NEMPAC Artist Series
ANNOUNCING NEW ARTIST SERIES LINEUP FOR 2025/2026 SEASON!
NEMPAC is proud to present the second season of our Artist Series. This series creates a platform for artists across Boston to elevate the voices and musical cultures of our city’s diverse peoples. Artists were chosen through a public Request for Proposals process, which introduced us to many talented local professionals. We selected our inaugural season lineup to represent a diverse range of perspectives, genres, and program design. To enhance cultural dialogue, our Artist Series programs will also include interaction with the performers to learn more about their repertoire and artistic experiences.
The purpose of the series is a collaboration between NEMPAC and each artist, fostering meaningful connections between our local communities in Boston and the arts, while promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion, and providing space for dialogue and reflection.
We will be returning to two of our favorite venues for the new Artist Series this season with our first two concerts in 2026 at the stunning Bijou de la Vida Gallery in the North End and capping the series at City Winery Boston next April.
SEASON PASS AND SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITY
This year we are offering a season pass to all three of our Artist Series concerts for $125/person, which includes VIP reserved seating, which you can purchase. Season passes are no longer on sale, but check back next season for a 2027 Season Pass!
We are also offering the opportunity to sponsor an artist or sponsor one of the three concerts. Please reach out to Will Neely at wneely@nempacboston.org or 857 239 9997 if you are interested.
HEY IT’S O.K (OPERA & KUNDIMAN)
Western Opera & Filipino Artistry
LAUREN FLOREK (soprano), CARLO BUNYI (baritone), & MARCELLINE MERRILL (pianist)
DATE: Friday, March 13th 2026 at 7:30 PM | Doors open at 7 PM
VENUE: Bijou de la Vida Gallery
ADDRESS: 390 Commercial Street, Boston, MA 02113 | North End
FLOWER & ASH: A POST-AMERICAN CONCERT
Folk songs from a dystopian future
MIKE DESCOTEAUX (songwriter/piano/vocals), MCCOY PLAISTED (drums/vocals), CASEY MURRAY (cello, guitar/vocals), LILA BLUE (guitar/banjo/vocals) PEARL SCOTT (vocals)
DATE: Thursday, April 16th 2025 @ 7:30 PM | Doors open at 6 PM for Dinner and Drinks
VENUE: City Winery Boston | Haymarket Lounge
ADDRESS: 80 Beverly St, Boston, MA 02114
LEARN ABOUT THE ARTIST SERIES RFP PROCESS
EacStStStarting in our 2024/2025 Season, NEMPAC launched the Artist Series, a concert series inclusive of all genres of music, through an RFP process. The goal of this RFP and performance program is to give the chance for individual artists, groups, and ensembles to curate concerts from their own voices and perspectives. We have welcomed all professional artists to apply to this new concert program. .
Key features of the Artist Series program and application are below:
Open to individual artists, groups, and ensembles
Open to all genres of music
The chance to perform in unique, intimate performance spaces in the North End, Charlestown, and surrounding neighborhoods
A conversation component to create dialogue with our audiences
Potential collaboration with NEMPAC educational team to incorporate an educational component
In our 2024/2025 season we programmed the following concerts:
The Bosquejo en Riesgo’s Quartet and The Costa Rican Sonic Landscape
Persian Songs Old + New
Sink into Me with Pearl Scott
COMMITMENT TO ACCESS
NEMPAC is working towards ensuring all members of our communities are included and have equal access. We pledge to ensure all have access to our facilities and programs.
HISTORY OF THE NEMPAC CONCERT SERIES
The NEMPAC Winter Concert Series (what has been replaced by our current Artist Sries) began in 2015 with a special Italian Heritage Month concert featuring Italian cellist Francesco Mastromatteo and Pianist, Dr. Christina Wright-Ivanova that was hosted at St. Stephen’s Church in the North End. After receiving a strong feedback and interest from the community and Ms. Ivanova’s expertise in classical music, this first concert sprung into a regular music series featuring some of Boston’s most highly prestigious classical musicians. With a goal to eliminate barriers between audience members and the artists, and to make classical music more approachable, the programs were brought to comfortable, intimate venues seating between 30 to 60 guests. These venue locations in Boston have included Bijou de la Vida private art gallery; North Bennet Street School, Steinert Hall on the Steinway Building; Tresca; Lucia Ristorante; La Galleria 33 Ristorante.
LIST OF PREVIOUS CONCERT SERIES PERFORMANCES
Two Homes, One Heart: A Chinese New Year Celebration 2022
This evening provided an immersion into Chinese heritage and classical music with Zhantao Lin, an erhu (Chinese violin) performer, a Boston-based piano trio (Ariel Mo, Yiliang Jiang and Yunwen Chen), and an on-site Calligraphy demonstration with Liz Roessler and North End’s own ‘Lettering by Liz’.
Voices of the Resilient: The Kurganov-Finehouse Duo 2021
‘New Music from New England’ with HUB New Music 2021
Virtual Performance, recorded in Boston’s Athenaeum
Michael Avitabile, flute; Alyssa Wang, violin; Nicholas Brown, clarinet; Jesse Christeson, cello
‘Amore’ Valentine’s Day Concert & Dinner – Lucia’s Restaurant 2020
Standard and New vocal and operatic works with a soprano, mezzo-soprano Heather Gallagher, and Fran Rogers.
Seeking Sanctuary: A Viola and Piano Recital celebrating Black Artistry through Music 2020
At North Bennet Street School, a program devoted to diversity in music showcases works by Hailstork, Florence Price and more, with celebrated artists Ashleigh Gordon and Joy Cline Phinney.
Through the Lens: Jewish Classics, Unknown and Celebrated 2019
With cellist Aron Zelkowicz and mezzo-soprano Lynn Torgove:- performance of important Jewish works by Stutschewsky, Joan Szymko, Gerald Cohen and Julius Chajes.
‘Amore’ Valentine’s Day Concert & Dinner – Lucia’s Restaurant 2019
Standard Operatic works with Jessica Toupin, soprano, Fran Rogers, tenor and Junhan Choi, baritone
Bijou presents the ‘Neave Piano Trio’ 2019
The Longy School of Music’s Faculty Trio-in-Residence performed as guest artists, with a program featuring Debussy, Roussel and Fauré Piano Trios.
‘Boston Composers: Then and Now, Number Two!’ Recital 2018
Following a highly successful Boston Composers Feature concert last season, music includes works by Tom Cipullo, Irving Fine, David Sisco, Leonard Bernstein, Gabriel Kahane and more.
LIST OF PREVIOUS CONCERT SERIES PERFORMANCES
Italian-Spanish Cello & Piano Fundraising Concert 2018
Works including Piazzola’s Grand Tango, Piatti’s Rimembranze del Trovatore di Verdi and Chopin’s passionate Sonata for Piano and Cello with Guest Cellist Francesco Mastromatteo
Cabaret & Jazz-Inspired Evening 2018
Paul Schoenfield’s Trio, Bolcom’s Cabaret Song selections, works by Kenji Bunch, Kurt Weill and more: clarinetist Ryan Yuré, mezzo-soprano Alexandra Dietrich, flutist Dominique Kim, violinist Aija Reke & soprano Kathryn McKellar
‘100 Years After the War’ Recital 2018
Janáçek’s Violin Sonata, Stravinsky L’histoire du soldat, Messiaen selections from Quartour pour la fin du temps and de Falla’s Siete Canciones Populaires: soprano Katrina Holden, violinist Klaudia Szlachta, & Ryan Yuré
‘Boston Composers: Then and Now’ Recital 2017
Bernstein’s I Hate Music!, Horatio Parker’s Suite for Piano Trio, Amy Beach’s Dreaming, Arthur Foote’s Ballade, Vartan Aghababian’s If, Matthewn Aucoin’s The Sleepers, and Heather Gilligan’s Living in Light.
Portrait of a Power Couple Recital 2017
Select Schubert songs & Fantasy for four hands; select Beethoven songs & An die Ferne Geliebte with John Nevergall, tenor and Andrei Baumann, piano
Music, Food & Dance: Steinert Hall at Steinway & Sons 2016
With guest artists Ines Andrade and Edoardo Campenedo, pianists, and Karen Luttik, clarinet – works by Portuguese, Spanish & Italian composers
Love, Loss & Transformation: Steinert Hall at Steinway & Sons 2015
Musical Reflections on Czech and Russian Masters: Smetana’s Trio in g minor, Janacek’s Violin Sonata and Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata with Andrea Segar, violin & Francesco Mastromatteo, cello
Celebration of Martin Luther King Day 2015
Barber’s Cello Sonata, Carter’s Cello Sonata, R. Pearson Thomas’ Race to the Sky, Leslie Adams songs and Jean Berger songs: Kristin Young, soprano, Jessica Nicolet, soprano, and Stephen Marotto, cello
Italian Heritage Month Recital, St. Stephen’s Church 2014
Stravinsky’s Suite Italienne & Prokofiev’s Sonata for cello & piano with Francesco Mastromatteo, cello




