Wet Ink Ensemble Reveals 2025-2026 Season Featuring Mini-Festival and More

New York City-based new music collective Wet Ink Ensemble has revealed its 27th season with the return of its annual Mini-Festival featuring performances and new works by the Ensemble's Artists-in-Residence Aurora Nealand and Ben LaMar Gay. Wet Ink performs Eric Wubbels's Chimeric Form and the world premiere of a new work for big band by Sam Pluta. The season also features collaborations with clarinetist Madison Greenstone and saxophonist Anna Webber.

Wet Ink kicks off the new season with a performance of Eric Wubbels's Chimeric Form on Saturday, October 11, 2025 at 8:00 p.m. at the Tenri Cultural Institute. Following Brahms's and Ligeti's path-breaking entries in the rarely attempted genre of the horn trio, Chimeric Form treats the bizarre and acoustically ungainly combination of violin, French horn, and piano as a hybrid meta-instrument navigating a chaotic, polyglot, spliced-up, and semi-self-aware formal structure. The work, performed with Eric Wubbels on piano, is preceded by clarinetist and improviser Madison Greenstone (of TAK Ensemble), who performs new solo material as a follow-up to their acclaimed 2023 release, Resonance Studies in Ecstatic Consciousness.

In December, Wet Ink presents its third annual Mini-Festival on Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m. at Benzaquen Hall in the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Featuring works and performances by Wet Ink's Artists-In-Residence Aurora Nealand (saxophone/voice) and Ben LaMar Gay (cornet), the festival includes the NYC premieres of Alex Mincek's Assemblage - Trace/Mobile and Ensemble member Mariel Roberts Musa's Jalan Mentari, as well as Peter Ablinger's Black Series.

In the new year, Wet Ink performs the world premiere of a new work for big band by Sam Pluta on Thursday, February 12, 2026, at 8:00 p.m. at Cary Hall at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music. Featuring Wet Ink Ensemble and an all-star cast of soloists, with materials ranging from orchestrated instrumental soundscapes to aggressive AI-driven noise walls, this new work merges Pluta's practices of composition, improvisation, and electronics, focusing on the many talents of his co-conspirators to create an hour-long immersive musical experience. The program opens with tenor saxophonist and composer Anna Webber, who will play an opening set.

Performance Details:

Wubbels Chimeric Form / Madison Greenstone
Saturday, October 11, 2025 at 8:00 p.m.
Tenri Cultural Institute | 43A W 13th St | New York, NY 10011
Tickets: $20 suggested/pay what you can [reserve online or purchase at the door]
Link: https://www.wetink.org/

Program:
Madison Greenstone - Solo Clarinet (2025)
Eric Wubbels: Chimeric Form (2023)
I. 77 mögliche Hauptmotive
II. TORS-
III. little tail