symphony, particularly as we celebrate the 300th anniversary of the publication of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Max Richter’s reimagining of this beloved masterpiece pays profound tribute to its history while infusing it with relevant creativity. I am deeply grateful to take part in this special performance and look forward to sharing this unique musical experience with our Olympia audience.”
Performing on a violin crafted in Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano, in addition to her solo appearances, Kristin Lee tours throughout the world as a member of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Taiwan, and across the U.S. Always up for adventure, at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Lee has performed in such unexpected places as rafting down the Colorado River, in a natural rock grotto, and in the magical landscape of the red rock canyons of the area.
Other highlights of Lee’s 2025-2026 season include her Carnegie Hall recital debut performing American Sketches, a program curated by Lee as a celebration of the diversity of styles and cultures found in American music, as well as a symbol of Lee’s appreciation of and pride in the U.S., which she has long called her home. Lee will also perform with GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble Sandbox Percussion in the world premiere of a new work by Vivan Fung, which is part of a special all-premiere concert presented by Emerald City Music as part of its 10th Anniversary Season. In addition, she performs as the featured soloist with the Nu-Deco Ensemble in A Reimagined Vivaldi Four Seasons, arranged by Sam Hyken, in another performance highlighting the 300th anniversary of Vivaldi’s timeless work.
Kristin Lee’s debut solo album, American Sketches – released in summer 2024 on the First Hand Records – embraces the beauty of cultural diversity in the U.S. The album has a personal resonance for Lee. A native of Seoul, Korea, she emigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven. During her childhood, playing the violin was a refuge from bullying and racism for Kristin – she moved to the U.S. not speaking any English, and felt the violin became her voice. As a foreign-born citizen of the U.S., Lee was compelled to select repertoire for the album that would express her pride in the country she now calls her own. She has recorded works by American composers including Amy Beach, George Gershwin, Theolonius Monk, Scott Joplin, and more, that have a distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history.
As a soloist, Kristin Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. In 2026, she makes her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall performing her program American Sketches with pianist John Novacek. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing regularly in New York at Lincoln Center and on tour. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She has served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and she has also been in residence with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, the El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and is a summer faculty member at Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. Lee is also the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State.
Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation.
Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley.
For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Kristin Lee, praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy,” will be the featured soloist with the Olympia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Alexandra Arrieche. Lee will perform Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons. The program, titled Transform, also includes Metamorphosen by Richard Strauss.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Kristin Lee
Soloist with Olympia Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by Rei Hotoda
What: Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
When: Sunday, March 15, 2026 at 3pm
Where: Capital High School Performing Arts Center 2707 Conger Avenue NW Olympia, WA 98502
Tickets and information: https://www.olympiasymphony.org/march-15-transform
Feb. 27: Violinist Kristin Lee Presented by Arts Quarter Music Series at William and Mary – Performing American Sketches with Pianist John Novacek
Violinist Kristin Lee Presented by Arts Quarter Music Series at William and Mary Performing American Sketches with Pianist John Novacek
L-R Violinist Kristin Lee, PIanist John Novacek
Photo of Lee by Lauren Desberg; Photo of Novacek by Peter Schaaf
Violinist Kristin Lee
Presented by Arts Quarter Music Series at William and Mary
Performing American Sketches with Pianist John Novacek
Friday, February 27, 2026 at 7:30pm
Music Arts Center, Concert Hall | 551 Jamestown Road | Williamsburg, VA
Tickets and More Information
Williamsburg, VA – On Friday, February 27, 2026 at 7:30pm, violinist Kristin Lee – praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy” – will perform her program, American Sketches, with pianist John Novacek, presented by the Arts Quarter Music Series at William and Mary. This performance precedes Lee’s Carnegie Hall recital debut on March 12, 2026, which will also feature Lee and Novacek performing this program, as a part of United in Sound: America at 250, a citywide festival presented by Carnegie Hall.
Lee and Novacek will perform Four Southland Sketches by H.T. Burleigh (1866–1949); Non-Poem 4 by Jonathan Ragonese (b.1989); Sonata No. 2; Violin Sonata No. 1 by Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959); Romance by Amy Beach (1867–1944); Intoxication by John Novacek (b. 1964); But Not For Me (arr. Jeremy Jordan) by George Gershwin (1898–1937); Lament (arr. Jeremy Jordan) by J.J. Johnson (1924–2001); 4th Street Drag by John Novacek; Cockles by John Novacek; The Entertainer (arr. Jeremy Jordan) by Scott Joplin (1868–1917); Air by Kevin Puts (b. 1972); and Full Stride Ahead by John Novacek.
This special program draws from works found on Lee’s debut solo album, American Sketches (First Hand Records). American Sketches has a personal resonance for Lee. A native of Seoul, Korea, she emigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven. During her childhood, playing the violin was a refuge from bullying and racism for Kristin – she moved to the U.S. not speaking any English, and felt the violin became her voice. As a foreign-born citizen of the U.S., Lee was compelled to select this repertoire to express her pride in the country she now calls her own, and has recorded works by American composers that have a distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history.
Of what American Sketches means to her, Kristin Lee says:
“My inspiration for American Sketches lies in the celebration of differences. It is the differences of people, environment, and encounters that ignite our curiosity, fuel our motivation, and inspire our creativity. By accepting and appreciating these differences, we pave the way for changes to our society. Whilst adopting change is difficult for many people, it is a critical component in our ever-evolving world, particularly within the musical communities. The history of American music is a great example of this notion. From the Indigenous sounds of the Native Americans to the influences of Western Europe and Africa, the American sound merged and evolved into what we know as Ragtime, Appalachian Folk, Jazz, and so much more. The variety of musical styles represents the diverse culture of America, showcasing the beauty of individual expression and the celebration of American history.”
San Francisco Classical Voice writes of the album, “Lee sets expectations for the entire album by opening with the ridiculously fast, technically challenging “Intoxication” and ending, just as the title says, “Full Stride Ahead.” In between, she delightfully and charmingly rags and strolls.”
Classics Today writes, “Violin virtuoso Kristin Lee serves up a delightful and stylistically wide-ranging cornucopia of American music, performed with unalloyed joy, style and effortless technique,”
Audiophila describes Lee as a “superb violinist,” writing, “[Kristin Lee] can manipulate that sound to suit the interesting American repertoire.”
A violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique, Kristin Lee enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
In addition to her solo appearances, Kristin Lee tours throughout the world as a member of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Taiwan, and across the U.S. Always up for adventure, at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Lee has performed in such unexpected places as rafting down the Colorado River, in a natural rock grotto, and in the magical landscape of the red rock canyons of the area.
As a soloist, Kristin Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. In 2026, she makes her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall performing her program American Sketches with pianist John Novacek. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing regularly in New York at Lincoln Center and on tour.
In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She has served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and she has also been in residence with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, the El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and is a summer faculty member at Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. Lee is also the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State.
Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation.
Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Kristin Lee, praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy,” is presented by Arts Quarter Music Series at William and Mary with pianist John Novacek, performing American Sketches –– a concert inspired by Lee’s debut album of the same title, which reflects the distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history, encompassing both Lee’s journey as an American, as well as the journeys of the composers she selected. This performance will include works by H.T. Burleigh, Jonathan Ragonese, Bohuslav Martinů, Amy Beach, John Novacek, George Gershwin, Scott Joplin, Kevin Puts, and J.J. Johnson.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Kristin Lee & Pianist John Novacek Presented by Arts Quarter Music Series at William and Mary
What: American Sketches
When: Friday, February 27, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Music Arts Center, Concert Hall, 551 Jamestown Road Williamsburg, VA 23185
Tickets and More Information: https://events.wm.edu/event/view/music/367196
Feb. 26: Lisa Bielawa Featured in Composer Portrait Concert at Miller Theatre – Including World Premiere of Balloon Variations
Feb. 26: Lisa Bielawa Featured in Composer Portrait Concert at Miller Theatre – Including World Premiere of Balloon Variations
Photo by Shawn Poynter available in hi-resolution at www.jensenartists.com/lisa-bielawa
Lisa Bielawa Featured in Miller Theatre Composer Portrait Concert at Columbia University
Performances by Bielawa with Contemporaneous
Conducted by Co-Artistic Director David Bloom
Featuring the World Premiere of Balloon Variations
Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 7:30pm
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | 2960 Broadway (at 116th Street) | NYC
Tickets and More Information
“the formal sophistication and lyrical richness of Bielawa’s music go deep” – The New Yorker
“a dynamic and innovative composer” – The Boston Globe
Lisa Bielawa: www.lisabielawa.net
New York, NY – On Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 7:30pm, composer and vocalist Lisa Bielawa will be featured in a Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, with performances of her music by Contemporaneous conducted by Co-Artistic Director David Bloom, and sung by Bielawa herself. The program includes the world premiere of Balloon Variations, commissioned by Miller Theatre for the occasion, as well as two of Bielawa’s earlier works – Incessabili Voce from 2013 and Graffiti dell’amante from 2010.
Lisa Bielawa is a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow and a Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. Gramophone reports, “Bielawa is gaining gale force as a composer, churning out impeccably groomed works that at once evoke the layered precision of Vermeer and the conscious recklessness of Jackson Pollock.” 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. She is established as one of today’s leading composers and performers, consistently incorporating 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; 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.
“Creating new work for a fearless and uniquely flexible group like Contemporaneous leads me to find new ways to build wonder between performers and audience, through whimsy and joyful incitement to creating the unexpected,” says Bielawa. “They are game for anything. I can’t wait to see what happens in the room when we invite our audience along on this ride.”
Bielawa’s new piece for her Composer Portrait, Balloon Variations, written for seven instruments, will showcase the unique virtuosity of Contemporaneous and its conductor David Bloom, exploring the meeting ground between comedy and expansiveness. It is a precursor to Bielawa’s full-length opera La Ballonniste – or – Balloon (A Hot Air Opera), which will also be performed by Contemporaneous. La Ballonniste, Bielawa’s Guggenheim Fellowship project, is set in 1784 in Lyon on the cusp of the French Revolution and centers on opera singer Élisabeth Tible, the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon, all while singing an aria from a long-forgotten opera. Bielawa and librettist Claire Solomon are turning this true story into a comic opera. Balloon Variations is Bielawa’s exploration of music in the “dialect” of the new opera, allowing her to develop the musical language of the new work outside of the opera’s story.
Bielawa’s piece Incessabili Voce from 2013 was commissioned by Radio France for Ensemble Variances, with the composer as the vocal soloist. The piece was written in response to the theme of “The Cry” as “an expression of a basic language shared by all human beings as well as a majority of animals.” Bielawa writes in her note for the piece, “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 . . .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.”
Graffiti dell’amante for string quartet and singer from 2010 was commissioned for Lisa Bielawa to perform with Brooklyn Rider, by Market Square Concerts and the American Academy in Rome during Bielawa’s Rome Prize year. It is an open-ended musical-dramatic exploration of the multi-faceted predicament of the Lover inspired by Roland Barthes’ A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments. Bielawa writes, “The piece uses various declarations of romantic Love from my own meandering reading to enact what Barthes calls the ‘Figures’ of the Lover (I call these figures/segments ‘Absence,’ ‘Devotion,’ ‘Ravishment,’ ‘Remembering,’ etc.) These 3-5 minute segments can be performed in any order, or in subsets to make performances of different lengths – always chosen by the audience assembled for that performance. In this way each audience hears its own collective romantic consciousness reflected back through the performance.”
On singing these pieces again after so long Bielawa says, “Working up these two virtuoso vocal works so many years later than when I first sang them, I am astounded by how much more dramatic range I am able to get from my own voice, now that I have gone through menopause and my voice has gained a whole new set of colors and powers. As I bring this wonderfully strange new instrument to these familiar works, I am also struck by how my understanding of the texts has evolved because of my own lived experience over these years. It is unlike any other experience I’ve had as a performer or a composer.”
In addition to her Composer Portrait at Miller Theatre, Lisa Bielawa’s 2025-2026 season features bold programming, new collaborations, and world premieres of several new works. Knoxville Broadcast, a new installment in Bielawa’s Broadcast series, was 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. Violinist Tessa Lark has given the first two premiere performances of Bielawa’s Violin Concerto No. 2, PULSE with two of the co-commissioning orchestras – the world premiere performances with the Louisville Orchestra, conducted by Teddy Abrams on October 24 and 25, 2025; and the Cincinnati premiere with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Music Director Cristian Mӑcelaru, on November 29 and 30, 2025. She will perform it with another co-commissioner, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project on April 19, 2026. Bielawa also serves as Howard Hanson Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester in Rochester, NY for 2025-2026, where she will work with students who will be performing her music throughout the academic year. Eastman will present her next large-scale Broadcast in April 2026.
More about Lisa Bielawa: Lisa 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. Her 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. Bielawa’s music has been recorded on the Tzadik, Orange Mountain, Supertrain, Cedille, TROY, Innova, BMOP/sound, and Sono Luminus labels.
Feb. 13: Superstar Cellist HAUSER Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies with The Swan – New Album on Sony Masterworks
Feb. 13: Superstar Cellist HAUSER Revisits The Magic of Great Classical Melodies with The Swan – New Album on Sony Masterworks
International cello sensation HAUSER adds a grace note to his global hits Classic and Classic II, with the release of The Swan, a new “musical love letter” to his instrument. The new musical collection features seven beautiful classical melodies transformed by the HAUSER’s deeply felt signature style and virtuosity, once again with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Ziegler. Available for pre-save now, The Swan is set for release on February 13, 2026 via Sony Masterworks on all digital music platforms.
Accompanying today’s news is the release of the title track and music video for The Swan, starring Italian prima ballerina Angelica Gismondo – watch here.
The Swan – a gentle, rapturous melody from Camille Saint-Saëns’ The Carnival of the Animals – is an obvious choice for HAUSER. The piece has a profound, personal meaning to him.
“I was just a few years old when I heard a cello on the radio for the first time, playing Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Swan’,” HAUSER recalls. “I just fell in love with the sound when I heard it. It was like… I can’t describe it. It’s not usual for a child to know what he wants at an early age. But that was the sound. I remember thinking, ‘That’s it.’”
The Swan also includes all-new arrangements of two favorites by the French composer Gabriel Fauré – Après un rêve (After a Dream) and the lightly dancing Pavane; perhaps Puccini’s most beloved aria, O mio babbino caro from the opera Gianni Schicchi, popularized on the soundtrack the classic film A Room with a View; a worldwide hit from over a century ago, Sir Edward Elgar’s charming Salut d’amour (Love’s Greeting); and the robust, instantly recognizable zest of Johannes Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No. 5.
HAUSER tops off this musical bouquet with a new take on the soaring pop anthem You Raise Me Up, best known in Josh Groban’s chart-topping recording.
Though Saint-Saëns’ The Swan was written for the cello, the other selections on The Swan were written for voice, various other instruments or the orchestra. Like the selections on Classic and Classic II, they reflect HAUSER’s passion for taking the most expressive and unforgettable melodies, and adapting them to showcase the warm, singing tone of the cello.
HAUSER – THE SWAN
RELEASE DATE: FEBRUARY 13, 2026
OFFICIAL TRACKLIST –
1. The Swan
2. Après un rêve
3. Pavane
4. mio babbino caro
5. Salut d'Amour
6. Hungarian Dance No. 5
7. You Raise Me Up
ABOUT HAUSER
Following an incredible 10-year run as half of 2CELLOS, global superstar HAUSER has ushered in a new era as a solo artist and visual concept creator, using his innovative musical skills and irresistible charisma to bring a new wave of cello music to fans everywhere. Making his solo debut in 2020 with the release of CLASSIC, followed by The Player (2022), HAUSER CHRISTMAS (2023), CLASSIC II (2024) and CINEMA (2025), HAUSER has amassed over 2 billion audio streams and 4 billion video views globally. Revered globally for his captivating live performance, the Croatian musician is a phenomenon that thrives on audience interaction, hitting the stage in over 40 countries across the globe including historic venues like New York City’s Radio City Music Hall and London’s Royal Albert Hall and performing alongside such wide-ranging acts as Andrea Bocelli, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Elton John, as well as adored by Céline Dion. His electric stage presence has also led to several high-profile appearances, including an opening night performance at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, performing at the Vatican for the Pope, and special features for both the NFL and UEFA. Named one of People Magazine’s 2022 Sexiest Men Alive and featured by the likes of Rolling Stone, Forbes, and The New York Times, HAUSER has graced the stage for numerous broadcast performances, most recently adding Love Island to a long resume of appearances that includes The Bachelorette, TODAY Show, Good Morning America, Ellen, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CNN en Español and more. In 2025, HAUSER launched “Music Unites the World” on his social media -- a passion project where he will record an iconic song from each nation around the globe to spread a message of unity through music.
Connect With Hauser:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | TikTok
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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/
Feb 8 & 22: Claremont Trio and Attacca Quartet Perform at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Feb 8 & 22: Claremont Trio and Attacca Quartet Perform at Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
L-R: Claremont Trio by Merri Cyr; Attacca Quartet by David Goddard. Press photos available here.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Presents the Claremont Trio & Attacca Quartet in February
Concerts Include Rarely Heard Music by French Composer Louise Farrenc and a Boston Premiere by Pulitzer Prize-Winning Composer David Lang Co-Commissioned by the Gardner Museum
Claremont Trio: Sunday, February 8, 2026 at 1:30 pm
Attacca Quartet: Sunday, February 22, 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 the Claremont Trio on Sunday, February 8, 2026 at 1:30 pm and the Attacca Quartet on Sunday, February 22, 2026 at 1:30pm. 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.
Lauded as “one of America’s finest young chamber groups” by The Strad Magazine, the Claremont Trio (violinist Emily Bruskin, cellist Julia Bruskin, and pianist Sophiko Simsive) is sought after for its thrillingly virtuosic and richly communicative performances. The ensemble has a long history of performing at the Gardner Museum, which presented the Trio’s Boston debut over 25 years ago.
Emily Bruskin says, “Two visionary curators of music at the Gardner Museum—Scott Nickrenz and George Steel—have made this series feel like a second home for us, having presented our Boston debut; our Beethoven, Brahms, and Schumann trio cycles; world premieres by Gabriela Lena Frank, Sean Shepherd, Helen Grime, and Juantio Becenti; underappreciated masterpieces by Charlotte Sohy, Cecile Chaminade, Rebecca Clarke, and Louise Farrenc; and so much more.”
For this concert, the Trio will be joined by violist Rosemary Nelis and bassist Bradley Aikman in a performance of 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc’s Piano Quintet No. 1 in A minor, Op. 30. Farrenc, whose music is only now receiving the attention it deserves, was a formidable pianist and composer whose piano quintet stands alongside the finest chamber works of her era. The trio will also take on Ravel’s luscious piano trio and Shulamit Ran’s yearning Soliloquy, which grew out of her work on an operatic adaptation of The Dybbuk by S. An-sky.
The two-time Grammy Award-winning Attacca Quartet is recognized and acclaimed as one of the most versatile and outstanding ensembles of the moment—a true quartet for modern times. Their repertoire spans from Haydn and Beethoven to Caroline Shaw and electronic music. Recent highlights include performances at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, the Ojai Festival, Big Ears Festival, and much more. The Attacca returns to the Gardner Museum with Bartók’s pungent fourth quartet, which mixes Hungarian folk music and modernism with foot-stomping ferocity. Mendelssohn’s Apollonian musicianship will be on display in his elegant String Quartet in E minor.
The Attacca Quartet will also give the Boston premiere of daisy, a Museum-commissioned work by Pulitzer Prize winning composer David Lang, who created his “in-ear opera” true pearl for the Gardner Museum’s Tapestry Room in 2018. Lang explains that daisy is inspired by an advertisement from the Vietnam War era. He writes, “[Lyndon Baines Johnson's] campaign included what many consider the most effective political ad in American history—it featured an innocent young girl plucking the petals off a flower, who is then interrupted by the mushroom cloud of an atomic bomb. The name of the ad was 'Daisy.' My quartet daisy remembers this moment in American history, and it proposes two different futures for the innocent. The opening movement—‘first daisy’—begins in a gentle openness that is soon forgotten, and taken for granted, and which then becomes relentlessly overwhelmed. The concluding movement—‘second daisy’— imagines what might happen if that gentle and open spirit could be believed, and valued, and supported, and preserved.” daisy was co-commissioned by an international group of presenters: La Biennale di Venezia, Kings Place, Newport Classical, String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, Park Avenue Armory, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
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: Hopkinson Smith, 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: Diderot String 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, Nicie and Jay Panetta, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Feb 19-21: Silence and Sound - Arvo Pärt’s Music for Strings - Performed by Experiential Orchestra at Cathedral of St. John the Divine
Feb 19-21: Silence and Sound - Arvo Pärt’s Music for Strings - Performed by Experiential Orchestra at Cathedral of St. John the Divine
James Blachly and EXO at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, photo by Allison Stock.
Photo of Arvo Pärt by Kaupo Kikkas. Press photos available in high resolution here.
GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) Continues 2025-2026 Season
James Blachly, Music Director
Silence and Sound: Arvo Pärt’s Music for Strings
Featuring the US Premieres of Pärt’s Sequentia and Für Lennart in memoriam
February 19-21, 2026
Thursday & Friday, February 19 & 20, 2026 at 7:30pm
Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 3:30pm
Cathedral of St. John the Divine, St. James Chapel
1047 Amsterdam Ave., New York, NY
Tickets & Information
New York, NY – The GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) continues its 2025-2026 season, titled Origins, running from November 2025 through May 2026. Led by founding Music Director James Blachly, EXO presents four immersive programs this season, each reflecting the origins and mission of the organization – to curate programs that embrace the unique acoustics and characters of each venue, creating a one-of-a-kind listening environment and a new experience of sound. In three performances on Thursday, February 19 and Friday, February 20 at 7:30pm, and on Saturday, February 21 at 3:30pm, EXO and Blachly present Silence and Sound: Arvo Pärt’s Music for Strings at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in the intimate St. James Chapel (1047 Amsterdam Ave., NYC), joining the worldwide celebration of the iconic Estonian composer’s 90th birthday season. EXO will welcome to these performances Michael Pärt, Arvo Pärt's son and co-founder of the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia. Peter Bouteneff, author of Arvo Pärt: Out of Silence, has served as an advisor for these concerts on the Orthodox traditions that underpin several of the works to be performed.
Blachly and EXO bring their deep connection to the music of Pärt, building on their capacity concerts of his music at The Metropolitan Museum’s Temple of Dendur in 2021 and at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in 2023. This season, EXO invites listeners to explore the unique acoustics of the largest chapel of the Cathedral, where each note will reflect and reverberate – a meditation in stone, wood, and silence, as well as sound and space.
Blachly has carefully curated this program of music for strings and percussion, which includes some of Pärt’s most beloved works – Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten and Vater Unser – as well as the US premieres of his Pärt’s Sequentia and Für Lennart in memoriam. Pärt composed Sequentia in 2014 for the production Adam’s Passion and dedicated the work to Robert Wilson. The program will also include Pärt’s Orient & Occident, Psalom, Silouan’s Song, and Da pacem Domine. Pärt's setting of the Lord's Prayer, Vater Unser, will be sung by mezzo soprano Meg Bragle, a leading interpreter of Baroque and Classical repertoire hailed for her “memorable, raw-silk voice” (Toronto Star). Orient & Occident was composed in 2000, and is based on the text of Credo, the Nicene Creed in the Church Slavonic language – one of the few religious texts that are the same in the Western and Eastern Church.
Blachly says, “I chose Sequentia for this program because of the extraordinarily delicate way the percussion interacts with both the strings and silence, and how those sonorities will ring in this space.”
Also this season, on April 10 and 11, 2026, in partnership with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, EXO presents Music in the Crypt: Out of the Shadows in the rarely accessible Crypt at the Cathedral, featuring music chosen especially for this mysterious and shadowy space. The final event of the season is a reprise of EXO’s celebrated collaboration with composer Brad Balliett in his A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds, to be held once again outdoors in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park on June 6, 2026.
About Experiential Orchestra:
The GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) brings audiences close to the music by engaging listeners through imaginative, immersive, and interactive concert experiences. Founded by Music Director James Blachly in 2009, EXO’s performances and recordings have been described as “strikingly persuasive” by the San Francisco Chronicle and “immaculate” by Musical America, and have been praised for having “luscious tone and poise” by Classics Today.
EXO was founded on collaboration and co-creation, and each curated performance is imbued with a generous spirit of celebration, facilitating the exploration of what Blachly calls, “a new experience of sound” by audiences. The orchestra’s performances take place in and outside the concert hall with audiences invited to participate in unorthodox ways. EXO has performed the music of Arvo Pärt in the Temple of Dendur at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, invited audiences to dance during Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker at National Sawdust, enveloped the audience in concerts at Lincoln Center with audience and orchestra members sitting together, and presented Symphonie fantastique and Petrushka with circus choreography at The Muse in Brooklyn.
Recent highlights have included a subscription concert at The Phillips Collection in Washington, DC, an immersive performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs with cellist Andrew Yee and soprano Sarah Brailey, and the New York premiere of Julia Perry’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra with soloist Curtis Stewart. In January 2024, EXO performed Pärt’s masterwork Passio at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, offering audiences the opportunity to experience the concert while reclining on yoga mats. In March 2024, the orchestra co-presented a four-day Julia Perry Centenary Celebration and Festival in New York, coinciding with Perry’s 100th birthday that month.
EXO is known for imaginative and groundbreaking programming that frequently advocates for under-celebrated masterpieces and composers. The orchestra’s world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Prison (1930) was released on Chandos Records in 2020 to international critical acclaim in The New York Times, Gramophone, The New Yorker, The Guardian, and many other publications. The album won the GRAMMY for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album in 2021 – the first GRAMMY ever awarded for Smyth’s music. EXO’s world premiere recording of Julia Perry’s Violin Concerto, with soloist Curtis Stewart, was released on the Bright Shiny Things label in March 2024 and earned two GRAMMY nominations.
EXO is led by Founder and Music Director James Blachly, General Manager Sandy Choi, Creative Partner Catherine Gregory, Concertmasters Alex Fortes and Henry Wang, Personnel Manager Arthur Sato, and Artistic Advisors Patrick Castillo, Brad Balliett, and Doug Balliett. Leila Amineddoleh serves as Board Chair.
About Founding Music Director James Blachly:
James Blachly is a GRAMMY®-winning conductor dedicated to enriching the concert experience by connecting with audiences in memorable and meaningful ways. James Blachly serves as Music Director of Experiential Orchestra and Johnstown Symphony Orchestra. He is a versatile guest conductor in diverse repertoire for orchestras including New York Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and WDR Funkhausorchester. A strong supporter of composers of our time, Blachly has commissioned and premiered more than 40 works by composers including Jessie Montgomery, Courtney Bryan, Viet Cuong, Michi Wiancko, Kate Copeland Ettinger, Tommy Daugherty, Patrick Castillo, Brad and Doug Balliett, and many others. In recent seasons, he has collaborated with soloists Daniel Hope, Paul Jacobs, Julia Bullock, Dashon Burton, Michelle Cann, Andrew Yee, Curtis Stewart, Simone Porter, and more. In addition to his work with Experiential Orchestra, with the Johnstown Symphony, Blachly has conducted the orchestra at the Flight 93 Memorial for the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, in a former steel mill in a concert that was featured on Katie Couric’s America Inside Out, at the First Summit Arena at the War Memorial, and in eight seasons the orchestra has increased season ticket sales and annual giving each by more than 50%. In 2021, he received a commendation by the City of Johnstown and the Johnstown chapter of the NAACP. In recent seasons, Blachly has introduced an annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Juneteenth, and youth concert. For more information, visit www.jamesblachly.com.
Feb. 24: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Numerica Performing Arts Center – Featuring the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven and George Rochberg
Feb. 24: Telegraph Quartet Presented by Numerica Performing Arts Center
Available in high resolution at: www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/telegraph-quartet
Telegraph Quartet Presented by Numerica Performing Arts Center
Featuring the Music of Ludwig van Beethoven and George Rochberg
Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 7:30pm
Numerica Performing Arts Center | 123 N Wenatchee Ave. | Wenatchee, WA
Tickets and More Information
Telegraph Quartet’s New Album
20th Century Vantage Points Vol. 2: Edge of the Storm Out Now
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail …[the Telegraph Quartet is] an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.” – San Francisco Chronicle
Wenatchee, WA – On Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 7:30pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello), a group The Strad describes as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” is presented in concert by the Numerica Performing Arts Center (123 N. Wenatchee Ave). .
Known for technical prowess and an appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings its fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a program that embraces a sense of homage to those who inspired the works, featuring George Rochberg’s String Quartet No. 3 and Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 7 in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1.
Of the program, the Telegraph Quartet says,
“With both of these quartets by Beethoven and Rochberg, we find each composer in a moment of their lives that could have broken them, only to have those events push them into deeper and broader realms of expression. First we have Beethoven, several years in the wake of his Heiligenstadt Testament, where his acceptance of his inescapable deafness galvanizes him to write works like his Op. 59 No. 1, one of three quartets that truly broke the bonds of a typical chamberwork in its length, complexity and orchestral scope. Then, more than a century-and-a-half later, we have George Rochberg, also in the wake of a personal tragedy - the premature death of his teenage son - turning back to that very music of Beethoven, Mahler and others before him to inspire this epic third quartet, one that diverges completely from his serialist beginnings and allows him the emotional breadth to express this loss.”
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.
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
Presented by Numerica Performing Arts Center
What: Music by Ludwig van Beethoven and George Rochberg
When: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Numerica Performing Arts Center 123 N Wenatchee Ave. Wenatchee, WA 98801
Tickets and information: numericapac.org/events/the-telegraph-quartet
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group The Strad describes as having "precise tuning, textural variety and impassioned communication,” performs a lively concert featuring Ludwig van Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 59 No. 1 and George Rochberg String Quartet No. 3.
Feb. 18: Jupiter String Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City – Performing the Music of Robert Schumann, Alberto Ginastera, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Feb. 18: Jupiter String Quartet Presented by Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City
Photo of the Jupiter Quartet by Todd Rosenberg available in high resolution at www.jensenartists.com/artists-profiles/jupiter-string
Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City
Performing the Music of Robert Schumann, Alberto Ginastera, and Ludwig van Beethoven
Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Libby Gardner Concert Hall at University of Utah
1375 Presidents' Circle | Salt Lake City, UT
Tickets and More Information
“an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.” – The New Yorker
Salt Lake City, UT – On Wednesday, February 18, 2026, at 7:30 pm, the internationally acclaimed Jupiter String Quartet, winners of the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Banff International String Quartet Competition – known for their “compelling” performances (BBC Music Magazine) – will be presented by the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City. The concert will take place in Libby Gardner Concert Hall at the University of Utah (1375 Presidents' Circle). Jupiter presents Revival, taking listeners on an emotional ride filled with the vibrant rhythms of folk dance as well as beautiful lyricism. The concert will include Robert Schumann’s Quartet in A minor, Op. 41 No. 1; Alberto Ginastera’s Quartet No. 1, and Ludwig van Beethoven’s Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1.
Based in Urbana, IL and giving concerts all over the country, the Jupiter String Quartet is a particularly intimate group, and includes violinist Meg Freivogel, violist Liz Freivogel (Meg’s older sister), cellist Daniel McDonough (Meg’s husband, Liz’s brother-in-law), and first violinist, Mélanie Clapiès. The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
Since forming in 2001, the Jupiter String Quartet has turned their unique family dynamic into a musical strength. The personal connections that bind them – sisters who grew up making music together, a marriage that deepened musical partnership – create an intuitive ensemble communication that audiences consistently notice. Their performances exude an energy that feels friendly, knowledgeable, and adventurous, bringing their close-knit musical relationships to the stage.
”We are so pleased to return to Salt Lake City to perform for the wonderful audience there,” says the Jupiter Quartet. “We are especially excited about this vivid program, which features Schumann’s lushly beautiful Quartet in A minor, Beethoven’s heroic quartet Op. 59 No. 1, and Ginastera’s vivacious first quartet. We look forward to sharing these fantastic works.”
Robert Schumann composed all three of his string quartets in a burst of creative energy, and this first of the series is a brilliant exploration of the genre, featuring creative counterpoint, driving rhythms, and heartbreaking reflection. Alberto Ginastera’s scintillating first quartet is based on the folk traditions of Argentina. The program concludes with Beethoven’s monumental Quartet in F Major, Op. 59 No. 1, an astonishing experiment in expanding the form of the string quartet to its limits. The work reaches its emotional height in the sublime slow movement, whose spell is broken by the energetically rustic dance of the final movement, based on a Russian folk tune.
More about the Jupiter Quartet: The Jupiter Quartet has performed in some of the world’s finest halls, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, London’s Wigmore Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, Mexico City's Palacio de Bellas Artes, Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center and Library of Congress, Austria’s Esterhazy Palace, and Seoul’s Sejong Chamber Hall. Their major music festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music Festival, Taos School of Music Summer Festival, Music at Menlo, Tucson Winter Music Festival, the Seoul Spring Festival, and many others. In addition to their performing career, they have been artists-in-residence at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2012, where they maintain private studios and direct the chamber music program.
Their chamber music honors and awards include the grand prizes in the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition; the Young Concert Artists International auditions in New York City; the Cleveland Quartet Award from Chamber Music America; an Avery Fisher Career Grant; and a grant from the Fromm Foundation. From 2007-2010, they were in residence at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Two.
The quartet's latest album is a collaboration with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics, 2021), produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman. This collaborative album features the world premiere recording of Dan Visconti’s Eternal Breath, Felix Mendelssohn’s Octet in E-flat, Op. 20, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round. The quartet’s discography also includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon.
The quartet chose its name because Jupiter was the most prominent planet in the night sky at the time of its formation and the astrological symbol for Jupiter resembles the number four.
For more information, visit www.jupiterquartet.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: The Jupiter Quartet, “an ensemble of eloquent intensity” (The New Yorker) is presented in concert by the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City. The Jupiter Quartet will perform a program centered on the rich and expressive rhythms of folk dance and beautifully intimate lyricism. Titled Revival, this program highlights the influence of many different cultures on the character and complexity of various quartets written by three different composers. The performance will include works by Robert Schumann, Alberto Ginastera, and Ludwig van Beethoven.
Concert details:
Who: Jupiter String Quartet
Presented by Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City
What: Music by Robert Schumann, Alberto Ginastera, and Ludwig van Beethoven
When: Wednesday, February 18, 2026
Where: 1375 Presidents' Circle | Salt Lake City, UT 84112
Tickets and More Information: https://cmsofslc.org/calendar/2026/jupiter-quartet
March 12: Violinist Kristin Lee Makes Weill Recital Hall Debut at Carnegie Hall for United in Sound: America at 250 – Performing Works from American Sketches with Pianist John Novacek
March 12: Violinist Kristin Lee Makes Weill Recital Hall Debut at Carnegie Hall for United in Sound: America at 250 – Performing Works from American Sketches with Pianist John Novacek
L-R Violinist Kristin Lee, PIanist John Novacek
Photo of Lee by Lauren Desberg; Photo of Novacek by Peter Schaaf
Violinist Kristin Lee Makes Her Weill Recital Hall Debut at Carnegie Hall
Performing Works from Acclaimed Album American Sketches
with Pianist John Novacek
Presented by Carnegie Hall
as part of its United in Sound: America at 250 Festival
Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 7:30pm
Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall | 154 West 57th Street | NYC
Tickets: www.carnegiehall.org, 212.247.7800,
or the Carnegie Hall Box Office
Tickets and More Information
New York, NY– On Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 7:30pm, violinist Kristin Lee – praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy” – will make her Weill Recital Hall debut at Carnegie Hall with pianist John Novacek. The performance is part of United in Sound: America at 250, the citywide festival presented by Carnegie Hall showcasing the extraordinary musical riches that have evolved and flourished in the U.S. throughout the country’s history. Lee and Novacek will perform Four Southland Sketches by H.T. Burleigh (1866–1949); Non-Poem 4 by Jonathan Ragonese (b.1989); Violin Sonata No. 1 by Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959); Romance by Amy Beach (1867–1944); Four Rags by John Novacek (b. 1964); But Not For Me (arr. Jeremy Jordan) by George Gershwin (1898–1937); Lament (arr. Jeremy Jordan) by J.J. Johnson (1924–2001); The Entertainer by Scott Joplin (arr. Jeremy Jordan); Air No. 4 from Four Airs by Kevin Puts.
Kristin Lee will perform a special program that draws from works found on her debut solo album, American Sketches (First Hand Records). American Sketches has a personal resonance for Lee. A native of Seoul, Korea, she emigrated to the U.S. at the age of seven. During her childhood, playing the violin was a refuge from bullying and racism for Kristin – she moved to the U.S. not speaking any English, and felt the violin became her voice. As a foreign-born citizen of the U.S., Lee was compelled to select this repertoire to express her pride in the country she now calls her own, and has recorded works by American composers that have a distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history.
Of what American Sketches means to her, Kristin Lee says:
“My inspiration for American Sketches lies in the celebration of differences. It is the differences of people, environment, and encounters that ignite our curiosity, fuel our motivation, and inspire our creativity. By accepting and appreciating these differences, we pave the way for changes to our society. Whilst adopting change is difficult for many people, it is a critical component in our ever-evolving world, particularly within the musical communities. The history of American music is a great example of this notion. From the Indigenous sounds of the Native Americans to the influences of Western Europe and Africa, the American sound merged and evolved into what we know as Ragtime, Appalachian Folk, Jazz, and so much more. The variety of musical styles represents the diverse culture of America, showcasing the beauty of individual expression and the celebration of American history.”
San Francisco Classical Voice writes of the album, “Lee sets expectations for the entire album by opening with the ridiculously fast, technically challenging “Intoxication” and ending, just as the title says, “Full Stride Ahead.” In between, she delightfully and charmingly rags and strolls.”
Classics Today writes, “Violin virtuoso Kristin Lee serves up a delightful and stylistically wide-ranging cornucopia of American music, performed with unalloyed joy, style and effortless technique,”
Audiophila describes Lee as a “superb violinist,” writing, “[Kristin Lee] can manipulate that sound to suit the interesting American repertoire.”
A violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique, Kristin Lee enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.”
In addition to her solo appearances, Kristin Lee tours throughout the world as a member of New York’s Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, including in Italy, Croatia, Germany, Taiwan, and across the U.S. Always up for adventure, at the Moab Music Festival in Utah, Lee has performed in such unexpected places as rafting down the Colorado River, in a natural rock grotto, and in the magical landscape of the red rock canyons of the area.
As a soloist, Kristin Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. In 2026, she makes her solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall performing her program American Sketches with pianist John Novacek. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee is a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, performing regularly in New York at Lincoln Center and on tour.
In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She has served on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and she has also been in residence with the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, the El Sistema Chamber Music Festival of Venezuela, and is a summer faculty member at Music@Menlo’s Chamber Music Institute. Lee is also the founding artistic director of Emerald City Music (ECM), a chamber music series that presents authentically unique concert experiences and bridges the divide between the highest caliber classical music and the many diverse communities of the Puget Sound region of Washington State.
Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant, top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions, and awards from the Trondheim Chamber Music Competition, Trio di Trieste Premio International Competition, the SYLFF Fellowship, Dorothy DeLay Scholarship, the Aspen Music Festival’s Violin Competition, the New Jersey Young Artists’ Competition, and the Salon de Virtuosi Scholarship Foundation.
Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Violinist Kristin Lee, praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy,” will make her Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall debut with pianist John Novacek, performing a concert inspired by Lee’s debut album, American Sketches, which reflects the distinct and recognizable sound of American music and its rich history, encompassing both Lee’s journey as an American, as well as the journeys of the composers she selected. This performance, which is part of Carnegie Hall’s United in Sound: America at 250 festival, will include works by H.T. Burleigh, Jonathan Ragonese, Bohuslav Martinů, Amy Beach, John Novacek, Scott Joplin, George Gershwin, and J.J. Johnson.
Concert details:
Who: Violinist Kristin Lee & Pianist John Novacek Presented by Carnegie Hall as part of United in Sound: America at 250 Festival
What: Music from Lee’s Debut Solo Album American Sketches
When: Thursday, March 12, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, 154 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019
Tickets and More Information: www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2026/03/12/kristin-lee-violin-john-novacek-piano-0730pm
March 13: Countertenor Randall Scotting Releases New Album Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage - Includes Nine Works Recorded for the First Time
March 13: Countertenor Randall Scotting Releases New Album Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage - Includes Nine Works Recorded for the First Time
Countertenor Randall Scotting Announces New Album
Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage
Celebrating the Legendary 18th-Century Castrato
Through Rarely Heard Baroque Repertoire
Including Nine Works Recorded for the First Time
Release Date: March 13, 2026
Signum Classics
www.randallscotting.com | www.signumrecords.com/product/divine-impresario
Review CDs and downloads available upon request.
Internationally acclaimed countertenor Randall Scotting announces the release of Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage, out March 13, 2026 on Signum Classics. The landmark album celebrates Nicolò Grimaldi, the castrato who conquered the opera world under the stage name Nicolini (1673 - 1732). Recorded with the Academy of Ancient Music under the direction of Laurence Cummings, with soprano Mary Bevan, the album features rarely performed arias and duets from the early 18th century, nine of which have never been recorded before and have not been heard since Nicolini's lifetime.
While Nicolini is best remembered today for the music Handel wrote for him, including beloved arias from Rinaldo and Amadigi, this album reveals his far broader musical world. For Divine Impresario, Scotting has revived works by a range of composers who wrote for this castrato, drawn to his dramatic range and vocal brilliance, including Francesco Gasparini, Nicola Porpora, Riccardo Broschi, Francesco Mancini, Attilio Ariosti, and Giovanni Antonio Giaj.
Divine Impresario takes its title from Nicolini's unique role as both performer and visionary. “When I think about Nicolò Grimaldi, the word that comes to mind is impresario,” explains Scotting. “Not in the limited sense of a theatre manager, but rather as a creative force who shaped the artform itself. Nicolini wasn't content just to stand and sing; he directed performances, he reworked libretti, and he elevated the standard of acting in opera.”
For Scotting, this project marries his onstage and offstage roles. Sought-after by some of the world's most esteemed opera houses and concert halls, the countertenor’s performances have been described as “expressive” (The New York Times), “rich-toned” (Musical America), “luminous” (Ópera Actual), “ravishing” (BBC Music Magazine), and “flexible and rich” (Early Music Review). His breakout moment came in 2019 at London's Royal Ballet & Opera when he stepped in last-minute for Sir David McVicar's production of Britten's Death in Venice, praised for “singing brilliantly” to sold-out audiences, after which he joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera. In 2023, he created the role of Adone in the world premiere of Venere e Adone at the Staatsoper Hamburg under Kent Nagano, earning praise for a “vocally and physically muscular” performance. He has previously worked with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Santa Fe Opera, the New York Philharmonic, Italy's Spoleto Festival, Boston Baroque, and Sydney's Pinchgut Opera, among others. He recently made spectacular debuts at the Royal Ballet & Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Staatsoper Hamburg, with upcoming debuts at Carnegie Hall and La Fenice in Venice.
Holding a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London, where his dissertation focused on the castrato Senesino and early 18th-century Italian opera, Scotting is also that rare performer who has trained extensively as a scholar – a background that served him well in researching and bringing to life the repertoire he performs here.
After extensive research into Nicolini’s performing career, Scotting sought out manuscripts from archives in England, Belgium, Austria, Germany, and Sweden. Choosing the best of what he found, he then meticulously created modern performing editions for all the music on the album so that it could be performed and recorded.
“For me, stepping into this repertoire is a kind of conversation across time, with Nicolini, but also with the idea of what it means to be an impresario today,” says Scotting. “Like him, I'm drawn to music-making that is dramatically committed. In recording this music, I sought to channel the intensity for which Nicolini was famous and to honor his legacy as the divine impresario: defined by an ambition for opera to be more than just dazzling technique, but also a captivating and emotional experience.”
Born into a poor Neapolitan family in 1673, Nicolò Grimaldi rose to become one of the most celebrated performers of his era. After making his stage debut in Naples at only twelve years old, he rapidly gained fame throughout Italy, eventually being inducted into the Order of Saint Mark’s Cross in Venice in 1705 for his outstanding performances. His reputation soon spread across Europe, and in 1708 he arrived in London with a three-year contract and an extraordinary £1,000 salary (an amount that at that time would have taken a skilled tradesman thirty years to earn).
Nicolini quickly became an international superstar, praised not only for his vocal brilliance but for his exceptional acting. One of the album's highlights is “Mostro crudel che fai?” from Riccardo Broschi's Idaspe, representing the famed lion-fighting scene that electrified London audiences. In Mancini's Idaspe fedele, Nicolini became notorious for slaying a “live” lion onstage in a nude-colored costume – a theatrical spectacle that became one of early 18th-century London's most talked-about moments. The album also includes the delicate and lyrical aria “È vano ogni pensiero” from Mancini's setting of the opera, revealing how Nicolini could, as Scotting puts it in his liner note for the album, “wrestle monsters and still sing with incomparable elegance.”
More about Randall Scotting:
Dramatically persuasive and intensely musical, Randall Scotting is recognized for winning over audiences with his vocal beauty, stylish singing, and charismatic stage presence. He has released several solo albums in recent years, building a growing profile as a recording artist. For his debut album, The Crown, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment led by Laurence Cummings, he was lauded for "ravishing vocalism" and "impressive beauty and warmth." Signum Classics then released Lovesick, an album of lute and folk songs featuring Scotting and Grammy-award winner and lutenist Stephen Stubbs, widely praised and noted as "not only beautifully sung, but 'lived'." His most recent album, Infinite Refrain, with London's Academy of Ancient Music, offers 17th-century arias and love duets for countertenor and tenor, receiving glowing acclaim as "a vibrantly seductive" and "strikingly beautiful declaration of same-sex love."
Remarkable for the breadth of his artistic curiosity, Scotting delights in defying expectations, from improvising live with Bobby McFerrin at Carnegie Hall to performing with the avant-garde cabaret troupe Company XIV in a blend of opera, folk, and pop music. Trained at London's Royal College of Music, the Juilliard School, and as a Fulbright Scholar at Budapest's Liszt Academy, his scholarly credentials complement his performing career. In 2018 he was awarded a PhD from the Royal College of Music in London for his thesis on the castrato Senesino (Francesco Bernardi) and early 18th-century Italian opera
About Mary Bevan:
Mary Bevan is one of Britain's most celebrated sopranos, equally at home in opera, concert, and recital. During the 2025/26 season, she debuts with the Dutch National Opera in a new Michel van der Aa commission Theory of Flames, sings Pat Nixon in John Adams's Nixon in China conducted by the composer in Rome, and returns to the Semperoper Dresden in Handel's Saul.
In recent seasons she has sung the title role in La Calisto with the Bayerische Staatsoper, Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare with Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Morgana in Alcina at Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Eurydice in Orfeo ed Eurydice for Teatro La Fenice. Her concert appearances have included her Carnegie Hall debut with the English Concert, Haydn's Creation at the Barbican with the Academy of Ancient Music, and Bach's Mass in B Minor at the BBC Proms. She has toured extensively across Europe, Australia, Asia, and the US. Bevan's many releases on Signum Records include Elegy, art song albums, Voyages and Divine Muse, French song album Visions Illuminées, and Handel's Queens. She was awarded an MBE in the Queen's birthday honors list in 2019 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in 2025.
About Laurence Cummings:
Laurence Cummings is Music Director of the Academy of Ancient Music and Orquestra Barroca Casa da Música in Porto, and one of Britain’s most exciting exponents of historical performance both as a conductor and harpsichordist. A noted authority on Handel, the Guardian has written that “he now ranks as one of the composer's best advocates in the world. Self-effacing on the podium, faithful above all to the score, he matches Handel's energy and invention with unmistakable lyricism, generosity and dignity.”
Frequently praised for his stylish and compelling performances in the opera house, his career has taken him across Europe conducting productions at Royal Ballet and Opera Covent Garden, Glyndebourne, Opernhaus Zurich, Dutch National Opera, Theater an der Wien, and Gothenburg Opera, working with directors including David McVicar, Christoph Marthaler, Deborah Warner, and Peter Sellars. He is equally at home on the concert platform, regularly invited to conduct both period and modern instrument orchestras worldwide.
His previous collaborations with Randall Scotting include The Crown, Heroic Arias for Senesino with Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and Infinite Refrain, Music of Love's Refuge with Academy of Ancient Music, both on Signum Classics.
About Academy of Ancient Music:
Academy of Ancient Music is an orchestra with a worldwide reputation for excellence in baroque and classical music. Using historically informed techniques, period-specific instruments and original sources, they bring music vividly to life in committed, vibrant performances.
Established more than 50 years ago by Christopher Hogwood, AAM has released more than 300 albums to date, collecting countless accolades including Classic BRIT, Gramophone and Edison awards. They are the most listened-to period-instrument orchestra online, with over one million monthly listeners on streaming platforms. AAM recently celebrated their Golden Anniversary with the completion of a landmark project to record Mozart's complete works for keyboard and orchestra, a series described by the Financial Times as having “set new standards.”
Beyond the concert hall, AAM is committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians through their innovative AAMplify initiative, working with music colleges and universities across the UK. AAM holds the position of Associate Ensemble at London’s Barbican Centre and the Teatro San Cassiano, Venice, and Orchestra-in-Residence at the University of Cambridge and The Apex, Bury St Edmunds.
About Signum Records:
Signum Records is a leading British independent label, specialising in classical music. Founded in 1997, Signum boasts a catalogue of over 900 titles collectively streamed over 850 million times and continues to release 40+ new recordings each year by internationally acclaimed artists. Signum works closely with its sister company, Floating Earth, the leading production and engineering specialist service provider in Europe.
Album Track Listing & Credits:
Divine Impresario: Nicolini on Stage
Randall Scotting, countertenor | Mary Bevan, soprano | Academy of Ancient Music led by Laurence Cummings
Release Date: March 13, 2026
Signum Classics
1. *Mostro crudel che fai? from Idaspe [4:34]
Riccardo Broschi (c. 1698-1756) | Venice 1730
2. Porto piagato in petto from Ambleto [3:01]
Francesco Gasparini (1661-1727) | London 1712
3. Sinfonia from Rinaldo | Instrumental [1:02]
George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) | London 1711
4. Cara sposa from Rinaldo [10:00]
G.F. Handel | London 1711
5. *Spiegami il tuo desio from Siface [5:55]
Nicola Porpora (1686-1768) | Venice 1726
with Mary Bevan, soprano
6. Oh notte!… Notte amica from Amadigi [4:47]
G.F. Handel | London 1715
7. *Come nave in mezzo all'onda from Siface [5:28]
N. Porpora | Venice 1726
8. *Per te bell'idol mio from Antioco [4:48]
F. Gasparini | London 1711
with Mary Bevan, soprano
9. *È vano ogni pensiero from Idaspe fedele [8:56]
Francesco Mancini (1672-1737) | London 1710
10. Venti turbini from Rinaldo [5:02]
G.F. Handel | London 1711
11. *Nò, non piangete nò from Tito Manlio [4:43]
Attilio Ariosti (1666-1729) | London 1717
12. *Sì, t'intendo o core amante from Tomiri [3:41]
F. Gasparini | London 1709
13. *Questo conforto from Antioco [5:47]
F. Gasparini | London 1712
14. *Pensa se ancor from Mitridate [5:18]
Giovanni Antonio Giaj (1690-1764) | Venice 1729
15. Crudel tu non farai from Amadigi [5:30]
G.F. Handel | London 1715
with Mary Bevan, soprano
*recorded for the first time
Total Time: 78:37
Randall Scotting, countertenor
Mary Bevan, soprano
Laurence Cummings, conductor and harpsichord
Academy of Ancient Music
Recorded: November 18-21, 2024
Location: St Jude On-the-Hill, Hampstead, London, UK
Producer: Nicholas Parker
Audio Engineer, Mixing, and Mastering: Tom Lewington
Assistant Engineer: Alex Sermon
Musical Coaching: Yukiko Oba and Murray Hipkin
Concept, Repertoire Selections, and Performing Editions: Randall Scotting, PhD
Album Booklet, Package Design, Copy Editing, and Photo Editing: Nic Mramer
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single The Departure Out Now
Feb. 20: Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical – New Single The Departure Out Now
Pianist and Composer Olivia Belli
Releases Her First Piano Concerto Daimon on Sony Classical
New Single: The Departure
Out Now | Watch Music Video Here
Album Release Date: February 20, 2026
Pre-Save | Listen Here
Whether Johann Sebastian Bach, Frédéric Chopin, Philip Glass or Arvo Part– the works of these composers have inspired Olivia Belli, one of the most captivating voices in the neoclassical scene. Equally, art and literature open new worlds for her, fueling her creativity as a composer. The starting point for her Sony Classical album Daimon –– to be released on February 20, 2026 –– was Homer’s Odyssey. “It was Odysseus’ fate to return to his homeland Ithaca,” says Olivia Belli. “That’s where his wife and son were – everything that defined him.” New single, The Departure is out now. Watch the accompanying music video here.
The idea that every life is essentially a journey, one that inevitably leads us toward our true purpose, deeply fascinated the Italian artist from the picturesque Marche region. From this concept emerged the piano concerto Daimon – recorded with a string orchestra and inspired by Italian Baroque music. It consists of three movements: The Departure, The Journey, and The Return. The second movement, The Journey, stands out in particular. It reflects the trials, hardships, and suffering faced not only by Odysseus but also by Olivia Belli herself on her path to catharsis. These emotional highs and lows unfold in strikingly epic soundscapes.
Olivia Belli consciously wove her own biography into the concerto. Daimon spans her life from adolescence to the present. As the daughter of a bank manager, she moved frequently as a child. Despite discovering exciting cities, she always felt something was missing – though she couldn’t quite name it.
That changed at age 14, when an accident left her bedridden for several months. “During that time, I was thrown back on myself. With no distractions, I realized what I truly needed: music and nature.” She had reached the point Socrates once described: “You must know who you are before you go out into the world.” In other words, Olivia Belli had found what the Greek term daimon expresses – her calling. Since then, she has never lost sight of her purpose.
Olivia Belli studied with distinguished pianists and pedagogues including Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Demus, Franco Scala, and Piero Rattalino, and also pursued composition studies, enriching her artistic identity. She has performed at acclaimed events such as the Piano Nights in Amsterdam, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Steinway & Sons Piano Series at the Royal Albert Hall (Elgar Room). Olivia Belli has also composed works for various artists, including Norwegian violinist Mari Samuelsen, French cellist Gautier Capuçon, and British organist Anna Lapwood. Above all, she has continually embarked on sonic explorations for her own recordings – often inspired by nature or Greek mythology. Her latest creative phase, especially with the piano concerto Daimon, has produced something truly exceptional for a neoclassical artist. Rather than relying on force and orchestral grandeur, this work calls for sensitivity – expressed in Olivia Belli’s unmistakable musical language. She favors gentleness, nuanced emotion, and pastel tonal colors.
Following Daimon, her recording continues with the Ithaca Suite, another musical journey into ancient Greece. This piece portrays the characters Odysseus encounters upon his return – including his father Laertes and his son Telemachus. In these Rencontres, cellist Raphaela Gromes, violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, and saxophonist Jess Gillam shine as guest musicians. Olivia Belli not only contributes her musical signature but also embraces the collaborative spirit with her fellow artists. Her openness to shared creative processes and her refined sense for musical dialogue make her a sought-after partner – both as a pianist and composer. This artistic connection is also reflected in Olivia Belli’s own compositions, where she interweaves personal themes with universal emotions.
Odysseus’ wife Penelope is honored by Olivia Belli with a piano solo at the heart of the Ithaca Suite, its melody gently oscillating between melancholy and hope. “There is no Odysseus without Penelope,” the musician reflects. “Knowing you’re not alone is essential. We exist above all thanks to the people by our side.”
The album concludes with a sonata that openly reveals its unpretentious beauty: the Sonatina for Nausicaa. Nausicaa was the daughter of the Phaeacian king. She did not shy away when she found the shipwrecked Odysseus on the shore, but instead offered him clothes and food. “Nowadays, few would invite a homeless person into their home,” Olivia Belli observes. “For many, a person’s worth is measured primarily by success or money. Yet we all have our own unique calling.”
Daimon: Piano Concerto, Ithaca Suite & Sonatina for Nausicaa
Release Date: February 20, 2025
Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra Daimon
1 I. The Departure
2 II. The Journey
3 III. The Return
Ithaca Suite
4 I. Proci
5 II. Telemachus
6 III. Eumaeus
7 IV. Penelopeia
8 V. Eurycleia
9 VI. Laertes
10 VII. Pax Athenae
Sonatina for Nausicaa
11 I. Semplice
12 II. Andantino
13 III. Allegretto
Olivia Belli & Eldbjørg Hemsing – Telemachus (Official Music Video)
# # #
CONNECT WITH OLIVIA BELLI
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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.
Out Now: Sony Classical Releases 2026 New Year’s Concert with The Vienna Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Out Now: Sony Classical Releases 2026 New Year’s Concert with The Vienna Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Sony Classical Releases The 2026 New Year’s Concert
with The Vienna Philharmonic and Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Album Release Dates:
Digital: Out Now
CD: Out Today
DVD and Blu-Ray: January 30, 2026
Available Now
The most famous event in the world of classical music will be available on Sony Classical in a digital format, on 2 CDs, on vinyl, on DVD and on Blu-ray
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the concert for the very first time.
On January 1, 2026, Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s New Year’s Concert from the world-famous Golden Hall of the Vienna Musikverein. It was his first appearance at this event. There are few concerts in the world that are awaited with as much excitement as the New Year’s Concert from Vienna, which is broadcast to over 150 countries and watched by more than 50 million viewers.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, who is the music director of both the Metropolitan Opera in New York and of the Philadelphia Orchestra, can look back on a long association with the Vienna Philharmonic. His program for the 2026 New Year’s Concert included not only popular pieces such as Roses from the South and the Fledermaus Quadrille but also five rarities, all of which were heard for the first time in this setting. Among them are works by the Black American composer Florence Price (1887–1953) and by Josephine Weinlich (1848–87), who founded the first all-women’s orchestra in Europe.
The annual New Year’s Concert has been a major event in the musical calendar for more than eight decades. Starting in 1939, it is now broadcast on television and on the radio and reaches millions of viewers and listeners all over the world. Among the internationally acclaimed conductors who have appeared on the podium at this event have been Herbert von Karajan, Lorin Maazel, Claudio Abbado, Carlos Kleiber, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Seiji Ozawa, Mariss Jansons, Franz Welser-Möst and Gustavo Dudamel. As Austria’s musical ambassadors, the members of the Vienna Philharmonic extend their New Year greetings to the whole world in a spirit of hope, friendship and peace by performing lively, carefree and at the same time nostalgic and more serious music by members of the Strauß family and their contemporaries.
Program of the 2026 New Year’s Concert
Johann Strauss II Overture to the operetta Indigo and the Forty Thieves
Carl Michael Ziehrer Legends of the Danube. Waltz op. 446*
Joseph Lanner Malapou Galops op. 148/1*
Eduard Strauss Brausteufelchen. Polka schnell op. 154*
Johann Strauss II Fledermaus Quadrille op. 363
Johann Strauss I The Carnival of Paris. Galop op. 100
Franz von Suppè Overture to the operetta The Fair Galatea
Josephine Weinlich Siren Songs. Polka mazur op. 13 (arr. W. Dörner)*
Josef Strauss Women’s Dignity Waltz op. 277
Johann Strauss II Diplomats’ Polka. Polka française op. 448
Florence Price Rainbow Waltz (arr. W. Dörner)*
Hans Christian Lumbye Copenhagen Steam Railway Galop
Johann Strauss II Roses from the South. Waltz op. 388
Johann Strauss II Egyptian March op. 335
Josef Strauss Olive Branch Waltz, op. 207
Encores:
Philipp Fahrbach Circus, Quick Polka, Op. 110
Johann Strauss II The Blue Danube, Waltz, Op. 314
Johann Strauss I Radetzky March, Op. 228
* for the first time at a New Year’s Concert
New Single from Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light Out Today - Full Album Out February 27 on New Amsterdam/Nonesuch Records
New Single from Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light Out Today - Full Album Out February 27 on New Amsterdam/Nonesuch Records
Album art and photos available here.
New Single from Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Forward Into Light Out Today
Full Album Featuring Four Orchestral Works to be Released
February 27 on New Amsterdam/Nonesuch Records
Recorded by Metropolis Ensemble
Andrew Cyr, Artistic Director/Conductor
New Single Out Today:
Eye of Mnemosyne: III. Mori: “Memory of the Dead”
Listen Now
Watch the Official Video
Review CDs and downloads available upon request.
A new single from Sarah Kirkland Snider’s fifth full-length LP, an all-orchestral album titled Forward Into Light, is out today alongside an official video created for the track by multimedia artist and visual designer Deborah Johnson/CandyStations. The new single, Mori: “Memory of the Dead,” is the third movement of Snider’s multimedia orchestral work Eye of Mnemosyne, a piece exploring memory, innovation, and culture as refracted through the lens of photography, commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic. The video incorporates photos from George Eastman’s groundbreaking Kodak campaigns to reframe American cultural identity as well as references to Mnemosyne, the Greek goddess of memory. Produced by multi-GRAMMY-winning producer Silas Brown and recorded by GRAMMY-nominated Metropolis Ensemble led by artistic director/conductor Andrew Cyr, Forward Into Light will be co-released by Nonesuch Records and the label that Snider co-founded, New Amsterdam Records, on February 27, 2026.
In addition to Eye of Mnemosyne, the new album features three more orchestral works by Snider: Forward Into Light, a commission for the New York Philharmonic inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement; the string orchestra and harp (Noël Wan) version of Drink the Wild Ayre, a reimagining of the string quartet Snider wrote for the Emerson String Quartet as the ensemble’s final commission; and Something for the Dark, a meditation on resilience, commissioned by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra after Snider won its Lebenbom Competition in 2014.
Snider, deemed “one of new music’s leading names” (Gramophone), writes music of direct expression and dramatic narrative that has been hailed as “rapturous” (New York Times), “groundbreaking” (Boston Globe), and “ravishingly beautiful” (NPR). With an attention to detail that is “as intricate and exquisite as a spider’s web” (BBC Music Magazine), her music synthesizes diverse influences to render a nuanced command of immersive storytelling.
“I chose to create an album of these four works because they share themes of perseverance, alliance, and evolution through dark and light – concepts that have been at the forefront of my mind in recent years,” Sarah Kirkland Snider says. “Beyond that, there are musical connections: three of the works feature certain motivic ideas that have haunted me over the past few years, appearing in different guises across projects.”
The album has been recorded with 21st century listeners in mind. Snider states:
“Some of my most vivid memories of feeling awake and alive – whether walking city streets as an adult or lying in the dark on the floor in my childhood bedroom – have been inspired by listening to orchestral music recordings on headphones. In some ways, I’ve loved listening this way even more than live, because it feels private and personal – like a dream you can revisit in any way, at any time. Since childhood, I’ve longed to be on the other side of that alchemical exchange, creating sonic journeys that a listener can personalize in even the most mundane settings.
When I began thinking about recording my own orchestral music, I knew I wanted a sonically immersive, dynamic, and intricate listening experience – one in which the subtlest orchestration details and tempo changes could be fully realized. To that end, Metropolis and I recorded this music with intentionally idiosyncratic approaches to isolation and tempo mapping, maximizing control over individual lines without sacrificing musicality or expressivity. With that freedom, the mix became painstakingly detailed – but also deeply gratifying.”
Andrew Cyr, Metropolis Ensemble's artistic director and conductor, shares this vision for the recording process. He says, “At Metropolis, the studio is another stage, and recording is its own artistic medium. What draws me to it is the potential for a different kind of closeness: an intensely shared attentiveness between performer and listener. On one end, the composer, musicians, and engineers shape every breath and balance; on the other, technology carries that intention directly to the ear. For this album, we lived with the music for eight months – playing, listening, refining. From tracking to post-production, we worked with a panoramic syntax, engineered for Atmos and modern playback, letting depth, focus, and perspective carry Sarah’s orchestration and vision.”
The new album joins Sarah Kirkland Snider’s previous full-length LPs – The Blue Hour (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch, 2022), Mass for the Endangered (New Amsterdam/Nonesuch, 2020), Unremembered (New Amsterdam, 2015), and Penelope (New Amsterdam, 2010) – which have garnered year-end nods and critical acclaim from The New York Times, NPR, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR, Gramophone Magazine, Pitchfork, BBC Music Magazine, The Nation, and many others.
About Sarah Kirkland Snider: Sarah Kirkland Snider’s music has been commissioned and/or performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Cleveland Orchestra; Detroit Symphony Orchestra; National Symphony Orchestra; New York Philharmonic; San Francisco Symphony; Philharmonia Orchestra; Melbourne Symphony Orchestra; Toronto Symphony Orchestra; Residentie Orkest; Birmingham Royal Ballet; Emerson String Quartet; Renée Fleming and Will Liverman; Deutsche Grammophon for mezzo Emily D’Angelo; percussionist Colin Currie; eighth blackbird; A Far Cry; and Roomful of Teeth, among many others. In addition to the music on this album, Snider’s recent works include Mass for the Endangered, a Trinity Wall Street-commissioned prayer for the environment for choir and ensemble, programmed by dozens of choirs the world over; and Embrace, an orchestral ballet for the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
Highlights of Snider’s 2025-2026 concert season include the milestone premieres of three major new works – her first opera, HILDEGARD, for which she also wrote the libretto, co-commissioned by Beth Morrison Projects and the Aspen Music Festival and School and presented in rolling world premieres by Los Angeles Opera (November 5-9, 2025) and PROTOTYPE Festival in New York (January 9-17, 2026), with subsequent performances at the Aspen Music Festival and School (Summer 2026); a new work for dance for the New World Symphony and Miami City Ballet (April 17-19, 2026); and the professional world premiere performances of Snider’s latest orchestral work Marmoris by the Monterey Symphony (May 16-17, 2026). Her music will be performed around the world this season in cities including Paris, France; Offenbach, Germany; Toronto and Kitchener, Ontario, Canada; Abbotsford, Victoria, Australia; and Antwerp, Belgium; as well as across the United States from Brooklyn, New York and Baltimore, Maryland to Wheeling, West Virginia; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Berkeley, California.
A founding Co-Artistic Director of Brooklyn-based non-profit New Amsterdam Records, Sarah Kirkland Snider has an M.M.and Artist’s Diploma from the Yale School of Music, and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. The winner of the 2014 Detroit Symphony Orchestra Lebenbom Competition, Snider was a Visiting Lecturer at Princeton University in fall 2023. Her music is published by G. Schirmer. For more information about Sarah Kirkland Snider: www.sarahkirklandsnider.com/bio
About Metropolis Ensemble: Metropolis Ensemble is a GRAMMY-nominated, New York City-based orchestral collective and non-profit production house shaping today’s musical landscape. Founded in 2006 by GRAMMY-nominated conductor-producer Andrew Cyr, Metropolis champions exceptional composers and performers at pivotal moments – turning ideas into premieres, site-specific experiences, and definitive recordings. Metropolis provides the scaffolding artists need – bespoke ensembles, creative productions, multi-genre collaborations, and direct on-ramps to global stages – launching careers and inspiring new audiences. The ensemble has been presented by BAM’s Next Wave, The Met, Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, New Victory Theater, and Prototype. Cross-genre collaborators include Questlove & The Roots, Wye Oak, Deerhoof, Emily Wells, Caroline Rose, and the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, with stages from the Hollywood Bowl and Brooklyn Steel to Sounds from a Safe Harbour and Eaux Claires Hiver. Its recordings have earned wide acclaim – including Canada’s JUNO Award for Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto (2013 Best Contemporary Composition) and GRAMMY recognitions for Avner Dorman’s Mandolin Concerto (2010 Best Solo Instrumental Performance), Timo Andres’s Home Stretch (part of David Frost’s 2013 Producer of the Year), and Timo Andres: The Blind Banister (2025 Best Engineered Album, Classical), which also landed on year-end lists from The New York Times, NPR Music, and Gramophone. Recognized as one of New York City’s most prolific incubators of new talent, Metropolis is a national model for artist-driven innovation. For more information about Metropolis: www.metropolisensemble.org
ALBUM TRACK LISTING:
Forward Into Light
Sarah Kirkland Snider | Metropolis Ensemble | Andrew Cyr
New Amsterdam/Nonesuch Records | Release Date: February 27, 2026
All Music by Sarah Kirkland Snider
1. Forward Into Light [15:04]
2. Drink the Wild Ayre [12:45]
Noël Wan, harp
Eye of Mnemosyne
3. Prelude: Eye of Mnemosyne [2:28]
4. Mnemonic: Wheel of the Muses [1:41]
5. Mori: Memory of the Dead [1:43]
6. Vivere: Power of the Snapshot [3:21]
7. Memento: Defense Against Time [3:17]
8. Nostos: War Story [2:57]
9. Ephemera: Fragmented Memory Psyche [1:36]
10. (Epilogue): Lens of Nostalgia [4:13]
Something for the Dark
11. The Promise [6:28]
12. Of Rise and Renewal [5:36]
Total time: 61:09
Produced by Silas Brown and Andrew Cyr
Engineered by Silas Brown, Wellington Gordon, Charles Mueller, Mike Tierney, Doron Schachter, and Ryan Streber
Mixed by Silas Brown; Silas Brown and Mike Tierney (Drink the Wild Ayre)
Mastered by Silas Brown/Legacy Sound
Recorded at Drew University, FSU College of Music, Field Notes, Sandbox Percussion, Oktaven Audio (January-June, 2025)
Graphic Design by David (DM) Stith
Photography by Anja Schütz