Orchestra of St. Luke’s in 2026–27: three series at Carnegie Hall; return of Louis Langrée & Andrew Manze; Philip Glass 90th birthday & Rostropovich centennial; Bach Festival; DiMenna Center concerts of von Bingen, Gubaidulina, Saariaho, and Monk; and much more
Top: Nobuyuki Tsujii (photo: courtesy of OSL), Louis Langrée (photo: courtesy of OSL), Liv Redpath (photo: Thomas Brunot), Ryan Speedo Green (photo: Jiyang Chen); bottom: Andrew Manze (photo: Benjamin Ealovega), Yeol Eum Son (photo: Andrew Castro), Daniele Rustioni (photo: Davide Cerati), Philip Glass (photo: Steve Pyke), Benjamin Bernheim (photo: courtesy of OSL
(May 2026) — “A mainstay of New York’s classical scene” (The New Yorker), long celebrated for its “exceptionally fine and committed music-making” (The New York Times), Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) is the only orchestra with subscription series in each of Carnegie’s three halls. Now in its 52nd year, OSL gives six performances in 2026–27 in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage: Louis Langrée returns to the OSL podium to open the season with an all-Berlioz program (Nov 5); conductor Dennis Russell Davies, violinist Robert McDuffie and baritone Zachary James join the orchestra to celebrate the music of Philip Glass on his 90th birthday, featuring the New York premiere of his “Lincoln” Symphony (Jan 31); conductor Christophe Rousset makes his OSL debut with Mozart’s Requiem (Feb 11); Andrew Manze returns to conduct OSL in Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and Third Piano Concerto, with Yeol Eum Son as soloist (March 11); conductor Semyon Bychkov, violinist Maxim Vengerov, and pianist Evgeny Kissin honor the Rostropovich centennial with works by Britten, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich in a benefit performance for Carnegie Hall (March 27); and Daniele Rustioni concludes the season conducting a program of Busoni, Dvořák, and Chopin, featuring Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii (April 15). The four programs of OSL’s 2027 Bach Festival in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall feature conductor Peter Whelan and pianist Mishka Rushdie Momen (June 1); violinist and leader Théotime Langlois de Swarte (June 8); conductor Riccardo Minasi (June 15); and conductor Nicholas McGegan with tenor Nicholas Phan (June 22). The 2026–27 Chamber Series in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall includes poet Rita Dove’s Sonata Mulattica, juxtaposed with Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata played by violinist Jesse Mills, and pianist Rieko Aizawa (Oct 28); an all-Vivaldi “Venetian Christmas” program (Dec 9); Mozart’s Gran Partita (Feb 17); and Mozart Piano Concertos with pianist David Fung (May 5). More information about OSL’s 2026–27 Carnegie Hall season is available here.
Beyond Carnegie Hall, the “Visionary Sounds” series, which highlights groundbreaking 20th and 21st century chamber music at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, includes mezzo-soprano Megan Moore singing music of Hildegard von Bingen and Sofia Gubaidulina (Dec 16), “Philip Glass @ 90” (Feb 24), and music of Kaija Saariaho and Meredith Monk (April 21). The coming season also marks the 50th anniversary of OSL’s education programs, which began in 1976 in the Bicentennial year. To celebrate the anniversary, the orchestra will announce significant new funding for education grants, with other plans marking the occasion to be announced soon.
James Roe, OSL’s President and Executive Director, comments:
“We’ve shaped this season to give concertgoers multiple ways to engage with Orchestra of St. Luke’s – from major orchestral programs at Carnegie Hall to more intimate chamber performances and a range of music spanning Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven to Philip Glass and other influential voices of our time. Alongside these performances, our Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s provides New York City students with instruments and intensive musical training, while our Free School Concerts introduce thousands of students and families to live orchestral music each year. Whether encountering us for the first time or returning as a regular attendee, concertgoers will find that each program offers a distinct perspective and invites further exploration across the season.”
OSL at Carnegie Hall
Following a pair of recent collaborations with the orchestra, French conductor Louis Langrée returns to open OSL’s Carnegie Hall season with an all-Berlioz program. Bookended by the overture to Les francs-juges and the revolutionary Symphonie fantastique is the composer’s orchestral song cycle Les nuits d’été, featuring French lyric tenor Benjamin Bernheim – “a singer of immense refinement and tonal lustre [with] distinctively Gallic qualities” (Gramophone) – in his Carnegie Hall and OSL debuts. Langrée, now serving as Director of the Théâtre national de l’Opéra Comique in Paris and Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati Symphony, has long been a favorite of New York City audiences for his artistic leadership of the Mostly Mozart Festival, where his two-decade tenure was “a triumph of ensemble-building and musical curiosity” (The New York Times) (Nov 5).
Orchestra of St. Luke’s celebrates the 90th birthday of American icon Philip Glass under the baton of Grammy-winning conductor Dennis Russell Davies, whose long history with the ensemble includes their 1988 Copland recording. “The conductor who knows Glass’s work better than anyone [and] is in no small part responsible for Glass’s evolution” (The Washington Post), Davies enjoys a close working relationship with the composer and was responsible for commissioning and premiering many of his symphonies. OSL’s concert concludes with the New York premiere of Glass’s Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln” (2026) for orchestra and solo baritone, featuring Grammy-winner Zachary James, who previously created the role of Abraham Lincoln in the premiere production of Glass’s opera The Perfect American. The all-Glass program will also include the composer’s First Violin Concerto (1987), showcasing Emmy winner Robert McDuffie, to whom Glass dedicated his Second; and the “Mechanical Ballet” from Glass’s opera The Voyage (Jan 31).
The founder of ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, French conductor Christophe Rousset is known for choral interpretations “of vitality, elegance, and emotional depth” (OperaWire). He makes his OSL and Carnegie Hall conducting debuts with a pairing of Mozart’s final unfinished masterpiece, the Requiem, and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G. The conductor and orchestra will be joined by the Clarion Choir and a stellar quartet of soloists: soprano Liv Redpath, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, tenor Andrew Staples, and, in his OSL debut, three-time Grammy-winning bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green. This past fall at Carnegie Hall, Redpath and Clarion took part in OSL’s celebrated account of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, hailed as “a rich musical and philosophical package” (Classical Voice America) that left at least one critic “feeling as though [he]’d just heard the great work for the first time” (Bachtrack) (Feb 11).
OSL follows this striking success in Beethoven’s Ninth with another of the composer’s most iconic symphonies: the mighty “Eroica.” Returning to lead the orchestra for the second season in a row is Andrew Manze, the former Principal Conductor of Hamburg’s NDR Radiophilharmonie. Known for his “glorious and memorable Beethoven” (The Guardian), Manze couples the symphony with the composer’s stirring Third Piano Concerto, featuring South Korean pianist Yeol Eum Son in her OSL and Carnegie Hall debuts. Describing Son’s way with Beethoven, The Scotsman writes, “She might be famed for her tender touch, her refinement and poetic elegance, but she’s just as capable of fiery, muscular playing” (March 11).
March 27, 2027 is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mstislav Rostropovich (1927–2007). In a special benefit performance for Carnegie Hall, OSL honors the occasion with three great artists who, like the seminal cellist, conductor, and activist, were born in the Soviet Union. Rostropovich was a key mentor to both Grammy-winning violinist Maxim Vengerov, whose interpretation of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto owes much to the cellist, and Grammy-winning pianist Evgeny Kissin, who performs selections from the 24 Preludes and Fugues for solo piano by Rostropovich’s close friend Shostakovich. The cellist was also a primary muse for both the Russian composer and Britten. Under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, chief conductor and artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic, Music Director Designate of the Paris Opera, and one of today’s leading Shostakovich interpreters, OSL’s program opens with the English composer’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra and concludes with the final movement from Shostakovich’s searing Fifth Symphony (March 27).
OSL’s final Carnegie concert of the season brings together two great international artists in their OSL debuts. Named “Best Conductor” at the 2022 International Opera Awards, Italian maestro Daniele Rustioni is now in his inaugural season as Principal Guest Conductor of New York’s Metropolitan Opera and his ninth as Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon. He kicks off the evening with Busoni’s Comedy Overture, an homage to Mozart’s comic operas, before leading OSL in accounts of Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony and Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto. The evening’s soloist is Japanese pianist Nobuyuki “Nobu” Tsujii, a gold medalist at the 2009 Van Cliburn International Competition; as Gramophone writes, Tsujii “is one of the musical miracles of the age – a complete phenomenon” (April 15).
OSL Bach Festival presented in association with Carnegie Hall (June 1–22)
The 2027 edition of the OSL Bach Festival features a stellar lineup of programs in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, presented in association with Carnegie Hall. The series launches with a program conducted by Peter Whelan, the incoming Music Director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, praised for “rich insight, style and charisma” (The Guardian). Mishka Rushdie Momen, “one of the most thoughtful and sensitive of British pianists” (The Times), will be the soloist for Bach’s Concerto in E, BWV 1053 (June 1).
The second OSL Bach Festival program features French violinist and conductor Théotime Langlois de Swarte, who moved a critic from Gramophone to rave about “performances so special that I feel a changed man from listening.” He returns to OSL to lead music of Bach and his contemporaries Telemann, Pisendel, and Vivaldi (June 8).
Italian conductor Riccardo Minasi joins OSL for the third Bach Festival concert, which features Bach’s Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043 as well as Brandenburg Concertos 1, 2, and 5. Since 2022, Minasi has served as Principal Guest Conductor of Ensemble Resonanz, resident at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, as well as Artistic Director of Orchestra La Scintilla at the Zurich Opera House, and he was the co-founder of historically informed ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, which he conducted from 2011 to 2016 (June 15).
Tenor Nicholas Phan is the creator and host of the web series titled Bach 52. The 52-episode series explores the question of whether Bach’s music is for everyone, with each episode featuring a film and recording of one tenor aria (or duet) from Bach’s church cantatas, paired with interviews with scholars, musicians, and audience members. The final program in OSL’s 2027 Bach Festival, titled after Phan’s series, features the tenor along with conductor Nicholas McGegan in performances of Bach’s Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, Graupner’s Reiner Geist, lass doch mein Herz, and more (June 22).
OSL presents Chamber Music Series
OSL’s 2026–27 Chamber Series in Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall opens with a program centered on Pulitzer Prize-winning former U.S. Poet Laureate Rita Dove’s Sonata Mulattica, her book-length narrative poem about 19th-century Afro-European violin prodigy George Bridgetower. Bridgetower was the first performer and original dedicatee of Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata, which will be performed on the program by violinist Jesse Mills and pianist Rieko Aizawa (Oct 28).
During the holiday season, OSL presents “A Venetian Christmas,” an all-Vivaldi program of concertos for a range of instrumental combinations: solo violin, violin and flute, two violins, two violins and cello, and four violins. The program culminates with the solo violin concerto “Winter” from the Four Seasons (Dec 9).
The winter Chamber Music Series performance showcases OSL’s winds in Mozart’s famous Serenade No. 10, or “Gran Partita,” scored for 12 wind instruments and double bass. The seven-movement work was unusual in that it was not the kind of light-hearted background music that was typical of serenades at that time, with many of its features more suggestive of a symphony or opera. The work was prominently featured in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus as the first of Mozart’s works to alert Salieri to the young composer’s gifts (Feb 17).
The final concert in OSL’s Chamber Music Series also features music by Mozart. Pianist David Fung is the featured soloist in the three piano concertos numbered 12–14 arranged by the composer for four string instruments. The first two are part of a set of early concertos Mozart wrote to establish himself in Vienna, while Concerto No. 14 is the first of a set written in 1784, marking a notable shift toward a more sophisticated and mature style (May 5).
“Visionary Sounds” at DiMenna Center
Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore – praised by Opera News for “vivid, individual, and attractive timbre” and “exceptional technique” – opens OSL’s Visionary Sounds series at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music with a program focused on the great abbess and mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Music by Hildegard in arrangements by Marianne Pfau, Missy Mazzoli, and Sarah Kirkland Snider – who recently premiered her own opera on the subject of Hildegard – are combined with Hildegard-inspired works by Snider and Russian composer of modernist sacred music Sofia Gubaidulina. The program is rounded out with Gubaidulina’s String Quartet No. 2 (Dec 16).
Philip Glass’s 90th birthday is celebrated in the Visionary Sounds series with a program that includes his String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima,” written in 1985 as part of the soundtrack to Paul Schrader’s film Mishima – A Life in Four Chapters, a biopic about the Japanese author who attempted a coup and committed ritual suicide in 1970 (Feb 24).
In the spring, OSL’s Visionary Sounds presents a program combining music of Kaija Saariaho and Meredith Monk. Saariaho’s Die Aussicht, based on a late poem by Friedrich Hölderlin is performed along with the composer’s piano trio Light and Matter, composed for the 50th anniversary of the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine. Also on the program is Monk’s string quartet Stringsongs, premiered in 2005, and selections from Book of Days, from the 1988 film of the same title that Monk conceived and directed. The film drew parallels between the Middle Ages, a time of war, plague and fear of the Apocalypse, with modern times of racial and religious conflict, the AIDS epidemic, and fear of nuclear annihilation (April 21).
About Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) features New York City’s most talented concert musicians and makes its artistic home at Carnegie Hall, where it has performed more than any other orchestra since its debut there in 1983. OSL’s annual season features concert series in each of Carnegie Hall’s three venues, along with the Visionary Sounds and DeGaetano Composition Institute programs focused on contemporary composers at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the rehearsal, recording, and performance facility OSL built in 2011 and continues to operate in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood. OSL proudly collaborates with Paul Taylor Dance Company for their Lincoln Center season each year and performs with a variety of artistic partners at venues throughout the city and beyond. Founded in 1974 when a group of virtuoso chamber musicians began performing together in Greenwich Village at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields, the ensemble later expanded into an orchestra before catching fire on New York’s classical music scene. OSL has participated in 120 recordings, four of which have won Grammy Awards, has commissioned more than 75 new works, and has given more than 200 world, U.S., and New York City premieres. OSL champions composers from historically underrepresented groups in classical music. In recent seasons, it has presented works by Kinan Azmeh, Margaret Bonds, Valerie Coleman, Julius Eastman, Wynton Marsalis, Florence Price, Rita Dove, and Chen Yi, among others. Central to OSL’s mission, the Education and Community Engagement program presents free concerts for thousands of New York City public school students each year; offers the 120-student strong Youth Orchestra of St. Luke’s (YOSL), the city’s only youth orchestra under the umbrella of a professional group; provides a mentorship program for pre-professional musicians; and brings accessible concerts to all five boroughs. To learn more, visit OSLmusic.org or follow @OSLmusic on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, or Facebook.
Orchestra of St. Luke’s: 2026–27 season performances
Oct 28
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall)
OSL Presents: Chamber Music Series
“Beethoven’s “Kreutzer” Sonata with Rita Dove”
Rita Dove, poet and reader
Jesse Mills, violin
Rieko Aizawa, piano
BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 9, Op. 47, “Kreutzer”
Rita DOVE: Readings from Sonata Mulattica
Nov 5
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Carnegie Hall Presents: Orchestra of St. Luke’s Series
“Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Louis Langrée, conductor
BERLIOZ:
Les francs-juges Overture
Les nuits d’été (with Benjamin Bernheim, tenor)
Symphonie fantastique
Dec 9
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall)
OSL Presents: Chamber Music Series
“A Venetian Christmas”
VIVALDI:
Concerto for four violins in A, RV 552 “Per eco in lontano”
Concerto for two violins in A, RV 519
Concerto for flute and violin in D, RV 512
Concerto for two violins and cello in D minor, RV 565
Concerto for violin in E-flat, RV 256 “Il ritiro”
Concerto for violin in F minor, RV 297 “Winter” from The Four Seasons
Dec 16
New York, NY
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (Cary Hall)
OSL Presents: The Visionary Sounds Series
“Hildegard Von Bingen and Sofia Gubaidulina”
Megan Moore, mezzo-soprano
VON BINGEN (arr. Marianne PFAU): “O virtus sapientiae”
VON BINGEN (arr. Missy MAZZOLI): “O frondens virga” (arr. for mezzo-soprano, cello and electronics)
GUBAIDULINA: Aus den Visionen der Hildegard von Bingen for alto
VON BINGEN (arr. Marianne PFAU): “De Innocentibus. Rex Noster”
GUBAIDULINA: String Quartet No. 2
VON BINGEN (arr. Marianne PFAU): “De Virginum. O dulcissime amator”
Sarah KIRKLAND SNIDER: Caritas (for solo voice, harp and string quartet)
VON BINGEN (arr. Sarah Kirkland SNIDER): “O virtus sapientiae” (arr. for voice and string quartet)
Jan 31
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Carnegie Hall Presents
“Philip Glass: The 90th Birthday Concert”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Robert McDuffie, violin
Zachary James, baritone
Philip GLASS: “Mechanical Ballet” from The Voyage
Philip GLASS: Violin Concerto No. 1
Philip GLASS: Symphony No. 15, “Lincoln” (New York premiere)
Feb 11
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Carnegie Hall Presents: Orchestra of St. Luke’s Series
Mozart’s Requiem
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Christophe Rousset, conductor (OSL debut)
Liv Redpath, soprano
Jamie Barton, mezzo-soprano
Andrew Staples, tenor
Ryan Speedo Green, bass-baritone
The Clarion Choir (Steven Fox, director)
SCHUBERT: Mass No. 2 in G, D. 167
MOZART: Requiem, K. 626
Feb 17
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall)
OSL Presents: Chamber Music Series
“Mozart’s Gran Partita”
MOZART: Serenade No. 10, “Gran Partita”
Feb 24
New York, NY
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (Cary Hall)
OSL Presents: The Visionary Sounds Series
“Philip Glass @ 90”
Program includes:
Philip GLASS: String Quartet No. 3, “Mishima”
March 11
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Carnegie Hall Presents: Orchestra of St. Luke’s Series
“Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Andrew Manze, conductor
Yeol Eum Son, piano
BEETHOVEN:
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37
Symphony No. 3 in E-flat, Op. 55, “Eroica”
March 27
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Carnegie Hall Presents
“Rostropovich Centenary Gala”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
Evgeny Kissin, piano
Maxim Vengerov, violin
Narrator to be announced
BRITTEN: The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra
PROKOFIEV: Violin Concerto No. 1
SHOSTAKOVICH: Selections from 24 Preludes and Fugues
SHOSTAKOVICH: “Allegro non troppo” from Symphony No. 5
Benefit performance for Carnegie Hall
April 15
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage)
Carnegie Hall Presents: Orchestra of St. Luke’s Series
Nobuyuki Tsujii Performs Chopin
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Daniele Rustioni, conductor (OSL debut)
Nobuyuki Tsujii, piano
BUSONI: Comedy Overture, Op. 38
CHOPIN: Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
April 21
New York, NY
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music (Cary Hall)
OSL Presents: The Visionary Sounds Series
“Kaija Saariaho and Meredith Monk”
Program includes:
SAARIAHO: Light and Matter; Die Aussicht
Meredith MONK: Stringsongs; Selections from Book of Days
May 5
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall)
OSL Presents: Chamber Music Series
“Mozart Piano Concertos with David Fung”
David Fung, piano
MOZART: Piano Concertos 12-14 (versions for piano and four string instruments)
June 1
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall)
OSL Presents in Association with Carnegie Hall: OSL Bach Festival
“Mishka Rushdie Momen Performs Bach”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Peter Whelan, conductor
Mishka Rushdie Momen, piano
Program to include:
BACH: Concerto in E, BWV 1053
June 8
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall)
OSL Presents in Association with Carnegie Hall: OSL Bach Festival
“Bach and His Contemporaries”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Théotime Langlois de Swarte, violin/leader
Program includes works by: BACH, TELEMANN, PISENDEL, VIVALDI
June 15
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall)
OSL Presents in Association with Carnegie Hall: OSL Bach Festival
“Riccardo Minasi Conducts Bach”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Riccardo Minasi, conductor
BACH:
Concerto for two violins in D minor, BWV 1043
Brandenburg Concertos 1, 2 and 5
June 22
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall)
OSL Presents in Association with Carnegie Hall: OSL Bach Festival
“BACH 52: The Music of Bach for Everyone”
Orchestra of St. Luke’s
Nicholas McGegan, conductor
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Program to include:
BACH: Ich armer Mensch, ich Sündenknecht, BWV 55
GRAUPNER: Reiner Geist, lass doch mein Herz, GWV 1138/11