Sphinx Virtuosi will present "American Dialogues" at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Oct. 16, 2026. The concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

Mezzo-soprano J'Nai Bridges joins the ensemble for the New York premiere of Damien Geter's "Declaration," a work co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall. The premiere anchors a program built around the 250th anniversary of the United States.

The remaining repertoire spans a century of composers engaging with American and European traditions. Jessie Montgomery's "Banner" appears alongside Igor Stravinsky's "Concerto in D" and the "Blues" movement from Maurice Ravel's Violin Sonata No. 2. The program also includes selections from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's "Blue/s Forms."

Composer Rachel McFarlane will open the evening with a new work.

The Sphinx Virtuosi, a self-conducted chamber ensemble, has made Carnegie Hall a recurring platform for its touring programs, and the Oct. 16 date continues that relationship with a co-commissioned centerpiece. Bridges, one of the most in-demand mezzos on American stages, adds vocal weight to a program otherwise given over to strings.

"American Dialogues" will not remain a single-night event. The same program opens the Ana H. Wang Concert series on Oct. 24, 2026, extending its run across two New York appearances within eight days.

The semiquincentennial framing gives the program its organizing logic: Montgomery's "Banner," written as a response to the 200th anniversary of "The Star-Spangled Banner," sits beside Ravel's jazz-inflected sonata movement and Perkinson's blues-derived forms, tracing how American idioms entered concert music from multiple directions. Geter's "Declaration," the night's centerpiece, carries that line into the present.

For Carnegie Hall, the co-commission signals an investment in new work timed to the national anniversary, and the second performance on the Ana H. Wang series suggests the institution expects the program to draw audiences beyond a single outing.