2025 Season Performers
iSING! Festival Singers, Sunday, February 16, 3pm
“iSING! captured the attention of media around the world, generating coverage in the United States, Great Britain, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia. Some of the highlights included BBC World News television, print and radio, Associated Press print and television, The Los Angeles Times, Time Magazine, National Public Radio, EFE (Spanish News Agency), NBC Television, NPR and a select and prominent group of Chinese television and newspapers.” Website
Sirena Huang, Saturday, March 15, 3pm
”Praised by The Baltimore Sun for her “impeccable technique…deeply expressive phrasing…and poetic weight,” Sirena Huang is one of her generation’s most celebrated violinists. She brings not only technical brilliance and powerful artistry to the stage, but also a profound sense of connection to her audience.”
Highlights of the 2024-25 season include a recital tour of Taiwan with performances at the National Concert Hall in Taipei and the Weiwuying Recital Hall in Kaohsiung. Multiple recitals in the United States will culminate in her Carnegie Hall debut recital in Zankel Hall in April 2025 and a debut recording on the Azica label as part of her Gold Medal prize at The Indianapolis.” Website
Catalyst Quartet, Saturday, April 5 , 6pm
“Hailed by The New York Times at its Carnegie Hall debut as “invariably energetic and finely burnished… playing with earthy vigor,” the Grammy Award-winning Catalyst Quartet was founded by the internationally acclaimed Sphinx Organization in 2010. The ensemble (Karla Donehew Perez, violin; Abi Fayette, violin; Paul Laraia, viola; and Karlos Rodriguez, cello) believes in the unity that can be achieved through music and imagine their programs and projects with this in mind, redefining and reimagining the classical music experience.
The Catalyst Quartet, known for “perfect ensemble unity” and “unequaled class of execution” (Lincoln Journal Star), has toured widely throughout the United States and abroad.” Website
Michael Stephen Brown, Saturday, May 3, 6pm
Pianist-Composer Michael Stephen Brown has been hailed by The New York Times as “one of the leading figures in the current renaissance of performer-composers.”
A 2025 MacDowell Fellow and 2024 Yaddo Artist, Brown is currently composing Endangered Carnival, a large-scale co-commission premiering in 2026. Winner of the Emerging Artist Award from Lincoln Center and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, he has performed as a soloist with leading orchestras such as the Seattle Symphony and NFM Leopoldinum, and in recitals at iconic venues including Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Louvre, and Beethoven-Haus Bonn. A frequent artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Brown tours internationally with his longtime musical partner, cellist Nicholas Canellakis, and collaborates regularly with violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Arnaud Sussmann. Website
WindSync, Sunday, May 25, 6pm
”The wind quintet WindSync embraces the classics and the growing contemporary repertoire with a fresh sensibility. Versatile and vibrant, the group plays “many idioms authoritatively, elegantly, with adroit technique, and with great fun” (All About the Arts). In the span of one performance, they can cover vast musical ground from revitalized standards to freshly inked works to folk and songbook, the common thread telling a compelling story about music history and our human selves.
WindSync frequently eliminates the “fourth wall” between musicians and audience by performing from memory, creating an extraordinary connection.” Website
Sam Reider, Sunday, July 20, 6pm
”Led by Latin Grammy-nominated accordionist, pianist, and composer Sam Reider, the Human Hands is a collective of innovative acoustic musicians exploring the crossroads of folk, jazz, and traditional music from around the world. Irresistible melodies, joyful improvisation and otherworldly sounds collide in what Songlines Magazine has dubbed a “mash-up of the Klezmatics, Quintette du Hot Club de France and the Punch Brothers.” The Human Hands got their start playing late night sessions at well-known bars and music venues in Brooklyn. After releasing their debut record, Too Hot to Sleep, in 2018, they toured throughout the US, UK, and Europe appearing at premier venues and festivals like Jazz at Lincoln Center, Celtic Connections, and SFJAZZ and performing on PBS and the BBC.” Website
Park Avenue Chamber Symphony presents THE SOLDIERS TALE by Igor Stravinsky August 3, 5:30pm in the Shelter Island School Auditorium
A fully-staged production of Stravinsky’s 1918 theatrical spectacle presented by the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, directed by David Bernard, starring actor Bruce Leggett-Flynn and a breathtaking production design by contemporary artist, Ariel Adkins. The story tells of a fiddle-playing soldier who strikes a hard bargain with the Devil in a Faustian tale set to iconic chamber music from a 20th c. master. Directed by James Marshall with lighting by John Kaasik. Takes place at a new venue for SIFM, the auditorium of the Shelter Island School. Website
Oliver Neubauer and Chaeyoung Park, Friday, August 22, 7pm, Co-sponsored with the Perlman Music Program
“Oliver was commendably accurate, and the treacherous passages of fingered double-stop harmonics in the last movement were as cleanly executed as I’ve ever heard them.” —The Epoch Times
“Praised for his uniquely beautiful playing and mature artistry, violinist Oliver Neubauer is quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting young artists of his time. First prize winner of the 2023 Susan Wadsworth Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Oliver is an inaugural YCA Jacobs Fellow.” Website
Chaeyoung Park has been praised as a passionate pianist who “does not play a single note without thought or feeling” (New York Concert Reviews) Website
David Krakauer and Kathy Tagg, Sunday, August 31, 6pm
“Grammy-nominated classical, world music artist DAVID KRAKAUER and acclaimed South African-raised pianist/composer/producer KATHLEEN TAGG have created a body of work that defies stylistic confines and embodies a celebration of identity, communication, dialogue and cross-cultural connection. Widely considered one of the greatest clarinetists on the planet, Krakauer has been praised internationally as a key innovator in modern klezmer as well as a major voice in classical music. Tagg is an award-winning pianist, composer and producer who has performed on four continents, produced a catalog of classical, and multi-genre albums, had her work performed around the world, and is becoming known for her distinctive sound that mixes together acoustic and electronic sounds, loops, samples and extended techniques.” Website
Rhythm Future Quartet, Saturday, September 20, 6pm
“The acoustic jazz ensemble, Rhythm Future Quartet has a straightforward agenda: to keep the spirit of Gypsy jazz alive and expanding in today’s musical universe. The virtuosic foursome, named for a Django Reinhardt tune, offers up a newly minted sound, influenced by the classic Hot Club of France, yet wholly contemporary. Founded by violinist Jason Anick, the quartet performs dynamic and lyrical arrangements of both Gypsy jazz standards and original compositions that draw upon diverse international rhythms and musical idioms. With Max O’Rourke, Henry Acker, and Greg Loughman rounding out the quartet, Rhythm Future is dedicated to expanding the boundaries of a vital musical genre.” Website
Borromeo Quartet, Sunday, October 12, 6pm
“Each visionary performance of the award-winning Borromeo String Quartet strengthens and deepens its reputation as one of the most important ensembles of our time. Admired and sought after for both its fresh interpretations of the classical music canon and its championing of works by 20th and 21st century composers, the ensemble has been hailed for its “edge-of-the-seat performances,” by the Boston Globe, which called it “simply the best.” Website
