this week in music

BROADWAY IN BRYANT PARK 2017

Groundhog Day is one of many musicals that will present stripped-down versions of production numbers in Bryant Park this summer (photo by Joan Marcus)

Groundhog Day is one of many musicals that will present stripped-down versions of production numbers in Bryant Park this summer (photo by Joan Marcus)

Bryant Park
40th to 42nd Sts. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursdays, July 6 to August 10, free, 12:30
bryantpark.org

The annual summer Broadway in Bryant Park series features stripped-down performances Thursday afternoons at 12:30 from numerous current and upcoming Broadway and off-Broadway musicals, offering a free sneak peek at shows that are lighting up the Great White Way and elsewhere. Below is the full schedule.

Thursday, July 6
STOMP, Groundhog Day, Wicked, The Phantom of the Opera, with the winner of Steinway’s Rising Star on Broadway Contest, hosted by Christine Nagy

Thursday, July 13
Kinky Boots, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, School of Rock, Soulpepper on 42nd Street, with the Aruba Tourist Authority Carnival Dancers, hosted by Delilah

Thursday, July 20
Waitress, Chicago, Cats, Spamilton: An American Parody, hosted by Rich Kaminski

Thursday, July 27
A Bronx Tale, Anastasia: Home at Last, Avenue Q, The Imbible, hosted by Delilah

Thursday, August 3
Miss Saigon, Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812, Broadway Dreams, with the Aruba Tourist Authority Carnival Dancers, hosted by Bob Bronson

Thursday, August 10
Come from Away, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bandstand, Curvy Widow, with Brooke Shapiro, hosted by Helen Little

SUMMERSTAGE — THE BRIDGE: VINCE GIORDANO & THE NIGHTHAWKS WITH CATHERINE RUSSELL / AVALON JAZZ BAND / AURORA NEALAND / NATALIE DESSAY & ENSEMBLE MATHEUS LED BY JEAN-CHRISTOPHE SPINOSI

Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks are headlining an evening of hot New York and French jazz in Central Park on July 1

Vince Giordano & the Nighthawks are headlining an evening of hot New York and French jazz in Central Park on July 1

Rumsey Playfield, Central Park
Enter at 72nd St. & Fifth Ave.
Saturday, July 1, free, 6:00 – 10:00 pm
www.cityparksfoundation.org

Paris and New York City come together for the special jazz, swing, and ragtime show “The Bridge,” a SummerStage event presented by the French Mission du Centenaire of WWI, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, and the New York Hot Jazz Festival. The headliner is the hardest working man in jazz, Vince Giordano, the subject of the recent documentary There’s a Future in the Past; Giordano will be leading his amazing band, the Nighthawks, with guest appearances by Catherine Russell, Kat Edmonson, Nicolle Rochelle, and DeWitt Fleming Jr., performing “From Harlem to Montmarte: The Jazz Age Voyage.” The four-hour show also features the New York City-based Avalon Jazz Band, with vocalist Tatiana Eva-Marie and guest guitarist Stephane Wremble performing “Do You Zazou? The Swing Kids of Wartime Paris”; California-born New Orleans chanteuse Aurora Nealand & the Royal Roses performing “Sidney Bechet: The Paris Years”; and French orchestra Ensemble Matheus, with opera singer Natalie Dessay, conducted by Jean-Christophe Spinosi. Doors open at 5:00 for what should be one truly hot show, which commemorates WWI and the cultural alliance between the United States and France.

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: WE WANTED A REVOLUTION

Jan van Raay

Jan van Raay, “Faith Ringgold (right) and Michelle Wallace (left) at Art Workers Coalition Protest, Whitney Museum,” digital C-print, 1971 (© Jan van Raay)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, July 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

For July, the free First Saturday program at the Brooklyn Museum is zeroing in on its current exhibition “We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85.” There will be pop-up teen apprentice gallery discussions about the show in addition to a tour led by Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art curatorial assistant Allie Rickard; a hands-on workshop in which you can create your own silkscreened political messages; live performances by Tamara Renée (music inspired by collages by Romare Bearden), Billy Dean Thomas, and DJ Reborn; a screening of Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras’s Flag Wars, about gentrification in Ohio, followed by a talkback with Goode Bryant; BUFU Presents Us: A Convening on Collective Action, with workshops by Yellow Jackets Collective, Sisters Circle Collective, Artrepreneurship, QTPOC Mental Health Initiative, and others; a community resource fair with G!rl Be Heard, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, Voices of Women Organizing Project, and the Black Girl Project; a reading and signing by Morgan Parker for her latest book, There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé; and the Black Lunch Table Edit-a-Thon, in which participants can work on Wikipedia articles on artists in the “We Wanted a Revolution” exhibition and get their Wiki portrait taken by Noelle Theard. In addition, you can check out such other exhibits as “Infinite Blue,” “A Woman’s Afterlife: Gender Transformation in Ancient Egypt,” and, at a discounted admission price of $12, “Georgia O’Keefe: Living Modern.”

PERFORMANCES AND ACTIVATIONS FOR “CALDER: HYPERMOBILITY”

Christian Marclay will perform Alexander Calder’s “Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere” July 19-23 at the Whitney (photograph © Jerry L. Thompson. Calder Foundation, New York; Mary Calder Rower Bequest, 2011. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Christian Marclay will perform Alexander Calder’s “Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere” July 19-23 at the Whitney (photograph © Jerry L. Thompson. Calder Foundation, New York; Mary Calder Rower Bequest, 2011. © 2017 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York)

Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort St.
Wednesday – Monday through October 23, $17-$22
212-570-3600
whitney.org

Alexander Calder, kineticism, and the Whitney have been inextricably linked since the institution acquired in May 1982 the Pennsylvania-born artist’s delightful “Calder’s Circus,” which, when on view, is always accompanied by a video showing the work in action. In addition, on rare occasions, it is activated live. The Whitney will be activating many of Calder’s other works in the new exhibition “Calder: Hypermobility,” set in motion at specific times to a specially commissioned sound walk by Jim O’Rourke. Activations, by motor or air, will take place multiple times each day (Monday to Thursday at 12 noon, 2:00, and 4:00; Friday at 12 noon, 2:00, 4:00, 7:30, 8:00, and 9:00; and Saturday and Sunday on the hour from 11:00 am to 4:00 pm). In addition, the Calder Foundation will activate the rarely exhibited “Object with Red Ball” on June 21 at 2:00, “Boomerangs” on June 28 at 2:00, “Tightrope” on July 9 at 4:00, “Goldfish Bowl” on July 12 at 2:00, and two untitled pieces on July 18 and 26 at 2:00, with more to come in August, September, and October. Below is a list of special performances by other artists during the run of the show, some of which require advance tickets.

Wednesday, July 19
through
Sunday, July 23

Christian Marclay performs Calder’s “Small Sphere and Heavy Sphere” (Calder’s first suspended mobile), with cellist Okkyung Lee, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Saturday, August 5
and
Sunday, August 6

Jack Quartet, music by Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, and others, Hurst Family Galleries

Thursday, September 7
through
Sunday, September 10

Arto Lindsay, noisemakers and rattles, in conjunction with the exhibition “Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium,” Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Thursday, September 28
Jill Magid, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Friday, September 29
through
Sunday, October 1

Math Bass and Lauren Davis Fisher perform “Quiet Work in Session,” Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Thursday, October 5
and
Friday, October 6

C. Spencer Yeh, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Saturday, October 7
A screening of films commissioned by the Calder Foundation by artists Ephraim Asili, Rosa Barba, Lucy Raven, Agnès Varda, and others, followed by a conversation moderated by Victoria Brooks, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Friday, October 13
through
Sunday, October 15

Empire State Works in Progress, with artist Abigail DeVille and director Charlotte Brathwaite, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Friday, October 20
through
Sunday, October 22

Nora Schultz, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK SUMMER 2017

make music ny

Make Music New York is back for its eleventh summer season, celebrating the longest day of the year with more than a thousand free concerts across the city on June 21. There are participatory events, live music in parks and plazas, unique gatherings in unusual places, and just about anything else you can think of. Below are only a handful of the highlights, arranged chronologically.

49 Flutes, fortieth anniversary of John Cage’s “49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs,” 147 locations, dawn and dusk

Inside the Bird Chorus, with composer David Rothenberg on clarinet and Derek Gripper on guitar at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 5:30 am; Jordan McLean on trumpet at Cherry Hill in Central Park, 5:30 am; Dave Kadden on oboe at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Preserve, 9:00 am; Michael Pestel on woodwinds at Wave Hill, 9:00 am; Volker Goetz on trumpet at Fresh Kills Park, 7:00 pm; Bobby Sanabria & Project X featuring Jeff Lederer at Crotona Park, 7:00 pm

The Ella Fitzgerald Piano Bar, Harlem and East Harlem, Apollo Theater, 11:00; Red Rooster, 12:30; Sister’s Cuisine, 2:15; Uptown Grand Central Community Plaza, 3:45; and National Jazz Museum in Harlem, 5:15

Street Studios, with Miles Francis, Harman Audio 527 Madison Ave., 11:00 am – 3:00 pm; with Kid Koi, Gotham Market at the Ashland, 590 Fulton St., Brooklyn, 12:30-3:30; with Aaron Lazansky, Tomasia Kastner, and students from NYC Parks’ Computer Resource Centers, Andrew Freedman Home, 1125 Grand Concourse, Bronx, 4:00-7:00; with Angus Tarnawsky, Skill Mill NYC, 949 Amsterdam Ave., 5:00-8:00; with Manhattan Producers Alliance, La Plaza de Las Americas, West 175th St. & Broadway 5:15-7:00

Fourth annual Porch Stomp, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 12 noon – 5:00 pm

Joe’s Pub Block Party, with Jose Conde, 12 noon; Fumi Tanakadate & the Kaoru Watanabe Taiko Center Ensemble, 1:00; Hervé, 2:00; Svetlana & the Delancey Five, 3:00; Vuyo Sotashe, 4:00; Batalá, 5:00, Astor Place Plaza

South Shore Lawn Party, the Kreischer Mansion, Charleston, Staten Island, 12 noon – 9:00 pm

Gérard Grisey’s Le Noir de l’Étoile, American Museum of Natural History, Hall of the Universe, 12:30

Mass Appeals: Electronic Instruments, NYU, 35 West Fourth St., Room 303, 3:00; Djembes, Mullaly Park, 5:00 pm; Harmonicas, Central Park’s Pond Lawn, 5:30; Ukuleles, Pilgrim Hill, Central Park, 5:30; Guitars, Union Square Park, 6:00; Mandolins, Theodore Roosevelt Park, 6:00; French Horns, Madison Square Park, 6:30; Accordions, Bryant Park, 7:00; Cellos, Bushwick Inlet Park, 7:00; Recorders, Straus Park, 7:00

Concerto for Buildings, works by Daniel Goode (“Concerto for Buildings”), Lainie Fefferman (“Cloud Noodles”), Miguel Bolivar (“Going Up”), Devon Cupo (“Quit While You Exist”), and Christian Rivera (“When I See You Again”), with Mantra Youth Percussion and Rahway High School Wind Ensemble, performed on eight buildings on Greene St. between Grand & Broome, 5:00

On the Waterfront, with duo pianists Karl Larsson and Hitomi Honda, 4:30, and Mannes Prep students, Pier I, Hudson River Gateway off West Seventieth St., 5:00

Offerings and Songs to the Solstice Sun, with Irka Mateo, Anne Loftus Playground, Fort Tryon Park, 5:00

WTC @ WTC, The Well-Tempered Clavier, with Athena Adamopoulos, Kathy Chen, Larry Edoff, Melody Fader, Joan Forsyth, Leslie Dobrenski Frost, Alfredo Garcia, Jr., Vadim Ghin, Liam Kaplan, Kingsley Matthew, Blair McMillen, Barbara Podgurski. Lara Saldanha, Eleanor Sandresky, Qian Shen, Irene Tse, Jenny Undercofler. Anna Vinnitsky, and the students of Joan Forsyth, Eugenia Glivinski, Adrienne Kim, Nathaniel LaNasa, Elena Leonova, Tatjana Rankovich, Gena Raps, and Emily White, 9/11 Memorial plaza, 5:00 – 8:00

The Mp3 Experiment Number Fourteen, Battery Park, 7:00

Sxip Shirley’s The Gauntlet, with Choral Chameleon, West Dalehead Arch, Central Park, 7:00

RIVER TO RIVER: NIGHT AT THE MUSEUMS

night at the museums

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUMS
Multiple downtown locations
Tuesday, June 210, free, 4:00 – 8:00
lmcc.net
nightatthemuseums.com

Last Tuesday, the Museum Mile Festival offered free admission to seven institutions along Fifth Ave. between 82nd and 105th Sts. This Tuesday, June 20, fifteen downtown organizations will open their doors for free. As part of the River to River Festival, which includes experimental dance, theater, music, and more through June 25, people are invited inside to see exhibitions and special programs as well as join walking tours. The participating organizations (with current exhibitions and special events) are the African Burial Ground National Monument (ranger presentations and screening of Our Time at Last), Federal Hall National Memorial (ranger tours, George Washington, Early American Music by Linda Russell), Fraunces Tavern Museum (“Dunsmore: Illustrating the American Revolutionary War,” “Lafayette,” live music by Rose Tree), the Museum of American Finance (“For the Love of Money: Blacks on US Currency,” hourly tours), the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (“My Name Is…The Lost Children of Kloster Indersdorf,” “Eyewitness: Photographs by B. A. Van Sise,” 6:30 talk on Jewish communities in China), the China Institute (“Dreams of the Kings: A Jade Suit for Eternity, Treasures of the Han Dynasty from Xuzhou,” live music), the National Archives at New York City, the National Museum of the American Indian (“Akunnittinni: A Kinngait Family Portrait,” “Circle of Dance,” live performances by Martha Redbone), the National September 11 Memorial Museum, the NYC Municipal Archives (building tours with MA photographer Matthew Minor and MA commissioner), the 9/11 Tribute Center, Poets House (“Poetry Since 1912: Books, Issues, & Ephemera from the Poetry Foundation,” literary scavenger hunt), the Skyscraper Museum (“Ten and Taller, 1874-1900,” tour with founding director Carol Willis), and the South Street Seaport Museum (“Street of Ships: The Port and Its People,” Waterfront History Walking Tour, Bowne C. Stationers and Printers live demonstration).

LOFTOPERA: PERGOLESI & VIVALDI

loftopera

The Muse
350 Moffat St.
Friday – Saturday, June 16-17, 23- 24, 30, and July 1, 7-8, $30, 8:30
www.loftopera.com
themusebrooklyn.com

LoftOpera was founded in 2013 by Bed-Stuy twentysomethings Dean Buck, Daniel Ellis-Ferris, and Brianna Maury to bring the hoity-toity art form down to earth in professional and affordable site-specific productions in unusual spaces. The company has presented Verdi’s Macbeth in the MAST Chocolate Factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia at LightSpace Studios, Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in the Green Building, Puccini’s La Bohème in the 1896, and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni in the Gowanus Loft. LoftOpera is now offering staged performances of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, along with works by his eighteenth-century contemporary Antonio Vivaldi, at the Muse, a warehouse performance space in Bushwick. Running Friday and Saturday nights from June 16 to July 8, the show, directed and choreographed by John de los Santos, features soprano Heather Buck and countertenor Randall Scotting, dancers Constance Nicolas, Julie Carter, Megan Guinta, and Taylor Tucker, costumes by Christian Joy, and lighting by Joan Racho-Jansen. The orchestra, led by concertmaster Ravenna Lipchik, consists of Alicia Bisha, Michael Mandrin, Amy Gardner, and Jessica McJunkins on violin, Jules Lai, Eva Gerard, and Dan McCarthy on viola, Eric Allen, Jessica Wang, and Madeleine Bouissou on cello, and Ben Murphy and Pat Swoboda on bass, conducted by music director Brian Gilling. Tickets are a mere $30 and come with complementary water; patrons can also purchase ice-cream sandwiches, beer, and wine and enjoy them at their seats. It’s far more informal than going to the Met; there’s even loud music during pauses and intermissions to maintain a kind of unstuffy party atmosphere. Stabat Mater will be followed in September by Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci and in December by Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle.