Chelsea Music Festival to Present Clara Osowski in Opening Night Concert
The performance is set for June 20, 2026 at 7PM at St. Paul's German Church.
Mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski and pianist Melinda Lee Masur open the 2026 Chelsea Music Festival with an evening that weaves together the American immigrant experience, the poetry of Langston Hughes and Paul Laurence Dunbar, and the theme of dreaming across cultures and generations. The performance is set for June 20, 2026 at 7PM at St. Paul's German Church. Tickets start at $92.55 and can be purchased here.
The program pairs Aaron Copland and Erich Wolfgang Korngold - two composers living and working almost congruently, one American-born, one an immigrant from Vienna - alongside New York Premieres by Reinaldo Moya, Frederick Piket, Mark Carlson, and Steven Ward, and Libby Larsen's This Unbearable Stillness, a song cycle celebrating the everyday lives of Arab American women in its NYC Premiere. Damien Sneed's luminous spiritual arrangements provide the thread connecting the evening's two halves, from Paul Laurence Dunbar's poetry to Langston Hughes's timeless I Dream a World, scored for string quartet and piano - an opening night that asks what it means to dream in America, and who gets to dream.
The evening features: Clara Osowski, mezzo-soprano; Melinda Lee Masur, piano; Claire Bourg, violin; Yuyu Ikeda, violin; and Angela Lee, cello.
Program
Mark CARLSON III. Stars -The Dream Keeper (poem by Langston Hughes) (NY Premiere)
Aaron Copland Three Old American Songs
Eric Wolfgang KORNGOLD Three Songs
Libby LARSEN This Unbearable Stillness: Songs from the Balcony (NYC Premiere)
Reinaldo MOYA DREAM Songs (NY Premiere)
Frederick PIKET The Dream Keeper (poem by Langston Hughes) (NY Premiere)
Damien SNEED All Night, All Day
Damien SNEED I Dream A World (poem by Langston Hughes)
Steven Ward Invitation to Love (poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar) (NY Premiere)
Reception to follow.
Videos
