Traveler, there are no paths.
Peter Gelb and Luigi Nono in The New York Times, plus a frankly massive list of recommended musical events for the week ahead.
Still haven’t made it out to hear any live music just yet, though hopefully that will change soon. But after over a week housebound because of a cold, it felt great to get out to my place of work over the weekend to see Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists, a provocative play by Portuguese writer-director Tiago Rodrigues. The run, alas, was brief, and has now concluded; here’s a gift link to a perceptive New York Times review by Laura Collins-Hughes.
I have thoughts about the intent and efficacy of the play’s concluding gambit, but those aren’t germane to this newsletter. Suffice it to say I was grateful to be witnessing art in person again, and I’m looking forward to what comes next.
Get out to see something during the next seven days and nights if you can; you’ve got a lot of options listed below, and we’re going to hit the annual Thanksgiving dry spell next week.
News to note.
Metropolitan Opera general manager Peter Gelb has transformed his “Make It New Again” speech, about renewing the canon with new operas that people (as opposed to critics) are glad to hear, into a New York Times op-ed essay. Here’s a gift link. (The comments will induce whiplash.)
Also in The New York Times, historian and critic Mark Berry has a probing, rewarding essay marking the centenary of Italian composer Luigi Nono (gift link), who wrote three operas unlikely to reach the Met however much critics professional and avocational alike might wish it so. “He asks that we join him in the necessary, political act of listening,” Berry writes.
NYC indie-music historian Jesse Rifkin interviews Julia Gorton and Rick Brown about a classy new volume anthologizing and contextualizing their pioneering No Wave zine, Beat It!, on Walk on the Wild Side NYC. I’ve not read my copy just yet, but it’s a beautiful thing, still available on Gorton’s website.
Last but not least, Josh Haden has shared extraordinary photos of an implausibly young Ornette Coleman Quartet – including his father, bassist Charlie Haden – recording The Shape of Jazz to Come in 1959.
The Night After Night Watch.
Concerts listed in Eastern Standard Time.
NOTAFLOF = no one turned away for lack of funds.
19
Riyawa Ensemble
Elebash Hall, CUNY Graduate Center
365 Fifth Ave.; Midtown East
Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 7:30pm; free admission
www.gc.cuny.edu
Riyawa Ensemble, a chamber group that specializes in modern Middle Eastern classical music, presents the local premiere of Kareem Roustom’s Palestinian Songs and Dances, a mix of Palestinian folk sources with contemporary-classical elements. Works by Kinan Azmeh, Sami Seif, and Bushra El-Turk complete the program, which will be streamed live for those who can’t attend.
Sun Dogs
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave.; Brooklyn
Tuesday, Nov. 19 at 7:30pm; $34–$85
bam.org
[Mandatory disclosure: BAM is my current employer.]
Conceived by curatorial catalyst Liquid Music for the Cincinnati Symphony, Sun Dogs brings together three combinations of filmmakers and composers – Rafiq Bhatia with Apichatpong Weerasethakul; Devonté Hynes with Mati Diop & Manon Lutanie; and Arooj Aftab & Daniel Wohl with Josephine Decker – for a multidisciplinary event fusing new visions with live sounds. Alarm Will Sound plays the original scores in arrangements newly made for this tour. Use the code SUNDOGS21 when you order online to receive two tickets for the price of one.
20
Anna Webber
Glass Box Theatre, The New School
55 W. 13th St., Greenwich Village
Wednesday, Nov. 20–Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8:30pm; $20 cash only
thestonenyc.com
Saxophonist and flutist Anna Webber, a musician valued for rigorous composition and vital improvisation, comes to The New School for an exceptionally promising Stone series of close encounters. Webber opens on Wednesday in a trio with Matthew Shipp at the piano and Joe Morris on bass. Thursday’s show features pianist Angelica Sanchez, bassist Adam Hopkins, and drummer Tom Rainey. A heady sextet on Friday includes saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock, trumpeter Chris Williams, vibraphonist Yuhan Su, bassist Chris Tordini, and drummer Jason Nazary. Saturday’s finale unites Webber with pianist Matt Mitchell, with whom she split a compelling 2023 Tzadik CD, Capacious Aeration.
21
International Contemporary Ensemble
Roulette
509 Atlantic Ave.; Brooklyn
Thursday, Nov. 21 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors and students $20
roulette.org
Visionary percussionist and conductor Steven Schick joins a small but mighty contingent of International Contemporary Ensemble players in the world premiere of Touch Trace by Zosha Di Castri. Compositions by Nyokabi Kariūki, Liza Lim, Fernanda Cabral Kañetas, Nicole Mitchell, Ellen Reid, and Michele Abondano complete an enticing program.
Ivalas String Quartet
David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center
1887 Broadway; Upper West Side
Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7:30pm; free admission
lincolncenter.org
Presented in cooperation with New Latin Wave, the Ivalas String Quartet – currently Graduate Resident String Quartet at The Juilliard School – presents what’s billed as the first-ever program devoted entirely to works by Puerto Rican-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón, spanning 20 years of diverse, appealing music.
Darius Jones
Merkin Hall, Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St.; Upper West Side
Thursday, Nov. 21 at 7:30pm; $30
kaufmanmusiccenter.org
Appearing under the banner of the Kaufman Music Center’s “Artist as Curator” series, saxophonist and composer Darius Jones presents two of his most ambitious projects: Samesoul Maker, a prfoundly otherworldly sound ritual for voices and percussion; and fLuXkit Vancouver, a Fluxus-inspired creation for alto saxophone, string quartet, and drums.
22
Holland Andrews & yuniya edi kwon + Ka Baird & Zeena Parkins
Parish Hall at St Mark’s Church
131 E. 10th St.; East Village
Friday, Nov. 22 at 8pm; $10
poetryproject.org
Four restless seekers of fresh musical and cultural frontiers team up in two combinations packed with promise. Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon share interests in multidisciplinary arts, movement, and ritual; Ka Baird and Zeena Parkins push at physical boundaries seeking auditory transcendence. If you can’t attend in person, the performances will stream live on The Poetry Project’s YouTube channel.
Tessa Brinckman & Kathleen Supové
Mise-en Place
341 Calyer St.; Brooklyn
Friday, Nov. 22 at 7pm; $20, students $10
eventbrite.com
In an event hosted by Melinda Faylor, curator of the late, lamented Areté Venue and Gallery in Greenpoint, flutist Tessa Brinckman and pianist Kathleen Supové present “And When I Dream, You Shall Know,” an adventurous combination of video art, custom scents, and original music by Linda Marcel, Rebekah Driscoll, Whitney George, Beata Moon, Niloufar Nourbakhsh, Marti Epstein, Elsa M’bala, and both performers.
Cantori New York
Church of the Holy Apostles
296 Ninth Ave.; Chelsea
Friday, Nov. 22 & Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8pm; $30, advance $25, seniors $25, advance $20, students and children $15, advance $13
cantorinewyork.com
A long-running vocal ensemble committed to modern and contemporary music, Cantori New York opens its 40th season with the world premiere of Dear Mountains, a new work on Armenian themes for solo cello, oud, percussion, and choir, jointly composed by Karen Ouzounian and Lembit Beecher. Cellist Ouzounian is also featured in Exaudi, a sublime work by the late Canadian composer Jocelyn Morlock; completing the program are Renaissance motets and Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning.
23
BlackBox Ensemble
Church of St. Luke and St. Matthew
520 Clinton Ave.; Brooklyn
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 7pm; $25, students $15
blackboxensemble.org
I’ve only had enough time to check out BlackBox Ensemble performing mil cuartos blancos en línea recta by James Diáz and All Mass is Interaction by Annie Nikunen in videos posted on YouTube—and that was more than enough to warrant a hearty recommendation for “Dialogues in Duality,” a program that includes both of those pieces, plus further works by Anthony Cheung, Bekah Simms, Baljinder Sekhon, Brittany J. Green, and Reilly Spitzfaden. The concert starts at 8pm, but show up at 7 to see The Sound of Space Between Us, a film documenting a site-responsive program with music by Nikunen, staged last year at the Clark Art Institute.
BMP: Next Gen 3
National Sawdust
80 N. 6th St.; Williamsburg
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 7:30pm & Sunday, Nov. 24 at 3pm; $35
bethmorrisonprojects.org
Beth Morrison Projects, an unrivaled incubator of new opera and music theater works (even Peter Gelb gives props!), showcases the 10 semi-finalists selected for BMP: Next Gen, a program that identifies and supports early-career composers. Participants this year include Anuj Bhutani, Felipe Hoyos-González, Paul Cosme, Julia Moss, Rachel Epperly, Sepehr Pirasteh, Adeliia Faizullina, Harriet Steinke, Bobby Ge, and Sam Wu. Two finalists will be commissioned to write a 30-minute piece for performance in 2025, after which a winner will be engaged to create an evening-length work.
Kronos Quartet
Victoria Theater, New Jersey Performing Arts Center
1 Center St., Newark, NJ
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8pm; $65–$85
njpac.org
You’ve got to admire the symmetry: Having hosted a performance by Kronos Quartet and a tribute to gospel superstar Mahalia Jackson during its inaugural season in 1997–98, New Jersey Performing Arts Center now hosts the first area performance by the new Kronos lineup in a program partly inspired by Jackson. Stacy Garrop’s Glorious Mahalia incorporates the singer’s recorded voice, and Antonio Haskell’s “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away” (as arranged by Jacob Garchik) was a signature hymn in Jackson’s oeuvre. Works by Terry Riley, Laurie Anderson, and Steve Reich complete the program—and remember, it’s as easy to get to NJPAC as it is to reach many destinations within the five boroughs.
Katie Porter
Issue Project Room
22 Boerum Place; Brooklyn
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 8pm; free admission
issueprojectroom.org
Wrapping up her term as an Issue Project Room artist-in-residence, clarinetist, composer, and curator Katie Porter presents “Collaborations ex-situ,” revisiting past connections with artists Patricia Alessandrini, Katherine Liberovskaya, and anne penders in the soulful, seldom-activated IPR space on Boerum Place.
Trio in Aviary
American Academy of Arts and Letters
Broadway between 155th & 156th Sts.; Washington Heights
Saturday, Nov. 23 at 4pm; free admission with RSVP
artsandletters.org
Three musicians of elemental presence and power – flutist Laura Cocks, percussionist Nava Dunkelman, and violinist gabby fluke-mogul – are the latest cohort invited by composer and multidisciplinary artist Raven Chacon to interact with his sonic installation Aviary. Admission to the hour-long performance is free with reservations, which you can make here.
24
Da Capo Chamber Players
Greenwich House Music School
46 Barrow St.; Greenwich Village
Sunday, Nov. 24 at 8pm; $30, seniors and students $15
eventbrite.com
The venerable, questing Da Capo Chamber Players welcome guest flutist Roberta Michel for “Homage,” a program comprising works in which composers pay homage to mentors and predecessors: Toshio Hosokawa’s Stunden-Blumen. homage à Olivier Messiaen, Hilda Paredes’s Reencuentro (dedicated to Maria Lavista), Betsy Jolas’s Ah, Haydn!, Tristan Murail’s Une relecture des Kinderszenen de Robert Schumann, and Jonathan Dawe’s On Again, Ockeghem.
piano+
Spectrum NYC at Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition
481 Van Brunt St.; Red Hook
Sunday, Nov. 24 at 4pm; suggested donation $15, seniors and students $10
teodora.stepancic.com/pianoplus
The 40th installment of piano+, a congenial new-music series hosted by pianist and composer Teodora Stepančić, welcomes Swiss composer-performer Manfred Werder, a Wandelweiser associate whose ultra-minimalist music and enigmatic actions heighten awareness of sound, space, time, and their interconnection. Here, Werder will collaborate with LCollective in his own music and more.
25
Davóne Tines & PUBLIQuartet
Advent Lutheran Church
2504 Broadway; Upper West Side
Monday, Nov. 25 at 7:30pm; free admission, registration recommended
musicmondays.org
Appearing as part of the generous Music Mondays series, the accomplished, inspiring bass-baritone Davóne Tines joins forces with the versatile, enterprising PUBLIQuartet in a new realization of Tines’s MASS project, a modern-day exploration of spirituality and mysticism spanning multiple traditions. The music ranges from Johann Sebastian Bach and George Frideric Handel via Julius Eastman to Tyshawn Sorey and Caroline Shaw. Learn more about the program in an interview Nate Chinen conducted with Tines for WRTI, here.
26
Jason Moran & The Bandwagon
Village Vanguard
178 Seventh Ave. S.; Greenwich Village
Tuesday, Nov. 26–Sunday, Dec. 1 at 8 & 10pm; $40
villagevanguard.com
Ingenious pianist, composer, bandleader, and multidisciplinary artist Jason Moran settles into the city’s most hallowed jazz shrine with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits for their customary Thanksgiving-week run.
More vital directories of new-music destinations:
Find even more events in Night After Night Watch: The Master List, here.
Photographs by Steve Smith, except where indicated.
Man it would be nice if Peter Gelb would for once actually talk with a critic about operatic form and structure, dramatic meaning, history of it in society, etc, instead of just style and sales ¯\_(ツ)_/¯