Performances + Events
The First Monday at Jordan Hall series has always been one in which past meets present and future and every part of the school is represented, said faculty member HaeSun Paik, who’s experienced and been part of the series’ history since she was a student at New England Conservatory. Today, Paik (’87, ’89 MM, ’92 AD) and her faculty colleagues Nicholas Cords and Soovin Kim, as the series’ artistic co-chairs, carry forward the spirit with which founder, longtime artistic director, and now artistic advisor Laurence Lesser imbued the series. First Monday, Kim said, represents the very culture of NEC.
“The series reflects the values and interests of the school,” Kim said, and “of the people who populate it.”
First Monday has, since its establishment in 1985, brought eager audiences to Jordan Hall, where they’ve heard performances by generations of extraordinary musicians. For the younger among those artists — current students who have the opportunity to perform alongside their mentors — “that can be a very catalytic experience,” Cords said, thinking back to similar opportunities he had as a student. “I felt a sense of great validation and hope for what my life actually might become and come to represent over time. Those memories are incredibly powerful, and they become a well that you can keep drawing from.”
Another “huge part of First Monday,” Cords said, “is the student experience in the audience. On stage there is an implicit modeling that happens.”
“Those can be very formative moments,” Kim agreed.
The 2026–2027 season will pay tribute to these collaborations and experiences, and to the art form itself and the musicians who’ve contributed so much to it.
This year, First Monday celebrates the 90th birthdays of composers Philip Glass and Steve Reich, the 150th birthdays of violist Lionel Tertis and cellist Pablo Casals, and the legacy of the late NEC alumna and Civil Rights leader Coretta Scott King ’54, ’71 hon. DM. The repertoire ranges from Reich’s Music for Pieces of Wood and works by Bartók, Dohnanyi, Liszt, and Poulenc to a chamber arrangement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2.
Among the many artists who’ll appear over the course of six concerts are the Borromeo String Quartet (NEC’s faculty ensemble-in-residence), faculty members Alessio Bax, Eden MacAdam-Somer, and Dang Thai Son, NEC Concert Artist Zitong Wang ’24 MM, ’26 GD, ’28 AD, the Paddington Trio and Katarina String Quartet (the new ensembles-in-residence in the Conservatory’s Professional Programs), alumni Leland Ko ’15 Prep, ’24 AD, Tessa Lark ’11, ’12 MM, and Dani Jangdan Zhang ’26 AD, students from NEC’s Contemporary Musical Arts and Jazz Studies departments, and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, with which the Conservatory collaborates in the BSO x NEC Alliance.
It’s a season that gives artists who may not otherwise have the chance to perform together that meaningful opportunity.
“There’ve been a lot of extraordinary collaborations across the school over the years,” Kim said. Those occasions “connect people around the school to one another.”
“Collaboration is the key,” Cords emphasized.
Explore the 2026–2027 First Monday at Jordan Hall season and join us for these extraordinary monthly concerts.
