92NY presents Parker Ramsay, harp with Special Guest Charlotte Mundy, voice

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents Parker Ramsay, harp on Friday, May 9, 2025 at 7:30pm ET at Buttenwieser Hall at The Arnhold Center and online. Tickets start at $40 for in person and $25 for online streaming and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/parker-ramsay. Online streaming is available 72 hours following the performance.

The artist pushing the harp – and the repertoire for it – into the future, Parker Ramsay joins for his first 92NY appearance. A musician of tremendous artistry and intellect, Ramsay performs the premieres of new works by three of today’s most forward-looking composers: Marcos Balter, Aida Shirazi, and Artun Çekem, juxtaposing amazing new sound worlds with a transcription of a Baroque work that might have been heard at the court of Louis XIV. Experience the harp’s timeless beauty, mystery, and stunning new sonic possibilities, as Ramsay performs on four different harps, blending their distinctive sounds with electronics on the Shirazi and Çekem works, all bringing new relevance and possibilities to an enchanting ancient instrument.

The program will include:

PARKER RAMSAY, harp

with special guest CHARLOTTE MUNDY, voice

MARCOS BALTER Omolu (New York premiere)

AIDA SHIRAZI A Dream Within a Dream (world premiere)

ROBERT DE VISÉE Suite in A Minor, “La Royalle” (trans. Parker Ramsay)

ARTUN ÇEKEM HARP (Haptic Adaptive Remembrance Processor)

Aida Shirazi’s A Dream Within a Dream was commissioned by The 92nd Street Y, New York.

Parker Ramsay has forged a career defying easy categorization. Equally at home on modern and period harps, he pursues his passions in tackling new and underperformed works and bringing his instrument to new audiences. Recent and upcoming performances include solo performances at Alice Tully Hall, the Miller Theatre at Columbia University, the Phillips Collection, Cal Performances, Shriver Hall, IRCAM, King’s College, Cambridge, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA. He has collaborated with ensembles such Mark Morris Dance Group, Latitude 49, Apollo’s Fire, the Van Kuijk Quartet and has undertaken residencies at the University of California, San Diego, Princeton University and IRCAM. In 2021, he premiered Omolu, a new work for amplified harp by Marcos Balter, commissioned by the Miller Theatre at Columbia University for its podcast series Mission: Commission. His last album, released in 2022, features The Street, a concert-length work for solo harp and text by Nico Muhly and Alice Goodman. Ramsay performed the work last season at UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance and Cal Performances at the University of California Berkeley, making his debut in those venues. In 2023, he made his Paris debut with Josh Levine’s Anyway, a new work for harp and electronics commissioned by IRCAM. Other recent international debuts include the Gaudeamus Festival in The Netherlands, performing LucyMcKnight’s when i am among the trees; Latitude 49’s Sound Atlas Festival in Calgary; and an evening-length work for harp and voice by Connor Way and Iarla Ó Lionáird in Dublin. Alongside gambist Arnie Tanimoto, Parker is co-director of A Golden Wire, a period instrument ensemble based in New York. He has presented talks, performances and lectures on period instruments at the Smithsonian Collection, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Mellon University, Chatham Baroque and the Royal Academy of Music, London. As a writer, he has been published in VAN Magazine, EMAg (the magazine of Early Music America), The Washington Post and The New York Times. Raised in Tennessee, Parker began harp studies with his mother, Carol McClure. He served as organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge before pursuing graduate studies at Oberlin and Juilliard. In 2014, he was awarded First Prize at the Sweelinck International Organ Competition.

Canadian soprano Charlotte Mundy has been dubbed a "daredevil with an unbreakable spine" (SF Classical Voice), “mesmerizing” (New York Times), and is the only awardee of the Jan Degaetani prize for Contemporary Song from the Joy in Singing Competition. As a founding member of TAK ensemble, Mundy has performed at Lincoln Center and the Library of Congress, premiering works by Tyshawn Sorey, Erin Gee, Eric Wubbels and Natacha Diels. Mundy is also a core member of the Ekmeles vocal ensemble, described as "beyond expert – almost frightening in their precision” by Fanfare magazine and recipients of the Ernst von Siemens Ensemble Prize. Past solo performances include many world premieres and critically acclaimed renditions of modern masterpieces like Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Boulez's Le Marteau sans maître, Feldman's Three Voices, George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, and a set of music for voice and electronics presented by New York Festival of Song, described as "an oasis of radiant beauty" by The New York Times. Mundy is the vocal soloist on the studio recording of Bekah Simms’ 2022 Juno award winning composition Bestiary I & II, and her recent record The Sea, with composer Francisco del Pino, has been widely praised. She was born in Toronto and lives in Brooklyn.

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit www.92NY.org.