Metropolis Ensemble

Thank you @bandcamp for including Canto Ostinato on their Essential Releases for this week. Working with Erik Hall, Sandbox Percussion, and Brooklyn Botanic Garden on this project has been incredible. Canto Ostinato is out now on Western Vinyl. Read the article at the link in our bio.

Tonight at 7pm (doors at 6:30). @l.esley and @jamesbrandonlewis join me for some good ol’ improvising and to premiere my newest piece “Breath-songs and Lullabies”! Join us at 1 Rivington Street. Thanks to @metropolisensemble for making this possible.

Metropolis Ensemble and Sandbox Percussion collaborated with Erik Hall to breathe new life into Simeon ten Holt’s minimalist masterpiece, Canto Ostinato. In Erik’s words, “this performance recasts the piece anew in a towering framework of mallet percussion, woodwinds, strings, and piano. It is our truest attempt at conveying Canto’s beauty and magnitude in all its kaleidoscopic harmony, dynamism, tension, and release. I stand once again in awe of Simeon ten Holt’s monumental creation; to be a thread in its sonic fabric is one of the great honors of my musical life.” It is an honor to share this music with you. Stream the album at the link in our bio. Produced by Andrew Cyr and Erik Hall Engineered by @miketierneymusic at @pinchrecording , @fieldnotes_nyc , and The Centennial Memorial Temple of the Salvation Army, New York, NY. 2025 Mixed by Erik Hall and Mike Tierney Mastered by @xoxowar Warren Defever Artwork and layout by @aaronlowell

• April 8 @ 7:30pm in Tishman Auditorium with @thenewschool • April 10 @ 8pm at 415 Westlake in Seattle, WA with @emeraldcitymusic • April 11 at 7:30pm at Kenneth J. Minnaert Center for the Arts with @emeraldcitymusic Join us in April for Simeon ten Holt’s evening-length masterpiece, Canto Ostinato in New York City, Seattle and Olympia, WA.

👁️ Further celebrating the recent release of my new orchestral album FORWARD INTO LIGHT with this clip from Deborah Johnson’s film for our multimedia work ‘Eye of Mnemosyne,’ which explores memory, innovation, and culture as refracted through the lens of photography. VIII. Psyche (Epilogue): “Lens of Nostalgia” The narrative concludes by returning to the lens of Mnemosyne and the gift of memory. The Kodak Girls, as muses of the personal and collective past, return to their source, longing for a still more eternal way to preserve memory and history. Special shout to the amazing Chris Coletti (@trumpeterchris ) on trumpet! Visual Art Credit: @candystations in collaboration with @louiselessel FORWARD INTO LIGHT, featuring Metropolis Ensemble and conducted by Andrew Cyr, produced by Grammy-winning engineer Silas Brown, is out now on @nonesuchrecords Nonesuch and @newamrecords . Link in bio for more info! ✨

Last night, we celebrated the release of Forward Into Light, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s fifth full-length LP, at Tarisio — the world’s leading auction house for fine and historic string instruments. The evening featured a powerful performance of “Drink the Wild Ayre” by members of Metropolis Ensemble (Henry Wang, Jeffrey Myers, Jeremy Berry, and Estelle Choi) and an in-depth conversation with artistic director/conductor Andrew Cyr, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and producer Silas Brown, followed by the warmth of friends old and new tasting spectacular wine from MIRO Cellars. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this evening: • @tarisio • @mirocellars • @nonesuchrecords • @newamrecords • Metropolis artists, supporters, and friends You made it incredibly special, and we are grateful to have shared it with you.

RELEASE DAY! 🎊✨🎈 My broken-CD player and I are so excited to share that FORWARD INTO LIGHT—my 5th full-length LP, a collection of orchestral works featuring Metropolis Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Cyr, and produced by Silas Brown—is out today! 🎉 Some of my most vivid memories of feeling awake and alive—whether walking city streets as an adult or lying in the dark on the floor of my childhood bedroom—have been inspired by listening to orchestral music recordings on headphones. In some ways, I’ve loved listening this way even more than live, because it feels private and personal—like a dream you can revisit in any way, at any time. Since childhood, I’ve longed to be on the other side of that alchemical exchange, creating sonic journeys that a listener can personalize in even the most mundane settings. I chose to create an album of these four works because they share themes of perseverance, alliance, and evolution through dark and light—concepts that have been at the forefront of my mind in recent years. Deepest thanks to Andrew, Silas, Mike Tierney, the engineers, Henry Wang, Noěl Wan, and the brilliant musicians of Metropolis Ensemble for lending the very best of their talents to this album. And much gratitude to everyone at @nonesuchrecords and @newamrecords ! ⚡️ ALSO! We’re having a launch party this Tuesday, March 3, at Tarisio Violins (NYC). Short performance by the Calidore String Quartet/Metropolis Ensemble followed by a Sonoma Valley boutique wine tasting and conversation with Sarah, Andrew, and Silas Brown about the making of the album. SIgned copies of the CD; pay what you wish — limited space, first come, first served — click link in bio to reserve a 🎟️ ! 🎶: Drink the Wild Ayre (originally commissioned by the Emerson String Quartet) Album cover photo: @anjaschutz Design: @dmstith Hair/makeup: @alaynamarierakes

TWO DAYS!☀️🌘☀️🌓 My fifth full-length LP, the all-orchestral album ‘Forward Into Light,’ is due Friday, February 27 on Nonesuch Records / New Amsterdam Records. 💫 Produced by @professorSilas Brown and recorded by @MetropolisEnsemble led by artistic director/conductor Andrew Cyr, the album features ‘Forward Into Light,’ inspired by the American women’s suffrage movement; the string orchestra and harp (@nywharp ) version of ‘Drink the Wild Ayre’; ‘Eye of Mnemosyne,’ a work on memory, innovation, and culture; and ‘Something for the Dark,’ a meditation on resilience. You can hear two tracks and pre-order the album at link in bio! 🌱 Photo by @anjaschutz ; hair and makeup by @alaynamarierakes ; design by @dmstith .

📣 Announcing a three-concert residency this spring at 1 Rivington St. @metropolisensemble 🎶 We will be presenting three, primarily contemporary classical, programs with a thematic arc of “deconstruction, reconstruction, and transformation” using Debussy’s iconic Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp as a centerpiece. The first program examines the musical components of Debussy’s trio and explores how other composers have emulated and expanded upon stylistic elements of the work; the second program features works by composers who have deliberately attempted to distance themselves from the idiom of Debussy’s trio; and the third program reimagines the trio sound with the inclusion of electronics. Link in bio for our first concert in the series on Sunday, 3/1 at 2pm. Works by Debussy, Bax, Takemitsu, and @delanila . Other concert info is listed on our website. Hope to see you there! #chambermusic #nycmusicians #contemporarymusic #harptrio #harp 📸: @drewimages

In a little over a week, my all-orchestral album FORWARD INTO LIGHT, featuring Metropolis Ensemble and conducted by Andrew Cyr, produced by Grammy-winning engineers Silas Brown and Mike Tierney, will be co-released by Nonesuch Records and New Amsterdam Records. ✨✨ Here’s a clip from Deborah Johnson’s stunning film for our multimedia work Eye of Mnemosyne, which explores the intersection of memory, innovation, and cultural transformation. Drawing on the myth of Mnemosyne, the Greek Goddess of Memory, the piece pays particular homage to the Kodak Girls — Mnemosyne’s muses, as it were — sophisticated, independent figures who symbolized modernity and creativity during photography’s golden age. VI. Nostos: “War Story”During World War I, photography bridged the emotional distance between home and the front lines. The Kodak Girls symbolize resilience and nostalgia, their images offering a sense of stability amidst upheaval while preserving the stories of those lost to war. Visual Art Credit: @candystations in collaboration with @louiselessel Forward Into Light releases on February 27th. Pre-order is available now through the link in my bio. 🌱

Next week, @sarahkirklandsnider ’s Forward Into Light arrives on @nonesuchrecords and @newamrecords . Sarah’s music demanded — and deserved — a recording process equal to its imagination. Dozens of hours tracking across multiple studios and halls, shaping every detail from the ground up. Not documenting performances, but building the listening experience itself. This is what becomes possible when recording is treated as an art form. We’re grateful to Sarah for trusting us with this work. This is the album we were built to make. Here are a few moments from the sessions.