Ives, Monk, Cage & Eastman

Explore the diversity of American chamber music through a program that spans colonial-era compositions to groundbreaking 20th-century works.

On Sunday, March 22, Ives, Monk, Cage & Eastman is presented at the New World Center as part of the New World Symphony’s 2025–2026 season. Performed by current Fellows and alumni, the concert showcases the evolution of American musical voices across genres, generations and instrumentation—from early chamber pieces by John Antes and Amy Beach to experimental works by John Cage and Julius Eastman.

The program includes Meredith Monk’s Ellis Island for two pianos, a meditative tribute to immigrant journeys and David Del Tredici’s Aria from Heavy Metal Alice, a brass quintet that blends theatricality with modernist edge. Audiences will also hear Charles Ives’s introspective Largo for Violin, Clarinet and Piano, John Cage’s abstract She is Asleep for percussion and Julius Eastman’s Stay On It, a minimalist work that fuses repetition with improvisational freedom.

This performance offers a rare opportunity to hear American chamber music in a broad historical and stylistic context, interpreted by emerging musicians at the forefront of classical innovation. The concert takes place at the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, home to the New World Symphony and its cutting-edge performance spaces.

Individual tickets go on sale beginning July 25, 2025.