From Standing Ovations to Surprise DJ Sets: Inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 2026 BAM Ball

May 1, 2026 / Sophie Clearwater /

Talib Kweli at the BAM Ball afterparty. Getty Images for BAM

The Brooklyn Academy of Music has never been conventional, and the same is true of its much-anticipated spring benefit gala, the annual BAM Ball. Earlier this week, a culturally clued-in crowd convened in the cavernous Adam E. Max Gathering Space for a monochromatically outfitted evening that moved from cocktails and the step-and-repeat through to a seated dinner and speechifying and finally, the New York premiere of Robert Wilson’s acclaimed Moby Dick—a production that transforms Herman Melville’s saga of obsession and vengeance via tart dialogue and soaring ballads by British singer-songwriter Anna Calvi.

The evening delivered more than its fair share of memorable highlights, among them the tribute to honoree Gabriel Pizzi, who was recognized for his leadership of BAM’s Endowment Trust and was met with a standing ovation. The evening’s most moving moment, however, came when choreographer Lucinda Childs accepted on behalf of late artistic visionary Robert Wilson, recalling in her remarks how Wilson would write thank-you notes to artists and collaborators after attending opening nights. The dinner hour ended with Watermill board chair William Cambell leading gala-goers in a collective chant: “We miss you, Bob. We love you, Bob!”

2026 BAM Ball Honoring Robert Wilson and Gabriel Pizzi — William Campbell at the dais. Getty Images for BAM

The guest list was a precise distillation of the BAM universe—intellectually serious, artistically omnivorous and incapable of a dull conversation. Political strategist Huma Abedin, St. Ann’s Warehouse founder Susan Feldman, architect Charles Renfro and producer and philanthropist Fabiola Beracasa Beckman shared the room with Grammy-nominated composer and songwriter Clyde Lawrence, poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraqib and interdisciplinary artist Helga Davis. From the theater world came opera director Julie Taymor, choreographers Lucinda Childs and Annie B Parson, director Annie Dorsen, actor and director Paul Lazar and Tony-nominated director, actor and musician Whitney White. The screen contingent was equally well-cast: Severance actor John Turturro, Game of Thrones alumnus Robert Aramayo and comedian and actor Jaboukie Young-White held their own in a space where the competition for most interesting person present was pleasantly stiff. Fashion entrepreneur Cynthia Rowley rounded out this well-heeled crowd.

By the time DJ Miss Hap kicked off the afterparty (where a surprise set from Talib Kweli sent the crowd into a frenzy), the evening had raised over $1.25 million in support of BAM’s mission. Not a bad night’s work.