Stave Sessions

Stave Sessions 2026

Get ready for four nights of eclectic, outstanding, fascinating contemporary music when Stave Sessions returns to Davis Square's Crystal Ballroom, February 18-21

Every night offers something new: debuts, new works, and masterpieces, reimagined. Electronics, effects, and sampled sound sit side by side with in-the-moment virtuosity.

yMusic, up-for-anything artistic partners for musicians of all kinds, shares an evening of convention-defying yet accessible chamber music.

Dublin Guitar Quartet brings Stravinsky's mighty Rite of Spring to an intimate club setting.

Ringdown—Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan—delivers the big feelings and the big ideas in their "cinematic electropop."

Elisapie translates iconic pop and rock hits, each tied to an indelible memory from her childhood in Nunavik, into Inuktitut for an evening of moving and deeply authentic covers and originals.

yMusic

Wednesday, February 18 at 8pm

Boundary-defying sextet yMusic creates music that welcomes you in, blending the soaring beauty of classical chamber ensembles with the fresh energy, and accessibility of popular music.

Dublin Guitar Quartet

Thursday, February 19 at 8:00pm

Called “a quartet with a difference” by the Irish Times, the Dublin Guitar Quartet is the first classical guitar quartet dedicated to modern and contemporary music. The must-hear program features works by Bryce Dessner, Rachel Grimes, Marc Mellits, and Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, arranged for four guitars.

Ringdown

Friday, February 20 at 8:00pm

Grounded in Danni Lee Parpan’s soulful folk/pop vocals and songwriting and launched into the abstract by Caroline Shaw’s boundary-breaking composition and performance techniques, Ringdown’s music is both intimate and expansive.

Elisapie

Saturday, February 21 at 8pm

In a must-hear concert, Elisapie reinvents iconic pop and rock songs, beautifully and with intention, in the Inuit language Inuktitut.

“Stave Sessions, presented by the Celebrity Series of Boston, is dedicated to sharing a diverse array of top-level musicians in a relaxed concert format.”
Anne Goldberg-Baldwin I care if you listen

Crystal Ballroom Somerville Th - Crystal Ballroom

Past Season Stave Sessions Artists

2023

Sō Percussion & Shodekeh
Wild Up
Yasmin Williams
Craig Taborn & Tomeka Reid

2022
No festival

2021 (Digital)

Cristina Pato

Kinan Azmeh

Mark Lettieri Group

Meklit

Sid Sriram

Spektral Quartet

Sybarite5 with special guest Ehsan Matoori

2020
Canceled

2019
Anna & Elizabeth
Edmar Castañeda
LADAMA
Oracle Hysterical and musicians from A Far Cry
Tigue and Arooj Aftab

2018
Jazzmeia Horn
House of Waters
Ensemble Mik Nawooj
Claire Chase and My Brightest Diamond
Bent Knee with Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Percussion Ensemble

2017
yMusic
Melissa Aldana
Darcy James Argue's Secret Society
TIGUE and Innov Gnawa

2016
3 Sudacas / Mixcla
Sybarite5
Kneebody + Daedelus = Kneedelus
My Brightest Diamond
Sam Amidon and Glenn Kotche
Sō Percussion with Buke and Gase

2015
Banda Magda (Opening: Chorobop)
Gabriel Kahane (Opening: Kate Davis)
Roomful of Teeth
Ben Sollee and Becca Stevens Band
Brooklyn Rider
Third Coast Percussion