Dear friends,

As summer fades and autumn approaches, we’re excited to share a first look at our 2025–2026 season! This year brings new collaborations with composers and orchestras, opportunities to work with students and universities, and travels to new destinations.

We open the season with a recital at the Summit Chamber Music Society in West Virginia. From there, we’ll head to Cape Cod and Tanglewood, followed by Springfield, Missouri on November 8th, where we’ll perform Viet Cuong’s Re(new)al with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra—the first of six performances of this piece on our calendar. Re(new)al has been a cornerstone for Sandbox in recent years, and we’re thrilled to share it with new audiences in:

• Springfield, Missouri (November 8th)
• Durham, North Carolina (November 20th)
• Topeka, Kansas (January 24th)
• Williamsburg, Virginia (March 3rd)
• Columbus, Ohio (for two concerts!) (March 27th and March 28th)

Re(new)al by Viet Cuong, performed with the Mannes Orchestra in April of 2025.

At the close of our season, we’ll reunite with the Albany Symphony and Maestro David Alan Miller—the team that originally commissioned Re(new)al—to premiere a brand-new work for percussion quartet and orchestra by Viet Cuong. Collaborating with Viet is always a special experience for us, and we can’t wait to hear what beautiful music he spins out next.

We’re also embarking on a new collaboration with composer Andy Akiho—this time with Andy not only writing the music, but also joining us on stage as a performer. Commissioned in part by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 2024, the work will unfold over the next two seasons. One movement, Pentalateral I, is already complete and available now as a single on all streaming platforms. Throughout this season, we’ll continue to create and record additional movements, with premieres in select venues—including a performance this October at KANEKO in Omaha, the arts center founded by Jun and Ree Kaneko. The full work will be completed in summer 2026.

Canto Ostinato with Matthew Aucoin and Conor Hanick at Lincoln Center this past July.

Sandbox Percussion and violinist Soovin Kim with Joan Tower. Photo taken after the world premiere of Tower’s To Sing or Dance at Chamber Music Northwest in 2024.

In the spring, we’ll team up with powerhouse violinist Kristin Lee—now part of Sandbox’s family after marrying our Victor Caccese this summer (!!!)—for recitals in Seattle, Olympia, Maryland, and right here in New York City with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. These programs will feature works by Joan Tower, Gabriella Smith, Vivian Fung, and Lou Harrison, with each piece finding new ways to spotlight the vibrant interplay between violin and percussion quartet.

There’s so much to look forward to this season, and we hope to see you at one of our upcoming concerts. Visit our events page to find out when we’ll be in your area.

As always, thank you for being part of our community.

— Ian, Jonny, Terry, and Victor