Alexander Reinagle: Composing a Nation

Monday, July 20, 2026, 7:30 PM

Tickets

Presented by Other Minds, with the Center for Contemporary Music, Northeastern University, and Mills Performing Arts

Tickets: $23.18-$65.87
Free with a Northeastern ID
Registration Required

Celebrate the American semiquincentennial at this concert featuring the work of the federalist era’s Alexander Reinagle (1756–1809), friend of C.P.E. Bach, and George Washington’s favorite composer.

Alexander Reinagle was born in Edinburgh and emigrated to America in 1786. He soon established himself as Philadelphia’s most renowned musician, and after George Washington heard him at the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Washington engaged him to give piano lessons to Martha’s granddaughter, Nelly Custis. Nelly was ten when she began her instruction in 1789, and within a few years, Reinagle had completed several large Sonatas for the piano which are today known as the Philadelphia Sonatas. Although they were not published till long after his death, he performed them frequently at public concerts, and today they are regarded as the most significant keyboard music composed in Early America.

Presenting Reinagle’s work on both piano, as well as the more historically appropriate fortepiano, will be Stephen Siek, whose recording of the Philadelphia Sonatas remains the gold standard. Siek will also present commentary on the work as well as a lecture with projections illustrating the life and work of the composer.

This concert is sponsored by a generous donation from Gretchen Brosius.

This concert is part of Other Minds' PastForward piano series and is supported in part by a grant from the Ross McKee Foundation.