Performances
& Events
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Melody Eötvös, Red Dirt | Silver Rain
Stanford Philharmonia
Bing Concert Hall | Stanford, CA
Paul Phillips, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
Red Dirt | Silver Rain was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Stacy Garrop, CHROMA
Sounds in Color: Mussorgsky, Garrop, & Puts
Lexington Philharmonic
Singletary Center for the Arts | Lexington, KY
Mélisse Brunet, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a third national consortium, featuring three new commissions of full-length, 25- to 30-minute concert works. World premieres and repeat performances of the new works by a consortium of nine orchestras will occur during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
CHROMA was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
December 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Hilary Purrington, Words for Departure
Light in Winter
Mankato Symphony Orchestra
Good Counsel Chapel | Mankato, MN
Ernesto Estigarribia Mussi, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
Words for Departure was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
December 5, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Hilary Purrington, Words for Departure
Light in Winter
Mankato Symphony Orchestra
Good Counsel Chapel | Mankato, MN
Ernesto Estigarribia Mussi, conductor
December 5, 2026 at 8:00pm
A Night of Inspiration
Ray Chew, Music Director
On Saturday, December 5 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, Carnegie Hall presents A Night of Inspiration, an uplifting evening of music, dance, and spoken work from diverse traditions. Under the direction of acclaimed producer, composer, and music director Ray Chew, and co-produced with his wife and business partner, Vivian Scott Chew, the uplifting performance returns to the Hall for the sixth time. The performance features an all-star lineup including Regina Belle, Jekalyn Carr, James Hall, Lisa Knowles-Smith & The Brown Singers, Donald Lawrence, Jonathan McReynolds, Wess Morgan, Azi Schwartz, Avery Sunshine, Darrel Walls, and more. The night will also include presenting the second annual Agape Award to Pastor Shirley Caesar and a special tribute to the renowned gospel artist Maestro Richard Smallwood. Joining Night of Inspiration for the first year will be the American Composers Orchestra (ACO).
Photo credit: Jennifer Taylor
December 5, 2026 at 8:00pm
A Night of Inspiration
Ray Chew, Music Director
Photo credit: Jennifer Taylor
Led by Ray Chew, ACO performs selections from world-class artists with a special tribute to Richard Smallwood, in an uplifting evening co-produced by Vivian Scott Chew
February 13, 2027 at 7:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Niloufar Iravani, Reflections
Free Spirit
Valdosta Symphony Orchestra
Whitehead Auditorium | Valdosta, GA
Howard Hsu, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
Reflections was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
February 13, 2027 at 7:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Niloufar Iravani, Reflections
Free Spirit
Valdosta Symphony Orchestra
Whitehead Auditorium | Valdosta, GA
Howard Hsu, conductor
March 14, 2027 at 3:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Moni Jasmine Guo, the sound of where i came from (乡音 Xiāng Yīn)
Masterworks IV: Orchestra Unleashed
Bangor Symphony Orchestra
Collins Center for the Arts | Orono, ME
TBD, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established two 30-orchestra consortiums, each supporting commissions by six women and nonbinary EarShot alumni. Each composer writes a 6–8 minute orchestral work and develops an educational or community-focused program presented in partnership with each orchestra. In the 2025–26 season, composers have their works performed by nineteen orchestras across the U.S.
the sound of where i came from (乡音 Xiāng Yīn) was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
March 17, 2027 at 4:30 PM
CoLABoratory Workshop
American Composers Orchestra
DiMenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
Featured Artists and Works:
Marie A. Douglas, New Work
March 17, 2027 at 4:30 PM
CoLABoratory Workshop
American Composers Orchestra
DiMenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
Thursday, March 18, 2027 at 7:30 PM
New Virtuoso: Low End Theory
American Composers Orchestra
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall | New York City, NY
Jordan Bak, Viola
Tommy Mesa, Cello
José Luis Gomez, Conductor
Program
STEPHEN HARTKE Da Pacem for Cello and Orchestra (NY Premiere)
MALACHI BROWN From Birth. (World Premiere)
HORACIO FERNÁNDEZ Sinfonía Tumbada (World Premiere)
MICHAEL FRAZIER los quetzales for Viola and Orchestra (NY Premiere)
LAURA ORTMAN Unsurrenderable Glisten of the Ices for Orchestra and Electronics (World Premiere)
Jordan Bak, Viola
Tommy Mesa, Cello
José Luis Gomez, Conductor
March 19, 2027 at 4:30 PM
CoLABoratory Workshop
American Composers Orchestra
DiMenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
March 19, 2027 at 4:30 PM
CoLABoratory Workshop
American Composers Orchestra
DiMenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
April 3, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Marina López, Moño
Crouching Tiger Concerto
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
Robinson Center | Little Rock, AR
TBD, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established two 30-orchestra consortiums, each supporting commissions by six women and nonbinary EarShot alumni. Each composer writes a 6–8 minute orchestral work and develops an educational or community-focused program presented in partnership with each orchestra. In the 2025–26 season, composers have their works performed by nineteen orchestras across the U.S.
Moño was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
April 3, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Marina López, Moño
Crouching Tiger Concerto
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
Robinson Center | Little Rock, AR
TBD, conductor
April 4, 2027 at 3:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Marina López, Moño
Crouching Tiger Concerto
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
Robinson Center | Little Rock, AR
TBD, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established two 30-orchestra consortiums, each supporting commissions by six women and nonbinary EarShot alumni. Each composer writes a 6–8 minute orchestral work and develops an educational or community-focused program presented in partnership with each orchestra. In the 2025–26 season, composers have their works performed by nineteen orchestras across the U.S.
Moño was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
April 4, 2027 at 3:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Marina López, Moño
Crouching Tiger Concerto
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
Robinson Center | Little Rock, AR
TBD, conductor
April 10, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Andrea Reinkemeyer, Water Sings Fire
Beethoven 7 + Jacqueline Tso Plays Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto
Greenville Symphony
Peace Concert Hall | Greenville, SC
Lee Mills, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
Water Sings Fire was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
April 10, 2027 at 7:30 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Andrea Reinkemeyer, Water Sings Fire
Beethoven 7 + Jacqueline Tso Plays Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto
Greenville Symphony
Peace Concert Hall | Greenville, SC
Lee Mills, conductor
April 11, 2027 at 3:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Andrea Reinkemeyer, Water Sings Fire
Beethoven 7 + Jacqueline Tso Plays Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto
Greenville Symphony
Peace Concert Hall | Greenville, SC
Lee Mills, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
Water Sings Fire was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
April 11, 2027 at 3:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Andrea Reinkemeyer, Water Sings Fire
Beethoven 7 + Jacqueline Tso Plays Butterfly Lovers’ Concerto
Greenville Symphony
Peace Concert Hall | Greenville, SC
Lee Mills, conductor
April 24, 2027 at Time TBD
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Stacy Garrop, CHROMA
Symphony in Color
Johnstown Symphony Orchestra
Venue TBD | Johnstown, PA
TBD, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a third national consortium, featuring three new commissions of full-length, 25- to 30-minute concert works. World premieres and repeat performances of the new works by a consortium of nine orchestras will occur during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
CHROMA was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
May 2, 2027 at 5:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Xi Wang, Lotus Prayer
Concert Title TBD
Westerville Symphony
Venue TBD | Westerville, OH
TBD, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
Lotus Prayer was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
June 11, 2027 at 11:00 AM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Chen-Hui Jen, in eternal dusk
Season Finale: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony with Gábor Takács-Nagy
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Concert Hall | Saint Paul, MN
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
in eternal dusk was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
June 12, 2027 at 7:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Chen-Hui Jen, in eternal dusk
Season Finale: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony with Gábor Takács-Nagy
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Concert Hall | Saint Paul, MN
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
in eternal dusk was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
June 13, 2027 at 7:00 PM
Virginia B. Toulmin Commission Concert
Chen-Hui Jen, in eternal dusk
Season Finale: Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony with Gábor Takács-Nagy
Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ordway Concert Hall | Saint Paul, MN
Gábor Takács-Nagy, conductor
The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation Orchestral Commissions Program: American Composers Orchestra and League of American Orchestras have established a new repeat performances initiative that will support additional presentations of previously commissioned works by the 16 composers from the original 2014-2019 cohort of program participants. The repeat performances will occur throughout the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons and will feature a new roster of 16 participating orchestras.
in eternal dusk was commissioned by the League of American Orchestras with the generous support of the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
A celebration of composers with roots in New England, ACO’s season opener includes the world premieres of Hilary Purrington’s Harp of Nerves featuring guitarist JIJI and orchestrations of Selected Songs by Charles Ives, arranged by Purrington, Hannah Lash, and Jonathan Bailey Holland, featuring mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. The New York City premiere of Matthew Aucoin’s Evidence completes the program.
Dear Friends,Welcome to American Composer Orchestra’s first post-pandemic concert at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. ACO had an exciting kickoff to its season with a Friends and Family composer gathering and our telematic tour-de-force New Canons. Tonight, we are honored to return to Carnegie Hall with Sanctuary, featuring two stellar artists—conductor Marin Alsop and violinist Jennifer Koh—whose tireless work on behalf of composers throughout the world has changed the face of music in our generation. The fact that Maestra Alsop performed with ACO decades ago makes this evening doubly special for both our musicians and audience. Sanctuary is a journey exploring the places, company, and states of mind in which composers seek inviolable refuge and inspiration. Throughout the two years of the pandemic, sanctuary has taken many forms for us all, as we have grappled with challenges both quotidien and metaphysical. For those of us who love and participate in the performing arts, the period has assured us that we will never again take for granted the kind of communal experience in which we partake this evening. Lisa Bielawa’s Sanctuary, written for Jennifer Koh, is an extraordinary historical research project around this powerful word, documenting the rhetoric around founding American principles and every important struggle throughout our history. In Restless Oceans, Anna Clyne finds inspiration in a poem by Audra Lorde; the musicians raise their voices in song and use their feet to stand united in a defiant work that embraces the power of women. Hannah Kendall’s alternately buoyant and serene Tuxedo: Vasco ‘de’ Gama takes its title from Jean-Michel Basquiat’s iconic collection of 16 diagrammatic block pieces. With a nod to the traditional African-American spiritual “Wade in the Water,” the work conjures both the majesty and elegance highlighted by the artist as well as her own reflective take on the history of globalization and multiculturalism ushered in by the famed Portuguese explorer. Dai Wei's commission Invisible Portals, her Underwood Readings commission, is a meditation on Shambhala, the legendary Tibetan realm of peace and prosperity. She describes the portals as a place in which "multicultural and multidimensional conversations interweave beyond time and space." And Paula Matthusen's newly commissioned Prophecy in Reverse considers whether the notion of sanctuary evokes a space, feeling, sound or something else entirely. The work is a collaboration with poet Danielle Vogel, whose work Sea Margin: a prophecy in reverse, punctuates the movements via projections. We at ACO are delighted to welcome you back to Carnegie Hall with this rich musical odyssey into the human soul that is both internal and external, local and international, abstract yet wholly tied to our everyday existence. With gratitude,Derek BermelArtistic DirectorMelissa NganPresident and CEO
The Gathering: A Collective Sonic Ring Shout is a sonic quest rooted in the African and African American ritual of the Ring Shout. Woven together through a diverse array of multidisciplinary artists featuring new musical works for orchestra and choir, this evening-length event brings the ancestral tradition of the Ring Shout into a contemporary context, opening a space to collectively grieve, to awaken JOY as a source of LIBERATION, and to find LOVE as a form of resistance. Directed by National Black Theatre’s Executive Artistic Director, Jonathan McCrory, the program features Carlos Simon’s Amen!, Courtney Bryan’s Sanctum, and the New York premiere of Seven Last Words of the Unarmed by Joel Thompson. These works are in conversation with new commissions from Herb Alpert Award-winner Toshi Reagon, Tony Award-winner Jason Michael Webb, and Lelund Thompson created to honor our present needs for a collective space of remembrance. The performance is anchored by an 80-member orchestra and a 50-voice choir composed of singers, professional and amateur, from multiple African American churches and choral ensembles in New York.