92nd Street Y to Host Dublin Guitar Quartet in a Unique Contemporary Music Event

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) presents Dublin Guitar Quartet on the David Geffen Stage at Kaufmann Concert Hall, 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128, on Sunday, February 22, 2026 at 2PM. Tickets start at $45.

The Dublin Guitar Quartet is unique in the music world - the only classical guitar quartet dedicated entirely to contemporary music, earning praise for their expansion of what guitar repertoire can be, with their arrangements of works by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Arvo Part, and others. The afternoon's program features music by Glass - an arrangement of his String Quartet No. 2, "Company" - for four guitars, a selection of his Études, and more. The concert closes with their unique adaptation of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. Experience the quartet's reimagining of the work, based on Stravinsky's own piano version, as they give new expression to a classic masterpiece.

Program

Nikita Koshkin Changing the Guard

Rachel Grimes Book of Leaves (trans. B. Bolger)

Wojciech Kilar Orawa (trans. B. Bolger)

Philip Glass Piano Etudes (trans. B. Bolger)

No. 2

No. 9

No. 16

No. 20

Philip Glass String Quartet No. 2, "Company" (trans. B. Bolger)

Stravinsky The Rite of Spring (trans. B. Bolger)

Described as a "quartet with a difference" by The Irish Times, Dublin Guitar Quartet is the first classical guitar quartet entirely devoted to new music. Since its formation at the Dublin Conservatory of Music and Drama, the DGQ has worked to expand the limited repertoire through commissions and by adapting contemporary works from outside the guitar repertoire.

With the help of eight and eleven string guitars, the quartet has created an original catalog of arrangements by composers such Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Arvo Pärt, and György Ligeti. This includes an album release on Glass' Orange Mountain Music label and a 55-minute commission by Michael Gordon. In 2015, the quartet performed alongside the Grammy Award-winning LA Guitar Quartet, Conspirare, and Texas Guitar Quartet in the premiere of Nico Muhly's How Little You Are, for three guitar quartets and choir. DGQ performed its own reduction of the work on a 2019 U.S. tour in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Roomful of Teeth.

In 2010 the quartet was involved in a special performance of Sofia Gubaidulina's Repentance for cello, guitars, and double bass, with Russian cellist Ivan Monighetti, at St. Peter's Church in Drogheda, Ireland. DGQ's recording of the work was released on the LCMS label in 2012. In 2008 the quartet shared the stage with Philip Glass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dundalk. Its recording of these transcriptions reached No. 8 on the U.S. iTunes classical charts in 2014.

Other highlights include a four-city tour of Columbia, nine tours of North America, and performances at Wigmore Hall, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, The Philips Collection, Celebrity Series Boston, Symphony Space, Yale University, and Lincoln Center. The quartet was a jury-selected ensemble at Classical Next, Rotterdam, in 2019. Additional performances include Longwood Gardens, Dartmouth College, Hamilton College, Penn State Erie, Strings Music Festival, Clark Art Institute, Rite of Summer (Governor's Island, New York City) and a sold-out concert at Chautauqua Institution.

The DGQ has developed the electric side of its guitar quartet repertoire with works like Michael Gordon's Amplified, which premiered in 2015 at the David Lang/Bang on a Can-curated festival of new music at the National Concert Hall in Dublin. The U.S. premiere took place during a four-night residency at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2016.