At Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala, Paul Simon, Misty Copeland, and More Make a Plea for Protecting Artists While Offering Mesmerizing Performances
The Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala was a star-studded occasion with Misty Copeland, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Ann Ziff being presented honors with impassioned pleas and performances by Paul Simon, Marianne Williamson, Susan Graham, Joshua Bell, and more.
Supporting Artists is More Important Than Ever
Almost daily, arts institutions, education programs, and the people who depend upon them are being asked to defend their value. The reality is difficult: There’ve been fewer awards for new art, workforce cuts, and reductions at state arts-agency. The possibilities are not encouraging either, with a proposed federal budget that would practically eliminate major arts agencies, a House proposal to eliminate the Department of Education’s only dedicated arts-education grant program, and, most recently, new federal student loan rules that could make arts graduate degrees harder to finance.
Against those headwinds, the Denyce Graves Foundation’s annual Harvest Moon Gala at Guastavino’s increasingly feels less like a conventional arts benefit and more like an answer
Inside the Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala
Calvin Royal III, Misty Copeland attend the Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala. Image: Patrick McMullan via Getty.
There was plenty of star power. Misty Copeland, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Ann Ziff, Joshua Bell, Susan Graham, and John Holiday joined an evening presented by 20/20 co-anchor Deborah Roberts, with a surprise performance by Paul Simon (now 84 years old, but still singing with an exquisite tenderness. Other attendees included long-time supporter Barbara Tober, Harlem Commonwealth Council’s Sharon Joseph, and plenty of well-known dancers and performers.
Yet celebrity was hardly the point. Between performances and awards came impassioned pleas for the place of art in public life. Author and former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson delivered perhaps the evening’s most forceful argument.
Marianne Williamson speaks at the Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala. Image: Patrick McMullan via Getty.
“Art is not something to be set aside at a time like this,” Williamson said. “When the old way says we need more bombs, let us say no, we need more ballet.” No one was doing simple lip service here.
Misty Copeland, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Ann Ziff Honored
Misty Copeland, the first African American female principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre, received the inaugural Mary Cardwell Dawson Humanitarian Award, named for the pioneering Black opera impresario who founded the National Negro Opera Company. Copeland connected Graves’ discovery of Dawson with her own discovery of Raven Wilkinson, the first Black woman to dance with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
“Denyce finding Mary [and] me finding Raven brought us to a similar place,” Copeland said, “wanting the next generation to know these women sooner than we did.”
Broadway director Kenny Leon put the idea another way: “Misty didn’t walk through the door and simply celebrate being first. She turned around and held that door open.”
Lola Koch, Barbara Tober, Sylvia Hemingway, Misty Copeland attend the Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala. Image: Patrick McMullan via Getty.
Canadian conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin received the Game Changer Award, speaking about music as a means of expressing commonality and making people feel “heard, welcome, and understood.”
Ann Ziff, Chairperson of the Metropolitan Opera and longtime philanthropist and advocate received the Living Legend Award and used her remarks not simply to look backward, but to recommit herself to supporting the organizations and causes she values.
The musical program put those principles into practice, placing young artists from Foundation programs alongside performers including Bell, Graham, and Holiday. The evening concluded with Leonard Bernstein’s Make Our Garden Grow.
What Does the Denyce Graves Foundation Do?
Denyce Graves, Paul Simon at the Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala. Image: Patrick McMullan via Getty.
Founded by mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves, the Denyce Graves Foundation operates at the intersection of social justice, American history, and the arts. Its work moves in two directions at once: supporting emerging singers while recovering and preserving the stories of musicians who have been overlooked in the historical record.
Its Hidden Voices work brings greater attention to overlooked musical figures. Generational Voices supports emerging artists through mentorship, advocacy, and access to industry professionals. Shared Voices, the Foundation’s flagship initiative, connects students and faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities with conservatories and schools of music through coaching, lessons, rehearsals, performances, and peer exchange. Funding from the evening’s occasion, live, and silent auctions all benefit the foundation.
The Foundation has developed partnerships with cultural and educational institutions including the Smithsonian, Metropolitan Opera, Library of Congress, Lincoln Center, HBCUs, conservatories, and schools of music. Its work around Mary Cardwell Dawson is particularly illustrative of its mission: not simply celebrating a historical figure after the fact, but helping return an overlooked artist and institution to the broader cultural record.
That combination of preservation and development is central to the organization. It is trying to change both who is remembered and who gets the opportunity to shape what comes next.
How Can You Support the Denyce Graves Foundation?
Members of the public can support the Denyce Graves Foundation through donations, attendance at concerts and public programs, and purchases through the Foundation’s shop, which supports its programming.
That public participation matters because much of the Foundation’s work is built around expanding access, preserving history, and creating opportunities that might otherwise disappear. You can learn more about the organization and make donations here.
The Denyce Graves Foundation’s 2026 Harvest Moon Gala was a star-studded occasion with Misty Copeland, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Ann Ziff being presented honors with impassioned pleas and performances by Paul Simon, Marianne Williamson, Susan Graham, Joshua Bell, and more.