Keybank Rochester Fringe Festival is back in swing this year, with more than 400 in-person and online performances between September 14 and September 25. The 10th anniversary features the return of fan favorites such as the Silent Disco, Cirque Du Fringe, Fringe Street Beat dance off, and Pedestrian Drive-In.
For the first time, organizers have curated a mini music festival, called Smokestacks, to mark the finale. The free outdoor event takes place starting at 4pm on September 25 at Parcel 5 on Main Street, and features live performances by Cammy Enaharo, Mikaela Davis, Kopps, Spencer, Cannons, and Joywave.
For safety, COVID protocols are in place. All indoor events require masking and proof of vaccination. Attendees ages 12 and up who are unvaccinated must be masked at all times, even for outdoor events. Protocols may be subject to change. Prior to attending, check for updates online.
“After 18 months of closure that have devestated the performing arts, we’re thrilled to play our part in getting them back on their feet. Nearly 90% of our shows are live and in person, which wouldn’t be possible without our absolute commitment to keeping performers and attendees safe.”
– Erica Fee, Founding Festival Producer
A plethora of entertainment is available – from theater and dance to spoken word and comedy. And of course, music. Some Ska Band will heat things up with irresistible ska and reggae beats at the JCC canalside (outdoor) stage on opening night, September 14 at 7:30pm (get your tickets here). Gospel Sunday takes place on September 19 at 2pm, led by Reverend Rickey Harvey of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church at One Fringe Place (free). And the Taiko Japanese Drumming Performance makes a reprise at The Little on September 25 at 3:15pm (also free). And don’t forget about Smokestacks on September 25 at Parcel 5, where you can catch rising singer/songwriter Cammy Enaharo, the eclectic talent of Mikaela Davis, and of course Rochester’s own Joywave.
The complete lineup of events at Rochester Fringe is available online at RochesterFringe.com.
In a summer season celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Sherman’s Amusement Park, and the 10th Anniversary of the Caroga Lake Music Festival, Artistic Director and Founder Kyle Barrett Price was presented with a check for $1,000,000 for benefit of the Caroga Arts Collective.
Caroga Lake natives Ted Farnsworth and Rod Vanderbilt donated the funds, which will allow Caroga Arts Collective to evolve Sherman Park into a top-tier entertainment venue in the Northeast.
This is the town I grew up in and this is the town I love … I will never, ever forget the people who were so generous to all the kids who grew up here. I am truly honored that I can give back to the town that has given so much to me.
Ted Farnsworth
A previous donation to the Caroga Lake Music Festival of the formerly known 10.5-acre property, Myhill, began The Caroga Arts Collective in 2016. With Bruce and Richard Veghte’s donation, the Caroga Lake Music Festival had a rich history to build upon. The Myhill estate had previously featured music from Frank Sinatra, Irving Berlin, and Elvis Presley, among others. Myer and Hildegarde Schine owned Glove and Hippodrome Theaters in Gloversville, NY while still being previous estate owners of Myhill.
Today Caroga Arts Collective annually attracts on average 100 musicians whether that be from orchestras, ensembles, or music schools. Some notable names include David Cook (Music Director of Taylor Swift), Sawyer Fredericks (winner of NBC’s The Voice), and Sierra Hull (GRAMMY-nominated bluegrass virtuoso).
Farnsworth was recently named in Variety Magazine, Top 30 Visionary and Disrupter of the Entertainment and Media Business of 2021. A current project that Farnsworth is involved in is his short-from video platform. Lomotif has earned its recognition as being a top-ten competitor of TikTok worldwide in 2021. Lomotif not only launched their own record label, Lomo Records, but gained enough traction to receive the music rights of artists like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber through a deal with Universal Music. He believes the collaboration will raise the profile of Caroga Arts Collective to new heights in Hollywood and the entertainment industry.
The collaboration between Farnsworth and Caroga Arts Collective has already proved successful. Next year’s shows at for the Caroga Lake Music Festival will be featuring even bigger talent, as well as a film festival through the Caroga Arts Collective which will be an extension of the Myhill Film Series, honoring the Schine family who were movie theater magnates in the mid-twentieth century
We have been fortunate to create a uniquely accessible, intimate, and sought-after experience for artists, audiences and community members alike during our ten years of programming. We look forward to curating unforgettable moments and experiences for the generation of today and tomorrow.
The Orchestra Now (TŌN) is not only a visionary orchestra but also a master’s degree program. Founder Leon Botstein’s rich history includes being a Bard College president, conductor, educator, and music historian. Starting this September 11th, this will mark Botstein’s seventh returning season. From world renowned repertoire to exciting new 21st century pieces, this orchestra will perform four different series and three free concerts. A total of 21 programs and 38 performances will be heard through May 22, 2022.
The Orchestra Now has used this pandemic as a way to grow and better their sound where this season will feature 16 new members. If you’re keeping count, that will be a total of 65 musicians from 13 countries. All in all TŌN has performed 489 works by 234 composers in 35 venues since their beginning in 2015.
The ability to perform for a live audience is uncanny. While the Orchestra worked on perfecting digital programs, “Nothing can replace the exhilaration of live performance,” said Music Director Leon Botstein. The pent up excitement of these young performers will be sure to produce exhilarating concerts where after more than 66,000 live and virtual concertgoers, with 237 soloists and 22 conductors, they are more than qualified to perform their best season yet.
We are truly thrilled to resume a direct connection with our audiences
This season will start with the world premiere of Brahmsiana by debut conductor and composer Leonard Slatkin (Sept. 18-19 at the Fisher Center). There is also new work from Scott Wheeler written for violinist Gil Shaham, who will perform at the world renowned Carnegie Hall (Nov. 18) and the Fisher Center (Nov. 13-14). We’ll also hear Dismal Swamp from William Grant Still and Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Symphony No. 1. This piece was written to describe the treacherous conditions under the Nazi regime and will be performed this May 7th at the Fisher Center and May 12th at Carnegie Hall. Ravel’s Pictures at an Exhibition has been revived as Slatkin created a new arrangement noting its original composition for piano. Award-winning composer Cindy McTee who is conveniently Slatkin’s wife will perform Circuits this September 18-19 at the Fisher Center.
Lutosławski, Perry, and Bristow in addition to Wheeler’s world premiere will be included in the Carnegie Hall series. Musical America’s 2019 Conductorof the Year, Carlos Miguel Prieto will be a guest conductor at Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The Sight & Sound serieswill return toThe Metropolitan Museum of Art which focuses on Beethoven and Cristofori, Stravinsky and Picasso, and Dvořák and Delacroix to illuminate their interrelations between both music and art. Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ German Requiem will be performed at The Fisher Center series at Bard College along with another 18 concerts along with Brahmsiana’s debut. To gain a larger audience, TŌN offers three free concerts to help attract those who normally wouldn’t find themselves listening to classical music at Peter Norton Symphony Space in Manhattan with resident conductor Zachary Schwartzman. They hope that this will influence the future generations that will carry their love for classical music through the decades. To dazzle new concert goers repertoire from Mozart, Schumann, and Dohnányi will be played at Hudson Hall in Hudson, NY.
Now if you will be missing TŌN’s Orchestra’s Fisher Center series you can always tune in. Don’t forget that TŌN can be heard on WMHT-FM, the classical music radio station of New York’s Capital Region and WWFM, the Classical Network station catering to New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. TŌN’s performances are also heard regularly on American Public Media’s Performance Today.
CARNEGIE HALL SERIES, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage
Gil Shaham & Julia Perry Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 7 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Gil Shaham, violin
Scott Wheeler: New work (World Premiere)
Julia Perry: Stabat Mater
George Frederick Bristow: Symphony No. 4, Arcadian
Renowned violinist and Bard Conservatory of Music faculty member Gil Shaham joins the Orchestra for the world premiere of a new piece written for him by multi-award-winning composer, conductor, pianist, and teacher Scott Wheeler. Currently Senior Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Boston’s Emerson College, Wheeler’s works have been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera and performed by such artists as Renée Fleming and Kent Nagano. Black American composer Julia Perry’s dramatic Stabat Mater, a setting of the 13th-century medieval poem “Stabat Mater Dolorosa,” describes the crucifixion of Christ from the viewpoint of the Virgin Mother and is dedicated to Perry’s mother. Also on the program is George Frederick Bristow’s rarely-heard Arcadian Symphony. A Brooklyn native and noted choral composer, Bristow frequently wrote music with American themes—his Symphony No. 4 was originally titled The Pioneer. It will be the first Carnegie Hall performances of Perry’s Stabat Mater and Bristow’s complete Symphony No. 4.
New Voices from the 1930s
Thursday, May 12, 2022 at 7 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Frank Corliss, piano
William Grant Still: Dismal Swamp
Carlos Chávez: Piano Concerto
Witold Lutosławski: Symphonic Variations
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphony No. 1, Essay for a Requiem
The rarely-heard masterpieces in this concert spotlight works from the late 1930s, including William Grant Still’s evocative portrait of enslaved people taking refuge while seeking freedom, and Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s commentary on conditions under the Nazi regime. The program also features Mexican Symphonic Music Director and composer Carlos Chávez’s virtuosic Piano Concerto, called “imaginatively scored” and praised for its “elemental strength” and the “originality of its orchestral coloring” by The New York Times at its 1942 premiere. Leading progressive Polish music composer Witold Lutosławski’s adventurous Symphonic Variations was written while he was still a student at Warsaw University. His first substantial orchestral work, the Variations contain many folk-like themes.
ROSE THEATER
The Orchestra Now returns to Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall for the fifth season.
Prieto, Falla & Debussy
Sunday, October 31, 2021 at 3 PM
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor
Solange Merdinian, mezzo-soprano
Messiaen: Le tombeau resplendissant (The Resplendent Tomb)
Debussy: La Mer (The Sea)
Falla: El Sombrero de Tres Picos (The Three-Cornered Hat)
José Pablo Moncayo: Huapango
Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, Musical America’s 2019 Conductor of the Year and music director of the Orchestra of the Americas, leads TŌN in a diverse program that includes Manuel de Falla’s vivid and eloquent ballet score Sombrero de Tres Picos, Debussy’s powerful La Mer, and a work by Spanish composer María Teresa Prieto.
SIGHT & SOUND SERIES AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
The Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium
Conductor and music historian Leon Botstein surveys the parallels between orchestral music and the visual arts with three concerts in TŌN’s popular Sight & Sound series at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. This season explores the connections between Beethoven’s fascination with the emergence of the first piano; an interest in unconventional artistic and musical forms shared by Stravinsky and Picasso; and the European fascination with the peoples of the New World as expressed by MacDowell, Dvořák, and Delacroix. In each program, a discussion is accompanied by on-screen artworks and musical excerpts performed by the Orchestra, followed by a full performance and audience Q&A.
Beethoven, Cristofori & the Piano’s First Century
Sunday, December 5, 2021 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Shai Wosner, piano
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5, Emperor, and Cristofori’s 1720 Grand Piano
At the dawn of the 18th century, Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori created what would come to be known as the piano. A century later, it was clear that the instrument would become the defining instrument of Western musical culture. Beethoven’s “Emperor” Piano Concerto reveals the composer’s obsession with the musical possibilities emerging from the rapidly evolving technology of piano construction.
Stravinsky, Picasso & Cubism
Sunday, February 20, 2022 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Blair McMillen, piano
Stravinsky: Concerto for Piano and Winds and Picasso’s Man with a Guitar
Upon settling in Paris in the 1920s, Igor Stravinsky formed close friendships with artists like Pablo Picasso, a founder of Cubism, which sought to deconstruct the familiar and reassemble reality through a disciplined, formal approach. The movement inspired Stravinsky to develop a new approach to the construction of musical forms. He loved to perform his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, one of his earliest “neo-classic” masterpieces.
Dvořák, MacDowell & Delacroix: The New World
Sunday, April 10, 2022 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Edward MacDowell: Suite No. 2, Indian, Dvořák: New World Symphony, second movement, and Eugène Delacroix’s The Natchez
From their earliest encounters in the New World, Europeans were mesmerized by the indigenous peoples of North America. French artist Eugène Delacroix painted a Natchez family as they fled the massacre of their tribe up the Mississippi River. Edward MacDowell’s Indian Suite incorporated native melodies and rhythms, and the second movement of Antonín Dvořák’s New World Symphony was inspired by Longfellow’s poem on Hiawatha.
THE FISHER CENTER SERIES AT BARD, Sosnoff Theater
The Orchestra Now’s residency at Bard College’s Fisher Center renews with 18 concerts and nine different programs including special performances of Handel’s Messiah and the Brahms Requiem, and the debut of conductor Leonard Slatkin with TŌN.
Shostakovich & Dawson
Saturday September 11, 2021 at 8 PM
Sunday September 12, 2021 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
William L. Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7, Leningrad
William L. Dawson said of his emotionally charged Negro Folk Symphony that he wanted listeners to know it was “unmistakably not the work of a white man.” The work is paired with Shostakovich’s enormous and patriotic Seventh Symphony, Leningrad, written largely after he had fled the city following the German invasion during WWII.
Slatkin Conducts Brahmsiana
Saturday, September 18, 2021 at 8 PM
Sunday, September 19, 2021 at 2 PM
Leonard Slatkin, conductor
Cindy McTee: Circuits
Brahms: Brahmsiana arr. Leonard Slatkin (World Premiere)
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition, Leonard Slatkin’s new arr. of Ravel’s orchestration
Internationally acclaimed conductor Leonard Slatkin makes his debut with TŌN, leading the world premiere of his own arrangement of Brahms melodies, Brahmsiana, and his new arrangement of Pictures at an Exhibition, which takes Ravel’s famous orchestration and reinstates portions of Mussorgsky’s original. The concert opens with Circuits, written by award-winning composer Cindy McTee.
Strauss’ Merry Pranks & Bruckner’s Fifth
Friday, October 1, 2021 at 8 PM
Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 5 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks
Bruckner: Symphony No. 5
Richard Strauss’ audience favorite Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks, which chronicles the misadventures of the practical jokester and German peasant folk hero, is presented in contrast to Anton Bruckner’s massive Fifth Symphony, which was performed only once during the composer’s lifetime. He died having never heard it.
Gil Shaham & Julia Perry
Saturday,November 13, 2021 at 8 PM
Sunday, November 14, 2021 at 2 PM (see program description for Nov 18 Carnegie Hall performance)
Leon Botstein, conductor
Gil Shaham,violin
Scott Wheeler: New Work (World Premiere)
Julia Perry: Stabat Mater
George Frederick Bristow: Symphony No. 4, Arcadian
Handel’s Messiah
Saturday December 11, 2021 at 8 PM
Sunday, December 12, 2021 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Vocal soloists from Bard’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program to be announced
Bard Festival Chorale, Bard College Chamber Singers
Handel: Messiah
Leon Botstein leads The Orchestra Now, soloists from Bard’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program, the Bard Festival Chorale, and the Bard College Chamber Singers in a performance of one of the most popular oratorios of all time.
Tchaikovsky, William Tell & The Little Mermaid
Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 8 PM
Sunday, February 6, 2022 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Rossini: William Tell Overture
Alexander Zemlinsky: The Little Mermaid
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, Pathétique
The spring 2022 season unfolds with a concert of such audience favorites as Rossini’s iconic William Tell Overture and Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Little Mermaid, richly orchestrated by Austrian composer Alexander Zemlinsky. The program closes with Tchaikovsky’s final completed symphony, the Pathétique, which the composer called his “Passionate Symphony.”
Clara Schumann & Brahms’ German Requiem
Saturday April 2, 2022 at 8 PM
Sunday, April 3, 2022 at 2 PM
Leon Botstein, conductor
Anna Polonsky, piano
Vocal soloists from Bard’s Graduate Vocal Arts Program to be announced
Bard Festival Chorale, Bard College Chamber Singers
Clara Schumann: Piano Concerto
Brahms: A German Requiem
Clara Schumann began writing her memorable Piano Concerto when she was just 14 years old, already a prodigy on the instrument. This virtuoso work will be performed by acclaimed pianist Anna Polonsky. Later in life, Schumann was close friends with Johannes Brahms. She said his German Requiem “is an immense piece that takes hold of one’s whole being like very little else.”
Joseph Young & Rachmaninoff
Saturday, April 23, 2022 at 8 PM
Sunday, April 24, 2022 at 2 PM
Joseph Young, conductor
Julia Perry: A Short Piece for Orchestra
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 3
Julia Perry’s riotous Short Work for Orchestra was recorded by the New York Philharmonic in 1965. While much of her work has been neglected, she was a winner of the Boulanger Grand Prix for her Viola Sonata. Rachmaninoff’s rhythmically expressive Symphony No. 3 concludes the program. Guest conductor Joseph Young, Music Director of the Berkeley Symphony and Resident Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra–USA at Carnegie Hall, leads the Orchestra.
New Voices from the 1930s
Saturday, May 7, 2022 at 8 PM
Sunday, May 8, 2022 at 2 PM (See program description for May 12 Carnegie Hall performance)
Leon Botstein, conductor
Gilles Vonsattel, piano
Frank Corliss, piano
William Grant Still: Dismal Swamp
Carlos Chávez: Piano Concerto
Witold Lutosławski: Symphonic Variations
Karl Amadeus Hartmann: Symphony No. 1
FREE CONCERTS SERIES
TŌN continues its series of free concerts at venues in New York City and beyond, providing families with an opportunity to attend their first orchestral performance and introduce a new generation to classical music.
Britten, Sibelius & Tan Dun
Sunday, Dec 19, 2021 at 4 PM, at Peter Norton Symphony Space, New York City
Zachary Schwartzman, conductor
Berlioz: Roman Carnival Overture
Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Tan Dun: Symphonic Poem of Three Notes
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5
Mozart & Schumann’s Spring Symphony
Saturday, March 19, 2022 at 7 PM, at Hudson Hall, Hudson, NY
Andrés Rivas, conductor
Soloists to be announced
Mozart: Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds
Ernő Dohnányi: Concertino for Harp and Chamber Orchestra
Schumann: Symphony No. 1, Spring
Liszt & Bartók
Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 4 PM, at Peter Norton Symphony Space, New York City
The Kitchen has reached the organization’s 50th year of vanguard programming, continuing its work in highlighting experimental artists and composers. The Kitchen was actually among one the very first American institutions to embrace fields of video and performance when it was founded in 1971.
The Kitchen continues to be one New York City’s oldest non-profit spaces that has shaped countless careers by being a powerful force to help define the American avant-garde. This season will feature residency-performances that go beyond the limitations of art-making and presentation. Both celebratory and introspective, these events push the audience to revisit The Kitchen’s pivotal work throughout history. As this season begins, Legacy Russellstarts her role as Executive Director & Chief Curator, while Tim Griffinleaves his position after a decade.
Nevertheless, The Kitchen houses two residencies this upcoming fall. First, a comedian, artist, and writer named Sophia Cleary will be performing her standup material, One & Only. This material will delve into the relationship between audience and performer. Next, we’ll hear from Alex Tatarsky’s residency. With overwhelming reviews, Rachel James in BOMB describes her as an “artist, poet, absurd ranter, and avid lover of trees, clowns, and dirt.”
In addition, The Kitchen will also feature the multifaceted musician, poet, and visual artist Moor Mother. She celebrates the release of her album Black Encyclopedia of the Air. Without a doubt, this evening will be filled with music from the synth duo Anteloper featuring their trumpet, drums, and synths (obviously). Also Undoing Language: Early Performance Works by Brian O’Doherty will celebrate the 93-year-old artist. During this performance you can also hear from vocalist and composer, Holland Andrews, not to mention Claire Chase who has finally released Density 2036 part viii after 26 years of commissioning. In the exhibition In Support, we’ll hear features from Fia Backström, Francisca Benítez,Papo Colo, and Clynton Lowry.
The Kitchen’s anticipated Annual Benefit Gala, will be held September 14, 2021. Of course, the event honors CindyShermanand Debbie Harry. These two artists are known for their impact on photography and music history. It’s easy to forget that both of these artists are actually The Kitchen veterans. After all, Sherman made her New York debut with Untitled Film Stills at The Kitchen in 1980, and Harry performed in Dubbed in Glamour the same year. Unfortunately these tributes were postponed from last year’s gala due to the pandemic. However, the event will also welcome artists like singer/songwriter and hip hop violinist Bri Blvckand L’Rain. Their work has been described as having “wearied landscapes of synth, air horn, strings, and saxophone [that] distill a suite of low moods … into resilience and hope” (Pitchfork).
The gala also provides an opportunity to introduce Legacy Russell and recognize Tim Griffin’s relentless work. Russell’s background with The Studio Museum in Harlem includes leading the organization’s renowned Artist-in-Residence program and organizing numerous exhibitions. Furthermore, her academic, curatorial work, and research have revolved around the intersection with Black and queer visual culture.
Virtual programming from last year has led to new Video Viewing Room presentations. This monthly series showcases recent and archival video alongside contextualizing media and writing. The first months of the season will feature a new video short by Jen Liu. This video poses as a response to archival materials surrounding Fred Ho’s opera Warrior Sisters: The New Adventures of African and Asian Womyn Warriors, which was conveniently staged at The Kitchen in 2000. Recent video work, text, images, and research references are from Ilana Harris-Babou.
Fall 2021 Schedule and Descriptions
The Kitchen Gala Benefit
Honoring Debbie Harry and Cindy Sherman
And Welcoming the Next Avant-Garde with Performances by Bri Blvck, L’Rain, and More
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
512 W. 19th St.
The Kitchen and a star-studded, wide-ranging benefit committee including JiaJia Fei, Doreen Garner, Tyler Mitchell, Antwaun Sargent, Chloë Sevigny, and Qualeasha Wood, to name a few, gather supporters to celebrate Debbie Harry and Cindy Sherman, The Kitchen’s vast, rich history, and the future of the avant-garde. The milestone event begins at 6pm with cocktails, followed at 7:30pm by dinner and a program featuring special performances from Bri Blvck, L’Rain; a welcome to Legacy Russell; and a tribute to Tim Griffin. April Hunt and Stretch Armstrong DJ the after party, from 9:30pm-12am.
Moor Mother
Sunday, September 19, 7pm. $15
512 W. 19th St.
Multifaceted musician, poet, and visual artist Moor Mother returns to The Kitchen with a new electronic set to celebrate the release of Black Encyclopedia of the Air (ANTI- Records), an album that speaks to “memory and imprinting and the future, all of them wafting through untouched space like the ghostly cinders of a world on fire, unbound and uncharted, vast and stretching across the universe.” Trumpet, drums, and synth duo Anteloper (Jaimie Branch and Jason Nazary) shares the evening. Organized by Lumi Tan, Senior Curator.
Sophia Cleary: One & Only
In residence September 20–October 2
512 W. 19th St.
Sophia Cleary is in residence to develop a stand-up comedy show for an audience of one person. Developed from the comedic material she has performed in recent years, Cleary uses the frame of the black box theater to explore the limits of connection between performer and audience using intimacy as her medium. One & Only is a performance series where each show is borne of the unique connection between Cleary and her audience. Each performance simultaneously celebrates and upsets 1:1 power dynamics, and asks: “How does the apparatus of theater support or disrupt a relationship?” Directed by Sara Lyons. Lighting Design by Madeline Best. Organized by Matthew Lyons, Curator.
Video Viewing Room: Jen Liu >< Fred Ho /// Electropore >< Warrior Sisters Available to view beginning the week of September 27, 2021
Online: The Kitchen OnScreen
Artist Jen Liu premieres a new video short, Electropore, as part of her ongoing project Pink Slime Caesar Shift (2017–present). Through this new piece, Liu responds to the work of composer, baritone saxophonist, and activist Fred Ho (1957– 2014), whose foundational concepts—political revolution through artistic form, Black and Asian American coalition building, matriarchal socialism, and capitalism as biotoxicity—continue to resonate today. Liu will present Electropore in tandem with archival materials related to the sci-fi opera from which it draws inspiration: Warrior Sisters: The New Adventures of African and Asian Womyn Warriors, by Ho and librettist Ann T. Greene, staged at The Kitchen in 2000. The Video Viewing Room will also feature working materials that draw out Liu’s conceptual affinities with Ho and her reframing of the original opera within an anonymous and electrified/digitized paradigm, as the extension of her own explorations of contemporary labor activism, grassroots genetic engineering, and femme filiation. Organized by Alison Burstein, Curator, Media and Engagement.
Undoing Language: Early Performance Works by Brian O’Doherty
Friday, October 8, 7pm. Tickets $15
512 W. 19th St.
This program brings together early performance works by artist, art critic, poet, and novelist Brian O’Doherty that engage with the breakdown of language into vowels that are isolated from meaning and enunciated as bodily sounds. It will include the first-ever performance of Vowel Chorus for Five Voices (1968) by the vocal ensemble Ekmeles; the movement and sound work Vowel Grid (1970) for two performers; and a new commission by vocalist and composer Holland Andrews, who will unpack the layers of the O’Doherty’s vowel performances and poems in a soundscape. At age 93, this program recognizes O’Doherty’s role as an artist who created a substantial body of performance works when he made works engaging with the performativity of language and how it interacts with the performance of the “self,” but also led the first national funding for performance and media art at the National Endowment for the Arts in 1970s, making an indelible mark on the New York performance art scene. Guest curated by Lucy Cotter.
Alex Tatarsky
In residence October 20–November 22
512 W. 19th St.
Performance artist Alex Tatarsky will create a laboratory for performance research, thinking through the opportunity of a residency as a home—a “residence”—to revisit latent ideas and cultivate unhinged processes within the framework of an institution, a context that can often inhibit individual values and experimentation. Taking inspiration from Palace of Depression, a mansion constructed of detritus in Depression-era New Jersey, Tatarsky imagines constructing an opulent home for one’s darkest feelings. Principles of assemblage shape improvisations guided by discarded objects and materials to probe our relationship to decay, and the things we push out of sight. Tatarsky will work with a group of collaborators who will provide performance prompts, or give insights into their process in order for Tatarsky to potentially inhabit their practices. Each week, the public will be invited in for studio visits and guided tours, which additionally serve as performative acts. Organized by Lumi Tan, Senior Curator.
Video Viewing Room: Ilana Harris-Babou
Available to view beginning the week of October 25, 2021
Online: The Kitchen OnScreen
Artist Ilana Harris-Babou presents recent video work, along with related materials such as text, images, and research references. In the artist’s words, her work “speaks the aspirational language of consumer culture, using humor as a means to digest painful realities. Her work confronts the contradictions of the American Dream: the ever unreliable notion that hard work will lead to upward mobility and economic freedom.” Organized by Alison Burstein, Curator, Media and Engagement.
In Support
Group exhibition featuring works by Fia Backström, Francisca Benítez, Papo Colo, and Clynton Lowry
Opening November 2021
512 W. 19th Street
The word support commonly appears in language describing the aims and activities of mission-driven, nonprofit institutions like The Kitchen. This exhibition invites four artists to reflect on what this term means in practice within institutional contexts, asking: How do institutions rely on cycles of providing and receiving support? In what ways do institutions position themselves in support of people, projects, or causes? Is support inherently good? Participating artists will create new works that animate the interlocking structural, fiscal, interpersonal, and ideological systems underpinning institutions. Highlighting interstitial spaces in which artists, staff, and audience members commonly enact or accept support in its manifold forms, these works will be installed in sites such as The Kitchen’s lobby, production workshop, administrative offices, and roof. While realizing In Support, the artists and the institution’s staff members will work collaboratively to negotiate the opportunities—and grapple with the limitations—of how support functions within and beyond The Kitchen. Organized by Alison Burstein, Curator, Media and Engagement.
Claire Chase: Density 2036, part viii
December 9–11
512 W. 19th St.
Celebrated flutist Claire Chase returns to The Kitchen to perform the world premieres of new compositions by composers Ann Cleare, Matana Roberts, Lu Wang, and Bora Yoon, commissioned by Chase as part of her 26-year Density 2036 project to find radical, new musical terrain for the flute and its community in the 21st century. Organized by Matthew Lyons, Curator.
To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the events on September 11, the Metropolitan Opera will perform Verdi’s Requiem, presented in association with the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin will conduct the Met Orchestra and Chorus as well as a quartet of star soloists, soprano Ailyn Pérez, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča, tenor Matthew Polenzani, and bass-baritone Eric Owens. The concert marks the first performance inside the Metropolitan Opera House since the March 2020 closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Audiences in New York City and beyond will also be able to see and hear live transmissions of Verdi’s Requiem: The Met Remembers 9/11. The performance will be transmitted live as part of Great Performances on PBS, with ballet star Misty Copeland hosting the program from nearby the site of the 9/11 Museum. Live audio from the performance will also be broadcast directly outside the Met in Lincoln Center Plaza. As part of a citywide remembrance, the Met will be participating in the 9/11 Tribute in Light, bathing its façade in sky-blue light. The English-language text of the Requiem will also be projected onto the façade of the opera house during the performance.
The concert and broadcast are made possible by a generous gift from C. Graham Berwind, III, and the Metropolitan Opera Chorus costumes were underwritten by a generous gift from Douglas Dockery Thomas.
Additionally, The Met has given 500 tickets to families and stakeholders impacted by 9/11. Tickets are $25 and go on sale August 27 at 12PM ET. Due to limited seating capacity, tickets are limited to two per order.
Face masks and proof of full vaccination against COVID-19 are required for all audience members. Learn more.
On Tuesday, The Metropolitan Opera struck a labor deal with its orchestra, paving the way for its musicians to return to work and for the company, the largest performing arts organization in the nation. The Met Opera will resume performances in September after being shut down for more than a year by the pandemic. More on that from the New York Times.
The New York Youth Symphony (NYYS) is thrilled to announce their 2021-2022 performances under music director Michael Repper. Performances will take place in Stern Auditorium and Perelman Stage at the world renowned Carnegie Hall. The full orchestra will return to the stage for three performances in November, March and May, performing repertoire by Valerie Coleman, William Grant Still, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and more.
The New York Youth Symphony performs a concert at Carnegie Hall, on November 17, 2019. Credit: Stephanie Berger.
Soloists joining the orchestra include baritone Paulo Szot on Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer and Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Some Enchanted Evening from South Pacific, and violinist Grace Park performing Barber’s Violin Concerto. The performances will also include the world premieres of new works by First Music commission prize winners Jonathan Cziner, Patrick O’Malley, and Liza Sobel.
“We are thrilled to return to Carnegie Hall. We’re exceptionally proud of all we accomplished during this period of uncertainty, but performing live for our community is something we have all missed dearly. We are ecstatic to return to the stage and celebrate music and unity together with you through our performances.”
Michael Repper
The New York Youth Symphony is the most awarded youth program of its kind in the nation, recognized for its innovative educational programs for talented young musicians. It was founded in 1963 as an orchestra to showcase the metropolitan area’s most gifted musicians aged 12-22. Since its creation, its activities have grown to encompass programs in jazz, chamber music, conducting, composition, and musical theater songwriting. They have performed at world class venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Public Theater.
2021-2022 ORCHESTRA Season Michael Repper, Music Director
Season Opening Concert Sunday, November 21, 2021 at 2:00 PM Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall Valerie Coleman: Umoja: Anthem of Unity Patrick O’Malley:Obliviana (First Music commission and World Premiere) Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 5 in E minor, op. 64
The McCrindle Concert Sunday, March 13, 2022 at 2:00 PM Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall Barber: Violin Concerto, op. 14, featuring Grace Park, violin Jonathan Cziner:Ruach (and Other Delights) (First Music commission and World Premiere) William Grant Still: Symphony No. 1, “Afro-American”
The Spring Concert Sunday, May 22, 2022 at 2:00 PM Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall Liza Sobel: First Music commission and World Premiere Mahler:Songs of a Wayfarer, featuring Paulo Szot, baritone Rogers/Hammerstein:Some Enchanted Evening, featuring Paulo Szot, baritone Brahms: Symphony No. 2 in D major, op. 73
Starting shortly after 9/11, Musicians For Harmony has confirmed its 20th Anniversary planned for September 11 2021, with an online and in-person concert at Merkin Hall in Kaufman Music Center in New York City. The special event aims to ‘elevate musical voices in the service of peace, health and equity to commemorate the victims of 9/11, Covid-19 and social injustice.”
Musicians For Harmony is an organization dedicated to advancing peace and cross-cultural dialogue through music. The aftermath of 9/11 has greatly changed our nation. It is important to remember and honor those who lost tragically lost their lives. There are many memorials to pay your respects, as the 9/11 memorial and museum are both free to explore.
The two-hour concert will be one of the first in-person music events of the fall season post-Covid. Access to the online concert will be free, and the in-person show have tickets for sale.
The show will feature the music of Juilliard String Quartet, ETHEL, Musique Sans Frontières, and more. Composers include Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Ulysses Owens, Jr, James “Kimo” Williams, Robert Mirabal, Pat Irwin and John King. Learn more about the artists here.
The Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra has announced the return of concerts for its 2021-2022 season in a press conference. The Orchestra also announced their new executive director, Paul Cienniwa. Daniel Heige, the Music Director of the Binghamton Philharmonic Orchestra, presented the sponsors and performances that will take place for this season.
The Philharmonic also had sponsors give speeches on their relationship with the Binghamton Philharmonic and how they will contribute to helping the orchestra with this upcoming season. The music director stated that the orchestra will play music from composers such as Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Mendelssohn, Jessie Montgomery, Stacy Garrop, Vivian Fung. There will also be concerts featuring musical genres of rock and pop.
Here are the upcoming concerts at the Binghamton Philharmonic:
Summer Chamber Music: trio pastorale with Principal Clarinet Paul Cho, Second Oboe Amelia Merriman, and Second Bassoon Melissa Kritzer Saturday August 14 at 5p.m. and Sunday August 15 at 3p.m.
Summer Chamber Music: Unanimous Four with Concertmaster Uli Speth, Assistant Principal Cello Michael Newman, Principal Clarinet Paul Cho, and Principal Piano Tomoko Kanamaru.
You can check out the video of the press conference here.
New York City’s American Classical Orchestra (ACO) has announced its 2021-2022 season of all-live performances, beginning with a full orchestra Reunion program of Baroque music in Damrosch Park on September 22.
Founded in 1984 as the Orchestra of the Old Fairfield Academy, the ensemble was renamed American Classical Orchestra in 1999. ACO settled in New York City as a permanent home in 2005. It is now the city’s only full-scale orchestra dedicated solely to performing 17th, 18th, and 19th-century music on true-to-period instruments.
Reunion is the title of the 2021 season’s opening event, marking the joyous reunion of the ACO’s musicians, audience, and patrons after over 17 months without concerts. The program presents a selection of popular Baroque music at the newly renovated bandshell of Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park. The rest of the season’s concerts follow suit with meaningful titles, “Restore,” “Revisit,” “Remember” and “Renew” to commemorate the challenges of the past two years as life returns to normalcy.
Our reuniting onstage should reveal artists who have further honed their craft and intensified their passion for music. We chose timeless masterpieces as a way to celebrate our return to live performance through much-loved works that continue to comfort even after difficult times, to showcase our talented members and soloists, and also to underscore the soothing balm that great music provides to musicians and audiences alike.
Thomas Crawford (ACO’s Artistic Director and Founder)
This season also includes the Orchestra’s new collaboration with public media producer WNET, featuring a filmed performance of Prokofiev’s symphonic children’s tale, Peter and the Wolf. As a part of ACO’s “Classical Music for Kids” program, the film aims to enrich the cultural life of children by introducing them to classical music history at a young age. American Classical Orchestra’s performance of Peter and the Wolf will be available to watch for free on the PBS LearningMedia platform beginning this fall.
American Classical Orchestra offers subscription packages for their upcoming season that are on sale now. Tickets for individual performances will go on sale later this summer. For more information, visit aconyc.org. Visit lincolncenter.org for ACO programs hosted by Lincoln Center.
Read the full 2021-2022 American Classical Orchestra schedule below:
Reunion –Wednesday, September 22 at 7 pm, Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center:
Old Westbury Gardens on Long Island has announced the return of the “Music for a Sunday Afternoon“ Summer Concert Series, starting this Sunday, July 11.
The series features “Artist-in-Residence” cellist Suzanne Mueller, who will present four concerts, accompanied by a roster of seasoned performers spanning the genres of classical, jazz, and folk music.
Mueller (L) with pianist Elinor Abrams Zayas
My collaborators and I are really thrilled to be returning to our musical summer home again this year. It doesn’t feel like summer without these concerts. It’s especially meaningful to me because I had to sit out the 2019 season and most of the 2018 season due to medical issues that kept me homebound and unable to play. I was really looking forward to returning last year and was crushed when we had to cancel.
Suzanne Mueller
Mueller will perform with pianist Elinor Abrams Zayas, The McCarron Bros. Jazz Quartet, classical guitarist Christopher Gotzen-Berg and folk duo Hungrytown over the course of the four Sunday shows. Each performance will bring a different flavor to Mueller’s expert cello playing and blend many genres.
Each “Music for a Sunday Afternoon” performance will begin at 3PM on the lawn at the Orchard Hill Barn (or inside the Barn in case of inclement weather or extreme heat). Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets and should also be aware that COVID-19 protocols are in effect and will be enforced on the dates of the concerts. The Old Westbury Gardens are a scenic and beloved venue for both audiences and performers alike.
Old Westbury Gardens, photo via their website
Whether outdoors in a bucolic setting, or indoors, in the event of inclement weather, it has been a special time playing in such a beautiful setting, with very appreciative audiences in attendance. There’s something transformative about playing in Nature, listening to birds singing along with the music, and being surrounded by beautiful gardens and plantings. It puts all involved, performers and audience, into a peaceful state of being.
Elinor Abrams Zayas
More information about “Music on a Sunday Afternoon” can be found on Old Westbury Garden’s website. The full schedule is listed below.
Performance Schedule: 1. July 11 (3PM):CROSS ISLAND—Suzanne Mueller, cellist; Elinor Abrams Zayas, pianist 2. July 18 (3PM):The McCarron Bros. Jazz Quartet with Suzanne Mueller, Cello—Paul Carlon, saxophone; Mark McCarron, guitar; Trifon Dimitrov, bass; Arei Sekiguchi, drums; and Suzanne Mueller, cellist 3. July 25 (3PM): Gotzen-Berg and Mueller—Christopher Gotzen-Berg, guitarist; Suzanne Mueller, cellist (debut performance as a duo) 4. August 1 (3PM):Hungrytown with Suzanne Mueller, Cello—with husband and wife folk duo, Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson, accompanied by Suzanne Mueller, cellist
