The 2025-26 Kaufman Music Center Artists-in-Residence are world-renowned pianist, educator and critically-acclaimed author Jonathan Biss, Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer, and Grammy Award-winning composer, violinist and educator Jessie Montgomery.
Kaufman Music Center’s Artists-in-Residence are pioneering composers and performers deeply engaged with our unique musical ecosystem and creating transformative experiences for students and audiences. These residencies go beyond performance—through masterclasses, rehearsals, collaborative projects and community events, students learn alongside and are mentored by today’s most visionary artists. Whether on stage at Merkin Hall, in the classroom, or out in the community, these artists create moments of musical artistry that invite students and audiences to be active participants in innovation—broadening their perspective and creating the future of music.
Praised as “a superb pianist” (The Boston Globe) with “impeccable taste and a formidable technique” (The New Yorker), Jonathan Biss is a world-renowned educator and critically-acclaimed author, and has appeared internationally as a soloist with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, the Boston, Chicago and San Francisco Symphonies, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras as well as the London Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Philharmonia, and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, among many other ensembles. Biss is also Co-Artistic Director alongside Mitsuko Uchida at the Marlboro Music Festival.
Dec 10 | Biss gives a performance lecture on Beethoven sonatas.
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May 12 | Biss performs music by Mendelssohn, Janáček, Kurtág, R. Schumann and Amy Beth Kirsten.
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May 13 | Biss hosts performances with virtuosic young pianists from Kaufman Music Center.
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The Grammy Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto and named for the “clear-singing” rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling over one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the world. Chanticleer’s repertoire is rooted in the Renaissance, and has continued to expand to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz and popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. Chanticleer is the recipient of the Dale Warland/Chorus America Commissioning Award and the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming.
Oct 12 | Sing together with Chanticleer in Merkin Hall at an inclusive workshop, performance and reception.
April 20 | Chanticleer performs with rising star vocalists from Kaufman Music Center.
April 21 | Chanticleer traces the American choral tradition, from gospel to bluegrass, jazz and pop.
Jessie Montgomery is a Grammy Award-winning composer, violinist and educator whose work interweaves classical music with elements of vernacular music, improvisation, poetry and social consciousness. Her profound works have been described as “turbulent, wildly colorful, and exploding with life” (The Washington Post), and are performed regularly by leading orchestras, ensembles and soloists around the world. A founding member of PUBLIQuartet and former member of the Catalyst Quartet, Montgomery is a frequent collaborator with performing musicians, composers, choreographers, playwrights, poets and visual artists alike. Named Performance Today’s 2025 Classical Woman of the Year, she has been recognized with many prestigious awards and fellowships, including the Civitella Ranieri Fellowship, the Sphinx Medal of Excellence and Sphinx Virtuosi Composer-in-Residence, the Leonard Bernstein Award from the ASCAP Foundation, and Musical America’s 2023 Composer of the Year. She serves on the Composition and Music Technology faculty at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music.
April 29 | Montgomery performs with young musicians from Kaufman Music Center.
May 1 | Montgomery performs an eclectic program with her ensemble The Everything Band.
Chanticleer’s Artist Residency is generously underwritten by The Barbara Bell Cumming Charitable Trust.
Jessie Montgomery’s Artist Residency is generously underwritten by The Roz Lasker Artist Mentorship Fund.
