Who: Harriet Stubbs
What: City Vineyard Sessions
Where: City Vineyard at City Winery, 223 West St. at Pier 26
When: Tuesday, January 21, $22 in advance, $28 day of show, 7:30
Why: “There’s nothing like playing to my adopted hometown of New York; it’s electrifying,” Harriet Stubbs told twi-ny in a May 2024 interview. The British classical pianist, William Blake scholar, and Bowie aficionado was preparing for a show at Joe’s Pub, where she played her latest album, Living on Mars; the record includes Stubbs’s unique adaptations of such songs as David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and “Life on Mars,” Nick Cave’s “Push the Sky Away,” Paul McCartney’s “Blackbird,” and Beethoven’s “Pathétique” in addition to homages to the duos of J. S. Bach/Glenn Gould and Frédéric Chopin/Leopold Godowsky. It all makes for an eclectic and unpredictable setlist.
Stubbs is an intoxicating pianist, performing in spectacular glittery outfits and exuding warmth and charm; Paul Cavalconte, the renowned DJ at New York’s classical radio station, WQXR (as well as WFUV and WNYC), calls it the Harriet Zone. On January 21, she’ll be at City Vineyard at City Winery, promising to play “a mix of Living on Mars and some core classical, with maybe a few surprises!” General admission tickets are $22 in advance and $28 at the door. Be prepared for a special, unusual evening of fabulous music, with a touch of magic.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]