ARC Ensemble’s 2025–26 Season: Rediscovery, Resonance, and Renewal

Published on October 27, 2025

The ARC Ensemble, internationally recognized for its Music in Exile series, embarks on a dynamic 2025–26 season defined by discovery, dialogue, and deep artistic commitment. Continuing its acclaimed mission of reviving music suppressed or forgotten due to persecution and displacement, ARC’s latest projects span continents, cultures, and decades.

Central to the season is the release of Music in Exile, Vol. 9: Chamber Works by Ernest Kanitz, arriving October 29, 2025, on Chandos Records. This recording captures the creative arc of the Austrian émigré, from his early Violin Sonata Op. 10—a lush, Straussian work performed by Glenn Gould School violinist Anna Štube—to the captivating Quintet for violin, viola, bass, clarinet, and piano composed in the late 1950s. It’s a vivid portrait of a composer whose music, while long overlooked, is rich in expression and structural finesse.

"The rediscovery of Kanitz has been particularly gratifying. His music is elegant and expressive, but also profoundly resilient. It’s a reminder of the cultural wealth that was nearly lost during one of history’s darkest chapters."

Simon Wynberg
ARC Artistic Director

In addition to the album release, ARC opened its performance season on October 8, at Montreal’s Salle Bourgie. On October 29, the ensemble will perform at Mazzoleni Hall at The Royal Conservatory, offering a preview of ARC’s upcoming New York appearance at Merkin Hall on November 15. That program focuses on three émigré composers with ties to New York: Frederick Block, Jerzy Fitelberg, and Arthur Willner.

Block and Fitelberg fled to the U.S. before WWII, living out their days in New York. Willner, though he never emigrated, is connected through his son Otto, who farmed in Pennsylvania and whose passing led to Arthur’s musical archive being entrusted to Manhattan’s Leo Baeck Institute. Joaquin Valdepeñas will revive Willner’s Clarinet Sonata, anchoring a special concert dedicated to the composer on April 12, 2026.

As part of the New York residency, Wynberg will present a lecture on Frederick Block at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium on November 13, offering valuable context to ARC’s musical explorations.

In January 2026, ARC travels to the U.K., performing in Manchester, Leeds, and Glasgow, before presenting a special three-concert retrospective at London’s Wigmore Hall on February 1. The tour is generously supported by the Sir Jack Lyons Charitable Trust.

Bringing to light powerful works nearly lost to history, ARC’s season is more than a concert schedule—it’s an ongoing act of cultural reclamation. Through performance, scholarship, and advocacy, ARC reaffirms the enduring power of music against the forces of silence and erasure.