WoCo Fest 2026: Transcend
ALL DAY AT THE MANSION
Tickets on sale March 26!
Saturday, April 25, starting at 3pm at The Mansion at Strathmore
Saturday unfolds into a day of creative exploration, featuring composer workshops, pre-concert talks, and performances that challenge and expand the modern canon. Experience “the most important flutist of our time” (NY Times) Claire Chase, genre-defying Scottish Celtic lever harpist-composer Maeve Gilchrist, and the acclaimed Argus Quartet, whose evening concert celebrates music’s power to move beyond limitation and move from early and late Romantic composers Fanny Mendelssohn and Germaine Tailleferre to Grammy-nominated composer Shelley Washington.
Food trucks on site at the Mansion!
4pm - Claire Chase
Described by The New York Times as “the North Star of her instrument’s ever-expanding universe,” flutist Claire Chase is a trailblazing advocate for contemporary music. A MacArthur Fellow and the first flutist to receive the Avery Fisher Prize, she has premiered hundreds of works and leads the 24-year commissioning project Density 2036, reimagining the solo flute repertoire for the 21st century. In this performance, Chase presents a curated program of innovative works, including Annea Lockwood’s Solo from Elwha!, Liza Lim’s Throat-song from Sex Magic, her own arrangements of Susie Ibarra’s Sunbird and Tania León’s Singsong, and Suzanne Farrin’s The Stimulus of Loss.
5:15pm - Pre‑Concert Talk: Bridging the Lochs with Maeve Gilchrist: A Harper’s Journey from the world of Celtic Folk into contemporary Composition
Join harper and composer Maeve Gilchrist as she shares the story of her artistic journey from her musical childhood in Scotland immersed in the oral tradition of Scottish music to pursuing an interest in improvisation within and out-with the traditional music world and ultimately to her work as a contemporary composer in New York. Learn how Maeve manifests elements of traditional music within her compositional and improvisational technique, transforming tradition into a living, evolving musical language.
6:00pm - Maeve Gilchrist
Described as “a phenomenal harp player who can make her instrument ring with unparalleled purity,” Maeve Gilchrist has pushed the Celtic lever harp to exciting new heights. Born in Edinburgh and now based in New York City, Maeve’s innovative approach blends classical, folk, and contemporary improvisation. She performs internationally as a soloist, bandleader, and collaborator, including with the Grammy-winning Silkroad Ensemble and Arooj Aftab’s Night Rein Ensemble. In this performance, time is slowed through the process of careful observation and imagination, which features excerpts from her work 12 Dances, interweaving site-specific recordings, poetry, and visual stimulation.
This performance is made possible by The Carl and Beryl Tretter Charitable Fund.
7:10pm - Pre‑Concert Talk with Dr. Caiti Beth McKinney
Join Boulanger Initiative’s Research Manager Dr. Caiti Beth McKinney for a pre-concert talk exploring Germaine Tailleferre’s Quatuor à cordes and Fanny Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in E-flat Major. Dive into the rich and tumultuous worlds of two composers whose families actively worked against their music and accomplishments, and experience the joy of their compositional triumphs. We will explore the two works by these incredible composers performed by Argus Quartet.
8pm - Argus Quartet
Praised by The New Yorker as a “vivacious foursome,” the Argus Quartet brings a dynamic program that bridges past and present while reflecting this year’s theme, Transcend. Their WoCo Fest program traces a powerful arc across centuries of musical expression, featuring works by Shelley Washington, Molly Herron, Germaine Tailleferre, and Fanny Mendelssohn. From contemporary reflections on memory and identity to Mendelssohn’s sweeping String Quartet in E-flat Major and Washington’s Grammy-nominated work Middleground, the performance invites audiences to hear how marginalized voices across time transcend boundaries of genre, tradition, and expectation.
Giancarlo Latta, violin • Sam Parrini, violin • Maren Rothfritz, viola • Drake Driscoll, cello
This performance is made possible by George Wenchel.
Reception to follow.
Composer Workshops
TIMES: 3:10-3:50 p.m.; 5:10-5:50 p.m.; 7:10-7:50 p.m.
LOCATION: The 2nd Floor Invitation Gallery
Boulanger Initiative’s annual multi-day Women Composers Festival (WoCo Fest) features works by women and gender-marginalized composers, performed by local and nationally-acclaimed performers. WoCo Fest 2026: Transcend features our Composer Workshops which are process-based, exploratory music workshops offering women and gender-marginalized composers the extraordinary opportunity to workshop their ideas in real time in front of a live audience and hear their works-in-progress performed by cellist Erin Snedecor and violinist Sandy Choi. These workshops are a safe space for composers to try out ideas which may or may not work and to take artistic risks that could lead them in an exciting new direction. It's also a thrilling opportunity for the audience to watch the creative process, so often behind-the-scenes, at work in real time.
Boulanger Initiative and WoCo Fest 2026: Transcend is co-presented by Strathmore and supported in part by funding from the Arts & Humanities Council of Montgomery County, the Maryland State Arts Council, The Paul M. Angell Family Foundation, The Alice M. Ditson Fund, LSWG, George Wenchel, and The Carl and Beryl Tretter Charitable Fund.
