It’s cold, it’s hot — was the joke on us, thinking that spring was here? While you wait for Mother Nature to sort things out, enjoy a full month’s worth of beautiful music and dynamic dance, here at The Purchase PAC and beyond.
Michael Feinstein: Big Band Broadway
Saturday, April 18, 7:30pm
The Purchase PAC
Michael Feinstein has built a dazzling career over the last three decades by bringing the music of the Great American songbook to the world. On Saturday, he takes the stage at The Purchase PAC with a program of beloved numbers from your favorite Broadway shows, accompanied by the Carnegie Hall Ensemble and special guest Bobby Daye.
Get tickets for Michael Feinstein at The Purchase PAC
Listen to Michael Feinstein on CMS Sunday Morning: Preserving the Great American Songbook
Westchester Philharmonic: Majesty and Grace
Sunday, April 19, 3pm
The Purchase PAC
Westchester County’s only fully-professional classical symphony orchestra, the Westchester Philharmonic, concludes its mainstage season at The Purchase PAC this Sunday, with a program featuring 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient cellist Sterling Elliott.
Danail Rachev conducting.
Florence Price: Andante Moderato
Schumann: Cello Concerto
Beethoven: Symphony No. 1
Get tickets for the Westchester Philharmonic.
The 2019 Sphinx Competition Finals Concert Senior Division 1st Place Winner was Sterling Elliott. He performed Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Mvt. III (Finale).
Watch Sterling Elliot’s Sphinx Competition performance on YouTube
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Nobuyuki Tsujii
Friday, April 24, 7:30pm
The Purchase PAC
The electrifying chemistry between Orpheus and pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii is so special that the orchestra named him an honorary member!
They reunite for Wisdom of Youth, a program that includes works by Beethoven and Brahms, as well as a new work by millennial superstar Viet Cuong.
Watch Orpheus and Nobuyuki Tsujii perform Chopin’s Piano Concerto on YouTube
Get tickets for Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at The Purchase PAC
Watch Nobuyuki Tsujii perform Liszt’s La Campanella on YouTube
Learn more about the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra: Orpheus at 50
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a radical experiment in musical democracy, proving for fifty years what happens when accomplished instrumentalists and star soloists play orchestral music together without a conductor.
Watch “Orpheus at 50” on YouTube
Excelsior Symphony Orchestra Presents Celebrating American Music
Saturday, April 25, 2026, 7:30pm
Diller Hall, Allen Center for the Creative Arts and Technology, Hackley School, 293 Benedict Avenue, Tarrytown, NY
Experience an inspiring evening with the Excelsior Symphony Orchestra as they present their Spring Concert. From classical to the blues, this special performance features a curated program dedicated to celebrating the rich and diverse heritage of American music. The program moves from the wild creativity of Charles Ives to swinging with W.C. Handy to classical African-American pioneers William Grant Still and Florence Price.
The Excelsior Symphony Orchestra (formerly known as the St. Thomas Orchestra) was founded in 2002. Among its ranks today can be counted a broad spectrum of professionals in the arts, sciences, law, finance, medicine, and business. Members in the orchestra range in age from 15 to 85 and are united by a common commitment to the pursuit of musical excellence.
Morton Gould – “American Salute”
Florence Price – Concert Overture #2
Charles Ives, arr. Schuman – Variations on “America”
William Eckfeld – Fanfare for Hackley
W.C. Handy – St. Louis Blues
William Grant Still – Symphony #1 [Afro-American Symphony]
Listen to W.C Handy’s St. Louis Blues / Bernstein · Armstrong · Lewisohn Stadium Symphony Orchestra
Get tickets for Excelsior Symphony Orchestra
Purchase College Conservatory of Dance Presents Spring Dance Concert 2026
May 1 – 3
The Purchase PAC
Generations, the Purchase Dance Company Spring Concert, celebrates the remarkable Purchase Dance community with an exciting program of works created and staged by esteemed faculty and alumni and performed by Purchase College’s professional caliber students. The program celebrates several important milestones, including the 50th Anniversary of the first graduating class!
Dark Meadow (1946) by Martha Graham. In honor of the centennial anniversary of the Martha Graham Dance Company, a monumental work that has been expertly staged by Assistant Professor Martin Lofsnes, former principal dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company.
Double Octet (2022) by celebrated Guggenheim Fellow, Dance alum, and current faculty member, Doug Varone. We celebrate Varone on the 40th Anniversary of his company, Doug Varone & Dancers, this year.
Welcome Suite (2023), an innovative contemporary work blending text and movement and created by Dance Alum and Princess Grace Award Winner, Hannah Garner ‘15.
Come Together (premiere), an exciting commission for Ja’ Malik, Artistic Director of Madison Ballet, has enabled our students to be an integral part of the creative process as Ja’ Malik brings his artistic vision to the stage with a new contemporary ballet piece, created expressly for this season.
Get tickets for the 2026 Spring Dance Concert
Purchase College Conservatory of Dance Spring Dance Concert: Artist Talk
Friday, May 1, at 7:15pm.
Meet the choreographers and stagers. Open to the public.
Martha Graham Dance Company
Athletes of God
On demand
“Athletes of God” takes viewers on a world tour with the Martha Graham dance company. Traveling across Europe, the dancers reflect on both the exhilaration and the physical and emotional toll of life on the road. As the first American dance company to tour China post-pandemic, their journey echoes Graham’s belief in movement as a universal language.
Watch “Athletes of God” on AllArts.org
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center: Schubertiade
Saturday, May 16, 5pm
The Purchase PAC
The “Schubertiade” was invented during Franz Schubert’s lifetime by his friends, who would gather for long evenings to enjoy their favorite composer’s music. Join us as we close our 2025-2026 CMS of Lincoln Center season with a Schubertiade exploring Schubert in three settings: his inimitable four-hand piano music, his virtuosic vein with a violin-and-piano showpiece, and his profound statements in the epic Trio in E-flat major, which took the genre to unparalleled levels of complexity and emotional intensity.
ANNE-MARIE MCDERMOTT, Piano
WU HAN, Piano
BENJAMIN BEILMAN, Violin
DAVID FINCKEL, Cello
Schubert| Fantasie in F minor for Piano, Four Hands, D. 940 (1828)
Schubert | Rondo in B minor for Violin and Piano, D. 895 (1826)
Schubert | Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for Piano, Violin, and Cello, D. 929 (1827)
Run time: 75 minutes plus intermission
Artist Talk:Join us at 4:15pm in the Upper Lobby for a pre-show conversation with the artists. Free with your ticket.
Listen to Inside Chamber Music with Bruce Adolphe: Schubert Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D. 929, Op. 100
Listen to Wu Han, Philip Setzer, & David Finckel Trio: Schubert Trio in E Flat, D. 929 (End)
SCHUBERT Piano Trio in E flat Major, Op 100, D 929 Wu, Setzer, Finckel
Get tickets for Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center at The Purchase PAC
###
Culture Picks celebrates the performing arts. In each post, PAC staff member Coni Guhl shines the spotlight on work by artists that you know and love from their appearances at The Purchase PAC, and offers recommendations about other performing arts events that you really should not miss. Experience them all!
All times are EDT unless otherwise noted.
Pictured: Michael Feinstein. Photo (c) Stephen Sorokoff.
