The Next Festival of Emerging Artists

Praised for performances that “traverse the palette of emotions” with “gorgeous tone and an edge-of-seat intensity” (The New York Times), Grammy-nominated cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios joins The Next Festival of Emerging Artists, returning to PS21 for the fourth consecutive year.

For America’s 250th anniversary, Next Fest presents a program of vital work by women immigrant composers. Artistic Director Peter Askim leads the string orchestra in world premieres by Iranian-American Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Festival alumna Adeliia Faizullina (Uzbekistan), and Wang Lu (China), alongside timely works by acclaimed composers Clarice Assad (Brazil) and Aleksandra Vrebalov (Serbia). The centerpiece is a newly commissioned double concerto for cello, percussion, and strings by the Spanish-born Casarrubios, which she will perform as soloist alongside the festival fellows.

The Next Festival of Emerging Artists is a trailblazing arts immersion program for early-career string musicians and composers from around the world, providing them opportunities for mentorship, performance, and multidisciplinary collaboration. Their 2026 season celebrates the vital contributions of migrant women composers to the American musical landscape, highlighting diverse, global voices in this series of evocative world premieres.

The fellows of the Next Festival will spend the week prior to the performance in residence at PS21, workshopping the pieces and conducting community engagements at Chatham Middle School. PS21 is proud to continue to deepen this relationship year-over-year.