28th Annual MATA FESTIVAL INTERVAL: In Between Silence and Stasis

The 28th annual MATA Festival of New Music takes place May 21 - 23, with three concerts at the DiMenna Center in New York City. Hailed by The New Yorker as “the most exciting showcase for outstanding young composers from around the world,” the 2026 Festival draws on the ever-expanding artistic legacy of composer Morton Feldman, whose 100th anniversary is celebrated this year.

MATA was founded in 1996 by Philip Glass, Lisa Bielawa, and Eleanor Sandresky to address the lack of presentation opportunities for unaffiliated composers. Since then, MATA has gained international renown, presenting hundreds of fresh voices from around the world, including composers, sound artists, and performers. True to its slogan, “Tomorrow’s Music Today,” MATA is known as a vital incubator for emerging talent.

This year’s Festival features performances by MATA Mavens, a hand-picked ensemble of top NYC new-music players, including violinists Miranda Cuckson, Conrad Harris, and Leah Asher; pianists Marilyn Nonken and Taka Kigawa; flutist Roberta Michel; singers Sara Paar; cellist Julie Kim; and percussionist Dennis Sullivan.

Also performing are BlackBox Ensemble, a dynamic and versatile collective specializing in multidisciplinary works; Unnameable Strings, an intrepid new string-driven experimental ensemble with an emphasis on improvisation; and The Bang Group, a boundary-bursting tap and pointe dance company that merges contemporary and percussive forms.

As an upbeat to the concert events, MATA presents Experimental Resonance, Wednesday, May 20 (6 pm - midnight), a six-hour experimental “rave” -- an evening-length exploration of the function of music in contemporary culture, curated by clarinetist/DJ Eric Umble at Trans-Pecos, 915 Wyckoff Avenue in Ridgewood, Queens. With a focus on ambient, downtempo, and experimental sounds, the gathering will bring together the nightlife and contemporary classical communities for experience and discussion in one room. Along with Umble, there will be sets by cellist/electronic artist Mizu, violinist/electronic artist Yaz Lancaster, DJ Aka Sol, and DJ/flutist Concrete Husband. The evening will also include a discussion with the performers, joined by composer/scholar Mario Diaz de Leon.

I N T E R V A L : I N B E T W E E N S I L E N C E A N D S T A S I S

This year’s MATA Festival presents fifteen new works by seventeen early-career composers who responded to a Call for Submissions seeking pieces that reflect Morton Feldman’s musical spirit, centering purity of expression, quietude, and mysticism. The submissions were reviewed by a distinguished panel: Leah Asher (violinist/violist at The Rhythm Method, composer and visual artist), Theo Espy (three-time GRAMMY-nominated violinist, concert programmer and chamber music specialist), Lauren Radnofsky (cellist and founding Co-Artistic/Executive Director of Ensemble Signal) and inti figgis-vizueta (composer and educator).

Says Pauline Kim Harris, Executive Director of MATA, “The selected compositions reflect on Feldman’s approaches as points of departure rather than prescription, utilizing natural resonance, subtle gestures, and the tangible presence of sound in space with emphasis on acoustic instruments.

“Emphasizing listening as an act of discovery, we bring forth music that challenges formal conventions, embraces introspection, explores the ephemeral and the tactile, and cultivates an intimate relationship with sound.” Each of the three concert programs represents a different aspect of Feldman’s practice.

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Thursday, May 21 (7 pm) Night One: Positive Void – Evolving Things

The Bang Group / MATA Mavens

The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 W 37th Street, New York, is the keynote of this year’s opening concert, a provocative encounter between instrumental performance and movement. The Bang Group executes Steve Reich’s Clapping Music with tap shoes, and reimagines Feldman's For John Cage – scored for piano and violin – as a tap dance. At the heart of the program are intriguing new solo and duo scores for violin, flute, voice, and electronics by Yifan Guo, Liann J Kang, Anselm McDonnell, Kaleena Miller, Sami Seif, and Zihan Wu, performed by MATA Mavens. While diverse in style, many of their works display a striking engagement with language. Bang choreographer David Parker interprets Pauline Kim Harris’s Sparkle Too with 10 pointe and eight tap shoes, and caps the evening with his witty Schlemiezel, a duo for dancers in Velcro-covered suits.
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Friday, May 22 (7 pm): Night Two: Intuitive Music

MATA Mavens / Unnameable Strings

The DiMenna Center

Like the rugmakers he so admired, Feldman eschewed formal systems, preferring to work intuitively. Strings take center stage in this program of extended-duration works. Unnameable Strings perform an eponymous piece by ensemble members Ana Luisa Diaz de Cossio and Jennifer Gersten, scored for four violins, viola, three cellos, and bass. Zosha Warpeha performs Basalt on the Hardanger d’Amore, a modern Norwegian instrument with five bowed and five sympathetic strings, joined by co-composer Tristan Kasten-Krause on contrabass. Composer/cellist Laura Raquel Cetilia performs her Layers Turn Liquid with fellow cellist Julie Kim, plus Marilyn Nonken and Taka Kigawa on pianos. Nonken and Kigawa join violinist Conrad Harris for the evening’s final piece, Bunita Marcus’s mesmerizing Two Pianos and Violin.
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Saturday, May 23 (7 pm): Night Three: Local Music

BlackBox Ensemble The DiMenna Center

‘Local music’ refers to Feldman’s focused exploration of isolated, quiet, and intimate sound moments – the "local" action of a single note or chord over the overall structure, creating a physical sound-world that emphasizes the tactile, immediate properties of sound. The seven-member BlackBox Ensemble (flute/clarinet/piano/percussion/violin/cello/voice), conducted by Leonard Bopp, plays finely detailed scores by Laila Arafah, Erich Barganier, Kristupas Bubnelis, Gillian Rae Perry, Floriana Provenzano, and Jessica Shand. Like Feldman, they often draw inspiration from literature, philosophy, and visual media. Rounding out the program are two iconic works by Feldman from the 1970s: For Frank O’Hara, and I Met Heine on the Rue Fürstenberg.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

The DiMenna Center for Classical Music, 450 West 37th Street, New York, United States

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