OUT TODAY: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann
OUT TODAY: New Sony Classical Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos Featuring the Music of Franz Schubert & Robert Schumann
New Album by Pianist Arcadi Volodos
Out Today on Sony Classical
Schubert: Piano Sonata No.17 In D Major, D.850
Schumann: Kinderszenen Op.15
Kinderszenen, Op.15/I. Von fremden Ländern und Menschen
Out Today - Listen Here
Album Release Date: Out Today
A musician known for conjuring up magical sounds on the piano is back with a new release – out today. Seven years after his last album, the exceptionally gifted Arcadi Volodos releases a new and long-awaited Sony Classical album, recorded live at Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. And again, he is devoting himself to the music of Franz Schubert as well as Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen. Kinderszenen, Op.15: XII. Kind im Einschlummern is out today – listen here.
“The great difficulty with Schubert”, says Volodos, “is the basic outline, the absolute transparency. It is in silence that the personality and the spirituality of the interpreter shine through.” For Volodos as an interpreter, it is here, in this world of stillness and half-tones, that his real work begins, since “this demands simplicity and depth”.
Volodos’s earlier Schubert recordings have included the great sonatas in G major (D 894, released in 2002) and in A major (D 959, first issued in 2019). He is now turning his attention to the D major Sonata D 850, a work sometimes known as the “Gastein” Sonata since Schubert composed it during the summer of 1825, when he was taking the waters at Bad Gastein to the south of Salzburg.
Arcadi Volodos draws particular attention to the “extreme sensibility” of Schubert’s music, which explains why he favours a freedom of approach that allows for flexible tempos.
“It is absurd to want to fix the tempo by means of a metronome,” he argues, because “music is a language, not an equation.” It is very much the many incomparable transition passages, the melodies and the gently changing harmonies that make Schubert’s music so unmistakably his own. And this is all the more true when they are performed by a pianist as exceptional as Arcadi Volodos.
The second work on his new album is Robert Schumann’s Kinderszenen, a set of thirteen priceless miniatures for the piano, the best known of which is the famous “Träumerei”.
“I think that it is only when you grow older that you understand these pieces better and better,” says Volodos, referring obliquely to the fact that Schumann did not write them for children. What matters more, as Volodos explains, is “It is a question of rediscovering within oneself the child’s sense of wonderment, this pure and sincere understanding of a world that one spends an entire lifetime trying to rediscover.”
To that extent this recording of Kinderszenen seems like a summation of Volodos’s whole life as an artist: each piece is a little jewel that allows the piano to radiate with light and to shine in all its colours and nuances. One could argue that this profundity is accessible only to those artists who, like Volodos, have a relatively manageable repertory at their command, at least in terms of their public appearances. “I like it when the works come to life inside me and become a part of me.” The present recording attests to the truth of this comment in many different ways.
Arcadi Volodos was born in St. Petersburg and it was there, too, that he studied. He first became famous for his highly virtuosic piano arrangements of Romantic orchestral works but since his international breakthrough in the late 1990s he is now invariably numbered among the finest pianists currently before the public. He appears in all the leading concert halls and at festivals all over the world. His relatively few recordings have regularly garnered the most prestigious international awards.
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Two-Track Bundle Out Today
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces New Album 24 on Sony Masterworks – New Two-Track Bundle Out Today
PR Photo: Credit – Alex Lake (Download)
Pioneering Composer and Pianist
Alexis Ffrench
Shares New Two-Track Bundle
Blackbird Rising and Blackbird Returning
Out Today - Listen Here
Taken From Upcoming Album, 24
Worldwide Album Release Date: October 2, 2026
Pre-Save Here
New York, NY – May 1, 2026 – Today, pioneering pianist, composer and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench has shared Blackbird Rising / Blackbird Returning - listen here, a fluttering and thoughtful two-track release taken from his forthcoming album 24 set for release on October 2, 2026 and available for pre-save here.
A calming and contemplative duo of tracks that serve to bookend the day – from the first birdsong of morning to the blackbird’s final lullaby at dusk – Blackbird Rising / Blackbird Returning finds Ffrench artfully reconciling with one of the most distinctive threads in his work: birdsong. From 2018 hit Bluebird, which has been streamed over 200 million times globally and is Gold-certified in the US, to 2022’s Songbird and now to the blackbird, birds have circled his music throughout the span of his career.
Ffrench explains: “That sense of awe and wonder when you look at a bird in flight makes you feel that you’re part of this incredible Earth when we’re all connected.”
The new tracks also coincide with International Dawn Chorus Day on Sunday, May 3, 2026. A global celebration encouraging us to wake at sunrise to hear the “natural symphony” of Spring’s peak birdsong, the Dawn Chorus celebrates connection with nature and the notion that the beauty of the natural world can be appreciated from the most ordinary locations: whether from a garden, woodland or urban park.
Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 unveils as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day.
Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk – through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.
Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten-days of near-total immersion on an array vintage of grand pianos, upright pianos and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.
Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”
Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “what do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.
2026 also marks the 20th anniversary of Ffrench’s seminal debut album Piano Diaries. With each piece evoking the pull of a series of intimate and reflective moments, the record fuses cinematic simplicity with an emotionally direct and highly accessible composition that welcomes all listeners to step directly into Ffrench’s intimate and atmospheric world.
One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums and Gold-selling status in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”
Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, scooping an ARIA Award for his Apple Music show Classical Connections, hosting brand-new Classic FM series “Music to Live By”, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting masterclasses with schools & charitable organizations or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.
Refusing to be penned in by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward – with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the in numerous possibilities held inside one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.
Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 out October 2, 2026
Listen to Blackbird Rising and Blackbird Returning, and Pre-Save 24 here
About Alexis Ffrench
Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.
A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.
Alexis Ffrench Socials
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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/.
June 5: Pianist Charlotte Hu Releases New PENTATONE Album Featuring Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite – New Single Out Today
June 5: Pianist Charlotte Hu Releases New PENTATONE Album Featuring Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite – New Single Out Today
Pianist Charlotte Hu Announces New PENTATONE Album
Featuring Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite
New Single: Los Requiebros Out Today
Listen Here | Watch the Music Video
“Hu lends her dazzling technique to Goyescas” – WRTI
Release Date (Worldwide): June 5, 2026
CDs or press downloads available upon request.
www.charlottehu.com | www.pentatonemusic.com
Pianist Charlotte Hu announces Goyescas, her second album on PENTATONE, which will be released on June 5, 2026. Following the release of her 2024 PENTATONE debut, Liszt: Metamorphosis, Hu now turns her attention to Spanish and Catalan composer and pianist, Enrique Granados (July 27, 1867–March 24, 1916) and his iconic piano suite, Goyescas: Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love). The recording also highlights two Spanish Dances by Granados, No. 2, “Oriental” and No. 5, “Andaluza.” New single, Los Requiebros is out today – listen here and watch the music video here.
“Recording this album has been a journey of deep engagement with a composer whose music continues to reveal new dimensions with each encounter,” Charlotte Hu says. “My first encounter with Granados’ Goyescas came during my years as a student at Juilliard. I was immediately captivated by the vivid world Granados had created on the keyboard. What struck me most was not simply the technical brilliance of the writing, but rather the poetry embedded within — the nuanced characters, the narrative arc that unfolds across the entire suite, the distinctly Spanish flavors interwoven with profound emotional depth, and the virtuosity that never overshadows the music’s intimate storytelling. Here was a masterwork that seemed to contain entire worlds: passion, tenderness, humor, shadow, and light all coexisting within its six movements. That fascination never left me. Years later, I decided that I wanted to explore this work in its complete form, to understand every layer of Granados’ genius. It is my hope that this recording will help bring Goyescas back into concert halls, where this beautiful masterwork deserves to be heard far more often than it currently is.”
Described as a “first-class talent” (Philadelphia Inquirer) possessing a “superstar quality — musical, energetic, and full of flair” (Jerusalem Post), Taiwanese-American pianist Charlotte Hu has been praised by audiences and critics across the globe for her dazzling virtuosity, captivating musicianship, and magnetic stage presence.
As a soloist, Hu has astounded audiences across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, performing sold-out concerts at many of the world’s most prestigious venues — including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Taipei National Concert Hall, and Osaka’s Symphony Hall. She is a frequent guest at music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, Ruhr-Klavier Festival, and Oregon Bach Festival. Concerto engagements have included performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Taiwan Philharmonic, among others. Recent and upcoming highlights for Charlotte Hu include performances presented by Newport Classical, the Mansion at Strathmore, the Gilmore Piano Festival, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Taipei Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Center, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and the Taichung Opera House.
Goyescas was inspired by the work of painter Francisco Goya. Hu writes in her liner notes for the album, “Enrique Granados drew his inspiration from the paintings of Francisco Goya, the 18th-century Spanish master whose dark, sensual works explore themes of love, desire, flirtation, and the human condition. Each movement of Goyescas corresponds to a painting or draws from Goya’s visual universe, allowing Granados to translate visual art into musical narrative.”
From the playful charm of “Los requiebros” to the lyrical intimacy of “La maja y el ruiseñor” and the profound emotional summit of “El amor y la muerte,” Granados’ masterwork reveals a world of dramatic contrasts and refined storytelling. Complementing the suite are two Spanish Dances: the hauntingly introspective No. 2, “Oriental,” and the vibrant, guitar-inflected No. 5, “Andaluza.”
With this pairing, Hu captures both the virtuosic brilliance and the deeply intimate narrative of the music, illuminating its modern harmonic language and unmistakable Spanish spirit with freshness and reverence.
More about Charlotte Hu: An active recording artist, Charlotte Hu’s debut album of Chopin works on ArchiMusic was named Best Classical Album of the Year by Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Melody Award, and her recordings released on Naxos/CAG Records and BMOP/sound with Boston Modern Orchestra Project have received overwhelming critical acclaim. Her Rachmaninoff album on Centaur/Naxos received a five-star review by the U.K.’s Pianist magazine, which called it “essential listening for Rachmaninoff admirers.” Her latest album, Liszt Metamorphosis, was released by PENTATONE in July 2024.
Charlotte Hu is the founder of two piano festivals across two continents: the Yun-Hsiang International Music Festival in Taipei and the PYPA Piano Festival in Philadelphia. Now in its 14th year, PYPA has become an important fixture in the classical music world, cultivating a deeper appreciation for classical music and serving as a cultural bridge between East and West.
With a fierce dedication to making classical music more accessible, Charlotte presents captivating programs that tell human stories inclusive of gender and race. By juxtaposing audience favorites with underperformed treasures and newly commissioned works, Charlotte’s recitals consistently offer musical and narrative contrasts that encourage people to listen deeply and discover anew the work of even the most well-known composers.
At the heart of Charlotte’s success is a story of strength, dedication, and resilience that has powered her dream of becoming a world-class artist. Moving to the United States from Taiwan at age 14 without her parents to begin studies at The Juilliard School was the first of many challenges Charlotte has overcome in building her illustrious career — one that’s included winning top prizes at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition, performing on classical music’s biggest stages, and fostering the next generation of musicians as an advocate for classical music through entrepreneurial and philanthropic initiatives. A tireless advocate for humanity, Charlotte raised $27,000 for youth education charities through a Hope Charity Concert live-streamed on her Facebook page in June 2020. The online concert reached more than 140,000 people across the globe.
A Steinway Artist, Charlotte Hu serves as an associate professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and as an artist in residence at Temple University in Philadelphia, in addition to her busy performance schedule. She is a frequent guest artist, leading master classes and artist residencies at universities and music festivals worldwide. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Germany’s Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, where she studied with Herbert Stessin, Sergei Babayan, and Karl-Heinz Kammerling, respectively.
Goyescas
Charlotte Hu, Piano
Pentatone | Release Date (Worldwide): June 5, 2026
Track List:
Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
Goyescas Suite
1. I. Los Requiebros [8:44]
2. II. Coloquio en la Reja [11:56]
3. III. El Fandango del Candil [5:57]
4. IV. Quejas o la Maja y el Ruiseñor [6:56]
5. V. El Amor y la Muerte: Balada [12:35]
6. VI. Epílogo (Serenata del Espectro) [8:15]
12 Danzas españolas
7. No. 2, Oriental [5:28]
8. No. 5, Andaluza [3:45]
Total playing time: [63:41]
June 11: Telegraph Quartet Kicks Off Morris Museum's 2026 Back Deck Outdoor Concert Series
June 11: Telegraph Quartet Kicks Off Morris Museum's 2026 Back Deck Outdoor Concert Series
Photo of the Telegraph Quartet by Lisa Marie Mazzucco available in high resolution here.
Telegraph Quartet Performs on the Morris Museum’s Back Deck
Kicking Off the Celebrated Summer Outdoor Concerts Series
Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 7:30pm
Morris Museum’s Outdoor Concerts on the Back Deck
6 Normandy Heights Road | Morristown, NJ
Tickets and More Information
“soulfulness, tonal beauty and intelligent attention to detail ... an incredibly valuable addition to the cultural landscape.”
– San Francisco Chronicle
Morristown, NJ – On Thursday, June 11, 2026, at 7:30 pm, the Telegraph Quartet (Eric Chin and Joseph Maile, violins; Pei-Ling Lin, viola; Jeremiah Shaw, cello) will return to perform for the Morris Museum’s seventh annual Back Deck season. This outdoor concert series began during the pandemic, and The New York Times describes it as “Live Music Splendor in a Parking Lot.” The Telegraph, a group The New York Times describes as being “…full of elegance and pinpoint control…” last performed on the series in July 2024.
Known for technical prowess and an appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph Quartet brings its fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a musically diverse program featuring Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 3, The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet.
Jamaican-British composer Eleanor Alberga’s music has been commissioned by the BBC Proms and The Royal Opera, and performed all over the world. She was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2021 for Services to British Music. She wrote her third string quartet in 2001, and describes it as “reflective and inward looking.” The Telegraph pairs Alberga’s quartet with a Great American Songbook transcription of Jerome Kern’s The Way You Look Tonight, originally written for the film Swing Time. The program’s finale is the only string quartet written by iconic French composer Claude Debussy, whose Impressionist style influenced many great artists of the Jazz Age.
“Playing on Morris Museum's Back Deck is always a unique experience, one we've gotten to try out for several years now since it started during the Pandemic,” says Joseph Maile, co-violinist of the Telegraph Quartet. “Who would have thought that what was originally a gritty invention of necessity would create this literally out-of-the-box space in the community for music, wine and food, all against the backdrop of a beautiful sunset! Looking forward to sending the impressionistic colors of each of these works out into the community!”
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.
The Telegraph 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.
The Telegraph Quartet released its celebrated debut album Into The Light in 2018 and is currently recording an extensive three-album series titled 20th Century Vantage Points for Azica Records, exploring string quartets of the 20th century. The first volume, Divergent Paths (2022), 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. In August 2025, the Telegraph released the second volume, Edge of the Storm, which examines the turbulent years of war and its aftermath from 1941-1951 through string quartets by Grażyna Bacewicz, Benjamin Britten, and Mieczysław Weinberg. Volume three will be released in fall 2027. In addition, the Telegraph releases recordings of the string quartets of Robert Sirota in summer 2026 (Azica Records) and of Kenji Bunch in spring 2027 (Phenotypic Records).
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 Morris Museum as part of the Back Deck Outdoor Concert Series
What: Music by Eleanor Alberga, Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy
When: Thursday, June 11, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Outdoors on the Morris Museum’s elevated parking deck, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown, NJ
Tickets and information: morrismuseum.org/outdoor-concerts-on-the-back-deck
Description: The award-winning Telegraph Quartet, a group The San Francisco Chronicle describes as having "tonal warmth and communicative urgency,” performs as part of the Morris Museum’s annual Back Deck Outdoor Concert Series. Known for technical prowess and an appreciation for the history behind music, the Telegraph brings its fluid synchronicity and refined artistry to a musically diverse program featuring Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No. 3, The Way You Look Tonight by Jerome Kern, and Claude Debussy’s String Quartet.
California Symphony Celebrates 40th Anniversary at Claremont Hotel in Berkeley
California Symphony Celebrates 40th Anniversary at Claremont Hotel in Berkeley
Photos by Drew Altizer Photography, available in high resolution here.
California Symphony Celebrates 40th Anniversary at Claremont Hotel in Berkeley
WALNUT CREEK, CA – California Symphony’s 40th Anniversary Gala, held on April 18, 2026 at the Claremont Hotel in Berkeley, brought together a vibrant cross-section of civic leaders, arts champions, and devoted patrons to celebrate four decades of music-making and community impact. Guests gathered to honor longtime champions Ralph and Loella Haskew (former California Symphony Board President and former Walnut Creek Mayor, respectively), whose enduring support has shaped the organization since its earliest days. Attendees included past California Symphony composer Viet Cuong and notable community leaders, including Walnut Creek council members Cindy Silva and Matt Francois. Performances were by the California Symphony and DJ Snick at Night. The evening, emceed by Classical California’s Dianne Nicolini, featured remarks from Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera, Board President Barbara Hodgkinson, Past Board President Bill Armstrong, and Executive Director Lisa Dell.
The event underscored California Symphony’s mission to present engaging, inclusive concert experiences while investing deeply in education and new music. For 40 years, the California Symphony has been a vibrant cultural cornerstone of Walnut Creek and greater Contra Costa County, bringing world-class music, unforgettable live performances, and accessible education for all to the community. Proceeds from the annual gala advance California Symphony’s mission to deliver innovative performances, cultivate the next generation of artists and audiences, and enrich the cultural life of the community through the power of music.
The gala raised nearly $200,000 in support of the California Symphony’s artistic and education programs. What set the evening apart was its immersive musical storytelling: guests were surrounded by live performances of selections from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons alongside a beloved work by Viet Cuong, originally premiered by the orchestra online during the COVID-19 pandemic. The night balanced elegance with joy, culminating in a high-energy, unexpected 1980s dance party in celebration of the orchestra’s founding in 1986. The dance floor kept the celebration going late into the night.
Notable attendees:
Classical California/KDFC’s Dianne Nicolini, who was the Master of Ceremonies
California Symphony Artistic & Music Director Donato Cabrera
Board Member Bill Armstrong and his wife Navid Armstrong
Former California Symphony Board member (and former Board President) Ralph Haskew and his wife Loella Haskew, who has been a longtime volunteer with California Symphony since its first gala (event honorees)
Past California Symphony Composer-in-Residence Viet Cuong
Walnut Creek Councilmember and former mayor Cindy Silva
Walnut Creek Councilmember and former mayor Matt Francois
Interim CEO of Walnut Creek Chamber and Vice President of Visit Walnut Creek Nicole Hankton
Peggy White, Executive Director of the Diablo Regional Arts Association (DRAA)
California Symphony Board President Barbara Hodgkinson
Anne Grodin, former Mayor of Lafayette and councilmember (1991-1999), founder of the Lafayette Community Foundation and past board member.
Sunne McPeak, former Secretary of the California Business, Transportation, and Housing Agency (2003-2006); on the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors (1979-1994)
Gail Murray, former Director (District 1) of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Board of Directors
Jim Reiter, California Symphony’s first Board President
Kathy Hemmingway, Executive Director of Walnut Creek Downtown
ABOUT THE CALIFORNIA SYMPHONY:
Founded in 1986, California Symphony has been led by Artistic and Music Director Donato Cabrera since 2013. It is distinguished by its vibrant concert programs that span the breadth of orchestral repertoire, including works by American composers and by living composers. Its concert season at the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, California serves a growing number of music lovers from across the Bay Area.
California Symphony believes that the concert experience should be fun and inviting, and its mission is to create a welcoming, engaging, and inclusive environment for the entire community. Through this commitment to community, imaginative programming, and its support of emerging composers, California Symphony is a leader among orchestras in California and a model for regional orchestras everywhere.
Since 1991, California Symphony's three-year Young American Composer-in-Residence program has provided a composer with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate with the orchestra over three consecutive years to create, rehearse, premiere, and record three major orchestra compositions, one each season. Every Composer-in-Residence has gone on to win top honors and accolades in the field, including the Rome Prize, Pulitzer Prize, Grammy Awards, and more.
The orchestra's nationally recognized educational initiative Sound Minds impacts students' trajectories by providing instruction for violin or cello and musicianship skills. Sound Minds has proven to contribute directly to improved reading and math proficiencies and character development, as students set and achieve goals, learn communication and problem-solving skills, and gain self-confidence. Inspired by the El Sistema program of Venezuela, the program is offered completely free of charge to the students and families of Downer Elementary School in San Pablo, California.
Through its innovative adult education program Fresh Look: The Symphony Exposed, California Symphony provides lifelong learners a fun-filled introduction to the orchestra and classical music. Led by celebrated educator and California Symphony program annotator Scott Foglesong, these live classes are held over four weeks in the summer annually.
In 2017, California Symphony became the first orchestra with a public statement of a commitment to diversity. Its website is available in both Spanish and English.
Reaching far beyond the performance hall, since 2020 the orchestra's concerts have been broadcast nationally on multiple radio series through Classical California (KUSC/KDFC) and the WFMT Radio Network, reaching over 1.5 million listeners across the country. For more information, visit CaliforniaSymphony.org.
Newport Classical Concludes 2025-2026 Chamber Series with Concerts in May and June
Newport Classical Concludes 2025-2026 Chamber Series with Concerts in May and June
L-R: Zijian Wei, Amir Hoshang Farsi, Mika Sasaki. Photos available in high resolution here.
Newport Classical Concludes 2025-2026 Chamber Series
Friday, May 8, 2026 at 7:30pm: James Zijian Wei performs Ravel and Liszt
Friday, June 5, 2026 at 7:30pm: Amir Hoshang Farsi and Mika Sasaki
Newport Classical Recital Hall | 42 Dearborn Street | Newport, RI
Information & Tickets: www.newportclassical.org
Newport, RI – Newport Classical concludes 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.). On Friday, May 8, 2026 at 7:30pm, pianist James Zijian Wei makes his Newport debut, and on Friday, June 5, 2026 at 7:30pm, flutist Amir Hoshang Farsi and pianist Mika Sasaki close this season’s Chamber Series with a colorful and virtuosic program.
Pianist James Zijian Wei comes to Newport on May 8 following a sweeping first-prize win at the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition. A standout among China’s rising generation of pianists, Wei has earned international acclaim on major stages and has been recognized with top prizes at the Lang Lang Cup, the China Grand Canal Festival, and the Beijing International Chopin Competition. In Newport, Wei presents a program of Barber, Ravel, Liszt, and more showcasing the magnetic energy of a major artist on the rise.
Newport Classical Executive Director Oliver Inteeworn writes of the program:
“James Zijian Wei’s concert program has a wonderful dramatic arc. He opens with Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5 in F-sharp Major, Op. 53, a work of volcanic intensity. Scriabin wrote this piece after relocating from Paris to Lausanne, a place he found more peaceful, and where he felt at ease. You can almost hear his sense of liberation and joy in the work, which took him only six days to write. From there, Wei turns to Samuel Barber’s Excursions, Op. 20, four short, distinctly American character pieces that draw on folk idioms including blues, boogie-woogie, fiddle, and even a cowboy ballad. Next, Wei performs Lü Wencheng’s Autumn Moon on a Calm Lake, rooted in the tradition of Cantonese music and evoking the beauty of moonlight on water.The second half of the concert opens with Ravel’s famous work, La Valse, a dizzyingly virtuosic showcase that is very demanding for the soloist. The final piece on Wei’s program is Liszt’s Fantasie über Themen aus Mozarts Figaro und Don Giovanni, S. 697, which brilliantly weaves together melodies from Mozart’s two great operas.”
Flutist Amir Hoshang Farsi and pianist Mika Sasaki join forces on June 5 to close this season’s Chamber Series with brilliance and flair. Hailed as “virtuosic and birdlike” (I Care If You Listen), Farsi brings his lyrical tone and adventurous spirit to a rich and colorful program featuring works by Gabriel Fauré, Lili Boulanger, Ian Clarke, Reena Esmail, and Yuko Uébayashi. Sasaki, praised as a “superb interpreter” (Fanfare) and for her “virtuosity… and sparkling sound” (Times Argus) has performed at leading venues across North America, Europe, and Asia, and is celebrated for her remarkably expressive range. Together, these two rising stars present a program of sparkling Impressionism. This concert is made possible through the generous support of Ron and Maureen Early.
Inteeworn writes of Farsi and Sasaki’s program:
“The duo’s program opens with two short works by French composer Lili Boulanger, who in spite of only living to the age of 24 left us with a catalog of treasured works. Farsi and Sasaki will perform her sunlit D’un matin de printemps (Of a Spring Morning) and her subdued Nocturne. Next, they perform Fauré’s Sonata in A Major, Op. 13, of which fellow composer Saint-Saëns wrote, ‘This sonata has everything that will seduce the gourmet: novel forms, exquisite modulations, uncommon tone colours, the use of the most unexpected rhythms…hovering above all this is a magic which envelops the work…’ The second half of the concert features three vivid new works. Ian Clarke describes his piece Orange Dawn as ‘inspired by the vision of a dawn scene in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa.’ Reena Esmail’s Zinfandel blends Western classical and Hindustani musical traditions. She writes that she imagined ‘a glimmer of light reflecting and refracting off the surface of the dark, rich wine’ while composing it. Yuko Uébayashi’s Sonata for Flute and Piano brings the concert full circle, reflecting both French Impressionist music and the influence of Japanese film music, related to the composer’s experiences in her native Kyoto and in Paris, where she has made her home for many years.”
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. 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.
Up next, the 2026 Newport Classical Music Festival will take place from July 2-19, 2026. Highlights of the 2026 Festival include Opening Night with chamber orchestra Delirium Musicum; a celebration of the Golden Age of Opera with Lawrence Brownlee and Erin Morley; solo piano performances by Michelle Cann and Dmitry Shishkin, as well as a two-piano recital with Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy; a new work by Vivian Fung, co-commissioned by Newport Classical, performed by Sandbox Percussion and violinist Kristin Lee; performances by violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing, VOCES8, Apollo’s Fire, Trio Karénine, WindSync, Cerus Saxophone Quartet, Beijing Guitar Duo, Parker Quartet, and more; two evenings with Broadway star Jeremy Jordan, known for his lead role in Newsies and most recently The Great Gatsby; and Closing Night with the GRAMMY® Award-winning Harlem Quartet, joined by Newport Classical’s Resident Festival Artists. Additional highlights include the beloved Sunrise Concerts at 5:15am; a concert inspired by nature at Norman Bird Sanctuary; a free Fourth of July concert at King Park; and this year’s young professional Newport ClassicalResidentFestival Artists in eight performances. For details, visit newportclassical.org/concerts.
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.
Gardner Museum Concludes Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series - Isata Kanneh-Mason on May 10 and Renaissance String Quartet on May 17
Gardner Museum Concludes Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series - Isata Kanneh-Mason on May 10 and Renaissance String Quartet on May 17
L-R: Renaissance String Quartet, Isata Kanneh-Mason. Press photos available here.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Concludes
Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series
Sunday, May 10 at 1:30 pm: Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
Sunday, May 17 at 1:30 pm: Renaissance String Quartet
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 concludes its Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series, presenting leading pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason on Sunday, May 10, 2026 at 1:30 pm and the Renaissance String Quartet on Sunday, May 17, 2026 at 1:30 pm. This fifteen-concert season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel runs from January 25 through May 17, 2026, and features world-class artists in the Museum’s extraordinary Calderwood Hall—a 300-seat “sonic cube” with three levels of balconies designed so that 80% of seats are front row, creating a uniquely intense and intentional listening experience.
The stellar pianist member of the great English Kanneh-Mason family of musicians, Isata Kanneh-Mason, takes a moment away from the concerto stage to bring this thoughtfully constructed program to Calderwood Hall on May 10. She performs two of Beethoven’s best-loved sonatas, the “Moonlight” and the “Waldstein;” Ravel’s astonishing three-movement tour-de-force Gaspard de la nuit, inspired by the dark poetry of Aloysius Bertrand; and pair of shorter works, Halo and Nocturne, by Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova.
Isata Kanneh-Mason is in high demand from concert halls and orchestras worldwide. In July 2024, she was invited to perform at the First Night of the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Symphony and conductor Elim Chan, a performance that resulted in stellar reviews. In addition to performing in recital at the Gardner Museum, this season she also appears at Wigmore Hall in London, the Brucknerhaus in Linz, Powell Hall in St Louis, De Bijloke in Ghent, Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, among others. Her recording of Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philharmonia Orchestra was recently released on Decca. BBC Music Magazine raves, "She is a pianist who makes lines sing beautifully and virtuosic passages dance, finding intimacy and eloquence at telling moments."
The Gardner Museum presents the Renaissance String Quartet on May 17, for the closing performance of the Winter/Spring 2026 Weekend Concert Series. This supergroup includes violinist Randall Goosby, violinist Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass—four terrific musicians who find time in their busy touring lives as soloists and chamber musicians to perform together. Brahms’ String Quartet No. 2 in A minor anchors the program with its characteristic blend of passion and intellectual rigor. The concert also includes the great American composer Florence Price’s String Quartet No. 1 in G Major. Price had a special gift for quartet writing; the exquisite and eloquent slow movement of her first quartet shows her love of American song, especially Black spirituals. The program closes with String Quartet No. 1, “Love and Levity,” by Daniel Hass, the cellist in the Renaissance String Quartet. He describes the piece as “Beethovenian in its thematic and structural tautness, but even more so in its motion towards excess.”
The Renaissance String Quartet is driven by a desire to reimagine the role and capacity of the string quartet as a vehicle for change, inspiring audiences, students, and collaborators around the world. Founded in 2021, the New York City-based quartet was formed on the basis of over a decade of friendship at The Perlman Music Program and The Juilliard School. The quartet feels a responsibility to command a diverse repertoire of classic, underrepresented, and new works, so they can contribute to the reclamation, redefinition, and continuation of a musical tradition that belongs to all of us. They represent and articulate an inclusive vision of the future of classical music, which sees a culture of music wherein all lives and histories are welcomed and celebrated.
Also in May, the Gardner Museum presents its next Thursday Night Music concert on May 28, 2026, featuring John Zorn’s New Masada Quartet with John Zorn, saxophone; Julian Lage, electric guitar; Jorge Roeder, bass; and Kenny Wollesen, drums. The New Masada Quartet is iconoclastic composer and saxophonist John Zorn’s virtuosic ensemble that performs classic compositions from Zorn’s Masada songbooks—hundreds of short-form pieces marrying Jewish klezmer music and free jazz. Thursday Night Music brings a different energy to the concert hall than the afternoon performances of the Museum’s Weekend Concert Series, featuring edgier, more experimental work. With no intermissions, open seating, and a relaxed atmosphere, these single-set performances offer immersive and adventurous listening experiences.
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 at 1:30pm: Twelfth Night Ensemble (postponed)
February 1 at 1:30pm: Romuald Grimbert-Barré, violin; Tommy Mesa, cello; Albert Cano Smit, piano
February 8 at 1:30pm: Claremont Trio
February 22 at 1:30pm: Attacca Quartet
February 26 at 7 pm: Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians performed by Ensemble Signal - Thursday Night Music
March 1 at 1:30pm: Goldmund Quartet with Gloria Chien, piano
March 8 at 1:30pm: Paul O’Dette, lute
March 15 at 1:30pm: Borromeo String Quartet
March 29 at 1:30pm: Castle of Our Skins with Daniel Bernard Roumain, electric violin and Val-Inc, sound chemist
April 5 at 1:30pm: Paul Galbraith, guitar
April 12 at 1:30pm: Randall Goosby, violin with Zhu Wang, piano
April 18 at 2 pm: Boston Children’s Chorus: The Road She Paved
April 19 at 1:30pm: Imani Winds
April 26 at 1:30pm: The Butter Quartet
May 10 at 1:30pm: Isata Kanneh-Mason, piano
May 17 at 1:30pm: Renaissance String Quartet
May 28 at 7 pm: John Zorn’s New Masada Quartet - Thursday Night Music
All concerts take place on Sundays at 1:30 pm, except for Ensemble Signal which performs on Thursday, February 26 at 7 pm and the Boston Children’s Chorus which performs on Saturday, April 18 at 2 pm. All concerts take place in Calderwood Hall at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (25 Evans Way, Boston, MA).
Ticketing Information
Tickets are available at gardnermuseum.org/about/music or by calling the Box Office at 617 278 5156. For additional information including about accessibility, please contact boxoffice@isgm.org.
About the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum invites you to escape the ordinary in a magical setting where art and community come together to inspire new ways of envisioning our world. Embodying the fearless legacy of its founder, the Museum offers a singular invitation to explore the past through a contemporary lens, creating meaningful encounters with art and joyful connections for all. Modeled after a Venetian palazzo, unforgettable galleries surround a luminous Courtyard and are home to masters such as Rembrandt, Raphael, Titian, Michelangelo, Whistler, and Sargent. The Renzo Piano Wing provides a platform for contemporary artists, musicians, and scholars and serves as an innovative venue where creativity is celebrated in all of its forms.
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum • 25 Evans Way, Boston, MA 02115 • Hours: Open Weekends from 10 am to 5 pm, Weekdays from 11am to 5 pm and Thursdays until 9 pm. Closed Tuesdays. • Admission: Adults $22; Seniors $20; Students $15; Free for members, children under 18, everyone on their birthday, and all named “Isabella” • $2 off admission with a same-day Museum of Fine Arts, Boston ticket • For information 617 566 1401 • Box Office 617 278 5156 • www.gardnermuseum.org
Music at the Gardner is supported by Manitou Fund. The Museum thanks its generous concert donors: The Coogan Concert in memory of Peter Weston Coogan; Fitzpatrick Family Concert; James Lawrence Memorial Concert; Alford P. Rudnick Memorial Concert; David Scudder in memory of his wife, Marie Louise Scudder; Wendy Shattuck Young Artist Concert; and Willona Sinclair Memorial Concert. The piano is dedicated as the Alex d’Arbeloff Steinway. The harpsichord was generously donated by Dr. Robert Barstow in memory of Marion Huse, and its care is endowed in memory of Dr. Barstow by The Barstow Fund. Music at the Gardner is also supported in part by Barbara and Amos Hostetter, Joseph Mari, Sallie and Jim McGregor, Nicie and Jay Panetta, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., and the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
June 23: New York Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s PULSE Feat. Violinist Tessa Lark with The Knights Conducted by Eric Jacobsen – Presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
June 23: New York Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s PULSE Feat. Violinist Tessa Lark with The Knights Conducted by Eric Jacobsen – Presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Photo of Tessa Lark by Lauren Desberg available here & Lisa Bielawa by Shawn Poynter available here.
New York Premiere of Lisa Bielawa’s Violin Concerto PULSE
on June 23, 2026
Featuring Violin Soloist Tessa Lark with The Knights
Conducted by Co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen
Presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts
Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm
Naumburg Bandshell, on the Concert Ground, Central Park (72nd St, mid-park)
Free and Open to the Public
More Information
Lisa Bielawa: www.lisabielawa.net | Tessa Lark: www.tessalark.com
New York, NY – Composer Lisa Bielawa’s new violin concerto, PULSE, will receive its New York premiere performed by GRAMMY®-nominated orchestral collective The Knights conducted by Co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park (mid-park at 72nd St.) presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. The featured violin soloist will be Tessa Lark, for whom the piece was written. Lark is winner of the Walter W. Naumburg Int’l Competition Winner (2012).
The Knights’ program will also include
Christina Courtin: Rhapsody on being Giant Proof
Lisa Bielawa: Violin Concerto No. 2: Pulse
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings
Caroline Shaw: The Mountain that Loved a Bird
Paul Simon (arr. Colin Jacobsen): American Tune
Of her new violin concerto, Bielawa writes, “This concerto was conceived as a way of keeping my finger on the pulse of American life during a period of seismic change and self-examination. Composed over a six-month period starting just before the 2024 presidential election, it is also informed by my immersion during this time in our sentimental history as told through our traditional musics. Tessa Lark’s artistry draws from multiple musical traditions, from Old-time to jazz to the classical avant-garde. I have had the enviable opportunity to hear Tessa play in the Smoky Mountains with Appalachian traditional musicians, at the Blue Note in midtown Manhattan, and on concert stages in concertos and chamber music both new and old.”
Lark, for whom Bielawa wrote this concerto, is one of the most captivating artistic voices of our time, consistently praised by critics and audiences for her astounding range of sounds, technical agility, and musical elegance. Increasingly in demand in the classical realm, in 2020 she was nominated for a GRAMMY in the Best Classical Instrumental Solo category. She is also a highly acclaimed fiddler in the tradition of her native Kentucky, delighting audiences with programming that includes Appalachian and bluegrass music and inspiring composers to write for her.
PULSE was co-commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation, Library of Congress; Boston Modern Orchestra Project; and Louisville Orchestra; with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Santa Fe Pro Musica. Support has also been provided by James Rosenfield, Justus Schlichting, Kari and Jon Ullman, New Music USA's Amplifying Voices Program, and the Loghaven Artist Residency.
In addition to PULSE, Lisa Bielawa’s 2025-2026 season features more bold programming, new collaborations, and world premieres of several new works. Knoxville Broadcast, a new installment in Bielawa’s Broadcast series, 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. On February 26, 2026, Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York presented a Composer Portrait concert dedicated exclusively to Bielawa’s music, including the world premiere of Balloon Variations, a new work, all performed by Contemporaneous led by David Bloom, with Bielawa singing. She is currently at work on her Guggenheim Fellowship project, a hybrid film and live action opera called La Ballonniste or Balloon: A Hot Air Opera – a heartfelt comedy centering on 18th century French opera singer Élisabeth Tible, the first woman to fly in a hot air balloon. Bielawa is also a Howard Hanson Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music for this academic year. Her next “spatial symphony,” Rochester Broadcast, will be performed outdoors at Parcel 5 in Rochester on April 18, 2026.
Bielawa and The Knights have a long running collaborative relationship of more than 15 years, including performing and recording of her work Chance Encounter with soprano Susan Narucki, who co-conceived the work with Bielawa. The Knights also co-commissioned Bielawa’s Tempelhof Etude (2011) and premiered the work at the Naumburg Bandshell in June 2011. In 2016, The Knights commissioned Bielawa’s My Outstretched Hand, a full choral-orchestral work, which they premiered at Jazz at Lincoln Center as part of the NY Phil Biennial. In 2019, The Knights commissioned an orchestral arrangement of Bielawa’s chamber work, Fictional Migrations, which they also premiered presented by Naumburg Orchestral Concerts in June 2019.
Lisa Bielawa is a Guggenheim Fellow and Rome Prize winner who takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. She has received awards and fellowships from the Koussevitzky Foundation, American Academy of Arts & Letters, OPERA America, American Antiquarian Society, Loghaven Artist Residency, and was part of the inaugural Louisville Orchestra’s Creators Corps. She received a Los Angeles Area Emmy nomination for her unprecedented, made-for-TV-and-online opera Vireo: The Spiritual Biography of a Witch's Accuser. Bielawa’s music has been premiered at the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, SHIFT Festival, National Cathedral, Rouen Opera, MAXXI Museum in Rome, and Helsinki Music Center, among others. Orchestras that have championed her music include The Knights, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, ROCO, and the Orlando Philharmonic. Premieres of her work have been commissioned and presented by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Rider, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Radio France, Yerevan Concert Hall in Armenia, the Venice Architectural Biennale, American Music Week in Salzburg, the INFANT Festival in Novi Sad, Serbia, and more. Bielawa consistently incorporates 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. During the pandemic, Bielawa cultivated a virtual community using submitted testimonies and recorded voices from six continents through her work Broadcast from Home, now archived by the Library of Congress.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Composer Lisa Bielawa’s new violin concerto, PULSE, will have its New York premiere performed by GRAMMY®-nominated orchestral collective The Knights, Conducted by co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen, with violin soloist Tessa Lark, on Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. The free concert is part of the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts. The program will also include Rhapsody on being Giant Proof by Christina Courtin, Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber, The Mountain that Loved a Bird by Caroline Shaw, and American Tune by Paul Simon (arr. Colin Jacobsen).
Concert details:
What: PULSE - a new violin concerto by Lisa Bielawa - New York Premiere
Who: The Knights, conducted by Co-Artistic Director Eric Jacobsen, with Violin Soloist Tessa Lark
When: Tuesday, June 23, 2026 at 7:30pm
Where: Naumburg Bandshell, on the Concert Ground, Central Park (72nd St, mid-park)
Free and Open to the Public
More information: https://naumburgconcerts.org/upcoming/theknights
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces: 24 – New Album on Sony Masterworks
Oct. 2: Classical Soul Pianist Alexis Ffrench Announces: 24 – New Album on Sony Masterworks
Alexis Ffrench Announces: 24
New Album on Sony Masterworks
Debut Single: Good Morning
Out Now - Listen Here
Available October 2, 2026 | Pre-Save Here
Pioneering pianist, composer, and chart-topping Classical Soul artist Alexis Ffrench announces his brand-new album 24, set for release on October 2, 2026, via Sony Music Masterworks. The new album is available for pre-save here. Accompanying the new album's announcement is the release of Ffrench's debut single, Good Morning, which is out now - listen here.
Formed of 24 meticulously crafted piano pieces and intended as a musical companion to the clockwork regularity of everyday life, 24 reveals as an intimate and immersive snapshot of a singular day. See full track listing below.
Gently guiding listeners from dawn to dusk - through the quiet of early morning into the busy heart of day and on to the evening’s golden hour – 24 is woven from daydreams, memories of human connection and the desire for authenticity amongst an ever-evolving and increasingly simulated digital age.
Made at legendary Provençal studio Miraval, owned by Brad Pitt and Damien Quintard, Ffrench recorded 24 during ten days of near-total immersion on an array of vintage grand pianos, upright pianos, and organs. Adding delicate ripples of percussion to the record’s kaleidoscopic sound, 24 also enlists a string ensemble featuring harp and upright bass.
Inspired in part by the many messages Ffrench has received from listeners throughout his career, 24 finds Ffrench reflecting on what his music means to those who find solace in it and the cherished moments it has served to soundtrack. He explains: “I wanted this album to reflect the everyday miracles in people’s lives.”
Throughout his career, Ffrench has asked one question above all others: “What do my listeners need from me?” Now, with 24, the answer is both simple and profound: music to live by.
Arriving as an instant warm embrace and a simple promise of things to come, new single “Good Morning” opens a window to the new world Ffrench has built. An invitation to greet the day, whatever it might bring, the piece was inspired by a close friend’s routine of articulating out loud the things he is grateful for. Carrying with it that same spirit of thankfulness in the face of the everyday, Ffrench describes “Good Morning” as “a burst of positivity at the start of the day.”
One of the world’s most exciting artists, Alexis Ffrench has played a pivotal role in bringing instrumental music to an ever-increasing audience. His accolades speak for themselves, with well over 1 billion streams across his catalogue, multiple No.1 albums, and RIAA Gold in the USA for his single “Bluebird.”
Whether he’s performing at the King’s Coronation Concert to an audience of over 18 million, hosting his ARIA Award-winning Apple Music show Classical Connections, performing at major festivals and selling out venues worldwide, hosting with schools & charitable organisations, or putting his own spin on contemporary pop hits for his enthusiastic social media audience, Alexis is driven by the desire to make music accessible to all.
Refusing to be pinned by genre, time period or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be, and rather than leaning into the traditional understanding of the ‘classical’ genre, Alexis instead leans outward– with his expansive perspective drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes his listeners by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
With the new album acting as a timelessly enchanting musical journey through the various possibilities held within one singular day, 24 is the first studio album from Alexis Ffrench since 2024’s Classical Soul Vol. 1 – welcoming in a contemplative and captivating new dawn for the forerunner of contemporary classical music.
Alexis Ffrench - New Album 24 Out October 2, 2026
Listen to Good Morning & Pre-Save Here
24 TRACKLISTING
1. Good Morning
2. Where The Sunrise Finds Me
3. Blackbird Rising
4. Coffee Song
5. Lifted
6. A Moment Of Calm
7. Daydreamer
8. A Friend In You
9. In Flight
10. This Life, This Moment
11. Passing Time
12. Stolen Whispers
13. My Life, In Motion
14. Grateful
15. Nightfall
16. Blackbird Returning
17. Nine On Blue
18. City Lights
19. Golden Hours
20. Midnight Dreamer
21. Coffee Dreams (Reprise)
22. Low
23. Dreaming In Slow Motion
24. Before The World Sings
About Alexis Ffrench
Alexis Ffrench is an artist with a special ability to create music for the soul. A pioneering superstar and trailblazer of ‘Classical Soul’, Alexis’ sound refuses to be penned in by genre, time period, or the expectations of the kind of musician he should be. Rather than leaning into the narrow, traditional understandings of ‘classical’, Alexis instead leans outward, expansive in his perspective, drawing on a multifarious mosaic of influences that takes the listener by the hand and leads them on a journey through a world of possibility.
Alexis’ accolades speak for themselves, as he has surpassed a staggering 1 billion streams across his catalogue, his record Evolution and his single ‘Bluebird’ achieved RIAA Gold status in the US.
A passionate advocate for music education, Alexis is the first-ever Artistic Director of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) in its 133-year history. He is also Trustee and Governing Body Member and Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, London, and Honorary Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge. Alexis is an Ambassador for Restore The Music, who work with state schools to provide funding to buy musical instruments and ensure every young person has access to music.
Alexis Ffrench Socials
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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/.
June 19: Violinist Mark Kaplan and Pianist David Kaplan Release Father-Son Album on Orchid Classics – Featuring the Brahms Sonatas
June 19: Violinist Mark Kaplan and Pianist David Kaplan Release Father-Son Album on Orchid Classics – Featuring the Brahms Sonatas
Violinist Mark Kaplan and Pianist David Kaplan
Release Father-Son Album via Orchid Classics on June 19
Featuring the Brahms Sonatas
Release Date (Worldwide): June 19, 2026
Pre-Save Here
CDs or press downloads available upon request.
davidkaplanpiano.com | markkaplanviolin.com | orchidclassics.com
Violinist Mark Kaplan and pianist David Kaplan release their first album together, a recording of the Brahms Violin Sonatas (Nos. 1-3), on June 19, 2026 via Orchid Classics. This album highlights Mark and David Kaplan’s years of shared connection as musicians, and as father and son, through their joint exploration of three violin sonatas by Brahms.
A soloist of international distinction, violinist Mark Kaplan has performed with nearly every American, European and Australian orchestra, collaborating with many of the world's great conductors, from Ormandy to Salonen. His multi-decade career has been equally dedicated to chamber music, and he has built a discography encompassing everything from Sarasate to Beethoven to Nono, as well as two complete recordings of Bach’s solo violin works. David Kaplan is a New York-born piano soloist and chamber musician, widely acclaimed for recital programs artfully connecting new and old music. He has performed concerti at London’s Barbican, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and with the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Hawaii, and San Antonio. His recording of Valerie Coleman’s Revelry was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY, and his 2024 solo debut, New Dances of the League of David, was lauded by The Financial Times, Gramophone, Fanfare, and more.
In their own unique way, the Kaplans represent a familiar story of musical lineage, with three generations of professional and amateur musicians charting their own paths. Brothers David and Edwin followed in the footsteps of their parents (who met as teenagers studying with Dorothy DeLay) and grew into their own musical success, with David embracing the piano and his brother becoming the violist of the award-winning Tesla Quartet and Duo Kayo. Chamber music, more than most other family pastimes and bonding experiences, was interwoven into the Kaplan family's everyday life –– particularly for Mark and David who have performed together in various settings over the years.
Mark and David come together in this recording as individuals with their own artistic voices, matching the equality of the roles of violin and piano in these Sonatas. Brahms lets both instruments share the responsibility of conveying the multifaceted emotions and expressions, giving these works a deeper sense of partnership quite fitting for this familial endeavor.
David writes in the liner notes for the album, “In Mozart the violin often accompanies the piano; in Franck the piano mostly accompanies the violin; but in Brahms neither instrument accompanies for more than a few bars. He treats the violin and piano as co-equal actors, each representing diverse voices and characters, engaged in multifaceted conversations, moods, and worlds.”
While any recording in some sense represents a culmination, for David and Mark Kaplan, this recording also represents a beginning. David says, “We hope you hear these performances as if entering into the middle of a decades-long conversation.”
For more information on each of the works, read the album’s liner notes here.
About Mark Kaplan:
A soloist of international distinction, violinist Mark Kaplan has performed with nearly every American, European and Australian orchestra, and with many of the world’s great conductors, including Ormandy, Rattle, Maazel, Masur, Dutoit, Salonen, Semkov, Skrowaczewski, and Tennstedt. He has made highly acclaimed concerto and recital appearances in all the musical centers of America and Europe, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, China and Singapore. Kaplan is also devoted to chamber music, appearing
with pianist Yael Weiss and cellist Peter Stumpf as the Weiss-Kaplan-Stumpf Trio, with recordings and concert tours world-wide. Prior to that he performed and recorded extensively for two decades in the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio with cellist Colin Carr and the late pianist David Golub. Especially known for interpretations of 20-21st century works and the great German classics, his extensive discography of over 45 commercial CDs includes concerti, solo and chamber works from Paganini, Bartok, Berg, Sarasate and Nono to Schubert, Brahms and Schumann, as well as two complete recordings of Bach’s solo violin works. Since 2005 he has been Professor of Violin at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, following a decade as Professor at UCLA. Kaplan is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy DeLay.
About David Kaplan:
David Kaplan is a New York-born piano soloist and chamber musician, widely acclaimed for recital programs artfully connecting new and old music. He has performed concerti at London’s Barbican, Berlin’s Philharmonie, and with the Symphony Orchestras of Baltimore, Hawaii, and San Antonio. His recording of Valerie Coleman’s “Revelry” was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY, and his 2024 solo debut, New Dances of the League of David, was lauded by Financial Times, Gramophone, Fanfare, and more. His solo recitals have brought him to the Ravinia Festival, Strathmore, Washington’s National Gallery, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls. Kaplan is a passionate advocate for contemporary American composers – he has commissioned new works from Timo Andres, Christopher Cerrone, Anthony Cheung, Donnacha Dennehy, Caroline Shaw, Augusta Read Thomas, and many others. Kaplan’s numerous collaborators include Tessa Lark, Colin Carr, and the Ariel, Attacca, Formosa, and Tesla String Quartets. He has performed at La Jolla SummerFest, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and is a founding member of Decoda, the affiliate ensemble of Carnegie Hall. Kaplan is the Associate Professor and Inaugural Shapiro Family Chair in Piano Performance at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where he has taught since 2016. Kaplan’s teachers included Claude Frank and Walter Ponce. Away from the keyboard, he loves cartooning and cooking, and is mildly obsessed with classic cars.
Brahms: The Violin Sonatas
Orchid Classics
Release Date (Worldwide): June 19, 2026
Mark Kaplan, Violin
David Kaplan, Piano
Track List:
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
1. I Vivace ma non troppo [10:39]
2. II Adagio [7:59]
3. III Allegro molto moderato [8:55]
Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
4. I Allegro amabile [8:27]
5. II Andante tranquillo – Vivace [6:18]
6. III Allegretto grazioso (quasi andante) [5:27]
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
7. I Allegro [7:46]
8. II Adagio [4:36]
9. III Un poco presto e con sentimento [3:03]
10. IV Presto agitato [5:47]
Total Time [69:01]
Producer, Engineer, and Editor: Eric Silberger
Mixing and Mastering: Silas Brown
Assistant engineer: Aidan McLain
Piano tuner: Sean McLaughlin
Photography: Dario Acosta
Bösendorfer 280VC kindly provided by Yamaha Artist Services
Recorded at the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center, UCLA Herb Alpert School of
Music, Los Angeles, CA on June 14-16, 2024
OUT TODAY: Composer Robert Sirota Releases Tribute to Manhattan – World Premiere Recording of 212: Symphony No. 1 on Azica
OUT TODAY: Composer Robert Sirota Releases Tribute to Manhattan – World Premiere Recording of 212: Symphony No. 1 on Azica
Composer Robert Sirota Releases 212: Symphony No. 1 on April 17
on Azica Records
World Premiere Recording of Sirota’s Symphonic Work
Performed by Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra
Conducted by George Manahan
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“[Robert] Sirota’s compositional voice has a distinctive tartness and rhythmic bite.”
– Anthony Tomassini, The New York Times
Robert Sirota | Manhattan School of Music | Azica Records
The world premiere recording of composer Robert Sirota’s 212: Symphony No. 1 will be released on April 17, 2026. The tenth album featuring Sirota’s music, and his first for Azica Records, 212: Symphony No. 1 is performed by Manhattan School of Music’s Symphony Orchestra led by celebrated conductor George Manahan. Over five decades, Robert Sirota has developed a distinctive voice, clearly discernible in all of his work – whether symphonic, choral, stage, or chamber music. Writing in the Portland Press Herald, Allan Kozinn asserts: “Sirota’s musical language is personal and undogmatic, in the sense that instead of aligning himself with any of the competing contemporary styles, he follows his own internal musical compass.”
Robert Sirota composed 212: Symphony No. 1 in 2007. Of the work’s world premiere, Anthony Tomassini wrote in The New York Times, “Although the overall musical language of this score recalls the American neo-classicists, Mr. Sirota’s compositional voice has a distinctive tartness and rhythmic bite. Thick, astringent chromatic harmonies come in tightly bound chords to create nervous sonorities. Yet the textures are always lucid; details come through.”
Named after the iconic area code, the work is lovingly dedicated to the memory of Sirota’s father, Harry Sirota, whom Robert describes as, “a truly great New Yorker.”
When starting work on the piece, Sirota came to the realization that writing music inspired by the borough of Manhattan required an extended, multi-movement work as the chosen musical form. He states in his program note that “nothing less” would suffice, going on to write, “In framing the four movements of this 25-minute work, I have tried to portray Manhattan as I have experienced it: a place of incomparable majesty, vitality, tragedy, and hope.”
Over the work’s four movements, Sirota takes listeners on a journey through the borough – the approach to Manhattan’s iconic skyline (“Approaches”); the sound and unique energy of the subway (“Do Not Hold Doors”); grief for the tragedy of September 11 (“Lamentation”); and finally, concluding with a hopeful hymn for the city (“O Manhattan”).
Robert Sirota’s works have been performed by orchestras across the US and Europe; ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sequitur, yMusic, Chameleon Arts, and Dinosaur Annex; the Chiara, American, Telegraph, and Blair String Quartets; the Neave, Peabody, Concord, and Webster Trios; and at festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Cooperstown music festivals; Bowdoin Gamper and Bowdoin International Music Festival; and Mizzou International Composers Festival. Commissions for Sirota@70 in honor of his 70th birthday included works for Thomas Pellaton, Carol Wincenc, Linda Chesis & the Cooperstown Summer Music Festival, and Sierra Chamber Society.
Additional recent commissions include the music for Rising, an evening-length dance collaboration with choreographer Gabrielle Lamb, Pigeonwing Dance, and the Neave Trio; A Migrant’s Dream, a choral work commissioned by Judith Clurman for Essential Voices USA; Sirota’s third string quartet, Wave Upon Wave for the Naumburg Foundation; his fourth string quartet Contrapassos for the Sierra Chamber Society, Immigrant Songs for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine; Luminous Bodies performed by Jeffrey Kahane and yMusic at the Sarasota Music Festival; Hafez Songs for Palladium Musicum; O Blessed Holy Trinity for choir and organ, for Trinity Episcopal Church, Indianapolis; and his Cello Sonata No. 2, for Benjamin Larsen and Hyungjin Choi. Sirota’s arrangements of songs for Paul Simon and yMusic were performed on Simon’s farewell tour, including an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Sirota is a recipient of grants from the Guggenheim and Watson Foundations, United States Information Agency, National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and the American Music Center. His works are recorded on Navona Records, Legacy Recordings, National Sawdust Tracks, and the Capstone, Albany, New Voice, Gasparo and Crystal labels. His music is published by Muzzy Ridge Music, Hal Leonard, MorningStar, Theodore Presser, and To the Fore.
Before becoming Director of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in 1995, Sirota served as Chairman of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University and Director of Boston University's School of Music. From 2005-2012, he was the President of Manhattan School of Music, where he was also a member of the School’s composition faculty.
A native New Yorker, Sirota studied at Juilliard, Oberlin, and Harvard and divides his time between New York and Searsmont, Maine with his wife, Episcopal priest and organist Victoria Sirota. They frequently collaborate on new works, with Victoria as librettist and performer, at times also working with their children, Jonah and Nadia, both world-class violists.
George Manahan has had an esteemed career embracing everything from opera to the concert stage, the traditional to the contemporary. In the 2025-26 season Manahan made his debut with the Sacramento Philharmonic. In the previous season he debuted at New Orleans Opera for Tosca and Opera Colorado for La Bohème and returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Die Fledermaus.
Manahan continues his commitment to working with young musicians as Director of Orchestral Activities at the Manhattan School of Music. He is the 2012 winner of the Ditson Conductor’s Award, established in 1945 by the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University. It is the oldest award honoring conductors for their support of American music. Previous recipients include James Levine, Christopher Keene, Leopold Stowkowsky, Leonard Bernstein, Eugene Ormandy, and Alan Gilbert. He has also served as Music Director of New York City Opera, Portland Opera, and American Composers’ Orchestra.
His many appearances on television include productions of La Bohème, Lizzie Borden, and Tosca on PBS. Live from Lincoln Center’s telecast of New York City Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly under his direction won a 2007 Emmy Award. George’s wide-ranging recording activities include the premiere recording of Steve Reich’s Tehillim for ECM; recordings of Edward Thomas’s Desire Under the Elms, which was nominated for a Grammy; Joe Jackson’s Will Power; and Tobias Picker’s Emmeline. His enthusiasm for contemporary music continues today; he has conducted numerous world premieres, including Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, Charles Wuorinen’s Haroun and the Sea of Stories, David Lang’s Modern Painters, Hans Werner Henze’s The English Cat, and Terence Blanchard’s Champion. As Music Director of the Richmond Symphony (VA) for twelve years, he was honored four times by the American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP) for his commitment to new music.
He received his formal musical training at the Manhattan School of Music, studying conducting with Anton Coppola and George Schick, and was appointed to the faculty of the school upon his graduation, at which time The Juilliard School awarded him a fellowship as Assistant Conductor with the American Opera Center. Manahan was chosen as the Exxon Arts Endowment Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony and he made his opera debut with the Santa Fe Opera, conducting the American premiere of Arnold Schoenberg’s Von Heute Auf Morgen.
212: Symphony No. 1 by Robert Sirota | Azica
George Manahan, Conductor | Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra
Release Date: April 17, 2026 (Worldwide)
212: Symphony No. 1
1. I: Approaches [6:25]
2. II: Do Not Hold Doors [3:31]
3. III: Lamentation [8:19]
4. IV: O Manhattan [7:28]
Total time [25:44]
Recorded live on October 17–18, 2024 at Neidorff – Karpati Hall, Manhattan School of Music
Produced by: Robert Sirota and Manhattan School of Music
Engineered and edited by: Dan Rorke, MSM Chief Recording Engineer, the Orto Center for Distance Learning and Recording Arts
Assistant Engineering by: Bryant Blackburn
Mastered by: Alan Bise
Graphic Design by: Monica Mussulin
June 14: GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn Presented by Music Mountain – Performing Works by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
June 14: GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn Presented by Music Mountain – Performing Works by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn by Grayson Dantzic available in high resolution here.
GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn
Presented by Music Mountain
Performing Music by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
From 2025 Album Complicité and Forthcoming Album Hourglass
Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 3pm
Gordon Hall, Music Mountain | 225 Music Mountain Road | Falls Village, CT
Tickets & Information
Complicité is Out Now on Supertrain Records
Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s New Philip Glass Album Hourglass Out June 5 on Naïve
Listen to First Single The Hours
Review downloads & CDs available upon request.
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Falls Village, CT – On Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 3pm, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein — described by The New Yorker as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance” — performs with Baroklyn, the string ensemble she founded and directs, in a concert presented by Music Mountain as part of their Summer Chamber Music Series at Gordon Hall (225 Music Mountain Road).
Simone Dinnerstein is well known for her distinctive musical voice and for her expressive performances of music by J.S. Bach. She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly personal. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
Dinnerstein and Baroklyn will be performing selections from their all-Bach album, Complicité, released last year on Supertrain Records. Works on the program include Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s arrangement of Bach’s chorale Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617; Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053; J.S. Bach: Der Leib war in der Erden, BWV 161 (arr. Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn); and In the Air, Philip Lasser’s recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String.
They will also perform Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours (arr. Michael Riesman), which is included on their forthcoming album Hourglass – Dinnerstein’s first album on naïve since signing with the label earlier this year, out on June 5, 2026. Hourglass features Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours as well his Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 1). The album is another milestone in Dinnerstein’s close artistic association with the renowned composer, who celebrates his 90th birthday in January 2027. The first single, The Hours, is out now –– listen here. Read the album press release here.
Dinnerstein sees a natural affinity between the music of Philip Glass and that of J.S. Bach in their deeply polyphonic visions, quest for the absolute independence of each line, and an abiding concern for the singing quality of musical phrases. She says, “When I think about the music of Philip Glass, I think about time. The music is intricate and polyphonic. It’s layered, with patterns that keep shifting in the subtlest of ways. Though the harmonies are clearly important in the musical narrative, Glass’s music is multi-linear in a way that evokes the music of Bach. It is music on the horizontal, as opposed to the vertical. If anything, it is circular music. . .”
Dinnerstein says of her group Baroklyn, “Baroklyn is a group of string players which I lead from the piano. We’re a community that shares the artistic vision that is most important to me, that music should be creative and new. Rehearsal is important to us, and I’ve been influenced by theater practice in which we listen to each other and pass musical ideas and phrases within the group. We rehearse and perform in a semi-circle around the piano and I rearrange parts to emphasize lines, voices and imitative qualities to create a sense of dialogue.” The ensemble’s name is a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, Dinnerstein’s home borough.
More about Simone Dinnerstein: Simone Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House.
Simone Dinnerstein’s first fourteen albums were recorded with GRAMMY Award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, and feature repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. From 2020 to 2022, she released a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic. A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020), featuring the music of Philip Glass and Schubert, was described by NPR as, “music that speaks to a sense of the world slowing down,” and by The New Yorker as, “a reminder that quiet can contain multitudes.” Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021), surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The final installment in the trilogy, Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music. Dinnerstein’s latest recording, Complicité (Supertrain Records, 2025), is her first all-Bach album in over ten years and features Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore along with the string ensemble Dinnerstein founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, her home New York borough). Recorded with producer Silas Brown, the album also includes composer Philip Lasser’s continuo realizations and recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String. Complicité reached over one million streams on Apple Music in its first two weeks after release.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. She released her live recording of the premiere in October 2024 on Supertrain Records to coincide with Ives’s 150th birthday. The Eye is the First Circle also marked Dinnerstein’s fourteenth and final recording produced with the late Adam Abeshouse. Dinnerstein premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs. The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who The New Yorker describes as an artist of “lean, knowing, and unpretentious elegance,” performs with Baroklyn (the string ensemble she founded and directs) in a concert presented by Music Mountain as part of their Summer Chamber Music Series. The concert will feature music by J.S. Bach and Philip Lasser from their album Complicité, as well as Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours from their album Hourglass, out on June 5.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Baroklyn
Presented by Music Mountain
What: Music by J.S. Bach and Philip Glass
When: Sunday, June 14, 2026 at 3pm
Where: Gordon Hall, 225 Music Mountain Road, Falls Village, CT 06031
Tickets and Information: https://musicmountain.org/
June 13: GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs Reflections at Rockport Chamber Music Festival – A Concert Shaped by Musical Interconnection
June 13: GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein Performs Reflections at Rockport Chamber Music Festival – A Concert Shaped by Musical Interconnection
GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Performs Reflections at Rockport Chamber Music Festival
A Concert Shaped by Musical Interconnection
Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 5pm
Shalin Liu Performance Center | 37 Main Street | Rockport, MA
Tickets and More Information
“an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity”
– The Washington Post
PLUS Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s New Philip Glass Album Hourglass Out June 5 on Naïve
Review downloads & CDs available upon request.
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Rockport, MA – GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” by The New York Times, performs on Saturday, June 13, 2026 at 5pm in a concert presented by Rockport Music as part of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival at Shalin Liu Performance Center (37 Main Street).
Dinnerstein –– who is celebrated for her Bach recordings –– will perform the music of J. S. Bach and other Baroque era-inspired selections in a program titled Reflections, which includes Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations On A Chorale By J.S. Bach (2002); “Gavotte et 6 Doubles” from Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin by Jean-Philippe Rameau (c. 1729-30); J. S. Bach’s Fifteen Sinfonias, BWV 787–801 (1720-23); and Encore From Tokyo (1978) by Keith Jarrett.
“I have titled this program Reflections, as I think that each work sounds unusual because of the way it is reflected against the music around it,” Dinnerstein says. “To enhance this quality, I play each half of the program (Rameau-Lasser and Bach-Jarrett) without pause between the pieces.”
Simone Dinnerstein has been playing Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach for over two decades –– including as part of The Berlin Concert, her 2008 album. Lasser takes the chorale from Cantata No. 101 in which, he says, “Bach chooses a particular melodic moment from the Lutheran hymn and infuses all the other voices of the Chorale with this unique sonority, with an almost maniacal insistence. In my Variations, I take on this mania to see how far one can go.”
Bach’s contemporary Rameau also composed a set of variations but on his own gavotte: “Gavotte et 6 doubles” from Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavecin. In his preface, Bach wrote that his Fifteen Sinfonias were, “An honest guide by which the amateurs of the keyboard – especially, however, those desirous of learning – are shown a clear way…to achieve a cantabile style in playing and at the same time acquire a strong foretaste of composition." Keith Jarrett’s Encore from Tokyo embraces the Baroque convention of a descending repeating bass line and builds a harmonically adventurous and wide-ranging improvisation around it.
Shortly before her concert in Rockport, on June 5, 2026, Dinnerstein releases Hourglass –– her first album on naïve since signing with the label earlier this year. The new recording features Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours and his Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 1). The album, recorded with Dinnerstein’s own ensemble Baroklyn, is another milestone in her close artistic association with the renowned composer, who celebrates his 90th birthday in January 2027. The first single, The Hours, is out now –– listen here. Read the album press release here.
Dinnerstein sees a natural affinity between the music of Philip Glass and that of J.S. Bach in their deeply polyphonic visions, quest for the absolute independence of each line, and an abiding concern for the singing quality of musical phrases. She says, “When I think about the music of Philip Glass, I think about time. The music is intricate and polyphonic. It’s layered, with patterns that keep shifting in the subtlest of ways. Though the harmonies are clearly important in the musical narrative, Glass’s music is multi-linear in a way that evokes the music of Bach. It is music on the horizontal, as opposed to the vertical. If anything, it is circular music. . .”
About Simone Dinnerstein: American pianist Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly personal. She has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House.
Simone Dinnerstein’s first fourteen albums were recorded with GRAMMY Award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse, and feature repertoire ranging from Couperin to Glass. From 2020 to 2022, she released a trilogy of albums recorded at her home in Brooklyn during the pandemic. A Character of Quiet (Orange Mountain Music, 2020), featuring the music of Philip Glass and Schubert, was described by NPR as, “music that speaks to a sense of the world slowing down,” and by The New Yorker as, “a reminder that quiet can contain multitudes.” Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic (Supertrain Records, 2021), surpassed two million streams on Apple Music and was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Instrumental Solo. The final installment in the trilogy, Undersong, was released in January 2022 on Orange Mountain Music. Dinnerstein’s latest recording, Complicité (Supertrain Records, 2025), is her first all-Bach album in over ten years and features Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore along with the string ensemble Dinnerstein founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, her home New York borough). Recorded with producer Silas Brown, the album also includes composer Philip Lasser’s continuo realizations and recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String. Complicité reached over one million streams on Apple Music in its first two weeks after release.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. She released her live recording of the premiere in October 2024 on Supertrain Records to coincide with Ives’s 150th birthday. The Eye is the First Circle also marked Dinnerstein’s fourteenth and final recording produced with the late Adam Abeshouse. Dinnerstein premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera. Dinnerstein has also created her own ensemble, Baroklyn, which she directs.
The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative. For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY-nominated® pianist Simone Dinnerstein, described as “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” by The New York Times, will perform a program of Baroque-era inspired works for a performance presented as part of the Rockport Chamber Music Festival. Her program, titled Reflections, will include J.S. Bach’s Fifteen Sinfonias (1720-23), Philip Lasser’s Twelve Variations on a Chorale by J.S. Bach (2002), Keith Jarrett’s Encore From Tokyo (1978), and Jean-Philippe Rameau’s “Gavotte et 6 Doubles” from Nouvelles Suites de Pieces de Clavecin (c. 1729-30).
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein
Presented by the Rockport Chamber Music Festival
What: Reflections – Music by J.S. Bach, Philip Lasser, Keith Jarrett, Jean-Philippe Rameau
When: Saturday, June 13 at 5pm
Where: Shalin Liu Performance Center, 37 Main Street Rockport, MA 01966
Tickets and information: https://rockportmusic.org/upcoming_shows/simone-dinnerstein/
OUT TOMORROW: Sono Luminus Releases SEMMELWEIS - A New Song Cycle by Raymond J. Lustig
OUT TOMORROW: Sono Luminus Releases SEMMELWEIS - A New Song Cycle by Raymond J. Lustig
Sono Luminus Releases SEMMELWEIS Tomorrow, April 17
A New Song Cycle
Music by Raymond J. Lustig and Words by Matthew Doherty
Featuring Charlotte Mundy, Raymond J. Lustig, and The Rhythm Method
Inspired by the Life of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis
Three Singles Available Now
Listen Here
"entrancing...surreally beautiful...ecstatic...rapturous" – The New York Times
"compelling beauty and eerie prescience" – The Washington Post
www.raylustig.com | www.sonoluminus.com
American composer Raymond J. Lustig releases his next album, a recording of his new song cycle SEMMELWEIS, on the Sono Luminus label on April 17, 2026. With words by Matthew Doherty and music by Lustig, the recording featuring soprano Charlotte Mundy, Raymond J. Lustig, and TheRhythm Method, plus violinist Leah Asher, cellist Meaghan Burke, bass clarinetist Chrystof Knoche, and double bassist Ranjit Prasad. Three singles from the album are available now.
The source material for Lustig’s compelling song cycle is the story of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, the 19th-century obstetrician who championed the practice of handwashing which is the foundation of today’s antiseptic procedures. Amidst a devastating epidemic in the 1840s, Dr. Semmelweis discovered that the deadly disease was being spread to healthy mothers by the unclean hands of their own doctors. Tragically, the medical community rebelled against his discovery. Semmelweis’s insight had a lot to do with watching the washing rituals of midwives. Their practices reflected ancient learned knowledge, and noticing their superior outcomes alerted Semmelweis that his doctors were skipping something of critical importance, with tragic results. An impatient and irascible man, speaking twenty years ahead of the germ theory of disease, and with news that would bring unbearable guilt to countless doctors, he found few ears open to considering his shocking hypothesis. They scoffed at his findings, rejected his theory, stripped him of his credentials, and he was subsequently driven into an asylum where he died alone. It was not until decades later that his discovery was validated and accepted.
Not surprisingly, Dr. Semmelweis had a resurgence of interest during the pandemic. He was even featured as the “Google Doodle” on March 20, 2020, described as being, “widely remembered as ‘the father of infection control,’ credited with revolutionizing not just obstetrics, but the medical field itself, informing generations beyond his own that handwashing is one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of diseases.”
For many years, composer Raymond Lustig has been intrigued and inspired by Dr. Semmelweis. He first conceived of a stage work around the doctor’s story in 2007. At the time, he was a graduate student in music, but he had spent several years doing biomedical research. After many iterations, the fully staged production of SEMMELWEIS came to fruition in 2018, when Lustig joined forces with writer Matthew Doherty and Hungarian director Martin Boross, and the world premiere performances were presented by Budapest Operetta Theatre and Bartók Plusz Opera Festival.
The song cycle recorded here derives from that production. “Our goal was to make a true studio album, rather than a capture of the stage work,” Lustig says. “I knew I wanted to work with Charlotte Mundy, whose voice has always been the ideal for me for this work. We then decided that, rather than try to build a choir of matching female voices, we would instead use only Charlotte’s voice, multiplied over itself, spread out in the stereo field, one unified voice totally surrounding and overwhelming. These female voices often represent a chorus of ghosts of the mothers he could not save (or ‘mother ghosts,’ as we call them), who haunt Dr. Semmelweis. Engineer and co-producer Maximilien Hein and I, as well as engineer Drew Schlingman, recorded with the musicians in my studio at Respirano on Hudson and at The Hit Factory in New York. The theatrical experience and private listening are very different. We knew we needed to rebuild the music from the ground up, reconsidering every detail, refining and elaborating, revising and revising, to get to the true emotional heart of the story as an auditory experience.”
The entire action of SEMMELWEIS may be seen as a reflection – a fever dream or death dream – of Ignaz Semmelweis’ inner psyche at his life’s end. Dr. Semmelweis re-experiences events from throughout his life, perhaps out of sequence, distorted, or unreliable, as if through a lens of a mind in turmoil.
“We envisioned it as a story made of glass that had fallen to the floor, smashed, and the shards lay there reflecting only segments of the meaning, but somehow, gazing upon all of them, letting them come back together in the mind, the meaning might be perceived,” explains Lustig. “Maybe, or maybe just partially, or maybe not at all.”
About Raymond J. Lustig: ASCAP-award-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Raymond Lustig’s music stretches boundaries to weave together his classical upbringing, his love of folk choral traditions, and indie rock. Having also taken a significant detour into the world of biomedical research, he continues to draw inspiration from nature and the sciences.
His critically acclaimed 2013 work Latency Canons—composed for an orchestra made up of musicians playing literally from around the globe via the internet—brought international attention to his music. Premiering seven years before the Covid pandemic at Carnegie Hall and simultaneously at sites worldwide, it pioneered remote music making as something accessible to traditional players and audiences.
Lustig has collaborated with cellist Joshua Roman, tenor Nicholas Phan, American Composers Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Metropolis Ensemble, Budapest Operetta Theater, the Bartok Plusz Opera Festival, the American Opera Project, pianist Blair McMillen, and classical guitar ensemble Duo Noire. He is currently working closely with Italian alternative rock artist Luigi Porto, with whom he co-leads the alternative rock band Manicburg, whose debut album premiered in 2024.
Lustig’s work has been honored with the Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP’s Rudolf Nassim Prize for his orchestral work UNSTUCK, the Aaron Copland Award from Copland House, the Juilliard Orchestra competition, the New Juilliard Ensemble competition.
ALBUM TRACK LISTING & CREDITS:
SEMMELWEIS
Music by Raymond Lustig
Words by Matthew Doherty
Raymond Lustig | Charlotte Mundy | The Rhythm Method
Sono Luminus
Release Date: April 17, 2026
1. What is the Day
2. Market Squares
3. Give Birth on the Earthworks
4. Best Idea
5. My Doctor's Hands
6. Never a Choice
7. Out in the Yard
8. Archaeology
9. Our Skin So Fair
10. As if Your Body Were a Cathedral
11. You Cannot Stay
12. My Dark Disgrace
13. Etiology
14. Eureka
15. I am the Experiment
16. Madness
17. Once a Candle
18. The Only One
19. Lullaby
20. Finale
Total Time: 65:28
Music by Raymond J. Lustig
Words by Matthew Doherty
Additional Latin words: Martin Boross, Diána Eszter Mátrai, Julia Jakubowska
Charlotte Mundy - voice of Woman and the Mother Ghosts
Raymond J. Lustig - voice of Semmelweis, piano, organ, accordion, music boxes
The Rhythm Method - string quartet
Leah Asher - violin
Meaghan Burke - cello
Ranjit Prasad - double bass
Chrystof Knoche - bass clarinet
Produced by Raymond J. Lustig and Maximilien Hein
Executive Produced by Raymond J. Lustig
Additional Production by Drew Schlingman (“Best Idea”, “Eureka”)
Recorded by Maximilien Hein and Drew Schlingman
Mixed by Maximilien Hein
Mastered by Daniel Shores
Recorded at The Hit Factory, NYC and Respirano on Hudson, NYC from 2023 to 2025
Assistant Engineer at The Hit Factory: Brendan O’Neill
Album Art by Alex Sopp
Graphic Design by Josh Frey
OUT TOMORROW: Jupiter String Quartet Releases Undreamed Shores – New Album on Orchid Classics
OUT TOMORROW: Jupiter String Quartet Releases Undreamed Shores – New Album on Orchid Classics
The Jupiter String Quartet Releases Undreamed Shores on April 17
Highly Anticipated New Album and Orchid Classics Debut
Coinciding with Earth Day 2026
Featuring the Music of Michi Wiancko, Stephen Andrew Taylor, and Kati Agócs
Rise Up by Michi Wiancko
New Single Out Today - Listen Here
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“Tonal refinement and precision” – The Strad
www.jupiterquartet.com | www.orchidclassics.com
On April 17, 2026, the Jupiter String Quartet releases Undreamed Shores, the ensemble’s ninth studio album and first on Orchid Classics. On Undreamed Shores, the Jupiter Quartet turns to old friends with new inspiration. The album features the world premiere recordings of new string quartets written for the Jupiter by composers who are also longtime friends of the ensemble — Michi Wiancko (To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores), Stephen Andrew Taylor (Chaconne/Labyrinth), and Kati Agócs (Imprimatur, String Quartet No. 2) — exploring themes including the climate crisis, the pandemic, memory, and re-imagination. This highly anticipated recording is the Jupiter’s final album with violinist Nelson Lee, who departed from the group’s lineup in September 2025, succeeded by violinist Mélanie Clapiès.
New single, Rise Up from To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores by Michi Wiancko, is out today - listen here.
The Jupiter writes of this project:
“We are excited to share these three wonderful works, which were written for us, all of which find space for hope and light in challenging times. Commissioning and programming new musical works has always been a core part of our mission and we believe these contemporary works are able to speak to our current times in unique ways. We have lived and performed these works dozens of times over the last decade, in concert halls, schools, symposia, and virtual spaces. We are delighted to now present them in one album. While each compositional voice represented on this album is distinct and original, the three quartets find common ground in their desire to reach for something that transcends our often difficult and fraught modern-day society. Each work offers space for us to consider our collective humanity.”
Of her piece, Michi Wiancko writes, “To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores is a multi-movement work for string quartet that celebrates the power of the natural world while carving out space to explore the notions of regeneration, hope, and wildness in relationship to ecological grief. Central to the piece is the idea of kinship and collective humanity, and the need to help protect each other and our most vulnerable places and populations.” Appropriately, the new album is being released in close proximity to Earth Day, April 22, 2026. To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores was commissioned jointly by the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (Urbana, IL) and Bay Chamber Concerts (Rockport, ME).
Stephen Andrew Taylor writes in his program notes for Chaconne/Labyrinth: “‘Chaconne’ is an old-fashioned word for a repeating chord progression, like the 12-bar blues. My chords are a little weirder, using just intonation to find notes that don’t exist on the piano keyboard. The quartet plays a chaconne, but at the same time they are lost in a labyrinth. The chords keep returning, only to point in new directions. This is how I felt during the pandemic: stuck in a loop, but at the same time lost in a maze, desperately seeking the way out. At the center of this maze, like the Minotaur of Greek myth, lies a depiction of the coronavirus that has so profoundly changed our world. After this encounter – marked by strange, percussive sounds – the quartet traces their way, like following Ariadne’s thread, back through the labyrinth.” Chaconne/Labyrinth was commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, sponsored by Drs. Margot and JD Garcia, and is dedicated to Harold Weaver and Cecile Weaver.
In her program notes, Kati Agócs writes, “Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) is a rhapsodic suite in five movements framed by an introduction and coda. A meditation on spiritual lightness that is celebratory in tone, the piece explores how a single idea imprints itself upon the memory through rapturous re-imagination. The movements flow into one another without pause to create a fifteen-minute trajectory. The opening chords and their answer, a rhapsodic melody, develop into tropes which re-appear transmuted, even sublimated throughout, embracing a dialectic of darkness and light. The work culminates in a serene quodlibet, merging the tropes. The word imprimatur, from Roman Catholic tradition, signifies approval to print a text – an affirmation or sanctioning. Most saliently, it can also mean a mark of distinction or an imprint.” Imprimatur (String Quartet #2) was commissioned jointly by the Aspen Music Festival and School (Robert Spano, Music Director); the Harvard Musical Association; and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts/University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign in honor of the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Jupiter String Quartet.
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 New Yorker states, “The Jupiter String Quartet, an ensemble of eloquent intensity, has matured into one of the mainstays of the American chamber-music scene.”
The 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, 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 discography includes numerous recordings on labels including Azica Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In fall 2024, the Jupiter Quartet recorded their new album with GRAMMY-winner 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. In 2021, the quartet recorded a collaborative album with the Jasper String Quartet (Marquis Classics), also produced by Judith Sherman. This 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 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.
Undreamed Shores | Jupiter Quartet | Orchid Classics
Release Date: April 17, 2026 (Worldwide)
Recorded September 9-11, 2024 in Foellinger Great Hall, Krannert Center, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Michi Wiancko
To Unpathed Waters, Undreamed Shores
1. I. Pelagic Within [5:20]
2. II. Dream of the Xerces Blue [2:58]
3. III. Central Park Microbial [1:48]
4. IV. Invisible Eviction [0:57]
5. V. Crying, Together [2:33]
6. VI. Follow the Water [2:38]
7. VII. Rise Up [4:16]
Stephen Andrew Taylor
8. Chaconne/Labyrinth [19:03]
Kati Agócs
9. Imprimatur (String Quartet No. 2) [15:15]
Recitative
I. Ostinato
II. Enraptured Troping
III. Meditation – Crystal Chains
IV. Wild Dance
V. Quodlibet
Coda
Total time [54:48]
Producer: Judith Sherman
Engineer: Graham Duncan
Editing assistant: Jeanne Velonis
Mastering: Jeanne Velonis and Judith Sherman
Cover Art: Black Sun by Hua Nian
Booklet photography: Todd Rosenberg
New Single Out Today: Simone Dinnerstein Releases Hourglass - All-Philip Glass Album - on Naïve on June 5
New Single Out Today: Simone Dinnerstein Releases Hourglass - All-Philip Glass Album - on Naïve on June 5
Simone Dinnerstein Makes Label Debut on Naïve in Hourglass with Baroklyn
Featuring Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours and Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Release Date: June 5, 2026
Pre-Save
Second Single – Tirol Concerto, I – Out Today
Listen Here
Review downloads & CDs available upon request.
“it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding” – The Washington Post
simonedinnerstein.com | naiverecords.com
April 16, 2026 — On June 5, 2026, GRAMMY-nominated American pianist Simone Dinnerstein, one of the most distinctive voices in classical music today, releases her first album on naïve since signing with the label earlier this year. Titled Hourglass, it features Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours and his Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 1). The album, recorded with Dinnerstein’s own ensemble Baroklyn, is another milestone in her close artistic association with the renowned composer, who celebrates his 90th birthday in January 2027. The second single, movement one of the Tirol Concerto, is out today.
Simone Dinnerstein first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly personal. This approach extends to all of the repertoire she performs, from Bach to Glass, with whom she has collaborated for over ten years. Glass wrote his Piano Concerto No. 3 for Dinnerstein in 2017, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras from across North America. She recorded and released it the following year on her acclaimed album Circles. NPR reported, “Dinnerstein's creamy tone and elastic phrasing gives the music an air of Schubertian warmth and wistfulness.”
Dinnerstein says, “In my reading of the works on this album with Baroklyn, we focused on the larger beats. Instead of lining up each single step, we wanted every voice to have its own ebb and flow, coinciding with other voices in certain larger pulse divisions. This allows us to hear the particular phrasing of the voices more independently, and brings out the strangeness in the music. The goal was to create a whole, but a whole made up of all the distinctive particularities of the individual lines and musicians.”
Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours (arranged by Michael Riesman) is a three-movement piano concerto taken from Glass’s film score for Stephen Daldry’s film The Hours starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore, and Meryl Streep, an adaptation of the novel by Michael Cunningham. The score received Golden Globe, GRAMMY, and Academy Award nominations, along with winning a British Academy Film Award in Film Music. It is a veritable manifesto of Glass’s expressive simplicity, in which layers and motifs are inconstant, subtly transform, and give rise to a richly wrought polyphonic universe. In this recording, Baroklyn’s expansive phrasing and serene assurance, and Dinnerstein’s intense sonority, combine to highlight the music’s almost Classical elegance, as if it were a newly discovered Mozart concerto.
Glass’s Tirol Concerto, composed in 2000, went unperformed in New York for more than 20 years until Dinnerstein’s performance of the work with the Brooklyn Orchestra and Olivier Glissant in November 2023. Two brief, fleeting movements in neo-Baroque vein enclose a broad elegy—music for an imagined film—threaded with numerous reminiscences of Glass’s Etudes for piano, which he began writing in 1994. Glass based the concerto on melody fragments of traditional Austrian Volkslied, or folk music, in the Tyrolean tradition. Dinnerstein says of the piece, “The second movement of the Tirol is what first drew me to it. Built almost as a set of variations, the sound is lush and pulsating, and its mood relates to his Symphony No. 3 for strings. I love the play between intense lyricism and a feeling of austerity, so reminiscent of Schubert’s writing.”
Dinnerstein recorded Hourglass with the ensemble that she founded and directs, Baroklyn (a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, her home New York borough). She describes the ensemble as “a community that shares the artistic vision that is most important to me, that music should be creative and new. We avoid ‘fixing’ our interpretations, to keep the music from becoming static. We have a plan, but are open to the moment. This way of making music is dependent upon listening, openness to change, and trust. It results in a feeling of togetherness.”
Dinnerstein sees a natural affinity between the music of Philip Glass and that of J.S. Bach in their deeply polyphonic visions, quest for the absolute independence of each line, and an abiding concern for the singing quality of musical phrases.
She says:
“When I think about the music of Philip Glass, I think about time. The music is intricate and polyphonic. It’s layered, with patterns that keep shifting in the subtlest of ways. Though the harmonies are clearly important in the musical narrative, Glass’s music is multi-linear in a way that evokes the music of Bach. It is music on the horizontal, as opposed to the vertical. If anything, it is circular music. . .
Glass’s music is famously known for its repetitions. Every repetition is a reaction to the one before and an anticipation of one to come. We hear differently because our hearing changes with each note—we carry the whole unfolding of the music with us as we listen. We hear it as a constant becoming, not as a set of musical facts. This is exactly why I don’t hear Glass’s music as mechanical. It makes me think about the hourglass rather than the factory clock. A clock divides time into discrete, measured steps, in a way that in many parts of contemporary life feels natural. In music we can feel a vestige of the unnaturalness of that relentless pulse, an unhuman rigidity. Like our experience of time, music sometimes seems to move faster, sometimes slower, sometimes chaotically, sometimes evenly. The hourglass, with its unsubdivided and embodied flow, is how I think of this music.”
Since her recording of the Goldberg Variations, in addition to establishing a busy performing career, Simone Dinnerstein has made fourteen albums—all of which have topped the Billboard classical charts. She has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Seoul Arts Center, and the Sydney Opera House.
About Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
Track List & Credits:
Hourglass
Release Date: June 5, 2026 | naïve
Music by Philip Glass | Simone Dinnerstein, director and piano | Baroklyn
Suite from The Hours (2002)
1. I [11:17]
2. II [8:59]
3. III [6:57]
Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 1) (2000)
4. Movement I [6:28]
5. Movement II [16:40]
6. Movement III [6:33]
Recording Producers: Silas Brown, Simone Dinnerstein
Sound Engineering: Silas Brown, Doron Schachter, Richie Clarke
Editing: Silas Brown, Simone Dinnerstein
Mixing and Mastering: Silas Brown (Legacy Sound)
Recorded at Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center, New York, NY, May 25-26, 2025
Summary: This album is the first release on naïve from American pianist Simone Dinnerstein, one of the most distinctive voices in classical music today. Recorded with Dinnerstein's own string ensemble, Baroklyn, it immerses listeners in the sound world of Philip Glass, continuing the GRAMMY-nominated pianist's close artistic association with renowned composer, and features his Suite from The Hours and Tirol Concerto.
Upcoming Performances:
March 21, 2026: Chandler Center for the Arts – Randolph, VT
March 27, 2026: University of Chicago – Chicago, IL
April 17, 2026: Carnegie Hall – New York, NY
April 25, 2026: St. Peter's Community Arts Academy – Geneva, NY
May 17, 2026: Sands Point Preserve Conservancy – Sands Point, NY
May 21, 2026: Concordia Chamber Players – Solebury, PA
May 27, 2026: Library of Congress – Washington, D.C.
June 9, 2026: Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, Central Park – New York, NY
June 13, 2026: Rockport Chamber Music Festival – Rockport, MA
June 14, 2026: Music Mountain Summer Festival – Falls Village, CT
June 25, 2026: Flagstaff Piano Festival – Flagstaff, AZ
June 30, 2026: Lyra Music – Beacon, NY
For details: www.simonedinnerstein.com/concerts-upcoming
OUT FRIDAY: Terra Infirma – New Album from GRAMMY®-Nominated Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis – World Premiere Recordings of Music by Reena Esmail
OUT FRIDAY: Terra Infirma – New Album from GRAMMY®-Nominated Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis – World Premiere Recordings of Music by Reena Esmail
GRAMMY®-Nominated Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis
Releases Terra Infirma on April 17 Just Before Earth Day 2026
World Premiere Recordings of Major New Works Composed by Reena Esmail
Featuring Vijay Gupta, Violin
Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra & Chorus
Conducted by Andrew Grams | Carter Smith, Choral Director
Watch the Trailer for The Terra Infirma Project
Release Dates: April 17 (digital), May 15 (CD) on Azica Records
Yolanda Kondonassis | Reena Esmail | Azica Records
On April 17, 2026, shortly before Earth Day, GRAMMY®-nominated harpist Yolanda Kondonassis releases her new album Terra Infirma on Azica Records. Terra Infirma, which will be released on CD on May 15, 2026, features world premiere recordings of major new works by acclaimed composer Reena Esmail, including the titular concerto for harp and percussion (both performed by Kondonassis) with orchestra, as well as Sandhiprakash for violin and harp, and Earth Speaks: Curiosity for chorus and solo harp. In addition to Kondonassis, the album includes violinist Vijay Gupta, the Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra and Chorus, conductor Andrew Grams, and choral director Carter Smith.
Each piece on the album concerns our relationship to the environment – an ongoing theme in both Kondonassis’s and Esmail’s work. Kondonassis’s most recent album is FIVE MINUTES for Earth from 2022, which features pieces (including one by Esmail) commissioned through her environmental awareness non-profit organization Earth at Heart. Esmail often uses her work as a composer and performer to support environmental advocacy, particularly with her compositions Earth Speaks and Malhaar: A Requiem for Water.
Esmail’s new harp and percussion concerto Terra Infirma was directly informed by the composer’s experience living in Los Angeles during the catastrophic fires of January 2025. Esmail, who is Indian-American, also drew on her extensive studies of Hindustani music in composing the piece. Her compositional voice is at once arresting, lyrical, haunting, and fierce. She writes in the liner notes, “Though the idea had been set in motion four years earlier, the timing of its creation was uncanny. I began writing this concerto in January 2025, a few days before wildfire ravaged my neighborhood of Altadena, CA. The material for immolation came to me as I walked the hills of Los Angeles while we were evacuated. The piece draws on the ancient Hindustani raags of Deepak, which evokes fire, and Megh, which extinguishes it through rain.” Kondonassis, known for “a range of colour that’s breathtaking,” (Gramophone), brings the work to life with colorful authenticity.
Terra Infirma reflects not only the environmental passion and advocacy of both artists, but also their inspiration to innovate and expand the concerto form. In this bold new work, with a title taken from a poem by Robert Walters (also commissioned by Kondonassis through Earth at Heart), the harp symbolizes the protagonist Earth, both fragile and powerful. The towering instrument is moved choreographically by Kondonassis across the stage as she journeys through various arrays of suspended percussion. Esmail describes the work as “part virtuoso concerto, part performance art, and part theater.”
Says Esmail, “Terra Infirma sits somewhere between a harp/percussion concerto and a monodrama – Yolanda leads us through the trajectory of a wildfire, starting with the eerie moments before the first spark, and ending with the hope of new growth. The work explores our human relationship to fire – a force that can be at once devastating and illuminating. It has been a dream to work so closely with Yolanda, who has reinvented the role of the harp over and over again throughout her career. We have built the DNA of this piece together over so many years – experimenting in percussion studios, mapping stage plots, pushing our imaginations to the limit. I am so excited to share this work with the world.”
Kondonassis says, “The personal and musical resonance that I feel with Reena has resulted in a work that’s deeply personal, uniquely colorful, and ground-breaking in so many ways. The harp is a highly visual instrument, and Terra Infirma utilizes that element to the fullest. In this work, the harp is actually a character in the musical drama onstage, and that gives me the chance to portray an enormous range of artistic emotion.”
Photos by Ryan Zimmerman available in high resolution here.
The album also includes Esmail’s works Sandhiprakash (originally written for solo cello in 2022, reimagined for violin and harp for this project) and Earth Speaks: Curiosity (originally written in 2014 for chorus and solo piano, revised for chorus and solo harp). Esmail writes, “Sandhiprakash, meaning ‘the joining of light’, is the term for a particular set of Hindustani raags that are performed at the moments of sunrise and sunset. This piece focuses on the sunrise raags, Bhairav, Ahir Bhairav and Vibhas. Quite different from the sonorities that evoke dawn in Western music, these melodies are darker and more mysterious.” Earth Speaks: Curiosity uses as its texts the list of stops that the rover Curiosity made on Mars in 2011 – many of them named from the places worldwide where the scientists involved conducted their research – as well as haikus which were submitted to an online competition to commemorate the launch.
The new album forms the heart of The Terra Infirma Project, a multi-year initiative of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, which boasts Kondonassis as an alumna (class of ‘82). In addition to the world premiere performances and recording of Esmail’s pieces, the project consists of a live multi-media concert video, the creation of a two-part documentary, and a year-long series of educational and residency activities at Interlochen Center for the Arts. The entire process, from initial workshops to the world-premiere and recording, has been captured by the award-winning film crew Fulvew Productions for the upcoming documentary to be released in August 2026. .
Of working with and mentoring the students at her alma mater during her residency at Interlochen, Kondonassis states, “Bringing Terra Infirma to life with my dear friend, Reena Esmail, was a gift in itself, but to do it at Interlochen – where many of my earliest and most important musical values were formed – was extraordinary. My time on campus suggested to me that maybe, just maybe, we actually can go home again when ‘home’ represents the genesis of our best selves. My time spent with the incredible Interlochen students assured me that the future of music is safe in the hands of these smart, curious, motivated young players. Even in our increasingly complex world, their ability to commit and collaborate with their whole hearts gives me hope. I find it enormously inspiring to be reminded that the training ground of great artists shouldn’t be considered an assembly line, but a magnificent garden – rich with seeds, buds, and blooms for which opportunity and mentorship are the sun and water.”
About Yolanda Kondonassis:
Yolanda Kondonassis enjoys a career as one of the world’s leading solo harpists. Hailed as “viscerally exciting” by TheChicago Tribune, she has performed around the globe as a concerto soloist and in recital, pushing the boundaries of what listeners expect of the harp. Since making her debut at age 18 with the New York Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, Kondonassis has appeared as soloist with countless major orchestras in the United States and abroad. Also a published author, speaker, professor of harp, and environmental activist, she weaves her many passions into a vibrant and multi-faceted career.
Praised by Gramophone for her “keen sense of dramatic timing and a range of colour that’s breathtaking,” Kondonassis has released over 25 commercial recordings and her music has been sold and downloaded by millions of listeners. She was nominated for a 2020 GRAMMY® Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo for her world premiere recording of Jennifer Higdon’s Harp Concerto (Azica). Her album of music by Takemitsu and Debussy, Air (Telarc), was also nominated for a GRAMMY® Award.
Committed to the advancement of new music, Kondonassis’ body of solo harp commissions includes works by Aaron Jay Kernis, Michael Daugherty, Reena Esmail, Chen Yi, Bright Sheng, Jennifer Higdon, Stephen Hartke, Takuma Itoh, Zhou Long, Donald Erb, and Arturo Sandoval, among numerous others. As an author, she has published several books to date, including The Composer’s Guide to Writing Well for the Modern Harp (Carl Fischer); On Playing the Harp (Carl Fischer); The Yolanda Kondonassis Collection (Carl Fischer); and The Earth Collection (Theodore Presser), a curated volume of newly-composed, earth-inspired works for solo harp.
Kondonassis’s first children’s book, Our House is Round: A Kid’s Book About Why Protecting Our Earth Matters, was released in 2012 by Skyhorse Publishing and praised as “the perfect children’s introduction to environmental issues” by The Environmental Defense Fund. The book was subsequently licensed by Scholastic Books and recently released in an updated paperback edition under the title, My Earth, My Home.
Kondonassis is currently Director of the Harp Department at The University of Michigan, after previously heading the harp departments at Oberlin Conservatory and the Cleveland Institute of Music for over 25 years. She has presented masterclasses around the world and is the founding director of The American Harp Institute. She attended Interlochen Arts Academy as a high school student and continued her studies at The Cleveland Institute of Music, where she received her BM and MM degrees in Harp Performance.
About Reena Esmail:
Reena Esmail’s music weaves together the traditions of Hindustani and Western classical music, drawing musicians from many perspectives into shared creative spaces. Esmail divides her attention evenly between orchestral, chamber and choral work. She has written commissions for ensembles including the Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Francisco Symphony and her music has featured on multiple Grammy-nominated albums, including The Singing Guitar by Conspirare, BRUITS by Imani Winds, and Healing Modes by Brooklyn Rider.
Many of her choral works are published by Oxford University Press, and her piece TaReKiTa has sold over 100,000 copies worldwide. Her life and music was profiled on Season 3 of the PBS Great Performances series Now Hear This, as well as Frame of Mind, a podcast from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Esmail was the Los Angeles Master Choral’s 2020-2025 Swan Family Artist in Residence, and was Seattle Symphony’s 2020-21 Composer-in-Residence. She has been in residence with Tanglewood Music Center (co-Curator – 2023), Spoleto Festival (Chamber Music Composer-in-Residence – 2024) and Marlboro Music Festival (2025 Composer in Residence).
Esmail holds degrees in composition from The Juilliard School (BM’05) and the Yale School of Music (MM’11, MMA’14, DMA’18). Her primary teachers have included Susan Botti, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, Christopher Rouse, and Samuel Adler. She received a Fulbright-Nehru grant to study Hindustani music in India. Her Hindustani music teachers include Srimati Lakshmi Shankar and Gaurav Mazumdar, and she currently studies and collaborates with Saili Oak. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Finding Common Ground: Uniting Practices in Hindustani and Western Art Musicians explores the methods and challenges of the collaborative process between Hindustani musicians and Western composers. Esmail resides in her hometown of Los Angeles, CA.
About the Featured Artists & Ensembles:
Vijay Gupta: vijaygupta.com
Andrew Grams:andrewgrams.com
Carter Smith: interlochen.org/person/carter-smith
About Earth at Heart: www.earthatheart.org
About Interlochen Center for the Arts:
The nonprofit Interlochen Center for the Arts is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the only organization in the world that brings together a 3,400 -plus-student summer camp program; a 570-plus-student fine arts boarding high school; a year-round source of expert online arts education for children, teens, and adults; opportunities for adults to engage in fulfilling artistic and creative programs; two 24-hour, listener-supported public radio services (classical music and news); more than 600 arts presentations annually by students, faculty, and world-renowned guest artists; a robust hospitality division that curates on-campus lodging, dining, and transportation services; and a global alumni base spanning nine decades, including leaders in the arts and all other endeavors. For information, visit interlochen.org.
About the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra:
A recipient of The American Prize, the Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra is recognized as one of America’s finest high school orchestras. Under the direction of Leslie B. Dunner, the orchestra performs an advanced repertoire encompassing symphonies, concertos, and contemporary works. The orchestra has appeared at Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall, Symphony Hall, the Kimmel Center, and the New World Center, and has premiered works by Wynton Marsalis, Reena Esmail, Ash Fure, and Hannah Lash, among many others. Deeply committed to interdisciplinary creation, the ensemble collaborates regularly with the six other artistic divisions within Interlochen Arts Academy, reflecting the institution’s belief in artistic connection and creative exploration across disciplines. Interlochen Arts Academy Orchestra alumni occupy positions in leading orchestras around the world, including principal positions with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and The Cleveland Orchestra, among others. For more information, visit interlochen.org/music/academy/music-ensembles.
Album Information:
Terra Infirma | Yolanda Kondonassis, Harp & Percussion | Azica Records
All Music Composed by Reena Esmail
Featuring Vijay Gupta, Violin | Interlochen Center for the Arts Orchestra & Chorus
Andrew Grams, Conductor | Carter Smith, Choral Director
Release Date: April 17, 2026 (Digital) | May 15, 2026 (CD) (Worldwide)
Terra Infirma: Concerto for Harp, Percussion, and Orchestra
1. i. bone-colored branches [2:30]
Broken rocks reflecting the sun. Waterless, the terraced vineyards
Have all turned brown. Her Eden disintegrates, a daily
Orchard of dead trees with bone-colored branches.
2. ii. immolation [3:30]
Immolation. The world’s trees snap into flame...
The world is burning.
3. iii. helium ember [5:25]
...a helium ember that pulleys up through a tightening sky.
4. iv. roaming the ghost forest [7:05]
...glowing in aftermath...Dante roaming the ghost forest,
A spectral coastline of damp embers, black ash and hissing smoke.
5. v. skeletal silhouette [2:41]
Only the skeletal remains of Manzanita bushes
Scratch the horizon, a torched past in eerie silhouette.
6. vi. swallowed [5:25]
...swallowed by fire...
Smoldering forests forge new deliriums.
7. vii. facing the flame [3:52]
But somewhere, at this very moment, the snow is melting as it should.
On a high mountain trail, a cool spring rushes out of a low stand of Alders.
This is where you kiss the ground, gather the soil in your hands,
Tend to the shelter of new life greening at the water’s edge...
8. Sandhiprakash for violin and harp [8:40]
Earth Speaks: Curiosity for SATB chorus and solo harp
9. I. Ethereal [7:01]
10. II. Remote. Icy [2:48]
11. III. Intimate, Serene [3:39]
Total Time: [52:44]
All World Premiere Recordings
Executive Producer: Yolanda Kondonassis
Producer: Alan Bise
Recording Engineers: Alan Bise and Michael Culler
Mixing Engineer: Alan Bise
Project Manager at Interlochen Center for the Arts: Eric Stomberg
Cover Photo: Adobe Stock
Concert Photography: Ryan Zimmerman
Designer: Anilda Carrasquillo, Cover to Cover Design
Recorded in Corson Auditorium at Interlochen Center for the Arts
May 27: GRAMMY-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein & Baroklyn Perform at the Library of Congress for 100th Anniversary of Concert Series
May 27: GRAMMY-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein & Baroklyn Perform at the Library of Congress for 100th Anniversary of Concert Series
Photo of Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn by Grayson Dantzic available in high resolution here.
GRAMMY®-Nominated Pianist Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn with Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and Oboist Katherine Needleman
Presented by Library of Congress
Performing Music from Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s Bach Album Complicité
Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Concerts from the Library of Congress
Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 8pm (reschedule from October 29, 2025)
Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium
10 1st Street SE | Washington D.C.
Tickets & Information
Complicité is Out Now on Supertrain Records
PLUS Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s New Philip Glass Album Hourglass Out June 5
Review downloads & CDs available upon request.
Simone Dinnerstein: www.simonedinnerstein.com
New York, NY – On Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 8pm, GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein – described by The New York Times as “colorful and idiosyncratic” – performs with Baroklyn, the string ensemble she founded and directs, in music from their 2025 Bach album Complicité. Presented by Library of Congress in the Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium (10 1st Street SE) Washington D.C., the concert also features mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano and oboist Katherine Needleman with Dinnerstein and Baroklyn. There will be a pre-concert conversation: Let the People Hear It: Concerts from the Library of Congress at 100, as well as a book talk with co-authors Nicholas A. Brown-Cáceres and David H. Plylar, PhD, at 6:30pm in the Whittall Pavilion.
Simone Dinnerstein is well known for her distinctive musical voice and for her expressive performances of music by J.S. Bach. She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, reflecting an aesthetic that was both deeply rooted in the score and profoundly idiosyncratic. She is, wrote The New York Times, “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation.”
This May 27 performance commemorates the centennial anniversary of Concerts from the Library of Congress, in the historic Coolidge Auditorium. In celebration of the milestone, Dinnerstein will begin the concert program performing a solo piano arrangement of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, the same chorale that opened the LOC’s concert series in October 1925, when it was performed on the organ. A special letter to organist Lynnwood Farnam (the first musician to play in the Coolidge Auditorium) describes an approach to programming that is very similar to Dinnerstein’s – thinking of a concert feeling like a "service" (as it's put in the letter), with one piece continuing into the next without applause. Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s performance thoughtfully connects the concert series’ past with the present.
The concert also features music from Complicité, including Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s arrangement of Bach’s chorale Herr Gott, nun schleuß den Himmel auf, BWV 617; Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in E Major, BWV 1053; J.S. Bach: Der Leib war in der Erden, BWV 161 (arr. Simone Dinnerstein and Baroklyn); Bach’s Cantata 170, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust with continuo realization by Philip Lasser; and In the Air, Lasser’s recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String.
Letter from the Library of Congress
written by Music Division Chief Carl Engel
The deeply felt recording has been warmly-received by listeners – Complicité has already been streamed over 1 million times. Gramophone describes Dinnerstein’s performance as “full of life, engagement and detail.” Of the new album, Textura writes: “Not only are the performances terrific, the music impresses for being more than faithful replications of existing scores but instead arresting re-imaginings that take Bach's pieces into dynamic new realms.” Read the album press release here and listen here.
Dinnerstein says of her group Baroklyn, “Baroklyn is a group of string players which I lead from the piano. We’re a community that shares the artistic vision that is most important to me, that music should be creative and new. Rehearsal is important to us, and I’ve been influenced by theater practice in which we listen to each other and pass musical ideas and phrases within the group. We rehearse and perform in a semi-circle around the piano and I rearrange parts to emphasize lines, voices and imitative qualities to create a sense of dialogue.” The ensemble’s name is a portmanteau of Baroque and Brooklyn, Dinnerstein’s home borough.
On June 5, 2026, shortly after this performance at the Library of Congress, Dinnerstein releases her next album with Baroklyn, Hourglass –– her first album on naïve since signing with the label earlier this year. The new recording features Philip Glass’s Suite from The Hours and his Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Piano Concerto No. 1) and is another milestone in her close artistic association with the renowned composer, who celebrates his 90th birthday in January 2027. The first single, The Hours, is out now –– listen here. Read the album press release here.
More about Simone Dinnerstein: Dinnerstein has played with orchestras ranging from the New York Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony Orchestra to the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Rai. She has performed in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, Seoul Arts Center and Sydney Opera House. She has made fifteen albums, all of which have topped the Billboard classical charts. Her first fourteen albums were recorded with Grammy Award-winning producer Adam Abeshouse. During the pandemic she recorded three albums which form a trilogy: A Character of Quiet, An American Mosaic, and Undersong. An American Mosaic was nominated for a Grammy. Complicité (Supertrain Records, 2025) features Dinnerstein with Jennifer Johnson Cano, mezzo-soprano and Peggy Pearson, oboe d’amore along with Baroklyn. Recorded with producer Silas Brown, the album also includes composer Philip Lasser’s continuo realizations and recomposition of Bach’s Air on the G String.
In recent years, Dinnerstein has created projects that express her broad musical interests. She gave the world premiere of The Eye Is the First Circle at Montclair State University, the first multi-media production she conceived, created, and directed, which uses as source materials her father Simon Dinnerstein’s painting The Fulbright Triptych and Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata. She premiered Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, a tribute to those affected by the pandemic, in a performance on multiple pianos throughout Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery. Following her recording, Mozart in Havana, she brought the Havana Lyceum Orchestra from Cuba to the U.S. for the first time, performing eleven concerts. Philip Glass composed his Piano Concerto No. 3 for her, co-commissioned by twelve orchestras. Working with Renée Fleming and the Emerson String Quartet, she premiered André Previn and Tom Stoppard’s Penelope at the Tanglewood, Ravinia and Aspen music festivals, and performed it at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and presented by LA Opera and the Cleveland Orchestra.
The Washington Post comments, “it is Dinnerstein’s unreserved identification with every note she plays that makes her performance so spellbinding.” In a world where music is everywhere, she hopes that it can still be transformative.
For more information, please visit www.simonedinnerstein.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: GRAMMY®-nominated pianist Simone Dinnerstein, is presented in concert with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, oboist Katherine Needleman, and Baroklyn – the string ensemble Dinnerstein founded and directs – by the Library of Congress. The performance will open with an arrangement of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, the same chorale that opened the Library of Congress’s concert series in October 1925, commemorating the centennial anniversary of the series. The program will also feature music by J.S. Bach and Philip Lasser from Complicité, Dinnerstein and Baroklyn’s 2025 Bach album.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Simone Dinnerstein with Baroklyn, Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano, and Oboist Katherine Needleman
Presented by the Library of Congress
What: Music from Dinnerstein’s Bach album Complicité and an arrangement of Allein Gott in der Höh sei Ehr, celebrating the centennial anniversary of the LOC’s Concert Series
When: Wednesday, May 27, 2026 at 8pm
Where: Thomas Jefferson Building - Coolidge Auditorium (LJG45E), 10 1st Street SE, Washington, DC 20540
Tickets and Information: https://www.loc.gov/item/event-417408/simone-dinnerstein-jennifer-johnson-cano-katherine-needleman-and-baroklyn/2026-05-27/
June 5: Pianist Charlotte Hu Announces New PENTATONE Album Featuring Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite
June 5: Pianist Charlotte Hu Announces New PENTATONE Album Featuring Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite
Pianist Charlotte Hu Announces New PENTATONE Album
Featuring Enrique Granados’ Goyescas Suite
“Hu lends her dazzling technique to Goyescas” – WRTI
Release Date (Worldwide): June 5, 2026
CDs or press downloads available upon request.
www.charlottehu.com | www.pentatonemusic.com
Pianist Charlotte Hu announces Goyescas, her second album on PENTATONE, which will be released on June 5, 2026. Following the release of her 2024 PENTATONE debut, Liszt: Metamorphosis, Hu now turns her attention to Spanish and Catalan composer and pianist, Enrique Granados (July 27, 1867–March 24, 1916) and his iconic piano suite, Goyescas: Los majos enamorados (The Gallants in Love). The recording also highlights two Spanish Dances by Granados, No. 2, “Oriental” and No. 5, “Andaluza.”
“Recording this album has been a journey of deep engagement with a composer whose music continues to reveal new dimensions with each encounter,” Charlotte Hu says. “My first encounter with Granados’ Goyescas came during my years as a student at Juilliard. I was immediately captivated by the vivid world Granados had created on the keyboard. What struck me most was not simply the technical brilliance of the writing, but rather the poetry embedded within — the nuanced characters, the narrative arc that unfolds across the entire suite, the distinctly Spanish flavors interwoven with profound emotional depth, and the virtuosity that never overshadows the music’s intimate storytelling. Here was a masterwork that seemed to contain entire worlds: passion, tenderness, humor, shadow, and light all coexisting within its six movements. That fascination never left me. Years later, I decided that I wanted to explore this work in its complete form, to understand every layer of Granados’ genius. It is my hope that this recording will help bring Goyescas back into concert halls, where this beautiful masterwork deserves to be heard far more often than it currently is.”
Described as a “first-class talent” (Philadelphia Inquirer) possessing a “superstar quality — musical, energetic, and full of flair” (Jerusalem Post), Taiwanese-American pianist Charlotte Hu has been praised by audiences and critics across the globe for her dazzling virtuosity, captivating musicianship, and magnetic stage presence.
As a soloist, Hu has astounded audiences across the U.S., Europe, and Asia, performing sold-out concerts at many of the world’s most prestigious venues — including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw, Taipei National Concert Hall, and Osaka’s Symphony Hall. She is a frequent guest at music festivals such as the Aspen Music Festival, Ruhr-Klavier Festival, and Oregon Bach Festival. Concerto engagements have included performances with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, and Taiwan Philharmonic, among others. Recent and upcoming highlights for Charlotte Hu include performances presented by Newport Classical, the Mansion at Strathmore, the Gilmore Piano Festival, the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Taipei Concert Hall, Hong Kong Cultural Center, National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra, and the Taichung Opera House.
Goyescas was inspired by the work of painter Francisco Goya. Hu writes in her liner notes for the album, “Enrique Granados drew his inspiration from the paintings of Francisco Goya, the 18th-century Spanish master whose dark, sensual works explore themes of love, desire, flirtation, and the human condition. Each movement of Goyescas corresponds to a painting or draws from Goya’s visual universe, allowing Granados to translate visual art into musical narrative.”
From the playful charm of “Los requiebros” to the lyrical intimacy of “La maja y el ruiseñor” and the profound emotional summit of “El amor y la muerte,” Granados’ masterwork reveals a world of dramatic contrasts and refined storytelling. Complementing the suite are two Spanish Dances: the hauntingly introspective No. 2, “Oriental,” and the vibrant, guitar-inflected No. 5, “Andaluza.”
With this pairing, Hu captures both the virtuosic brilliance and the deeply intimate narrative of the music, illuminating its modern harmonic language and unmistakable Spanish spirit with freshness and reverence.
More about Charlotte Hu: An active recording artist, Charlotte Hu’s debut album of Chopin works on ArchiMusic was named Best Classical Album of the Year by Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Melody Award, and her recordings released on Naxos/CAG Records and BMOP/sound with Boston Modern Orchestra Project have received overwhelming critical acclaim. Her Rachmaninoff album on Centaur/Naxos received a five-star review by the U.K.’s Pianist magazine, which called it “essential listening for Rachmaninoff admirers.” Her latest album, Liszt Metamorphosis, was released by PENTATONE in July 2024.
Charlotte Hu is the founder of two piano festivals across two continents: the Yun-Hsiang International Music Festival in Taipei and the PYPA Piano Festival in Philadelphia. Now in its 14th year, PYPA has become an important fixture in the classical music world, cultivating a deeper appreciation for classical music and serving as a cultural bridge between East and West.
With a fierce dedication to making classical music more accessible, Charlotte presents captivating programs that tell human stories inclusive of gender and race. By juxtaposing audience favorites with underperformed treasures and newly commissioned works, Charlotte’s recitals consistently offer musical and narrative contrasts that encourage people to listen deeply and discover anew the work of even the most well-known composers.
At the heart of Charlotte’s success is a story of strength, dedication, and resilience that has powered her dream of becoming a world-class artist. Moving to the United States from Taiwan at age 14 without her parents to begin studies at The Juilliard School was the first of many challenges Charlotte has overcome in building her illustrious career — one that’s included winning top prizes at the 12th Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition, performing on classical music’s biggest stages, and fostering the next generation of musicians as an advocate for classical music through entrepreneurial and philanthropic initiatives. A tireless advocate for humanity, Charlotte raised $27,000 for youth education charities through a Hope Charity Concert live-streamed on her Facebook page in June 2020. The online concert reached more than 140,000 people across the globe.
A Steinway Artist, Charlotte Hu serves as an associate professor at Boston Conservatory at Berklee and as an artist in residence at Temple University in Philadelphia, in addition to her busy performance schedule. She is a frequent guest artist, leading master classes and artist residencies at universities and music festivals worldwide. She holds degrees from The Juilliard School, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Germany’s Hanover University of Music, Drama, and Media, where she studied with Herbert Stessin, Sergei Babayan, and Karl-Heinz Kammerling, respectively.
Goyescas
Charlotte Hu, Piano
Pentatone | Release Date (Worldwide): June 5, 2026
Track List:
Enrique Granados (1867-1916)
Goyescas Suite
1. I. Los Requiebros [8:44]
2. II. Coloquio en la Reja [11:56]
3. III. El Fandango del Candil [5:57]
4. IV. Quejas o la Maja y el Ruiseñor [6:56]
5. V. El Amor y la Muerte: Balada [12:35]
6. VI. Epílogo (Serenata del Espectro) [8:15]
12 Danzas españolas
7. No. 2, Oriental [5:28]
8. No. 5, Andaluza [3:45]
Total playing time: [63:41]
May 9 & 24: Pianist Sarah Cahill in Terry Riley at 90: A Piano Celebration – Performances in Oakland and San Francisco
May 9 & 24: Pianist Sarah Cahill in Terry Riley at 90: A Piano Celebration – Performances in Oakland and San Francisco
L-R Sarah Cahill, Terry Riley
Photo of Sarah Cahill by Kristen Wrzesniewski available in high-resolution here
Pianist Sarah Cahill in Terry Riley at 90: A Piano Celebration
Dresher Ensemble Studio in Oakland: May 9, 2026
San Francisco Public Library: May 24, 2026
Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 7:30pm
Dresher Ensemble Studio | 2201 Poplar Street | Oakland, CA
Tickets and More Information
Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 2pm (Rescheduled from December 2025)
San Francisco Public Library (Latino Room on the Lower Level)
100 Larkin Street | San Francisco, CA
Free and Open to the Public | More Information
“As tenacious and committed an advocate as any composer could dream of”
– San Francisco Chronicle
Watch Sarah Cahill’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert
San Francisco & Oakland, CA – Pianist Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, gives two Bay Area concerts dedicated to the music of Terry Riley in honor of his recent 90th birthday. On Saturday, May 9, 2026 at 7:30pm she performs at the Dresher Ensemble Studio in Oakland (2201 Poplar Street) and on Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 2pm she performs at the San Francisco Public Library (100 Larkin Street) in the Library’s Latino Room (rescheduled from December 2025, due to the power outage). The program will include Keyboard Studies, Be Kind to One Another, The Walrus in Memoriam,Fandango on the Heaven Ladder, and The Great Beauty, along with Circle Songs by Danny Clay and Shade Studies by Sam Adams, both composed in honor of Terry Riley's eightieth birthday in 2015.
With these performances, Sarah Cahill honors Terry Riley's artistry in a special program celebrating the American composer on his 90th birthday. Riley, a California native from the Sierra foothills, became well known and celebrated for his cutting-edge, experimental, and minimalist compositional styles. Cahill has worked closely with him for three decades and commissioned six compositions from him. She also commissioned eight younger composers to write music in tribute to Riley for his 80th birthday. The resulting works were recorded by Cahill, and fellow pianists Regina Myers and Samuel Adams in 2017, as a 4-CD set entitled Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley (Irritable Hedgehog Music).
Cahill says, “It's such a great pleasure to celebrate Terry Riley at the Dresher Ensemble Studio and the San Francisco Public Library, both welcoming community spaces with a long history of supporting innovative new music, with a program ranging from his 1964 Keyboard Studies to new works written in his honor.”
Of the works found on Eighty Trips Around the Sun: Music by and for Terry Riley which will be part of this program, Allan Kozinn writes in the Wall Street Journal, “[Fandango on the Heaven Ladder] explore[s] Mr. Riley’s fascination with the harmonic gauziness of Impressionism, and the Fandango. . .embrace[s] Latin rhythms filtered through, and altered by, Mr. Riley’s free-ranging sensibilities. Be Kind to One Another (2008, revised 2014), a work composed for Ms. Cahill, tells us something about [Terry Riley’s] passion for jazz – he is a freewheeling improviser – by gradually transforming a sweet, gracefully ornamented melody, at first couched in a late-Romantic salon style, into several varieties of ragtime and stride. Minimalism is represented by only a single selection, Ms. Cahill’s own combined edition of ‘Keyboard Studies Nos. 1 & 2’ (1965) with elements from each study superimposed (at Mr. Riley’s suggestion).”
The Walrus in Memoriam is based on tunes written by The Beatles and was commissioned by Aki Takahashi for her Hyper-Beatles project. Samuel Adams’ Shade Studies examines the counterpoint between the piano's acoustic resonance and sine waves. The music is quiet and built of cadences, silences, and repeated gestures. As the work unfolds, the two resonance systems engage through masking and illumination, creating a brief exploration of musical “shade.” This work was generously commissioned by Russ Irwin and is dedicated to Sarah Cahill and Terry Riley.
Danny Clay says of Circle Songs: “I don’t know Terry personally, and yet I owe him a tremendous debt musically – his sounds, his ideas, and the warmth of his music have seeped into my subconscious (and, when lucky, my music) in ways that I am just now beginning to unravel. I think what I’ve ended up writing is ultimately a set of love songs. The more I think about it, the more I feel like there may not be any other kind of tune worth writing. The sheer act of composing is about falling in love, after all – whether it be with a sound, an idea, or a feeling of indescribable warmth. That's ultimately what I thank Terry and Sarah for the most – bringing to the world of music a seemingly endless wealth of all these things, especially love.”
Riley wrote The Great Beauty in 2016, in celebration of the life of composer Pauline Oliveros. A brief composition of only 85 seconds, the work can be performed by solo piano or multiple performers. Pauline Oliveros and Terry Riley met in 1956 while taking the same composition class. The two developed a close and lifelong friendship. Oliveros performed as part of the premiere of Riley’s iconic In C, and each of them made key innovations at the San Francisco Tape Music Center.
About Sarah Cahill: Sarah Cahill, hailed as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, has commissioned and premiered over seventy compositions for solo piano. Composers who have dedicated works to Cahill include John Adams, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros, Julia Wolfe, Roscoe Mitchell, Annea Lockwood, and Ingram Marshall. She was named a 2018 Champion of New Music, awarded by the American Composers Forum (ACF).
Cahill’s latest project is The Future is Female, an investigation and reframing of the piano literature featuring more than seventy compositions by women around the globe, from the Baroque to the present day, including new commissioned works. Recent and upcoming performances of The Future is Female include concerts at The Barbican, Metropolitan Museum, Carolina Performing Arts, National Gallery of Art, Carlsbad Music Festival, Detroit Institute of Arts, University of Iowa, Bowling Green New Music Festival, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University, the EXTENSITY Concert Series’ Women Now Festival in New York, and the Newport Classical Music Festival. Cahill also performed music from The Future is Female for NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
Sarah Cahill’s discography includes more than twenty albums on the New Albion, CRI, New World, Tzadik, Albany, Innova, Cold Blue, Other Minds, Irritable Hedgehog, and Pinna labels. Her three-album series, The Future is Female, was released on First Hand Records between March 2022 and April 2023. These albums encompass 30 compositions by women from around the globe, spanning the 17th century to the present day, and include many world-premiere recordings.
Cahill’s radio show, Revolutions Per Minute, can be heard every Sunday evening from 6 to 8 pm on KALW, 91.7 FM in San Francisco. She is on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory and is a regular pre-concert speaker with the San Francisco Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
For more information, visit www.sarahcahill.com.
For Calendar Editors:
Description: Pianist Sarah Cahill, described as “a sterling pianist and an intrepid illuminator of the classical avant-garde” by The New York Times, gives two Bay Area concerts at Paul Dresher’s Studio on May 9 and the San Francisco Public Library on May 24 celebrating Terry Riley's ninetieth birthday year, performing a program featuring his music combined with works composed by Samuel Adams and Danny Clay in honor of the Bay Area composer.
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill in Terry Riley at 90: A Piano Celebration
Presented by Dresher Ensemble Studio
What: Music by Terry Riley, Samuel Adams, and Danny Clay
When: Saturday, May 9, 2026, at 7:30 pm
Where: Dresher Ensemble Studio, 2201 Poplar Street, Oakland, CA 94607
More information: https://dresherensemble.org/Cahill-Terry-Riley-at-90
Concert details:
Who: Pianist Sarah Cahill in Terry Riley at 90: A Piano Celebration
Presented by the San Francisco Public Library
What: Music by Terry Riley, Samuel Adams, and Danny Clay
When: Sunday, May 24, 2026 at 2pm (Rescheduled from December 2025)
Where: San Francisco Public Library (Latino Room on the Lower Level), 100 Larkin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102
More information: https://sfpl.org/events/2026/05/24/performance-terry-riley-90-piano-celebration