New Music Festival

Person playing the clarinet

Boston Conservatory at Berklee's annual New Music Festival presents a series of concerts highlighting contemporary classical music by world-class compositional voices of the 20th and 21st centuries. Learn more about the 2024–2025 New Music Festival and browse individual events below. 

Mischa Salkind-Pearl, Artistic Director, New Music Festival

Upcoming Events

Black and white image of a man looking upwards while his hands are on a Sony synth board with wires.
New Music Festival: Music of Alvin Lucier
Studio 106
132 Ipswich Street (Richard Ortner Studio Building), Floor 1—Studio 106
Boston
MA
02115
United States
(View Map)

Boston Conservatory’s New Music Festival presents a concert celebrating the pioneering American experimentalist Alvin Lucier, featuring performances by Boston Conservatory faculty and others.

Admission
FREE
Marti Epstein smiling in front of a book shelf with her hand resting underneath her chin.
New Music Festival—Marti Epstein, Composer, Featuring Jack Yarbrough, Piano
Seully Hall
8 Fenway, Floor 4
Boston
MA
02215
United States
(View Map)

Boston Conservatory faculty member Marti Epstein presents her new piece composed for and performed by pianist Jack Yarbrough (MM '21, PSC '22), an alum of the Conservatory’s Contemporary Classical Music Performance program.

Admission
FREE
a photo of a pencil over sheet music
New Music Festival—Composer Recital Series
Studio 106
132 Ipswich Street (Richard Ortner Studio Building), Floor 1—Studio 106
Boston
MA
02115
United States
(View Map)

Boston Conservatory undergraduate and graduate composition students present a concert featuring new works.

Admission
FREE
two musicians stand with their instruments
New Music Festival: andPlay Plays Victoria Cheah and Others
Seully Hall
8 Fenway, Floor 4
Boston
MA
02215
United States
(View Map)

Guest artists andPlay (featuring Maya Bennardo, violin, and Hannah Levinson, viola) present a concert of exciting contemporary music for their duo, including a major work by faculty member Victoria Cheah.

Admission
FREE
Exterior of the 160 Massachusetts Avenue building
New Music Festival: andPlay Performs Works by Student Composers
Studio 106
132 Ipswich Street (Richard Ortner Studio Building), Floor 1—Studio 106
Boston
MA
02115
United States
(View Map)

Guest artists andPlay present a concert of new music by student composers, as part of the 2025 New Music Festival.

Admission
FREE

Past Events

contraBAND image
New Music Festival: contraBAND—Lei Liang Portrait Concert
Boston Conservatory Theater
31 Hemenway Street, Floor 2
Boston
MA
02115
United States
(View Map)

The contemporary music ensemble contraBAND presents a portrait concert of composer in residence Lei Liang’s chamber music, including a world premiere of “Inaudible Ocean.”

Blue spotlights on stage
New Music Festival: Voir Dire
Boston Conservatory Theater
31 Hemenway Street, Floor 2
Boston
MA
02115
United States
(View Map)

Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents a fully staged production of Matthew Peterson and Jason Zencka’s Voir Dire, a true-crime opera with its finger on the pulse of 21st-century America.

Duo members staring with a straight face with their silhoutte in the background
New Music Festival: Guest Artist—RE: Duo
Studio T401 (Boston Conservatory at Berklee)
31 Hemenway Street
Boston
MA
02215
United States
(View Map)

RE: Duo features two alumni of Boston Conservatory’s contemporary classical music program: Wilson Poffenberger on saxophones and Elsie Bae Han on viola. Join them for a late-night concert of cutting-edge music.

Blue spotlights on stage
New Music Festival: Voir Dire
Boston Conservatory Theater
31 Hemenway Street, Floor 2
Boston
MA
02115
United States
(View Map)

Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents a fully staged production of Matthew Peterson and Jason Zencka’s Voir Dire, a true-crime opera with its finger on the pulse of 21st-century America.

Departure Duo
New Music Festival: Guest Artist—Departure Duo
Studio T401 (Boston Conservatory at Berklee)
31 Hemenway Street
Boston
MA
02215
United States
(View Map)

Departure Duo (Nina Guo, soprano, and Eddie Kass, double bass) return for the second installment of their residency with the Composition, Contemporary Classical Music, and Core Studies Department, performing a vibrant concert of world premieres written for them by composition majors.