The New Gallery Concert Series, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, was founded by pianist and acting Artistic Director Sarah Bob in the fall of 2000. NewGal is a major contributor to Boston’s new music and new visual art community having hosted over 71 concerts with over 367 musical compositions, given more than 97 world premieres and showcased hundreds of works by just as many visual artists from around the world. With works that span the spectrum from classical-contemporary, improvisation, electronic music, jazz, folk, art song, opera, and the avant-garde to sculpture, painting, indoor installations, photography, graphic and children’s book illustrations, visual music, video art, and film, NewGal’s programs are cohesive, diverse, provocative, exciting, and intimate.

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NewGal is a small but solid organization committed to presenting the NOW, with all participants alive, inspired, and curious.  While our programs include care-free and joyful moments, we, as an organization, absolutely recognize our platform’s responsibility to confront relevant subjects that impact our entire society in hopes of making progressive change.  NewGal embraces its duty via the vibrancy of our outstanding artistic community to ensure that the many intelligent, passionate, and informative voices of our artists are heard loud and clear.  

 

Because NewGal provides a safe and friendly space for exploring challenging works, there is a strong bond between it and its community that allows NewGal to take more risks, create more appreciation for our living musicians and visual artists, invoke more dialogue both in and outside of the concert hall, and provide more creative opportunities for our participants.

 

NewGal’s longevity is evidence of its high quality output and mainstay in the community, committed to exposing the talent of countless and primarily local musicians and visual artists. In September 2019, …nobody move…Commissions and Premieres for the New Gallery Concert Series was released on Avie Records in honor of NewGal’s twentieth anniversary and received immediate international critical acclaim. Acting as co-presenters for over fifteen years, the New Gallery Concert Series and the Community Music Center of Boston provide the weekend long Young Composers Festival (YCF) every winter. Numerous students of all ages come to YCF at no cost to observe and create by composing, attending panel discussions, professional music readings, tutorials, concerts, and hands-on presentations that range from how to scratch like a D.J. to extended techniques on every instrument.  NewGal’s annual Call for Scores brings new (to us) composers and compositions to our venue from all over the world. Past NewGal concert, exhibition, and educational events outside of our regular season have included work with the South End Settlement House (Boston) and  residencies at the St. Cloud State University (MN), Eastern Nazerene College, and Clark University (MA) consisting of masterclasses, collaborations with faculty, panel discussions, and one on one time with students. NewGal has also had the opportunity to perform and/or present with outside organizations such as New Music Gathering, the Boston New Music Festival,  Museum of Fine Arts’ SoundBites Series (Boston),  New York University’s Frederick Loewe Theater, and Castle of our Skins. 

 

The New Gallery Concert Series has received many accolades. The list includes the first ever John Kleshinski Award in honor of NewGals’s daring, exciting and high quality presentations, support from the Trust for Mutual Understanding to give performances and presentations of contemporary American music in Bulgaria, support multiple times from the Boston Cultural Council, Aaron Copland Supplemental Program, Cambridge Arts Council among others, and the honor of being on the short list of presenters at Boston’s WGBH Classical Festival.  NewGal has been featured in the Boston Globe, the Boston Voyager’s “Boston’s Most Inspiring Stories,”   South End Gazette, JPGazette, 90.9WBUR’s “The ARTery,” 88.9’s “Not Brahms or Liszt,” and the the prestigious Sonus: A Journal of Investigation into Global Musical Possibilities featuring Sarah Bob’s article “NEW GALLERY CONCERT SERIES and WHY IT MATTERS.”  Most recently, just days after the release of NewGal’s debut album, ...nobody move... was named “Album of the Week '' by National Sawdust and “The Boston Area’s Best Recordings of 2019” by the Boston Globe. 

 

Ultimately, the New Gallery Concert Series is proud to have put many of our participants “on the map,” incited more commissions, more art sales, repeat performances, recordings, tours, published writings, collaborations, and connections beyond the series. Likewise, NewGal is just as proud to host a multitude of participants “already on the map” who believe in the work, the mission, and NewGal’s success, and simply want to be a part of the energy, optimism and exposure NewGal provides.  NewGal is a constant instigator and reminder that the arts are real, living, breathing, and that its connection with the audience is an important part of what makes it thrive.   Over twenty years later, the New Gallery Concert Series continues to provide exceptional new music and visual art, and promote 100% living, top notch participants, with a commitment to its community.  The New Gallery Concert Series thanks YOU, our donors, our funders, our volunteers, our patrons, and participants for your consistent and unflappable support.