Tippet Rise announces 2026 season of art and music

Tippet Rise Art Center, the sprawling venue that's turned the plains near Fishtail into a sort of open-air art museum, opens for hiking, biking, and sculpture van tours on June 19.

The center’s 15-mile trail system reopens with two major site-specific additions to the landscape: Mark di Suvero’s "Scythian" and Alicja Kwade’s new work "Causa Formalis."

And the center has also announced the program for their 11th annual concert season. Taking place from Aug. 14 to Sept. 13, the five-week season features more than 30 musicians. Concert tickets are available through a randomized drawing, for which registration is required.

The registration period opened on tippetrise.org on March 17 and close on April 6 at noon.

Concert season overview

Week One (Aug. 14-16)

The season opens with a mini festival featuring Schubert’s Octet and Piano Sonata in A Major, D. 959, with works by Bulgarian-British composer Dobrinka Tabakova and American composer Marc Mellits. An outdoor performance at the Domo will feature Beethoven’s Septet, interspersed with pieces by Caroline Shaw and Swedish composer Svante Henryson, and the world premiere of a Tippet Rise commission by Jessica Meyer for violin, horn, bassoon and bass. Featured musicians include violinists Alexi Kenney and Yura Lee, violist Natalie Loughran, cellist Oliver Herbert, bassist Nina Bernat, clarinetist Yasmina Spiegelberg, bassoonist Eleni Katz, hornist David Byrd-Marrow and Tippet Rise Artistic Advisor and pianist Pedja Mužijević.

Week Two (Aug. 21-23)

The first concert celebrates the legacy of the American Songbook with music by George Gershwin, Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers, among others, performed in a cabaret setting in the communal Will’s Shed by soprano Mireille Asselin, baritone Jesse Blumberg and pianist Richard Pearson Thomas. Then pianist Yekwon Sunwoo makes his Tippet Rise debut in the Olivier Music Barn with works by Respighi, Rachmaninoe and Liszt. The quickly emerging Trio Azura performs two programs: Rachmaninoe’s "Trio élégiaque" No. 1 coupled with Jennifer Higdon’s Piano Trio at the Geode, the art center’s remote, open-air acoustical venue sited in a panorama of seven surrounding mountain ranges; and trios from John Harbison, Schubert and Ravel in the Olivier Music Barn.

Week Three (Aug. 28-30)

Tippet Rise welcomes back the internationally renowned pianist Yulianna Avdeeva for an all-Chopin recital in the Olivier Music Barn, including the Mazurkas, Op. 30; "12 Études," Op. 25; and his Andante spianato et Grande polonaise brillante. The brass quartet The Westerlies performs an outdoor program at the Domo, featuring selections from the group’s “Songbook” recording project, celebrating a century of American music and including interpretations of works by Fleet Foxes, Joanna Newsom, Aoife O’Donovan, Anaïs Mitchell and Samora Pinderhughes. To bring the weekend to an end, accordionist Radu Ratoi will lead a concert as part of Tippet Rise’s "Wander" series, in which musicians and audiences move among different works of art within the art center’s central Cottonwood Campus. The program includes arrangements of works ranging from Rameau, Couperin and Bach, to Saint-Saëns and Liszt, and to Vladimir Vlasov, Paul Desmond and Piazzolla.

Week Four (Sept. 4-6)

Anderson & Roe, the Emmy-nominated piano duo, returns to Tippet Rise for two distinct programs, the first including their "Blue Danube Fantasy" and other arrangements of works from Brahms and Schubert, and arrangements of Radiohead, Sigur Rós, and The Beatles, coupled with classical works by Bach/Gounod, Ravel, Holst and Brahms. The Grammy-winning Takács Quartet makes its Tippet Rise debut and performs Haydn's String Quartet in C Major, Op. 20 No. 2, and Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden.” The week concludes with renowned British pianist Danny Driver’s performance, juxtaposing works by Debussy and Ligeti in the Olivier Music Barn.

Week Five (Sept. 11-13)

The final concert weekend begins with a performance by cellist Camille Thomas and pianist Julien Brocal at the Olivier Music Barn, featuring excerpts from their recently released album "RENDEZ-VOUS," Chopin’s Introduction et Polonaise brillante, and Grieg’s Cello Sonata. The following program presents flutist Jessica Sindell, violinists Gabrielle Després and Nathan Meltzer, violists Laura Liu and Samuel Rosenthal and cellists Arlen Hlusko and Sydney Lee in works by Mozart, Allison Loggins-Hull, Jesse Montgomery, and Tchaikovsky’s "Souvenir de Florence" at Will’s Shed. The last performance of the season is a recital by the internationally acclaimed pianist Jonathan Biss, works by Schumann, Kurtág, and Amy Beth Kirsten in the Olivier Music Barn.

Visitors attending Friday evening concerts are invited to pre-concert talks at the outdoor Tiara Acoustic Shell. The season also includes pop-up concerts and family concerts geared toward young children.

Detailed programs for Tippet Rise’s 2026 concert season are included at tippetrise.org/events.

Concert tickets

Concerts begin on August 14 and run through September 13 on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Concert tickets are priced at $10 and are free for those 21 and under. Pre-purchased tickets, which are required for concert admission, are available through a randomized drawing. For the latest information on ticketing, please sign up for the Tippet Rise e-newsletter.

Hiking, biking and sculpture van tours

Tippet Rise reopens to the public on June 19 for hiking, biking, and sculpture van tours of its monumental outdoor sculptures on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Self-guided hiking and biking on the art center’s 15-mile trail system are free for everyone. Van tours are priced at $10 and free to those under 21. Pre-registration, which is required of all guests, opens on the art center’s website on Wednesday, April 8 at 10 a.m.