NEWSLETTER
Composer-pianist Matthew Aucoin and bass-baritone William Socolof perform The Inner Core for Pride Month; Socolof returns to Hudson Hall in 2027 for Handel’s Deidamia.
Hudson, NY — Hudson Hall presents the regional premiere of The Inner Core, an album-length cycle of love songs by composer, pianist, and 2018 MacArthur Fellow Matthew Aucoin, including the world premiere of two newly added pieces. The Inner Core will be performed by Aucoin with bass-baritone William Socolof on Saturday, June 20 at 7pm. The performance offers Hudson Valley audiences an opportunity to hear an expansive vocal work by two artists active on major opera and concert stages.
Presented in celebration of Pride Month and following its premiere at Lincoln Center earlier this year, The Inner Core traces the arc of an imagined queer relationship from adolescence through the couple’s parting in early adulthood. Lyrical and tender, the work moves through first love, longing, distance, and separation with emotional truth and vulnerability. Aucoin has described The Inner Core as “one of the most open-hearted pieces I’ve ever written,” with songs that feel “almost like indie rock songs.”
The performance also deepens Hudson Hall’s growing connection to vocal arts through its Handel on the Hudson series. Socolof will return to Hudson Hall in spring 2027 to appear in Handel’s Deidamia, directed by R.B. Schlather with early music band Ruckus. The production, the third in the series following the success of The New York Times Critic’s Picks Rodelinda and Giulio Cesare, will be announced in mid-June.
Matthew Aucoin is an American composer, conductor, writer, pianist, and a 2018 MacArthur Fellow. His music has been performed by artists and ensembles including Yo-Yo Ma and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and commissioned by institutions including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, and the Ojai Music Festival. Aucoin is a co-founder of the American Modern Opera Company. His book about opera, The Impossible Art: Adventures in Opera, was published in 2021 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
William Socolof is an award-winning bass-baritone and recitalist. He has appeared as a soloist with leading North American orchestras including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. A winner of the 2020 YCA Susan Wadsworth International Auditions, Socolof graduated from The Juilliard School in 2022 with an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies and was awarded the Stephen Novick Grant for Career Advancement.
Tickets are $30–$55, plus fees, and are available at hudsonhall.org.
Performance Information
The Inner Core
Matthew Aucoin, composer/piano; William Socolof, bass-baritone
Saturday, June 20, 2026 at 7pm
Hudson Hall, 327 Warren Street, Hudson, NY
Tickets: $55 Section 1; $45 Section 2 & Balcony; $30 Section 3, plus fees
Information and tickets: hudsonhall.org/event/the-
Press Kit
hudsonhall.org/press-kit-the-
About Hudson Hall
hudsonhall.org
Hudson Hall is a cultural beacon in the Hudson Valley, offering a dynamic year-round schedule of music, theater, dance, literature, film, workshops for youth and adults, as well as family programs and signature events such as the Hudson Jazz Festival and the Handel on the Hudson opera series. Built in 1855, Hudson Hall is a landmarked building housing New York State’s oldest surviving theater. @hudsonhallny
Photo: (Left to right): William Socolof; Matthew Aucoin