ETCHINGS FESTIVAL to Return for 17th Season This July
The three-day festival will feature Ecce Ensemble, King Klavé Trio, and Surface of Sphere at the annual event.
The Etchings Festival – directed by Grace Hughes, JoAnna Pope, and John Aylward – has announced its 17th summer season, showcasing cutting-edge contemporary music across a wide variety of genres. The three-day festival takes place from July 10 to 12, 2026, and features outstanding guest composers and virtuosic performances in Northampton, Massachusetts.
The Festival opens on Friday, July 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM with an electrifying evening of new music and genre-defying collaboration featuring Ecce Ensemble and the boundary-pushing artistry of Amaury Acosta's King Klavé Trio. On Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM, the Ecce Ensemble is joined by Boston-based jazz sextet Surface of Sphere. Then on Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM, Ecce closes the 2026 Etchings Festival with Sonic Translations, an afternoon featuring some of classical concert music's most compelling new voices. On July 10th and 11th, the performances will be nestled under the pines at Look Park's Sanctuary at Willow Lake. The festival concludes on July 12th in the Bombyx Sanctuary.
Ecce Ensemble is redefining the concert music experience with genre-defying works of new chamber music performed with startling virtuosity. The ensemble's core members – violinist Jordan Hadrill, cellist Robbie Bui, flautist Lily Xie, clarinetist Barret Ham, and pianist Geoffrey Burleson – are all brilliant soloists in their own right. This summer, Ecce joins forces with percussionist Dennis Sullivan and renowned alto saxophonist Philipp Stäudlin under the direction of composer/conductor Stratis Minakakis.
On Friday, July 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM, Ecce performs in the Etchings Festival opening concert, which also features renowned composer Toshio Hosokawa alongside newly commissioned works by Karaline Coates, Bryan Chiang, Grant Beale, and Alex Van Sant. They will also be joined by King Klavé Trio, comprised of Amaury Acosta, Mike King, and Morgan Guerin. At the center of the evening will be Acosta's Pepe Suite, a large-scale work blending modern jazz ensemble writing, electronic sound, Afro-Cuban musical traditions, and the rhythmic influence of Chicago footwork culture. Drawing inspiration from artists including Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Maria Schneider, Gerald Clayton, DJ Rashad, DJ Manny, and Traxman, the work creates an immersive sonic landscape that is both deeply rooted and strikingly futuristic.
On Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM, the Ecce Ensemble performs Pulitzer Prize Winner Melinda Wagner's seminal work Unsung Chordata as well as Grace Hughes' Madrigala Tarantula alongside new works by Dustyn Geary-Gilman, David Huang Mailman, Cole Nagoda, and Alejandro Lobo. Also performing on Day 2 of the festival is Surface of Sphere, a Boston-based jazz sextet led by pianist Pandelis Karayorgis. Surface of Sphere brings together a multigenerational lineup of longtime collaborators: improvisers Taylor Ho Bynum (cornet), Noah Campbell (tenor sax), Bill Lowe (trombone), Nate McBride (bass), and Luther Gray (drums). The band's repertoire for this show includes boundary-pushing composers like Sun Ra, Duke Ellington, Henry Threadgill, Eric Dolphy, Thelonious Monk, and Billy Strayhorn, as well as original pieces, and it reflects a commitment to music that resists easy categorization.
The festival concludes on Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM with Sonic Translations, an afternoon featuring some of classical concert music's most compelling new voices. In a program that explores how contemporary music translates and connects cultural experience, Ecce will spotlight works by David Sanford, Kate Soper, Julia Werntz, Michael Djupstrom, and Stratis Minakakis, culminating in a scintillating performance of Gerard Grisey's 20th-century masterpiece Talea. Through live performance and artist insight, Sonic Translations offers audiences an intimate look into the collaborative process behind today's most compelling new music. A culminating event filled with discovery, dialogue, and virtuosic performance, the concert reflects the spirit at the heart of Etchings: adventurous music-making without borders.
Festival Calendar
Friday, July 10, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Etchings Festival Day 1 – Ecce Ensemble & King Klavé Trio
The Sanctuary at Look Park | Northampton, MA
Tickets: $10 - $25 in advance; $10 - $30 at the door
Program
David Huang Mailman – New Work
Karalina Coates – New Work
Dustyn Geary-Gilman – New Work
Alex Van Sant – New Work
Toshio Hosokawa – Stunden-Blumen
Ecce Ensemble
King Klavé Trio
Saturday, July 11, 2026 at 7:00 PM
Etchings Festival Day 2 – Ecce Ensemble & Surface of Sphere
The Sanctuary at Look Park | Northampton, MA
Tickets: $10 - $25 in advance; $10 - $30 at the door
Link: https://bombyx.live/events/etchings-festival-day-2-ecce-ensemble-surface-of-sphere/
Program
Alejandro Lobo – New Work
Cole Nagoda – New Work
Bryan Chiang – New Work
Grant Beale – New Work
Grace Hughes – Tarantula Madriga
Melinda Wagner – Unsung Chordata
Ecce Ensemble
Surface of Sphere
Sunday, July 12, 2026 at 3:00 PM
Etchings Festival Day 3 – Sonic Translations
Bombyx Sanctuary | Northampton, MA
Tickets: $10 - $20 in advance; $10 - $25 at the door
Link: https://bombyx.live/events/etchings-festival-day-3-sonic-translations/
Program
Gerard Grisey – Talea
Stratis Minakakis – Skiagrafies IV: AIAS
Kate Soper – New Work
Julia Werntz – New Work
Michael Djupstrom – New Work
David Sanford – Underground
Ecce Ensemble
About Ecce
Ecce is an ensemble of performing and creative artists who take on intensive collaborations and performance projects that touch on important cultural and social aspects of our time. The group's core aim is to work in a collaborative, creative, socially engaged and interdisciplinary way. They routinely reach out to artists from around the world to assist in collaborative projects and the ensemble is diverse in its talents and creative visions.
Historic collaborators during their 10-years long residency in Auvillar, France were with prominent international figures such as Kaija Saariaho, Toshio Hosokawa, Philippe Hurel, Mark Andre, Garth Knox, Keiko Murakami, and a range of other performers, theater artists and movement artists. Now held in the Connecticut Valley of Massachusetts, the ensemble's summer festival Etchings, features a transatlantic dialogue of American and European concert music with a range of additional concert experiences that transcend boundaries. The festival provides its featured fellow composers and national audiences opportunities to experience music free from the bounds of genre.
The Etchings Festival Featured composers are Melinda Wagner, Kate Soper, Michael Djupstrom, Stratis Minakakis, Julia Werntz and David Sanford. Guest artists this year include Philipp Stäudlin, saxophones, Dennis Sullivan, percussion, the ensemble Surface of Sphere (Pandelis Karayorgis, piano, Taylor Ho Bynum, cornet, Noah Campbell, tenor sax, Bill Lowe, trombone, Nate McBride, bass, Luther Gray, drums) and the King Klavé Trio (Amaury Acosta, Michael King, and Morgan Guerin)
Etchings is directed by Grace Hughes, JoAnna Pope and John Aylward. The Etchings Festival Music Director is Stratis Minakakis. Ecce Ensemble performers are Jordan Hadrill, violin, Robbie Bui, cello, Lily Xie, flutes, Aleksis Martin, clarinet and Jihye Chang, piano. Learn more at www.eccearts.com.
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