June 6-19: The Next Festival of Emerging Artists Announces Kronos Quartet as Guest Ensemble for 13th Summer Season in Chatham, NY and NYC

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Artist PR Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists 
katy@primoartists.com | 646.801.9406 

 The Next Festival of Emerging Artists Announces 13th Summer
Season in Chatham, NY and NYC | June 6-19, 2025

Featuring Kronos Quartet as Guest Ensemble, a World Premiere by Jungyoon
Wie, and a Collaboration with Music at the Anthology (MATA) at Gibney Dance

Two-Week Immersive Experience Provides Early Career Artists With Opportunities for Mentorship, Performance, and Multidisciplinary Collaboration

www.next-fest.org 
 

New York, NY (February 27, 2025) –  The Next Festival of Emerging Artists today announces highlights of the 2025 festival, taking place from June 6-19, 2025 in Chatham and New York, NY. Multi-GRAMMY® Award-winning Kronos Quartet, which “has broken the boundaries of what string quartets can do” (The New York Times) appears as Festival Guest Artist for the trailblazing arts immersion program for early-career string musicians, composers, and choreographers from around the world. 

Highlights include the world premiere of Jungyoon Wie’s Starlings, for String Quartet and String Orchestra, performed by Kronos Quartet and Next Festival artists; a collaboration with Music at the Anthology (MATA) for a choreographer/composer workshop with Pulitzer Prize and GRAMMY-winning composer Aaron Jay Kernis and Choreography Mentor Sidra Bell at Gibney Dance Center in NYC; performances of music by inti figgis-vizueta, Jan Radzynski, GRAMMY Award-winner Pascal Le Boeuf, and Artistic Director Peter Askim; and a celebration of Terry Riley's 90th birthday including a performance of Riley’s The Sands, written for Kronos in 1991. 

Founded in 2013 by Peter Askim, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists is an immersive experience, providing string players between the ages of 20 to 30 with opportunities for mentorship, performance, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Through a two-week-long residency in Chatham, NY and New York City, Festival Fellows immerse themselves in collaboration — working alongside pathbreaking professional artists, performing world premieres, participating in recording sessions, and developing exciting new work. 

Applications to be a 2025 Festival Fellow with the opportunity to work directly with the Kronos Quartet, as well as develop new music and dance pieces, are open through March 1, 2025.

During the first week of the festival, String Fellows team up with cutting-edge composers to workshop and bring world premieres to life in Chatham, New York. Together with the Kronos Quartet, they also participate in special middle school visits, a residency at PS21/Center for Contemporary Performance, and take part in a recording session at Reservoir Studios. In addition to regular workshops, lessons, and coachings, string players have the opportunity to engage with local public schools and to curate their own program for a concert embedded in the community.

During the second week, String Fellows take up residence in New York City, where they are joined by Composer and Choreographer Fellows. Between public-facing performances at locations such as Merkin Hall and Gibney Dance Center and exclusive house concerts, fellows spend the week improvising and crafting pieces that push the boundaries of music and movement. For the Composer and Composer/Choreographer Workshops, the Festival will partner with MATA (Music at the Anthology), with selected composers drawn from MATA's international call for scores and MATA alums. 2024 Composer Fellows will be Diallo Banks, Luke Haaksma, and Danae Venson.

The Next Festival 2025 Program Information
June 6-19, 2025
Chatham and New York, NY
Learn More: https://www.next-fest.org/

Schedule to Be Announced 

About The Next Festival of Emerging Artists
The Next Festival has supported more than 250 emerging artists with professional development in contemporary music, entrepreneurship, and collaboration, jump-starting professional careers by treating emerging artists like established talent, not students, with a focus on developing the 360-degree artist. Collaborating directly with major composers and performing alongside leading soloists, Fellows dramatically expand their network. 

Festival alumni become working musicians, leaders in their fields, and socially conscious citizens. Past participants include performers with the Handel and Haydn Society, the Executive Director of Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and players for the Le Concert des Nations, Malmo Symphony Orchestra (Sweden), and improvising chamber ensemble 9 Horses. They’ve also launched non-profits like Performers for Change, Sound Off: Music For Bail, Bass Players for Black Composers, and more. 

Over its history, The Next Festival has featured some of the most prominent figures in new music today: including guest artists Ashley Bathgate, Miranda Cuckson, ETHEL, Nadia Sirota, Tony Arnold, Yvette Young, Matt Haimovitz, Jennifer Koh, Nadia Sirota, Richard Thompson, Pamela Z, Curtis Stewart, Seth Parker Woods, and the string quartet ETHEL; as well as choreographers Sidra Bell, Christopher D’Amboise, and S. Ama Wray. The Festival has appeared at venues such as National Sawdust, Roulette, (le) Poisson Rouge, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and PS21/Center for Contemporary Performance, as well as on WQXR. 

Through Next Fest Connects, the Festival presented over 75 guest artists including Pulitzer, GRAMMY, and MacArthur honorees, expanded its reach exponentially, and provided a community for those inspired by the power of music during a dark time. Through the integration of technology and community, the Festival brought artists together virtually across nine time zones in a beautiful simultaneous collaboration. 

At the onset of the pandemic, The Next Festival made a radical pivot to offer 100% of its programming online, free of charge, with an emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and helping artists in a time of need. Prioritizing artist futures, not bottom line, the Festival supports Fellows through a radical “pay-what-you-can” model, ensuring that deserving talent can participate regardless of financial circumstances. The 2020 and 2021 Festivals introduced a groundbreaking series of virtual offerings called Next Fest Connects, with the goal of serving artists and audiences through relevant, timely programming, while also compensating artists for their expertise and artistry. 

In the 2024 season, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists presented world premieres by Curtis Stewart, Michael Dudley, and Peter Askim and performed the East Coast premiere of Rebecca Saunder's Ire with Seth Parker Woods as soloist as well as Herencia by Adrea Casarrubios.

In 2023, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a program of world premieres for string orchestra, including by 2023 Guest Artist and guitarist/composer Yvette Young, 2022 Pulitzer-Finalist Leilehua Lanzilotti, composer/violinist (and 2022 Festival alum) Che Buford, saxophonist/composer Matthew Evan Taylor, and Peter Askim. The Next Festival was an American Composers Orchestra EarShot Partner Orchestra, supporting emerging composers and the creation of new music and was presented by ACO as part of its 2023 SONiC Festival in New York City.

A champion of living composers, The Next Festival commissions new compositions by both established and early career composers every year, presenting over 75 guest artists since 2013, including Pulitzer, GRAMMY, and MacArthur award winners. Learn more at next-fest.org.

“It's amazing how meaningfully crafted Next Fest was, as an experience and as a statement in a field that often can feel tough and impersonal. I've praised it many times out loud. Thanks for all you do to make this field more human.” – Julia Weldon, 2022 Next Fest Performance Fellow

About Founder and Artistic Director Peter Askim
Founder and Artistic Director of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Peter Askim is a composer, conductor, Director of Orchestral Studies at NC State University and conductor of Raleigh Civic Orchestras. As a conductor, he has led the American Composers Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra and Vermont Symphony Orchestra. Askim was featured on HBO and NPR Music conducting folk-rock legend Richard Thompson’s soundtrack for “The Cold Blue.” As a composer, he has been called a “Modern Master” by The Strad and worked with groups like Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Honolulu, and American Viola Society. Through the Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Askim is known for innovative programming and championing the work of living composers and underrepresented voices.

Funding Partners
Festival programs are made possible in part by the generous support of The Heineman Foundation, New York State Council on the Arts, Alice M. Ditson Fund, and Williamson Foundation for Music.

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