American Classical Orchestra Reveals 2025-26 Season Lineup
The season launches with an evening of Rococo chamber music, preceded by a reception in the elegant Library Room of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Club on Tuesday, Sept. 16.
By: A.A. Cristi Jun. 16, 2025
The American Classical Orchestra will launch its 41st season in 2025-26, with performances spanning four orchestral concerts led by Founder and Artistic Director Thomas Crawford at Alice Tully Hall, the Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, and Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church; and three chamber music programs at Weill Recital Hall, the Met Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Club.
The season launches with an evening of Rococo chamber music, preceded by a reception in the elegant Library Room of Manhattan’s Metropolitan Club on Tuesday, Sept. 16; followed by Virtuosi Violini, a program showcasing four soloists performing violin concertos with the full orchestra on Tuesday, Oct. 28.
Highlights include Baroque violin concertos (Oct. 28, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church); a holiday program showcasing Christmas works from the Italian Baroque era at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Musical Instruments Gallery (Nov. 21-22); an evening featuring rising young soprano Song Hee Lee in Mozart’s Exsultate, Jubilate (Jan. 15, Alice Tully Hall); an all-Bach program of vocal and instrumental works (Feb. 26, Church of St. Vincent Ferrer); Schubert’s iconic String Quartet (Apr. 8, Weill Recital Hall); and fortepianist Matthew Figel in his Lincoln Center debut, performing Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 (May 5, Alice Tully Hall).
Subscriptions for the four Orchestral concerts are priced at $270, $198, and $126, a 10% discount over individual ticket prices. Patron Society Members receive premium seating to all seven concerts in the season, including the intimate chamber concerts that are not included in the subscription package. Patron Society Membership is $850, which includes a $225 tax-deductible donation.
Salon Concert: Rococo Repast
Tuesday, September 16, 2025
Reception at 6 PM
Concert at 7 PM
Metropolitan Club, 1 E. 60th Street
American Classical Orchestra Members
Thomas Crawford, Founder and Artistic Director
Emi Ferguson, flauto traverso
David Dickey, oboe
Aisslinn Nosky, violin
Myron Lutzke, cello
Michael Haydn: String Quintet in C Major, MH 187
Johann Christian Bach: Quintet in D Major, Op. 22
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Flute Quartet in G Major, K. 825a
Completed in 1891 and described as a “Marble Palace” by The New York Times, the Metropolitan Club is one of the City’s most exclusive private clubs, offering the perfect setting for an intimate evening of Rococo music. During a brief period in art history from the 1730’s to 1760’s, characterized by a shift away from dense Baroque textures and toward a simpler presentation, composers wanted to write music that was lighter and sent a more immediate message. In addition to the high-spirited String Quintet in C Major by Michael Haydn, the youngest brother of Joseph Haydn; and the popular Quintet in D Major with winds by Johann Christian Bach, the youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach; the program also offers Mozart’s 1778 Flute Quartet in G Major, which is the second of three quartets he wrote for flutist Ferdinand De Jean. Although Mozart would evolve beyond the Rococo approach to become a towering figure of Classical style, in his early life, he was influenced by Rococo composers, a style clearly reflected in his Flute Quartet.
Virtuosi Violini
Tuesday, October 28 at 7:30 PM
Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, 921 Madison Avenue
American Classical Orchestra
Thomas Crawford, conductor
Chloe Fedor, Augusta McKay Lodge, Aisslinn Nosky, and Edson Scheid, violinists
Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for Four Violins in B Minor, RV 580
Tomaso Albinoni: Violin Concerto Op. 10 No. 12 in B-flat Major
Giuseppe Tartini: Violin Concerto in E Minor
J.S. Bach: Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043
This program presents virtuoso violin concertos from the Baroque era. In the early 17th century, Italy enjoyed a flourishing industry of building string instruments, paired with an abundance of skilled musicians to play them. Composers of the era were motivated to write works that pushed the limits of technique. Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins was part of a group of 12 concerti published under the title L’estro armónico, and performed by the students of a music school for orphaned girls, where Vivaldi taught. Albinoni’s Concerto No.12 is one of nine collections of instrumental work he wrote during his lifetime, including 59 concerti. A gifted violinist in his own right, Tartini was critical of composers who wrote both instrumental and vocal music. His Concerto in E minor is an example of the nearly 350 works he wrote, almost exclusively for instruments. Bach was a fan of Vivaldi and very interested in his Italian style of concerto writing. His Concerto for Two Violins reflects certain Italian Baroque characteristics, such as its three-movement structure (fast – slow – fast). The four solo Baroque violinists in this performance showcase the “...plush, seductive tone’’ (New York Times) of Chloe Fedor; a frequent concertmaster of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants, Augusta McKay Lodge; Aisslinn Nosky, concertmaster of Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society; and Edson Scheid, who “amazes with his seemingly superhuman technique...” (Fanfare Magazine).
Salon Concert: The Golden Harpsichord
Friday, November 21, and Saturday, 22, at 6 PM and 7 PM
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musical Instruments Gallery, 1000 5th Avenue
American Classical Orchestra Members
Thomas Crawford, Founder and Artistic Director
Bradley Strauchen-Scherer, Met Museum, Musical Instruments Curator
Elisse Albian, soprano
Caroline Giassi, oboe
Alessandro Scarlatti: Christmas Cantata (Cantata Pastorale per la Natività)
Arcangelo Corelli: Christmas Concerto (Concerto grosso in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 8)
George Frideric Handel: Il delirio amoroso, HWV 99
The Met Museum’s ‘Golden Harpsichord’ in its Musical Instruments Gallery is an outstanding example of beauty and technology. Built in 1670 in Rome by Michele Todini, the harpsichord’s elaborate frame includes two large figures—Polyphemus and Galatea—which provide a distinctive backdrop for this salon concert of Italian Baroque music. The program includes two classic holiday cantatas written to celebrate the nativity of Jesus: Scarlatti’s Christmas Cantata, and Corelli’s Christmas Concerto. Also on the program is Handel’s virtuosic castrato aria, Il delinrio amoroso (The Delirium of Love), about a woman who descends to Hades to rescue her deceased lover and take him to the Elysian fields. It features Baroque soprano Elisse Albian’s “glittering soprano” (Observer) and oboist Caroline Giassi.
Morning Stars
Thursday, January 15 at 7:30 PM
Alice Tully Hall
American Classical Orchestra
Thomas Crawford, conductor
Song Hee Lee, soprano
Mozart: Overture for La finta semplice, K. 51
Mozart: Exsultate, Jubilate, K. 165
Haydn: Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Hob. l:6, “Le Matin”
The evening begins with the overture for Mozart’s opera buffa La finta semplice (The Fake Innocent), his first full-length opera, followed by Song Hee Lee’s light Mozartean soprano voice in a performance of the composer’s timeless Exsultate, Jubilate–an aria that Mozart wrote as a teenager for the castrato opera star Veranzio Rauzzini. Already destined for a major career, Ms. Lee is scheduled to perform in 2026 with Les Arts Florissants in Europe under the direction of William Christie. The program concludes with Haydn’s Symphony No. 6, a fine example of program music evoking the morning sounds of nature, and the first of three early symphonies he composed for his new employer, Prince Paul Anton Esterházy.
Healing Bach
Thursday, February 26 at 7:30 PM
Church of St. Vincent Ferrer, 869 Lexington Avenue
American Classical Orchestra
Thomas Crawford, conductor
Nola Richardson, soprano
Edward Vogel, baritone
Sandra Miller, flauto traverso
Marc Schachman, oboe
Steven Marquardt, trumpet
All J.S. Bach Program:
Ich habe genug, BWV 82
Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen, BWV 51
Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B Minor, BMV 1067
Considered one of the most spectacular architectural buildings in Manhattan, the nave of the Church of St Vincent Ferrer will host an all-Bach concert of solo cantatas and instrumental work. Bach’s well-known, secular dance Suite in B Minor will be performed by ACO principal flutist Sandra Miller. Baritone Edward Vogel, praised for his “appealing, midweight baritone” (The New York Times), sings the cantata Ich habe genug ("I have enough"), written for the Feast of the Purification of Mary. Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen (“exult God in every land”), the only church cantata Bach scored for solo soprano and trumpet, will be sung by soprano Nola Richardson, “a vocal superstar in the making" (Berkeley Daily Planet), and feature trumpeter Steven Marquadt.
Chamber Music Concert: Genius
Wednesday, April 8 at 7:30 PM
Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
American Classical Orchestra Members
Thomas Crawford, Founder and Artistic Director
Krista Feeney, Laura Lutzke, violins
David Cerutti, viola
Myron Lutzke, Loretta O'Sullivan, cellos
Schubert: String Quintet in C Major, D. 956
Artistic Director Thomas Crawford will introduce Schubert’s famous String Quintet, the last instrumental work in the final year and a half before his death at age 31. Notable for adding a second cello instead of the usual viola in a quintet, the work is also striking for its frequent and unexpected key changes, highlighting the genius of Schubert’s unique originality.
Heroic
Tuesday, May 5, 2026, 7:30 PM
Alice Tully Hall
American Classical Orchestra
Thomas Crawford, conductor
Matthew Figel, fortepiano (Lincoln Center debut)
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E-flat Major, Op. 55, “Eroica” (Italian for “Heroic”)
Young pianist Matthew Figel opens the ACO season finale by making his Lincoln Center debut in a performance of Mozart’s Concerto No. 17, which was written for Mozart’s student, Barbara Ployer. Soon after the work’s popular first performance, Mozart came across a bird-seller with a starling that sang something like the theme of the finale. He purchased the bird as a pet and honored it with a funeral when it died. The program comes to a close with a period instrument performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, which not only presented a bold departure from the structured symphonic form of the time but also laid the foundation for the passionate sounds of the Romantic era to come. Unlike anything audiences had heard in Classical symphonic style, the work exuded emotional themes of heroism and resilience that impacted the work of major composers for years to come.
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