Join Festival Artistic Directors Melinda Lee Masur and Ken-David Masur
as they sit down with Bill Barclay — director, writer, and producer
of Concert Theater Works — for an intimate Sunday brunch
conversation at the stylish City Winery Bistro at Pier 57 in Chelsea.



Over a curated, Mark Twain-inspired, American menu, the three
collaborators offer guests a behind-the-scenes look at the making of
Copland & Twain and the creative vision driving the 2026 Festival.
This event will also include music performed by violinists Yuyu Ikeda
and Carlos Rafael Martinez Arroyo.

It is a rare opportunity to hear directly from the artists shaping the
week's programming in one of New York's most vibrant waterfront
settings. Tickets are at $100 and can be purchased at
https://www.chelseamusicfestival.org/2026-events/june21
[https://www.chelseamusicfestival.org/2026-events/june21].

Bill Barclay, director and producer at Concert Theater Works

Ken-David Masur, Festival Co-Artistic Director and conductor

Melinda Lee Masur, Festival Co-Artistic Director and pianist

Yuyu Ikeda, violin

Carlos Rafael Martinez Arroyo, violin

MENU

Inspired by American foods Mark Twain missed while he was abroad in
Europe

Basket

Buttermilk Biscuits served with butter and honey

Main

Farm Egg Scramble - fresh herbs, stewed tomatoes, succotash
(vegetarian)

Buttermilk Fried Chicken & Waffle - maple syrup, light butter

Sides

Saratoga Potatoes - Crisp, thin-sliced potatoes with sea salt

Heirloom Tomato - vinegar, sugar

Dessert

Warm Apple Pie - Fresh Cream

Beverages

‍ ‍Wine by City Winery (red, white, sparking, rose), craft beers,
soda & juices

Coffee service, tableside

ABOUT MELINDA LEE MASUR

Lauded for her “impeccable technique and artistic interpretation”
(The Columbian), pianist Melinda Lee Masur has performed on all three
stages of Carnegie Hall, at London's Wigmore Hall and Purcell Room,
the Berliner Philharmonie, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus, at the Ravinia
Festival, Festival Les Muséiques Basel and in Boston’s Symphony
Hall. She has given recitals in cities from Shanghai, Hong Kong,
Taipei, Toronto and New York, to London, Copenhagen, Berlin, Paris,
Kiev and Leipzig. Masur has performed as soloist with orchestras such
as the Harvard Bach Society Orchestra, Shanghai Philharmonic, Kiev
Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Shenzhen Symphony and Macao Youth
Symphony.

An avid chamber musician, Masur has performed with such artists as
Augustin Hadelich, Alban Gerhardt, Fanny Clamagirand, Adrian Brendel,
Thomas Quasthoff, as well as the Verona, Ivalas, and Balourdet
Quartets. She is pianist and founding member of The Lee Trio, praised
worldwide for its “gripping immediacy and freshness” and "rich
palette of tone colours" (The Strad). The Trio has given world,
American and European premieres of piano trios by composers including
Edmund Finnis, Uljas Pulkkis, Nathaniel Stookey, Philip Lasser, Jane
Antonia Cornish, Nicky Sohn, & Sylvie Bodorova and garnered awards
such as the Recording Prize at the Kuhmo International Chamber Music
Competition in Finland and the Gotthard-Schierse-Stiftung grant in
Berlin. The Trio has recorded for the Delos and innova labels and
their most recent album release, Midsummer Night Magic, was met with
critical and audience acclaim.

A graduate of Harvard University and the Hochschule für Musik und
Theater Hannover, Germany, Masur is passionate about educating the
next generation of musicians. Masur has served on the faculty at the
University of Chicago and Boston University, and given masterclasses
at colleges & universities such as the Lewis & Clark College,
University of Utah's School of Music, Gordon College, Biola
University, Wheaton College, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee's
School of Music, and the Gheorghe Dima National Music Academy in
Romania. Masur is the Director of Piano Chamber Music and Co-Director
of the Young Artists Piano Program at the BU Tanglewood Institute and
joined the piano and chamber music faculty at Stanford in the Fall of
2025. Melinda Lee Masur is a Steinway Artist. theleetrio.com

ABOUT KEN-DAVID MASUR

Hailed as “fearless, bold, and a life-force” (San Diego
Union-Tribune) and “a brilliant and commanding conductor with
unmistakable charisma” (Leipzig Volkszeitung), Ken-David Masur is
celebrating his seventh season as Music Director of the Milwaukee
Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s
Civic Orchestra, and newly announced Artistic Partner of the Oregon
Bach Festival.

In 2025-2026, Masur will lead celebrations of the 50th anniversary of
the Milwaukee Symphony Chorus, featuring performances of Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, as well as Bach’s St. Matthew
Passion as part of the third annual Bach Festival. Ken-David Masur and
the MSO will reunite with longtime collaborators such as Augustin
Hadalich, Orion Weiss, Stewart Goodyear, Nancy Zhou as well as a
special project with Bill Barclay and Concert Theatre Works to
celebrate America’s 250th birthday with a program interweaving the
music of Aaron Copland with the words of Mark Twain. In Chicago, Masur
leads the Civic Orchestra, the premiere training ensemble of the
Chicago Symphony, in a wide range of programs, including its annual
Bach Marathon.

Masur has conducted distinguished orchestras around the world,
including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Baltimore, Detroit, and
San Francisco Symphonies, l’Orchestre National de France, Minnesota
Orchestra, Rochester Philharmonic, Norway’s Kristiansand Symphony
and Tokyo’s Yomiuri Nippon Symphony. He has also made regular
appearances at Ravinia, Tanglewood, the Hollywood Bowl, Grant Park,
and international festivals including Verbier. Recent highlights
include subscription debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the
Chicago Symphony, and the National Symphony as well as a triumphant
return to the Oregon Bach Festival featuring a staged Carmina Burana.

Masur is passionate about contemporary music and has conducted and
commissioned numerous new works over the years. Some notable pieces
include Wynton Marsalis’ Harold Haller and Hallelujah, Augusta Read
Thomas’ Bebop Kaleidoscope — Homage to Duke Ellington with the New
York Philharmonic, Mannequin by Unsuk Chin with the Boston Symphony,
Rounds by Jessie Montgomery, and Alan Fletcher’s Piano Concerto with
the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Additional U.S. premieres under his
baton include works by James B. Wilson, Dobrinka Tabakova, Christopher
Cerrone, Edmund Finnis, Eric Nathan, and Jacob Beranek among others.

Masur has made recordings with the English Chamber Orchestra and
violinist Fanny Clamagirand, and with the Stavanger Symphony, the
latter of which was named by WQXR, New York’s classical music radio
station, as a “Best New Classical Release.” Masur also received a
Grammy nomination from the Latin Recording Academy for Best Classical
Album of the Year for his work as a producer of the album Salon Buenos
Aires.

Born and raised in Leipzig, Germany, Masur was trained at the
Mendelssohn Academy in Leipzig, the Gewandhaus Children‘s Choir, the
Detmold Academy and the „Hanns Eisler“ Conservatory in Berlin.
While an undergraduate at Columbia University in New York, Masur
became the first music director of the Bach Society Orchestra & Chorus
with which he toured to Germany and recorded the music of J.S.Bach and
his sons.

Music education and working with the next generation of young artists
are of major importance to Masur. In addition to his work with Civic
Orchestra of Chicago, he has conducted orchestras and led
masterclasses at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Peck School of
the Arts, New England Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, Boston
University, Boston Conservatory, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan Chamber
Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and The Juilliard
School. kendavidmasur.com

ABOUT BILL BARCLAY

Director, writer, and composer Bill Barclay has created dozens of
theatrical concerts with the world’s most prominent ensembles. He is
Artistic Director of Concert Theatre Works and was Director of Music
at Shakespeare’s Globe from 2012-2019. A “personable polymath”
(London Times), his theatrical concerts are praised as “witty and
incisive” (New York Times), “Effortless perfection” (The
Observer), “quietly transfixing” (The New Yorker), and “quite
simply exquisite” (The Guardian). Broadway and West End credits
include Farinelli and the King, Twelfth Night, and Richard III all
starring Sir Mark Rylance.

Major tours include The Chevalier (London Philharmonic Orchestra,
Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Center, Tanglewood, Chautauqua,
Music of the Baroque, Harlem Chamber Players, Caramoor, Snape
Maltings, Buffalo, Virginia, Indianapolis); Secret Byrd for The
Gesualdo Six and Fretwork (30+ cities on tour); Anthony & Cleopatra
(LA Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Virginia Symphony); Peer
Gynt (Boston, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Milwaukee Symphony
Orchestras); and Markus Passion for Oregon Bach Festival, Dunedin
Consort & The Sebastians (NYC, Pittsburgh, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh,
Portland, Seattle, Eugene, Chicago).

As a composer, Barclay composed the historic Hamlet Globe-to-Globe
which toured to 189 countries, and Call of the Wild that performed in
42 US states. He has composed three times for the British Royal
Family, for President Obama, for the Olympic Torch, at the United
Nations, and in refugee camps in Jordan and Calais. His newest work
Letters to a Young Poet premiered with The Brodsky Quartet at The
Aldeburgh Festival before performances at Lincoln Center and
Tanglewood. He created the sold-out Candlelit Concerts series from the
launch of London’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in 2014, partnering with
The Royal Opera House and BBC Proms. He founded the label Globe Music,
recognized by The Royal Philharmonic Society, for Shakespeare’s
Globe where he produced music for 130 productions and 150 concerts
over seven years. His single Let Nature Sing, made of birdsong with
singer Sam Lee, debuted at #11 on the UK Pop Charts to support The
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

A lauded actor, Barclay received a Fox Foundation Fellowship, the
largest grant for actors in the US. A Boston native and past acting
company member at Shakespeare & Company (11 years), the Actors
Shakespeare Project (10 years, Artistic Associate), and The Mercury
Theatre (UK), he trained in Bali, The National Theatre Institute and
Vassar College. MFA in Playwriting, Boston University.
concerttheatreworks.com/bill-barclay

ABOUT THE CHELSEA MUSIC FESTIVAL

Chelsea Music Festival celebrates great music by convening
world-leading musicians & artists in the performing, culinary, and
visual arts for an international audience. The Festival invites
artists, composers, and performers to collaborate in pursuit of new
perspectives in artistic expression. Inspired by its Chelsea roots,
the Festival reflects the creativity of one of New York City's most
dynamic neighborhoods. Programs span musical genres ranging from
classical to contemporary to jazz with a special emphasis on Festival
commissions by composers whose works are not in the traditional
western canon. In addition, the Festival hosts an online library of
recordings so music enthusiasts, artists, and students alike can
explore unique interpretations of classical, jazz, and contemporary
works via high-quality videos of world-class performances.

Since 2010, the Festival has established itself as a
critically-acclaimed, accessible, and interactive gateway to chamber
music in non-traditional concert spaces such as art galleries, public
squares, schools, and churches. Programming includes concerts,
lectures, exhibitions, family events, and free outreach performances.
In 2020, the Festival inaugurated its Online Encores and Online
Originals YouTube series; Online Encores presents highlights from
Festival archives while Online Originals presents new performances and
recordings. We are proud to give emerging voices, particularly those
of women and people of color, a stage and work to build an audience
and intimate community to support a new generation of musicians,
composers, and artists.

Festival Sponsors & Partners:

Carl Brandt, Inc., Brotherhood Winery, Columbia Alumni Association
Arts Access, Consulate General of Germany in New York, Fordham
University, German International School New York, Anna-Maria and
Stephen Kellen Foundation, Masterwork Arts Foundation, Materials for
the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, NYC Department of Cultural
Affairs, Polycast Productions, Radeberger Gruppe USA, Sennheiser,
Skylight Arts Productions, Steinway & Sons, Tarisio Fine Instruments &
Bows, WBGO, Weinhaus Traubengold, and WQXR.

STAY UPDATED:

Web - ChelseaMusicFestival.org YouTube - ChelseaMusicFestivalNYC

LinkTree - ChelseaMusicFestival Facebook
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Twitter - @CMF_NYC Instagram - @CMF_NYC

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