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Join us for the Opening Night of our 16th annual Festival season!  Enjoy an evening of music that highlights the work of several Swiss-affiliated composers including Helena Winkelmann, Arthur Honegger, Ernest Bloch, Frank Martin, and Othmar Schoeck, brought to life by musicians including Ivalas Quartet—which has been hailed by The Strad for playing with “tremendous heart and beauty,” soprano Sonya Headlam—with a voice described as “golden” [Seen and Heard International], and pianist Melinda Lee Masur—lauded for her “impeccable technique and artistic interpretation” [The Columbian].

Visuals for the evening will include artwork by Chrissy Angliker, Ernest Bloch, & Jonathan Feldschuh. 

Curated themed Reception & Bar to follow!

FEATURING
Ivalas Quartet
Sonya Headlam, soprano
Miho Saegusa, violin
Caleb van der Swaagh, cello
Melinda Lee Masur, piano

PROGRAM
Helena WINKELMAN Ciacona
Arthur HONEGGER Piano Trio in F Minor
Josef HAYDN String Quartet No. 1
Othmar SCHOECK                Rastlose Liebe
Othmar SCHOECK Nachtlied
Arthur HONEGGER Les Pâques à New York
Ernest BLOCH Paysages
Frank MARTIN                         Piano Quintet

Chelsea Music Festival is a proud partner of Steinway & Sons & extends heartfelt thanks to all its 2025 Festival Sponsors

Hosted by our 2025 venue partner, Swiss Institute, join us for an exciting collaboration. Family Hour welcomes Swiss musical duo N’imPorte Quoi for an ongoing, interactive performance in the galleries designed for children and their caregivers. Families will then have the chance to create wearable instruments to explore the relationship between body, sound, and movement with a particular focus on upcycled materials. Adults must be accompanied by a child.

FEATURING
Le duo N’imPorte Quoi
Koko Taylor & Sylvain Fournier

Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

We are thrilled to offer this program as a part of Lincoln Center’s “Summer for the City Series!” 

Audiences will enjoy both classical and jazz music featuring Ivalas Quartet and Swiss jazz pianist Léo Tardin! Hailed by The Strad for playing with “tremendous heart and beauty,” the Ivalas Quartet has been changing the face of classical music since its inception in 2017 with a mission to enrich the classical music world by spotlighting past and present BIPOC composers. The Ivalas Quartet will perform a selection of works by contemporary voices whose perspectives are leaving an indelible mark on our world, including Jessie Montgomery, Carlos Simon, and Eleanor Alberga. Visuals projected behind the quartet by renown visual artist Suzanne Jackson.

Swiss jazz pianist, composer, and visual artist Léo Tardin presents a multi-sensorial performance with both sonic and pictorial content, bringing his own drawings to life with music. The vignettes in Léo Tardin's Le piano illustré oscillate between intricate floral and plant motifs inspired by his surroundings in the countryside of Geneva and psychedelic sketches. The visuals move in real time in dialogue and response to Tardin's solo piano improvisational jazz pieces. 

FEATURING
Ivalas Quartet
Léo Tardin, piano

PROGRAM
I. Ivalas Quartet
Jessie MONTGOMERY (1981) - Strum
Carlos SIMON (b. 1986) - Warmth from Other Suns 
Eleanor ALBERGA (b. 1949) - String Quartet No. 2

II. Le Piano Illustré
Léo Tardin, piano

Chelsea Music Festival is a proud partner of Steinway & Sons & extends heartfelt thanks to all its 2025 Festival Sponsors

FREE with RSVP

Get ready for some fun! Le duo N'imPorte Quoi performs on traditional and world music instruments that range from classic guitar, recorder, drums, musical saw, bells, Charleston, mandolin, oud, darbuqa, melodica, Schwitzerogeli (Swiss accordion), & Rebögn—to goat horn, spoons, broomsticks, bottles, and bathtub bass!  Please come out and enjoy this free to the public pop-up event at Pier57.

FEATURING
Le duo N’imPorte Quoi
Koko Taylor & Sylvain Fournier

Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

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Step into Switzerland for an evening of fondue, wine, & folk music! Just south of Chelsea, The Lavaux Winebar is a gem of a restaurant opened by “three visionaries who left the picturesque vineyards of Lavaux, Switzerland, to make their mark on the bustling streets of New York." Two seasoned winemakers and a cheese maker have created a space that makes one feel as though they have walked right into a Swiss chalet. The Chelsea Music Festival is thrilled to host an event in this transportive space, bringing Swiss folk songs performed by Le duo N’imPorte Quoi on instruments like Schwitzerogeli (Swiss accordion) & Rebögne. 

Ticket includes fondue, a glass of wine, and small box of pralines from Swiss chocolatier Läderach!

FEATURING
Le duo N’imPorte Quoi
Koko Taylor & Sylvain Fournier

Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

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Hailed by The New York Times as an "outstanding ensemble of young musicians," we are thrilled to feature Verona Quartet who headline this night of music featuring Felix Mendelssohn, Benedict Strahl, Dimitir Schostakovich, and Arthur Honegger. Audiences will enjoy projections of watercolor paintings made by Felix Mendelssohn in Switzerland, a land that so deeply inspired the composer.

Visuals for the evening include Felix Mendelssohn’s watercolors from Switzerland as well as artwork by Chrissy Angliker

Reception to follow

FEATURING
Verona Quartet 
Miho Seagusa, violin
Caleb van der Swaagh, cello

PROGRAM
Arthur HONEGGER
Sonatine in E Minor for violin and cello, H. 80
Benedict STRAHL
Felix Mendelssohn’s Schweizereisen
World Premiere – dedicated to Kurt Masur
Felix MENDELSSOHN
String Quartet No. 1 in E-flat Major, Op. 12 
Dimitri SHOSTAKOVICH
String Quartet No. 9 in E-flat Major, Op. 117 

Grab a drink at our Reception & stay for the CARDUME Album Release Party & Performance!

Ticketing Options available for individual event or double-header performance.

The Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

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To ring out the night, join us for the Album Release concert and celebration for CARDUME, the fifth album produced under Chelsea Music Festival Records’ label. The CARDUME trio, featuring world class percussionists Rogério Boccato (Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo), Keita Ogawa (Snarky Puppy), & Cleber Almeida from Brazil will celebrate the official release of their new record.

The album’s release party begins with a celebratory reception where audiences will get the first chance to purchase both vinyl albums and CD followed by a performance by the trio.

FEATURING
Rogério Boccato, percussion
Keita Ogawa, percussion
Cleber Almeida, percussion
with Nitcha Fame, visual artist

PROGRAM
9:00pm - CARDUME Album Release Party (Chelsea Music Festival Records label’s fifth album) begins with a Reception!

9:30pm - CARDUME performance with visual digital artwork by Nitcha Fame

Come early to the not-be-missed program by Verona Quartet & Friends—A Swiss Journey!

Ticketing Options available for individual event or double-header performance.

The Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

TICKETS AVAILABLE BELOW

Join us for a night of music, art, food and conversation at the beautiful Neue House at Madison Square! Attendees will enjoy a feast for the senses with a performance by Swiss jazz pianist Léo Tardin whose multi-sensorial performance fuses both sonic and pictorial content. In partnership with Caran d’Ache, Tardin’s uses stop motion animation to bring his color pencil drawings to life. Moving in real time in dialogue with his solo piano jazz pieces, his drawings feature floral and botanical motifs inspired by his surroundings in the countryside of Geneva as well as a nod or two to the Big Apple.

A gorgeous palette of food will also be presented by plant-based Chef and Food Stylist Regine Bigler, the Culinary Director at Neue House Madison Square. Bigler gives traditional Swiss recipes a fresh twist! Bigler will create a vertical garden inspired by the drawings of Leo Tardin and also present a wide ranging menu complete with a vertical edible garden inspired by Léo Tardin’s artwork and a chocolate tasting by Swiss chocolatier Läderach that will surely delight the senses!

FEATURING
Léo Tardin, composer, jazz pianist, visual artist
Regine Bigler, chef

PROGRAM
6:30pm - Performance by Swiss jazz pianist, composer, and visual artist Léo Tardin who improvises alongside live animations of his drawings, created for the Festival in partnership with Caran d’Ache.

7:30pm - Dinner curated by Swiss plant-based Chef Regine Bigler in partnership with Swissnex of Boston and New York

MENU
Vertical Edible Garden, Inspired by Léo Tardin
Hibiscus Aioli, White Bean Dip, Herb Humus 

Summer Rolls
Smoked Tofu, Sweet Chili Sauce 

King Trumpet Scallops
Black Garlic Aqua Chile, Black Lime, Marigold  

Oysters From The Woods
Nam Prick, Crispy Shallots 

Seitan Bao Buns
Lemongrass, Habanero Aioli, Pickled Daikon 

My Mothers Bread
Barn Cat Plant-based  

Dessert
Läderach Chocolate

Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

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The Chelsea Music Festival is thrilled to present the Theotokos Ensemble, a baroque collective known for its “passion, historical curiosity, and imagination,” in a performance consisting of Doug A.A. Balliett on keyboards and leiken, tenor—who together will reanimate a miraculous composition from 10 centuries ago. Originally written by Hermann of Reichenau, or “Herman the Disabled” (1013-1054), an astonishing monk, intellectual and musician from the Middle Ages, these vivid compositions are essentially medieval opera, full of dynamic melodies and built-in drama.

This concert takes as its centerpiece Hermann’s Historia Sancti Magni, or “The Story of Saint Magnus”, a local saint venerated in the region where Hermann lived. Magnus was especially known for his nature miracles, which included expelling snakes, training dragons, and working closely with local bears to find lucrative iron mines. Through hymns, antiphons, responsories, and readings, Hermann tells the story of Magnus’s life, including his miraculous acts and his surprising interactions with animals. Musically, it stands equal among the great spiritual works of western music, and put in the proper context, the drama matches the intensity of the great Romantic operas of the 19th century.

Reception to follow

FEATURING
Theotokos Ensemble 
leiken, tenor
Doug A.A. Balliett, keyboards

PROGRAM
Hermann AU REICHENAU
Historia Sancti Magni (Matins Office)

Learn More Here: https://www.dougballiett.nyc/hermannus-contractus 

Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

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Join us for a night at The DiMenna Center where audiences will enjoy the World Premiere performance of a new tone poem written by The Brothers Balliett which will feature Rachell Ellen Wong on solo violin. Bringing her “exceptional blend of technical virtuosity on gut strings, expressive musicianship, and an understanding of period performance practices,” which have established her as one of the leading performers of her generation, we are thrilled to feature Wong alongside a Festival orchestra conducted by Ken-David Masur.

Reception to follow featuring Swiss Chalet Bakery

FEATURING
Rachell Ellen Wong, solo violin 
Melinda Lee Masur, piano
Festival Chamber orchestra
Ken-David Masur, conductor

PROGRAM
Ernest BLOCH
Concerto Grosso No. 1

The BROTHERS BALLIETT
The Surprising and True Adventures of William Tell
(2025 World Premiere, Festival commission)

Chelsea Music Festival is a proud partner of Steinway & Sons & extends its heartfelt thanks to all its 2025 Festival Sponsors

FREE with RSVP Below

Grab your friends, kids, and neighbors and join us at this free, family-friendly gathering at Pier 57, a vibrant communal market space located on the Hudson River. Join us for interactive activities that highlight Swiss music & arts and make some muesli with Chef Eric Takahashi!  

Adults must be accompanied by a child. RSVPs are required. 

Chelsea Music Festival is grateful to all our 2025 Festival Sponsors

TICKETS AVAILABLE BELOW

Join us for an incredible jazz finale of the Festival and hear World Premieres by John Patitucci featuring his trio and Festival strings conducted by Ken-David Masur. Patitucci’s works speak to the power of music as a tool for social change, spiritual growth, and justice for all people.

Reception to follow curated by Chef Regine Bigler.

FEATURING
John Patitucci, bass
Julian Shore, piano
Adam Cruz, drums
Edmar Coloń, soprano saxophone
Festival Strings 
Ken-David Masur, conductor

PROGRAM
John PATITUCCI
Planet in Peril (World Premiere performance)
John PATITUCCI
Communion for strings and jazz trio

Chelsea Music Festival is a proud partner of Steinway & Sons & extends heartfelt thanks to all its 2025 Festival Sponsors