Nova Linea Musica's season finale brings together vibrant voices from around the world in Blooming Under Blue Skies, a night of bold premieres and cross-cultural resonance, anchored by the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission by Grammy-nominated composer Clarice Assad.

Featuring: Mak Grgić (guitar), Desirée Ruhstrat (violin), Wendy Sutter (cello), and Rabia Brooke (violin)

‍

‍

JACK Quartet, our generation's "leading new-music foursome" (The New York Times), opens Nova Linea Musica's Season 3 with a program inviting close listening and transformative discovery: experimental quartets by Cenk Ergün, Keir GoGwilt, and Austin Wulliman, plus the world premiere of an NLM commission by Guggenheim Fellow Juri Seo, who will be in attendance to celebrate the premiere.

‍

A celebration of Philip Glass at 90, this landmark evening honors one of the most influential composers of the last century, brought to life by flutist Demarre McGill, violinists Desirée Ruhstrat and Rabia Brooke, and cellist Wendy Sutter in an intimate program of his most beloved chamber works. Nova Linea Musica marks the milestone with a concert worthy of the moment.

Poiesis Quartet, First Prize winners of the 2025 Banff International String Quartet Competition and recipients of the 2026 Cleveland Quartet Award, performs works by Calvin Ray Shawler, Max Lang, Maya Irizarry Lambright, and Jeff Scott, anchored by the world premiere of an NLM commission by Puerto Rican composer Ivan Enrique Rodriguez, ASCAP Leonard Bernstein Award recipient and Juilliard doctoral candidate. Rodriguez will be in attendance.

‍

An evening of conversation between voices, "In Dialogue" brings together five works that explore how music speaks across difference, distance, and tradition, culminating in the world premiere of an NLM commission by Grammy-nominated composer Clarice Assad, who joins Nois Saxophone Quartet on stage to celebrate a program featuring works by Caroline Shaw, Jessie Montgomery, Shawn Okpebholo, and Nico Muhly.

Seven-time GRAMMY-nominated violinist and composer Curtis Stewart brings his singular vision to an evening that dissolves boundaries between classical, jazz, and American vernacular traditions. A 2025 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient and Juilliard faculty member, Stewart arrives at Nova Linea Musica with a program unmistakably his own, anchored by the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission.

"What the Piano Holds" invites audiences into 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 an NLM commission. A Curtis Institute alumna and first-prize winner at the 2018 Concours Geza Anda, Huangci transforms the solo recital into an event, and Tian will be in attendance to celebrate this milestone premiere.

Violinist Rabia Brooke, NLM's founding Artist-in-Residence, and the NLM Piano Trio present an evening of two world premieres. The program features a new solo violin commission by Pulitzer Prize finalist Chen Yi, written for Rabia and drawn from the composer's own childhood memories, alongside a new piano trio commission by NLM Composer-in-Residence Stacy Garrop, written during her residency in the Rocky Mountains. Both composers will be in attendance.

The legendary Borromeo String Quartet closes Nova Linea Musica's Season 3 with the world premiere of a Nova Linea Musica commission by Grammy-nominated composer Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, 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 35 years at the world's great stages, the Borromeo arrives in Chicago's Guarneri Hall for a season finale, Where We Converge.

‍