New Music
The Village Trip GuitarFest:
Ah, Let’s go Back to the Village
St John’s in the Village
218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United States
Celebrate the Jack Kerouac centenary with the world premiere of David Amram’s Ah, Let’s Go Back to the Village, a chamber music composition commissioned by The Village Trip and based on text from Kerouac’s book Lonesome Traveler. Tilted Axes – twenty electric guitars – kick off this unique guitar extravaganza. There follows a program of South American guitar music, and twenty classical guitarists wrap up, joining David Amram, who will jam on his score for the Robert Frank film Pull My Daisy.
Classical Jack: Chamber Music Which Inspired Kerouac and Music Inspired by Him
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesMusically as important as Beethoven,
Yet not regarded as such at all
So wrote Jack Kerouac in the 240th chorus of Mexico City Blues, speaking of Charlie “Bird” Parker, whom he regarded as the perfect musician. But Jack’s love of jazz did not diminish his great love for classical music and his knowledge of it. His innate musicianship, of course explains the music of his prose, and his ability to improvise words to music, as he did with his old friend David Amram. The program will include works by J.S. Bach, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, and Amram performed by a group of distinguished musicians: pianist Yoshiko Kline, saxophonist Ken Radnofsky, and violist Consuelo Sherba.
7th Ave. S, Cygnus Ensemble
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesApologies, but we have had to postpone this event due to Covid.
In the New York Times, Paul Griffiths described Cygnus as an "enterprising and supple group featuring guitars, strings and woodwinds in pairs….” Composer Allison Loggins-Hull’s latest work, 7th Ave. S. calls for an electric guitar, bridging into the psychedelic sound-world of Greenwich Village, and telling her Village Stories in three movements.
Renowned soprano Leah Brzyski will join Cygnus for the premiere of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s Gypsum, setting of poems by Diedre Huckaby.
Carman Moore riffs on “Cygnus” in Swans Across the Milky Way.
CompCord Chamber Orchestra featuring Suzanne Vega: Songs and Poems from the Village
The Players Theatre 115 MacDougal Street, NY, United StatesWith music by New York City composers, including the legendary Suzanne Vega singing some of her classic songs in new orchestral arrangements by Gene Pritsker, William Anderson and Jonathan Dawe. Poetry recitations pay tribute to Greenwich Village.
Secret Music: Celebrating David Del Tredici at 85
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesPianist Marc Peloquin performs music of the great American composer and long-time resident of the West Village, David Del Tredici, as part of his 85th birthday celebration. Also included on the program will be works by composers affiliated with Del Tredici, including Robert Helps and Dennis Tobenski.
Bowers Fader Duo
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesCutting Edge Concerts joins The Village Trip to present the Bowers Fader Duo performing both classical and contemporary repertoire. Their ongoing mission is to promote new American art songs for mezzo and guitar, through commissions, performances, and recordings.
Village Voices
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesGreenwich Village has been home to some of America’s greatest creative minds – poets, composers, innovators, iconoclasts, and free-thinkers. Sopranos Sharon Harms and Adriana Valdes join pianists Joan Forsyth, Cathy Kautsky, Gavin Cappon and the Village Guitar Orchestra to perform songs by Henry Cowell, John Cage, Edna St Vincent Millay, Djuna Barnes, Robert Frost, Margaret Bonds, James Baldwin, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Tania Leon and Willa Cather. Exciting new settings by composers William Anderson, Nehemiah Luckett, Jonathon Dawe, Kitty Brazelton and Gavin Cappon enliven the program.
Charlie Parker & Stefan Wolpe
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesCharlie Parker was crucial to the development of bebop, a uniquely American artform that thrived in Greenwich Village. Composer Stefan Wolpe fled the Nazis and settled in the Village, teaching avant-gardists and jazz musicians alike, forming a friendship with the jazz radical.
Glass Houses: Celebrating Philip Glass at 85
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesThe Village Trip partners with Victoria Bond and Cutting Edge Concerts to celebrate the legacy of ground-breaking composer Philip Glass.
Village Composers and Stephen Dembski, featuring soprano Sharon Harms
Tenri Cultural Institute 43A West 13th Street, NY, United StatesGreenwich Village, has a thriving music scene represented in this program of newer and recent works by a diverse group of Village composers. This program of music is dedicated to the memory of composer Stephen Dembski, long-time West Village resident, who died suddenly in summer 2021.