Young Concert Artists Unveils Spring 2025 Highlights In NYC And DC

Young Concert Artists has revealed their Spring 2025 season highlights. Highlights of YCA's spring season include New York City recitals by soprano and pianist Chelsea Guo, bass-baritone Joseph Parrish, violinist Oliver Neubauer and YCA's first guitar duo, Ziggy & Miles, at Kaufman Music Center. Guo, Neubauer and Ziggy & Miles also make their Washington D.C. debuts at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

On Thursday, February 6, 2025 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center, Chelsea Guo, soprano and piano, will make her New York debut in the The Barbara Forester Austin Art Song Recital. Inspired by the friendship and creative partnership between Chopin and the French mezzo-soprano and pianist Pauline Viardot, the program includes works by both artists, along with piano works by Fauré, Ives and Ravel, plus songs by Kurt Weill, Stephen Sondheim and others. Guo reprises the program in her Washington D.C. debut on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

Ziggy & Miles, the guitar duo comprising two brothers from Melbourne, Australia, also make their New York debut through YCA this season in The Sumiis Auspiciis Concert. Their performance is scheduled for Thursday, March 6, 2025 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center. In this program, they highlight works from Latin America and their home country of Australia that brought them together as musicians, inspiring them to put brotherly differences aside. Pieces from composers including Nigel Westlake and Radamés Gnattali will be showcased, alongside the duo's own arrangement of Debussy's Suite bergamasque, and tangos by Astor Piazzolla, featuring YCA flutist Anthony Trionfo. They will reprise the program in their Washington D.C. debut on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater.

On Tuesday, March 25, 2025, bass-baritone Joseph Parrish gives a recital in The Peter Jay Sharp Concert at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center. The program spans multiple genres ranging from German Romantic to American Songbook to Gospel, creating a communal musical space accessible to all audiences. For selected pieces, Parrish will be joined by the Washington Performing Arts Children of the Gospel Choir, led by Artistic Director Michele Fowlin. Parrish will also perform the New York premiere of Psalm, by YCA Composer-in-Residence Alistair Coleman.

On Tuesday, April 22, 2025, violinist Oliver Neubauer will make his Washington D.C. debut with a performance in The Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert at the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater. In this program highlighting pieces from Schubert, Bartók, Zwilich and Strauss, each selection contemplates both the heights and depths of human experience, culminating in a call to reach for the stars and a yearning for something beyond our world. Neubauer reprises the program in his New York debut in The Rhoda Walker Teagle Concert on Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center.

Additional YCA artists are also featured this spring in the Morgan Library Series, presented in partnership with the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan. The popular noontime recital series features exciting chamber music pieces performed by YCA artists in collaboration with YCA alumni. The series streams live on the YCA and Morgan Library Facebook pages, the YCA YouTube channel and The Violin Channel. On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, the Morgan Library Series spotlights Chaeyoung Park, piano, in a program featuring works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Ana Sokolovic and Cesar Franck. On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, the library and museum presents YCA on Tour with artists including Risa Hokamura, violin; Chaeyoung Park, piano; Alexander Cox, cello; Anthony Trionfo, flute; and Hsin-Yun Huang, viola, in a wide-ranging program featuring composers including Mozart, Bloch and Ravel.

The final recital of the series features Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano, on Thursday, April 24, 2025 in a program including Dominick Argento's work From the Diary of Virginia Woolf and Mahler's Rückert-Lieder.

On Monday, May 12, 2025, the YCA Season Finale concert will take place in Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall featuring 14 artists including a mix of illustrious YCA alumni and current YCA artists. Artists to be showcased in the finale include cellists James Baik and Benett Tsai, clarinetist Alex Fiterstein, violists Hsin-Yun Huang and Nokuthula Ngwenyama, flutist Marya Martin, baritone Randall Scarlata and more, performing works by Mendelssohn, Prokofiev, Brahms and Zhou Tian.

Young Concert Artists Spring 2025 Calendar

Thursday, February 6, 2025 at 7:30pm

NY Debut: The Barbara Forester Austin Art Song Recital: Chelsea Guo, soprano & piano
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | New York, NY
Link: yca.org/event/guo-ny/

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at 7:30pm

Washington Debut: Chelsea Guo, soprano & piano
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater | Washington D.C.
Generously sponsored by Miriam Benbassat, and dedicated to her memory
Link: yca.org/event/guo-dc/

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 at 12:00pm

Morgan Library Series: Chaeyoung Park, piano
Gilder Lehrman Hall, The Morgan Library & Museum | New York, NY
Generously sponsored by Paul J. Sekhri and Mark Gude
Link: yca.org/event/encore-park/

Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 7:30pm

NY Debut: The Summis Auspiciis Concert: Ziggy & Miles, guitar duo
Special Guest: Anthony Trionfo, flute
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | New York, NY
Link: yca.org/event/zandm-ny/

Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 7:30pm

DC Debut: Ziggy & Miles, guitar duo
Special Guest: Anthony Trionfo, flute
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater | Washington D.C.
Generously sponsored by Jessine Monaghan
Link: yca.org/event/zandm-dc/

Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at 7:30pm

NY Recital: The Peter Jay Sharp Concert: Joseph Parrish, bass-baritone
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | New York, NY
Link: yca.org/event/parrish-ny/

Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 12:00pm

Morgan Library Series: YCA on Tour: Risa Hokamura, violin; Chaeyoung Park, piano; Alexander Cox, cello; Anthony Trionfo, flute; Hsin-Yun Huang, viola
Gilder Lehrman Hall, The Morgan Library & Museum | New York, NY
Generously sponsored by Paul J. Sekhri and Mark Gude
Link: yca.org/event/encore-ycaot/

Tuesday, April 22, 2025 at 7:30pm

DC Debut: The Alexander Kasza-Kasser Concert: Oliver Neubauer, violin
Kennedy Center Terrace Theater | Washington D.C.
Link: yca.org/event/neubauer-dc/

Thursday, April 24, 2025 at 12:00pm

Morgan Library Series: Erin Wagner, mezzo-soprano
Gilder Lehrman Hall, The Morgan Library & Museum | New York, NY
Generously sponsored by Paul J. Sekhri and Mark Gude
Link: yca.org/event/encore-wagner/

Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at 7:30pm

NY Debut: The Rhoda Walker Teagle Concert: Oliver Neubauer, violin
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center | New York, NY
Link: yca.org/event/neubauer-ny/

Monday, May 12, 2025 at 7:30pm