NEWTON’S ALLEN CENTER ANNOUNCES FALL 2025 MUSIC SCHEDULE
Partnership with M. Steinert & Sons
Brings a Steinway Concert D Piano to West Newton
Lydian String Quartet Named Ensemble in Residence
(NEWTON, MA – September 9, 2025) Newton’s Allen Center announces the initial lineup for the 2025-26 season of music. This Lucky 13th year for The Allen Center (TAC) , following 9 years of development and now in its 4th year of programming, brings exciting new partnerships and collaborations, along with a wide range of colorful musical programming.
This fall The Allen Center is celebrating two new partnerships that will enhance their offerings. First, M. Steinert & Sons, New England’s exclusive authorized Steinway Piano dealer, will provide a 9-foot Steinway “D” Concert Piano for their programs and for visiting artists over the next year.
Second, the Lydian String Quartet, formerly in residence at Brandeis University for 44 years, will now be Ensemble In Residence at The Allen Center. The Quartet will present a series of four open rehearsals during the season with further involvement to be announced in the coming weeks.
The 2025-26 concert season offers the community opportunities to hear a diverse array of music performed by talented artists in a concert hall designed to deliver an intimate experience for the audience.
“As the oldest continuously operating music retailer in the country and exclusive dealer of Steinway and Sons pianos in New England, we are dedicated to supporting our local musicians and music organizations,” said Brendan Murphy, President of M. Steinert & Sons. “Since its renovation just a few years ago, The Allen Center has become one of the premier music venues in the area, with outstanding acoustics in a warm and inviting hall. We are proud that a Steinway Concert Grand is the official piano of The Allen Center and look forward to collaborating on a range of projects that showcase the extraordinary talents that are making music in our community.”
On the programming front, Allison Eldredge, The Allen Center’s Artistic Director and Artist-in-Residence continues to embrace a multi-cultural programming vision for TAC’s Cherry Street Music Series in the 2025-26 season, which will feature more than a dozen concerts from both rising and established artists and ensembles performing music that ranges from classical to jazz, and more.
TAC’s Lucky 13th musical season will open the first weekend of October with three days of celebration beginning Friday evening, October 3 with A Taste of the Season presenting vignette performances by several of the artists represented during the year including Phil Lima, Maxim Lubarsky, Karen Walwyn (Steinway artist), Julia Glenn (Lydian Quartet) and others. The evening will also mark the opening of an exhibit of mixed media works by artist Laura Scheuerell’s including Steinway Series Reimagined.
Saturday, October 4, internationally known jazz pianist Maxim Lubarsky and vocalist/composer Gabriela Martina will perform works from their most recent CD release and collaboration, Explorations in Sound. To complete the opening weekend celebration, on Sunday, October 5 Steinway artists Max Levinson and Karen Walwyn will present works for piano to celebrate the new partnership between The Allen Center and M. Steinert & Sons, followed by a champagne reception.
On Sunday October 19 acclaimed baritone Philip Lima and pianist Tudor Bota will perform one of the most profound song cycles in the classical repertoire, Franz Schubert’s Winterreise.
On Thursday November 13, the Naumberg Award-winning Lydian String Quartet, will deliver the first of four interactive open rehearsals that will take place throughout the year. The program on this occasion will include movements from Beethoven String Quartets Opus 18, No. 4 and Opus 127.
On November 23, Boston’s Brilliance, featuring a virtuoso ensemble of celebrated artists —including BSO violinist Alexander Velinzon, violist Cathy Basrak, cellist Allison Eldredge, and pianist Max Levinson return to The Allen Center for an evening of chamber music to include Robert Schumann’s breathtaking Piano Quartet.
On December 18, The Allen Center will present Stefan Jackiw & Friends. Violinist Stefan Jackiw, with pianist Kevin Ahfat will present the Prokofiev Violin Sonata in D and duos with clarinetist Yoonah Kim by Schubert and Mozart. Allison Eldredge and Kevin Ahfat will join Jackiw and Kim in Walter Rabl’s Piano Quartet for Violin, Piano, Clarinet and Cello.
The second half of the 2025-2026 season promises outstanding Steinway Artists bringing new excitement to music at The Allen Center with pianists Karyn Walwyn and Orli Shaham.
Also on tap during the winter/spring half of the season will be a program curated by and featuring Philip Lima entitled Bold Black Baritones; Curtain Up! On the Road, an evening of new musical theater songs written and produced by Berklee College of Music students; and an all-Beethoven program with Allison Eldredge and pianist Pei-Shan Lee.
The Black Feathers, who charmed The Allen Center in June 2023, will return from Wales, bringing their genre-defying sound that combines elements of folk, roots, Americana, and southern rock. The season will close in June 2026 with a return performance by the Howard University Gospel Choir, which delivered a rousing afternoon of music on Juneteenth, 2025.
About The Allen Center
The Allen Center (TAC) is an Arts & Cultural Center in West Newton, MA, owned and operated by the Newton Cultural Alliance (NCA). The Allen Center’s historic facility is the beacon of arts and culture in the City of Newton, a unique space dedicated to the creative community. The renovation of the facility was completed in the spring of 2021, and, as with the case of many performance venues, has been expanding its programming, broadening its offerings ever since. In the Fall of 2022, the NCA established an Artist in Residence and invited Allison Eldredge, international concert cellist, who continues to serve in that position. Tickets and information are available at newtonculture.org.
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