2026 Recital Series continues at Park Avenue Armory with New York solo recital debut by soprano Liv Redpath with pianist Harry Rylance, May 28 & 30

Program titled ‘L’illusion et la désillusion’ or ‘L’illusion et sa perte’

highlights works by French composers

WHAT:            Park Avenue Armory’s 2026 Recital Series continues in the Board of Officers Room on Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 7:30pm and Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 8pm the New York solo recital debut of soprano Liv Redpath. Redpath is a leading soprano leggero who is quickly establishing herself in diverse operatic and symphonic repertoire around the world with performances on some the grandest operatic stages from Theatro Real, Glyndebourne Festival, and the Royal Opera House to Santa Fe Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. She comes to the far more intimate stage of the Board of Officers Room with pianist Harry Rylance for a uniquely curated program of French art song titled, ‘L’illusion et la désillusion’ or ‘L’illusion et sa perte,’ that beautifully showcase her breathtaking coloratura, agility, and brightness. Full repertoire listed below:

Olivier Messiaen          Trois Mélodies (1930)

Claude Debussy           Ariettes oubliées L. 60 (1885-87)

Olivier Messiaen          Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus, xi. Première communion de la Vierge

Francis Poulenc           La dame de Monte-Carlo FP 180 (1961)

Gabriel Fauré               La bonne chanson Op. 64 (1892-94)

Francis Poulenc           Trois poèmes de Louise de Vilmorin FP 91 (1937)

Fiançailles pour rire FP 101 (1939)

                        The Armory’s Recital Series showcases thoughtfully curated programs of lieder, art song, and contemporary works by some of today’s most exciting musical interpreters, and thrilling performances that explore signal works and take the art form in bold new directions. Other programs on the series in 2026 include: the North American recital debuts of countertenor Carlo Vistoli and mezzo-soprano Deepa Johnny, a solo piano program by Turkish pianist Fazil Say, percussion legend Steven Schick in the world premiere of a new work by Tyshawn Sorey, and a program by tenor Ben Bliss.

WHERE:        Board of Officers Room, Park Avenue Armory

                        643 Park Avenue between East 66^th and 67^th Streets

                        New York, NY 10065

WHEN:           Thursday, May 28, 2026 at 7:30pm

                        Saturday, May 30, 2026 at 8pm

TICKETING

Tickets at $65 (plus fees) are available for purchase online at armoryonpark.org, through the Box Office in person at 643 Park Avenue, or by phone at (212) 933-5812, from 10am to 6pm, Monday through Friday.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

American soprano Liv Redpath is one of the most promising of her generation, earning international acclaim across operatic and symphonic repertoire. A graduate of Harvard University and The Juilliard School, Ms. Redpath was a Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist at Los Angeles Opera.

Favorite projects of recent seasons include Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at Bayerische Staatsoper, La Monnaie/De Munt, and Santa Fe Opera; Agnès in Written on Skin with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Mozart’s Mass in C minor with Manfred Honeck and Danish National Symphony; Mahler’s 4th Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel and LA Phil and with Daniel Harding and Cleveland Orchestra; recitals and collaborations with Wigmore Hall and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; Lucia di Lammermoor with LA Opera, Staatsoper Hamburg, and Deutsche Oper Berlin; Mahler’s 8th Symphony with Kirill Petrenko and Berliner Philharmoniker and Fabio Luisi and Danish National Symphony; Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with Santa Fe Opera; Abrahamson’s Let me tell you with Thomas Dausgaard and Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI; recording and performing L’enfant et les sortilèges with Ludovic Morlot and Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya; Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Glyndebourne Festival and Teatro Real; Debussy’s La damoiselle élue with Esa-Pekka Salonen and LA Phil; Boulez’ Le soleil des eaux and Grieg’s Peer Gynt with Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, conducted by Karina Kanelakis and Stephan Denève, respectively; and Oscar in Un ballo in maschera at The Metropolitan Opera.

The coming season holds role debuts as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Glyndebourne Festival, the Tsaritsa of Shemakha in The Golden Cockerel at Theater an der Wien, and Norina in Don Pasquale at Opernhaus Zürich, as well as returns as Lucia di Lammermoor with Staatsoper Hamburg and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Bayerische Staatsoper. She will sing Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Daniel Harding and Orchestre de Paris; Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge with Manfred Honeck and Pittsburgh Symphony and Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Mozart’s Requiem and Schubert’s Mass No. 2 in G with Christophe Rousset and Orchestra of St. Luke’s; and Poulenc’s Gloria with Ludovic Morlot and New Jersey Symphony.

Harry Rylance is a soloist, chamber musician, accompanist, and répétiteur who has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Teatro alla Scala, the Seoul Arts Centre, the Grand Hall of Budapest, and the Royal Concertgebouw. He has also performed live on BBC Radio and on NPR’s From the Top. 

Recent highlights have included recitals at Wigmore Hall, winning the Kathleen Ferrier Accompanist Prize, touring with his horn trio, Trio Arisonto, and becoming a Samling Artist. He also recently went on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Antonio Pappano and has since been performing regularly as part of their keyboard section. Harry has released an album titled Obscurus with trumpeter Lucy Humphris under the Rubicon Classics label, and also accompanied for soprano Cassandro Wright’s debut album In The Twilight under the Linn Records Label. This summer he is on Glyndebourne’s music staff and will perform in their new production of Ariadne auf Naxos by Laurent Pelly, conducted by Robin Ticciati.

Harry studied at the Royal Academy of Music under Joanna MacGregor CBE and graduated in with a DipRAM for the highest mark in his year before being appointed as a Chamber Music and Répétiteur Fellow. He was also awarded the RAM Silver Medal and was elected an Associate of RAM. Previously, he studied at the Liszt Academy under Péter Nagy and the late Zoltán Kocsis. Since 2022, Harry has worked regularly on the music staff for Glyndebourne Opera House and for the International Meistersinger Akademie in Germany.

SPONSORS

The Recital Series is supported, in part, by the Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation

Bloomberg Philanthropies is Park Avenue Armory’s 2026 Season Sponsor. Leadership support for the Armory’s artistic programming has been generously provided by the Anita K. Hersh Philanthropic Fund, Charina Endowment Fund, Donald A. Pels Charitable Trust, Pinkerton Foundation, the Starr Foundation, the Thompson Family Foundation, and Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels.

Major support was also provided by the the Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the Marc Haas Foundation, the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Foundation, The Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Shubert Foundation, the SHS Foundation, The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, and Wescustogo Foundation. Additional support has been provided by the Armory’s Artistic Council. Public support is provided by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature as well as the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council under the leadership of Speaker Adrienne Adams. 

ABOUT THE RECITAL SERIES

Park Avenue Armory presents more intimate performances and programs in its acclaimed Recital Series, which showcases musical talent from across the globe in an intimate salon setting. Founded in 2013, the series has held the debuts of many world-class artists, including: the North American recital debuts of pianist Igor Levit, soprano Sabine Devieilhe, tenors Ilker Arcayürek and Allan Clayton, baritones Benjamin Appl, Roderick Williams, and Konstantin Krimmel, clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, and cellist István Várdai; the North American solo recital debuts of tenors Michael Spyres and Pene Pati and mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo; the US Recital debuts of sopranos Barbara Hannigan and Anna Lucia Richter and baritone Thomas Oliemans; and the New York debuts of pianist Severin von Eckardstein and the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam.

The Recital Series has programmed the world premieres of: Roger Reynolds’ FLiGHT, performed by the JACK Quartet; Michael Hersch’s “…das Rückgrat berstend,” performed by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Jay Campbell; and Chris Cerrone’s Ode to Joy, performed by Sandbox Percussion and commissioned by the Armory. Actor Charlotte Rampling and cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton gave the US premiere of The Night Dances on the series in 2015, which brought together Benjamin Britten’s suites for solo cello and poetry by Sylvia Plath; Wieder-Atherton returned to the Armory in 2017 for the North American premiere of Little Girl Blue, a program that reimagined the music of Nina Simone. New York premieres include: Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s In the Light of Air and Shades of Silence performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble; Dai Kujikura’s Minina, John Zorn’s Baudelaires, and a new arrangement of Messiaen’s Chants de terre et de ciel, also performed by ICE; Michael Gordon’s Rushes performed by the Rushes Ensemble; Michael Harrison’s Just Constellations performed by Roomful of Teeth; David Lang’s depart, Gabriel Jackson’s Our flags are wafting in hope and grief and Rigwreck, Kile Smith’s ““Conversation in the Mountains” from Where Flames A Word, Louis Andriessen’s Ahania Weeping, Suzanne Giraud’s Johannisbaum, David Shapiro’s Sumptuous Planet, Benjamin CS Boyle’s Empire of Crystal, and Ted Hearne’s Animals (commissioned by Park Avenue Armory), all performed by The Crossing under conductor Donald Nally; John Zorn’s Jumalattaret sung by soprano Barbara Hannigan with pianist Stephen Gosling; Viet Cuong’s Next Week’s Trees, performed by Sandbox Percussion; and the Armory-commissioned work “Daisy” by David Lang, performed by the Attacca Quartet.

Additional notable programs include performances by: baritone Christian Gerhaher with pianist Gerold Huber; the Flux Quartet; tenor Ian Bostridge with pianist Wenwen Du; pianist David Fray; soprano Lisette Oropesa with pianist John Churchwell; countertenor Andreas Scholl with harpsichordist Tamar Halperin; soprano Kate Royal with pianist Joseph Middleton; pipa player Wu Man and the Shanghai Quartet; tenor Lawrence Brownlee with pianists Myra Huang and Jason Moran; mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard with pianist Ted Sperling; soprano Nadine Sierra with pianist Brian Wagorn; soprano Rosa Feola with pianist Iain Burnside; cellist Nicolas Altstaedt; tenor Paul Appleby with pianist Conor Hanick; baritone Will Liverman with pianist Myra Huang; mezzo soprano Jamie Barton with pianist and composer Jake Heggie; new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound; French period choir and chamber orchestra Ensemble Correspondances under the direction of harpsichordist and organist Sébastien Daucé; baritone Justin Austin and pianist Howard Watkins; soprano Ying Fang with pianist Ken Noda; baritone Stéphane Degout with pianist Cédric Tiberghien; pianist Pavel Kolesnikov in a two-night residency featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations and a program entitles Celestial Navigation, inspired by Joseph Cornell’s orrery of the same name; soprano Julia Bullock with pianist John Arida; mezzo soprano Kate Lindsey with pianist Justina Lee; soprano Jeanine de Bique with pianist Warren Jones; tenor Matthew Polenzani with pianist Ken Noda; soprano Leah Hawkins with pianist Kevin Miller; tenor Karim Sulayman with guitarist Sean Shibe; soprano Barbara Hannigan with pianist Bertrand Chamayou; soprano Erin Morley and pianist Gerald Martin Moore; pianist Jereny Denk; and mezzo soprano Sasha Cooke and pianist Myra Huang.

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Media Contacts

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