New York

ACO, Classical Music, Composers, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Experimental Music, New York, Orchestral

American Composers Orchestra Performs a New Work Crowd-Sourced by Dreams

On March 11, 2026 at Carnegie Hall, the American Composers Orchestra will perform the world premiere of Cosmologyscape by the composer and violinist Kite. The work was commissioned by the ACO. An essential aspect of the work is crowd-sourced: the audience is invited to submit descriptions of their dreams ahead of time via the Cosmologyscape website. These dreams will be translated by an AI app into a visual language of Lakota symbols, which will be projected on stage at the performance. The composition is a concerto grosso of sorts, as the Cosmology Ensemble (Marilu Donovan, harp; Nava Dunkelman, percussion; JJJJJerome

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by Gail Wein
CD Review, Composers, Concert review, Contemporary Classical, early music, File Under?, New York

Blue Heron Brings Ferrara to New York

Blue Heron in New York In Praise of Laura Peperara – Music for the Concerto delle dame • Ferrara, 1580s St. Ignatius of Antioch Published in Sequenza 21  By Christian Carey February 25, 2026   NEW YORK – Blue Heron always presents thematic programs, and they excel at giving the audience a sense of the time and place in which the music they perform resides. This past week in their program at St. Ignatius of Antioch Church, they featured the music performed in the court of Ferrara in the 1580s, specifically by the Concerto delle dame. These were a trio

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by Christian Carey
Choral Music, Composers, Concert review, Conductors, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York, Orchestras

Adés Conducts the New York Philharmonic

Adés Conducts the New York Philharmonic David Geffen Hall January 24, 2026  Published in Sequenza 21 By Christian Carey   NEW YORK – Thomas Adés is best known as a composer, but he is a talented conductor as well. Leading the New York Philharmonic in a program of recent works and a neglected early twentieth century piece, his approach was effusive and commanding, with a versatile and fluid gestural repertoire. The orchestra’s musicians always play at a high standard, but their performance on last Saturday’s concert was superlative, and given the challenges posed by the programmed pieces, all the more

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by Christian Carey
Choral Music, Composers, Concert review, Contemporary Classical, early music, File Under?, Miller Theater, New York

The Tallis Scholars at St. Mary’s (Concert Review)

Mother and Child The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips Miller Theater Early Music Series, Church of St. Mary the Virgin December 4, 2025 By Christian Carey   NEW YORK – The choral ensemble The Tallis Scholars, directed by Peter Phillips, are regular visitors to Manhattan, and their December concerts at Church of St. Mary the Virgin have a devoted following (pardon the pun). Often they perform a Marian-themed program appropriate to the space, and  their appearance this past Thursday was no exception. In addition to pieces principally drawn from the English Renaissance, a new Salve Regina setting by the

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by Christian Carey
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, New York

Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the 92nd Street Y

Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Recital 92nd Street Y November 19, 2025 Published in Sequenza 21   NEW YORK – Pianist Pierre-Laurant Aimard has had a long and fruitful collaboration with the composer George Benjamin. Aimard’s recital program this past Wednesday at the 92nd Street Y was conceived and built around two of Benjamin’s pieces, Shadowlines, a group of six canons for solo piano, and Divisions, a new four-hand piece on which the composer joined him for this New York premiere.    The other programmed works were meant to complement the Benjamin pieces and proved to be strong foils for them. Nikolai

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by Christian Carey
Classical Music, Commissions, Concert review, Concerts, Contemporary Classical, jazz, Lincoln Center, New York, Orchestras, Premieres

NY Philharmonic Revels in a Rainbow of Colors

An expansive palette of colors was on display at the New York Philharmonic concert at David Geffen Hall on Friday. David Robertson shone a light on the performers and the scores, exposing nuances of hues, pastels, brights and brilliance. The entire program – Igor Stravinsky’s Petrushka, the Violin Concerto by Wyton Marsalis and the world premiere of a new work by Caroline Mallonee – focused on color and mood. I had high hopes in particular for this performance of Petrushka, to erase my memory of a flaccid reading of the work a couple of years ago. The Philharmonic redeemed themselves,

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by Gail Wein
Concert review, Contemporary Classical, early music, File Under?, Miller Theater, New York

Stile Antico Returns to St. Mary’s

Stile Antico Returns to Sing at St. Mary’s   Church of Saint Mary the Virgin November 9, 2025 Published in Sequenza 21 By Christian Carey   NEW YORK – The British choral group Stile Antico has been together for twenty years, and while they have premiered several new works, the ensemble specializes in repertoire from the Renaissance era. Indeed, this past Saturday on Miller Theatre’s Early Music series, at the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in midtown Manhattan, the theme of their program was “The Golden Renaissance.” At St. Mary’s, Stile Antico presented works by noteworthy composers of the

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by Christian Carey
Concerts, File Under?, New York

Chris Thile: Bach, Bluegrass and Radiohead at the Y

Chris Thile at 92nd Street Y Kauffmann Concert Hall October 19, 2025   NEW YORK – Chris Thile is one of the best mandolinists around, and he has established himself as a singer, songwriter, and storyteller as well. On Sunday, he performed a solo concert at the 92nd Street Y that brought together these various activities. From 2016 to 2020, Thile hosted Live from Here, a variety show for public radio modeled on its predecessor A Prairie Home Companion. The pandemic made continuing the show impractical but he has since returned to the concept via podcasting, and his performance at

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by Christian Carey
Composers, Concert review, Concerts, Dance, File Under?, New York, Orchestras

Salonen Conducts New York Philharmonic (Concert Review)

The NY Philharmonic Celebrates Boulez’s Centenary Works by Bartók, Boulez, Debussy, and Stravinsky Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano New York Philharmonic, Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor Saturday, October 4, 2025 Saturday, October 11, 2025 NEW YORK – In October, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducted the New York Philharmonic for two consecutive weeks. Both programs celebrated the centenary of the composer and conductor Pierre Boulez (1925-2016), who was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic from 1971-1977. Boulez was a key figure of the post-WWII avant-garde and a proponent of serial music, then in its early stages. By the 1970s, Boulez was an internationally renowned conductor of

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by Christian Carey
Chamber Music, Classical Music, Concerts, File Under?, New York

Bell-Isserlis-Denk Trio and Friends

Bell-Isserlis-Denk Trio and Friends Midsummer Musicfest at Kaufmann Concert Hall, 92nd Street Y July 9, 2025   NEW YORK – July often finds New York-based musicians playing in summer festivals well outside the city. The 92nd Street Y’s Midsummer MusicFest enticed a small handful of luminaries back to town to play chamber music at the venue’s Kaufmann Concert Hall. Violinist Joshua Bell, cellist Steven Isserlis, and pianist Jeremy Denk have joined forces before, but not for a while in New York. In 2024, to commemorate the one hundredth year of his passing, they toured programs of music by the French

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by Christian Carey