The Chelsea Music Festival has announced an upcoming evening of orchestral performances titled “Shelters in the Desert: An Evening with Hernández, León, Susman, Smirnov, Vu.” The event is scheduled for Friday, June 26, 2026, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at St. Paul’s German Lutheran Church, located at 315 West 22nd Street in New York City.

The Festival Chamber Orchestra will perform under the direction of conductor Ken-David Masur. The program features five works by living composers focused on the shared themes of water, memory, and transformation. Tickets for the evening are priced at $85.

The musical selection includes the world premiere of William Susman’s Clouds and Flames, a meditation on Philippe Petit’s 1974 tightrope walk between the World Trade Center towers. The orchestra will also perform the New York premieres of Ania Vu’s Water Realms and Grigory Smirnov’s Impromptu.

The performance concludes with J.E. Hernández’s Desert Shelter, which recounts stories of migrants crossing the Sonoran Desert, and a movement for strings from Tania León’s Esencia. A reception hosted by La Newyorkina will follow the concert.

Masur is currently serving his seventh season as the Music Director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and as the Principal Conductor of the Chicago Symphony’s Civic Orchestra. He was also recently announced as the Artistic Partner of the Oregon Bach Festival.

Born and raised in Leipzig, Germany, Masur previously studied at the Mendelssohn Academy and the Hanns Eisler Conservatory. During his time as an undergraduate student at Columbia University in New York, he served as the first music director of the Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus.

The Chelsea Music Festival operates the upcoming event in partnership with Steinway & Sons.