The centerpiece is a newly commissioned concerto for cello, strings, and percussion by the Spanish-born Casarrubios entitled The Book of Signatures. Tommy Mesa will perform as soloist alongside the Festival Fellows and percussionist Garret Arney. Expanding this rich tapestry of immigrant voices, Artistic Director Peter Askim leads the orchestra through a sweeping lineup of premieres: a newly commissioned work by Adeliia Faizullina (Tatar from Uzbekistan), fresh string orchestra arrangements of major pieces by Wang Lu (China) and Niloufar Nourbakhsh (Iran), a U.S. premiere by Aleksandra Vrebalov (Serbia), and a stirring, timely work by Clarice Assad (Brazil).

Program:

Aleksandra Vrebalov: Ur Song (US Premiere, String Orchestra Version)
Adellia Faizullina: Six, Before She Knew and After (World Premiere)
Wang Lu: from Tangrams (World Premiere, String Orchestra Version)
Clarice Assad: from Impressions
        Slow Waltz
        Perpetual Motion
Niloufar Nourbakhsh: For Love Seemed Easy at First (World Premiere, String Orchestra Version)
Andrea Casarrubios: The Book of Signatures (World Premiere)

        Featuring Tommy Mesa

ABOUT THE NEXT FESTIVAL OF EMERGING ARTISTS

Founded in 2013 by composer and conductor Peter Askim, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is committed to advancing contemporary music and cross-disciplinary artistic creation through performance, creation, audience engagement, and the nurturing of emerging artists with a passion for 21st-century artistic creation and collaboration. Initially a one-week intensive, The Next Festival quickly expanded into a two-week festival consisting of performances, individual lessons, coaching, masterclasses, multidisciplinary collaborations, and professional recording sessions. With one week in New York’s Hudson Valley and a second in New York City, The Next Festival brings together early-career string players, composers, dancers, and choreographers from around the country and around the world.Since its inception, The Next Festival of Emerging Artists has provided more than 250 young artists with opportunities to learn, collaborate, and launch their careers. Festival Fellows work closely with a selection of renowned artists and mentors, including GRAMMY, Pulitzer, and MacArthur winners. Previous seasons have featured some of the most prominent figures in new music today: including guest artists Yvette Young, Matt Haimovitz, Jennifer Koh, Nadia Sirota, Richard Thompson, Pamela Z, Curtis Stewart, Seth Parker Woods, and the string quartet ETHEL; as well as choreographers Sidra Bell, Christopher D’Amboise, and S. Ama Wray. The Festival has appeared at venues such as National Sawdust, Roulette, (le) poisson rouge, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and PS21: Center for Contemporary Performance, as well as on WQXR.

This is a seated performance. If you require accessibility accommodations, please email boxoffice@nationalsawdust.org.

ABOUT ALEKSANDRA VREBALOV

Aleksandra Vrebalov, recipient of the 2024 Grawemeyer Music Award, is a composer whose work brings different musical worlds into close, living contact. Her more than one hundred works, spanning concert music, opera, dance, and film, explore themes of identity and human connection.

Her work draws on influences from regions where she has lived and worked, including the Balkans, the United States, China, and the Middle East. This synthesis is experiential, grounded in long-term creative processes and collaborations. Among these, her decades-long work with the Kronos Quartet stands as a defining relationship, resulting in twenty works that have expanded the expressive possibilities of the string quartet.

Vrebalov’s music has been commissioned and performed by institutions including Carnegie Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Gulbenkian Foundation, the English National Ballet, Glimmerglass Opera, Cleveland Opera, and The Forbidden City Orchestra in Beijing. Her work has been described as “refreshingly unneurotic” (The New York Times), “a strange and sober beauty” (The Times, UK), and “chilling and beautifully structured” (The Guardian).

Working across a wide range of cultural contexts, Vrebalov writes for both Western and non-Western instruments. Her scores, in both standard and open notation, often integrate archival recordings and the sounds of ethnic instruments into contemporary forms. Vrebalov is a member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts and a recipient of awards recognizing her contribution to national culture. Invited by composer Sahba Aminikia, she has also taken part in making music with refugee youth at the Flying Carpet Festival on the Turkish–Syrian border.

There are more than twenty recordings of Vrebalov’s music released internationally, including on Nonesuch, Cantaloupe, Albany Records, and New Amsterdam. Her scores are distributed by Composers Edition in London.

‍

ABOUT ADELLIA FAIZULLINA

Adeliia (Adele) Faizullina (b.1988) is an Uzbekistan-born Tatar composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and quray player. As a composer, she explores cutting-edge vocal colors and paints delicate and vibrant atmospheres inspired by the music and poetry of Tatar folklore. The Washington Post has praised her compositions as "vast and varied, encompassing memory and imagination." Her recent commissions include works for Longleash Ensemble, Jennifer Koh, the Tesla Quartet, Johnny Gandelsman, and the Metropolis Ensemble. Her works have also been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Albany Symphony, Kronos Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, the Del Sol Quartet, Brianna Matzke, Ashley Bathgate, Stephanie Lamprea, and Duo Cortona. Adeliia was one of seven composers to be selected for the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute in 2022. She was a guest artist at Play On Philly in 2021, and is a member of Composing Earth 2022-2023, by the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Since 2021, Adeliia has worked alongside Joseph Butch Rovan (faculty of Music and Multimedia Composition at Brown University) to develop AMI: Asymmetrical Media Interface, a software allowing visually impaired musicians and composers to create interactive electronic music.

Adeliia received her BM in Voice in Kazan, Russia, and BM in Music Composition at Gnessins Russian Academy of Music. She holds an MM in Music Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, and is currently pursuing her PhD in Music & Multimedi Composition at Brown University.

Adeliia currently resides in Denver, Colorado, where she is working on her PhD dissertation for Brown University. She enjoys taking walks, being in nature, and also happens to be blind.

‍

ABOUT WANG LU

Wang Lu writes music that reflects urban environmental sounds, linguistic intonation and contours, traditional Chinese music, and freely improvised practices. She is an Associate Professor of Music at Brown University. Her works have been performed internationally, by ensembles including the Ensemble Modern, the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Boston Lyric Opera among others. She received the Berlin Prize in Music Composition from the American Academy in Berlin, Wladimir and Rhoda Lakond Award in Music from American Academy of Arts and Letters, Koussevitzky Award from the Library of Congress, Fromm Commission from Harvard University and was a 2014 Guggenheim Fellow. Wang Lu’s portrait albums Urban Inventory (2018), and An Atlas of Time (2020) were released to critical acclaim.

‍

ABOUT CLARICE ASSAD

Grammy Award–nominated Brazilian-American composer, pianist, and vocalist Clarice Assad is one of the most widely performed and commissioned voices in contemporary music today. Winner of the 2026 Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the 2025 Meier Achievement Award, she has created more than 130 works for institutions including Carnegie Hall, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the LA Philharmonic. Her music has been recorded by Yo-Yo Ma, Dame Evelyn Glennie, and the Takács Quartet—whose world premiere of her string quartet NEXUS at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall was celebrated by the New York Classical Review and featured in The Strad under the headline “Let’s Clarice It Up.” Her album Archetypes—recorded with her father, guitarist Sérgio Assad, and Third Coast Percussion—earned two Grammy nominations in 2022. As a performer, she has appeared at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, and Jazz at Lincoln Center, sharing stages with Bobby McFerrin and Paquito D’Rivera. Currently Composer-in-Residence with the Allentown Symphony and the Albany Symphony, Assad is also the creator of VOXploration, an acclaimed music education program presented worldwide. She is based in Chicago.

‍

ABOUT NILOUFAR NOURBAKHSH

Described as “darkly lyrical” by the New York Times and “séduisante” by Le Monde, Iranian-American composer Niloufar Nourbakhsh is an awardee of 2023 Chamber Music America Commissioning Grant, a winner of 2022 Beth Morrison Projects Next Generation competition, and a 2019 recipient of Opera America Discovery Grant and National Sawdust’s Hildegard Commission Award. Her orchestral work Knell was performed at the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.

Nourbakhsh’s music has been commissioned and performed by Kronos Quartet, L’Orchestre de Paris, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra,  Nashville Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic musicians, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Klangforum Wien, Library of Congress, National Sawdust, International Contemporary Ensemble, Loadbang Ensemble, I-Park Foundation, Camerata Pacifica, Shriver Hall Series, Center for Contemporary Opera, New Music USA, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, PUBLIQuartet, Forward Music Project, Calidore String Quartet, Cassatt String Quartet, Akropolis Reed Quintet, and Ensemble Connect at numerous festivals and venues including BBC Proms, Ojai Festival, Wiener Festwochen, Mostly Mozart Festival, Carnegie Hall, Washington Kennedy Center, Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music, and many more. A founding member and co-director of Iranian Female Composers Association, Nilou is a strong advocate of music education and equal opportunities. She currently teaches theory and composition at Longy School of Music of Bard College and Berklee College of Music. Nilou also regularly performs with her ensemble, Decipher.

Nilou is a music graduate and a Global Citizen Scholarship recipient of Goucher College as well as a Mahoney and Caplan Scholar from University of Oxford. Among her teachers are Lisa Weiss, Kendall Kennison, Laura Kaminsky, Daniel Weymouth, Matthew Barnson, Margaret Schedel and Daria Semegen. She received a Ph.D. in music composition from Stony Brook University under the supervision of Sheila Silver.

‍

ABOUT DR. TOMMY MESA

Cuban-American cellist Dr. Tommy Mesa has established himself as one of the most charismatic, innovative, and engaging performers of his generation. The recipient of the Avery Fisher Artist Program’s 2025 Avery Fisher Career Grant and The Sphinx Organization’s 2023 Medal of Excellence, its highest honor, Mesa has appeared as a soloist at the Supreme Court of the United States on four occasions and with major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, The Cleveland Orchestra, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, among many others. Mesa gave the world premiere of Jessie Montgomery’s cello concerto Divided in 2022 and was the exclusive soloist for the work for three seasons, performing at major halls across the United States and Brazil, including Miami’s New World Center, Nashville’s Schermerhorn Center, and Carnegie Hall. His orchestral recording debut of the work was released in July 2023 on Deutsche Grammophon. In the fall of 2025, Mesa also joined the cello faculty of the esteemed Manhattan School of Music.

Orchestral and ensemble highlights of the 2025-2026 season include performances with the Greenville Symphony, Hartford Symphony, and San Antonio Philharmonic, giving the New York premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s Canticle of the Sun with Voices of Ascension, and renewed collaborations with the multiple GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble, The Crossing Choir. In the recital sphere, Mesa will perform with pianists Olga Kern, Michelle Cann, and Ilya Yakushev, including performance debuts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, the Bender JCC of Greater Washington, the Cleveland Institute of Music, and New Orleans Friends of Music, among others.

In recent seasons, Mesa served as Artist-in-Residence with the Tucson Symphony and debuted with orchestras including the Calgary Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and the Ann Arbor, Columbus, Delaware, Greenwich, Quad City, and Rogue Valley Symphony Orchestras. Last season, he also gave debuts at leading series, including the University of Vermont’s Lane Series, the Phillips Collection, Key West Impromptu Classical Concerts, Chamber Music Pittsburgh, Linton Chamber Music in Cincinnati, and The Schubert Club in St. Paul. Other past performance features include recitals at The Academy of Arts and Letters, Bay Chamber Concerts, California Center for the Arts, Columbia University, Flagler Museum, The Heifetz Institute, International Beethoven Project, Kaufman Music Center, Meadowmount School of Music, University of Miami’s Signature Series, Newport Classical, Perlman Music Program Alumni Recital Series, Strad for Lunch Series, Virginia Arts Festival, and major universities across the United States.

Mesa recently celebrated several releases, including a recording of tango works for cello and bandoneon with performer-composer JP Jofre and an album of world-premiere recordings by Black and Latinx composers with pianist Michelle Cann, which was featured in an exclusive showcase on NYC’s classical station WQXR. Upcoming albums include collaborations with the iconic pianist Olga Kern and The Crossing Choir.

Mesa’s first solo album, Division of Memory on the PARMA Recordings label, received rave reviews, such as in PianoMania, “Do not hold your breath for Yo-Yo Ma to record this repertoire, for the just-as-excellent Mesa has the field entirely to himself.” Mesa was featured on the GRAMMY-nominated album, Bonhoeffer, with the multiple GRAMMY-winning group, The Crossing. He has appeared with The Crossing as soloist at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, Longwood Gardens, The Winter Garden, and the Theological Seminary in NYC. Mesa and The Crossing also collaborated on the U.S. premiere of Astralis for choir and solo cello by renowned composer Wolfgang Rihm, and have more collaborations and premieres scheduled for future seasons.

As an ensemble musician, Mesa has appeared on nationwide tours with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and as principal cellist of the Sphinx Virtuosi. He also collaborates with Jupiter Chamber Players and has toured with Itzhak Perlman both nationally and internationally.

He has given masterclasses at institutions such as U.C. Berkeley, Boston Conservatory, the Colburn School, DePaul University, Meadowmount School of Music, University of Miami, University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Northwestern University, and Walnut Hill School. Previously, he held faculty positions at SUNY Purchase, Sphinx Performance Academy, The Heifetz Institute’s PEG Program, Music Mountain Festival and School, Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, Montecito International Music Festival, St. Petersburg International Music Academy, and The Mozart Academy at John Jay College in New York City.

Mesa’s global career launched after becoming the First Prize winner in the 2016 Sphinx Competition and a winner of the 2017 Astral Artists National Auditions. He received his BM from The Juilliard School, MM from Northwestern University, and his DMA from the Manhattan School of Music. His principal teachers were Timothy Eddy, Julia Lichten, Hans Jorgen Jensen, Mark Churchill, Ross Harbaugh, and Wells Cunningham. Mesa performs on a Nicolò Gagliano cello made in 1767 and a bow by Andre Richaume, both generously loaned to him by Canimex Inc. in Drummondville, Canada. Learn more at www.tommymesa.com.

‍

‍ABOUT ANDREA CASARRUBIOS

Praised by The New York Times for performances that "traversed the palette of emotions" with "gorgeous tone and an edge-of-seat intensity," GRAMMY® Award-nominated Spanish-American cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios has been commissioned by world-class orchestras, ensembles, and soloists and appeared as a featured soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The title work from her album SEVEN, described as "an intense and elegiac tribute to the essential workers during the pandemic" (The New York Times), was nominated for a 2025 GRAMMY® Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.

First Prize winner of numerous international competitions and awards, Casarrubios has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Madrid’s National Auditorium, and the Ravinia and Verbier Festivals. Recent engagements included the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s world premiere of Casarrubios’ large-scale concerto for cello and orchestra, MIRAGE, led by conductor Christopher James Lees and featuring the composer as cello soloist, and concerts at the Brussels Cello Festival, Festival Internacional de Violoncello León in Mexico, and the George Enescu Festival in Romania. From 2023 through 2025, Casarrubios served as resident composer for both CreArtBox in NYC and Festival ADAR in Spain.

Her compositions have been programmed by organizations including Carnegie Hall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, National Philharmonic, and the Sphinx Organization, and have been broadcast on NPR as well as national radio stations in Argentina, Brazil, France, Sweden, Australia, and Spain.

Commissioned by cellist Thomas Mesa, Casarrubios’ work SEVEN received its Carnegie Hall premiere in 2021, and has been performed in more than 36 countries since. The piece was nominated for a GRAMMY® Award following its release on the 2024 album of the same name (Odradek Records), which featured Casarrubios as cellist and composer in seven of her most recent works, including collaborations with Manhattan Chamber Players and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Casarrubios was born in a small Spanish mountain village, where she began piano studies at age two and cello at age four. She moved to the U.S. when she was 18 to pursue a Bachelor of Music degree from Johns Hopkins University, later receiving her Master of Music degree from the University of Southern California and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the City University of New York. Her teachers have included Maria de Macedo, Amit Peled, Marcy Rosen, and Ralph Kirshbaum. As part of her Doctoral degree, Casarrubios also studied composition with John Corigliano. Often incorporating her own compositions into her recital programs, Casarrubios began accepting commissions and writing for other musicians when she was 24.

A dedicated mentor, Casarrubios has taught masterclasses in Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Spain, and China, and at numerous festivals and institutions including The Juilliard School, University of Colorado Boulder, University of North Carolina, Missouri State University, and the City University of New York.

Learn more at www.andreacasarrubios.com.