Westerlies Fest 2026: 15th Anniversary Celebration

Closing night of Westerlies Fest 2026 features a celebration of the ensemble's 15th Anniversary. Join us to raise a glass to the past 15 years, and look ahead to the next 15!

The Westerlies, “an arty quartet…mixing ideas from jazz, new classical, and Appalachian folk” (The New York Times), hold a singular space in modern music. From Carnegie Hall to Coachella, the GRAMMY-nominated quartet has upended presumptions of the brass tradition to create music that is “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music).

Comprising Riley Mulherkar and Chloe Rowlands on trumpet and Andy Clausen and Addison Maye-Saxon on trombone, the ensemble has relentlessly composed, arranged, adapted, recorded, and toured over the past fifteen years with the precision of a string quartet, the audacity of a rock band, and the charm of a family sing-along. Across ten critically acclaimed albums, The Westerlies have earned “a unique reputation for exploring the emotional textures of American music” (DownBeat), championing living composers and collaborators including Caroline Shaw, Nico Muhly, Conrad Tao, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, and Robin Holcomb.

Full festival schedule at www.westerliesfest.org.

Photo by Kevin Condon