Welcome the longest day of the year with a luminous sunrise performance. Metropolis Ensemble presents Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons featuring violinist Francisco Fullana—a stunning reimagining of Vivaldi’s response to the natural world. Settle in to sunset with Metropolis Ensemble presenting Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons for string orchestra and solo violin, featuring violinist Francisco Fullana paired with composer and multi-instrumentalist Emily Wells, who fuses voice, violin, and electronics into something raw and urgent. Three centuries, three artists—Vivaldi, Richter, Wells—each turning toward nature: fragile, cyclical, powerfully alive. Grammy-nominated Metropolis Ensemble has been a driving force in contemporary music since its founding in 2006 by conductor Andrew Cyr. Over two decades, the ensemble has commissioned more than 450 new works and performed at venues including BAM, the Hollywood Bowl, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn, and Cosm's immersive domes in Los Angeles and Dallas.
The ensemble's recordings have earned a JUNO Award, two Grammy nominations, and recognition from the New York Times, NPR, and Gramophone. Recent highlights include a 2025 Grammy nomination for Timo Andres' The Blind Banister and a New York Times Best of 2025 citation for the opera In a Grove at the Prototype Festival.
The ensemble's multifaceted Biophony series with Brooklyn Botanic Garden (and NYC DOT) has brought free performances to over 30,000 audience members across New York City's five boroughs since 2021.
Forging a bridge between pop and chamber music, composer, producer, and video artist Emily Wells builds songs from deliberate strata of vocals, synths, drums, piano, other string, and wind instruments. Her evocative music (described as “visionary” by NPR) and performances (called “quietly transfixing” by the New York Times) impel listeners to be attuned.
Wells’s latest release, the ten-song album Regards to the End, explores the AIDS crisis, climate change, and her lived experience watching the world burn. A work of radical empathy, Regards to the End foregrounds the power of art, critique, and care to connect and perhaps redeem us.
Francisco Fullana, winner of the 2018 Avery Fisher Career Grant, has been hailed as an "amazing talent" by Gustavo Dudamel. A native of Mallorca, he has performed as soloist with ensembles ranging from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra to the baroque ensemble Apollo's Fire to Metropolis Ensemble.
His recordings have topped the Billboard Classical charts and earned Album of the Month honors from both Apple Music and BBC Music Magazine. A graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Madrid and the Juilliard School, Francisco performs on the 1735 "Mary Portman" ex-Kreisler Guarneri del Gesù violin, on loan through the Stradivari Society of Chicago.
Max Richter is one of the most influential composers of his generation, fusing classical technique and electronic technology across genre-defining solo albums and countless scores for film, dance, and art.
His ambitious projects include the landmark nine-hour album Sleep, the reimagining of Vivaldi's violin concertos in Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons, and his score for Wayne McGregor's ballet Woolf Works, alongside acclaimed records tackling human rights, migration, and the post-war world. His music has won him legions of fans worldwide and blazed a trail for a generation of musicians.
Sunrise
Sunset
Visitor Information
About the Artists
Metropolis Ensemble
Emily Wells
Francisco Fullana
Max Richter
Summer Solstice Celebration
Performances
Sunday, June 21, 2026
Sunrise Performance: 5:15–6 a.m.; Sunset Performance: 7:30–9 p.m.
Cherry Esplanade
Ticketed Event
Cherry Esplanade
Ticketed Event