GatherNYC to Present Weekly Sunday Concerts at NYC's MAD Through May

GatherNYC, founded in 2018 by cellist Laura Metcalf and guitarist Rupert Boyd, will continue its expanded 2025-2026 season at the series' home venue, Museum of Arts and Design. For the first time, GatherNYC is offering weekly concerts, held every Sunday morning at 11am, in The Theater at MAD. Coffee and pastries are served before each performance at 10:30am. Admission for children under 12 is free. The series presents an astonishing thirty-one concerts between October 2025 and May 2026.

Guests at GatherNYC are served exquisite live classical music performed by New York's immensely talented artists, artisanal coffee and pastries, a taste of the spoken word, and a brief celebration of silence. The entire experience lasts one hour and evokes the community and spiritual nourishment of a religious service – but the religion is music, and all are welcome.

Spoken word artists perform briefly at the midpoint of each concert, many of whom are winners of The Moth StorySLAM events. “It's an interesting moment of something completely different from the music, and it often connects with the audience,” Metcalf told Strings magazine in a feature about the series. “Then we have a two-minute celebration of silence when we turn the lights down, centering ourselves in the center of the city. Then the lights come back on, and the music starts again out of the silence. We find that the listening and the feeling in the room changes after that.”

Metcalf and Boyd say, “We are thrilled to be offering 31 concerts throughout our expanded 2025-2026 season, by far our largest lineup yet. In these challenging times, we feel it's essential to provide our community with a gathering place each week where we can enjoy world-class artists together in an intimate, unique setting – complete with spoken word, silence, coffee and a communal, welcoming environment. We look forward to welcoming new and old friends week after week.”

Up Next – All Concerts Take Place on Sundays at 11AM:

May 3: Thomas Mesa, cello + JP Jofre, bandoneon

Two of the most exciting soloists working today, Mesa and Jofre come together for a morning of tango and tango-inspired works that spotlight the unusual combination of their instruments, cello and bandoneon, while allowing each performer to shine.

May 10: Curtis Stewart, violin + composer

GatherNYC favorite, Curtis Stewart, returns to the stage with a preview of his much-anticipated project “24 American Caprices.” The 24 American Caprices are inspired by a kaleidoscope of recorded American music, with some honorary American additions...musical aspects of each inspiration are abstracted and imbued with challenging violin techniques emulating the sounds and styles of their origin. In the full meaning of caprice, these violin fragments dance and sing lightly from inspiration to ornamentation, both with flights of fantasy and fastidious settings of referenced material, creating playful musical dialogue around American lineage and individual perspective in Classical music.

May 17: Catalyst Quartet

The GRAMMY-winning Catalyst Quartet, known for their masterful, comprehensive recordings of music by Black composers throughout history, bring their signature polish and style back to GatherNYC for the second time.

May 24: Aeolus Quartet

The acclaimed Aeolus Quartet presents a touching and thoughtful program for their first performance at GatherNYC. From a Bach chorale composed to unite the voices of church congregations to the expansive Overture and Chorale by Andrea Casarrubios inspired by it; from the textural celebration of Montgomery's Strum to the bubbling virtuosity of Bacewicz's Quartet No. 3 composed in the new world that arose from the ashes of WWII. In this program, storytelling and silence give way to the tender slow movement of Price's G Major Quartet rooted in the tradition of Black spirituals.

May 31: Season Finale – Musicians from the NY Phil with Boyd Meets Girl

GatherNYC artistic directors Laura Metcalf and Rupert Boyd once again team up with members of the New York Philharmonic, including returning violist Leah Ferguson, violinist Alina Kobialka and more, to craft an exhilarating program centered around Aaron Jay Kernis' tour de force for guitar and string quartet, “100 Greatest Dance Hits.” Dance into the summer and celebrate the conclusion of another wonderful season of GatherNYC!