NEWSLETTER
Tickets are now on sale for more than 80 performances on the Lincoln Center campus
New York, NY (July 28, 2026) — For its 2026-2027 season, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) continues elevating the field to new heights, as it does season after season, curating programs that span the vast repertoire of chamber music, present an international and intergenerational roster of the world's best chamber musicians, and introduce audiences to works rarely heard in concert alongside icons of the canon. With concerts beginning this fall, CMS offers several distinct threads that take advantage of the depth and excellence of the repertoire: a celebration of American composers in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary, pianist Gilles Vonsattel's season-long realization of Beethoven's complete piano sonatas, a Winter Festival devoted to one of Mozart’s richest periods of creativity, and an ongoing commitment to commissioning and premiering new works by contemporary composers.
In addition to concerts in Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Studio, CMS presents more than 70 touring programs across the United States and internationally each year, including self-presented residencies at Drew University (Madison, NJ), and in Vero Beach, FL. The CMS season also features popular offerings for families, including relaxed performances designed to support a range of access needs; free community concerts throughout New York City; and a wide range of free livestreams and on-demand digital content available to audiences worldwide. Programmed by longtime co-artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han, the season reflects CMS’s commitment to serving as the largest and leading global producer and presenter of the artform; nurturing the next generation of artists and listeners; and welcoming audiences to experience intimate, virtuosic encounters with classical music. Single tickets go on sale today on the CMS website.
Season highlights include:
- An all-American opening night in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, with music by William Bolcom, Amy Beach, Bernard Herrmann, and Aaron Copland
- The world premiere of a CMS co-commission by Indonesian composer Eunike Tanzil, kicking off this season’s Art of the Recital series
- All 32 of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas performed in eight concerts throughout the season by Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel, accompanied by a special lecture series
- A program dedicated to pieces for two pianos, including a special arrangement of Gershwin’s An American in Paris
- Sonic Spectrum, CMS’s signature new music series dedicated entirely to the work of contemporary composers, which sold out completely in the 2025-26 season
- The String Quartet Series, which spotlights renowned ensembles the Schumann Quartett, Escher String Quartet, Quartetto di Cremona, and Takács Quartet
- The Rose Studio & Late Night Rose Series, offering intimate performances of classics and rarities of the repertoire, with traditional seating for 6:30pm performances as well as 9:00pm cabaret-style concerts, complete with a complimentary glass of wine
- The annual December Baroque Festival, a beloved holiday tradition featuring the full cycle of J.S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos
- Star tenor Matthew Polenzani’s performance of Schubert’s classic Winterreisse, alongside pianist Ken Noda
- An exploration of Mozart’s musical genius from an astonishingly rich period of his creativity (1782-1787), over four concerts in the Winter Festival
- Five New York premieres of contemporary works throughout the season, including CMS co-commissions by Michael Stephen Brown and Mark-Anthony Turnage
- A “greatest hits” performance encompassing a range of iconic works from the chamber repertoire as well as recent compositions they inspired
- A large-ensemble season finale, featuring mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe performing Haydn’s cantata Arianna a Naxos, and closing with Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto
- Engaging and accessible family programming throughout the season, including CMS Kids sensory-friendly relaxed performances and Meet the Music! family concerts designed to introduce children to classical music
The complete 2026-2027 season schedule, including Lincoln Center concerts, touring dates, lectures, and educational programs, is available at chambermusicsociety.org/our-concerts. Single tickets are now on sale beginning at $20.
Selected concert dates:
CELEBRATING AMERICA AT 250
Opening Night: Copland’s Appalachian Spring
October 13, 2026 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
To open its 2026-2027 season, CMS presents chamber works composed by William Bolcom, Amy Beach, Bernard Herrmann, and Aaron Copland, marking the United States’ 250th anniversary with a showcase of American composers across a wide range of styles, from ragtime to music for ballet and film.
THE ART OF THE RECITAL
This curated series invites CMS’s virtuoso artists to design intimate programs around their individual perspectives, whether revisiting repertoire of personal significance, spotlighting rare gems, or exploring new works.
Violinist Bella Hristova and pianist Gloria Chen perform 20th-century masterworks by Stravinsky, Messiaen, Vladigerov, and Prokofiev alongside the world premiere of a CMS co-commission by rising star Indonesian composer Eunike Tanzil.
February 18, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
Flutists Ransom Wilson and Tara Helen O’Connor join pianist Anne-Marie McDermott for a program ranging from Bach and Mozart to modernist works by Debussy, Jolivet, and Martinů.
April 15, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
Cellist Jonathan Swensen and pianist Juho Pohjonen join forces for an exploration of Polish, French, and Estonian repertoire by Lutosławski, Fauré, Pärt, Poulenc, and Chopin.
GILLES VONSATTEL PERFORMS THE 32 BEETHOVEN PIANO SONATAS
October 25, 2026 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
November 5, 2026 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
December 1, 2026 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
January 14, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
January 26, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
March 2, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
March 11, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
March 30, 2027 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
Esteemed American pianist Gilles Vonsattel presents the complete cycle of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas, performed over eight concerts throughout the 2026-2027 season. The series is accompanied by three lectures led by Vonsattel. The intimate Rose Studio performances quickly sold out, so don’t miss the opportunity to catch the beginning and end of this ambitious cycle in Alice Tully Hall.
GERSHWIN’S AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
November 7, 2026 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
Pianists Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Alessio Bax, Anne-Marie McDermott, Evren Ozel, and Wu Han play a program of piano duet renditions of Mozart, Chopin, Tansman, and Lutosławski, closing with a two-piano arrangement of Gershwin’s An American in Paris.
SONIC SPECTRUM
Four concerts throughout the season present the work of living composers, including the New York premieres of compositions by Samuel Carl Adams, Shawn E. Okpebholo, Benjamin Scheer, and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
November 12, 2026 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
The Calidore String Quartet performs the New York premiere of a CMS co-commission by Mark-Anthony Turnage as well as works by Caroline Shaw (with soprano Susanna Phillips), Samuel Carl Adams, and Jessie Montgomery.
Benjamin Scheer’s These Shrouded Hills makes its New York premiere alongside works by John Adams, George Tsontakis, and Timo Andres.
March 4, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
Tenor Nicholas Phan, pianist Myra Huang, and the Viano Quartet—CMS’s Bowers Program ensemble-in-residence—join forces for a concert featuring works by Eric Malmquest, Alistair Coleman, Nico Muhly, and the New York premiere of Shawn E. Okpebholo’s The Beautiful.
April 29, 2027 at 7:30pm / Rose Studio
A program of string duets and trios features works by Ken Ueno, Paul Wiancko, Sofia Gubaidulina, and Salina Fisher.
STRING QUARTET SERIES
Distinguished string quartets from around the world perform notable works from the canon.
November 15, 2026 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
The Schumann Quartett performs the first string quartets by Tchaikovsky and Mozart, as well as quartets by Stravinsky and Ives.
February 27, 2027 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
As part of the Winter Festival, the Escher String Quartet returns to CMS to perform Mozart’s “Haydn” string quartets.
March 21, 2027 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
The Quartetto di Cremona returns to CMS to perform Hadyn, Grieg, and Janáček.
April 17, 2027 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
Grammy-winning Takács Quartet plays Mozart, Brahms, and Gabriela Lena Frank.
ROSE STUDIO AND LATE NIGHT ROSE SERIES
Intimate performances of classics and rarities of the repertoire offer up-close encounters with great artistry. Traditional concert seating at 6:30pm is followed by 9:00pm performances with cabaret seating and a complimentary glass of wine.
October 22 at 6:30pm, 9pm / Rose Studio
Mixed ensembles of woodwind, strings, and piano performs works by Czerny and Brahms.
November 19 at 6:30pm, 9pm / Rose Studio
A program spanning the eighteenth to twentieth centuries features works by Vanhal, Britten, and Reinecke.
February 4 at 6:30pm, 9pm / Rose Studio
CMS artists bring to life the rarely performed string quartet masterworks of Czech composers Zdeněk Fibich and Bohuslav Martinů.
March 25 at 6:30pm, 9pm / Rose Studio
The acclaimed Sitkovetsky Trio performs piano trios by Haydn, Bloch, and Schumann.
May 6 at 6:30pm, 9pm / Rose Studio
The third and final clarinet quartet by Bernhard Henrik Crusell—the most famous Finnish composer before Sibelius—is paired with the vibrant piano quartet of English composer William Walton, completed in 1919 when he was just sixteen.
DECEMBER BAROQUE FESTIVAL
CMS’s beloved holiday tradition returns featuring works by the great Baroque composers. In addition to a program highlighting J.S. Bach’s artistic lineage, an array of wind concertos and all six of Bach’s indelible Brandenburg Concertos spotlight more than two dozen superb soloists from the CMS artist roster.
December 6 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
December 8 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
Wind concertos by Vivaldi, C.P.E. Bach, Telemann, and others highlight how Baroque composers explored new ways to showcase the virtuosic capabilities of wind instruments.
December 11 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
Bach and Sons: Passing the Torch illustrates the transition from the Baroque to the Classical era, bringing together some of the final compositions of J.S. Bach with a selection of works by his sons Johann Christian, Wilhelm Friedemann, and Carl Philipp Emanuel.
December 13 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
December 15 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
December 18 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
20 musicians join forces to perform J.S. Bach’s complete Brandenburg Concertos, an annual CMS tradition featuring a changing array of string, woodwind, brass, and harpsichord soloists.
SCHUBERT’S WINTERREISE
January 24, 2027 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
Celebrated tenor Matthew Polenzani joins pianist Ken Noda and the Viano Quartet for a program
pairing poignant string quartet miniatures by Haydn and Mendelssohn with Schubert’s Winterreise,
a grand Romantic song cycle completed during the composer’s final year.
WINTER FESTIVAL: MOZART — SIX AMAZING YEARS: 1782-1787
February 19, 2027 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
February 23, 2027 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
Featuring 12 different ensembles with multiple configurations, this season’s Winter Festival emphasizes Mozart’s influence on chamber music during a particularly prolific period of his career in which he pushed the genre to places no one had previously conceived.
CARNIVAL OF THE ANIMALS
April 4, 2027 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
This survey of classical music’s depictions of animals from the Baroque period to today features the New York premiere of composer-pianist Michael Stephen Brown’s The Carnival of Endangered Wonders: A Zoological Fantasy, a CMS co-commission inspired by a diverse animal kingdom and the need to protect our planet’s wildlife, the perfect companion piece to Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals.
GREATEST HITS
May 4, 2027 at 7:30pm / Alice Tully Hall
In this program of beloved audience favorites, Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik returns after a 28-year absence alongside recent works paying tribute to this iconic piece. Boccherini provides acrobatics for guitar and strings, and Aaron Jay Kernis ends the program with his own unashamedly crowd-pleasing guitar quintet.
SEASON FINALE: FROM BACH TO STRAVINSKY
May 16, 2027 at 5pm / Alice Tully Hall
A huge ensemble convenes to close the season with chamber works at orchestral scale, including Haydn’s chamber cantata Arianna a Naxos with soloist mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe; Stravinsky’s “Dumbarton Oaks” concerto for chamber orchestra, paired with one of its key sources of inspiration, J.S. Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto; Mendelssohn’s youthful string sinfonia; and Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, his last completed work.
MEET THE MUSIC!
December 5 at 2pm / Alice Tully Hall
March 6 at 2pm / Alice Tully Hall
May 8 at 2pm / Alice Tully Hall
This engaging series welcomes families with children ages seven and up for an introduction to classical music. Hosted by Bruce Adolphe as Inspector Pulse and an engaging narrator, concerts are bookended by an instrument petting zoo—where children can see and touch the instruments up close—and a Q&A with the musicians.
CMS KIDS
October 18 at 11am, 1pm, 3pm / Rose Studio
February 21 at 11am, 1pm, 3pm / Rose Studio
May 2 at 11am, 1pm, 3pm / Rose Studio
One of CMS’s most popular family programs, CMS Kids offers relaxed performances in the Rose Studio, curated for children ages three to six. A flexible, welcoming environment where children move, make noise, and engage at their own pace, the space supports young listeners with sensory sensitivities through informal seating, clear structure, and a calm atmosphere. Kids explore chamber music through movement and play, then enjoy an up-close session with musicians and an instrument petting zoo.
About the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Founded in 1969, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMS) brings the transcendent experience of great chamber music to more people than any other organization of its kind worldwide. Under the artistic leadership of cellist David Finckel and pianist Wu Han, the multigenerational and international artist roster of 140 of the world’s finest chamber musicians enables CMS to present chamber music of every instrumentation, style, and historical period.
Each season, CMS reaches a global audience with more than 150 performances and education programs in our home at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and on tour with residencies worldwide. CMS offers a wide range of learning formats and experiences to engage and inform listeners of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of musical knowledge through its education programs. The Bowers Program, CMS’s competitive three-season residency, is dedicated to developing the chamber music leaders of the future and integrates this selection of exceptional early-career musicians into every facet of CMS activities.
CMS’s incomparable digital presence, which regularly enables the organization to reach millions of viewers and listeners annually, includes a weekly national radio program, heard locally on WQXR 105.9 FM on Saturday and Monday evenings; radio programming in Taiwan and mainland China; and appearances on American Public Media’s Performance Today, the monthly program In Concert with CMS on the PBS ALL ARTS broadcast channel, and SiriusXM’s Symphony Hall channel, among others. The PBS documentary film Chamber Music Society Returns chronicles CMS’s return to live concerts at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and on a six-city national tour. It is currently available to watch on PBS Passport. CMS’s website also hosts an online archive of more than 1,700 video recordings of performances and education events free to the public. To learn more about CMS, visit chambermusicsociety.org.
The Jerome L. Greene Foundation is the 2026–2027 CMS Season Sponsor. All CMS digital programming is made possible by the Hauser Fund for Media and Technology.