The Department of Music in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis will host six performances by internationally renowned performers as part of the 2026 Great Artists Series.
Launched in 2017, the Great Artists Series presents intimate recitals featuring some of the brightest stars of the contemporary concert stage. All concerts take place in WashU’s historic E. Desmond Lee Concert Hall, located in the 560 Music Center in University City.
The 2026 season will open Jan. 25 with acclaimed countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, director of Opera Philadelphia. On Feb. 1, Mali’s Ballaké Sissoko, one of the world’s great virtuosos on the traditional, 21-stringed West African kora, will join South African classical guitarist Derek Gripper. Performing March 1 will be rising pianist and composer Conrad Tao.
On March 29, the Great Artists Series will present star mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard, a three-time Grammy winner, followed by Detroit’s Grammy-winning Catalyst Quartet April 12. The series will conclude April 30 with renowned British cellist Steven Isserlis, in recital with Canadian pianist Connie Shih.
“The Great Artists Series has quickly become a beloved St. Louis tradition,” said Patrick Burke, a professor and chair of music. “It offers local audiences rare opportunities to see some of the world’s finest musicians up close and in person. We could not be more proud to present these amazing performers.”
Tickets
Subscriptions for all six performances are $150 (a 38% savings on single-ticket prices). Subscriptions include premier reserved seating, exclusive pre-concert talks and all ticketing fees. Subscription renewals will be available through May 2, with new subscriptions going on sale May 7.
Single tickets are $40, or $37 for seniors and WashU faculty and staff, and $15 for students and children. Single tickets go on sale Sept. 8.
The 560 Music Center is located at 560 Trinity Ave., at the intersection with Delmar Boulevard. Tickets are available through the WashU Box Office, 314-935-6543.
The performance by Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih is sponsored by David and Melanie Alpers. The performance by Isabel Leonard will be the Department of Music’s annual Pillsbury event.
Anthony Roth Costanzo
“Vocally brilliant and dramatically fearless” (New York Times), Costanzo is “a perfect musician” (Le Monde) and “a bona-fide star” (The New Yorker).
Performing professionally since age 11, Costanza has appeared in many of the world’s leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Opéra National de Paris, English National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera.
His first solo album, “ARC,” was nominated for a 2019 Grammy Award. He also starred in the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Philip Glass’ “Akhnaten,” which won the 2022 Grammy for best opera recording. He has served as general director and president of Opera Philadelphia since June 2024.
Ballaké Sissoko and Derek Gripper
Ballaké Sissoko is an international star known for “intricate, dazzling” (The Guardian) performances. He is also the son of kora pioneer Djelimady Sissoko, whose landmark “Ancient Strings” (1970) was the first album devoted to the instrument.
In 2022, Sissoko performed a pair of concerts with Derek Gripper, a classically trained Cape Town guitarist with “an uncanny and unique approach to playing African music” (Afropop Worldwide). The pair soon reunited in a London recording studio, cutting an album in a mere three hours.
That release, “Ballaké Sissoko & Derek Gripper,” is “a compelling string conversation which reflects improvisation and dialogue at their best, taking the listener into unchartered territories,” wrote Songlines magazine, which named it album of the year. Added Klof Magazine: “There is such depth and imagination in every track, that you hear quite different things on each listen.”
Conrad Tao
An artist of “probing intellect and open-hearted vision” (New York Times), pianist and composer Conrad Tao is “the kind of musician who is shaping the future of classical music” (New York Magazine).
Born in Urbana, Ill., Tao has appeared worldwide in both solo recitals and concerto performances. He also maintains active collaborations with violinist Stefan Jackiw and cellist Jay Campbell, as the Junction Trio; with dancer and choreographer Caleb Teicher; and with improviser and vocalist Charmaine Lee. His many honors include a New York Dance and Performance Award (“Bessie”) for outstanding sound design/music composition for “More Forever,” his evening-length collaboration with Teicher’s company.
Tao’s first album, “Voyages” (2013) was praised as a “spiky debut” by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross. Other releases include “Pictures” (2015), featuring works by David Lang, Toru Takemitsu, Elliott Carter, Modest Mussorgsky and Tao himself; and “American Rage” (2019). His most recent album is “Bricolage” (2021), which features improvisations and experiments recorded with brass quartet The Westerlies in rural New Hampshire.
Isabel Leonard
“One of the brightest talents on the American opera scene” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Leonard is a three-time Grammy winner with “disarming comedic chops to rival her formidable pipes” (Washington Post).
Leonard regularly appears on the world’s leading opera stages. Recent highlights include her signature role of Rosina in “Il barbiere di Siviglia,” with Opéra National de Paris, the Los Angeles Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, as well as her debut with Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu as Anita in Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story.”
Other highlights include title roles in “Carmen,” “La Périchole,” “Cendrillon,” “Marnie” and “Der Rosenkavalier,” as well as Angelina in “La Cenerentola,” Dorabella in “Così fan tutte” and Musetta in “La bohème.” Film and television appearances include the feature film “She Came to Me” (2023), the Leonard Bernstein biopic “Maestro” (2023) and the season 43 finale of “Sesame Street.”
Catalyst Quartet
Founded in 2010, this Grammy-winning quartet has been hailed as “invariably energetic” and “finely burnished” (New York Times), known for playing with “perfect ensemble unity” (Lincoln Journal Star).
Featuring violinists Karla Donehew Perez and Abi Fayette, violist Paul Laraia and cellist Karlos Rodriguez, Catalyst has toured widely throughout the United States and abroad, including sold-out performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., Harris Theater in Chicago, the New World Center in Miami and the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Members of the quartet have been guest soloists with the Cincinnati Symphony, the New Haven Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. They have served as principal players with the Sphinx Organization’s featured ensemble, the Sphinx Virtuosi, on six national tours.
Steven Isserlis and Connie Shih
A cellist of “delicacy and precision” (The Guardian), who performs with “dramatic thrust,” “rhapsodic intensity” and “gorgeous sweetness” (Bachtrack), Isserlis enjoys a uniquely varied career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, educator, author and broadcaster.
Appearing regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, Isserlis is a strong advocate for both historical performance and contemporary music, having premiered works by Sir John Tavener, Thomas Adès and György Kurtág, among others. His extensive discography ranges from Bach’s complete solo cello suites (Gramophone’s instrumental album of the year) to late works by Tavener and, with Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Brahms double concerto. He plays the “Marquis de Corberon” Stradivarius of 1726, on loan from the Royal Academy of Music.
Shih, one of Canada’s most celebrated pianists, made her orchestral debut with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at age 9. She has performed extensively throughout Canada, Europe and the United States and has regularly appeared with Isserlis, including in chamber music recitals at Carnegie Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall.
