this week in music

DINE AROUND DOWNTOWN 2016

28 Liberty Plaza
Between Liberty & Pine and Nassau & William Sts.
Wednesday, June 8, 11:00 am – 3:00 pm
Admission: free, dishes $3-$7
212-566-6700
www.downtownny.com

Sponsored by the Downtown Alliance and hosted by chef Alex Guarneschelli, the fifteenth annual Dine Around Downtown will feature signature dishes from more than forty Lower Manhattan restaurants, from pizza places and burger joints to steak and seafood houses. Among the participating eateries and what’s on their menu are ATRIO Wine Bar (Mediterranean grilled octopus salad, pulled pork sliders, whipped Mortadella crostini with pistachios), Barbalu (assorted crostini, tiramisu), Bavaria Bier Haus (steak sandwich and side salad, mac and cheese, sausages and mash), Beckett’s Bar and Grill (lobster slider, lobster mac and cheese), Delmonico’s (grilled steak sandwich, lobster bisque), Le District (Le District classic crêpe, Asian chicken crêpe, chocolate lollipops), Harry’s Café and Steak (grilled baby lamb chops, lobster-stuffed mushrooms), Haru (spicy tuna roll, fish tacos), the Ketch Brewhouse (crab cake sandwich, organic chicken slider, shrimp cocktail), OBAO (chicken and shrimp dumplings, chicken pad kee mao, chicken pad see ew), the Open Door Gastropub (pork belly BLT, bacon–mushroom mac and cheese), Pier A Harbor House (blackened swordfish taco, New England clam chowder), SUteiShi (scallop skewers, yuzu lemonade), and Ulysses’ Folk House (BBQ pork ribs with coleslaw, fried chicken with coleslaw). There will also be live music by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem All-Stars. Each plate goes for $3 to $7, with proceeds benefiting the Downtown Alliance, which “is striving to make Lower Manhattan a wonderful place to live, work, and play by creating a vibrant multi-use neighborhood.”

CELEBRATE ISRAEL: SIGHT, SOUND, AND SPIRIT

Bikers join with marchers and floats in Celebrate Israel Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE
57th to 74th St. up Fifth Ave.
Sunday, June 5, free, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
celebrateisraelny.org

On May 14, 1948, “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” proclaimed, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” Israel’s existence has been fraught with controversy since the very beginning, but the nation perseveres, and on June 5 its sixty-eighth birthday will be honored with the annual Celebrate Israel Parade. This year’s theme is “Sight, Sound & Spirit,” a tribute to the ideal of Israel as a model of diversity. As the official parade website explains, “Israel speaks to our history and to our hearts. In Israel, there is so much to see, so much to do, so much to feel and embrace.” On Sunday, some thirty thousand marchers are expected to make their way from Fifty-Seventh to Seventy-Fourth St. up Fifth Ave. Among the performers will be the Broadway cast of Fiddler on the Roof, SOULFARM, the Israel Dance Institute, Paprim Ensemble Dancers, DJ LT, DJ Lee Epstein, the Maccabeats, the Milk & Honeys, and Areyvut Mitzvah Clowns. Special guests include honorary grand marshal Kathie Lee Gifford, grand marshal Moshe Gil, Ambassador Ido Aharoni, and several members of the Knesset, while among the guests are Dr. Ruth Westheimer, television journalists Steve Lacey and Robert Moses, and the Israel Pro-Cycling Team.

In addition, the unaffiliated Israel Day Concert in Central Park is a free show in Rumsey Playfield (2:30–7:30) with performances by Lipa Schmeltzer, Eitan Katz, Shloime Dachs and Orchestra, Tal Vaknin with Shlomi Aharoni, Mati Shriki, Avi Kilimnick, Michoel Pruzansky, Dr. Meyer Abittan, Jerry Markowitz, Chaim Kiss, Izzy Kieffer & Heshy R., Micha Gamerman, Matt Dubb, and White Shabbos as well as speakers Danny Danon, John Bolton, Major Pete Hegseth, Joe Piscopo, and Morton Klein and special appearances by Ken Abramowitz, Farley Weiss, Martin Oliner, David Weprin, Rory Lancman, Rabbi David Algaze, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, and Rivka Abbe. The emcee is Nachum Segal.

TO LIFE, TO LAUGH, L’CHAIM!: A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION IN SONG OF SHOLEM ALEICHEM

sholem aleichem

Symphony Space, Peter Jay Sharp Theatre
2537 Broadway at 95th St.
Sunday, June 5, $15-$40, 4:30
212-864-5400
www.symphonyspace.org
thejppc.org

In May 1916, Yiddish author and playwright Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich, better known as Sholem Aleichem, died in the Bronx at the age of fifty-seven from tuberculosis and diabetes, leaving behind a legendary legacy of Jewish storytelling. On June 5, the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus will honor the one hundredth anniversary of his death with a special concert at Symphony Space, “To Life, to Laugh, L’Chaim!: A Centennial Celebration in Song of Sholem Aleichem.” The show will feature brand-new choral arrangements of Yiddish versions of songs from Fiddler on the Roof in addition to “Shalom aleichem malachei hasharet,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” “Afn pripetshik,” and others. Sholem Aleichem’s epitaph (“Here lies a plain man, / Who wrote in plain Yiddish, / And to readers he was known / A humorist, a writer . . .”) will also be set to music, in a world premiere. The concert will be conducted by Binyumen Schaechter, with pianist Seth Weinstein and guest soloists Cantor Joshua Breitzer, Donna Breitzer, Cantor Joel Caplan, and Temma Schaechter. There has been quite a recent resurgence in Yiddish theater of late, including last fall’s New Yiddish Rep version of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Castillo Theatre, the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene’s delightful re-creation of The Golden Bride, which returns to the Museum of Jewish Heritage this summer, as well as, of course, the current Broadway revival of Fiddler, so this concert continues the very happy trend.

FIRST SATURDAY: PRIDE AND AGITPROP!

LJ Roberts, “Sisters Are Doing It for Themselves,” Jacquard-woven cotton and Lurex, hand-dyed fabric, crank-knit yarn, thread, 2011 (photo by Mario Gallucci)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, June 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

Pride Month is the centerpiece of the Brooklyn Museum’s June edition of its vastly popular free First Saturday program. The evening will feature live performances by New York City Gay Men’s Chorus and DJ Mursi Layne; storytelling by Queer Memoir; screenings of Jake Witzenfeld’s Oriented, followed by a talkback with Tarab NYC, and Asurf Oluseyi’s Hell or High Water, followed by a talkback with activists Kehinde Bademosi, Noni Salma Lawal, Ekene Okuwegbunam, and Adejoke Tugbiyele; a movement workshop inspired by domestic workers, by Studio REV-; pop-up gallery talks on “Disguise: Masks and Global African Art”; a hands-on workshop in which participants can make their own Pride-based iron-on patch; a curator talk by Catherine J. Morris and Stephanie Weissberg on “Agitprop!”; the talk “Women, Art, AIDS, and Activism,” with Joy Episalla, Kia Labeija, Jessica Whitbread, Egyptt Labeija, Sue Schaffner, and Carrie Moyer, hosted by Visual AIDS and moderated by LJ Roberts; a printmaking workshop about immigration and undocumented youth; and outdoor projections by the Illuminator. In addition, you can check out such other exhibitions as “This Place,” “Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016,” and “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (to a Seagull).”

QUEENS INTERNATIONAL 2016 PERFORMANCES

Janks Archive: Belfast, September 6-7, 2013, Belfast, Northern Ireland (curated by Alissa Kleist as part of FIX Live Art biennale, 2013, photo by Jessica Langley)

Janks Archive: Belfast, September 6-7, 2013, Belfast, Northern Ireland (curated by Alissa Kleist as part of FIX Live Art Biennial, 2013, photo by Jessica Langley)

Who: Janks Archive, Jesus Benavente and Felipe Castelblanco, Trouble (Sam Hillmer and Laura Paris), Patrick Higgins, E.S.P. TV
What: Live performances in conjunction with “Queens International 2016” exhibition
Where: Queens Museum, New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park
When: Saturday, June 4, free – $8, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
Why: As part of the Queens Museum biennial, there will be a trio of special events held in and around the institution on June 4. From 12 noon to 3:00, Janks Archive, which collects oral insults from around the world, will be in Flushing Meadows Corona Park interviewing passersby about some of their favorite regional snaps, disses, slams, burns, jibes, digs, cut-downs, rippins, and slaggings. From 1:00 to 2:30, Jesus Benavente and Felipe Castelblanco will hold an open rehearsal of “Las Reinas,” their project with two Mariachi bands, one from Queens (Mariachi Real de Mexico), the other from Colombia, in which they collaborate to create a new song, “Las Reinas” (“The Queens”), via online chats and that will be distributed by word of mouth to mariachi bands across North and South America. And from 3:30 to 5:00, artist duo Trouble (Sam Hillmer and Laura Paris) will present “The Stood Maze” in the museum atrium as part of Trans-Pecos’s “Action Fortress” installation; “The Stood Maze” is an interactive pop-up labyrinth held up by thirty-three performers while experimental guitarist Patrick Higgins plays a sonic composition and E.S.P. TV supplies live visuals. In addition to “Queens International 2016,” the museum also currently has on view “Hey! Ho! Let’s Go: Ramones and the Birth of Punk,” “Bearing Witness: Drawings by William Gropper,” and “Nonstop Metropolis: The Remix” in addition to long-term exhibitions.

DanceAfrica — SENEGAL: DOORS OF ANCIENT FUTURES

WAATO SiiTA will be celebrating its native Senegal at DanceAfrica at BAM this weekend (photo courtesy of the artist)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAMcafé, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
May 27-30, free – $60
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

For its thirty-ninth season, BAM’s extraordinary DanceAfrica program takes audiences to Senegal, celebrating “Doors of Ancient Futures.” The Memorial Day weekend festivities, under the leadership of new artistic director Abdel R. Salaam (from Forces of Nature) and beloved artistic director emeritus Chuck Davis, feature performances in the Howard Gilman Opera House by the Senegalese troupes Les Ballets de la Renaissance Africaine “WAATO SiiTA” and Compagnie Tenane, Senegalese legend Germaine Acogny (“the Mother of Contemporary African Dance”), and Brooklyn’s own BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble, joined by Forces of Nature founding member Dyane Harvey-Salaam and Reverend Nafisa Sharriff. Be on the lookout for both traditional and contemporary movement, including krumping, popping, and breakdancing. There will also be a late-night dance party May 28 in the BAMcafé with DJ Tony Humphries, workshops on May 30 with WAATO SiiTA choreographer Pape Moussa Sonko, a FilmAfrica series consisting of ten films screening in BAM Rose Cinemas (including Nicolas Cissé’s Le Terreau de L’Espoir, Yared Zeleke’s Lamb, and Jason Silverman and Samba Gadjigo’s Sembene!), and the oh-so-fab outdoor DanceAfrica Bazaar (May 28-30), chock-full of vendors selling African products, from clothing and music to jewelry and food.

GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL AT NYBG: AN EVENING OF WORLD-CLASS OPERA

The Glimmerglass Opera will preview 2016 summer festival at the New York Botanical Garden on May 26 (photo of 2015 Glimmerglass production of Mozart’s THE MAGIC FLUTE by Karli Cadel/The Glimmerglass Festival)

The New York Botanical Garden
2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx
Thursday, May 26, $35, 6:00
718-817-8700
www.nybg.org
glimmerglass.org

Opera in the Bronx? On May 26, as part of its 125th anniversary, the New York Botanical Garden will offer a sneak peek at this summer’s Glimmerglass Festival at a special one-night-only program. The evening begins at 6:00 with a viewing of the gallery section of the new exhibition “Impressionism: American Gardens on Canvas,” which features gardens curated by Francisca Coelho in the style of works by Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, and other artists, along with Impressionist paintings and sculptures. At 7:00 in Ross Hall, soprano Alison King, mezzo-soprano Zoie Reams, tenor Chaz’men Williams-Ali, baritone Johnathan McCullough, and pianist Kevin Miller will perform excerpts from a new Belle Époque production of Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème, Gioachino Rossini and Giovanni Gherardini’s The Thieving Magpie, Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler’s Sweeney Todd, and Robert Ward’s Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, as well as past favorites, presented by Glimmerglass artistic and general director Francesca Zambello and the Young Artists Program. Following the performance, ticket holders are invited to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory to see the garden part of the Impressionism exhibition. The Glimmerglass Festival takes place July 8 to August 27 in Cooperstown and also includes Laura Karpman and Kelley Rourke’s new Youth Opera: Wilde Tales, discussions with New York State attorney general Eric Schneiderman and journalist Jeffrey Toobin on The Crucible, Sondheim on Sweeney Todd, and Supreme Court Justice and opera lover Ruth Bader Ginsburg in addition to master classes, lounges, preview brunches, and more.