Season Announcement
Ten world premieres in Nova Linea Musica’s third season, opening with JACK Quartet, closing with Borromeo.
Publish Date:
June 6, 2026
Every season at Nova Linea Musica is built on a single promise: music written for this moment, heard for the first time, in a room where the composer and the audience share the same air. Our third season keeps that promise eight times over on our mainstage at 11 E Adams, and again in our Artists-in-Residence series at The CheckOut, with ten world premieres from some of the most compelling voices in contemporary chamber music today. Here is the year ahead, on our Chicago stage.
September 30, 2026
Our generation's leading new-music foursome, in the words of The New York Times, opens the season with a program built for close listening and discovery. Experimental quartets by Cenk Ergün, Keir GoGwilt, and Austin Wulliman lead to the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission by Guggenheim Fellow Juri Seo, who will be in attendance to celebrate the first performance.
October 28, 2026
A landmark evening honoring one of the most influential composers of the last century. Flutist Demarre McGill, violinists Desirée Ruhstrat and Rabia Brooke, and cellist Wendy Sutter gather for an intimate program of Philip Glass’s most beloved chamber works, anchored by the world premiere of “Through Philip and Lou,” a Nova Linea Musica commission by Alex Weston, marking the milestone with a concert worthy of the moment.
Join the Wait List for Philip Glass at 90 →
November 18, 2026
Grand Prize winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition and recipients of the 2026 Cleveland Quartet Award, the Poiesis Quartet performs works by Calvin Ray Shawler, Max Lang, Maya Irizarry Lambright, and Jeff Scott, anchored by the world premiere of “Roy’s Address,” a Nova Linea Musica commission from Puerto Rican composer Iván Enrique Rodríguez. The composer will be in attendance.
Get tickets for the Poiesis Quartet →
January 27, 2027
An evening of conversation between voices. The Nois Saxophone Quartet brings together five works exploring how music speaks across difference, distance, and tradition, with music by Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, and Nico Muhly. The program culminates in the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission by Grammy-nominated composer Clarice Assad, who joins the quartet on stage.
Get tickets for the Nois Quartet →
February 17, 2027
Seven-time Grammy-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart brings a singular vision to an evening that dissolves the boundaries between classical, jazz, and American vernacular traditions. A 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient and Juilliard faculty member, Stewart arrives with a program unmistakably his own, anchored by the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission.
Get tickets for Curtis Stewart →
March 17, 2027
An intimate evening of solo piano with internationally acclaimed pianist Claire Huangci, whose technical brilliance and stylistic certainty illuminate works by John Corigliano, Minako Tokuyama, and George Rochberg, alongside two pieces by Grammy-nominated composer Zhou Tian, including the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission. A Curtis Institute alumna and first-prize winner at the 2018 Concours Géza Anda, Huangci turns the solo recital into an event, and Zhou will be in attendance to celebrate the premiere.
Get tickets for Claire Huangci →
April 14, 2027
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The Nova Linea Musica Piano Trio, violinist Rabia Brooke, pianist Tamila Salimdjanova, and cellist Ashley Ryoo, pairs works from the piano trio canon with the world premiere of “Into the Wild,” a new piano trio by Composer-in-Residence Stacy Garrop, written during her residency in the Rocky Mountains. Garrop will be in attendance.
Get tickets for the NLM Piano Trio →
May 26, 2027
The legendary Borromeo String Quartet closes the season with the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission by Grammy-nominated composer Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol, whose pluralist, multicultural voice has been praised by the Boston Globe as colorful, fanciful, and full of rhythmic life. Hailed as simply the best and performing for thirty-five years on the world’s great stages, the Borromeo arrives at 11 E Adams for a season finale, Where We Converge.
Get tickets for the Borromeo Quartet →
Alongside the mainstage, our Artists-in-Residence series at The CheckOut balances beloved repertoire with new music and adds two more world premieres. On March 31, 2027, “Inheritance” presents the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize finalist Chen Yi’s “My Childhood Memories,” a solo violin work drawn from the games of her childhood in China, along with a screening of our first documentary film. Chen Yi will be in attendance. On April 23, 2027, “The World Made Larger” premieres Elizabeth Younan’s “like seeds dreaming beneath the snow,” with the composer in attendance.
See the full series schedule →
Eight concerts at 11 E Adams, an Artists-in-Residence series at The CheckOut, and ten world premieres. Every program built around a brand new work, every commission heard for the first time on a Chicago stage. Tickets and subscriptions are available now. We hope you will be in the room.
