Our Artists

We find the next leaders—and give them the stage, studio, and support to get there.

Our GRAMMY-nominated orchestral collective is production house for new music because of the caliber of our artists and unique creative process. We gather and support consequential early-career to mid-career composers and performers with what actually moves the needle—premieres, studio recordings, and site-specific projects—so the work travels and careers launch.

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Who we select and how

  • High-potential recent graduates and emerging performers—often prizewinners and alumni of Juilliard, Yale, Curtis, NEC, MSM, and Eastman—poised for major debuts, leadership roles, and recorded milestones.

  • Invitation-only, driven by project fit. We identify talent through Metropolis productions, trusted referrals, and relationships that grow from workshops into premieres and definitive recordings.

  • Ideation → Workshops → residencies → concerts and premieres → definitive recordings. Each step is resourced (rehearsal time, producing/engineering, artistic planning), keeping the composer’s language at the center.

  • Our roster reflects the next leaders of the field:

    Performer alumni now lead on top stages: concertmasters include Frank Huang (NY Phi), Erin Keefe (Minnesota Orchestra), Andrew Wan (OSM), Noah Geller (Seattle Symphony), and Josef Špaček (Czech Philharmonic) and win major competitions and prizes. Early investments in our composers have translated into Pulitzer-prizes, Guggenheims, Grammy Awards, and Rome Prizes for our artists.

    Our roster is continually evolving as we support the next generation of musical leaders.

Select Collaborators

  • Timo Andres

    COMPOSER • PIANO

    Blind Banister album with Metropolis; commissions and premieres across venues. Best-of-Year (New York Times, NPR, Gramophone); 2025 GRAMMY nomination (Best Engineered Album).

  • Ricardo Romaneiro

    COMPOSER • ELECTRONICS

    SoundGarden at Brooklyn Botanic Garden (all seven conservatories); LIQUIDVERSE at COSM domes.
    Long-form Metropolis collaborator across labs to arena-scale immersion.

  • Immanuel Wilkins

    SAXOPHONE • COMPOSER

    Co-commission with DACAMERA; cross-genre projects with Metropolis. Leads the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet; national appearances.

  • Kristin Lee

    VIOLIN

    Founder of Seattle’s acclaimed Emerald City Music. Winner: Avery Fisher Career Grant; chamber and concerto leader.

  • Avi Avital

    MANDOLIN

    Avner Dorman Mandolin Concerto with Metropolis (GRAMMY-nominated).
    Global mandolin soloist and recording artist with Deutsche Gramophone.

  • Vivian Fung

    COMPOSER

    Winner: Canada’s JUNO Award for Best Composition. Deep Metropolis collaborator.

  • Henry Wang

    VIOLIN • LEADER

    Metropolis sessions mainstay—precision and fire; leads bespoke string ensembles in premieres and studio dates. Recent: Chamber lead on new commissions; featured concertmaster for project-driven orchestras.

  • Erika Dohi

    PIANO • COMPOSER • SERIES LEAD

    Launches Shinboku at Rivington—process-as-performance with vintage analogue instruments (Forgotten Futures). Recent: Myth of Tomorrow album celebration; Fairlight-driven live set; artist talks + works-in-progress.

  • Emi Ferguson

    FLUTE • VOICE

    Genre-bridging soloist bringing lyricism to Metropolis’s cross-scene concerts and studio work. Recent: Featured in DACAMERA collaboration alongside Roscoe Mitchell; Metropolis residencies & premieres.

  • Erik Hall

    COMPOSER • ARRANGER • MULTI-INSTRUMENTALIST

    Metropolis collaborator reimagining icons for large forces with electric guitars, keys, and voices. Recent: World-premiere Canto Ostinato (50 percussionists with Sandbox) and Music for 18 Musicians (sunset Solstice).

  • Nicky Sohn

    COMPOSER

    Fresh, kinetic orchestral voice; writes with rhythmic bite and cinematic color for Metropolis bespoke ensembles. Recent: New Metropolis commissions in development; workshop-to-stage path slated for season reveal.

See the full living roster

Andrew Cyr

Grammy-nominated conductor — Visionary Founder & Artistic Director. Creative catalyst for new music—conductor, producer, and builder of platforms where breakthrough work happens.

  • Andrew founded Metropolis Ensemble in 2006 and pairs creative direction with hands-on producing: spotting consequential voices early, assembling bespoke ensembles, and engineering the pathway from ideas to major stages.

    “I founded Metropolis to renew what, for me, is the heart of the classical music tradition: a true sense of occasion—expert players assembled, a living composer at the center, and audiences poised to share musical creativity in its most vital forms.” —Andrew Cyr, 2025

Creative process

  • Artist-first scaffolding: composer’s language at the center; studio as a second stage.

    Bespoke ensembles and places: assemble the right players in the right room; intentional team-building and site-matching that sparks artistic alchemy

    Cross-genre fluency: classical, jazz, indie/electronic; projects designed to travel—from site-specific spaces to headline venues.

    • GRAMMY®: 2025 nomination (Best Engineered Album, Classical) — Timo Andres: The Blind Banister; 2010 nomination — Avner Dorman: Mandolin Concerto (Avi Avital).

    • Year-end best lists: NYT, NPR Music, Gramophone for The Blind Banister (2024).

    • NYT Best Classical Recordings (2023): In a Grove (Cerrone/Fleischmann); NYT Best Classical Music of 2025, So Far: Prototype production citing Metropolis’s “shimmering performance.”

    • JUNO Award: Vivian Fung’s Violin Concerto (commissioned/recorded by Metropolis).

    • 450+ commissions under his leadership; alumni now concertmasters at NY Phil, Minnesota, OSM, Seattle, Czech Phil.

    • BAM Next Wave: Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia (music director/producer; multi-org, international tour).

    • Questlove & The Roots: Shuffle Culture, Electronium: The Future Was Then; Metropolis on Undun and …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin; appearance on The Tonight Show.

    • Major stages: Hollywood Bowl (with Bon Iver), Radio City Music Hall, The Met Museum, Lincoln Center, Celebrate Brooklyn, Prototype Festival, Brooklyn Steel, National Sawdust, (Le) Poisson Rouge, Cité de la Musique (Paris), Place des Arts (Montréal), Hamer Hall (Melbourne), The Public Theater, Colorado Symphony.

  • For artists
    Have a project that needs the right ensemble and production partner? We invite through existing relationships and referrals. Share your work and what you want to make next.

    For presenters/partners
    We co-develop premieres, site-specific projects, and studio recordings that meet your audience where they are—on stage, outdoors, and on record.

“Precise, rhythmically incisive and fluid… panache and bravura in new music.”

— Esa-Pekka Salonen

Artistic snapshot

    • GRAMMY-nominated orchestral collective + nonprofit production house (NYC).

    • We build the ensemble around the idea and make the work travel: workshops → premieres → definitive studio recordings → major stages.

    • Cross-genre by design (classical/jazz/indie/electronic), treating the studio as a second stage.

    • Albums crafted for spatial/Atmos listening

    • Recent project: Sarah Kirkland Snider album—8 months of tracking/editing led by a multiple Grammy-winning engineer Silas Brown to achieve clarity/transparency aligned with the composer’s orchestration.

    • Timo Andres — The Blind Banister: GRAMMY nomination (Best Engineered Album, Classical; 2025). Year-end “Best of” lists (NYT, NPR, Gramophone).

    • Christopher Cerrone/Stephanie Fleischmann — In a Grove: decade-long development (workshops, 1 Rivington, residencies), Metropolis recording named NYT Best Classical Recordings of 2023; Prototype production cited in NYT Best Classical Music of 2025, So Far with praise for Metropolis’s “shimmering performance.”

    • Roscoe Mitchell — Metropolis Trilogy: co-commission/premiere at DACAMERA with Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, Ruckus, Emi Ferguson.

    • Questlove & The Roots: Shuffle Culture and Electronium: The Future Was Then (BAM Next Wave); Metropolis on Undun and …And Then You Shoot Your Cousin; appearance on The Tonight Show.

    • Ricardo Romaneiro — LIQUIDVERSE: immersive A/V symphony premiered at COSM (Los Angeles & Dallas; 87-ft 12K LED domes).

    • Brooklyn Botanic Garden (2024–25, Solstice):

      • Sunrise: Matthew Evan Taylor — Afropneuma (guided breathwork/communal drones).

      • Sunset: Erik Hall — Music for 18 Musicians (Reich) reimagined for guitars, keys, voices + ensemble; and earlier Hall — Canto Ostinato for 50 percussionists with Sandbox Percussion.

    • Bangsokol: A Requiem for Cambodia (Him Sophy/Rithy Panh/Cambodian Living Arts): premiered BAM Next Wave; toured Paris, Melbourne, Phnom Penh, Taipei, Boston, Montreal.

    • Site-specific: Ragnar Kjartansson — SS Hangover (Central Park’s Harlem Meer with Creative Time & Central Park Conservancy); Jakub Ciupiński — Brownstone (The Phillips Collection, DC).

    • Caroline Rose @ Brooklyn Steel: orchestral re-imagining of indie repertoire.

    • Hollywood Bowl (with Bon Iver)

    • BAM

    • The Met Museum

    • Lincoln Center

    • Celebrate Brooklyn

    • Brooklyn Steel

    • New Victory Theater

    • Prototype Festival

    • Cité de la Musique

    • Place des Arts

    • Hamer Hall

    • Radio City Music Hall

    • Le Poisson Rouge

    • National Sawdust

    • Biophony (with NYC DOT): month-long, free, citywide festival; 55 commissions, 650+ NYC musicians, 125+ performances, 30k+ listeners since 2021.

    • BBG collaboration (2021–25; 40k+ visitors):

      • Biophony Festival (’21–’22): 25 pods, 95+ performers, 15 world premieres across 52 acres.

      • Biophony: SoundGarden (’23): all 7 indoor conservatories turned into sensor-driven, binaural soundbathwith live ensemble (co-devised with BBG horticulture).

      • Solstice (’24–’25): sunrise/sunset programs (see above).

    • Our pop-up lab for fast-turnaround projects (2017–20): 100+ nearly sold-out shows, immersive concerts, open rehearsals, interactive formats; pay-what-you-wish access; returns Fall 2025.

    • Artist-in-Residence strand launches with Erika Dohi’s Shinboku (with Forgotten Futures’ vintage instruments; features Fairlight CMI), plus album-release performances (Myth of Tomorrow).

    • Youth Works (since 2006): tuition-free composition program for under-resourced NYC students

    • Noteflight curriculum, composer mentoring, live reads with Metropolis players, high-quality recordings

    • Showcases at LPR, Symphony Space, The Players Theater

    • Press from NYT, WNYC, WQXR/Q2, Time Out.

    • Supported hundreds of weekly new digital commissions (House Music), Metropolis Radio playlists, Flame Keepers perpetual web installation (52 composers/year)

    • Free Assembly virtual festival

    • The Met Museum IGTV: Life Returns (Matthew Evan Taylor; ~242k viewers)

    • Kennedy Center short film—A Christmas Story (Edison) with score by Ricardo Romaneiro.

    • Labels: Nonesuch, New Amsterdam, Merge, Naxos.

    • JUNO Award (Vivian Fung, Violin Concerto).

    • GRAMMY history: Avner Dorman: Mandolin Concerto (2010 nom); contribution to David Frost’s Producer of the Year (2014, Home Stretch); The Blind Banister (2025 nom).

    • Cross-genre features: The Roots, Emily Wells, Wye Oak.

By the Numbers:

  • 450+ commissions

  • 2 GRAMMY nominations

  • Best-of-Year (New York Times, NPR, Gramophone) 

Season Focus:

  • Prototype

  • Solstice

  • Biophony

  • Recordings

  • Rivington