The Frick Collection Announces 2025–26 Concert Season, Expanding the Scope of Its Storied Performance Series

New York (August 11, 2025) — The Frick Collection today announced its 2025–26 concert season, marking the return of its longstanding annual classical performance series following the museum’s April 2025 reopening. With twenty-five concerts running from October 10, 2025, through May 22, 2026, the inaugural season more than doubles the number of performances offered in previous years. Concerts will be held in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium, an intimate, 218-seat new venue designed by Annabelle Selldorf as part of the recently completed renovation. The series’ expanded focus includes the Frick’s first ever ensemble-in-residence, rich dialogues with the museum’s permanent collection and special exhibitions, and a new lunchtime concert series fostering the next generation of classical artists. Presentations will feature diverse musical styles spanning the Renaissance to the twenty-first century, as well as select New York City debuts along with the return of celebrated artists to the Frick.

Acclaimed early-music group Sonnambula will present three concerts as the Frick’s first ensemble-in-residence. Its performances will explore the rich interplay of music, visual art, and cultural history in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Sonnambula will first perform in collaboration with acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines, interweaving English masque and West African griot traditions to reflect on cultural power and memory. Its second concert will present the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by composer Gregory Spears, inspired by Giovanni Battista Moroni’s Portrait of a Woman (ca. 1575), the first Renaissance painting of a woman to enter the Frick’s permanent collection. Finally, the ensemble-in-residence will perform a program developed in conjunction with the 2026 exhibition Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture that highlights the artist Thomas Gainsborough’s social milieu and personal passion for music.

The upcoming special exhibition To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum (opening October 2, 2025) will be accompanied by specially curated concerts, including a program of sacred music performed by vocalists from acclaimed French ensemble Les Arts Florissants and performances by pianist George Fu and harpist Parker Ramsay of works by Olivier Messiaen and Nico Muhly. In another first for the Frick, a new partnership with The Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music will offer weekday lunchtime concerts by students and alumni of the two celebrated conservatories, featuring new commissions by young composers inspired by works at the Frick.

The 2025–26 season also marks the Frick debuts of international talents including violinist Isabelle Faust and the Esmé Quartet, as well as the return of celebrated artists who previously performed at the institution, such as mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani. The Frick also welcomes back the innovative early-music ensemble Ruckus and flutist Emi Ferguson, who recently performed together to critical acclaim in the sold-out Spring Music Festival that inaugurated the museum’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium. Other highlights of the season include a program of piano quintets from the Baroque to contemporary eras, performed by the JACK Quartet and pianist Shai Wosner, along with a similarly centuries-spanning performance by mandolinist Avi Avital with the Viano Quartet.

“The Frick has a long tradition of presenting intimate and exceptional live performances, dating back to 1938, but we now have the opportunity to reintroduce our concert season in our new hall, with world-class acoustics and an enveloping atmosphere that welcomes artists and audiences alike,” said Axel Rüger, the Frick’s Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Director. “The overwhelming enthusiasm we received for the stunning Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium in the spring makes us all the more excited to unveil an expanded program starting this fall, offering new ways to engage with the Frick’s holdings through a wide range of musical and artistic perspectives.”

Tickets for the Frick’s 2025–26 concert season will be available for purchase beginning September 2 at frick.org/concerts. Members of the museum receive 20% off concert tickets, and a limited number of tickets will be reserved for a member presale beginning August 18. General admission tickets to evening concerts are $65, and lunchtime concerts are $35. All concert tickets include access to the museum up to two hours before the performance begins. Program details for each concert follow below.

 

SPECIAL SERIES

Ensemble-in-Residence: Sonnambula
Sunday, November 2, 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 1, 5:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 3, 5:00 p.m.

The New York–based early-music ensemble Sonnambula performs throughout the season as the Frick’s first ensemble-in-residence. Dedicated to unearthing and performing lesser-known works from the early-music repertoire, Sonnambula presents three performances: a collaboration with acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines (November 2, 2025); the world premiere of a new work by composer Gregory Spears inspired by Giovanni Battista Moroni’s Portrait of a Woman (February 1, 2026); and a final performance that explores the musical world of Thomas Gainsborough, coinciding with the exhibition Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture (May 3, 2026).

Lunchtime Concerts
Juilliard415
Thursday, October 23, 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 6, 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, December 18, 1:00 p.m.

Royal Academy of Music
Thursday, April 16, 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, April 23, 1:00 p.m.
Thursday, May 7, 1:00 p.m.

 

In a new partnership with two of the world’s most celebrated conservatories—The Juilliard School and the Royal Academy of Music—the Frick presents a series of weekday lunchtime concerts featuring student musicians and alumni from both institutions. Juilliard415, Juilliard’s acclaimed period-instrument ensemble, performs three programs in the fall. In the spring, musicians from London’s Royal Academy of Music present three concerts with new commissions inspired by Vermeer, Whistler, and Goya—central figures in the Frick’s collection.

 

FULL 2025–26 SEASON SCHEDULE

Isabelle Faust, solo violin | Music by Matteis and Bach
Friday, October 10, 7:00 p.m.

Celebrated violinist Isabelle Faust makes her Frick debut with a program that traces the evolution of solo violin writing at the turn of the eighteenth century. Anchored by two of J. S. Bach’s monumental works for unaccompanied violin—the Sonata No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003, and Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004—Faust’s performance highlights the technical complexity and emotional depth of Bach’s writing. Interwoven with these masterworks are rarely heard solo pieces by seventeenth-century composer Nicola Matteis, whose improvisatory fantasias and dance-inspired ayres evoke the spontaneity and virtuosity of the Italian Baroque. 

 

Anne Sofie von Otter, mezzo-soprano, and Kristian Bezuidenhout, fortepiano | Music by Schubert

Sunday, October 12, 5:00 p.m.

World-renowned mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter marks her return to the Frick, with accompaniment by distinguished pianist Kristian Bezuidenhout, for an intimate Schubertiade featuring the composer’s late song cycle, Schwanengesang. Published posthumously, the fourteen songs of Schwanengesang offer poignant reflections on love and mortality. Schubert’s songs are paired with solo piano works that highlight the introspective lyricism of his late style, presenting a moving portrait of the composer’s final years.

Juilliard415 | Sprezzatura: Extravagant Chamber Music of Seventeenth-Century Italy Thursday, October 23, 1:00 p.m.

Musicians from Juilliard’s period-instrument ensemble, Juilliard415, perform a program of seventeenth-century Italian chamber music. Program to be announced.

Les Arts Florissants, vocal ensemble led by Paul Agnew | Vocal Music of Seventeenth–Eighteenth-Century Spain, France, and Italy
Sunday, October 26, 5:00 p.m.

In dialogue with the Frick’s special exhibition To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum, Paul Agnew, Co-Artistic Director of Les Arts Florissants, leads a vocal ensemble that explores sacred vocal repertoire from seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Portugal, Spain, and France. Reflecting the rich liturgical heritage and devotional practices surrounding the Basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, the program draws upon musical traditions rooted in plainchant and cantus firmus, illuminating historical connections between European sacred repertoire and Jerusalem’s spiritual heritage.

Sonnambula, ensemble-in-residence, and Davóne Tines, bass-baritone | A Black Masque (music by Ferrabosco and Byrd and griot texts from the thirteenth through eighteenth centuries)

Sunday, November 2, 5:00 p.m.

Sonnambula opens its 2025–26 Frick residency with a performance inspired by Ben Jonson’s Masque of Blackness (1605), an allegorical court entertainment commissioned by Queen Anne of Denmark and originally staged at the Jacobean court. Featuring music by Alfonso Ferrabosco II (only one song by whom survives), the masque depicts African nymphs journeying to England to seek racial purification, reflecting early modern racial anxieties and imperial fantasies.

Sonnambula, joined by acclaimed bass-baritone Davóne Tines, interweaves instrumental works by Ferrabosco and William Byrd—representing the masque’s lost musical context—with recitations from medieval West African griot sagas such as The Epic of Sundiata and The Epic of Kele Monzon. These tales passed down by West African storytellers (griots) assert the power of oral tradition in preserving historical memory and cultural identity. Through this juxtaposition, the performance quietly unsettles Jonson’s masque, inviting reflection on the contrasting roles of music and storytelling in shaping histories and identities.

Juilliard415 | Chiaroscuro: Virtuoso Chamber Music of Eighteenth-Century Italy

Thursday, November 6, 1:00 p.m.

Musicians from Juilliard’s period-instrument ensemble, Juilliard415, return to perform a program of eighteenth-century Italian chamber music. Program to be announced.

Andreas Ottensamer, clarinet; Kian Soltani, cello; and Alessio Bax, piano | Music by Beethoven, Mendelssohn, and Brahms

Sunday, November 16, 5:00 p.m.

Three distinguished artists—Andreas Ottensamer, former principal clarinetist of the Berlin Philharmonic; cellist Kian Soltani; and pianist Alessio Bax—join forces in an intimate trio recital. The program opens with Beethoven’s charming and lyrical “Gassenhauer” Trio, followed by a selection of Mendelssohn’s Lieder ohne Worte (Songs without Words), elegantly transcribed for a trio. The evening culminates with Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A Minor, a late work that inventively combines the sonorities of the clarinet, cello, and piano.

Beatrice Berrut, solo piano | Music by Liszt
Sunday, November 23, 5:00 p.m.

Swiss pianist Beatrice Berrut presents an introspective program devoted to the late works of Franz Liszt, including his rarely performed Three Funeral Odes. Composed in Liszt’s final years, these stark, searching pieces strip away virtuosic display to reveal music of haunting stillness, beauty, and spiritual reflection.

JACK Quartet and Shai Wosner, piano | Music by Purcell, Crawford Seeger, Rihm, Otto, Williams, Benjamin, and Adès

Sunday, December 7, 5:00 p.m.

The celebrated JACK Quartet joins pianist Shai Wosner for a compelling program that bridges past and present. The concert opens with Purcell’s Fantasy Upon One Note, arranged for piano quintet, and continues with Ruth Crawford Seeger’s String Quartet (1931) and Wolfgang Rihm’s meditative Interscriptum. The program also features JACK Quartet violinist Christopher Otto’s Miserere, inspired by Renaissance composer Nathaniel Giles, and Amy Williams’s cinematic Cineshape 2. The evening culminates with George Benjamin’s Relativity Rag and Thomas Adès’s virtuosic Piano Quintet—a thrilling close to this rich, multi-layered exploration of musical invention across time.

 

Juilliard415 | Rameau and Friends: Conversations Galantes
Thursday, December 18, 1:00 p.m.
Musicians from Juilliard’s period-instrument ensemble, Juilliard415, perform works by Rameau and his contemporaries. Program to be announced.

George Fu, solo piano, and Parker Ramsay, solo harp | Music by Messiaen and Muhly

Sunday, December 21, 1:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.
In conjunction with the exhibition To the Holy Sepulcher: Treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum, harpist Parker Ramsay and pianist George Fu present a pair of concerts shaped by spiritual and contemplative themes. Fu performs Olivier Messiaen’s monumental piano cycle Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus, a meditation on the mystery of the Nativity. Complementing this, Ramsay presents Nico Muhly’s The Street, a set of fourteen meditations on the Stations of the Cross for solo harp, featuring a text by poet and librettist Alice Goodman.

Boris Giltburg, solo piano | Music by Rachmaninoff and Liszt

Sunday, January 18, 5:00 p.m.
Following his win at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2013, pianist Boris Giltburg quickly established himself as a musician with formidable technique and a distinctive artistic voice. He returns to the Frick with a focused program that features a selection of Rachmaninoff’s Op. 23 preludes, a brilliantly constructed cycle showcasing a range of characters and inventive pianistic textures. Giltburg also performs Liszt’s monumental Sonata in B Minor, a single-movement tone poem of symphonic sweep, beloved in the canon of Romantic piano music.

 

Sonnambula, ensemble-in-residence | Music by Caccini, Bassano, and Spears (world premiere)

Sunday, February 1, 5:00 p.m.

Sonnambula continues its 2025–26 season residency with a program that juxtaposes selections from Giulio Caccini’s seminal 1602 collection, Le Nuove Musiche, with instrumental works by Giovanni Bassano. The concert also features the world premiere of Secrets by composer Gregory Spears, commissioned by The Frick Collection and inspired by the enigmatic gaze of the sitter in the museum’s Portrait of a Woman (ca. 1575) by Giovanni Battista Moroni. Utilizing a blend of modern instruments and Renaissance viols, Secrets explores the capacity of the “sonic gaze” to examine convergences between the imagined sounds of the past and the potential for music of today.

 

Viano Quartet and Avi Avital, mandolin | Music by Bach and Bruce
Sunday, February 15, 5:00 p.m.

Mandolinist Avi Avital, celebrated for expanding the expressive range of his instrument, joins the Viano Quartet for a dynamic program that bridges Baroque and contemporary traditions. The quartet opens the evening with works from the classical repertoire, followed by Avital’s reimagining of Bach’s iconic Chaconne—one of the most enduring pieces in the violin canon, heard here in a striking new light. The concert concludes with David Bruce’s Cymbeline, a richly textured work for mandolin and string quartet.

Steven Osborne, solo piano | Reflections on a Waltz (music by Schumann, Lyadov, Boulanger, Satie, Kreisler, Ravel, and Beethoven)

Sunday, February 22, 5:00 p.m.

British pianist Steven Osborne presents Reflections on a Waltz, an evocative program that explores waltz forms and their transformations across musical eras. The recital opens with Schumann’s charming Papillons, followed by Lyadov’s A Musical Snuff Box and Boulanger’s D’un jardin clair. Osborne then turns to Satie’s contemplative Gymnopédie No. 3 and Kreisler’s Liebesleid in Rachmaninoff’s transcription, concluding the first half with Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales. The evening culminates with Beethoven’s monumental Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, a set of variations inspired by a simple waltz theme.

 

Esmé Quartet | Music by Dutilleux, Ravel, and Schubert
Sunday, March 1, 5:00 p.m.

Extending the Frick’s tradition of presenting acclaimed young artists making their New York debuts, the Esmé Quartet performs a compelling program that showcases its celebrated precision and expressive power. Winners of the prestigious Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, the ensemble has garnered acclaim at leading European venues and festivals. Its performance opens with Henri Dutilleux’s luminous and intricate Ainsi la nuit, followed by Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet. The program culminates with Schubert’s profound late masterpiece for quartet, Death and the Maiden.

 

Mahan Esfahani, solo harpsichord | Music by Bach

Sunday, March 15, 5:00 p.m.

Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, who made his New York City debut at the Frick in 2012, returns to perform the complete Books I and II of J. S. Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. Renowned for his insightful interpretations and clarity of execution, Esfahani presents Bach’s cycle of preludes and fugues in the setting of the Frick’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium, acclaimed for the intimacy and resonance of its acoustics for period-instrument performers.

 

Maxwell Quartet | Music by Haydn, Brahms, and folk music of Scotland

Sunday, March 22, 5:00 p.m.
A group that synthesizes classical and folk traditions, the Scottish Maxwell Quartet makes its Frick debut with a program that features Haydn’s spirited String Quartet in D Major, Op. 20, No. 4, followed by the group’s own arrangements of traditional Scottish tunes—music that draws on the dance rhythms and melodic inflections of their national heritage. The evening concludes with Brahms’s lyrical String Quartet No. 2 in A Minor, Op. 51, No. 2.

 

Musicians from the Royal Academy of Music | Music by Dutilleux, Adès, Arafah, Sweelinck, and Stravinsky

Thursday, April 16, 1:00 p.m.

Flutist Efrem Workman, violinist Basil Alter, and pianist Ariel Lanyi perform an imaginative program that bridges historical styles. Dutilleux’s lyrical Sonatine, Stravinsky’s vibrant Duo Concertant, and Sweelinck’s Mein junges Leben hat ein End (My Young Life Has an End) frame a compelling new commission by young composer Laila Arafah that engages with the narrative mystery of Vermeer’s Girl Interrupted at Her Music (ca. 1658–59), a central work in the Frick’s permanent collection.

Ruckus, early-music ensemble; Emi Ferguson, flute; Rachell Ellen Wong, violin; and Reginald Mobley, countertenor | Music by Sancho and Handel  

Sunday, April 19, 5:00 p.m.

Countertenor Reginald Mobley joins early-music ensemble Ruckus, flutist Emi Ferguson, and violinist Rachell Ellen Wong in a program dedicated to the music of Ignatius Sancho (b. 1729)—composer, writer, and the first known Black Briton to vote in a parliamentary election. Sancho’s songs and courtly dances, drawn from his published collections, offer a window into the vibrant social and artistic life of eighteenth-century London. Presented in conjunction with the Frick’s special exhibition Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture, this performance celebrates Sancho’s legacy as a composer, man of letters, and key figure in the cultural landscape of his time.

Musicians from the Royal Academy of Music | Music by Takemitsu, Kim, Wilson, and Fauré

Thursday, April 23, 1:00 p.m.

 Pianist George Fu, violinist Adriana Bec, and cellist Alex Lavine deliver a richly conceived concert focused on themes of landscape and memory. The trio performs Takemitsu’s meditative Between Tides, James B. Wilson’s evocative Turner’s Ships, and Fauré’s Piano Trio in D Minor. At the heart of the program is young composer Shin Kim’s newly commissioned work inspired by Whistler’s atmospheric painting Symphony in Grey and Green: The Ocean (1866), one of the many musically inspired works by Whistler in the Frick’s permanent collection.

 

 

 

Sonnambula, ensemble-in-residence | Music by Schröter, Haydn, Abel, J. C. Bach, and Telemann

Sunday, May 3, 5:00 p.m.

Closing its 2025–26 season residency, Sonnambula explores the celebrated Bach-Abel concerts, the pioneering subscription series established by J. C. Bach and Carl Friedrich Abel in eighteenth-century London. Reflecting the intimate yet public character of these groundbreaking performances, the concert coincides with the Frick’s special exhibition Gainsborough: The Fashion of Portraiture, highlighting the wide circle of musical friends surrounding Thomas Gainsborough, as well as the artist’s personal connection to Abel (whose portrait features in the exhibition) and his passion for the viola da gamba.

 

Musicians from the Royal Academy of Music | Music by Shostakovich, Doda (world premiere), Finnis, Granados, and Schnittke

Thursday, May 7, 1:00 p.m.

Cellist Jason Ma and pianist (TBA) pair selections from Shostakovich’s introspective Preludes and Fugues and Schnittke’s Sonata for Cello and Piano No. 1 with Granados’s imagistic solo piano work, Goyescas, a set of character pieces inspired by the paintings of Goya. Central to this concert is the world premiere of a newly commissioned work by young composer Ruben Doda, inspired by The Forge (ca. 1815–20), Goya’s late masterpiece at the Frick.

 

Les Talens Lyriques, ensemble, led by Christophe Rousset, and Key’mon Murrah, countertenor | Music by Handel

Friday, May 22, 7:00 p.m.

Closing the 2025–26 season is the Frick debut of French ensemble Les Talens Lyriques, led by harpsichordist and conductor Christophe Rousset. In a program titled Handel Serio, countertenor Key’mon Murrah joins the ensemble for a richly expressive exploration of Handel’s operatic and oratorio writing. Drawing from lesser-heard arias in Rodrigo, Alcina, Arianna in Creta, and Alexander Balus, as well as selections from Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno, Esther, and Deborah, the program captures the emotional range and dramatic intensity of Handel’s vocal works. Two instrumental works—Corelli’s Concerto Grosso in D Major, Op. 6, No. 4, and Handel’s Concerto Grosso in B-flat Major, Op. 3, No. 2—anchor the program in the Italianate brilliance that shaped Handel’s early style.

 

SEASON support

The 2025–26 concert season is generously supported by The Achelis and Bodman Foundation, Ravenel Curry and Jane Moss, and Karen Z. Gray-Krehbiel and John H. Krehbiel Jr. Additional funding is provided by Alexa and Marc Suskin, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon, Tippet Rise Art Center, Ayesha Bulchandani, Robert Ouimette, and Jane L. Richards.

The Frick Collection is grateful to Ayesha Bulchandani for sponsoring for the concert on October 26, 2025, and to Sarah Billinghurst Solomon for sponsoring the new commission by Gregory Spears presented at the concert on February 1, 2026.

 

ABOUT CONCERTS AT THE FRICK COLLECTION

The Frick’s acclaimed concert series is a beacon for extraordinary musical artistry, captivating audiences since 1938 with performances by world-class soloists, chamber groups, and pioneering early-music ensembles. Following a hiatus from 2020 through the Frick’s renovation and enhancement project, the series returned with a Spring Musical Festival in April–May 2025, held in the newly built Stephen A. Schwarzman Auditorium. The annual concert season resumes from October 2025 through May 2026.

Over the decades, the Frick has introduced New York audiences to  many of the past century’s greatest soloists and ensembles, among them the legendary instrumentalists Wanda Landowska, Gregor Piatigorsky, Artur Schnabel, and Joseph Szigeti; vocalists Kathleen Battle, Peter Pears, Elisabeth Söderström, Kiri Te Kanawa, and Anne Sofie von Otter; the Amadeus,  Budapest, Guarneri, and Tokyo quartets; and the New York debuts of notable international musicians including the Bennewitz Quartet, Ian Bostridge, the Carmina Quartet, Sarah Connolly, Mahan Esfahani, Gerald Finley, Fretwork, Matthias Goerne, Wolfgang Holzmair, Felicity Lott, Mark Padmore, Yevgeny Sudbin, the Jacques Thibaud String Trio, Pieter Wispelwey, and Thomas Zehetmair. The Frick is also renowned as a venue for groundbreaking performers of period instruments, such as Richard Egarr, Andrew Manze, Quatuor Mosaïques, and Jordi Savall with Hespèrion XXI.

For more information, please visit frick.org/concerts.

 

ABOUT THE FRICK COLLECTION

Housed in one of New York City’s last great Gilded Age homes, The Frick Collection provides intimate encounters with one of the world’s foremost collections of fine and decorative arts. Open since 1935, the institution originated with Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), who bequeathed his Fifth Avenue residence and collection of European paintings, sculpture, and decorative arts for the enjoyment of the public. The museum’s holdings, which encompass masterworks from the Renaissance through the late nineteenth century, have grown over the decades, more than doubling in number since the opening of the museum. The Frick Art Research Library, founded more than one hundred years ago by Henry Clay Frick’s daughter Helen Clay Frick, is today a leading art history research center that serves students, scholars, and the public.

This spring, the Frick completed a major renovation and enhancement project and reopened on April 17 with great fanfare. Designed by Selldorf Architects, with executive architect Beyer Blinder Belle, the project was developed to honor the historic legacy and character of the Frick while addressing critical infrastructural and operational needs.

For more information, please visit frick.org.