Greenwich Village Orchestra Announces Spring 2026 Programs

GREENWICH VILLAGE ORCHESTRA
ANNOUNCES SPRING 2026 PROGRAMS

Violinist Laurel Gagnon, pianist David Kaplan, mezzo-soprano Kayla Faccilongo, and flamenco dancer Eva Conti Featured on Three Programs Exploring Romanticism, Musical Wit, and Renewal

“Some of the best classical concerts in New York, year after year.” — Lucid Culture

 

New York, NY (January 27, 2026) | The Greenwich Village Orchestra (GVO), led by Music Director Barbara Yahr, announces its Spring 2026 season: a three-concert series exploring lyricism, humor, ritual, and renewal through masterworks of the orchestral repertoire. Performances take place on Sunday, February 8; Sunday, March 22; and Sunday, May 3, 2026, all at 3:00PM at the High School of Fashion Industries (225 West 24th Street, Manhattan).

Spanning lush Romantic symphonism, Classical poise, orchestral wit, and American renewal, the season reflects GVO’s long-standing commitment to presenting emotionally charged, exhilarating performances of great music. Featured soloists include violinist Laurel Gagnon and pianist David Kaplan, as well as mezzo soprano Kayla Faccilongo alongside flamenco dancer Eva Conti.

A distinctive presence in New York City’s musical life for nearly four decades, the Greenwich Village Orchestra is known for performances that combine rigor, warmth, and palpable joy. Under the leadership of Yahr, who is in her 23rd season as Music Director, GVO brings together musicians who are deeply serious about the art form – players who may not be pursuing music as a full-time career, but who perform at an exceptionally high professional level. “What makes GVO special,” says Yahr, “is that this commitment to excellence is paired with a genuine sense of community. Our concerts aren’t just performances; they’re shared experiences offered as a gift to the city.” That spirit of enthusiasm and collective investment, felt both onstage and in the hall, has become a defining part of the GVO experience, setting it apart in a city rich with musical offerings.

The season opens on Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 3PM with Lyrical, an unabashed celebration of melody and late-Romantic intensity. The program features Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, a landmark work in the violin repertoire and a defining milestone in any soloist’s career, performed by Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect fellow and rising star Laurel Gagnon. Known for championing emerging artists at pivotal moments in their development, GVO provides a rare opportunity to hear a major concerto interpreted by a violinist of exceptional promise at an early stage in her career, followed by the fervently emotional sweep of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 2, one of the most beloved symphonic works of the repertoire. “This program is steeped in melody and emotional intensity,” says Yahr. “These works represent some of the most expansive music in the orchestral repertoire, works that speak with extraordinary immediacy and depth.”

Pranks and Pastorales, a program of perfect contrasts, continues the season on Sunday, March 22, 2026, at 3PM. Acclaimed pianist David Kaplan – praised by The New York Times for his “striking imagination and creativity” – joins the orchestra for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27, the composer’s poignant and final concerto for the instrument. Kaplan, an artist equally at home on the world’s major stages and in adventurous, genre-spanning projects, brings rare insight and lyricism to this luminous late work. Assistant Conductor Christian Olson leads Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, a tender musical gift written to celebrate the birth of the composer’s son, before Yahr concludes the program with the virtuosic wit and exhilarating sweep of Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel.

Rounding out the season on Sunday, May 3, 2026, at 3PM, Rituals and Renewals transforms the concert hall into a space of movement, rhythm, and theatrical intensity. Olson conducts Emmanuel Chabrier’s España, a brilliant orchestral portrait of Spain which opens the program. Yahr returns to the podium for Manuel de Falla’s Suite from El amor brujo, featuring mezzo soprano Kayla Faccilongo – praised for her “arrestingly beautiful” voice and dynamic, genre-spanning artistry – and flamenco dancer Eva Conti. An accomplished principal horn player and internationally experienced performer, Conti brings the visceral physicality and rhythmic fire of flamenco to de Falla’s spellbinding score, blurring the line between concert and staged performance. The program also includes Reconciliation (2025), a new work by GVO co-concertmaster Audrey Morse, reflecting the orchestra’s commitment to nurturing artistic voices from within its own community, and concludes with Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring, a radiant expression of hope, renewal, and American musical identity.

 

Performance Details:
Greenwich Village Orchestra Presents Lyrical
Sunday, February 8, 2026, at 3PM
High School of Fashion Industries | 225 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $30 General Admission; $20 Student / Senior
Link: https://greenwich-village-orchestra.square.site/product/lyrical/WHFTOM5UZVKQUUDF36DOTU5X

Program:
Sibelius Violin Concerto
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2

Artists:
Barbara Yahr, conductor
Laurel Gagnon, violin

 

Performance Details:
Greenwich Village Orchestra Presents Pranks and Pastorales
Sunday, March 22, 2026, at 3PM
High School of Fashion Industries | 225 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $30 General Admission; $20 Student / Senior
Link: https://greenwich-village-orchestra.square.site/product/pranks-pastorales/HAPVKGN2YADSSBREWN6RSGWN

Program:
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27
Wagner Siegfried Idyll*
Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks

Artists:
Barbara Yahr, conductor
Christian Olson, conductor
David Kaplan, piano

 

Performance Details:
Greenwich Village Orchestra Presents Rituals and Renewals
Sunday, May 3, 2026, at 3PM
High School of Fashion Industries | 225 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $30 General Admission; $20 Student / Senior
Link: https://greenwich-village-orchestra.square.site/product/rituals-renewals/SSYUMFQYXIZZFU5NUB4FROPM

Program:
Chabrier España
Falla Suite from El amor brujo
Morse Reconciliation
Copland Suite from Appalachian Spring

Artists:
Barbara Yahr, conductor
Christian Olson, conductor
Eva Conti, dancer

 

About the Greenwich Village Orchestra
Now in its 39th season, the GVO is committed to making music at the highest possible level and enriching the lives of both players and audience through emotionally charged, exhilarating performances. The GVO was founded in 1986 by a group of musicians from the New York Metropolitan area. The 70-member community orchestra is made up of accountants, actors, artists, attorneys, carpenters, editors, physicians, professors, photographers, computer programmers, retirees, scientists, students, and teachers, among others.

The GVO regularly performs with internationally acclaimed soloists. In recent years, the orchestra has performed alongside soloists such as violinists Andrés Cárdenes, Itamar Zorman, and Hye-Jin Kim; cellists Edward Arron, Raman Ramakrishnan, David Heiss, and Brook Speltz; soprano Christine Goerke; mezzo-sopranos Jennifer Johnson Cano and Naomi O’Connell; baritone Jesse Blumberg; trumpet soloist Brandon Ridenour; and more.

About Barbara Yahr
Now in her twenty-third season with the GVO, Music Director Barbara Yahr continues to lead the orchestra to new levels of distinction. With blockbuster programming and internationally renowned guest artists, the GVO under Barbara’s baton, has grown into an innovative, collaborative institution offering a full season of classical music to our local community.

A native of New York, Ms. Yahr’s career has spanned from the United States to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Her previous posts include Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra, Resident Staff Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony under Maestro Lorin Maazel and conductor of the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra. She has appeared as a guest conductor with such orchestras as the Bayerische Rundfunk, Dusseldorf Symphoniker, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Frankfurt Radio, Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, Janacek Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, NHK Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony, and the National Symphony in Washington D.C. She has also conducted the orchestra in Anchorage, Calgary, Chattanooga, Columbus, Detroit, Flint, Louisiana, New Mexico, Lubbock, and Richmond as well as the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber, Rochester Philharmonic, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, New World Symphony and the Chautauqua Festival Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared in Israel conducting in both Jerusalem and Elat and as an opera conductor, has led new productions in Frankfurt, Giessen, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Minnesota and at The Mannes School of Music in NYC. She has taught conducting at the Curtis Institute of Music and served on the faculty of conducting workshops sponsored by the League of American Orchestras. In recent years, she coached the actors on the set of the Amazon Series Mozart in the Jungle, conducted the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, the Chappaqua Orchestra and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians in a concert to benefit the Musicians of Steel fund.

Yahr is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Middlebury College where she studied piano and philosophy. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Conducting from the Curtis Institute of Music where she studied with Max Rudolf and an MM in Music Theory from the Manhattan School of Music. She was a student of Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Hancock, Maine. 

A central focus of Ms. Yahr’s career has been her commitment to finding new ways to reach a broader population with music. This path ultimately led her to pursuing an MA in Music Therapy at NYU and training at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy in NYC. Her pioneering, community music therapy project, Together in Music, brings orchestral music to the special needs community with uniquely interactive programs presented annually by the GVO.

 

About Laurel Gagnon
Violinist Laurel Gagnon’s performances have been described as “poised and mature” (The Strad) and her interpretations praised for their “naturalness that [is] both disarming and distinctive” (The Straits Times, Singapore). Performing as a soloist and chamber musician, she is currently based in New York City and is a fellow of Carnegie Hall’s Ensemble Connect program for the 2025–27 seasons. Equally at home performing traditional repertoire and premiering new works, she especially enjoys exploring works written by women of previous centuries.

Gagnon recently won first prize at the 2025 Dallas International Violin Competition and was awarded top prizes at the Elmar Oliveira and Singapore International Violin Competitions. She has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Flagey in Brussels, Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall, and the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Dallas Chamber Symphony, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Lynn Philharmonia, and Indiana University Philharmonic. Upcoming engagements in 2026 include performances with the Dallas Chamber Symphony and the Yale Philharmonia.

As a chamber musician, Laurel is the founding violinist of Vinola Trio, a clarinet-violin-piano ensemble with an emphasis on contemporary repertoire. The trio received the grand prize at the 2025 Plowman Chamber Music Competition,and won prizes at both the MTNA National Chamber Music Competition and The American Prize. The group has performed at institutions including Boston Conservatory, Indiana University, and Truman State University, and has completed multiple residencies at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute. Actively involved in chamber music education, the ensemble has led masterclasses at Boston Conservatory, Truman State University, and worked with young ensembles at the Bridges Musical Arts Youth Organization. Upcoming season engagements include performances at Odyssey Chamber Music Series, Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts in Chicago, and a residency at the University of California San Diego.

Passionate about engaging with local communities, Laurel worked extensively with Indiana University’s Center for Rural Engagement, where she collaborated with community partners to present public performances in libraries, schools, and senior care centers. A teaching artist with Yale’s Music in Schools Initiative, she also participated in Indiana University’s Fairview Violin Project, introducing violin to elementary students.

A recent graduate of the Yale School of Music under the mentorship of Augustin Hadelich, she previously studied with Ben Sayevich and Mauricio Fuks. Laurel performs on an 1809 Lupot violin, generously on loan from Canimex Inc., Drummondville, Québec, Canada.

 

About David Kaplan
Pianist David Kaplan has been called “excellent and adventurous” by The New York Times, and praised by the Boston Globe for “grace and fire” at the keyboard. As orchestra soloist, he has appeared with the Britten Sinfonia at London’s Barbican and Das Sinfonie Orchester Berlin at the Philharmonie, as well the Symphony Orchestras of Hawaii and San Antonio. As recitalist, he has performed at the Ravinia Festival, Sarasota Opera House, Music on Main in Vancouver, Strathmore, Washington’s National Gallery, and New York’s Carnegie and Merkin Halls.

?Kaplan has consistently drawn critical acclaim for creative programs that interweave classical and contemporary repertoire, often featuring newly commissioned works. As a guest artist of Piano Spheres at Los Angeles’ Zipper Hall, he recently premiered Quasi una Fantasia, a program exploring the grey area between composition and improvisation through works by Anthony Cheung, Christopher Cerrone, and Andrea Casarrubios, together with Couperin, Beethoven, Schumann, Saariaho, Ligeti, and his own improvisations. Kaplan’s New Dances of the League of David, a recital infusing Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze with sixteen new works by composers including Augusta Read Thomas, Marcos Balter, Caroline Shaw, and Andrew Norman was cited among the “Best Classical Music Performances of 2015” by The New York Times.

Balancing solo performances with meaningful collaborations, Kaplan has played with the Attacca, Ariel, Enso, Hausman, and Tesla String Quartets. As a core member of Decoda, the Affiliate Ensemble of Carnegie Hall, he performs frequently in New York’s most exciting venues, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to National Sawdust, as well as creating innovative residencies as far away as Abu Dhabi, Mexico, and Scotland. He is a veteran of numerous distinguished chamber music festivals and series, such as the Seattle Chamber Music, Bard, and Mostly Mozart Festivals, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Chamber Music Northwest, and Barge Music. He is an alumnus of Tanglewood and the Ravinia-Steans Institute, and performs regularly as an alumnus of the Perlman Music Program, including with Itzhak Perlman at Miami’s Arsht Center. He serves as Co-Artistic Director of Lyrica Chamber Music, a community series in Morris County, NJ currently in its 36th season.

?Kaplan has recorded for Naxos and Marquis Records, as well as for Nonesuch as part of his longstanding duo with pianist/composer Timo Andres. In September 2023, Bright Shiny Things will release Vent, Kaplan’s debut album with his wife, flutist Catherine Gregory, to include music by Gabriela Lena Frank, David Lang, Mr. Andres, Schubert, and Prokofiev.

 

About Kayla Faccilongo
Kayla Faccilongo, mezzo-soprano, is a Bronx-born, Puerto Rican vocalist noted for her “arrestingly beautiful mezzo-soprano” and dynamic interpretations. A multi-disciplinary artist, she is dedicated to the evolution of opera through innovative, diverse, and collaborative programming.

This summer, Faccilongo makes her Public Theater debut in Troy Anthony’s Pericles at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. She recently appeared in the world premiere of Jorge Sosa’s To the People Like Us with White Snake Projects, debuting the twin roles of Abuela and Ms. Sirleaf. Last season, she made her regional debut with Central City Opera as an Apprentice Artist, performing Ruth (The Pirates of Penzance) and Mrs. Hildebrand (Street Scene).

Equally at home in the Bel Canto and Romantic traditions, her repertoire includes Mercédès (Carmen), Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), Adalgisa (Norma), and Carmen with The Martina Arroyo Foundation. Additional highlights include appearances with Bronx Opera, the International Brazilian Opera Company, and the European premiere of Andrea DelGiudice’s Hansel & Gretel. In 2023, she made her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York City Opera Chorus in the North American premiere of Lera Auerbach’s Vessels of Light.

Faccilongo is a member of BronX BandA, the Latin jazz ensemble led by Arturo O’Farrill in partnership with Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, which has collaborated with the New York Philharmonic and released the album Amor y Resiliencia (2021). She is also a Teaching Artist at Casita Maria, leading its premiere youth choir and maintaining a private voice studio in Washington Heights.

 

About Eva Conti
Eva Conti Alegria, flamenco dancer, has been a featured dancer, soloist, choreographer and musical arranger for the New Jersey based Alborada Spanish Dance Theater since 2006. With the ensemble “SEGUE” she has performed extensively and given numerous workshops about flamenco and the music of Spain throughout the northeast. She studied flamenco dance and castanets in both New York and in Spain (at the legendary Amor de Dios Studio in Madrid) with Jose’ Molina, Omayra Amaya, Inmaculada Ortega, Pastora Galvan, Olga Pericet, Farruquito and Adrian Santana. She has participated yearly in the National Institute of Flamenco workshops in Albuquerque and in the Maria Benitez Institute for Spanish Dance workshop in Santa Fe since 2008. She has danced as a soloist to the music of Bizet, De Falla, Albeniz, Piazolla, Granados, D’Rivera, Surinach, and Boccherini, with the Queens Symphony, Stamford Symphony, Atlantic Classical, and New Haven Symphony Orchestras and with the chamber groups, Ulysses Quartet, Windscape, Sylvan Winds, Gabriel Ensemble, Engle Winds, and the Palm Beach Chamber Music Festival.

Eva brings a lifetime of musical study and performance to her flamenco dance. Since graduating from the Manhattan School of Music she has been performing extensively as a professional classical musician on both French horn and classical guitar. She is currently principal Horn of the New Haven Symphony and the Berkshire Opera, and has played in numerous Broadway shows. She has performed and recorded with the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera, New Jersey Symphony, Israel Philharmonic and the Radio City Orchestra. She toured the US and Canada as a member of the Barbra Streisand Orchestra for several years and is on the CD/DVD of the 2006 tour and the 2012 Back to Brooklyn tour. Eva recently released a CD of the “Music for Eva Suite” for Horn and Jazz Piano composed by Tomoko Ohno and it is now available on Amazon and iTunes.

Ms. Conti holds a Master’s Degree in French horn from the Manhattan School of Music and Bachelor’s Degrees in Classical Guitar and one in Biology from the University of Rhode Island.

Eva designs and creates her own costumes.

 

About Audrey Morse 
Audrey Morse, MA, MT-BC, LCAT, is a music therapist, psychotherapist, violinist, and composer. A native of New York City, she studied violin with Margaret Pardee and Shirley Givens. She studied composition and orchestration with Otto Luening, George Tsontakis, and Justin Dello Joio. She was the mathematics prize winner at Barnard College, where she graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.  She spent part of her undergraduate studies at the University of Cambridge.

Audrey's compositions have been performed by many organizations including Columbia Composers, Composers Concordance, and Contemporaneous. She was a featured composer in the United Nations Symphony Orchestra's Global Women in Music concert series. She has been an associate director of Composers Concordance since 2025.

Audrey spent many years living in London, writing and recording string arrangements and playing violin and keyboards with musicians from a broad range of genres, including the indie band Jack, the trance band The Morrighan, the Algerian rai singer Abdel Ali Slimani, the performance artist Ebe Oke, and the synthpop band IAMX. She currently performs with the Americana band Myrna and the Bulldog and is the co-concertmaster of The Greenwich Village Orchestra.

After receiving her Master’s degree in music therapy from New York University, Audrey worked as a music therapist with a neurologically impaired population at The Institute for Music and Neurologic Function, with a geriatric dementia population at The Hebrew Home at Riverdale, and with an inpatient psychiatric population at Mount Sinai West Hospital. She currently has a private practice in New York City.

Audrey received her certification as an Analytical Music Therapy practitioner from Benedikte Scheiby’s institute in 2011 and her certification in psychoanalysis from The Institute for Contemporary Psychotherapy in 2025. She is a founding member and current president of the International Association of Analytical Music Therapy. She is a trainer and supervisor at Molloy University’s Analytical Music Therapy certification program. She has presented on psychoanalytic music therapy at Molloy University, the Expressive Arts Therapy Summit, New York University, Lesley University, the Mid-Atlantic region of AMTA, the Nordic Music Therapy Conference, the World Congress of Music Therapy, and the 13th International Bion Conference.

About Christian Olson
Christian Olson is a versatile and innovative conductor who has led stirring performances to critical acclaim. In the summer of 2024 Mr. Olson served as the Assistant Conductor at the 2024 Glimmerglass Festival where he stepped in on short notice to conduct a performance of Pagliacci. In 2025, he is slated to be the AAF Faber Conducting Fellow at the Salzburg Festspiele where he was handpicked by members of the Vienna Philharmonic. Previously, he has served as the Conducting Fellow with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and as the assistant conductor at both the Chicago Summer Opera and the Indiana University Opera and Ballet Theater. In 2024, Mr. Olson founded the Ver Sacrum Consort in New York City, a chamber ensemble sharing music both old and new. He currently serves as Music Director of the Sound Symphony on Long Island and as Assistant Conductor for the Greenwich Village Orchestra.

He has participated in the Ferenc Fricsay International Conducting Competition, the Lányi International Conducting Competition, the Lake Como International Conducting Competition, the German Institute of Conducting Competition and was named a Finalist in the Respighi Conducting Competition. He has also been featured in a PBS documentary on the life of Thomas Wilkins.

Conductors he has studied under and worked with include Sir Roger Norrington, Franz Welser-Möst, Stéphane Denève, Robert Spano, Nicolás Pasquet, and Carl St. Clair. His primary teachers include Arthur Fagen, Thomas Wilkins, and Dr. Paul C. Phillips. Singers he has performed and worked with include Tara Erraught, Troy Cook, Amber Monroe, Robert Stahley, and Deepa Johnny. In addition to his conducting engagements, Mr. Olson is in demand as a vocal coach of young singers in a wide array of operatic and art song repertoire, and has worked with singers who have gone on to be featured performers at the Tanglewood Music Center, LA Opera, the Opéra national de Paris, the Dutch National Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Opera Philadelphia, the Aspen Summer Music Festival, and Merola, among many others.

Mr. Olson studied musicology at the University of North Texas and is currently pursuing his DMA in conducting at Indiana University.