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Press Releases
Yarn/Wire Announces 2025/2026 Season: Experimental Percussion and Piano Quartet Celebrates 20th Season
Contact: Katy Salomon | Primo Artists | VP, Public Relations
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Yarn/Wire Announces 2025/2026 Season:
Experimental Percussion and Piano Quartet Celebrates 20th Season
New York Philharmonic Debut in World Premiere of Concerto for Quartet and Orchestra by George Lewis
20th Anniversary Pop-Up Festival at Miller Theatre at Columbia University Featuring Works by Craig Taborn, Zeena Parkins, Sam Pluta, Enno Poppe, Tyshawn Sorey, and Mei-Fang Lin
Performances with Raven Chacon and John Dieterich at TIME:SPANS 2025; Composer Portraits of Anthony Cheung and Andrew McIntosh at Miller Theatre at Columbia University; Swoonfest 2025; and Annea Lockwood’s Into The Vanishing Point at Harvard University
International Performances at Europe’s Transart Festival, Festival Aperto, Festival 20·21 / Transit, and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra
Album Releases Include Yarn/Wire Currents 10 and 11, Katie Young's Biomes, and a Portrait CD of Thomas Meadowcroft's Music
Artists-in-Residence at the University of Washington
“...questioning the boundaries of what music might be.” – The Guardian
“spellbinding virtuosity”– Time Out New York
New York, NY (July 22, 2025) – Described by The New York Times as “key figures from the contemporary music scene… with unmistakable devotion and excitement,” Yarn/Wire, New York-based percussion and piano quartet (Russell Greenberg and Sae Hashimoto, percussion; Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer, pianos), announces its 20th anniversary season celebrating two decades of dedication to the promotion of creative, experimental new music. Yarn/Wire's 2025-26 season exemplifies its expansive reach, musical breadth, and international acclaim, including its New York Philharmonic debut, a celebratory 20th Anniversary Pop-Up Festival and Composer Portraits of Anthony Cheung and Andrew McIntosh at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, TIME:SPANS, Swoonfest, performances in Italy, Belgium, and Denmark, new record releases, and more.
On August 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM, Yarn/Wire kicks off its 20th anniversary season with a performance at TIME:SPANS 2025 with Endlings at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York. Comprising electronic artists Raven Chacon and John Dieterich, Endlings joins Yarn/Wire to perform the world premiere of their new collaborative work False Division.
Throughout the season, Yarn/Wire holds several Live from Troutman performances, intimate evenings that highlight upcoming or new work, at the Yarn/Wire Studio in Queens, NY. The first Live from Troutman performance occurs on September 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM, featuring works by composers Sarah Davachi and Igor Santos. Next, on December 9, 2025 at 8:00 PM, works from composers Catherine Lamb and Thomas Meadowcroft will be performed. The final Live from Troutman performance of the 25-26 season will be on February 26, 2026 at 8:00 PM, featuring works from composers Sarah Hennies and Jordan Dykstra.
On September 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM, Yarn/Wire performs at Swoonfest 2025, sharing a bill with TAK Ensemble, Victoria Cheah, and Las Mariquitas at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Yarn/Wire will perform Beirut-based sound artist and improviser Jad Atoui’s In Memory. Commissioned by Yarn/Wire, premiered at Roulette NYC in 2024, In Memory is a reflective piece that explores recollection and its impact on our inspiration, emotions, and reasoning. The composition features repurposed hard disk drives as musical instruments, transforming their motors and needles to create tones and rhythmic sounds.
Next, Yarn/Wire heads to Europe for its international festival circuit tour. On September 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM, the group performs at Transart Festival in Bolzano, Italy, performing works by composers Sarah Davachi, Andrew McIntosh, and Anthony Cheung. On September 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM, Yarn/Wire performs at Festival Aperto at Teatro Cavallerizza in Italy for the Italian premieres of Igor Santos’ Living to Fall, Andrew McIntosh’s Little Jimmy, Sarah Davachi’s Feedback Studies for Percussion, and Misato Mochizuki’s Le monde des rondes et des carrées. These four works, all written for Yarn/Wire, are representative of principles of openness, curiosity, and experimentation, and, in their diversity, are united by the acute attention to the deep perceptive dimension of space-sound. On October 18, 2025 at 8:30 PM, Yarn/Wire performs at the Festival 20·21 / Transit at STUK in Leuven, Belgium, playing Lisa Streich’s Orchestra of Black Butterflies, which creates an “orchestra” with tiny motors that is as subtle as it is unworldly, and selections from Alex Mincek’s Images of Duration, an equally exciting microtonal piece.
From October 27, 2026 to October 29, 2025, Yarn/Wire’s 20th Anniversary is celebrated with a Pop-Up Festival, presented by Miller Theatre at Columbia University in New York, honoring the two decades of the group’s commitment to exceptional performances, vibrant commissions, and dynamic education and outreach efforts. On October 27 at 6:00 PM, Yarn/Wire performs new additions to harpist Zeena Parkins’ Lace Action Cards and electronic artist Sam Pluta’s Seven Systems, with Sam Pluta and Zeena Parkins joining the ensemble. Then, on October 28 at 6 PM, the group performs composer Enno Poppe’s Feld and a new work by pianist Craig Taborn. The 20th anniversary celebration concludes on October 28 at 6 PM with performances of composer and percussionist Tyshawn Sorey’s For Ross Gay, Linda Catlin Smith's Morandi, and Mei-Fang Lin’s Yarny/Wiry, the first piece ever written for the ensemble.
On November 6, 2025 at 7:00 PM, Yarn/Wire performs New Zealand-born composer Annea Lockwood’s Into The Vanishing Point at Harvard University's Fromm Players Concert, curated by Claire Chase. Composed in 2019, Into The Vanishing Point is a collaborative work hatched with and originally performed by Yarn/Wire that takes the global warning of insect colony collapse as the cue for a far more low-key, tense, and sprawling work. Populated with buzzing sonorities and flightier expressions that reflect the subject matter with a mixture of obliqueness and suggestive sensitivity, this piece effortlessly and hauntingly weaves us into its textures and insectoid rhythms.
Yarn/Wire is joined by pianist Anthony Cheung, flutist Claire Chase, and the JACK Quartet on November 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM for Composer Portraits: Anthony Cheung, presented by the Miller Theatre at Columbia University. Composer Portraits are deep-dive immersions into a single living composer's work, and composer and pianist Anthony Cheung writes music that explores the senses, a wide palette of instrumental play, and affect with improvisational traditions. The program includes Cheung’s works Improvised Intro, Twice Removed, Tactile Values, and The Real Book of Fake Tunes.
Next, on February 5, 2026 at 8:00 PM, Yarn/Wire returns to Miller Theatre for Composer Portraits: Andrew McIntosh. Known for blending rich textures, intricate rhythms, and a deep connection to natural soundscapes, violinist and composer Andrew McIntosh’s music is both profound and mesmerizing. In their second Composer Portrait of the season, Yarn/Wire will be performing the world premiere of McIntosh’s upcoming new work, commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University, made possible through the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program with funding from the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund. Yarn/Wire will also perform Arc, the second movement of Little Jimmy, Little Jimmy at the End of Winter, we see the flying bird, and Hyenas in the Temples of Pleasure. Yarn/Wire has had a relationship with McIntosh for over a decade, and he has written many works for the group.
Kicking off 2026, Yarn/Wire will serve as Artists-in-Residence at the University of Washington from January 20 to 24, 2026. The residency will include workshops and a performance of works by UW faculty composers on January 22, 2026 at the Meany Center for the Performing Arts in Seattle, WA.
Yarn/Wire debuts with the New York Philharmonic from April 8–10, 2026 at 7:30 PM at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center in the world premiere of a new concerto by George Lewis, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. Kwamé Ryan conducts music by two quintessential American iconoclasts: Charles Ives’s The Unanswered Question and Lewis’s new piece, which features Yarn/Wire. The program also includes soprano Golda Schultz singing Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915—a haunting evocation of childhood memories—plus arias by Stravinsky and Carlisle Floyd.
On April 23, 2026 at 7:30 PM, Yarn/Wire performs Berlin-based composer and stage director Simon Steen-Andersen’s concerto grosso with the Aarhus Symfoniorkester at Musikhuset Aarhus in Denmark. Conducted by Christian Øland, this performance marks the second time this piece will be performed after being commissioned by the SWR Symphonieorchester as part of the Donaueschingen Festival in 2024.
Yarn/Wire concludes its 25-26 performance schedule with the annual Yarn/Wire Currents Festival in May 2026, with world premieres of work by composers Jonah Haven and Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir.
In the 2025-2026 season, Yarn/Wire will release Yarn/Wire Currents 10 and 11 in September and December, respectively. Yarn/Wire Currents is an ongoing commissioning series focused on the creation of new works specifically for Yarn/Wire. The series serves as an incubator for experimentation; a diverse range of American and international musicians, artists, and composers explore intersections of composition, technology, installation, improvisation, live performance, music theater, and more. In addition, Yarn/Wire will be featured on sonic artist Katie Young's Biomes, as well as a portrait CD of Thomas Meadowcroft's music in the spring of 2026.
Yarn/Wire 2025/2026 Season
Thursday, August 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM
TIME:SPANS 2025
DiMenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
Link: timespans.org/concert/endlings-yarn-wire/
Program:
Yarn/Wire, Endlings – False Division [World Premiere]
Yarn/Wire, percussion and piano
Raven Chacon, electronics
John Dieterich, electronics
Tuesday, September 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Yarn/Wire Presents Live From Troutman
Yarn/Wire Studio | Ridgewood, NY
Link: www.yarnwire.org/events/livefromtroutman
Program:
Sarah Davachi – Feedback Studies for Percussion
Igor Santos – Living to Fall
Sarah Davachi, composer
Igor Santos, composer
Saturday, September 13, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Swoonfest 2025
DiMenna Center for Classical Music | New York, NY
Link: www.takensemble.com/swoon25
Program:
Jad Atoui – In Memory
Friday, September 20, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Transart Festival Presents Yarn/Wire
LignoAlp | Brixen, Italy
Link: www.transart.it/it/program/made-in-the-usa
Program:
Anthony Cheung – Tactile Values
Sarah Davachi – Feedback Studies for Percussion
Andrew McIntosh – Little Jimmy
Anthony Cheung, composer
Sarah Davachi, composer
Andrew McIntosh, composer
Sunday, September 21, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Festival Aperto Presented by Fondazione
Teatro Cavallerizza | Reggio Emilia, Italy
Link: www.iteatri.re.it/spettacolo/yarn-wire/
Program:
Igor Santos – Living to Fall [Italian Premiere]
Andrew McIntosh – Little Jimmy [Italian Premiere]
Sarah Davachi – Feedback Studies for Percussion [Italian Premiere]
Misato Mochizuki – Le monde des rondes et des carrées [Italian Premiere]
Saturday, October 18, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Festival 20·21 / Transit
STUK Arts Centre | Leuven, Belgium
Link: www.festival2021.be/en/2025/yarn-wire-streich-mincek
Program:
Lisa Streich – Orchestra of Black Butterflies
Alex Mincek – Images of Duration
Monday, October 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Yarn/Wire 20th Anniversary Pop-Up Festival: Concert One
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/celebrating-20-years-of-yarn-wire-concert-one
Program:
Zeena Parkins – Lace Action Cards [Expanded Version]
Sam Pluta – Seven Systems
Zeena Parkins, harp
Sam Pluta, electronics
Yarn/Wire
Tuesday, October 28, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Yarn/Wire 20th Anniversary Pop-Up Festival: Concert Two
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/celebrating-20-years-of-yarn-wire-concert-two
Program:
Enno Poppe – Feld
Craig Taborn – New Work
Craig Taborn, piano
Yarn/Wire
Wednesday, October 29, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Yarn/Wire 20th Anniversary Pop-Up Festival: Concert Three
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/celebrating-20-years-of-yarn-wire-concert-three
Program:
Tyshawn Sorey – For Ross Gay
Mei-Fang Lin – Yarny/Wiry
Linda Catlin Smith – Morandi
Tyshawn Sorey, drums
Yarn/Wire
Thursday, November 6, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Harvard University's Fromm Players Concert
John Knowles Paine Concert Hall at Harvard University | Cambridge, MA
Program:
Annea Lockwood, Into The Vanishing Point
Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Composer Portraits: Anthony Cheung
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/anthony-cheung
Program:
Anthony Cheung – Improvised Intro
Anthony Cheung – Twice Removed
Anthony Cheung – Tactile Values
Anthony Cheung – The Real Book of Fake Tunes
Anthony Cheung, piano
Claire Chase, flute
JACK Quartet
Yarn/Wire
Tuesday, December 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Yarn/Wire Presents Live From Troutman 2
Yarn/Wire Studio | Ridgewood, NY
Link: www.yarnwire.org/events/livefromtroutman2
Catherine Lamb, composer
Thomas Meadowcroft, composer
January 22, 2026
University of Washington Presents Yarn/Wire
Meany Center for the Performing Arts | Seattle, WA
Link: coming soon
Thursday, February 5, 2026 at 8:00 PM
Composer Portraits: Andrew McIntosh
Miller Theatre at Columbia University | New York, NY
Link: www.millertheatre.com/events/andrew-mcintosh
Program:
Andrew McIntosh – New Work* [World Premiere, Miller Theatre and Chamber Music America Co-Commission]
Andrew McIntosh – Arc
Andrew McIntosh – Little Jimmy
Andrew McIntosh – Little Jimmy at the End of Winter
Andrew McIntosh – we see the flying bird
Andrew McIntosh – Hyenas in the Temples of Pleasure
*commissioned by Miller Theatre at Columbia University and is made possible through the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program with funding from the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund
Andrew McIntosh, violin
Yarn/Wire
Thursday, February 26, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Yarn/Wire Presents Live From Troutman 3
Yarn/Wire Studio | Ridgewood, NY
Link: www.yarnwire.org/events/livefromtroutman3
Program:
Sarah Hennies – Primers
Jordan Dykstra – Pitiless as the Sun
Sarah Hennies, composer
Jordan Dykstra, composer
Wednesday–Friday, April 8–10, 2026 at 7:30 PM
New York Philharmonic presents Golda Schultz Sings Barber & Stravinsky featuring Yarn/Wire
Wu Tsai Theater, David Geffen Hall | New York, NY
Link: www.nyphil.org/concerts-tickets/2526/golda-schultz-sings-barber-and-stravinsky/
Program:
Charles Ives – The Unanswered Question
George Lewis – New Work [World Premiere, commissioned by New York Philharmonic]
Carlisle Floyd – The Trees on the Mountain, from Susannah
Igor Stravinsky – No Word from Tom, from The Rake’s Progress
Samuel Barber – Knoxville: Summer of 1915, Second Essay for Orchestra
Kwamé Ryan, conductor
Golda Schultz, soprano
Yarn/Wire, ensemble
Thursday, April 23, 2026 at 7:30 PM
Aarhus Symphony Orchestra
Symfonisk Sal, Musikhuset Aarhus | Aarhus, Denmark
Link: www.aarhussymfoni.dk/koncert/aion/
Program:
Simon Steen-Andersen – grosso
Anna Thorvaldsdottir – AION
Yarn/Wire, soloists
Christian Øland, conductor
May 2026*
Yarn/Wire Currents
Brooklyn, NY*
Program:
Jonah Haven – New Work [World Premiere]
Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir – New Work [World Premiere]
Jonah Haven, composer
Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, composer
*dates, venue, and more information coming soon
More About Yarn/Wire
Described by The New York Times as “key figures from the contemporary music scene… with unmistakable devotion and excitement” and “wildly virtuosic" by The Wire, Yarn/Wire is a New York-based percussion and piano quartet (Russell Greenberg, percussion and Sae Hashimoto; Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer, pianos) dedicated to the promotion of creative, experimental new music. Since its founding in 2005, the ensemble has garnered widespread acclaim for its steadfast commitment to adventurous compositions and unique collaborative approach to music making. With a worldwide presence, Yarn/Wire strives to connect with audiences, building community to help new compositions realize their full creative potential. New York Classical Review writes, “Yarn/Wire may well be the most important new music ensemble on the classical scene today."
Yarn/Wire's 20th anniversary season in 2025-2026 exemplifies its expansive reach, musical breadth, and international acclaim, including its New York Philharmonic debut in the world premiere of a concerto for quartet and orchestra by George Lewis and a celebratory Pop-Up Festival at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, which contains new works by Craig Taborn and Zeena Parkins. Earlier in the 25-26 season, the group performs the premiere of a collaborative new work by Raven Chacon and John Dieterich called Endlings at the Time:Spans Festival, appears at Swoonfest with TAK Ensemble and ISSUE Project Room in new works by Nate Wooley, presents Annea Lockwood’s Into The Vanishing Point at Harvard University, and is featured in Composer Portraits of Anthony Cheung and Andrew McIntosh at Miller Theatre at Columbia University, as well as holding several “Live from Troutman” performances at their Yarn/Wire Studio in Queens, NY and its annual Yarn/Wire Currents concert in Brooklyn, NY. Yarn/Wire’s international schedule includes Europe’s Transart Festival (Italy), Festival Aperto (Italy), Transit Festival (Belgium), and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra (Denmark). In the 2025-2026 season, Yarn/Wire will release Yarn/Wire Currents 10 and 11, sonic artist Katie Young's Biomes on Chaikin Records, and a portrait CD of Thomas Meadowcroft's music on MODE Records. They will also serve as Artists-in-Residence at the University of Washington.
In recent seasons, Yarn/Wire performed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, The McKnight Center for the Performing Arts, and more, as well as returning regularly to Miller Theatre, Time:Spans Festival, Italian Academy at Columbia University, and Pioneer Works (NYC). Yarn/Wire performed Øyvind Torvund’s children’s piece, The Sound of the Forest at the Ultima Festival in Norway. Yarn/Wire also held educational and performance residencies at Harvard, Princeton, IRCAM (Paris), Emory University, Georgia Tech, and UC Berkeley.
A fixture at the world’s preeminent halls and music festivals, Yarn/Wire has performed at Lincoln Center and Brooklyn Academy of Music (New York, USA), Donaueschingen Musiktage and MaerzMusik (Germany), Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall (China), Dublin SoundLab (Ireland), and Monday Evening Concerts (Los Angeles, USA); plus numerous European music festivals: the Edinburgh International Festival (Scotland); the Eclat Festival (Stuttgart, Germany); Rainy Days (Luxembourg), Ultima (Norway), Transit (Belgium), Contemplus (Prague), Manifeste (France), and Wien Modern (Austria).
Through hundreds of commissions over 19 years, Yarn/Wire has championed composers including Annea Lockwood, Enno Poppe, Michael Gordon, George Lewis, Ingrid Laubrock, Ann Cleare, Catherine Lamb, Sarah Hennies, Tyshawn Sorey, Peter Evans, Alex Mincek, Thomas Meadowcroft, Misato Mochizuki, Sam Pluta, Tyondai Braxton, Kate Soper, and Øyvind Torvund. The ensemble enjoys collaborations with genre-bending artists such as Tristan Perich, Ben Vida, Mark Fell, Sufjan Stevens, and Pete Swanson. In previous seasons, Yarn/Wire performed at Bergen International Festival (Norway) with JACK Quartet. In addition, their ongoing commissioning series, Yarn/Wire/Currents, serves as an incubator for new experimental music in partnership with a variety of Brooklyn-based institutions, including Roulette, Blank Forms, and ISSUE Project Room
In Spring 2023, the Ensemble premiered Sorey’s multidisciplinary performance work, Be Holding, as part of their multi-year residency at Girard College in Philadelphia. Using poet Ross Gay’s book-length poem inspired by Philadelphia basketball champion Julius Erving (a.k.a. “Dr. J”) as its libretto, the piece explored themes of Black genius and beauty in the face of racial violence and inequities. Other past highlights include a debut appearance at the Big Ears Festival; Michael Gordon's tour-de-force Material in Leuven, Belgium; and performances at Bowerbird (Philadelphia), The Momentary (Bentonville), and The Stone.
Yarn/Wire has recorded for the WERGO, Kairos, New Amsterdam, Northern Spy, Distributed Objects, Black Truffle, Shelter Press, Populist, and Carrier record labels, in addition to maintaining their own imprint. Past releases include Tonband, featuring works by Enno Poppe and Wolfgang Heiniger, on the WERGO label; Annea Lockwood’s Becoming Air and Into the Vanishing with trumpeter Nate Wooley on Black Truffle Records; Yarn/Wire Currents 7 featuring works by Victoria Cheah, Zeno Baldi, and Diana Rodriguez; Marcel Zaes’ Parallel Prints; the piano and percussion works of Andrew McIntosh; and many more. Recent releases include Yarn/Wire Currents 8 and 9, plus a portrait album of the works of Thomas Meadowcroft on MODE Records.
A strong advocate for education, Yarn/Wire has presented collaborative workshops, masterclasses, and residencies at Princeton University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Brown University, Duke University, Northwestern University, Cornell University, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Adelphi University, UC Santa Cruz, Girard College, Brandeis University, and University of Pennsylvania.
Since 2014, the ensemble has hosted the annual Yarn/Wire International Institute and Festival for composers and performers interested in exploring the collaborative side of contemporary music, in which they get the opportunity to study with and interact with the ensemble and faculty. Affordable, accessible, and open to all instruments, the institute has been organized around a mission to challenge and deepen our understanding of performance, scholarship, and practice. The Yarn/Wire Institute Festival provides both participants and the public a week of free performances on Long Island and in NYC. Festival attendees have access to interact with Yarn/Wire members as well as leading mentors such as Tyshawn Sorey, Vicky Chow, Ann Cleare, Wang Lu, Klaus Lang, Catherine Lamb, Michelle Lou, Peter Evans, and Eduardo Leandro.
At the core of Yarn/Wire's artistic mission is its dedication to transformative work and creating unforgettable experiences. Through performances, commissions, collaborations, and mentorship initiatives, the ensemble's commitment to pushing creative boundaries leaves an impact on audiences and composers alike.
For more information, please visit www.yarnwire.org.
*Photo Credit: Pascal Perich
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