GatherNYC | Schedule

Artistic Directors of GatherNYC, cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, are joined by New York Philharmonic violinist Audrey Wright, returning for her second performance at GatherNYC, and acclaimed clarinetist Jo-Ann Sternberg for a vibrant, eclectic program of music by Paul Wiancko, Olivier Messiaen and more.

NOV 2 • Hanzhi Wang + Ivan Filipchyk, accordions

This concert traces a musical journey from the Baroque era to contemporary times, showcasing the accordion’s remarkable versatility. Beginning with solo works and expanding to the dynamic interplay of two accordions, the program explores the instrument’s orchestral depth and tonal diversity. A highlight of the morning is the duo accordion arrangement of Petrushka, offering a fresh perspective on Stravinsky’s iconic work.

NOV 9 • Matt Haimovitz, cello

Renowned as a musical pioneer, multi-GRAMMY-nominated cellist Matt Haimovitz has inspired classical music lovers and countless new listeners by bringing his artistry to concert halls, clubs, outdoor festivals, and intimate coffee houses—any place where passionate music can be heard. For his GatherNYC debut, Haimovitz pairs new music from his innovative “Primavera Project” with timeless classics by J.S. Bach.

NOV 16 • The Westerlies

Returning to GatherNYC for the second time following their wildly successful debut in 2019, New York-based brass quartet The Westerlies present a bold and deeply personal vision of brass through a program that features music from across the vast canvas of American music. Traditional expectations of brass are turned on their head as the ensemble blurs the lines between jazz, classical and folk traditions.

NOV 23 • Rachel Lee Priday, violin

During the pandemic, ocean scientist Georgy Manucharyan reached out to violinist Rachel Lee Priday with fascinating videos of fluid dynamics experiments he had captured in his lab. These films struck Rachel as water choreography, seeking a musical response from a group of leading American composers to engage with the ways in which the laws of physics, which unite us all, leave space for individuality, chance, and interpretation. These stunning new compositions written by some of the most acclaimed composers of our time including Leilehua Lanzilotti, Paul Wiancko, Timo Andres, Gabriella Smith and more, reflect how we all derive energy from nature and in turn project our inner lives onto the observed world around us. Threads of minimalism, cyclical structures, unbridled lyricism, motoric energy and physicality run through the entire program.

NOV 30 • Kayla Williams + Friends

Violist, vocalist, and composer Kayla Williams explores a multidisciplinary approach to contemporary chamber music. Her ensemble strives to bridge the gaps between classical, jazz, folk, and roots music bringing each of these musical communities into conversation and collaboration.

DEC 7 • [OFFSITE LOCATION] GatherNYC Downtown*: Natalie

Tenenbaum, piano

In this special offsite performance taking place in a private loft in Manhattan, the superstar pianist Natalie Tenenbaum, known for her fluency in a wide variety of musical styles including classical, jazz, pop, Broadway and more, will share an intimate acoustic set of her original works and improvisations.

DEC 14 • Renaissance String Quartet

Founded in 2021 by violinists Randall Goosby and Jeremiah Blacklow, violist Jameel Martin, and cellist Daniel Hass, 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. For their first appearance at GatherNYC, the quartet performs music from its debut album Love & Levity.

DEC 21 • Bridget Kibbey, harp

GatherNYC welcomes back acclaimed harpist Bridget Kibbey for her second appearance on the series. In a virtuosic and charming holiday baroque program, Kibbey plays a set of solo transcriptions by J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti alongside her own improvisations and arrangements celebrating the holiday season.

JAN 4 • Devony Smith, mezzo-soprano + Jesse Blumberg,

baritone with Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC rings in the new year with a pair of powerhouse vocalists known for their creativity and curiosity. Mezzo-soprano Devony Smith and baritone Jesse Blumberg join GatherNYC artistic directors Rupet Boyd and Laura Metcalf for an eclectic program of music by Schubert, Mazzolli, Falla and more.

JAN 11 • Yasmin Williams, guitar

Yasmin Williams, a young guitar and plucked string virtuoso who is taking the world by storm with her captivating performances, will present a solo performance of her own original compositions, including her distinct and innovative approach to playing the guitar, in a unique blend of folk, blues, classical and Appalachian influences.

JAN 18 • Ember (violin + cello + harp)

GatherNYC is proud to present this newly-formed ensemble consisting of harpist Emily Levin, violinist Julia Choi and cellist Christine Lamprea, in a concert featuring repertoire from their debut album Birds of Paradise, released in Fall 2025 to great critical acclaim. With this release, the ensemble challenges the role of the harp as an instrument of femininity and domesticity, centering it in a position of power and strength.

JAN 25 • Isabel Hagen, viola & comedy

Isabel Hagen is a stand-up comedian and classically trained violist. As a stand-up, she has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon multiple times, and as a New Face of Comedy at the prestigious Just for Laughs festival in Montréal. Isabel started stand-up immediately after earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in viola performance from the Juilliard School. As a violist, she has played in the orchestra of many Broadway shows, and worked with artists such as Vampire Weekend, Bjork, Max Richter, and Steve Reich. You might be wondering if Isabel ever combines comedy and viola. The answer: sometimes!

FEB 1 • Empire Wild

Empire Wild, founded by Juilliard-trained cellists Mitchell Lyon and Ken Kubota, joins forces with acclaimed jazz pianist Addison Frei for a genre-bending program that fuses pop, folk, jazz, and classical traditions into an electrifying, original sound. Honored with the Concert Artists Guild Ambassador Prize, the ensemble captivates audiences with inventive compositions, reimagined classics, and the limitless possibilities of cross-genre collaboration.

FEB 8 • Sonnambula

Praised as “remarkable” and “superb” by the New Yorker, Sonnambula is a historically-informed ensemble that brings to light unknown music for various combinations of early instruments with the lush sound of the viol at the core. The ensemble is currently the 2025-26 ensemble in residence at The Frick Collection, and will share music from their recently-released and critically-acclaimed album Passing Fancy: Beauty in a Moment of Chaos. Do not miss the chance to hear these rare and beautiful instruments up close!

FEB 15 • Tallā Rouge

Tallā Rouge's brings selections from their debut album, Shapes in Collective Space to GatherNYC, weaving together a narrative of love, loss, childlike glee, and reflection. Featuring diverse and genre-defying compositions by inti figgis-vizueta, Kian Ravaei, Karl Mitze, and Leilehua Lanzilotti, Tallā Rouge sonically explores the raw emotions that shape our collective humanity — beckoning us to embrace and cherish the impermanence of life.

FEB 22 • Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC’s own artistic directors, cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, take the stage to share several World Premieres for the unique combination of cello and guitar by Stephen Goss, Reinaldo Moya and more, as well as works from their upcoming third album release.

MAR 1 • Exponential Ensemble

Exponential Ensemble, led by clarinetist Pascal Archer, is one of the most fresh and innovative ensembles on the NYC music scene. Exponential Ensemble’s mission includes commissioning and premiering works by living composers that are inspired by math, science and literacy, and their GatherNYC debut will feature exciting new works for clarinet, oboe, flute and bassoon, paired with more well-known classics.

MAR 8 • Inbal Segev, cello

Inbal Segev, a formidable cello soloist who stands out not only for her captivating sound and stage presence, but also for her curiosity and creativity. She has commissioned and premiered numerous concertos for cello and orchestra, and for this intimate solo performance she invites us into her compelling sound world, playing both her own compositions and music of Anna Clyne, Missy Mazzolli and more.

MAR 15 • Palaver Strings

GatherNYC is proud to present this masterful and creative Portland, ME- based string chamber orchestra. Their program “The Apple of Their Eyes” explores the African-American experience in classical music, through the eyes of Black composers. It begins with William Grant Still’s lush and lyrical Mother and Child, and continues with Perry’s understated Prelude for Piano, arranged for strings. At the heart of the program is Edmund Thornton Jenkins Romance and Reverie Phantasy for Violin and String Orchestra, restored, edited, and arranged by Tuffus Zimbabwe, featuring Palaver violinist Maïthéna Girault. The Apple of their Eyes encapsulates the African-American experience, and celebrates the richness and depth of Black classical music.

MAR 22 • The Knights: An Interactive Family Concert

Following their wildly successful family concert in November 2024, The Knights return to GatherNYC with a new program, also designed for the whole family. “Toy Bricks” is an interactive family concert that highlights playful interactions between stringed instruments, both large and small! Musical games and friendly competition bring friends together in a range of repertoire, culminating in a performance of Paul Wiancko’s Toy Bricks for violin, two cellos, and bass. This program is created and hosted by Knights cellist Caitlin Sullivan.

MAR 29 • String Trios: Miranda Cuckson, violin +

Jessica Meyer, viola + Laura Metcalf, cello

This program brings together 4 electrifying contemporary string trios by living female composers: Jessica Meyer, Missy Mazzolli, Nina C. Young, and Dobrinka Tabakova. These powerful works push the boundaries of what is possible on three stringed instruments.

APR 5 • Rachell Ellen Wong, violin + David Belkovski,

harpsichord

Following their much-loved performance at GatherNYC in 2023 as part of the early music collective Twelfth Night, Wong and Belkovski return to the stage for a charming and intimate recital featuring impeccably performed Baroque gems.

APR 12 • Boyd Meets Girl + Friends play Clarice Assad &

Osvoldo Golijov

This exciting program for flute, guitar and string quartet pair works by two superstar Latin-American composers whose styles contrast and compliment each other. Golijov’s achingly beautiful Tenebrae is juxtaposed with Clarice Assad’s exhilarating Sephardic Suite. Boyd Meets Girl is joined by violinists David Felberg and Jennifer Choi and violist En-Chi Cheng.

APR 19 • Kebra-Seyoun Charles, bass & composer

Kebra-Seyoun Charles is a distinguished double bass soloist and composer lauded for their counter-classical musical language and their ability to aptly communicate complex ideas and emotions to audiences. For their GatherNYC debut, they will perform a new work entitled “Shango” for bass and percussion duo, interspersed with virtuosic double bass solos.

APR 26 • Poiesis Quartet

Fresh off their win at the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition (arguably the most important competition of its kind in the world), this fast-rising young string quartet will treat audiences to its vital and energetic approach to music-making and programming.

MAY 3 • Tommy Mesa, cello + JP Jofre, bandoneon

Two of the most exciting soloists working today, Mesa and Jofre come together for a morning of tango and tango-inspired works that spotlight the unusual combination of their instruments, cello and bandoneon, while allowing each performer to shine.

MAY 10 • Curtis Stewart, violin & composer

GatherNYC favorite, Curtis Stewart, returns to the stage with a preview of his much-anticipated project “24 American Caprices.” The 24 American Caprices are inspired by a kaleidoscope of recorded American music, with some honorary American additions...musical aspects of each inspiration are abstracted and imbued with challenging violin techniques emulating the sounds and styles of their origin. In the full meaning of caprice, these violin fragments dance and sing lightly from inspiration to ornamentation, both with flights of fantasy and fastidious settings of referenced material, creating playful musical dialogue around American lineage and individual perspective in Classical music.

MAY 17 • Catalyst Quartet

The Grammy-winning Catalyst Quartet, known for their masterful, comprehensive recordings of music by Black composers throughout history, bring their signature polish and style back to GatherNYC for the second time.

MAY 24 • Aeolus Quartet

The acclaimed Aeolus Quartet presents a touching and thoughtful program for their first performance at GatherNYC. From a Bach chorale composed to unite the voices of church congregations to the expansive Overture and Chorale by Andrea Casarrubios inspired by it; from the textural celebration of Montgomery's Strum to the bubbling virtuosity of Bacewicz’s Quartet No 3 composed in the new world that arose from the ashes of WWII. In this program, storytelling and silence give way to the tender slow movement of Price’s G Major Quartet rooted in the tradition of Black spirituals.

MAY 31 • Season Finale: Musicians from the NY Phil +

Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC artistic directors Laura Metcalf and Rupert Boyd once again team up with members of the New York Philharmonic, including returning violist Leah Ferguson, violinist Alina Kobialka and more, to craft an exhilarating program centered around Aaron Jay Kernis’ tour de force for guitar and string quartet, “100 Greatest Dance Works.” Dance into the summer and celebrate the conclusion of another wonderful season of GatherNYC!

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