Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum: Celebrating Chrysanthemums

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s annual John Lowell Gardner Chrysanthemum Installation inspires Celebrating Chrysanthemums concert on Sunday, October 25, an exploration of the flower as artistic muse hosted by the Gardner’s Stanley P. Kozak Director of Horticulture Erika Rumbley and Abrams Curator of Music George Steel, who will also read related poems, letters, and horticultural texts. An all-star cast performs music by Jules Massenet, Léo Delibes, Giacomo Puccini, Scott Joplin, Dora Pejačević, Nikolai Harito, William Penn, Zbigniew Maciejowski, Ernesto Lecuona, Tōru Takemitsu, Xiaogang Ye, and Juantio Becenti.

The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum’s Fall 2026 Weekend Concert Series features a ten-concert autumn season curated by Abrams Curator of Music George Steel held on select Sundays from September 13 through November 22, 2026. The fall season showcases world-class artists in the Museum’s extraordinary Calderwood Hall—a 300-seat “sonic cube” with three levels of balconies designed so that 80% of seats are front row, creating a uniquely intense and intentional listening experience. Dating to 1927, the Gardner’s Weekend Concert Series is the longest running museum music program in the country.