Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts, New York City, announces the Winter 2026 season of its free POP-UP CONCERTS, January, February, March 2026.

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Miller Theatre’s hour-long, musician-curated Pop-Up Concerts—free, informal, and intimate—bring the audience right onto the stage. 2026 Winter programme attached.

We have received the following press release;

Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts
announces the winter season of
POP-UP CONCERTS
Free “happy hour” concerts with the audience onstage

Tuesday, January 27
Trinket Ensemble

Tuesday, February 17
Chico Pinheiro, guitar

Tuesday, March 3
Amy Williams, piano
Morton Feldman’s “Triadic Memories”

Free admission • Doors at 5:30PM, music at 6PM
at Miller Theatre (2960 Broadway at 116th Street)

Pop-Up Concerts
Onstage seating is first-come, first-served.
Concerts start at 6PM and doors open at 5:30PM.

Miller Theatre’s hour-long, musician-curated Pop-Up Concerts—free, informal, and intimate—bring the audience right onto the stage, inches from virtuoso performers who share not only their music but the stories behind it. The unique setting “feels closer to a loft party than a formal concert” (ODEA). One loyal audience member calls it “the greatest hour of culture in New York.”

“Some concerts are better shorter. That’s the premise behind this intimate happy-hour pop-up series, in which audience members can fortify themselves with a drink,
sit onstage with the musicians, and listen…”
— New York Magazine

“Even after the weekend’s over, if you’re craving world-class music, you can hear some for free at neighborhood gem The Miller Theater at Columbia University.”
— West Side Rag

“Miller’s superb series of short and perpetually satisfying Pop-Up concerts.”
– The New York Times

Tuesday, January 27
Trinket Ensemble
Alice Teyssier, flute; Modney, violin;
Daniel Lippel, guitar; Michael Nicolas, cello
Experience the debut of Trinket Ensemble—a vibrant new voice in the contemporary chamber music scene—uniting four acclaimed artists whose long history of performing together in other ensembles has forged a collaborative musical synergy. Renowned individually for their adventurous approach to new music, they bring together their shared artistry in a program featuring two world premieres.
Program:
Rick Burkhardt new work (2025) world premiere
Modney new work (2025) world premiere
Wang Lu Trinket (2013)
Beatriz de Dia (arr. Trinket) A chantar m’ér de ço qu’eu non volria

Tuesday, February 17
Chico Pinheiro, guitar
Brazilian-born guitarist and composer Chico Pinheiro—hailed by Jazz Weekly as “one of the most important and celebrated guitarists today”—captivated Miller audiences last season in his unforgettable duo performance with vocalist Luciana Souza. Now, for his Pop-Up Concerts series debut, he returns with an intimate set that blends Brazilian classics, jazz standards, and his own striking original compositions.

Tuesday, March 3
Amy Williams, piano
Morton Feldman’s “Triadic Memories”
Morton Feldman’s Triadic Memories (1981) is a 75-minute exploration of slowly evolving repetition, where exact repeats, minute variations, and subtle harmonic shifts invite deep, meditative listening. Pianist and composer Amy Williams first encountered Feldman’s music in childhood and has spent nearly three decades performing, studying, and recording his work. In honor of the 100th anniversary of his birth, Williams draws upon her extensive relationship with his music to bring rare depth and insight to this monumental solo composition.
Program:
Morton Feldman Triadic Memories (1981) for piano

About the Artists

Trinket Ensemble
Trinket is a brand new band whose members have played together for over a decade. Made up of new music luminaries Dan Lippel (guitars), Modney (violin), Michael Nicolas (cello), and Alice Teyssier (voice and flutes), the ensemble began over a series of lunch outings at various New York City diners. At first, simply to talk shop about the new music scene, it slowly developed into the idea of forming an ensemble, then quickly expanded into discussing programming and commissioning ideas, and ultimately resulting in full-blown performance-seeking behavior. Trinket is a name that suggests joy and play, containing the elements of both the ephemeral and meaningful, and it is in this spirit that we have joined together as a group, for the pleasure of making music with one another.

Chico Pinheiro, guitar
http://www.chicopinheiro.com
Chico Pinheiro is an acclaimed Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger known for his distinctive blend of Brazilian music, classical, and jazz. Born in São Paulo, he began playing guitar at age 6 and started working professionally as a session musician by 14, and released his debut album Meia Noite Meio Dia (Sony, 2003) to wide critical praise, followed by Chico Pinheiro (2005), NOVA (2007) with Anthony Wilson, and There’s a Storm Inside (2010), which featured Dianne Reeves and Bob Mintzer and earned multiple Latin jazz awards, including Best Brazilian Jazz Album and Best Latin Jazz Composition for “Mamulengo.” He has been named “Rising Star Guitarist” multiple times in DownBeat Magazine’s Critics Poll. Pinheiro was nominated consecutively for the Grammy Award in the Best Latin Jazz Album category in 2020 and 2021, the latter for his album City of Dreams. His 2024 release Two Brothers (with Romero Lubambo) was nominated for the Prêmio da Música Brasileira—often referred to as the Brazilian Grammy. Alongside his main projects as leader, Pinheiro has collaborated widely with artists across jazz, classical, and Brazilian music, including Brad Mehldau, Dianne Reeves, Kurt Elling, Dave Grusin, Herbie Hancock, Brian Blade, Ron Carter, Chris Potter, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Ivan Lins, Rosa Passos, João Donato, and Luciana Souza.

Amy Williams
http://www.amywilliamsmusic.com
Amy Williams is a composer of music that is “simultaneously demanding, rewarding and fascinating” (Buffalo News), “fresh, daring and incisive” (Fanfare), and “curious and playful” (The New York Times). Her work has been featured at major contemporary music festivals and venues including the Lucerne Festival, Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Time:Spans, and the Gaudeamus Festival, and has been performed by leading contemporary music soloists and ensembles such as Ursula Oppens, Tony Arnold, Robert Black, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Wet Ink, Talujon, the International Contemporary Ensemble, and H2 Saxophone Quartet. Her music appears on the Albany, Parma, VDM (Italy), Blue Griffin, Centaur, and New Ariel labels. Williams’s honors include a Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University, Guggenheim Fellowship, Fromm Music Foundation Commission, Koussevitsky Music Foundation Commission, Fulbright Scholars Fellowship, 2022 MacDowell Fellowship, 2024 Arts and Letters Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the 2024 Henri Lazarof International Commission Prize from Brandeis University. She holds a Ph.D. in composition from the University at Buffalo, is Professor of Composition at the University of Pittsburgh, and serves as Artistic Director of the New Music on the Point Festival in Vermont.

Miller Theatre
http://www.millertheatre.com
One of New York City’s most vital music venues, Miller Theatre at Columbia University is a thriving home for contemporary and early music that serves audiences, composers, and musicians. Founded in 1988, Miller’s mission is to develop new audiences; foster enthusiasm for the arts by pioneering new programming approaches; educate the public by presenting specialized programs to a broad audience; discover diverse repertoire and commission new works; and share the University’s intellectual riches with the public. Led by Executive Director Melissa Smey, Miller Theatre sparks engagement and personal connections to music through distinctive live performances and is deeply committed to fostering collaborative relationships with the composers and musicians who make this possible.

Miller Theatre’s 2025-26 Season is supported by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, the Howard Gilman Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, and the Howard and Sarah D. Solomon Foundation.