May 29-June 12: The Next Festival of Emerging Artists Announces Celebration of Women Immigrant Composers

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

---

 

The Next Festival of Emerging Artists Announces 
14th Summer Season in Chatham, NY and NYC
May 29 – June 12, 2026 

Festival Celebrates Women Immigrant Composers in Honor of the
250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence

Featuring GRAMMY®-Nominated Andrea Casarrubios as Special Guest Artist in the
World Premiere of Her Own New Concerto for Cello and Strings  

Including a World Premiere Arrangement by Composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh 
and a New Work by Festival Alumna Adeliia Faizullina

Plus, Annual Composer/Choreographer Showing
Presented by Next Fest at Gibney Dance 

“The Next Festival of Emerging Artists has brought together young musicians from around the world for twelve years now, giving artists professional opportunities, support, and access to a like-minded community while championing and performing new works.” – The Strad 

www.next-fest.org 

 

New York, NY (February 2, 2026) –  The Next Festival of Emerging Artists – a trailblazing arts immersion program for early-career string musicians, composers, and choreographers from around the world – today announces highlights of its 2026 festival, taking place from May 29 to June 12, 2026 at PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance in Chatham, NY,  National Sawdust in Brooklyn, NY, and Gibney Dance in New York City.

The Next Festival’s 2026 season celebrates the vital contributions of women immigrant composers to the American musical landscape. Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this landmark Festival continues the organization’s longstanding advocacy for diverse, global voices through a series of evocative world premieres and features GRAMMY®-nominated cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios as guest artist.

The centerpiece of the 2026 Festival is a newly commissioned concerto for cello and strings by the Spanish-born Casarrubios. Praised by The New York Times for performances that “traverse the palette of emotions” with “gorgeous tone and an edge-of-seat intensity,” she will perform as soloist in her own work alongside the Festival Fellows.

Artistic Director Peter Askim leads the string orchestra in two additional world premieres: a new arrangement of Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh’s For Love Seemed Easy at First, originally written for the Kronos Quartet, and a new work by Festival alumna Adeliia Faizullina. Born in Uzbekistan, Faizullina’s music paints delicate yet vibrant atmospheres inspired by the music and poetry of Tatar folklore.

Founded in 2013 by Peter Askim, the Next Festival of Emerging Artists is an immersive experience, providing string players between the ages of 20 and 30 with opportunities for mentorship, performance, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Over two weeks, Festival Fellows immerse themselves in collaboration – working alongside pathbreaking professional artists, performing world premieres, participating in recording sessions, and developing exciting new work.  

During the first week of the festival, String Fellows team up with cutting-edge composers to workshop and bring world premieres to life at PS21 Center for Contemporary Performance in upstate New York. 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 Brooklyn’s National Sawdust and NYC’s Gibney Dance Center, as well as exclusive house concerts, fellows spend the week improvising and crafting pieces that push the boundaries of music and movement.  

Applications to be a 2026 Festival Fellow are open through the priority deadline of March 1, 2026, on a “pay-what-you-can” model, and will remain open until all positions are filled. While many other summer festivals charge more than $10K per participant, Next Fest asks Fellows to pay only what they can afford – often a few hundred dollars at most – and covers the remaining costs through donations and grant funding. This reflects The Next Festival’s ongoing commitment to supporting the artists of tomorrow and ensuring equity and access for all.

The Next Festival 2026 Program Information
May 29 - June 12, 2026
Chatham and New York, NY
Learn More: www.next-fest.org

2026 Fellow Application: www.next-fest.org/apply 

Schedule to Be Announced 

About The Next Festival of Emerging Artists
Founded in 2013 by composer and conductor Peter Askim, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is committed to advancing contemporary music and cross-disciplinary artistic creation through performance, creation, audience engagement, and the nurturing of emerging artists with a passion for 21st-century artistic creation and collaboration. Initially a one-week intensive, The Next Festival quickly expanded into a two-week festival consisting of performances, individual lessons, coaching, masterclasses, multidisciplinary collaborations, and professional recording sessions. With one week in New York’s Hudson Valley and a second in New York City, The Next Festival brings together early-career string players, composers, dancers, and choreographers from around the country and around the world. 

Since its inception, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists has provided more than 250 young artists with opportunities to learn, collaborate, and launch their careers. Festival Fellows work closely with a selection of renowned artists and mentors, including GRAMMY, Pulitzer, and MacArthur winners. Previous seasons have featured some of the most prominent figures in new music today, including guest artists Kronos Quartet, 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. Learn more at next-fest.org.

“Next Fest... has been an amazing process of really beautiful exploration... I really feel like we're taking the best of so many different parts of other experiences that I've wanted and just distilled them into one amazing experience...” – Michael Ferri, 2023 Next Fest Performance Fellow

About Founder and Artistic Director Peter Askim
Composer, conductor, and creative catalyst Peter Askim is Music Director of the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Director and Founder of The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, Conductor of the Raleigh Civic Symphony and Chamber Orchestra, and Director of Orchestral Activities at North Carolina State University. Known for his visionary programming and commitment to uplifting living composers, Askim bridges artistic innovation with community engagement.

A passionate advocate for new music, Askim has commissioned and premiered works by Lisa Bielawa, Christopher Cerrone, Aaron Jay Kernis, Allison Loggins-Hull, Nico Muhly, Curtis Stewart, Christopher Theofanidis, and Paul Wiancko, among others. In 2022, he led the American premiere of Florence Price’s Ethiopia’s Shadow in America. His conducting has been featured on HBO and NPR, earning recognition for his collaboration on the documentary The Cold Blue.

Praised by The Strad as “a modern master,” Askim’s compositions have been commissioned and performed by the Tokyo Symphony, Honolulu Symphony, Stavanger Symphony, and Cantus Ansambl Zagreb, ensembles such as ETHEL and the Aizuri Quartet, and cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. 

Through his leadership of the Raleigh Civic Orchestras, Askim has redefined the role of the university and community symphony. Since 2015, every concert under his direction has included a new commission, totaling over 40 to date. 

Askim’s Next Festival of Emerging Artists, founded in 2013, is a trailblazing incubator for early-career string players, composers, and choreographers. The Festival has supported more than 250 emerging artists, offering mentorship, collaboration, and performance opportunities with Pulitzer, MacArthur, GRAMMY, and Emmy-winning artists. Learn more at www.peteraskim.com. 

About Andrea Casarrubios
Praised by The New York Times for performances that "traversed the palette of emotions" with "gorgeous tone and an edge-of-seat intensity," GRAMMY® Award-nominated Spanish-American cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios has been commissioned by world-class orchestras, ensembles, and soloists and appeared as a featured soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The title work from her album SEVEN, described as "an intense and elegiac tribute to the essential workers during the pandemic" (The New York Times), was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. 

First Prize winner of numerous international competitions and awards, Casarrubios has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Madrid’s National Auditorium, and the Ravinia and Verbier Festivals. Recent engagements included the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s world premiere of Casarrubios’s large-scale concerto for cello and orchestra, MIRAGE, led by conductor Christopher James Lees and featuring the composer as cello soloist, and concerts at the Brussels Cello Festival, Festival Internacional de Violoncello León in Mexico, and the George Enescu Festival in Romania. From 2023 through 2025, Casarrubios served as resident composer for both CreArtBox in NYC and Festival ADAR in Spain.

Her compositions have been programmed by organizations including Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and the Sphinx Organization, and have been broadcast on NPR as well as national radio stations in Argentina, Brazil, France, Sweden, Australia, and Spain. Original works include the orchestral version of Afilador (2022-23), commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; MIRAGE Concerto for cello and orchestra (2025); and Herencia for String Orchestra (2023), praised as a “stirring creation” (The Strad). Herencia was featured on Sphinx Virtuosi’s 2025 album American Mirrors, released on Deutsche Grammophon and premiered at Carnegie Hall in 2023.

Commissioned by cellist Thomas Mesa, Casarrubios’s work SEVEN received its Carnegie Hall premiere in  2021 and has been performed in more than 36 countries since. The piece was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award following its release on the 2024 album of the same name (Odradek Records), which featured Casarrubios as cellist and composer in seven of her most recent works, including collaborations with Manhattan Chamber Players and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

Casarrubios was born in a small Spanish mountain village, where she began piano studies at age two and cello at age four. She moved to the U.S. when she was 18 to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree from Johns Hopkins University, later receiving her Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York. Her teachers have included Maria de Macedo, Amit Peled, Marcy Rosen, and Ralph Kirshbaum. As part of her Doctoral degree, Casarrubios also studied composition with John Corigliano. Often incorporating her own compositions into her recital programs, Casarrubios began accepting commissions and writing for other musicians when she was 24. 

A dedicated mentor, Casarrubios has taught masterclasses in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, and China, and at numerous festivals and institutions, including The Juilliard School, University of Colorado Boulder, University of North Carolina, Missouri State University, and the City University of New York. Learn more at www.andreacasarrubios.com. 

Funding Partners
Festival programs are made possible in part by the generous support of the New York State Council on the Arts, J.M. McDonald Foundation, Fairgame Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund, and The Amphion Foundation. 

# # #