Seraph Brass Quintet
On September 30th the Tryon Concert Association will open its 2025/26 season with a concert by Seraph Brass. Concertgoers will hear music by composer Reena Esmail as well as Jeff Scott, Grieg, Verdi, Mozart, Borodin, Liszt, and Gershwin. Esmail and Scott are contemporary composers who have written original work for brass; the others are all composers whose work is reguarly arranged by brass ensembles (especially quintets). Seraph Brass, a collective of ten musicians, form chamber ensembles and perform brass ensemble music from among their ranks. Five musicians will appear as a quintet at the Tryon concert. The collective has previously been awarded the American Prize in Chamber Music. The group highlights the excellence of women brass musicians in a world that often remains ready to ignore their work. In addition to being high-caliber performers, Seraph members are also dedicated educators, teaching at universities and performing outreach for secondary schools. They have appeared with such orchestras as the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Libby Larsen, composer
Libby Larsen has been announced as the composer-in-residence for the 2026 LunART festival. A selection of her instrumental works will appear throughout the festival, and she will conduct the Composers Hub—the festival’s professional development program geared toward emerging composers. Through masterclasses, private lessons, workshops, and lectures Larsen will mentor participants as they develop their skills. In addition to the practicalities of composing, they will work on cultivating relationships with performers and building sustainable collaborative relationships. Larsen is considered one of America’s most prolific and most performed living composers. Her musical catalogue contains over 500 works, and they span nearly every genre. She can mentor from personal experience composers writing intimate vocal and chamber music, scores for large orchestra with or without choir, and staged operas. Critics find her music dynamic, inspired, contemporary, and deeply American in spirit.
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra will commemorate its 90th season with the “9 for 90 initiative”—a series of nine commissions by contemporary composers celebrating the orchestra. The series will feature new pieces by four women composers: Jennifer Higdon, Sky Macklay, Gala Flagello, and Nicky Sohn. 9 for 90 began with the season opening concerts on September 18 & 19 with Jennifer Higdon’s XC Blast.
Flutes and Bassoons, Women’s Orchestra of Arizona
The Women’s Orchestra of Arizona has announced its 9th season (2025/26). Its opening concert on October 12 will feature the Suffolk Suite by Doreen Mary Carwithen alongside other cinematic pieces, conducted by founder and artistic director Livia Gho and associate conductor Cindy H. Petty. The orchestra is pleased to announce that it has more female musicians in its ranks than ever in its fourth year as a beyond-strings orchestra; the 2022/23 season was the group’s first with added brass, woodwinds, and timpani, and it has been a rousing success. The full 2025/26 concert cycle can be viewed on their website.
Below is a performance of the Suffolk Suite that will be featured on WOA’s opening program, performed by the Learig Orchestra in 2023 as part of their summer concert series at St Machar’s Cathedral in Aberdeen, Scotland. The Learig Orchestra is one of the most popular amateur orchestras in NE Scotland, and part of their mission is to create opportunities for lifelong music-making.
The Women Composers Festival of Hartford (WCFH) is now accepting submissions of works for voice and clarinet duo (new or existing) for their 2026 festival. Submissions are due on September 26th, 2025. The festival will take place on March 27–28th at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, CT. The festival’s longstanding mission is to feature the work of musicians who identify as women, including transgender and gender-fluid individuals. The 2026 WCFH is open to presentations from composers, performers, and speakers who are willing to support and promote gender and other intersecting identities in their work. Selected works will be performed by the 2026 Ensemble-in-Residence, the Whistling Hens.
Mannes Opera (The New School, New York) has announced its 2025/26 season, which will be led by women directors and composers. The season will include the U.S. premiere of Erich Korngold’s The Silent Serenade, Kaija Saariaho’s oratorio (in a fully staged chamber version) La Passion de Simone, an Opera in Concert program with Unsuk Chin’s Puzzles and Games, and revivals and partnerships with Opera Saratoga and Wolf Trap Opera. Managing Artistic Director Emma Griffin has described the upcoming season as, “a real arrival for Mannes Opera. At a time when many companies are retreating from programming women’s work, we are presenting a season with a majority of women composers, conductors, and directors. All of these pieces are musically gripping and expansive, delivering the sonic thrill that makes opera such a compelling art form.” In addition to programming operas by women, Mannes faculty will be conducting works chosen by women directors (Griffin, Mikhaela Mahony) and workshopping new operas (Kamala Sankaram with Kathleen & Michael Kelly).
Below is a short introduction to Saariaho’s oratorio by Julia Bullock, written and recorded for the Ojai Music Festival in May 2020.
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