Medal Day

2026

Thank you for joining us for the weekend around Sunday, June 28, for MacDowell’s annual Medal Day celebration!

People sprawled across a green wooded lawn enjoy a picnic lunch

(Oriana Camara photo)

We were delighted to welcome the public back to MacDowell for this year’s Medal Day, featuring the presentation of the 66th Edward MacDowell Medal to acclaimed composer and musician artist Anthony Braxton.

The festivities included our Medal Day ceremony, featuring presentation remarks and a performance from Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey honoring Braxton's significant impact on jazz and the musical world at large, as well as acceptance remarks from Braxton.
We were also honored to hear remarks from MacDowell's new Board Chairman, Fellow Hernan Diaz.

Following the ceremony, guests enjoyed an open air picnic lunch and explored our historic 450 acre grounds - meeting the artists-in-residence working in our studios.

Thank you to all of our supporters and attendees around our many weekend activities for continuing this beloved tradition honoring the arts in New England!

Support MacDowell

Multi-instrumentalist, composer, and 66th Edward MacDowell Medalist Anthony Braxton

A group of people sit at a table set for dinner on grass under a white tent. A man at the head of the table raises his glass for a toast

Medalist Anthony Braxton raises a glass at the Medal Day Benefit (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

Five people pose for a formal photo while standing in front of bushes and a stone building

MacDowell Executive Director Chiwoniso Kaitano, Medal Day Selection Panel Chair and Presentation Speaker Dr. Tyshawn Sorey, Medalist Anthony Braxton, Board Chair and MacDowell Fellow Hernan Diaz, and Board President Christine Fisher (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

An older man with a blue shirt and dark blue jacket holds a small gold medal up in front of him

Braxton with the 66th Edward MacDowell Medal (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

A man in a white suit jacket stands behind a podium on stage

Board Chair and MacDowell Fellow Hernan Diaz on stage (Oriana Camara photo)

A group of people on stage smile and clap for a man in the center of the onstage group

Braxton accepts the 66th Edward MacDowell Medal (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

Braxton ends his remarks by sharing the importance of love and a shared commitment to bettering the world (Dan Kennedy photo)

A man in all black closes his eyes while playing a drum set onstage

Pulitzer Prize-winning multi-instrumentalist and composer Dr. Tyshawn Sorey performs a live solo drum performance (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

A table of picnic baskets full of salad containers

Medal Day picnic baskets catered by Fiddlehead Cafe (Dan Kennedy photo)

A group of people in colorful outfits sit and eat at a picnic table

Medalist and guests enjoy lunch after the ceremony (Dan Kennedy photo)

Executive Director Chiwoniso and guests relax and enjoy lunch (Oriana Camara photo)

A group of people walk down a dirt road lined with trees

Guests on the way to visit Putnam Studio (Dan Kennedy photo)

A woman in an artist studio looks down at white drawings on the stone floor

A guest looks at art in Fellow Susan Meyer's studio (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

Two people with their backs to the camera look at someone who faces the camera while wearing a mask in the shape of a house

Guests try on a mask in Fellow Shayna Strype's studio (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

A person crouches on the ground and touches a small object that's shadows reflect like a tree onto the wall behind them

MacDowell Fellow Strype (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

Visitors enter Heinz Studio (Dan Kennedy photo)

A man looks at a white wall with black and white drawings on it

A guest examines work in MacDowell Fellow jesse lovell's studio (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

A group of people talk and laugh inside an artist studio

Fellow jesse lovell with open studio visitors (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

A stone building with a large arched doorway and trees by the entrance

Alexander Studio (Beowulf Sheehan photo)

A woman stands inside a studio with colorful thread beside her and smiles away from the camera

MacDowell Fellow Tia Keobounpheng in her studio (Dan Kennedy photo)

A man speaks and points to a painting on a wall while other people stand and watch him

MacDowell Fellow Kelani Abass shows his work to guests (Dan Kennedy photo)

A number of pictures of people outside in different poses are tacked to a wall in rows

Photos in MacDowell Fellow Jeremy Dennis' studio (Dan Kennedy photo)

Three people with their backs to the camera stand and look at a group of pictures that are tacked up on a white wall

MacDowell Fellow Jeremy Dennis in his studio with open studio visitors (Dan Kennedy photo)

In celebration of music composition and the arts, we were excited to host free programs for the public in the week leading up to Medal Day. Thank you to our partners at the Hancock Farmers and Artisans Market, Historic Harrisville, the Peterborough Town Library, and artists Nate Chinen ('16), Du Yun ('22), Allison Bianco ('25), Mary Towse-Beck, and Witness Matlou for making the weekend possible!

Learn more

Anthony Braxton, Recipient of the 66th Edward MacDowell Medal

Anthony Braxton (born 1945), the Chicago-born composer and multi-instrumentalist, is recognized as one of the most important musicians, educators, and creative thinkers of the past 50 years. He is highly esteemed in the experimental music community for the revolutionary quality of his work and for the mentorship and inspiration he has provided to generations of younger musicians. Drawing upon a disparate mix of influences from John Coltrane to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Braxton has created a unique musical system that celebrates the concept of global creativity and our shared humanity. His work examines core principles of improvisation, structural navigation and ritual engagement - innovation, spirituality, and intellectual investigation.

From his early work as a pioneering solo performer in the late 1960s through to his eclectic experiments on Arista Records in the 1970s, his landmark quartet of the 1980s, and more recent endeavors, such as his cycle of Trillium operas and the day-long, installation-based Sonic Genome Project, his vast body of work is unparalleled. His small ensembles of the 1970s through to the present day are considered among the most innovative groups of their respective eras, while his Creative Orchestra Music has brought together the varying streams of American jazz orchestras, marching bands, and experimental practices with the traditions of European concert music in a wholly individual compositional voice. His continuing and evolving current systems of the past 15 years, including Ghost Trance Music, Diamond Curtain Wall Music, Falling River Music, Echo Echo Mirror House Music, and ZIM Music, have served as the artistic incubators for some of the most exciting artists of the current generation. Braxton’s many awards include a 1981 Guggenheim Fellowship, a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship, a 2013 Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a 2014 NEA Jazz Master Award, and honorary doctorates from Université de Liège (Belgium), New England Conservatory (USA) and the 2020 United States Artists Fellowship.

Medalist Announcement

Artist Page

About the Edward MacDowell Medal

The Edward MacDowell Medal has been awarded annually since 1960 to an individual artist who has made an outstanding contribution to their field. These artists include Leonard Bernstein, John Updike, Georgia O'Keeffe, I.M. Pei, Stephen Sondheim, and Toni Morrison. The artistic discipline in which the award is given rotates in order to celebrate all of the creative fields practiced at MacDowell. Following the ceremony, visitors enjoy a picnic lunch and tour open studios. Both the award ceremony and the open studios are free, and open to the public.

Anthony Braxton was chosen by this year’s Medal selection panel, chaired by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and multi-instrumentalist Tyshawn Sorey and compromising of luminaries of the arts world including Marcos Balter, Courtney Bryan, Susie Ibarra, Miya Masaoka, Matana Roberts, Alex Ross, Du Yun, and Fay Victor.

Medal Day History

Medal Day Host Committee

Co-chairs:
Monica Lehner
Jessica Quinn

Ellen and Ed Bernard
Eleanor Briggs
Ellen and Thomas Draper
Amelia Dunlop
Sarah Garland-Hoch
Frank Guerra and Scott Manning
Susie Hackler and Jason Reimers
Jeanne Henriques
Rosemary James
Emily Noelle Lambert
Mollie Miller
Jim Schachter
Jamie Trowbridge