The New Consort: Flung from the Garden

This trailblazing vocal chamber ensemble makes its Merkin Hall debut to celebrate the release of their first album, Flung from the Garden. Drawing on themes of otherness, exclusion, and hope for reconciliation, Flung from the Garden traverses repertoire from the Renaissance to the present day to contextualize its centerpiece, Jonathan Woody's LAMENTATION. Woody’s breathtaking, Tudor-inspired constellation of poetry and found text, commissioned for The New Consort, explores the complexity of the queer experience in 2026 America – both its challenges and its unexpected joys. The evening also features students from Kaufman Music Center’s Special Music School, showcasing the results of their ensemble-singing workshops with The New Consort this fall.

Winners of The American Prize in Chamber Music, The New Consort is a vocal ensemble that explores the roles musical ritual and community can play in 21st-century lives. Their performances liberate the unique emotive power of vocal music from its historical place in religious ceremony to create “extraordinary concert[s] that [are] nothing like what you might expect, but much like what you’d hope for” (BroadwayWorld).

The commission of Jonathan Woody’s Lamentation has been made possible by the Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Program, with generous funding provided by The Mellon Foundation.