The Kaufman Music Center in New York City is set to host an extraordinary series of events celebrating classical and contemporary music. From the intricate beauty of art songs to the grandiosity of opera, and the exhilarating performances from renowned pianists, these events promise to take you on a musical journey over the next few months. The centerpiece of the season includes workshops, the return of Paderewski’s masterpieces, and a fascinating dive into Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker. Join us in exploring the dynamic intersection of music, history, and culture.

A Musical Celebration: Unveiling the Magic of Art and Opera at the Kaufman Music Center

This February, the Kaufman Music Center in New York City is hosting an impressive array of performances featuring renowned artists and intriguing programs. From the graceful piano artistry of Aristo Sham to the innovative sounds of The Westerlies, and the intimate performances by the NY Phil Ensembles, there's something for every musical palate. Join us as we explore the unique contributions and dynamic performances that promise to make this a memorable month of music.

A February Feast of Musical Masterpieces at Kaufman Music Center

February 2025 at the Kaufman Music Center promises an array of captivating musical experiences that bridge classical roots, contemporary interpretations, and cultural narratives. From Chelsea Guo's exploration of 19th-century musical friendships to The Westerlies' genre-blending brass performances, each event offers a unique auditory journey. Highlights include the NY Phil Ensembles' intimate showcases, Parlando's spiritual exploration through music, and the Israeli Chamber Project's homage to the harp's mythical heritage. Prepare to be inspired by young talents and seasoned performers as New York City becomes a hub for musical discovery.

A Harmonious February: Exploring Diverse Musical Landscapes at Kaufman Music Center

March 2025 at Kaufman Music Center promises a captivating lineup of musical events featuring Grammy-winning artists, innovative guitar duos, timeless Broadway hits, and adventurous contemporary compositions. This month-long celebration showcases the talents of renowned artists like J’Nai Bridges, the Ziggy & Miles guitar duo, and flamenco sensation Marina Heredia. Additionally, audiences can revel in the performances of young rising musicians and explore the whimsical world of Disney on Broadway, offering a diverse array of sounds and experiences for music lovers of all ages.

Kaufman Music Center March 2025: A Month of Musical Mastery

The Kaufman Music Center has curated an awe-inspiring lineup of events for May and June 2025, featuring an array of groundbreaking performances and collaborations. From the acclaimed Nina Bernat and Evren Ozel presenting a recital that celebrates female empowerment, to the mesmerizing interpretations by Simone Dinnerstein, and the rich cultural tapestry of Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale, these events promise to captivate audiences with their unique artistic expressions and profound musical narratives.

Kaufman Music Center's Stellar Lineup: A Celebration of Music and Mastery

The Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble VOCES8 returns in a unique collaboration with Kaufman Music Center and Trinty Church NYC. Praised by The Times (London) as “close harmony singing doesn’t get much more flawless than this,” VOCES8 is celebrated internationally for its exquisite blend and musical artistry. Featuring beloved signature works from VOCES8’s repertoire with a focus on Renaissance and Early Music, this program will be crafted for the extraordinary acoustics of Trinity Church in the ensemble’s debut performance there. The concert will feature a first-ever collaboration with musicians from Trinity, including exceptional artists from its resident ensembles and featuring members of the Trinity Choral Scholars.

VOCES8 at Trinity Church

Trinity Church NYC

The ever-popular, Grammy-nominated British vocal VOCES8 returns to Merkin Hall with journeys through the rich and varied landscape of American choral music, tracing a path through faith, folk tradition, poetry and popular song. The program moves from the timeless devotion of Virgil Thomson’s My Shepherd Will Supply My Need and the spirituals to the visionary sound-worlds of Caroline Shaw, Morten Lauridsen and Eric Whitacre. Alongside these sacred and contemplative works sit songs of beauty, longing and place: Samuel Barber’s shimmering To Be Sung on the Water, the timeless folk melody Shenandoah, and the wistful nostalgia of Vincent. The programme closes in sparkling style with affectionate musical portraits of two iconic American cities in April in Paris and I Get a Kick Out of New York.

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Voces8

Kaufman Music Center

Grammy-nominated Armenian-Canadian cellist and composer Karen Ouzounian and her husband, Rome Prize-winning Estonian-American composer, pianist and animator Lembit Beecher, give the NYC premiere of their new program Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian). This immersive and intimate 65-minute show is centered on the human voice and features cello, electronics, piano and vocals. The voices of Ouzounian’s mother and grandmother are interwoven with original arrangements of Armenian music of her family’s past home of Anatolia, songs and stories drawn from their post-genocide home of Lebanon, and the beloved music of Charles Aznavour. New compositions by Beecher, Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim, Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Ouzounian expand upon themes of generational transmission, rootedness and uprootedness, with music teeming with passion and celebration, resilience and rage. Opening and closing the program is Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines, music from hundreds of years ago providing a window into the present. Featuring projections of original, newly-commissioned artwork by Charles Berberian.

Lembit Beecher & Karen Ouzounian: Mayrig

Celebrate one of the most distinctive voices in modern musical theater at this festive soirée honoring the life and work of the Tony-winning composer and lyricist William Finn (1952-2025). A stellar lineup of cast members – many of whom worked with Finn and knew him personally – will perform songs from Falsettos, A New Brain and more.

Broadway Close Up: William Finn

Recipients of the Avery Fisher Career Grant and many other international prizes, pianist Evren Ozel and violinist Joshua Brown perform a program exploring the writer Marcel Proust’s assertion that music alone can access what language leaves unsaid. The works on the program bear a direct literary imprint: Chausson's Poème translates a short story by Turgenev into musical form, while Schumann's Kreisleriana depicts E.T.A. Hoffmann's fictional musician Johannes Kreisler. Debussy’s Preludes for piano include literature references from Baudelaire to Shakespeare and more. The movements from the F.A.E. Sonata and Ysaÿe's Ballade, meanwhile, were inspired by their composers’ close friendships with poets and literary figures of their time. Finally, perhaps the most remarkable connection on this program belongs to Fauré's Violin Sonata and Proust. Through his In Search of Lost Time, Proust immortalizes Fauré as the fictional composer Vinteuil, whose violin sonata becomes a recurring symbol of longing and lost love. That a real piece of music could be so thoroughly absorbed into one of literature's greatest novels speaks to exactly the kind of alchemy this program sets out to explore.

Evren Ozel, piano & Joshua Brown, violin

From Beethoven’s “Adelaide” to Fauré’s “Lydia” to Noël Coward’s “Nina,” our playlist is composed of songs whose titles are the given names of a colorful cast of characters, ranging from Biblical times (Belsazar) and Greek myths (Ganymede) to the Beatles’ London (Michelle) and Randy Newman’s America (Marie). Featuring soprano Christine Taylor Price, mezzo-soprano Megan Moore, baritone Samuel Kidd, and NYFOS’s own Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois as pianists and hosts.

New York Festival of Song: First-Name Basis

The 1881 premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major got one of the most famous bad reviews in the history of Western music. Savaged as “music that stinks to the ear” in which the violin is “torn asunder” and “beaten black and blue,” the piece overcame its critics to become one of the most popular pieces ever composed. Host Rob Kapilow takes you deeply inside this dazzlingly difficult, thrilling masterpiece to reveal how Tchaikovsky’s only violin concerto, reviled by his contemporaries, became a cornerstone of the classical repertoire.

What Makes It Great? Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto

Rhythm Nation celebrates American rhythmic traditions as an expression of bodily autonomy and tacit history keeping. From the jagged grooves of Daniel Bernard Roumain’s String Quartet No.1: X (an homage to Malcolm X), to the otherworldly textures of Sun Ra’s “Interstellar Low Ways,” to the lyricism of Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday,” this wide-ranging exploration will also feature movements from Fodé Lassana Diabaté’s Sunjata’s Time. Each of the pieces on the program evokes a distinct rhythmic world, reflecting the plurality of American movement(s) and protecting the unspoken spirit of their lineage’s narratives.

PUBLIQuartet

In this thrilling collaboration with the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music, Grammy-nominated baritone Joshua Conyers, acclaimed soprano Kiera Duffy and BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Nicole Cabell—all Eastman faculty—lead Eastman students in a live performance of In Plain Sight: The Black Anthology. This rarely performed repertoire from the Anthology of Art Songs by Black Composers was recorded and produced at URochester earlier this year. 

The Anthology of Art Song by Black Composers

Join us for a launch event with the #1 New York Times best-selling author Veronica Roth, celebrating the first book in a bold new Divergent series! Each ticket includes a copy of The Sixth Faction Deluxe Edition.

Veronica Roth “The Sixth Faction” Book Launch

The pianist Orli Shaham, hailed for her grace, subtlety and brilliance, performs the full range of music by Clara Schumann. Schumann was a rock star pianist of her day who set new standards for virtuosity and the modern piano recital while building her husband’s reputation, raising eight children and composing significant works of her own. Shaham will be joined by musicologist Sarah Fritz, author of a new book on Clara Schumann, Madame Composer. Also, the Juilliard String Quartet joins Shaham for Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet, a work Clara championed throughout her life. Join us for an evening celebrating the great musician’s remarkable life, legacy and music.

Orli Shaham: In Clara’s Hands

Hailed for his “sweeping yet refined sentimentality and pyrotechnical prowess” (The Classical Music Journal), Michael Davidman is one of the most compelling pianists of his generation. The winner of the 2025 American Piano Awards and many other prizes, he has appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de la Garde Républicaine, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Freixenet Encuentro Symphony Orchestra, Reina Sofía Orchestra, Monterey Symphony, and other ensembles across the United States and abroad.

Michael Davidman, piano

Join us for an in-conversation launch event with acclaimed comedian Taylor Tomlinson discussing her debut essay collection. Moderating this conversation is fellow comedian Caleb Hearon. Each ticket includes a copy of the book.

Taylor Tomlinson: “Actually, Nevermind” Book Launch

Alex Stern made it to hell and back more than once, but this time she left the door open behind her. Demons are creeping through the streets of New Haven and the Yale campus, feeding on the souls of the living, terrifying the dead. Alex and her allies can hunt them, but it’s only a matter of time before the gates to the underworld open and they face a war they cannot win. To stop it, they’ll have to reach deep into the secrets of Yale and its societies, and discover the truth hidden in Alex’s own blood.

Leigh Bardugo, in conversation with Victor LaValle, presents "Dead Beat"

Dave Mustaine is no stranger to pain and suffering. He battled demons all his life—including an alcoholic father, addiction and black magic—and turned 58 believing he’d survived the worst. But in 2019, Mustaine was forced to face the loss of his instantly recognizable voice and the disintegration of his musical talent. Diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma at the back of his tongue, his entire career—and possibly his life—was about to end.

Dave Mustaine "In My Darkest Hour" Book Launch

A community gathers for a performance of the complete Philip Glass Etudes featuring Lucy Moses School students and faculty led by the acclaimed pianist and Kaufman Artist-in-Residence Simone Dinnerstein.

Simone Dinnerstein

Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale performs music from the ages that resonates in the moment: songs of hope and humanity, solidarity and struggle, praise and power. Nashir! is dedicated to performing Jewish music spanning centuries and continents. In residence at Kaufman Music Center's Lucy Moses School since 1975, Nashir! brings a sense of joy and passion to repertoire both spiritual and whimsical

Nashir! The Rottenberg Chorale

Recognized as one of the most unique and influential artists of our time, Meredith Monk and members of her acclaimed Vocal Ensemble join forces with new music supergroup Alarm Will Sound for a night of works spanning her singular career, including Night, Realm Variations and the world premiere of The Five Jewels and Hands in the Dirt from Indra’s Net (instrumental suite), an all-orchestral adaptation of music from her latest evening-length performance work. 

Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble with Alarm Will Sound

See the result of groundbreaking artists mentoring a new generation of outstanding young performers. The celebrated Bach interpreter and 2024-25 Artist-in-Residence Simone Dinnerstein leads a performance of the composer’s keyboard concerti with young pianists from Kaufman’s Special Music School High School. The Grammy-nominated pianist celebrated for her originality, elegance and spellbinding playing first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and is celebrated as “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times). 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 and has made 13 albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts.


Host Rob Kapilow and a remarkable group of performers celebrate “The First Lady of Song” and one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time, exploring how standards survive and thrive as they’re reinvented by each generation. Hear original versions of well-known songs followed by virtuosic interpretations by Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson, and see how tradition gets passed on through reimaginations by Oscar and Ella that are anything but standard.

Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson: Standards by Jazz Legends

Mezzo-soprano Taylor Raven is a “vocal sensation” (Washington Classical Review) who is quickly establishing herself in opera, concert and recital. This season she returned to the San Francisco Opera for a role debut as Fatima in Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels’ Omar. Other season highlights include her returns to Seattle Opera for Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rosina) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a fully staged production of Das Rheingold (Flosshilde) conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. On the concert stage she’ll be heard with the Colorado Symphony for Beethoven Symphony No. 9 conducted by Marin Alsop and the Memphis Symphony for Handel’s Messiah.

Taylor Raven, mezzo-soprano

The Grammy-nominated pianist celebrated for her originality, elegance and spellbinding playing performs three Philip Glass works for piano and orchestra. The Washington Post has called Dinnerstein “an artist of strikingly original ideas and irrefutable integrity.” She first came to wider public attention in 2007 through her recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations and is celebrated as “a unique voice in the forest of Bach interpretation” (The New York Times). 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 and has made 13 albums, all of which topped the Billboard charts.

Simone Dinnerstein with Brooklyn Orchestra

Extraordinary young musicians from Kaufman’s Special Music School and Lucy Moses School perform a wide variety of works for small ensembles.

ChamberFest

The acclaimed double bassist Nina Bernat and pianist Evren Ozel, both 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipients, perform a recital celebrating female strength and empowerment through music for piano, mezzo-soprano and bass accompanied by images from Bernat’s grandmother’s post-war life. It features a world premiere by Lara Poe and Alan Blank’s Poems from the Holocaust, plus music by Gabriel Fauré, Felix Mendelssohn and Sergei Prokofiev, culminating in Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 5

Nina Bernat, double bass & Evren Ozel, piano

Join Musicians of the Philharmonic for personal and intimate performances, and experience the personality of the performers. See how a small setting can amplify a huge musical event!

NY Phil Ensembles at Merkin Hall

From sultry Parisian nightclubs to the biting sophistication of Berlin’s Weimar era, cabaret had a vibrant history years before it first appeared in New York. Join Parlando for the first installment of The Cabaret Project, a two-season collaboration with soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, exploring the art of cabaret and its journey across the Atlantic. The program includes Erik Satie’s whimsical Trois petites pieces montées, Franz Schreker’s evocative Chamber Symphony, and William Bolcom’s irreverent Cabaret Songs for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra.

Parlando: The Cabaret Project, Part 1

"My debut program expresses a yearning for something beyond our world. Each work grapples with the depths of humanity and simultaneously contains an aspect of reaching for the stars. From Schubert to Zwilich, all four of these composers have imbued their works with a transcendent quality that I am excited to share with you."

Young Concert Artists: Oliver Neubauer, violin

Enjoy outstanding musical performances by the 1st place Winners of the 5th annual Music International Grand Prix Competition in Voice, Piano, Strings, Winds & Brass, Ensembles, and Original Composition.  Talented artists from around the world gather in NYC to compete in the Finals.  Those who win 1st place in their categories will all perform and compete for the $5000 Grand Prix Award, and the Audience Favorite Award.  See tomorrow's future stars today!

Music International Grand Prix Winners Concert 2025

The four-time Grammy-nominated violinist and composer gives the world premiere of his 24 American Caprices, a recomposition of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons as the frame for an Afrofuturist meditation on climate change, class and the nature of digital memory. The piece includes recorded interviews with the unhoused population about the heavy impact of climate change on their daily lives.

Curtis Stewart – Seasons of Change

Karén Hakobyan conducts Pegasus: the Orchestra's SEASON FINALE in a monumental program that takes the listener through a Journey of American Music. He begins the evening with a World Premiere of a COMMISSION by a Living American Composer (to be announced). Next, the stunning Piano Concerto of Amy Beach is performed by celebrated pianist Asiya Korepanova. This rarely performed masterpiece was premiered by Boston Symphony with the composer (Amy Beach) herself at the piano in 1900.

THE NEW WORLD - A Journey of American Music (SEASON FINALE)

Pianist and composer Mikael Darmanie performs an eclectic program showcasing the musical perspectives that have most influenced his own, from Olivier Messiaen, Robert Schumann and Alexander Scriabin to Erykah Badu. Darmanie says, “At first glance it’s giving music-streaming-app-playlist-on-shuffle vibes, but at its core, it represents the intersection of two disparate systems: the eclecticism of today’s algorithmic based society and the indifference of nature.”

Mikael Darmanie, piano

Hailed as “the world’s reigning male chorus” by The New Yorker, The Grammy-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world for its dazzling virtuosity and impassioned musicianship. This program explores music’s power throughout the ages with repertoire including Medieval and Renaissance motets by Francesco Landini and Orlando di Lasso, a new work by the Grammy-nominated composer Ayanna Woods, and a new version of the jazz standard “Without a Song.”

Chanticleer

Mezzo-soprano Kara Dugan, baritone John Brancy, Grammy Award-winning clarinetist Mark Dover in his NYFOS debut, and pianist Peter Dugan join NYFOS's Steven Blier for a new program that explores the mysteries of the forest, the ocean and the skies, with songs by Schumann, Spohr, Sibelius and many others.

New York Festival of Song: Other Worlds – Songs of Fantasy

First-Prize winner of the 2023 Elmar Oliveira International Violin Competition, violinist Hina Khuong-Huu has performed around the globe appearing as soloist and collaborator with many of today's leading ensembles and musicians. This season, she made her Kennedy Center debut performing Anna Clyne’s The Prince of Clouds alongside Grammy Award-winner Jennifer Koh. Named a “VC Artist” by The Violin Channel, Hina has appeared as a soloist with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Geneva, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, The Symphonia, Mittel Europa Orchestra and the Musica Mundi Orchestra

Hina Khuong-Huu, violin

Featuring Rising stars from Kaufman’s Special Music School and Lucy Moses School.

Composer Festival

The dynamic violin-guitar duo reimagines Chinese traditional music, modern rock and classical masterworks, combining comedic inventiveness, pop sensibility and classical virtuosity for a night of unexpected magic. Winner and Audience Prize recipient of the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition, ArcoStrum comprises the international prize-winning violinist Strauss Shi (violin, erhu, dizi) and TY Zhang (classical guitar, electric guitar), Grand Prize Winner of Guitar Foundation of America’s International Concert Artist Competition.

The ArcoStrum Experience

Songs by GUSTAV MAHLER, HARRY T. BURLEIGH, JOHANNES BRAHMS, MOSES HOGAN, FRANZ SCHUBERT, and spirituals featuring the Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir with Artistic Director Michele Fowlin, plus the New York Premiere of Psalm by YCA Composer-in-Residence ALISTAIR COLEMAN.

Young Concert Artists: Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone

Introduce kids to the writers of Frozen, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and more. Sean Hartley and the beloved Broadway Playhouse cast sing, clown and teach children about the great writers of American musical theater. Kids can sing along to classic numbers and play games as they learn. For ages 4-11 and adults.

Disney On Broadway

Highlighting the talents of Caramoor's 2025 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars program, "Beginner’s Luck" features a wide-ranging playlist from German Lieder to Bob Dylan, exploring the chaotic decade between adolescence and adulthood, filled with seemingly endless possibility and endless peril. A cast of five brilliant young artists, all in their 20s, will join co-directors Bénédicte Jourdois and Steven Blier in this intriguing musical journey.

New York Festival of Song: Beginner's Luck – The Artist's Journey

Highly accomplished young musicians from Kaufman’s Lucy Moses School perform a selection of solo and chamber works.

Henry Schneider Young Artists Concert

Rising star musicians from Kaufman’s Special Music School and Lucy Moses School perform music by composers of the last 50 years.

Contemporary Music Festival

Pianists Anthony de Mare and Adam Sherkin join forces for this all-Canadian program. In sets from both one and two keyboards, music from the north is highlighted in fresh relief, featuring works by Jocelyn Morlock, Ann Southam, Heather Schmidt, Linda Catlin Smith and Rodney Sharman. With every selection written within the last twenty-five years, de Mare and Sherkin take on solo sets, then team up for special commissions on two pianos: a novel version of Jared Miller’s The Bright Exuberant Silence, and Adam Sherkin’s Ink from the Shield, five musical postcards taking inspiration from the time Benjamin Britten and Peters Pears spent in Canada  - as pacifists - during the Second World War. 

COMPOSERS IN PLAY XV: “Ink from the Shield” Anthony de Mare & Adam Sherkin

One of flamenco's most revered singers performs a rich tapestry of traditional and modern flamenco as part of the Flamenco Festival NY. Hailing from Granada, Spain, Heredia has captivated audiences worldwide with her passionate and spellbinding interpretations of flamenco that seamlessly blend it with other musical genres while honoring its deep roots.

Marina Heredia

Composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel brings together an extraordinary group of artists for an eclectic night of music of his own music – including the New York premiere of his String Quartet No. 2 – as well as works that have influenced him. Internationally recognized for his creativity, theatricality and virtuosity, Bermel is acclaimed for his “unambiguously luscious” music (The New York Times) that is “intricate, witty, clear-spoken, tender and extraordinarily beautiful (San Francisco Chronicle).

Derek Bermel with Ying Quartet & Aaron Diehl

Explore some of the best-known songs by the unlikely duo of opposites that dominated the Broadway stage for decades. Lyricist Alan Jay Lerner, scion of a wealthy New York family, teamed up with German-born composer Frederick Loewe to create some of the mid-20th century’s most popular and enduring works of musical theater, including the hit musicals My Fair Lady, Camelot and Brigadoon. Together, they created an American version of the Viennese operetta that offered audiences an enticing escape into utopian fantasy worlds.

Songs from My Fair Lady, Camelot & Brigadoon: Lerner & Loewe’s Greatest Hits

"We are excited to present our debut program featuring works from Latin America and our home country, Australia, that inspired us to put our brotherly differences aside. Join us for some of the most defining works for guitar duo, including works by Piazzolla, Gnattali and Westlake, alongside our own arrangement of Debussy’s Suite Bergamasque."

Young Concert Artists: Ziggy & Miles, guitar duo

Two-time Grammy-winning American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges performs cornerstones of the art song repertoire. Known for her “plush-voiced mezzo-soprano” (The New York Times), and “calmly commanding stage presence” (The New Yorker), Bridges has been heralded as “a rising star” (Los Angeles Times) gracing the world’s top opera and concert stages


J'Nai Bridges

Introduce kids to the writers of Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, The Lion King and more. Sean Hartley and the beloved Broadway Playhouse cast sing, clown and teach children about the great writers of American musical theater. Kids can sing along to classic numbers and play games as they learn. For ages 4-11 and adults.

Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice

One of the oldest of instruments, the harp has been tied to myths and legends across many cultures and civilizations. In our concerts it takes on a unique chamber role that reveals its hidden qualities, and its chameleon-like character is fully on display in this program of original works and arrangements. Two lesser known, but equally wonderous Piano Trios bookend the evening.

Israeli Chamber Project: Orpheus' Lyre

See the result of groundbreaking artists mentoring a new generation of outstanding young performers. The violinist-composer, Kaufman Artist-in-Residence and four-time Grammy nominee performs with outstanding young musicians from Kaufman Music Center. Praised for “combining omnivory and brilliance” (The New York Times), Stewart translates stories of American self-determination to the concert stage. As a solo violinist, composer, Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, professor at The Juilliard School, and member of award-winning ensembles PUBLIQuartet and The Mighty Third Rail, he realizes a vision to find personal and powerful connections between styles, cultures and musics.

Curtis Stewart

A musical voyage to the four corners of France from Brittany to the Riviera, ending with a deluxe stay in Paris. The program includes songs by Francis Poulenc, Joseph Canteloube, André Caplet, Gustav Mahler, Michel Legrand, Charles Trénet and others, featuring the superb vocal talent of soprano Nicoletta Berry, mezzo-soprano Erin Wagner and tenor Daniel McGrew, with pianists Steven Blier and Bénédicte Jourdois.

New York Festival of Song: Le tour de France

Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 76, No. 1 reveals the most famous composer of his time at the peak of his powers. An extraordinary innovator who established and developed the string quartet, Haydn wrote for an audience of knowledgeable insiders who understood his musical language and his unique kind of musical humor. Hear this pivotal piece with the sophisticated ears of Haydn’s contemporaries as host Rob Kapilow reveals the plot twists and musical jokes that captivated his original audiences.

Haydn’s String Quartet Op. 76, No. 1

How do composers convey their spirituality and identity through their music? Join Parlando on a mystical journey through heritage and time. The program includes Bryce Dessner’s fleet-footed Aheym, Ralph Vaughan Williams’s spellbinding Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and Olivier Messaien’s transcendent Trois petites ligurgies de la présence divine.

Parlando: Mystic Chords

Introduce kids to the writers of Peter Pan, Annie, Oliver!, Matilda, The Music Man and more. Sean Hartley and the beloved Broadway Playhouse cast sing, clown and teach children about the great writers of American musical theater. Kids can sing along to classic numbers and play games as they learn. For ages 4-11 and adults.

Kids On Stage

The Westerlies, “an arty quartet…mixing ideas from jazz, new classical, and Appalachian folk” (The New York Times) are a New York-based brass quartet comprised of Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet, and Andy Clausen and Addison Maye-Saxon on trombone. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, The Westerlies navigate a wide array of venues and projects with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along. “Skilled interpreters who are also adept improvisers” (NPR’s Fresh Air), The Westerlies explore jazz, roots and chamber music influences to create the rarest of hybrids: music that is both "folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music).


The Westerlies

Based around Ravel’s Miroirs suite for solo piano, the program includes responses to the suite’s five movements in more contemporary repertoire. Chinese-American pianist George Xiaoyuan Fu has been praised as “one of the most exciting pianists of our time… a deep thinker, thoroughly in command” (The Arts Desk). Recently winning BBC Music Magazine’s 2024 Newcomer Award, he is establishing an international reputation as a fearless and probing interpreter of a wide array of music, combining “stunning virtuosity” (Boston Music Intelligencer) and “phenomenal technique with a profound sense of interpretative clarity” (Apple Music).

George Xiaoyuan Fu, piano

"The seedling at the heart of my debut program is the friendship and mutual inspiration born in 19th century Paris between Polish composer Fréderic Chopin, and Spanish mezzo-soprano and acclaimed pianist Pauline Viardot. Come experience the fascinating connectivity between vocal and piano literature, as well as the dramatic contrast between composers who, carrying their own traditions, somehow end up in the same place – just as we will in the concert hall.”

Young Concert Artists: Chelsea Guo, soprano & piano

Works by Frédéric Chopin, Kaija Saariaho, Johannes Brahms and John Ireland
Hailed by as a pianist “whose playing combines clarity, elegance and abundant technique” (The New York Times) and a young artist with “boundless potential” who can “already hold his own with the best” (The Washington Post), pianist Aristo Sham has dazzled audiences on five continents. First prize winner at many international competitions, Sham has collaborated with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Edo de Waart, English Chamber Orchestra under the late Sir Raymond Leppard, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Aristo Sham, piano

Rising star soloists from Kaufman’s Special Music School and Lucy Moses School perform with orchestra.

2025 Concerto Competition Winners' Concert

Talented creative teams. Powerful stories. All-original opera. WNO’s acclaimed commissioning program for contemporary American opera enters another exciting season – showing how short opera can move and inspire us! Talented composer-librettist teams will showcase three world premiere one-act operas with the Cafritz Young Artists among the casts.

Washington National Opera – American Opera Initiative

Four acclaimed artists, all Concert Artists Guild prizewinners, captivate audiences with their virtuosity and passion: violinist Nathan Meltzer, violist Jordan Bak, cellist Sydney Lee and pianist Wynona Wang.

Winner of the 2023 Concert Artists Guild Competition, major prizewinner at the 2022 Sibelius and Singapore International Violin Competitions and recipient of the Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, violinist Nathan Meltzer has performed as a soloist with major orchestras around the world.


CAG On Tour

The acclaimed violinist and Avery Fisher career grant winner Njioma Grevious shares a deeply personal and intimate mediation on the theme of remembrance including works by Coleridge-Taylor and a new violin duo by Curtis Stewart with the composer as guest performer. Each of these works are influenced by genres that were created by African Americans beginning in the 19th century, echoing themes of struggle, hopes, dreams, freedom and creativity. Grevious will also delve into a palette of emotions and reminiscence through Prokofiev’s Violin Sonata No. 2 and Mozart's Violin Sonata in E Minor K. 304. She will pair her musical offerings with audio visuals to provide a multi-sensory connection with the audience and window into some of her reflections.

Njioma Grevious, violin

Performing songs created by the most iconic musicians in rock history, The Rock and Roll Playhouse band offers its core audience of families with children aged 1-7 games, movement, stories and most importantly, an opportunity to rock out. It allows parents to enjoy the music they love while little fans are encouraged to explore their creativity and have fun!

Music of David Bowie & More for Kids

Performing songs created by the most iconic musicians in rock history, The Rock and Roll Playhouse band offers its core audience of families with children aged 1-7 games, movement, stories and most importantly, an opportunity to rock out. It allows parents to enjoy the music they love while little fans are encouraged to explore their creativity and have fun

Music of Taylor Swift & More for Kids

The concert features performers of international stature from the US, Europe and Georgia. Listeners will be treated to a concert of opera repertoire, followed by a reception with wine and ethnic Georgian cuisine.

USA-Georgia Christmas Gala

Music is called the universal language, but what does that really mean? Pianist Pedja Mužijević leads this interactive performance with a wide range of short piano works, from Joseph Haydn to Henry Cowell, and asks the audience very specific questions that will encourage us all to react to music with our instincts.

Pedja Mužijević, piano

“Intensely wrought and burnished” (Strings Magazine), violinist Grace Park has captivated audiences with her artistry, passion and virtuosity. Winner of the Naumburg International Violin Competition, she is one of the leading artists of her generation.

Brook Speltz is the cellist of the internationally renowned Escher String Quartet and an artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.  An extremely versatile cellist, Mr. Speltz has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and recitalist throughout the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Golka-Park-Speltz Trio

The 2024 Broadway Close Up season concludes with a spirited and slightly wacky competition for the Greatest Musical of All Time! Who would you choose in a no holds barred face-off between Broadway legends like Sondheim, Porter, Miranda, Bock & Harnick and Rodgers & Hammerstein? Award-winning lyricist Marcy Heisler and theater historian Ben West (author of the acclaimed new book The American Musical: Evolution of an Art Form) will join host Sean Hartley in making the case for six different great musicals, and the audience will choose the winner.

Broadway Super Smackdown

How are composers able to capture the hustle and bustle of the city? Join Parlando as it explores the sounds of the city, from Seoul to Berlin to Buenos Aires. The program includes Unsuk Chin’s kaleidoscopic Gougalon, Erwin Schulhoff’s jazzy Suite for Chamber Orchestra, and Astor Piazzolla’s Nuevo Tango Suite Punta del Este, featuring bandoneon soloist JP Jofre.

Parlando: Sidewalk Tango

It's time again for a yearly tradition. Singer/songwriter David Ippolito “That Guitar Man from Central Park” shares a much needed night of music and laughs, stories, thoughts and feelings… with all the usual suspects: George Wurzbach, Teresa Reynolds, Chris Tedesco, Dan Paccione, Ryan Cavan and Denise Meagher.

David Ippolito: Somethingth Annual Concert

Celebrating the 150th birth year of Arnold Schoenberg, the ensemble presents a semi-staged production of his groundbreaking expressionist cabaret Pierrot Lunaire with soprano Hila Baggio as the sad clown. Stravinsky’s brilliant Petrushka and Ravel’s La Valse complete the exploration of early 20th century masterworks.

Israeli Chamber Project: Two Clowns – Pierrot Meets Petrushka

The program features eight new works commissioned for Hub’s 10th birthday by composers whose work gives a snapshot of music being written today:  Angélica Negrón, Jessica Meyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Nico Muhly, Donnacha Dennehy, Marcos Balter, Sage Shurman and Andrew Norman.

Hub Mix Tape

“My debut concert celebrates how music can be an act of homage. The pieces I have chosen are all brought together by a common thread, with each composer paying tribute to something or someone great, a gesture that I find to be deeply meaningful. Whether it be Beethoven’s homage to Mozart, Ginastera’s visceral exploration of the Argentine landscapes, or Brahms’s reverence for Bach, I hope to give you a glimpse into what moved these great composers to write their remarkable and captivating music.”

Young Concert Artists: Benett Tsai, cello

Today The Nutcracker is a holiday classic beloved by all ages, but the ballet’s 1892 premiere in St. Petersburg was a total flop. The music, however, was wildly successful. This December, brace yourself for an unforgettable deep dive into Tchaikovsky's magnificent masterpiece The Nutcracker and reignite your love for the magic of the season.

Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker

Embark on an unforgettable journey filled with emotions, as you experience the music of Fryderyk Chopin and Ignacy Paderewski, two world-famous pianists and composers. Ignacy Paderewski was an idol of the American audience, with popularity comparable to that of Elvis Presley and The Beatles. He was a friend to six U.S. presidents, a philanthropist supporting American composers, and one of the donors of the Washington Arch. The event will feature a short documentary film about Ignacy Paderewski in America

Paderewski Returns to NY Festival Opening Concert

In its second season, the Crescendo Orchestra takes to the stage for their first concert of the 2024-25 Season presenting an array of pieces by both well-known and underrepresented composers.

NYYS Crescendo Orchestra's Embarking on a New Journey

Returning to Merkin Hall after their sold-out show last fall, the prizewinning cello quartet performs the world premiere of a cello quartet by Brazilian composer André Mehmari, plus world premieres of new arrangements of music by Niccolò Paganini, L.V. Beethoven and David Popper. With members from China, Brazil, South Korea and the U.S., Galvin Cello Quartet​ explores the limitless range of a cello ensemble by bringing together new works from diverse cultural backgrounds. They burst onto the scene after capturing the silver medal at the 2021 Fischoff Competition, followed shortly by winning the 2022 Victor Elmaleh Competition and joining the Concert Artists Guild roster.

Galvin Cello Quartet

Saxophonist and composer Darius Jones bridges the landscape between the New York avant-jazz scene and contemporary composition. He brings these musical worlds together for the first time at a performance featuring his two most iconic works in one night: Samesoul Maker and fLuXkit Vancouver

Darius Jones: Samesoul Maker and fLuXkit Vancouver

Conceived by baritone Justin Austin, this program tells a story of brotherly love and community among Black men in America through art song, soul, gospel and opera. "My Brother’s Keeper" features a stellar team of Black American male singers, including Austin, tenor Joshua Blue, baritone Will Liverman, bass-baritone Joseph Parrish, baritone Jorell Williams and tenor Chaz'men Williams-Ali, alongside NYFOS's own Steven Blier.

New York Festival of Song: My Brother's Keeper

Discover the genius of Carolyn Leigh, lyricist for Peter Pan, Wildcat and Little Me, as well as hit songs like “Witchcraft,” “Young At Heart” and “The Best Is Yet To come.” Her witty and sophisticated lyrics established her as one of the great lyricists of the 20th century. A cast of Broadway Close Up all-stars will champion this remarkable talent.

Hey, Look Me Over: The Lyrics of Carolyn Leigh

Founded in 1984 by renowned tenor and conductor Chungmao Zhu, Haiyun Chorus is one of the oldest and longest-running Chinese-language choruses on the East Coast. This year, they have the pleasure of celebrating 40 years spanning hundreds of concerts serving New York and New Jersey, showcasing Chinese choral music, opera, orchestra, and diverse cultural performances. 

The Joy of Music 韻音嘉樂

NYCMC uses a sliding scale ticket model. "Pay it forward" tickets are $35, standard priced tickets are $25, and discounted tickets are $10. This ticket model is designed so that everyone can attend our concerts regardless of financial circumstances. The $25 and $10 tickets are accessible using the codes NYCMC-25 and NYCMC-10.

NYC Master Chorale: Lift Every Voice and Sing

170 years after Leoš Janáček's birth in 1854, Lisa Moore presents the composer’s three major works for piano, while centering her program around early 20th century music inspired by imagery and features of the natural world, life cycles and humanity. The concert includes the New York premiere of Meadow Bridgham’s Seventeen Years – the life cycle of a cicada – celebrating this insect's 2024 rare double brood.

Lisa Moore, piano

Music of The Beatles & More for Kids

THE OPERA TECH, an exciting new opera company in NYC, invites you to an unforgettable evening celebrating the icons of American music. The concert will be conducted by David Wroe, known for his work with top orchestras, including the New York City Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Saint Louis Symphony.

A Celebration of Iconic American Composers

The two-time Grammy-award winning Attacca Quartet performs Caroline Shaw’s Valencia, plus pieces from their genre-busting 2021 album Of All Joys, a powerful musical journey that folds late 20th-century minimalism back onto the music of the Renaissance. ​Attacca Quartet “lives in the present aesthetically, without rejecting the virtues of the musical past” (The Nation), and are recognized and acclaimed as one of the most versatile and outstanding ensembles of the moment — a true quartet for modern times. Gliding through traditional classical repertoire to electronica, video game music and contemporary collaborations, they are one of the world’s most innovative and respected ensembles. With students from Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School and the John J. Cali School of Music.

Attacca Quartet

Violinist Daniel Rafimayeri is the 2019 Burdick-Thorne Gold medalist of the Stulberg International String Competition. An alum of NPR’s From The Top, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Aspen Music Festival and the Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as in multiple chamber showcases with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Daniel Rafimayeri, violin

Join Musicians of the Philharmonic for personal and intimate performances, and experience the personality of the performers. See how a small setting can amplify a huge musical event

Gershwin, Copland, Price & Piatigorsky

The celebrated vocal ensemble returns to Merkin Hall after two sold-out performances last season. VOCES8 is joined by virtuoso violinist Jack Liebeck for a program centered around Ralph Vaughn Williams’s celebrated The Lark Ascending. In a unique choral arrangement, VOCES8 sings the Meredith poetry that was so inspirational to the original conception of the work. Continuing the avian theme is a suite from VOCES8’s Grammy® nominated album The Lost Birds by Christopher Tin. J.S. Bach’s Partita No. 2 offers Jack Liebeck the opportunity to take flight in this iconic work for unaccompanied violin; VOCES8 presents verses from the chorales which Bach was composing around, culminating in a unique setting of the famous Ciaccona with interpolated chorale melodies. Opening with MacMillan’s dramatic setting, the program is gilded by works from two of the finest contemporary choral composers writing in the U.S. today, Ola Gjeilo and Taylor Scott Davis.

Returning to Merkin Hall after sold-out performances last season, the Grammy-nominated vocal ensemble brings their signature virtuosity to repertoire from early to modern. A place inhabited by the moon and stars, by solitude, dreams, fears and prayers, the night has given us centuries of exquisite poetry and music. Celebrating the release of VOCES8’s newest album with Decca Classics, this nocturnal program has a wide-ranging repertoire stretching from Venetian Renaissance composer Giovanni Croce to contemporary U.S. composers Taylor Scott Davis and Dan Forrest, and includes selections from arrangements of pop and jazz feature swing tunes, ballads and even James Bond songs.

Bound for Broadway returns with a sneak peek at some of the best new shows headed for New York's bright lights! Emmy Award-winner and Tony nominee Liz Callaway interviews some of musical theater’s most fascinating voices, followed by performances of selected songs. The writers include Richard Maltby & David Shire (Baby, Big, Starting Here, Starting Now); Gavin Creel (Tony winner for Hello, Dolly!); Curtis Moore (The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel); Amanda Green (Hands on a Hardbody), Craig Lucas (An American in Paris, Days of Wine and Roses) and Daniel Messé (Amélie).

Bound for Broadway

Few artists pack as much energy, virtuosity and charisma into their performances as multi-instrumentalist and WMI Honorary Board member Carlos Núñez. Steeped in the rich Celtic traditions of Galicia on the northwest coast of Spain where he was born and still resides, he is renowned as the world’s leading gaita player, mastering the bagpipes of this maritime region. The Los Angeles Times says, “If it’s possible to become a pop star playing traditional music on bagpipes and recorder, Núñez could be the man.” His latest album, Celtic Sea, pays tribute to the Celtic roots of Brittany, France, which is considered to be the heart of all Atlantic Celts. Núñez and his band return to Kaufman Music Center following a sold-out performance in 2017. Part of the Origins series.

Carlos Núñez

Michael Dadap is dedicating this concert of Filipino works on his 80th Birthday celebration to raise scholarships for students with financial need at the Children's Orchestra Society. It is the culmination of a lifetime of works inspired by his homeland, filled with nostalgia for the many years he was away from home, reminiscing on the people, customs and celebrations of his hometown.

Handurawan: featuring works by Michael Dadap

Repertory and world premiere works for piano featuring pianists Sharon Chang, Dominika Gacka and Mateusz Borowiak and composer Louis Pelosi.

Pelosi and Pianists: Repertory and New Works

The NTD International Piano Competition (NIPC), the only world-class piano event organized by a global television network, New Tang Dynasty (NTD) Television, proudly announces its seventh edition. The competition will be held at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in New York City from October 15 to 19, 2024, dedicated exclusively to preserving and revitalizing classical piano music. This prestigious event celebrates the magnificent legacy of Western culture and aims to restore the splendor of piano masterpieces from the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic periods. 

The Seventh NTD International Piano Competition Winners Concert & Award Ceremony

The Seventh NTD International Piano Competition Final Round

Jonathan Leibovitz is “an extraordinarily gifted clarinetist” with “that singular ability to mesmerise the listener in everything he does, moulding every phrase with imagination, infallible control and above all with a commanding personality” (BBC Music Magazine). The program traces the lineage of the German-speaking musical tradition of the 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the most fertile chapters in Western music and a world of Romantic introspection, rigorous craftsmanship and expressive depth. A winner of the prestigious Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2024, he is the winner of the 2022 Arthur Waser Prize and the 2021 Crusell International Clarinet Competition, and a laureate of both the Israeli Wind Competition and the Aviv Competition of the America-Israeli Cultural Foundation. As a concerto soloist, Leibovitz has performed with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Israel Chamber Orchestra, and the Vaasa City and Kuopio Symphony Orchestras in Finland. In 2024, he released his debut album, Eastern Reflections, on Delphian Records.

Kaufman Music Center

Nov 3, 2026

Jonathan Leibovitz, clarinet

Nov 12, 2026

Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht & Elisabeth Hauptmann's "Happy End"

Nov 16, 2026

Broadway Close Up: Bound for Broadway

Nov 21, 2026

The Hands Free & Dance Heginbotham: The Party Scene

Dec 7, 2026

Broadway Close Up: Broadway in the 50’s

Oct 30, 2026

VOCES8 at Trinity Church

Oct 29, 2026

Voces8

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