YSM announces 2026–2027 concert season
Photo by Matthew Fried
The Yale School of Music (YSM) announces its 2026–2027 concert season, presenting performances showcasing faculty, students, and guest artists across chamber music, jazz, opera, and new music.
Full concert listings and ticket details are available at music.yale.edu/events.
Season highlights
Pianist Emanuel Ax returns to YSM following his 2024 appearance, performing works by Haydn, Schubert, and Chopin (September 16).
When the Earth Speaks: Presented in partnership with Yale Planetary Solutions, this multimedia experience pairs new compositions with award-winning climate photography in a reflection on a rapidly changing planet (September 17).
America 250: In celebration of the 250th anniversary of the United States, YSM presents a season-long survey of American music. The Akropolis Reed Quintet performs works by Price, Bernstein, and Gershwin (October 6); WindSync presents music by Elliott Carter and Gershwin alongside original arrangements of Philip Glass (November 3); bassist Jeff Fuller (September 18) and the Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band (October 16) showcase the many sounds and eras of jazz; and the Yale Philharmonia performs the music of John Adams (May 7).
Yale in New York: Faculty artists and students bring two programs to New York City. A concert of new works takes place at Merkin Hall at the Kaufman Music Center (October 8), followed in the spring by a program of Strauss, Dvořák, and Tchaikovsky at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (March 4).
Celebrating Martin Bresnick: The School honors composer Martin Bresnick across three events marking his prolific 60-plus-year career, more than four decades on the YSM faculty, and his upcoming retirement. The Yale Philharmonia, conducted by Principal Conductor Peter Oundjian, performs a program featuring his work (October 23); New Music New Haven presents his work alongside original pieces by current YSM composition student (November 5); and faculty colleagues gather for a panel and concert in his honor (November 8).
Così fan tutte: Yale Opera presents its mainstage production for the year, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, at the Shubert Theatre. Tickets go on sale at the Shubert’s website beginning September 15, with performances on February 20 and 21.
Morris Steinert Collection of Musical Instruments Reopening: A series of concerts leads up to the spring 2027 reopening of the Collection. As part of the series, violinist Shunske Sato, a leading figure in historically informed performance practice, performs on April 26.
Additional programming throughout the season
The Oneppo Chamber Music Series features the Brentano String Quartet in two concerts highlighting works by Beethoven (September 22 and March 30); the Chien-Kim-Watkins Trio performs Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time with David Shifrin (February 9); and the Miró Quartet joins the Isidore String Quartet for a performance of Mendelssohn’s String Octet (March 23).
The Horowitz Piano Series returns with performances by Wei-Yi Yang, exploring elements of dance across Baroque, Romantic, and modern keyboard music (September 30); Robert Blocker, tracing the evolution of the fantasia through works by Telemann, Chopin, and Billy Joel (October 21); Minsoo Sohn, performing J.S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (November 11); Boris Berman, presenting a selection of Mozart piano sonatas (January 27); and Melvin Chen, highlighting works by French composers (March 31).
The Ellington Jazz Series continues its celebration of jazz artistry with two performances spotlighting distinctive voices on their instruments. Vibraphonist Steve Nelson leads his quartet highlighting his improvisational prowess (January 22). Rising alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan, recognized for a sound that blends bebop fluency with a modern improvisational edge, brings her own group to the series the following month (February 12).
The Yale Philharmonia season opens with Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 (September 25). A November concert celebrates the announcement of the recipient of Yale’s Henry E. Howland Memorial Prize, which honors a citizen of marked distinction in the field of fine arts (November 19). Guest conductor Rossen Milanov leads a program featuring Stravinsky’s Petrushka (January 29), and Thomas Nettle conducts a program featuring Brahms’s Symphony No. 3 (February 26). In April, the Philharmonia joins soloists from Yale Opera, the Yale Camerata, and members of the Yale Glee Club for a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (April 9).
Yale Opera’s fall scenes draw from across the operatic canon, with excerpts spanning Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, among others (October 30 and November 1). In the spring, an unlikely pairing brings together Ravel's risqué comedy L'heure espagnole and scenes from Massenet's romantic tragedy Werther (May 8 and 9).
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The 2026–2027 concert season begins September 13 and continues through May. Most concerts take place at Morse Recital Hall in Sprague Memorial Hall and Woolsey Hall. Concerts are open to the public, with many offered free of charge or at a low cost.
