Welcome to Day 3 - Coalescence, in which we wander through zones of exchange, where music reveals the invisible forces acting upon it—and upon us. Here, influence is not something we escape, but something we inhabit, reshape, and send forward, carrying its echoes into new terrain.
Prairie Portraits: Art & Art Song
Megan Wittig, Tanner Lapointe & Carolyn Herrington
PMA Scholarship Winner pianist Keitaro Tatsuno
Live art & gallery display with a celebration of prairie composers
Described as “exhilarating” by The New York Times and “utterly mesmerizing” by The Guardian, GRAMMY® Award-nominated Sandbox Percussion is committed to highlighting living composers with fearless, boundary-pushing performances. Since their 2011 debut, they’ve wowed audiences worldwide with visually striking, sonically thrilling concerts that showcase the excitement and innovation of contemporary chamber music. Joining them is violinist Kristin Lee, praised in The Strad for her “elegance” and “vivacity and electric energy and founder and artistic director of Seattle’s Emerald City Music. Together at The Breakers mansion, they present a program featuring a new work by Vivian Fung titled “Goddess//Insect, co-comissioned by Newport Classical. Derived from the term ‘God-Bug Syndrome’ where a “’god complex’ (inflated self-importance) acts as a defense against deep-seated feelings of worthlessness,” says Fung. “I believe our world right now is facing these conflicting emotions.” Exploring the vibrant dialogue between violin and percussion, Lee and Sandbox Percussion bring this dynamic new work to The Breakers, along with music by two other women composers, Gabriella Smith and Joan Tower.
Program:
GABRIELLA SMITH FIVE
VIVIAN FUNG Goddess // Insect [Regional Premiere, Newport Classical Co-Commission]
INTERMISSION
JOAN TOWER To Sing or Dance
Juilliard Summer Music's Composition program offers a three-week intensive for composers in high school led by a faculty of world-renowned instructors, including Juilliard faculty members and visiting guest faculty. Participants will live, study, and present their music at Juilliard, located at Lincoln Center in the heart of New York City. Juilliard Summer Music will expose musicians to the many skills, careers, and passions represented at the school and prepare them for success in college auditions and beyond.
Every one of our composers for this special New@Night brings us music from the many corners and traditions of the Americas—north to south, east to west. We’ll hear selections from the great Brazilian master Heitor Villa-Lobos and Chinese Canadian composer Vivian Fung, plus dynamic new works by seven-time Grammy nominee Curtis Stewart, rising-star pianist/composer Clayton Stephenson, and the esteemed David Serkin Ludwig.
Come join our artists for lively conversation about these exciting contemporary works both before and after their performances.
The 64th season kicks off with Music Director Cristian Măcelaru leading the Festival Orchestra and audience in a powerful meditation on the distance between national ideals and lived reality.
Vivian Fung‘s America the Beautiful? (world premiere) opens the season with a work responding to the U.S. National Anthem through the lens of her intersectional identity as a dual Canadian-American citizen with Chinese familial lineage. The piece confronts the tension between patriotic tradition and the deeply imperfect struggle to uphold democratic values for all.
Pedro Emanuel Pereira‘s Clarinet Concerto (Festival Commission, world premiere), featuring clarinetist Carlos Ferreira, blends Portuguese musical traditions with experimental timbres and performative innovation, reimagining virtuosity for the present moment.
The program concludes with Philip Glass‘s Symphony No. 15 Lincoln (West Coast premiere)—featuring GRAMMY® award winning baritone Zachary James—is a six-movement symphony incorporating Abraham Lincoln’s own words, including the Emancipation Proclamation and reflections on law, power, and ambition. The work resonates forcefully with the urgencies of today.
Join internationally acclaimed composer Vivian Fung and violinist Nancy Zhou for four days of creativity, collaboration, and discovery.
Whether you compose, perform, or simply love music, this is your chance to learn from artists shaping the sound of today.
August 13–16, 2026
Composition submission deadline: July 1, 2026
Nancy returns to Jakarta for a second collaboration with conductor Rebecca Tong and the Jakarta Simfonia Orchestra. This time, Nancy joins composer Vivian Fung in a workshop elaborating on the creative and interactive process of composing for a musician. The week culminates with Nancy performing Vivian's first violin concerto, a work drawing inspiration from the Indonesian gamelan music idiom.
Performance at the 2026 Cape Cod Chamber Music Festival
Gods of the Earth explores nature not as backdrop but as divine force — elemental, mysterious, and alive with spiritual presence. Featuring songs from Mahler to Monteverdi, this program reveals what happens when humankind confronts a natural world that is sacred, untamed, and ultimately beyond our control.
A highlight of this program is the Midwestern premiere of Vivian Fung's Lamenting Earth, which was premiered in 2023 at New York’s Kaufman Music Center. The cycle is scored for tenor, string quartet, and piano. Anchored by a poem by climate activist-poet Claire Wahmanholm's "O", it’s expanded through high-school students' voices on climate change with poetry that was commissioned from the extraordinary students of the Kaufman school. It foregrounds youth perspectives often left unheard, transforming lament into testimony.
Performance by Nicholas Phan, Jasper Quartet, and Brent Funderburk.
Wide horizons, boundless energy, and music that moves ever forward. Vivian Fung’s Pizzicato sparkles with rhythmic wit, while Christina Jennings brings brilliance and agility to Liebermann’s virtuosic Flute Concerto. Sibelius’s beloved Second Symphony unfolds like a vast landscape, drawing listeners through moments of intimacy and exhilaration before arriving at its soaring finale.
Wide horizons, boundless energy, and music that moves ever forward. Vivian Fung’s Pizzicato sparkles with rhythmic wit, while Christina Jennings brings brilliance and agility to Liebermann’s virtuosic Flute Concerto. Sibelius’s beloved Second Symphony unfolds like a vast landscape, drawing listeners through moments of intimacy and exhilaration before arriving at its soaring finale.
Program
Vivian Fung: String Quartet No. 2 (2009)
Franz Joseph Haydn: String Quartet Op. 33, No. 3, “The Bird” (1781)
Lei Liang: Gobi Gloria (2006)
Johannes Brahms: String Quartet in C Minor, Op. 51, No. 1 (1873)
Few works announce themselves with the visceral impact of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. From its arresting opening notes, this iconic score speaks with a voice of searing honesty. Composed in the aftermath of World War I, it is widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the early 20th century as Elgar sheds the pomp of his earlier work in favor of introspection and quiet anguish, reflecting the recent loss of his wife and his post-war disillusionment. In the expressive hands of Johannes Moser and led by Music Director Peter Oundjian, the concerto’s lyricism and emotional vulnerability will resonate with seasoned audiences and newcomers alike.
The concerto is framed by music of restless motion as Vivian Fung’s Dust Devils sweeps listeners into a world of kinetic energy and swirling momentum, with vivid textures evoking the raw power of nature and the thrill of constant movement. The sense of urgency carries forward into Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony, a work of dark intensity and dramatic sweep. Considered by many to be his greatest symphony, the Seventh channels Dvořák’s inner conflict and nationalist longing into a gripping symphonic statement you will need to see to believe.
Few works announce themselves with the visceral impact of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. From its arresting opening notes, this iconic score speaks with a voice of searing honesty. Composed in the aftermath of World War I, it is widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the early 20th century as Elgar sheds the pomp of his earlier work in favor of introspection and quiet anguish, reflecting the recent loss of his wife and his post-war disillusionment. In the expressive hands of Johannes Moser and led by Music Director Peter Oundjian, the concerto’s lyricism and emotional vulnerability will resonate with seasoned audiences and newcomers alike.
The concerto is framed by music of restless motion as Vivian Fung’s Dust Devils sweeps listeners into a world of kinetic energy and swirling momentum, with vivid textures evoking the raw power of nature and the thrill of constant movement. The sense of urgency carries forward into Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony, a work of dark intensity and dramatic sweep. Considered by many to be his greatest symphony, the Seventh channels Dvořák’s inner conflict and nationalist longing into a gripping symphonic statement you will need to see to believe.
Few works announce themselves with the visceral impact of Elgar’s Cello Concerto. From its arresting opening notes, this iconic score speaks with a voice of searing honesty. Composed in the aftermath of World War I, it is widely regarded as one of the great masterpieces of the early 20th century as Elgar sheds the pomp of his earlier work in favor of introspection and quiet anguish, reflecting the recent loss of his wife and his post-war disillusionment. In the expressive hands of Johannes Moser and led by Music Director Peter Oundjian, the concerto’s lyricism and emotional vulnerability will resonate with seasoned audiences and newcomers alike.
The concerto is framed by music of restless motion as Vivian Fung’s Dust Devils sweeps listeners into a world of kinetic energy and swirling momentum, with vivid textures evoking the raw power of nature and the thrill of constant movement. The sense of urgency carries forward into Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony, a work of dark intensity and dramatic sweep. Considered by many to be his greatest symphony, the Seventh channels Dvořák’s inner conflict and nationalist longing into a gripping symphonic statement you will need to see to believe.
Don’t miss our 2025-26 season finale, curated and performed by the world-class musicians of Brightwork Ensemble, with special guest artists and friends from the LA new music community.
Program
Estro Poetico-armonico III, Yotam Haber
Conductor, Anya Pogorelova
Soprano Soloist, Jennifer Weiman
Soprano and chamber orchestra
Searching for Sophia, Elizabeth Raum
Oboe and string quartet
Mirage, Shulamit Ran
flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
String Quartet No. 5, Vivian Fung
Luna Composition Lab is proud to present a night of six world premieres by the 2025-26 Fellows—Chloe Kirk, Christabelle Kirkham, Anchi Wang-Hall, Andromeda Wen, Faith Wesley, and Madeline Yang—performed by the renowned International Contemporary Ensemble in the Weill Music Room in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing. Alongside these premieres, International Contemporary Ensemble will perform work by Luna Lab mentor composers Vivian Fung, Brittany J. Green, and Angélica Negrón.
PROGRAM
CHLOE KIRK, A Foreign Form*
VIVIAN FUNG, Down and Dirty (Mvmnt. II & III)
FAITH WESLEY, I Have Come to Set Fire*
ANCHI WANG-HALL, Negative Spaces*
BRITTANY J. GREEN, Living is the journey of answering
CHRISTABELLE KIRKHAM, (when the leaves turn)*
MADELINE YANG, though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea*
ANGÉLICA NEGRÓN, A Través Del Manto Luminoso
ANDROMEDA WEN, Echoes*
*world premiere
In June 2026, NYFOS Next’s latest collaboration presents a meditation on possibility and impossibility in The Same River Twice, featuring three world premieres of new songs by Luna Composition Lab alumni Alicia Erlandson, Elisa Johnson, and Devon Lee, commissioned by NYFOS and celebrating the tenth anniversary of Luna Lab’s founding. Soprano Jennifer Zetlan and mezzo-soprano Heather Johnson will work closely with these young composers on works written for their voices, and the program will be filled out by selections from Luna Lab’s roster of superstar mentors.
Matthew Aubin and Mark Seto conduct a special, one-night-only performance of contemporary American works. The concert features a version premiere of Mark Adamo's Last Year for solo viola and orchestra and a new horn concerto by Adolphus Hailstork. A world premiere by TCS Composition Fellow Aidan Gold and Vivian Fung's sparkling Pizzicato round out the program.
Program
Vivian Fung — Pizzicato
Mark Adamo — Last Year (world premiere of viola version)
Aidan Gold — Do We Have the Same Heartbeat? (world premiere)
Adolphus Hailstork — Horn Concerto (world premiere)
Program
Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2 (1787)
Vivian Fung: Quartet "Spiraling"
Benjamin Britten: String Quartet No. 2, Op. 36 (1945)
SONIC SPECTRUM IV
Kristin Lee, Violin
Sandbox Percussion (Jonathan Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian David Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney)
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center - Rose Studio at CMS
Program
Vivian Fung, Goddess//Insect
Joan Tower, Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra
Harrison, Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra
Ever wonder how professional musicians prepare for a concert? What does a professional rehearsal look and feel like? We invite you and your high school or middle school students to attend a working rehearsal as artists prepare for their upcoming concert at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Open Rehearsals include a pre-rehearsal discussion, rehearsal, and Q&A session with the artists. Attendees are also provided with a resource guide prior to the rehearsal to familiarize themselves with the repertoire they are about to experience.
All Open Rehearsals take place from 10:30 am–12:00 pm in the Rose Studio at CMS or Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.
Events are free with registration.
Program
Vivian Fung: Quartet "Spiraling" - New York Premiere
Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2 (1787)
Felix Mendelssohn: Octet in E-flat, Op. 20 (1825)—with members of the Ulysses Quartet
Concert will also be livestreamed
Program
Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2
Fung: String Quartet No. 5"Spiraling"
Beethoven: String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2
Program
Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 50, No. 2
Fung: String Quartet No. 5"Spiraling"
Traditional Quebecois, arr. Katarina String Quartet, L’Acadien d’Acadie
Beethoven: String Quartet in E minor, Op. 59, No. 2
WOMEN CROSSING/ LIMINALITY
Friday, April 17, 2026, 7:30 p.m.
Cha Chi Ming Hall, Bowes Center, SF Conservatory of Music, 200 Van Ness, SF and livestreamed on SFCM's Vimeo channel
FREE
Pre-concert talk at 7:00 p.m.
The culmination of E4TT's two-year exploration of women's immigration and identity and our sixth collaboration with the SF Conservatory of Music Technology and Applied Composition (TAC) Department, featuring:
Commissions by Juhi Bansal, Vivian Fung, and Pamela Z
Dvorak Symphony No. 7
Kalena Bovell, Guest Conductor
Aaron Smith, Percussion
Program
FUNG: Dust Devils
SÉJOURNÉ: Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra (Aaron Smith, Percussion)
DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 7 in D minor
Experience an exciting blend of contemporary and classical music, with a program that truly has something to offer every orchestral music fan. This evening's concert opens with two LPO premieres- Vivian Fung’s energetic Dust Devils, a vivid and energetic work inspired by nature's forces, and Emmanuel Séjourné’s virtuosic marimba concerto, featuring the talents of LPO’s own principal percussionist Aaron Smith. We end the night with one of Dvořák’s grandest works, his moody and passionate Symphony No. 7.
Curated and conducted by Brian Current, this special concert honours the extraordinary legacy of Sofia Gubaidulina (1931–2025) with a performance of Introitus, her deeply spiritual concerto for piano and chamber orchestra. Also featured are two bold contemporary works: Black Ice by Rashaan Allwood, a visceral reflection on unseen danger and structural inequality, and Ominous by Vivian Fung, a tense, vibrant work that explores precariousness and urgency through vivid textures. Together, these pieces explore vulnerability, voice, and transcendence through three distinct and powerful lenses.
Experience a bold new fusion of percussion and violin as Kristin Lee and Sandbox Percussion perform the DMV premiere of a new work by Vivian Fung, co-commissioned by Constellations.
Program:
Joan Tower To Sing or to Dance (Seattle Premiere) ECM co-commission
Gabriella Smith FIVE (World Premiere)
Vivian Fung New Work (World Premiere) ECM co-commission
Kristin Lee, violin | Sandbox Percussion, Ensemble in Residence: Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, percussion
Program
Ruth Crawford Seeger - Music for Small Orchestra (1926)
Seare Ahmad Farhat - Muzzahaimat (2023) - Bay Area premiere
Vivian Fung - Ominous (2024) - West Coast premiere
Steve Reich Jacob’s Ladder (2023) - West Coast pemiere
From Ruth Gipps to Vivian Fung
Program
Gipps, Quintet for Oboe, Clarinet, and String Trio
Hindemith, Morgenmusik
Day, Ignition
Fung, Frenetic Memories for clarinet and string quartet
Beethoven’s beloved “Pastorale” Symphony is filled with imaginative musical depictions of birdsong, a flowing stream, a thunderstorm, and other sounds of country life. Edmonton-born Vivian Fung’s Parade, inspired by watching her 6-year old son in a parade following pandemic lockdowns, is a “celebration of community that also explores the journey from solitude to togetherness.” Camille Saint-Saëns often said, “form is the essence of art,” a principle that is eloquently realized in his compact Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring Montreal-born Jean-Guihen Queyras in his long overdue ESO debut.
Program
Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”
Fauré, Élégie for Cello
Saint-Saëns, Cello Concerto No. 1
Fung, Parade
Beethoven’s beloved “Pastorale” Symphony is filled with imaginative musical depictions of birdsong, a flowing stream, a thunderstorm, and other sounds of country life. Edmonton-born Vivian Fung’s Parade, inspired by watching her 6-year old son in a parade following pandemic lockdowns, is a “celebration of community that also explores the journey from solitude to togetherness.” Camille Saint-Saëns often said, “form is the essence of art,” a principle that is eloquently realized in his compact Cello Concerto No. 1, featuring Montreal-born Jean-Guihen Queyras in his long overdue ESO debut.
Program
Beethoven, Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral”
Fauré, Élégie for Cello
Saint-Saëns, Cello Concerto No. 1
Fung, Parade
A live performance of music and poetry by Del Sol Quartet and poet Genny Lim, co-author of ISLAND, the first book of Angel Island poetry. This performance will amplify the experience of the Chinese diaspora on Angel Island through excerpts of their new project "Facing the Moon." The 45- minute concert includes new poetry by Genny Lim & music by Vivian Fung, Meilina Tsui, Theresa Wong, and Chinary Ung.
There will be one performance at 12:00 in the Detention Barracks Museum. Please note that the start time of this performance is subject to change.
There will be shuttles from Ayala Cove to the Immigration Station at 10:30 and 11:30 for the concert.
The performance is included in your $5 admission to the Detention Barracks Museum. Sign up below to let us know you’re attending.
Canadian composer Vivian Fung’s bold and vibrant Parade and Kevin Chen’s take on Mozart’s elegant Piano Concerto No. 17, filled with wit, sparkling interplay, and serene beauty, complement Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7—a fiery, dramatic, and powerful masterpiece regarded as one of his greatest.
TSO RBC Resident Conductor
Kevin Chen, piano
Vivian Fung: Parade
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17, K. 453
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7
2026 Summer Series: Groove Café
John Psathas’ Island Songs bring sun, surf, and a dash of Kiwi cool – no sunscreen required. Then you’re kept guessing with Eliodoro Sollima’s Tre movimenti, leaping from atonal intrigue to melodic surprises faster than you can say “cin cin”. Vivian Fung’s Ominous Machine whirs, glitches, and grooves like your favourite gadget on a caffeine rush. And it all ends with Nikolai Kapustin’s Divertissement, the ultimate musical cocktail: equal parts classical poise and jazz swagger, shaken (not stirred) into four sparkling movements.
This concert features guest pianist Stephen De Pledge
Conductor: Earl Lee
Soloist: Kerson Leong
Vivian Fung: Aqua
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto occupies rare territory—technically demanding, deeply expressive, and long admired by audiences. Kerson Leong returns to pour his talent into this haunting and expansive work. Vivian Fung’s Aqua brings a vivid, contemporary voice to the program, evoking shifting textures and fluid motion inspired by the natural world. The program closes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, a deeply introspective work spanning a range of emotions, from quiet melancholy to vibrant, almost frenetic intensity.
Canadian composer Vivian Fung’s bold and vibrant Parade and Kevin Chen’s take on Mozart’s elegant Piano Concerto No. 17, filled with wit, sparkling interplay, and serene beauty, complement Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7—a fiery, dramatic, and powerful masterpiece regarded as one of his greatest.
TSO RBC Resident Conductor
Kevin Chen, piano
Vivian Fung: Parade
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17, K. 453
Dvořák: Symphony No. 7
Artistic Director Kristin Lee teams up with our three-time GRAMMY®-nominated ensemble-in-residence, Sandbox Percussion, for a groundbreaking performance featuring three new premieres. This cutting-edge program showcases the dynamic blending of violin and percussion quartet- an unforgettable experience that pushes the boundaries of chamber music.
Program:
Joan Tower To Sing or to Dance (Seattle Premiere) ECM co-commission
Gabriella Smith FIVE (World Premiere)
Vivian Fung Goddess//Insect (World Premiere) ECM co-commission
Kristin Lee, violin | Sandbox Percussion, Ensemble in Residence: Jonny Allen, Victor Caccese, Ian Rosenbaum, Terry Sweeney, percussion
2026 Summer Series: Groove Café
John Psathas’ Island Songs bring sun, surf, and a dash of Kiwi cool – no sunscreen required. Then you’re kept guessing with Eliodoro Sollima’s Tre movimenti, leaping from atonal intrigue to melodic surprises faster than you can say “cin cin”. Vivian Fung’s Ominous Machine whirs, glitches, and grooves like your favourite gadget on a caffeine rush. And it all ends with Nikolai Kapustin’s Divertissement, the ultimate musical cocktail: equal parts classical poise and jazz swagger, shaken (not stirred) into four sparkling movements.
This concert features guest pianist Stephen De Pledge
Conductor: Earl Lee
Soloist: Kerson Leong
Vivian Fung: Aqua
Jean Sibelius: Violin Concerto
Pyotr llyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6
Sibelius’s Violin Concerto occupies rare territory—technically demanding, deeply expressive, and long admired by audiences. Kerson Leong returns to pour his talent into this haunting and expansive work. Vivian Fung’s Aqua brings a vivid, contemporary voice to the program, evoking shifting textures and fluid motion inspired by the natural world. The program closes with Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, a deeply introspective work spanning a range of emotions, from quiet melancholy to vibrant, almost frenetic intensity.
