Feb. 16: Music Mondays Presents Akropolis Reed Quintet with Baritone Kenneth Overton

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations 
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Music Mondays Presents the Akropolis Reed Quintet
with Baritone Kenneth Overton 

Monday, February 16, 2026 at 7:30 PM

Performing the New York Premiere of Harriet Steinke’s Mass, 
Billie Holiday’s iconic “God Bless the Child,” and Raaf Hekkema’s 
Arrangement of George Gershwin’s An American in Paris

Watch Akropolis and Overton Perform “God Bless the Child”

“[Akropolis is] a sonically daring ensemble who specialize in performing new
works with charisma and integrity” – BBC Music Magazine

www.akropolisquintet.org

New York, NY (January 21, 2026) – On Monday, February 16, 2026 at 7:30 PM at Manhattan’s Advent Lutheran Church, Music Mondays presents the chart-topping Akropolis Reed Quintet, a “collective voice driven by real excitement and a sense of adventure" (The Wire), in a vibrant and wide-ranging program joined by GRAMMY® Award-winning baritone Kenneth Overton. The evening reflects Akropolis’s expansive approach to contemporary chamber music, blending adventurous arrangements, newly commissioned works, and vocal repertoire. 

The program opens with the New York premiere of Mass by Detroit-based composer Harriet Steinke. Commissioned for Akropolis Reed Quintet, Steinke’s Mass is a 35-minute instrumental work that occupies the entire first half of the program. Conceived as a reimagining of the traditional Mass Ordinary – Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei – the piece is lush and atmospheric, designed specifically for reverberant spaces such as the historic Advent Lutheran Church. Akropolis premiered Mass on June 1, 2025 at the Basilica of Sainte Anne de Detroit.

Kenneth Overton joins the ensemble for GRAMMY®-nominated composer Remy Le Boeuf’s original arrangement of God Bless the Child. Akropolis and Overton first began collaborating through the ensemble’s Chamber Music Institute in Northern Michigan, which invites emerging composers, instrumentalists, and ensembles to create new music alongside Akropolis each summer at Interlochen Center for the Arts. Overton is a 2020 GRAMMY® Award winner for Best Choral Performance for his portrayal of the title role in Richard Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, conducted by JoAnn Falletta.

The program concludes with George Gershwin’s An American in Paris in an inventive arrangement by Dutch saxophonist and composer Raaf Hekkema. 

Program Information
Monday, February 16, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Advent Lutheran Church | 2504 Broadway, New York, NY
Tickets: Free, general admission, and available to reserve beginning two weeks before the concert. 
Link: www.musicmondays.org/february-2026

Program:
HARRIET STEINKE – Mass [New York Premiere]

Traditional – “God Bless The Child” arr. Remy Le Boeuf
     Kenneth Overton, baritone

GERSHWIN, arr. RAAF HEKKEMA – An American in Paris

Akropolis Reed Quintet
     Tim Gocklin, oboe
     Kari Landry, clarinet
     Matt Landry, saxophone
     Andrew Koeppe, bass clarinet
     Ryan Reynolds, bassoon
Kenneth Overton, baritone

About Akropolis Quintet
Founded in 2009, the Akropolis Reed Quintet is “a sonically daring ensemble that specializes in performing new works with charisma and integrity” (BBC Music Magazine). Five reed players and entrepreneurs unbounded by limits or categorization, the quintet boasts a “collective voice driven by real excitement and a sense of adventure" (The Wire), and has graced the Classical Billboard Charts with each of its last three albums. Winner of seven national chamber music prizes, including the 2014 Fischoff Gold Medal, Akropolis is known for performing “works that brilliantly exploit their unique instrumentation” (Gramophone). Its 2024 album, Are We Dreaming the Same Dream?, in collaboration with Pascal Le Boeuf and Christian Euman, took home the GRAMMY® Award for Best Instrumental Composition for the track "Strands.”  

Composed of the same five members that brought about its founding at the University of Michigan, they are the first ensemble to receive the University's Paul M. Boylan Alumni Award. Akropolis delivers 120 concerts and educational events worldwide each year at luminary series, including Tanglewood, Bravo! Vail, University Musical Society, Chamber Music Northwest, and more. Having premiered and commissioned more than 200 works by living artists and composers, they are pioneers and champions of a new genre of classical music – the reed quintet.

Live performances of Are We Dreaming the Same Dream? include University Musical Society, Chamber Music Corvallis at the PRAx Center, and the Williams Center for the Arts. Reflecting the influences of Geri Allen, Dave Brubeck, Charles Mingus, and Leonard Bernstein (all of whom explored themes of American unity or disunity), the project probes the idea that diverse strands of experience, more than one unified “dream,” are what define America. 

The quintet’s previous album, Hymns for Private Use (Bright Shiny Things, 2022) ranked in the top 10 on the Classical Billboard Charts, drawing glowing reviews from critics. Featuring works by Nico Muhly and Annika Socolofsky, plus collaborations with seven small business owners, the album was praised by Textura for both its “resplendent” musical selections and the “exquisite playing” of the quintet.

Experimenters and creators at their core, the five artists of Akropolis are routinely lauded for their boldness and innovative spirit. As The Wire commented: “There’s nothing tentative in their approach, and that extends to their programming of multifariously challenging and imaginative new works.” Akropolis has collaborated with poets, a metal fabricator, dancers, small business owners, string quartets, pop vocalists, and others from all walks of life.

The quintet is also known for powerful collaborations with youth and others within its Detroit community. Certified as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Akropolis is the recipient of the 2015 Fischoff Educator Award, as well as eight grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The ensemble runs a Michigan-based summer festival called Together We Sound and annual, school-year-long music composition residencies at Cass Tech, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Detroit School of Arts high schools. Each year, Akropolis visits each high school around 20 times throughout the year, helping students compose new works which Akropolis premieres and records, publishing each work on YouTube. Since 2017, Akropolis has helped over 60 Detroit students write pieces of music. 

Akropolis runs a week-long Chamber Music Institute in partnership with Interlochen Center for the Arts, focused on artist training and mentorship in Northern, MI. The Akropolis Chamber Music Institute (ACMI) welcomes instrumentalists, composers, and ensembles each summer to perform and record new works side-by-side with Akropolis, helping launch the careers of early-career artists through mentorship and collaboration.

Described as “pure gold” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Akropolis Reed Quintet performs worldwide and is represented exclusively by Ariel Artists. Learn more at www.akropolisquintet.org. 

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