Clockwise L-R: Stewart Goodyear by Anita Zvonar, James Blachly by Allison Stock, Inbal Segev by Bri Elledge, Paul Neubauer by Rosalie O’Connor, Michelle Barzel Ross by Samira Bouaou.
An Embrace of Sound: The Music of Anna Clyne
Featuring Cellist Inbal Segev in the New York City Premiere of DANCE
Friday, October 23, 2026 at 8pm
The DiMenna Center for Classical Music | 450 W. 37th St., New York, NY
Music in a Time of War
Featuring Violist Paul Neubauer, Pianist Stewart Goodyear, and Violinist Michelle Barzel Ross
Music by Herbert Howells, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, Samuel Barber, and Ralph Vaughan-Williams
Saturday, February 20, 2027 at 7:30pm
Roulette Intermedium | 509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY
Strength Through Song: Choral Music of Arvo Pärt
Saturday, May 22, 2027 at 7:30pm
The New York Society for Ethical Culture | 2 W 64th St., New York, NY
Brad Balliet’s A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds
Spring 2027
Outdoors at Inwood Hill Park | Payson Ave. &, Seaman Ave., New York, NY
Details TBA
New York, NY – The GRAMMY®️-winning Experiential Orchestra (EXO) announces its 2026-2027 season, Beauty in the Face of Adversity, running from October 2026 through June 2027. Led by founding Music Director James Blachly, EXO presents four immersive programs, each reflecting the mission of the orchestra – to curate programs that embrace the unique acoustics and characters of each venue, creating a one-of-a-kind listening environment and a new experience of sound. Subscription sales begin July 21, 2026 and individual tickets will be available starting August 25, 2026.
The season opens on October 23, 2026 with An Embrace of Sound, a celebration of the music of composer Anna Clyne, including the New York City premiere of her Dance for Cello and Orchestra, featuring cellist Inbal Segev (who commissioned and recorded the work), as well as Clyne’s This Midnight Hour and Within Her Arms, at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (450 W. 37th St., New York, NY). On February 20, 2027 at Roulette Intermedium (509 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY), EXO presents Music in a Time of War, a concert featuring three acclaimed soloists: Paul Neubauer, Stewart Goodyear, and Michelle Barzel Ross. On May 22, 2027 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture (2 W 64th St., New York, NY), EXO performs the choral music of Arvo Pärt, expanding the orchestra’s ongoing relationship with the Estonian composer. The final event of the season is a reprise of EXO’s celebrated collaboration with composer Brad Balliett in his A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds, to be held outdoors at Inwood Hill Park in Spring 2027 (details TBA).
Experiential Orchestra Music Director James Blachly says, “This season brings together extraordinary composers, internationally acclaimed soloists, and beautiful venues to create concerts that we hope will speak directly to our audience from a place of strength and comfort. In October, we embrace the way that Anna Clyne's music is uniquely attuned to the way we can turn to music and poetry in life's hardest moments. In February, we turn to several of the most celebrated 20th century composers and their personal responses to the cost of war. And in May, we see how the choral music of Arvo Pärt fits within the context of the Estonian Singing Revolution – when an entire nation rose together through the power of song.”
EXO’s season opening concert on October 23, 2026, An Embrace of Sound, is a celebration of the music of Anna Clyne. It features the New York City premiere of Clyne’s Dance for Cello and Orchestra, performed with Inbal Segev, for whom it was written. The program also includes Clyne’s This Midnight Hour, an evocative tour de force for orchestra, which was written in part as a response to the poetry of Charles Baudelaire and Juan Ramón Jiménez. Clyne’s Within Her Arms, written in the wake of the death of her mother, opens the program, with the EXO strings surrounding the audience at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in a sound embrace.
Music in a Time of War on February 20, 2027 at Roulette Intermedium presents four powerful works that reflect on the cost of war. Internationally acclaimed violist Paul Neubauer performs Herbert Howells’s gorgeous and rarely performed Elegy for viola, string quartet and string orchestra; GRAMMY-nominated pianist Stewart Goodyear performs Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s 1973 composition Grass, a reflection on the Vietnam War; and violinist Michelle Barzel Ross performs Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending, orchestrated in the direct aftermath of the First World War, during which Williams served as a stretcher carrier (inspired by his love of the poetry of Walt Whitman). Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings, composed in 1938 as the world marched towards global conflict, completes the program.
EXO has established a deep relationship with the music of Arvo Pärt through previous concerts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. On May 22, 2027 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, EXO presents Strength Through Song: Choral Music of Arvo Pärt, a program that pairs the Estonian composer’s profound sacred choral works and works for string quartet, including Estonian folk songs that formed a part of the Estonian Singing Revolution, a movement that helped the small Baltic country face the adversity of occupation by the USSR. The concert will include Pärt’s works Drei Hirtenkinder, Silouan’s Song (for SATB Chorus), Nunc Dimittis, Psalom for String Quartet, Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen, Most Holy Mother of God, Estonian Lullaby, Fratres for String Quartet, “Prayer after the Kanon” from Kanon Pokajanen, and Da Pacem.
Finally, in Spring 2027 (details TBA), EXO will again present Brad Balliet’s A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds outdoors in Inwood Hill Park. This is an immersive, experiential program designed with families and bird-lovers in mind, in which participants will discover the songs of seven remarkable imaginary birds.
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