2026 Spring Open House (Sun, April 19, 2026)

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 17:00:00 GMT

The Percy Grainger Society (PGS) announces its 2026 Spring Open House, to be held on Sunday, April 19, from 1pm to 4pm at the Percy Grainger Home and Studio, 7 Cromwell Place, White Plains, New York. The event features a new art exhibit and a house tour scheduled at 2.30pm.

Artistic, creative, and innovative, Percy Grainger was very much a multifaceted artist. In addition to his work as a musician and composer, Grainger drew and painted from an early age and was a talented visual artist. Paper, Line, Color: Percy Grainger as a Visual Artist seeks to showcase the range of Grainger’s work as an artist while sharing his interests, inspiration, and working process. On display, objects from the PGS collection will include childhood drawings, paintings, sheet music, and prototypes for many of his graphics, alongside samples of beadwork and embroidery that reveal Grainger’s creative range and his appreciation of folk art from cultures around the world.

“We are delighted to host our sixth annual Spring Open House,” said Dr. Paul Jackson, president of the Percy Grainger Society. “This year’s event honors the generous gift of 500 daffodil bulbs from the White Plains Beautification Foundation, which will bring even more light and color to the Grainger House. In the spirit of giving back to our community, we’re continuing Percy Grainger’s legacy as a multifaceted artist and philanthropist. Over the years, our Spring Open Houses have featured memorable performances—including saxophone concerts, recitals by two distinguished pianists, and a multimedia exhibit that reflected Grainger’s life and artistry.

Visitors are invited to explore the historic Percy Grainger Home and Studio, where the composer lived and worked from 1921 until his death in 1961, and which today remains furnished much as it was during his lifetime. The 2.30pm tour will offer guests an in-depth look at Grainger’s living and working spaces, highlighting connections between his musical innovations and his visual creativity. Throughout the afternoon, PGS docents will be on hand to answer questions about Grainger’s life, his music, and the newly featured visual art materials.

The Percy Grainger Society was chartered by the New York State Board of Regents in 1964, with a mission to promote the work and legacy of Percy Grainger through a membership community that preserves his historic house, encourages appreciation and performance of his music, and promotes a deeper understanding of the cultural, social, and economic context of his life and work. For over forty years, the Percy Grainger Home and Studio has been a mainstay of the Society’s focus and houses a rich collection of Grainger’s music, memorabilia, artifacts, and visual art.

"Music: A Commonsense View of all Types”: Grainger’s Lecture for NYU and ABC (Thu, May 14, 2026)

Thu, 14 May 2026 20:00:00 GMT

This meeting considers Grainger’s lecture series, “A General Study of the Manifold Nature of Music,” delivered at New York University in 1932, and “Music: A Commonsense View of all Types”, delivered for the Australian Broadcasting Commission between 1934 and 1935.

The notes for these lectures, a version of which was published in full in for the first time in The Grainger Journal, 21/1 (July 2025), reveal much about Grainger’s conception of the development of the world’s music as cultural phenomena that share correspondences both of technical means, and of aesthetic and emotional values. Grainger’s analyses of a wide range of music in the lecture notes are, by turns, precise and scientific, and meandering and misguided, but are centered around the notion that “the highest flights of music are a spiritualizing influence inducing contemplation and rapture and leading mankind toward a more peaceful, harmonious and angelic life”, sentiments that remain pertinent today.

This meeting concludes the Percy Grainger Society’s 2025–26 members’ meeting series, Grainger the Educator, a celebration of Percy Grainger’s often overlooked yet enduring influence as a teacher and educator. This three-part series addressed Grainger’s innovative educational approach and spirit in a variety of settings, including his work at the National Music Camp, Interlochen, and his lecture series for New York University, and for the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Paul Jackson is a pianist, conductor, musicologist, lecturer, examiner, and education consultant based in Cambridge, UK. He was Head of Music and Performing Arts and Director of Music and Performance at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge from 1998 to 2018, before returning to a freelance career. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, with a PhD in Musicology, he has taught widely across performance, composition, technology, and musicology. Active as both pianist and conductor, he performs as a soloist, and as a chamber musician, and as musical director for a number of orchestras and choirs. An authority on Percy Grainger, he is Editor of The Grainger Journal, President of the Percy Grainger Society, and, since 2023, has been co-lead on the GLOSS project.

Percy Grainger Society upcoming events

2026 Spring Open House (Sun, April 19, 2026)

"Music: A Commonsense View of all Types”: Grainger’s Lecture for NYU and ABC (Thu, May 14, 2026)