NEW and JUST FOR YOU:
Explore Our Curated Concert Collections
Want help figuring out which of our 40-plus concerts you’d most like to attend? Check out our brand-new Curated Concert Collections, which organize pieces from several of our concerts into easily accessible groups based on a wide range of interests—from instrument and genre to style and composer.
Plus, by purchasing a collection, you get an automatic 10% discount on ticket prices!
Each piece below is part of a full, larger program, and if you’d like to go deeper into that program—which we highly recommend you do—check out Insights, where Festival Artistic Director Marc Neikrug discusses all of our 2026 programs in detail, with topics including why he chose specific works, particular artists, and more. Insights is available on our concerts’ event pages, which you can access through our 2026 season calendar here.
We hope that both of these offerings give you a more personalized concertgoing experience and that we see you at all your favorite performances this summer!
SCHUBERT: THE MASTER OF SONG
Schubert wrote more than 600 songs during his brief life, and he was an absolute genius at evoking deep emotions in his listeners. His three great song cycles, each a masterpiece of the art-song tradition, are presented this season in performances featuring baritone Benjamin Appl and pianist Simon Lepper. Appl, who was the last student of the master Schubert interpreter Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, has been called “the most promising of today’s up-and-coming song recitalists” by the Financial Times, and Lepper is one of today’s most in-demand collaborators. If you wish to experience the full scope of human emotions over the course of one performance, these three concerts are not to be missed.
Sunday, August 16, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
SCHUBERT Die schöne Müllerin, D. 795
Monday, August 17, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
SCHUBERT Schwanengesang, D. 957
Wednesday, August 19, 12 p.m., NMMA:
SCHUBERT Winterreise, D. 911
SYMPHONIC SCALE
When classical music composers want to create on a grand scale but are working with small, chamber–sized forces, they write piano quartets and piano quintets. By combining the complex polyphony of the piano with the rich sonorities of various stringed instruments, they bring all the forces of harmony and texture to bear and create some of the grandest and most sweeping works in the repertoire.
Sunday, August 2 & Monday, August 3, 6 p.m., NMMA:
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Quintet in G Minor, Op. 57
Wednesday, August 12, 6 p.m., NMMA:
BRAHMS Piano Quartet in G Minor, Op. 25
Thursday, August 20, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
SCHUMANN Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47
Monday, August 24, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
DVOŘÁK Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81
MOZART’S ETERNAL GENIUS
Mozart’s otherworldly brilliance set him apart and came through in every piece he wrote. The four works in this collection spotlight the full range of his chamber music voice—from its strength and power to its elegance and tenderness.
Sunday, July 19 & Monday, July 20, 6 p.m., NMMA:
MOZART Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285
Wednesday, July 29, 6 p.m., NMMA:
MOZART Piano Quartet in G Minor, K. 478
Wednesday, August 12, 6 p.m. NMMA:
MOZART Sonata in B-flat Major for Violin and Piano, K. 454
Thursday, August 20, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
MOZART String Quintet in C Major, K. 515
THE UNEXPECTED DEPTHS OF THE TRIO
Three instruments can turn on a dime from nimbly passing around musical gestures to producing sudden and shocking sonorities, and the clarity of this triangulated texture gives composers the opportunity to lull and brace their listeners in surprisingly complex journeys. From Edgar Meyer’s bluegrass-infused Trio No 1 to Dvořák’s dance-like Terzetto and Beethoven’s regal Archduke Trio, this collection brings it all and culminates with a new piano trio by Magnus Lindberg, who’s been hailed as “one of the major voices of 21st-century composition” by The Times.
Sunday, July 19 & Monday, July 20, 6 p.m., NMMA:
EDGAR MEYER String Trio No. 1
Wednesday, July 22, 12 p.m., NMMA:
SCHULHOFF Concertino for Flute, Viola, and Double Bass
Wednesday, August 5, 12 p.m., NMMA:
DVOŘÁK Terzetto in C Major, Op. 74
Monday, August 17, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
BEETHOVEN Piano Trio in B-flat Major, Op. 97, Archduke
Sunday, August 23, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
MAGNUS LINDBERG Piano Trio No. 2 (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
THE MAGIC OF THE FLUTE
The versatility of the flute—whether it’s evoking the joyful calls of the goldfinch in Vivaldi’s Il gardellino, the haunting despair of war in Bernstein’s Halil, or the mysterious sounds of nature in Takemitu’s Rain Spell—is on full display this season, especially in the five works featured in this collection.
Sunday, July 19 & Monday, July 20, 6 p.m., NMMA:
MOZART Flute Quartet in D Major, K. 285
Wednesday, July 22, 6 p.m., NMMA:
BERNSTEIN Halil for Flute, Piano, and Percussion
Saturday, July 25, 5 p.m., NMMA:
VIVALDI Concerto in D Major for Flute, RV 428, Il gardellino
Tuesday, August 11, 12 p.m., NMMA:
TAKEMITSU Rain Spell
Saturday, August 22, 5 p.m., LENSIC:
BACH Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BWV 1067
STRING SONORITIES
The string quartet is a highly versatile form, but by adding a few more voices to the mix—whether it’s the additional viola in Mozart’s masterful string quintets or the additional cello in Arensky’s wonderfully dark-hued Cello Quartet—the depth and brilliance of a string ensemble’s sound becomes even more apparent while revealing some of the richest music ever written.
Sunday, July 26 & Monday, July 27, 6 p.m., NMMA:
MENDELSSOHN Octet in E-flat Major, Op. 20
Wednesday, July 29, 6 p.m., NMMA:
ARENSKY Quartet in A Minor for Violin, Viola, and Two Cellos, Op. 35
Sunday, August 16, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
SCHUBERT String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
Thursday, August 20, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
MOZART String Quintet in C Major, K. 515
Sunday, August 23, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
BRAHMS String Sextet in B-flat Major, Op. 18
THE CELLO LOVER’S COLLECTION
The cello is said to most closely reflect the range and sound of the human voice—and that familiarity is one of the reasons it’s perennially popular. From its warm, rich depths to its light, soaring heights, the cello has a distinctive resonance regardless of whether it’s being playful or profound. This season, explore the versatility of the cello in works that span multiple centuries (including the 21st) and feature masters of the instrument.
Tuesday, July 28, 12 p.m., NMMA:
BEETHOVEN Sonata in A Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 69
MENDELSSOHN Sonata in D Major for Cello and Piano, Op. 58
Wednesday, July 29, 6 p.m., NMMA:
ARENSKY Quartet in A Minor for Violin, Viola, and Two Cellos, Op. 35
Wednesday, August 5, 12 p.m., NMMA:
FALLA Suite populaire espagnole for Cello and Piano
Sunday, August 16, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
SCHUBERT String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
Thursday, August 20, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
SAARIAHO Lullaby for Solo Cello (in memoriam Oliver Knussen)
MOZART String Quintet in C Major, K. 515
SAARIAHO Spins and Spells for Solo Cello
SCHUMANN Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47
PREMIERES OF NEW WORKS
Get a front-row seat to history when the Festival presents the first-ever performances of works it commissioned from three of today’s most important and influential composers as well as the two emerging talents in its 13th-annual Young Composers String Quartet Project. Experience as well the New Mexico premiere of a new work by Festival Artistic Director Marc Neikrug—one that he describes as “an exploration of various emotional states, which flow in a coherent stream.”
Friday, August 7, 6 p.m., NMMA:
PAUL NOVAK transcriptions in a funhouse mirror, vol. 1 for String Quartet (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
BALDWIN GIANG now, you’re moving for String Quartet (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
Sunday, August 9 & Monday, August 10, 6 p.m., NMMA:
ELIZABETH OGONEK New Work for Piano Quartet (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
Tuesday, August 11, 12 p.m., NMMA:
MARC NEIKRUG Fantasy for Clarinet, Viola, Cello, and Percussion (New Mexico Premiere)
Wednesday, August 12, 6 p.m., NMMA:
ALEX PAXTON The Emotional Reality of Everyday Tasks for String Quartet (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
Sunday, August 23, 6 p.m., LENSIC:
MAGNUS LINDBERG Piano Trio No. 2 (Festival Commission, World Premiere)
