News and Events

Nov. 12: The Music of Wendy Griffiths on "Voices of Unsung Heroes"

This full evening concert features excerpts from Wendy Griffiths' two recent operas, The Crimson Sand and Seaview.  Also on the program are some of Griffiths' art songs, The Celestial Suite for solo piano and two sections from A Veteran’s Journey. Yuzuru Sadashige will also premier some of his instrumental works. 

Nov. 1: Dance Score - A Veteran’s Journey by Wendy Griffiths

On November 1st, Allison Cook Beatty Dance will present three sections from A Veteran’s Journey, a score Wendy Griffiths received a NYSCA 2026 grant to compose. It charts the trajectory of a Veteran from active combat through PTSD, homelessness and eventual redemption.

Nov. 22: Louis Karchin's New Opera in Concert

The world premiere of Roman Fever, Louis Karchin's new one-act opera with a libretto by Joan Ross Sorkin, will take place in a concert performance at Merkin Hall on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 4:00 PM. Tickets may be reserved through the Merkin Hall box office.

Oct. 17 & 18: An Evening of Music, Movement, and Drama Featuring Lewis Nielson

An upcoming program involving music, dance, and movement will take place place at Judson Memorial Church on October 17 and 18 at 7:30 pm, presented by Lewis Nielson and Reiko Füting. The program consists of two works of music, theatre and dance. Nielson's conribution is a production of his Il Romanticismo di Lucrezia e Cesare in an entirely new version, both music and stage movement. Reiko’s work is a new one, engaging the life of Kaspar Hauser and, in his own words “explores the intersections between musical and theatrical performance, music and language, and language as sound and sense.”

The brilliant performers are Madeline Healey, soprano and Austin Lewellen, contrabass, both singing and dancing and enacting a family and power relationship well-known from the Renaissance but equally in evidence today. This program is produced in collaboration with Kathryn Irey, who brought her experience and knowledge to bear on the staging.

Judson Church is located at 55 Washington Square South, NY, NY.  The program is free and open to the public, but donations of any amount desired are welcome

Oct. 1: David Liptak's "Through the Brightening Air" to be Performed in Boston

The New England Conservatory Symphonic Winds and conductor Kevin Fitzgerald will perform David Liptak's "Through the Brightening Air" at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, October 1st. The concert is first led by Kevin Fitzgerald as he begins his tenure as Director of Wind Ensembles at NEC.

Sep. 29: Judith Shatin's Chai Variations on Eliahu Hanavi at the American Liszt Society Festival

Pianist Jose Lopez will perform Judith Shatin's Chai Variations on Eliahu Hanavi at the American Liszt Society Festival, Beauyy as a Portal to the Sacred,  at the Glenn Korff School of Music at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln on 9/29/2026. Composed while Shatin was in residence at Brahmshaus in Baden-Baden, it plays with wildly divergent distances from the theme. And it puts the variation order in the hands of the performer, with some 18! options! It ihas been recorded by Mary Kathleen Ernst on her Keeping Time album, and by Nathan Carterette on his Poets of the Piano: Acts of Prayer album. 

Sept. 27: "Karchin 75" Program by the Da Capo Chamber Players

The Da Capo Chamber Players will open their concert season with a program entitled "Karchin 75." The program will include Louis Karchin's extended vocal-instrumental cycle, Tribute to the Angels, based on poetry of H. D (a.k.a. Hilda Doolitle), along with works by Shulamit Ran, Elliott Carter, Chinary Ung, and Philip Glass. An expanded performing group will include artists soprano soloist Jennifer Zetlan, violinist Clara Kim, violist Leah Archer, percussionist John Ferrari, hornist Nicolee Kuester and conductor James Baker, in addition to the regular Da Capo players.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/karchin-75-tickets-2001429072232?aff=oddtdtcreator 

Oct. 3: New Songs for Baritone Voice from Britain and America; Karchin, Griffiths, Jazwinski, and More

Please come out to 77 White St. in Tribeca (NYC) to hear Welsh baritone, Jeremy Huw Williams, in an expansive program of works for baritone voice and piano, accompanied by Fifi Zhang. Jeremy will present Louis Karchin's Echoes and Memory, as well as Barbara Jazwinski's The Girl by the Ocean and Wendy Griffiths' Laïs to Aphrodite, among songs or song cycles by Chen Yi, Victoria Bond, Tim Mukherjee, William Cox, Tayla-Leigh Payne, Hillary Tann, John Metcalf, Friedrich Kern.

Seating is limited; please reserve seats through RSVP@numina.com.

Oct. 23 & 24: New Medical Operas by Mike Udow

Michael Udow, composer, Jeffrey Lockwood, librettist.  
Magdalena Wór, Mezzo-soprano, Thomas Bocchi, Tenor, 
Dante Mireles, Baritone.

What the surgeon said: “Get here as soon as possible.”  What he meant: Your son may not live through the night.  When I arrived at Confluence Hospital’s ICU, on July 14, 2024, my son’s muscular body was shattered and his brilliant brain battered.  He would battle through the agony of thirteen fractures, eight surgeries, and a skin graft following a head-on collision with a truck being driven by a drowsy driver.  This was an odyssey of both shared experiences and lonely hours of pain, uncertainty, despair, hope, tears, and laughter.  

Through these operas, we seek to foster mutual understanding of patients, providers, and caregivers.  We hope to cultivate empathy, humility, and gratitude among first responders, therapists, nurses, and doctors—and those who are hurting, hoping, and healing.    

Sep. 29: Upcoming Performance of Shatin's Chai Variations on Eliahu Hanavi

Pianist Jose Lopez will perform Shatin’s Chai Variations on Eliahu Hanavi at a conference called Toward Re-enchantment: Beauty as a Portal to the Sacred at the 2026 American Liszt Society Festival on 9/29 at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. Shatin composed this while in residence at Brahms Haus in Baden-Baden. The set is comprised of 18 variations, with the order chosen by the performer. It has been recorded twice: by Mary Kathleen Ernst on her Keeping Time album and by Nathan Carterette on his Poets of the Piano: Acts of Faith album. The melody is drawn from a folk tune often played at the close of the Jewish Sabbath.

Nov. 12: Composers Concordance of New York City Presents Stubblefield's "Three Wayward Songs"

Roger Stubblefield's "Three Wayward Songs" Opus 13 will be presented as part of the Composers Concordance's 2026-2027 music series. Performed by Ljiljana Winkler, Soprano and Jai Jeffryes, Piano. Lyrics by Beth Levin. The show will take place on Thursday, November 12th @ 7pm at MISE-EN_Place 45 St. Nicholas Ave., NYC.

https://composersconcordance.wixsite.com/2026-2027-season

David Lipten's "How To" Named American Prize Finalist

David Lipten's choral cycle How To, has been named a National Finalist in the 2026 American Prize (Major Choral Works). This cycle was set to the wonderful poetry of William Reichard, and performed originally by the Rocky Mountain Chamber Choir under the direction of Clifford King.

Robert Hughes music, Cabrillo Festival, July 31st 8 PM

July 11: Grafe Premiere at Kinhaven

"And cannot disentangle" for oboe, piano, and percussion by ACA member and Kinhaven Music School composer-in-residence Max Grafe will receive its world premiere by faculty members Johanna Cox Pennington, Arunesh Nadgir, and John Bannon at Kinhaven in Weston, VT on Saturday, July 11 at 7:30 pm. Free and open to the public.

July 9: Adolphe, Grafe, and Shawn at Kinhaven

Kinhaven Music School composer-in-residence Max Grafe will host a discussion with alumni Bruce Adolphe and Allen Shawn at Kinhaven in Weston, VT on Thursday, July 9 at 3:30 pm. Adolphe and Shawn will discuss their careers and work with Kinhaven students on strategies for composing and improvising music. Open to the public.

May 17th: Eriko Sato Premieres Steven Christopher Sacco's "Two Laments"

This May 17th, David Oei Classical Salon concerts will feature the premiere of S.C.Sacco's Two Laments for Solo Violin, dedicated to Eriko Sato. The program will also include works by Schubert, Fasil Say, Shaun Choo and Faure.  

May 9 & May 28-30: Performances of Scott L. Miller's Music in Minnesota Festivals

On May 9th, the champions and makers of new music in the 113 Composers Collective  will premiere a significant, half-hour work commissioned from Scott L. Miller—Creature— for saxophonist Kyle Hutchins and Zeitgeist. It premieres at their Twin Cities New Music Festival on Saturday, May 9 at the Nautilus Theater in St. Paul. Go to 113collective.com/tcnmf26 to view the line up, get tickets, and learn about all the incredible things going on during the festival.

At the end of the month, The North American Sonic Arts Collective presents the Twin Cities Loudspeaker Orchestra at the Southern Theater in four shows, May 28 - 30. Miller's spatial synthesis work Coupling VI will have its Minnesota premiere at this festival, which is inspired by the European “Acousmonium.” To quote NASAC, ‘the TC Loudspeaker Orchestra immerses audiences into a powerful, spatial listening experience where the theater itself becomes a surround-sound instrument. Sound artists "diffuse" sound across a network of speakers, creating the sensation of motion, texture, space, and dramatic aural cinematic experiences.’ Coupling VI is an ecosystemic work that moves musical objects through space based on the behavior of sound in the soundscape, while the location of the sound determines and transforms the synthesis of the sounds, so each performance is unique to that moment and space.

May 12: Judith Shatin's "Come Live With Me" at Symphony Space in NYC

Cutting Edge Concert Series presents the Whistling Hens (soprano Jennifer Piazza-Pick and clarinetist Natalie Groom) at Symphony Space on May 12, 7:30 p.m. Shatin’s Come Live With Me (formerly Wedding Music) will receive its New York concert premiere. The program also features music by Victoria Bond, Melissa Dunphy, Sonia Morale-Matos and Jennifer Stevenson. Come Live with Me, originally scored for soprano and English Horn, has multiple performance options with a variety of accompanying instruments. 

April 18: Scott Miller's "The Blue in the Distance" at St. Cloud State University Planetarium

Scott Miller and Zeitgeist New Music are remounting The Blue in the Distance — an immersive concert experience featuring music and film that celebrates natural landscape imagery in Minnesota. Originally created for VR and live music we will present it in various planetariums throughout Minnesota over the next 9 months, starting in St. Cloud.

The concert includes music by two of Miller's Minnesota composer friends and colleagues. North by Mary Ellen Childs is inspired by the composer’s travels in the Arctic and features stark and awesome imagery from above the Arctic circle and northern Minnesota as well as evocative music recorded by Zeitgeist. Zeitgeist percussionist Heather Barringer will perform several movements from Asuka Kakitani’s sonorous and colorful Twelve Months in Minnesota accompanied by new film imagery by filmmaker Caitlin Hammel.

The Blue in the Distance is a chamber work Miller wrote for Zeitgeist plus singer Tracey Englemann featuring the poetry of Joyce Sutphen and original film by Miller of the Quarry Park Reserve in Waite Park, MN. This will be a wonderful concert of beautiful music and imagery you won’t want to miss!

April 24: Music of Richard Brooks, Robert Carl, and Raoul Pleskow With the NYCC

On Friday, April 24 at Tenri Cultural Institute in NYC, the New York Composers Circle is proud to present “Songs & Serenades,” a concert of new music by nine composers including ACA’s own Richard Brooks, Robert Carl and Raoul Pleskow.  Performed by Dominika Zamara, Jinan Laurentia Woo, Cobalt Quartet, the Ever Trio, Craig Ketter and others.