THE MICHAEL BRECKER QUINDECTET featuring DONNY McCASLIN Artistic & Musical Director: Meg Okura

Nearly two decades after the passing of Michael Brecker, his groundbreaking Quindectet returns to the stage in a new chapter celebrating and extending one of his most distinctive musical visions.

On October 6, the Michael Brecker Quindectet launches at Birdland Jazz Club, featuring acclaimed tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin and led by composer, violinist, and original Quindectet touring member Meg Okura as artistic and musical director.

Brecker created the fifteen-piece Quindectet for his landmark 2003 album Wide Angles, bringing together jazz rhythm section, brass and woodwinds with string quartet to create an orchestral palette unlike the conventional big-band sound. Wide Angles received the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.

The Birdland performance presents Gil Goldstein’s landmark arrangements in newly created 2026 performance editions, adapted to restore Brecker’s original 15-piece Quindectet instrumentation and newly engraved and edited for today’s ensemble. The program also features world premieres of two new Okura arrangements of Brecker compositions, “African Skies” and “Itsbynne Reel.”

The project has been developed with support from Susan Brecker and Darryl Pitt and through archival research at the Living Jazz Archives at William Paterson University. The concert will also feature a special display of Michael Brecker archival materials presented by Archives curator Dr. David Demsey.

Bringing together musicians from the original touring Quindectet with leading contemporary artists, the project honors Brecker’s extraordinary legacy while carrying his adventurous musical vision forward.

Personnel

Donny McCaslin (tenor saxophone), Charles Pillow (flutes, soprano saxophone),
Dan Willis (oboe, English horn), Roger Rosenberg (bass clarinet, baritone sax), David Smith (trumpet, flugelhorn), Jacob Garchik (trombone), Justin Mullens (French horn), Pete McCann (guitar), Meg Okura (violin I, arranger, musical director), Tomoko Akaboshi (violin II), Benjamin von Gutzeit (viola), Dave Eggar (cello), Boris Kozlov (bass), E.J. Strickland (drums), Daniel Sadownick (percussion), Erica Seguine (associate artistic director & conductor).

PROGRAM:
*Original arrangements from 2004 by Gil Goldstein, newly adapted for the 2026 Michael Brecker Quindectet:
Broadband*
Arc of the Pendulum*
Delta City Blues*
Syzygy*

Plus the world premieres of two new arrangements by Meg Okura:
African Skies
Itsbynne Reel

Hear an hour of free contemporary classical music that pushes boundaries as we honor the visionary composer Steve Reich.

Gather to honor the milestone 90th birthday of composer Steve Reich, an innovator who has shaped the sound of modern music. Performing a lineup dedicated to Reich’s groundbreaking pieces, Trinity Choir and new-music ensemble NOVUS will be joined by Sandbox Percussion, trailblazers in the world of contemporary chamber music. In this special evening program, you will experience how ancient words and expressive repetition can transform patterns into meditative transcendence as you hear Tehillim, Proverb, Traveler’s Prayer, and Jacob’s Ladder. Melissa Attebury, conductor.

Registration for this free event is highly recommended as seating is limited.

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/08/Carnegie-Halls-Opening-Night-Gala-Berliner-Philharmoniker-0700PM

Feel the passion and excitement as Carnegie Hall launches its 2026–2027 season with this Opening Night Gala featuring the legendary Berliner Philharmoniker and opera superstar Jonas Kaufmann. Kirill Petrenko conducts an all-Italian program that showcases Kaufmann’s vibrant voice in some of his most renowned repertoire—including “Amor ti vieta” from Giordano’s Fedora, and emotional powerhouses from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and Cilea’s L’arlesiana. The concert begins in dramatic fashion with Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino, and the orchestra also treats audiences to two of Respighi’s tone poems of Rome, transporting listeners to the picturesque fountains and pines of the city.

Performers

Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, Chief Conductor
Jonas Kaufmann, Tenor

Program

VERDI Overture to La forza del destino

CILEA "È la solita storia del pastore ... Anch'io vorrei" from L'arlesiana

GIORDANO "Amor ti vieta" from Fedora

RESPIGHI Fountains of Rome

LEONCAVALLO "Si può? Si può?" from Pagliacci

LEONCAVALLO Intermezzo from Pagliacci

LEONCAVALLO "Recitar! ... Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci

RESPIGHI Pines of Rome

Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko, Chief Conductor
Víkingur Ólafsson, Piano

Program

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 1
R. STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

Experience the partnership between pianist Víkingur Ólafsson and the Berliner Philharmoniker, which The New York Times declared “the best in the business” when it last performed at Carnegie Hall. Together, they perform Brahms’s passionate Piano Concerto No. 1, an exquisite showpiece for both soloist and ensemble, followed by an orchestral performance of Richard Strauss’s soaring tone poem Also sprach Zarathustra, most popularly associated with Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

https://pools.events/t/1vyw1tmw

$15 
After Pajamas (Bob Bellerue, Cheryl Kingan, Patrick Holmes, Mark Howell, & David Watson) 
Aliya Ultan 
Ashcan Orchestra

After Pajamas
A long time ago I had a job as a truck driver. On a long drive one day, my co-worker mentioned a piece by Gordon Mumma, "Wooden Pyjamas". It is a homage to Salvador Allende, with the title coming from a comment Allende made in an interview the day before he died. "They'll have to take me out of here in wooden pajamas."

I understood the sound source came from beating on a coffin. This image has always stayed with me as a great unity of the political and poetic. There is a short but wonderful extract of Wooden Pajamas that you can hear through Lovely Music.
As it turns out, I misunderstood a lot of the piece. For one thing it is an electroacoustic tape piece. I believe the coffin part of the original performance was just allegorical. For this performance however we will be performing my original (mis)understanding of it. Hence, After Pajamas.

Ashcan Orchestra is a growing collection of homemade instruments, a revolving ensemble of performers, and pseudonym for NYC based composer/bespoke engineer p. spadine. Seeking the profound through playful exploration, Ashcan has been developing a musical language and an accompanying instrumentation to examine and exemplify our shared capacity to create and thrive in spaces parallel to the consumer cult. Presenting ritualistic, mostly bell centric performances of sound and light on stages both spontaneous and institutional since 2007, Ashcan is grateful for each opportunity to shake some joy and/or wonder out of the air.

For Striped Light, Ashcan Orchestra will appear as a collection of homemade instruments and solo performer, presenting We’re All Nero Now, a piece built on thoughts regarding the impacts of protective escapism and born from a desire to tell longer narratives upon a menagerie of invented instruments.

Aliya Ultan (AKA Nocturnal Cellist) is a composer-performer and multimedia artist from Brooklyn, NY. Her career spans contemporary and avant garde music to theater, circus, and immersive electroacoustic installations. Her sound has been described as a shape-shifting voice moving between orchestral lyricism, cathartic noise, and deeply personal forms of storytelling.

Following her self-released album Witch Hunt, which she supported with a sweeping 40-date tour in exclusively artist-run spaces across the US and Canada, Ultan most recently released Looks Far Woman on Kou Records. The project explores the outer limits of the acoustic cello as both a vibrational and healing phenomenon.

Aliya currently splits her time between Virginia and New York serving as Artistic Director for The Creative Music Studio, a non-profit organization founded by Ornette Coleman and Karl Berger.

PRELUDE
En Garde Arts
Written by Charles L. Mee
Original Songs by the Lazours

Adapted and Directed by Anne Bogart

All the world’s a stage—and this time, it's right outside our front door! For forty years, En Garde Arts has transformed New York City’s streets, barges, and hidden corners into newly discovered sites for theatrical experiences, and urgent, poetic, and political stories to come alive. This October, the company reunites director Anne Bogart and playwright Charles L. Mee for PRELUDE, a large-scale, free outdoor performance on the plaza at 300 Ashland Place, featuring original music by the Lazours—and elaborate costume constructions by Machine Dazzle.

Set against the rhythms of the city itself, PRELUDE invites audiences to witness fleeting encounters and moments of connection that illuminate what it means to be alive together and in love in New York City. This marks another chapter in a creative partnership; both Mee’s bobrauschenbergamerica (2003) and Hotel Cassiopeia (2007) were directed by Bogart at BAM, who returned in 2022 to direct The Medium.

Admission to PRELUDE is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tim Berne (sax), David Torn (guitar), Trevor Dunn (bass), Aliya Ultan (cello), and Tom Rainey (drums)

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/14/Trio-Azura-0730PM

Trio Azura
​- Duncan McDougall, Violin
​- Yejin Hong, Cello
​- Yanfeng (Tony) Bai, Piano

Program
RAVEL Piano Trio
JENNIFER HIGDON Piano Trio
FELIX MENDELSSOHN Piano Trio No. 2 in C Minor

Since 1961, Young Concert Artists (YCA) has been at the forefront of launching the careers of classical music’s future leaders, including many of today’s leading luminaries. Tonight, experience Trio Azura, the 2025 winners of the Young Concert Artists International Auditions and the organization’s first-ever ensemble-in-residence. Praised for its “intelligence and imagination” and “profound emotion” (Gramophone), this exceptional trio also won multiple prizes at the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition in 2024. In their Carnegie Hall debut, the musicians perform timeless trios by Ravel and Felix Mendelssohn, plus Jennifer Higdon’s acclaimed first Piano Trio.

https://www.deathofclassical.com/concerts/bardo-trinity

Death of Classical and Trinity Church NYC are proud to partner with the Metropolitan Opera for a special preview of Lincoln in the Bardo, the major new opera based on the beloved Booker Prize-winning novel by George Saunders. With music by composer (and certified Death Doula) Missy Mazzoli and libretto by Royce Vavrek, the work will receive its world premiere at the Met on October 19, 2026.

Set over the course of a single night in a Georgetown cemetery during the Civil War, Lincoln in the Bardo imagines President Abraham Lincoln returning to the grave of his beloved eleven-year-old son, Willie,whose death has shattered him. Trapped between this life and the next in a realm called the bardo, a chorus of restless spirits watches as Lincoln confronts an impossible grief while carrying the weight of a nation at war. Tender, funny, heartbreaking, and ultimately life-affirming, the story explores what it means to let go, to love, and to carry on after unimaginable loss. 

The October 15 preview event will feature stars from the Metropolitan Opera production performing selections from the score, and a conversation with the creators about bringing Saunders’s masterpiece to the operatic stage.

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/16/Takacs-Quartet-Jeremy-Denk-Piano-0700PM

“One of the world’s greatest string quartets” of the past 50 years continues its partnership with Jeremy Denk, “a pianist you want to hear no matter what he performs” (The New York Times). Together, they perform Franck’s Piano Quintet, one of the chamber repertoire’s masterworks. The Takács Quartet also performs Felix Mendelssohn’s impassioned final string quartet and Carlos Simon’s powerful Warmth from Other Suns, showcasing the musicians’ extraordinary interpretive abilities across works both timeless and new.

Performers

Takács Quartet
- Edward Dusinberre, Violin
- Harumi Rhodes, Violin
- Richard O'Neill, Viola
- Mihai Marica, Cello
Jeremy Denk, Piano

Program

FELIX MENDELSSOHN String Quartet in F Minor, Op. 80

CARLOS SIMON Warmth from Other Suns

FRANCK Piano Quintet

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2026/10/16/Sphinx-Virtuosi-0730PM

“With professional polish and populist energy,” the Sphinx Virtuosi string ensemble “lights up Carnegie Hall annually” (New York Classical Review). This season, the ensemble celebrates America at 250 with a program of new works, reimagined classics, and solo-violin showpieces by Kreisler and Perkinson, featuring acclaimed violinist Amaryn Olmeda. Violinist and Sphinx Competition winner Rubén Rengel performs the world premiere of his original work, Encuentro, and Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges is soloist in a bold new song cycle by Damien Geter that features a libretto by Sphinx founder and poetjournalist Aaron P. Dworkin. Jessie Montgomery’s Banner offers a vibrant exploration of heritage and transformation, while Stravinsky’s Concerto in D connects past and present in a timeless reflection on artistic freedom. It is complemented this evening by rising multidisciplinary composer Rachel McFarlane’s American Dialogue.

Get Tickets
Tickets $27 ($22 + $5 fee)

Performers

Sphinx Virtuosi
J’Nai Bridges, Mezzo-Soprano
Amaryn Olmeda, Violin
Rubén Rengel, Violin

Program

RUBÉN RENGEL Encuentro (World Premiere)

RACHEL MCFARLANE American Dialogue (NY Premiere)

STRAVINSKY Concerto in D

KREISLER Recitativo and Scherzo-Caprice

PERKINSON Louisiana Blues Strut: A Cakewalk, for Solo Violin

JESSIE MONTGOMERY Banner

DAMIEN GETER Declaration (NY Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

Inspired by the Hungarian immigrant experience, Drifters follows nine young men as they leave their homeland for America in search of a new beginning. Hungarian and Eastern European folk dance and music meet contemporary choreography and theatrical storytelling in a moving exploration of migration, friendship, resilience, and belonging.

Premiering in New York City during the 70th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, Drifters brings a distinctly Hungarian story to an American stage—one that reflects New York’s own history as a destination for generations of immigrants.

Drifters, a dance-theater performance, is presented by Tulipán Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to bringing Hungarian culture and cuisine to audiences in New York City and beyond.

Performers

Bang on a Can All-Stars
Ensemble Signal
Brad Lubman, Conductor
Lisa Kaplan, Piano
Nico Muhly, Piano
Bryce Dessner, Electric Guitar

ProgramALL-STEVE REICH PROGRAM

Electric Counterpoint

Two Pianos (US Premiere)

Double Sextet

Jacob’s Ladder

In All Your Ways (US Premiere, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall)

Carnegie Hall celebrates 90 years of Steve Reich with a one-night-only event befitting “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker), featuring many of the composer’s top collaborators in works that span five decades. Guitarist-composer Bryce Dessner (of The National) performs Reich’s influential and innovative Electric Counterpoint. Visionary pianists Lisa Kaplan and Nico Muhly perform the US premiere of Reich’s Two Pianos. Brad Lubman conducts a veritable supergroup comprised of Bang on a Can All-Stars and Ensemble Signal, which performs Reich’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Double Sextet, the US premiere of In All Your Ways, and Jacob’s Ladder, an extraordinary recent work.

Grammy-nominated Armenian-Canadian cellist and composer Karen Ouzounian and her husband, Rome Prize-winning Estonian-American composer, pianist and animator Lembit Beecher, give the NYC premiere of their new program Mayrig (“mother” in Armenian). 

This immersive and intimate 65-minute show is centered on the human voice and features cello, electronics, piano and vocals. The voices of Ouzounian’s mother and grandmother are interwoven with original arrangements of Armenian music of her family’s past home of Anatolia, songs and stories drawn from their post-genocide home of Lebanon, and the beloved music of Charles Aznavour. New compositions by Beecher, Layale Chaker, Nathalie Joachim, Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Ouzounian expand upon themes of generational transmission, rootedness and uprootedness, with music teeming with passion and celebration, resilience and rage. 

Opening and closing the program is Marin Marais’s Les Voix Humaines, music from hundreds of years ago providing a window into the present. Featuring projections of original, newly-commissioned artwork by Charles Berberian.

https://www.carnegiehall.org/calendar/2026/10/27/branford-marsalis-and-dianne-reeves-celebrate-john-coltrane-0800pm

NEA Jazz Masters and multiple Grammy winners Branford Marsalis and Dianne Reeves celebrate the John Coltrane centennial with a new album and a world tour. Reeves joins the stunningly versatile Branford Marsalis Quartet in this project that pays tribute to the seminal collaboration between Coltrane and vocalist Johnny Hartman, as well as other beloved ballads from Coltrane’s repertoire.

Jazz House Collective honors the legacies of John Coltrane and Miles Davis as we celebrate their centennials.