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Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 5, 2019, 4:00 PM
Taylor Mac: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 30 - MAY 5, 2019
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$129-$275
https://garyonbroadway.com/
I've wondered what it would take to get me to List a Broadway show. Written by Taylor Mac? Starring Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin? (Oops! Lost Andrea Martin.) Directed by George C. Wolfe? I guess this has what it takes. Hope it's hilarious. The title sure is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's been decades, but I remember thinking the vaguely Venetian Osteria al Doge was pretty good. Stays open late like a Theater District restaurant should, too. But what you really want, after dinner (or after the show if you've already eaten), is the new cocktail lounge Blue, from the Blue Ribbon folks.
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, May 5, 2019, 6:00 PM
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Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Mary Prescott: Songs Between Love and Death
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/mary-prescott-songs-between-life-and-death/
Mary Prescott is an interdisciplinary artist with musical composition at the base of her work. Sometimes her music almost functions as singer-songwriter pop; but sometimes it's out on the edge. This piece is a performative song cycle integrating music, word, movement, physical theater, and installation. And what a musical ensemble she's assembled for it! Would you believeAriadne Greif and Sara Serpa, along with Nina Dante, on vocals? Ilmar Gavilánon violin and Jonathan Finlayson on trumpet? Of course, Nick Dunston is there on the double-bass.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Good food and great drink at Grand Army Bar.
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Tuesday, April 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, May 5, 2019, 3:30 PM
Dave Malloy: Octet
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 30 - MAY 5, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 16)*
7:30 PM TUESDAY - FRIDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
Romulus Linney Courtyard Theater, The Pershing Square Signature Center
480 West 42nd Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$35
https://www.signaturetheatre.org/shows-and-events/Productions/2018-2019/Octet.aspx
I have never seen a music/theater piece by Dave Malloy I didn't love love love. Whether he's leaning electro-pop (Natasha, Pierre & the Great Comet of 1812), folkie (Ghost Quartet), Martian rock (Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage), or classical (Preludes and every Schubertian's dream night, the sublime Three Pianos), his music is fluent, catchy, surprising, and beautifully arranged. This piece for a cappella chamber choir explores our old friends addiction and nihilism through the lenses of internet discussion boards, scientific debates, religious texts, and Sufi poetry. Really, can you think of anything more enticing?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Polynesian -- where the Tiki cocktails and snacks are a lot better than they need to be.
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, May 5, 2019, 4:30 PM
Norma Jeane Baker of Troy
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 30 - MAY 5, 2019 (continuing through MAY 19)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$99-$179
https://theshed.org/program/4-norma-jeane-baker-of-troy
If you're going to make a theater piece mashing up two enormously famous but somewhat disparate beauties, each having made a huge impact on Western Culture at some cost to themselves (imposed because they were sexualized women), then you might as well have a cast comprising . . . Ben Whishaw and Renee Fleming? It begins to make sense when you see that the piece was written by Anne Carson, one of the best there is at twisting the classics for immediate relevance. The director is the highly distinguished Katie Mitchell.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus, is finally open for dinner as well as lunch, so they have you covered all day. (Its adjacent sandwich/snack bar closes at 5 PM.
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, May 5, 2019, 4:30 PM
Christoper Chen: Passage
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 30 - MAY 5, 2019 (continuing through MAY 26)
7:30 PM TUESDAY - SUNDAY
3:00 PM SATURDAY
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65; rush tickets $30/$20 students; 99¢ non-advance sales Sunday
https://sohorep.org/passage
Reality is a shifting construct in Christopher Chen's involving works, which are "immersive" not in the usual physical sense (a cheap trick if you ask me), but rather intellectually. This one's about colonialism; with that title, E.M. Forstercan't be too far away
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I feel like I have to recommend the hottest restaurant in Manhattan, imported Chicago gastrodiner Au Cheval, as it's essentially around the corner. It has the reputation of being impossible to get into without a long wait, but it's kind of doable after a show (and they now purport to take reservations -- for all the good that will probably do you). If you do get in, skip the famous burger, which is gloppy and overdressed (you can't even taste the meat), in favor of the supernal duckheart-gravied potato hash -- a dish you wish you were eating when you aren't (e.g., like me right now) -- or the fried bologna sandwich, which -- trust me on this -- is infinitely better than you would ever expect. The downstairs bar is missable.
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, May 5, 2019, 3:00 PM
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 7:00 PM – Wed, May 1, 2019, 8:00 PM
Nick Lehane: Chimpanzee
THEATER
TUESDAY - WEDNESDAY & FRIDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 30 & MAY 1 & 3 - 5, 2019
7:00 PM
HERE
145 Sixth Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-$45
http://here.org/shows/detail/2013/
Nick Lehane's hit piece of puppet theater is back, in which an aging chimpanzee non-verbally pieces together her fragmented memories of her childhood in a human family.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still excited to try the mod Italian spot Mav Soho -- or to hear from someone else who's tried it.
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Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 11:15 AM – Wed, May 1, 2019, 12:15 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 30 - MAY 5, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost bodiless collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus, is finally open for dinner as well as lunch, so they have you covered all day. (Its adjacent sandwich/snack bar closes at 5 PM.)
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Mon, Apr 29, 2019, 8:00 PM – Tue, Apr 30, 2019, 9:00 PM
Rosalía: El Mal Querer
MUSIC
MONDAY & TUESDAY, APRIL 29 & 30, 2019
8:00 PM
Red Bull Music Festival
Webster Hall
125 East 11th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$40
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/music/events/rosalia-el-mal-querer-4-29
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/music/events/rosalia-el-mal-querer
Every several years, someone comes along and synthesizes Flamenco with whatever pop styles are contemporary at the time. Sometimes it works better than other times (I really liked Ojos de Brujo). Rosalía is getting a lot of favorable attention (these shows are sold out) for her fusion of Flamenco with alt-R&B and pop. I wish I liked her music more, to be honest -- but I'm going to continue to give it every possible chance. Not at these sold-out shows perhaps -- but, as we all know about ticket availability, things tend to change at the last minute. (As another draw, these shows will give longtime NYC concertgoers a chance to see how many layers of sludge they managed to remove in the recent, long-needed renovations of Webster Hall's bathrooms.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, Tim Ho Wan for what are, for me, some of the most astonishingly overrated dim sum in the known universe. After the show, you might just be able to make it to Momofuku Ssäm Bar, better than it's been in years.
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Sunday, April 28, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Anjna Swaminathan: WOVEN: Entangled Memorobilia
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/anjna-swaminathans-woven-entangled-memorabilia/
Composer/violinist Anjna Swaminathan, playing as part of an improvising string trio accompanied by a string quartet playing notated music, combines Indian and Western classical music in a new memory piece.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The wonderful Korean restaurant Insa -- with the usual recommendation that you forgo the tabletop barbecue in the dining room and eat in the much more pleasant bar/lounge.
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Sunday, April 28, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sunday, April 28, 2019, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
VAQUERAOKE: A Return to Oz
PERFORMANCE
SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2019
3:30 & 5:30 PM
PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$15
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5034?locale=en
The uberbuzzy fashion collective Vaquera presents a performance piece using the various iterations of The Wizard of Oz story to explore how new narratives can be created from existing archetypes.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before or after the early show or before the late show, Bierocracy for beer and sausage. After the late show, the joyously excessive M. Wells Steakhouse (I don't know about yours, but that Chicken Fried Beefheart they just added to their menu has my name on it).
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Sunday, April 28, 2019, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
J. Charpentier: 72 Études Karnatiques
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 28, 2019
12:00 PM
Giusy Caruso
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Jacques Charpentier studied under Messiaen, who famously incorporated Hindu classical music into his own blend, and collaborated with the great French historian/musicologist of India, Alain Daniélou. So it's not surprising that Charpentier's chef de ouevre is a three-hour set of piano études tracing the 72 ragas of the Carnatic system. You never get to hear these played live. One recent afternoon, when I sat myself down to listen to this very pianist's fine recording of this work, my mind was well and truly blown.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Of course you're either going to precede or follow this recital with a visit to Russ & Daughters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
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Sunday, April 28, 2019, 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 28, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost bodiless collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus, is finally open for dinner as well as lunch, so they have you covered all day. (Its adjacent sandwich/snack bar closes at 5 PM.)
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Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 10:00 PM
-
Saturday, April 27, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Saturday, April 27, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Gavin Rayna Russom: PHYSICALITY #1: One Woman Show (Rough Mix)
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2019
7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25; $50 three-show residency pass
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/gavin-rayna-russom/
The electronics whiz of LCD Soundsystem begins a three-show residency in which she explores physicality in terms of both art and body.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There may be some dancing involved on the part of the audience. Which might make you hungry enough for Mod Georgian Cheeseboat. And thirsty enough for the excellent cocktails at Hotel Delmano.
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Saturday, April 27, 2019, 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
24-Hour Drone
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2019
12:00 PM
Basilica Hudson
110 Front Street, Hudson, New York
$24-$36
https://basilicahudson.org/24-hour-drone/
The annual 24-hour festival featuring drone music of various kinds. Sold out -- but if you really want to get in, you'll find a way.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you can pull yourself away from the drone music long enough for a meal, Zak Pelaccio's Fish & Game is the superstar restaurant of Hudson.
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Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 4:00 PM
Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs
MUSIC
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 26 - 28, 2019
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Wadada Leo Smith: Rosa Parks: Pure Love. An Oratorio of Seven Songs
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$35
https://thekitchen.org/event/wadada-leo-smith-rosa-parks-pure-love-an-oratorio-of-seven-songs
An ambitious piece by this great trumpeter/composer involving a string quartet, a trumpet quartet, electronics, drums, vocals, pipa, and a Butoh dancer.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Rocco DiSpirito's comeback at The Standard Grill is a solid success (even if he's evidently working within corporate directives to keep things simple).
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Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 6:00 PM
Gruppo Nanou: we want miles, in a silent way
DANCE
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 26 - 28, 2019
8:00 PM FRIDAY & SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
La MaMa
66 East 4th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors
http://lamama.org/gruppo_nanou/
Gruppo Nanou, a dance/performance company from Ravenna, takes Miles Davis tracks, removes the trumpet parts, and replaces them with choreographed motion. This might just be crazy enough to work.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Catch the Filipino wave at Maharlika.
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Fri, Apr 26, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:00 PM
The Stone Series: Jon Irabagon
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 26 & 27, 2019
8:00 PM
Happylucky No. 1
734 Nostrand Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.happyluckyno1.com/happenings/2019/3/8/the-stone-series-ami-yamasaki-bfbe5-ddzc7-6hrjp-g3m8p-dynch-4cz6b-ecre2-psy4b-fpmah-m3f5h-5gz6h
http://www.happyluckyno1.com/happenings/2019/3/8/the-stone-series-ami-yamasaki-bfbe5-ddzc7-6hrjp-g3m8p-dynch-4cz6b-ecre2-psy4b-fpmah-m3f5h-5gz6h-hbgl7
Saxophonist Jon Irabagon started out with the playful jazz combo Mostly Other People Do the Killing, and he's kept that sense of play in his work ever since. So, sure, his music is challenging, sometimes abrasive -- but it's alsofun. Friday night sees him playing in a trio, Saturday solo. Don't go if you don't like enjoying yourself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'll spare you the (great) backstory this time and just remind you that David's Brisket House has some of the best pastrami in Brooklyn. And the brisket's nothing to sneer at, either. (If you're me, you'll have a combo.)
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Friday, April 26, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Thursday, April 25, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Kronos Quartet & Sam Green: A Thousand Thoughts
MUSIC / PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019
8:00 PM
Town Hall
123 West 43rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$47-$67
http://thetownhall.org/event/kronos-quartet
Sam Green makes these live documentaries, where filmed imagery and interviews are combined with live narration and musical performances. Here, Green tracks the musical career of the Kronos Quartet, with filmed imagery from their past and interviews with some of the countless composers and performers they've worked with, while the Kronos themselves play some of their greatest hits in accompaniment.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Blue Ribbon guys have opened a cocktail bar (with snacks) in the basement of their new restaurant in what used to be the Guy Fieri outlet. It's called Blue. It looks just great.
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Thursday, April 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
New York Baroque Incorporated: Alchemy: Air
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019
7:30 PM
Saint Paul Chapel
209 Broadway, FiDi, Manhattan
$20-$35
https://www.nybaroque.org/201819/2019/4/25/alchemy-air
This excellent local period instruments band continues its series exploring music claimed to relate to the four classical elements, one element at each concert. That relation is often not clear to the detached observer. But who cares, when you're hearing Rameau, Clérambault, and Handel?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm going to keep sending you to Crown Shy, the new New American spot in the old Cities Service Building whose menu seems kind of nondescript, but whose food people are really liking.
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Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 8:30 PM
Mariana Valencia: Bouquet
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 25 - 27, 2019
7:30 PM
Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/mariana-valencia-bouquet/
Dancer/choreographer Mariana Valencia puts together an autobiographical piece that, reflecting her influences, quotes dances by such other choreographers as Alvin Ailey, Trisha Brown, Frank Conversano, and nia love -- as well as Valencia herself and her longtime collaborator Lydia Okrent (who directs).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Since the last show at this location of the venue is coming soon, I'm going to keep sending you while I have the chance across the street to the celebrated Casa Enrique for Michelin-starred Mexican.
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Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:30 PM
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Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 8:30 PM
Blessed Unrest & Teatri Oda: Refuge
THEATER
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 25 - 27, 2019
7:30 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$16-$36
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=10/15/2018&todate=5/3/2019&display=Day&type=private&eventidn=58113&view=EventDetails&information_id=750435
Teatri Oda of Kosovo is one of those East European theater companies that create searing political theater that burns the stage. Blessed Unrest of New York is the rare American equivalent that escapes the traps of didacticism, sanctimony, earnestness, and heavy-handedness. Here, the two companies collaborate on a piece exploring the little-known circumstance that Albania, virtually alone among Nazi-occupied countries, sent no Jews to internment camps, its predominantly Muslim citizens instead harboring them. Expect this all to be shown without sentimentality.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The California-style eatery Upland, from Justin Smillie, the star opening chef of Il Buco Alimentari e Vinoteca, isn't what I'd I call my cup of tea -- but even I have to admit it's pretty good.
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Thursday, April 25, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Kassa Overall feat. Kris Davis: Time Capsule
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019
7:30 & 9:30 PM
The Jazz Gallery
1160 Broadway, NoMad, Manhattan
$25-$35
https://jazzgallery.nyc/shows/
Drummer Kassa Overall pairs with ace pianist Kris Davis for an exploration of time.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You really can't beat the NoMad Bar: great cocktails, excellent food.
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Thursday, April 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Little Cinema: Frida
PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019
7:00 PM
Iris and Gerald B. Cantor Auditorium, Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
$16
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/calendar/event/little_cinema_frida_april_2019
Little Cinema does their immersive-performance-surrounding-a-movie-screening thing with Julie Taymor's Frida Kahlo biopic, featuring a memorable performance by Salma Hayek's prosthetic eyebrows. This is sold out. Maybe there'll be some last-minute cancellations.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The menu at MeMe's Diner seems kind of basic. But the food is SO well-done. And there isn't a friendlier, more welcoming place, well, anywhere.
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Thursday, April 25, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Barbiana Complex / Pas Musique
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2019
7:00 PM
H0L0
1099 Wyckoff Avenue, Ridgewood, Queens
$10
https://www.h0l0.nyc/
Two veteran New York noise outfits combine for a noisy show. Barbiana Complex hews more to psychedelic rock side of noise, while Pas Musique is more in the experimental vein. They're both noisy, though.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Nowadays taproom (and, when the weather heats up, beer garden) is one of the most fun spots in Brooklyn.
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Thu, Apr 25, 2019, 1:00 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 2:00 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 28, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost bodiless collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus, is finally open for dinner as well as lunch, so they have you covered all day. (Its adjacent sandwich/snack bar closes at 5 PM.)
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Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
García Lorca: Muse and Magician
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2019
8:00 PM
New York Festival of Song
Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$20-$62
http://nyfos.org/lorca/
Federico García Lorca -- poet, Flamenco proponent, trained musician -- has inspired a good deal of 20th Century song. Look at the list of composers here (aside from the poet himself): Poulenc, Montsalvatge, Revueltas, Billy Strayhorn, Leonard Cohen, William Bolcom, Surinach, de Falla -- there's no way this won't be fantastic. (PS -- Bet you didn't know that, aside from being influenced by Lorca as a poet, Leonard Cohen was something of a Flamenco fanatic.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Every once in a while it's nice to return to that neighborhood French charmer La Boite en Bois.
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Wed, Apr 24, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 8:30 PM
Kaneza Schaal: JACK &/The Cotillion
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 24 - 27, 2019
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors; $15 subsidized tickets (whatever that means)
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/the-cotillion/
Kaneza Schaal's kaleidoscopic account of an ex-con's attempts to reintegrate-- it drops into 1950s sitcoms and African-American dance pageantry at the drop of a hat -- made quite an impression at BAM last Fall. It's good to have it back. While the cast (all three of them) are all beyond excellent, Cornell Alston (himself an ex-con) in the title roll is unforgettable. For this run, Schaal has created a new installation through which audience members enter and leave the auditorium.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: More Old Skool Spanish at Café Riazor.
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Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:30 PM
Okkyung Lee Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 23 - 27, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
This week's Stone/New School residency features experimental cellist Okkyung Lee leading various different ensembles. As usual, every night has its appeal, but I'll single out the shows on Wednesday and Friday, featuring that excellent singer Sara Serpa (particularly Friday's show, featuring a voice/vibes/cello trio), and Thursday's show featuring a harp/violin/cello/percussion quartet.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to Spain Restaurant and one thing that you will not believe is that it's 2019 -- or any year after 1970, for that matter. Another thing you won't believe are the low prices.
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Tuesday, April 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 6:00 PM
-
Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 9:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 28, 2019
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$30-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should beaccessible, even entertaining -- continue their magical exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
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Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 27, 2019, 9:00 PM
Taylor Mac: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 23 - 27, 2019
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$275
https://garyonbroadway.com/
I've wondered what it would take to get me to List a Broadway show. Written by Taylor Mac? Starring Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin? (Oops! Lost Andrea Martin.) Directed by George C. Wolfe? I guess this has what it takes. Hope it's hilarious. The title sure is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's been decades, but I remember thinking the vaguely Venetian Osteria al Doge was pretty good. Stays open late like a Theater District restaurant should, too. But what you really want, after dinner (or after the show if you've already eaten), is the new cocktail lounge Blue, from the Blue Ribbon folks.
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Tuesday, April 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 8:30 PM
Christoper Chen: Passage
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 28, 2019 (continuing through MAY 26)
7:30 PM
Soho Rep.
46 Walker Street, Tribeca, Manhattan
$35-$65; rush tickets $30/$20 students
https://sohorep.org/passage
Reality is a shifting construct in Christopher Chen's involving works, which are "immersive" not in the usual physical sense (a cheap trick if you ask me), but rather intellectually. This one's about colonialism; with that title, E.M. Forster can't be too far away.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I feel like I have to recommend the hottest restaurant in Manhattan, imported Chicago gastrodiner Au Cheval, as it's essentially around the corner. It has the reputation of being impossible to get into without a long wait, but it's kind of doable after a show (and they now purport to take reservations -- for all the good that will probably do you). If you do get in, skip the famous burger, which is gloppy and overdressed (you can't even taste the meat), in favor of the supernal duckheart-gravied potato hash -- a dish you wish you were eating when you aren't (e.g., like me right now) -- or the fried bologna sandwich, which -- trust me on this -- is infinitely better than you would ever expect. The downstairs bar is missable.
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Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 4:30 PM
Norma Jeane Baker of Troy
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 28, 2019 (continuing through MAY 19)
7:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$99-$179
https://theshed.org/program/4-norma-jeane-baker-of-troy
If you're going to make a theater piece mashing up two enormously famous but somewhat disparate beauties, each having made a huge impact on Western Culture at some cost to themselves (imposed because they were sexualized women), then you might as well have a cast comprising . . . Ben Whishaw and Renee Fleming? It begins to make sense when you see that the piece was written by Anne Carson, one of the best there is at twisting the classics for immediate relevance. The director is the highly distinguished Katie Mitchell.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus, is finally open for dinner as well as lunch, so they have you covered all day. (Its adjacent sandwich/snack bar closes at 5 PM.)
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Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 28, 2019, 3:00 PM
-
Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 11:15 AM – Wed, Apr 24, 2019, 12:15 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 23 - 28, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost bodiless collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus, is finally open for dinner as well as lunch, so they have you covered all day. (Its adjacent sandwich/snack bar closes at 5 PM.)
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Monday, April 22, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Monday, April 22, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Presents for Jonas
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2019
7:00 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
Free
https://microscopegallery.com/presents-for-jonas/
A personal pitch: filmmaker/critic Jonas Mekas was an enormous personal influence, someone who fundamentally changed the way I think about and experience art. So I could not be more heartfelt in recommending this night of performance, sound, expanded cinema, and poetry made as "presents" for Mekas by the New York and world artistic communities after his recent demise.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There'll be a pizza break mid-program, so all your pizza needs should be attended to. For your post-show New Orleans-style snacks and cocktail needs, Heavy Woods.
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Mon, Apr 22, 2019, 7:00 PM – Tue, Apr 23, 2019, 8:00 PM
Nick Lehane: Chimpanzee
THEATER
MONDAY & TUESDAY, APRIL 22 & 23, 2019 (continuing through MAY 5)
7:00 PM
HERE
145 Sixth Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-$45
http://here.org/shows/detail/2013/
Nick Lehane's hit piece of puppet theater is back, in which an aging chimpanzee non-verbally pieces together her fragmented memories of her childhood in a human family.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still excited to try the mod Italian spot Mav Soho -- or to hear from someone else who's tried it.
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Sunday, April 21, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sunday, April 21, 2019, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Ballet Prismatique
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 21, 2019
5:00 PM
In Visible Roads, Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS Piano Series
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15 (includes all three sets); $10 students (includes all three sets); $100 festival pass
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/ballet-prismatique
In this incredibly attractive program, a bunch of really good pianists play a suite of classical pieces treating dance music, from the Baroque to (mainly) now. Representative composers: Bach, Schumann, Caroline Shaw, Andrew Norman, and Molly Joyce.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: We Jews have long known that the best way of being assured of finding a restaurant open on a major Christian holiday is to go for Chinese. Maybe the awesome handmade dumplings and noodles at (natch) Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles?
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Sunday, April 21, 2019, 11:15 AM – 12:15 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 16 - 21, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost discorporate collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to one of the early shows, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or its adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, you might try the meatcentric food at restaurant/butcher shop Belcampo -- although it seems emblematic that the delicious dishes they served to the elite guests (and me) at the Hudson Yards preview reception the night before opening were much more interesting, and infinitely better prepared, than what actually appears on the menu.
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Saturday, April 20, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Nina Kraviz / James Murphy
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2019
10:00 PM
Knockdown Center
52-19 Flushing Avenue, Maspeth, Queens
$30-$35 advance; $40 door
https://knockdown.center/event/nina-kraviz-james-murphy/
If you're into dance music, this is a dream bill. Nina Kraviz, Siberian dentist turned Techno queen, has one of the most interesting minds in the business: her propulsive sets are dark and fascinating; you can hear her think (also, she's touring a new audio-visual show). James Murphy, leader of LCD Soundsystem and co-founder of DFA Records, is quite simply a legend.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The specialty burgers at Express Soul Food & Grill are, um, something.
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Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 6:00 PM
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Saturday, April 20, 2019, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Points of Departure
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 20, 2019
5:00, 6:30 & 8:00 PM
In Visible Roads, Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS Piano Series
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15 (includes all three sets); $10 students (includes all three sets); $100 festival pass
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/points-of-departure
A marathon piano concert, and it all looks pretty great. The first set features, among others, Kathleen Supové, playing, among others, Missy Mazzoli,Steven Stuckey, and Supové's husband Randall Woolf. The second set features, among others, Kris Davis and Anthony De Mare playing, among others, Andy Akiho, Derek Bermel, and (of course), Kris Davis. The third set features Gabriel Zucker and Adam O'Farill playing Gabriel Zucker. Can't do better.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Who knows, maybe you'll be able to get into Wildair for good snacky food and outrageously good wine.
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Fri, Apr 19, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 9:00 PM
The Stone Series: Dave Douglas
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 19 & 20, 2019
8:00 PM
Happylucky No. 1
734 Nostrand Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
$20
http://www.happyluckyno1.com/happenings/2019/3/8/the-stone-series-ami-yamasaki-bfbe5-ddzc7-6hrjp-g3m8p-dynch-4cz6b-ecre2-psy4b-fpmah
http://www.happyluckyno1.com/happenings/2019/3/8/the-stone-series-ami-yamasaki-bfbe5-ddzc7-6hrjp-g3m8p-dynch-4cz6b-ecre2-psy4b-fpmah-m3f5h
Is it really possible that star trumpeter Dave Douglas -- one of the best players in all jazz -- is playing two nights in Crown Heights? Looks like it. Unusually for this series, Douglas is fronting the same ensemble each night. Good thing, when it's his fascinating new band Engage, featuring a winds/guitar/cello/bass/drums lineup. What's more, the winds are played by Brooklyn fave Anna Webber, the cello is Tomeka Reid, and the bass is Nick Dunston (whom we haven't heard since last week).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'll start recommending other places around here than Cajun funster Catfish, I promise. But I just like it so much.
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Friday, April 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Friday, April 19, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Synesthetic Vibrations
MUSIC
FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 2019
7:00 PM
In Visible Roads, Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS Piano Series
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15; $10 students; $100 festival pass
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/synesthetic-vibrations
Everybody knows that Messiaen and Scriabin were born with synesthesia, the condition by which sound is experienced as color. This program couples them with other composers who either are also synesthetic (who knows?) or for whom color plays an important role in their musical creation: George Crumb and Andy Akiho. Since these are all quite excellent, interesting, enjoyable composers, this is a quite promising concert. Especially since its being performed by a real all-star band.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: A massive Cantonese menu -- including congee, natch -- at Congee Village.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 10:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Max Kutner's Trio Generale
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
10:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Guitarist Max Kutner unveils a new trio (guitar/trumpet/drums) skirting whatever lines there might be between punk, math rock, jazz, and free improv.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: All the talk about the new Joker movie brings to mind Five Leaves, the bistro Heath Ledger didn't live to open. It will still be open after this show.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Symbiosis: Acousticorp // Mckinstry / Liberatore // Chien / Cawley
DANCE
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
8:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
The final installment of the first season of this series mashing up dance and music in new ways is highlighted by a performance by the series curators, dancer Sarah Chien and percussionist (and sometime Spectrum house manager) Caitlin Cawley.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bar Bolinas's California-style burger really makes it.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thu, Apr 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 4:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 15 & 18 - 22, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 28)
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should be accessible, even entertaining -- continue their exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Alicia Svigals & Donald Sosin: The Ancient Law
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
8:00 PM
The Town & Village Synagogue
334 East 14th Street, East Village, Manhattan
$15 for the performance; $35 for performance and preceding instrumental workshop commencing at 6:30 PM
http://nyklezmer.com/concert-schedule/apr-18-2019-alicia-svigals-donald-sosin-the-ancient-law-silent-film
The Ancient Law was an until-recently-lost classic of Weimar cinema, a Jewish-made silent tragicomedy telling the story of the son of an Orthodox rabbi whose establishment of an acting career is opposed by his father (with the secular world not presented with unalloyed affection): another story of assimilation (cf. Hollywood's The Jazz Singer of a few years later), heartbreakingly produced a short time before its country decided to take extreme measures to insure that Jewish assimilation would cease being an issue. The silent film will be accompanied by live music by one of the leading composer/pianists specializing in the accompaniment of silent films, Donald Sosin -- and the fabulous Alicia Svigals, whom I am going to hyperbolically call the greatest klezmer violinist in the world (really!), an astonishing stylist who brings that plaintively swinging music resolutely into the present.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Smoked meats and other things at Ducks Eatery.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Fire Over Heaven
PERFORMANCE / MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2019
8:00 PM
Outpost Artists Resources
1665 Norman Street, Ridgewood, Queens
$10-$15 suggested donation
https://www.outpostartistsresources.org/archives/2852
What a great night. A perforrmance piece opening up the personal histories of the participants (with obstacles thrown up along the way). A sound/sculpturecollaboration. And a set by the lead singer of The Scene Is Now, a sort of avant-jug band from the '80s on that I, for one, just adored!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: There's a lot of beer in Ridgewood. Before the show, stop by the tap room of the Bridge and Tunnel Brewery. After, go to Craft Culture, which pours excellent beer with good food (and Thursday night is three draft beers for the price of two!). Or, if it's after Craft Culture's unfortunate 11:00 PM closing time, go to Nowadays, where the beer and food aren't as good but the fun factor is through the roof.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Composer Portrait: David T. Little
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 2018
8:00 PM
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$20-$30
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/david-t.-little
David T. Little is one terrific composer. He wrote one of the very best operas of the last several years (which as far as I'm concerned have been a small Golden Age of opera composition), Dog Days. His band, Newspeak, has been one of the best post-classical (or whatever you want to call it) ensembles. His works are political, but in a smart, artful, non-didactic way that roots them rather than encumbers them. And he rocks. This show features two works conceived as companion pieces but played together tonight for the first time ever: one for string quartet (the excellent American Contemporary Music Ensemble) and electronics; the other for percussion quartet (the estimable Third Coast Percussion) and electronics.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Northwestern Chinese food, verging on Central Asian and featuring dumplings, noodles, and lotsa beef and lamb, at Dunhuang Noodles Upper West Side.
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Thursday, April 18, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Thu, Apr 18, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 8:30 PM
Mariana Valencia: Bouquet
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 18 - 20, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 27)
7:30 PM
Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/mariana-valencia-bouquet/
Dancer/choreographer Mariana Valencia puts together an autobiographical piece that, reflecting her influences, quotes dances by such other choreographers as Alvin Ailey, Trisha Brown, Frank Conversano, and nia love -- as well as Valencia herself and her longtime collaborator Lydia Okrent (who directs).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Since the last show at this location of the venue is coming soon, I'm going to keep sending you while I have the chance across the street to the celebrated Casa Enrique for Michelin-starred Mexican.
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Thu, Apr 18, 2019, 1:00 PM – Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 2:00 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 16 - 21, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost discorporate collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to one of the early shows, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or its adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, you might try the meatcentric food at restaurant/butcher shop Belcampo -- although it seems emblematic that the delicious dishes they served to the elite guests (and me) at the Hudson Yards preview reception the night before opening were much more interesting, and infinitely better prepared, than what actually appears on the menu.
-
Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Apr 18, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 8:00 PM – Thu, Apr 18, 2019, 9:00 PM
Huang Ruo: Bound
OPERA
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY, APRIL 15 & 17 - 18, 2019
8:00 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center, Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$16-$36
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=10/15/2018&todate=5/3/2019&display=Day&type=private&eventidn=58111&view=EventDetails&information_id=750423
Composer Huang Ruo has been on a roll lately. His style, combining Western and Chinese classical and vernacular elements, is enormously appealing -- and he's shown himself to be a capable musical dramatist. So expectations for this new opera are high. Focusing on a Vietnamese immigrant family, it explores the conflicts between preserving cultural heritage and attaining success and acceptance in America.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The bar at Eleven Madison Park is surprisingly approachable (attitudinally if not economically). And, putting the excellent bar menu aside, the cocktails are some of the best in any New York restaurant.
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Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 8:30 PM
Kaneza Schaal: JACK & The Cotillion
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - FRIDAY, APRIL 17 - 20, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 27)
7:30 PM
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$25; $20 students/seniors; $15 subsidized tickets (whatever that means)
https://newyorklivearts.org/event/the-cotillion/
Kaneza Schaal's kaleidoscopic account of an ex-con's attempts to reintegrate-- it drops into 1950s sitcoms and African-American dance pageantry at the drop of a hat -- made quite an impression at BAM last Fall. It's good to have it back. While the cast (all three of them) are all beyond excellent, Cornell Alston (himself an ex-con) in the title roll is unforgettable. For this run, Schaal has created a new installation through which audience members enter and leave the auditorium.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: More Old Skool Spanish at Café Riazor.
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Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Wednesday, April 17, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Aaron Diehl
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17, 2019
7:00 PM
In Visible Roads, Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS Piano Series
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15; $10 students; $100 festival pass
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/aaron-diehl
There is no more elegant and urbane stylist in jazz right now than pianist Aaron Diehl. Here he plays, among other things, music by Philip Glass and Nico Muhly -- with an assist from Muhly himself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Staten Island Italian in Manhattan at Rubirosa.
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Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 6:00 PM
Nick Lehane: Chimpanzee
THEATER
WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 17 - 21, 2019 (continuing through MAY 5)
7:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
HERE
145 Sixth Avenue (entrance on Dominick Street), Hudson Square, Manhattan
$25-$45
http://here.org/shows/detail/2013/
Nick Lehane's hit piece of puppet theater is back, in which an aging chimpanzee non-verbally pieces together her fragmented memories of her childhood in a human family.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm still excited to try the mod Italian spot Mav Soho -- or to hear from someone else who's tried it.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
-
Tue, Apr 16, 2019, 8:30 PM – Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 9:30 PM
Sylvie Courvoisier Residency
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 16 - 20, 2019
8:30 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
Sylvie Courvoisier is a piano improviser with a sharp mind and a touch that veers between diamond and silk. Not much to choose from among the several excellent ensembles she's assembled for this residency -- except to note that Tuesday's features Stone head man John Zorn himself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Go to Spain Restaurant and one thing that you will not believe is that it's 2019 -- or any year after 1970, for that matter. Another thing you won't believe are the low prices.
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Tue, Apr 16, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 20, 2019, 9:00 PM
Taylor Mac: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
THEATER
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 16 - 20, 2019
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$275
https://garyonbroadway.com/
I've wondered what it would take to get me to List a Broadway show. Written by Taylor Mac? Starring Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin? (Oops! Lost Andrea Martin.) Directed by George C. Wolfe? I guess this has what it takes. Hope it's hilarious. The title sure is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's been decades, but I remember thinking the vaguely Venetian Osteria al Doge was pretty good. Stays open late like a Theater District restaurant should, too. But what you really want, after dinner (or after the show if you've already eaten), is the new cocktail lounge Blue, from the Blue Ribbon folks.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
George Crumb at 90: Part II
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
7:30 PM
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
1941 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$32-$75
https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/nyc/events/upcoming/george-crumb-at-90-part-ii-april-16-2019/
What can you say about George Crumb? That he was writing listenable, ear-catching, but never pandering avant-classical music before it became fashionable? That his music challenges as it pleases, but also pleases as it challenges? That his unexpected forms and textures are always right? That, although he would never head a "school" or anything like that, he's a guiding spirit for much of what's good in contemporary classical music? That we're lucky he's still active and at his best? That it's hard to imagine anyone not finding much to deeply enjoy in this second of two surveys of Crumb's music?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Roman-style pizza at My Pie Pizzeria Romana.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
The Seven Last Words Project
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
7:30 PM
Cathedral of St. John the Divine
1047 Amsterdam Avenue, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
$20; $10 students
https://www.juilliard.edu/event/134431/seven-last-words-project
Another of those concerts where proponents of the new "listenable" New Music styles write for period instruments: a pungent and fascinating combination. Juilliard has commissioned a galaxy (well, seven) of such composers -- Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, Tania León, Paola Prestini, Jessica Meyer, Colin Jacobsen, and Reena Esmail -- to compose pieces to wrap around the movements of Haydn's great great meditative set of adagios, The Seven Last Words of Christ (here played in its string quartet version). This will be great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Haydn -- who lived in Hungary part-time at the time he wrote The Seven Last Words -- would tell you to cross the street to the Hungarian Pastry Shop.
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Tue, Apr 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 4:30 PM
Norma Jeane Baker of Troy
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 16 - 21, 2019 (continuing through MAY 19)
7:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$99-$179
https://theshed.org/program/4-norma-jeane-baker-of-troy
If you're going to make a theater piece mashing up two enormously famous but somewhat disparate beauties, each having made a huge impact on Western Culture at some cost to themselves (imposed because they were sexualized women), then you might as well have a cast comprising . . . Ben Whishaw and Renee Fleming? It begins to make sense when you see that the piece was written by Anne Carson, one of the best there is at twisting the classics for immediate relevance. The director is the highly distinguished Katie Mitchell.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the Sunday matinée, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or its adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, you might try the meatcentric food at Belcampo -- although it seems emblematic that the delicious dishes they served to the elite guests (and me) at the Hudson Yards preview reception the night before opening were much more interesting, and infinitely better prepared, than what actually appears on the menu.
-
Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Dan Tepfer: Natural Machines
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
7:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25 each show
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/dan-tepfer/
While Dan Tepfer improvises at the piano, a Yamaha Disklavier he has programed responds to his playing in real time while another computer program takes the sounds generated and turns them into animated visuals. Wow.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I guess it's a good night for the eminently pleasant D.O.C. Wine Bar, with its tasty Sardinian (some of it, anyway) food.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Cunningham: Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event
DANCE
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
7:30 PM
BAM Opera House
30 Lafayette Avenue, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$35-$140
https://www.bam.org/dance/2019/night-of-100-solos
In celebration of the centennial of Merce Cunningham, the progenitor of postmodern dance (and thank God for him!), BAM, the Barbican, and UCLA are staging concurrent (not simultaneous: time zone differences) performances in which 25 soloists on each stage perform 100 solos drawn from Cunningham's work. Cunningham freed dance: from extraneous "meaning"; from subservience to music; from silly exoticism. The soloists include the two dancers of the 2018-19 season, Kyle Abraham and Sara Mearns; the stunning -- almost unbelievable -- musical ensemble assembled for the show is made up of David Behrman, Gelsey Bell, John King, Matana Roberts, and Jesse Stiles. This major event is sold out -- how could it not be? -- but there may be standby tickets. And the Merce Cunningham Trust will live-steam it, along with the London and LA shows.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: People are excited (for good reason) about the return of Philadelphia's Tony Luke's to New York -- this time in Brooklyn! -- for cheese steaks and roast pork sandwiches.
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Tuesday, April 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Composer Portrait: Heather Stebbins
William Lang: New Solos
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2019
7:00 & 8:30 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15 per set
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
The exciting voice-and-winds quartet loadbang presents two shows. The first features works by soundscapist Heather Stebbins played by loadband or its several members, helped out by percussionist Cesare Papetti. In the second show, loadbang trombonist William Lang plays several new solo pieces -- including one by Kamala Sankaram!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I am officially in love with the English-inflected meatcentric food at Cherry Point. So deeply satisfying! So well prepared! Be sure to get the grilled Belons while they remain in season.
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Tue, Apr 16, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 21, 2019, 8:00 PM
-
Tue, Apr 16, 2019, 11:15 AM – Wed, Apr 17, 2019, 12:15 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 16 - 21, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
This show is both quite good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost discorporate collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Works by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabricthis real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to one of the early shows, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or its adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, you might try the meatcentric food at restaurant/butcher shop Belcampo -- although it seems emblematic that the delicious dishes they served to the elite guests (and me) at the Hudson Yards preview reception the night before opening were much more interesting, and infinitely better prepared, than what actually appears on the menu.
-
Monday, April 15, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
-
Monday, April 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Huang Ruo: Bound
OPERA
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - THURSDAY, APRIL 15 & 17 - 18, 2019
8:00 PM
Baruch Performing Arts Center, Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$16-$36
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=10/15/2018&todate=5/3/2019&display=Day&type=private&eventidn=58111&view=EventDetails&information_id=750423
Composer Huang Ruo has been on a roll lately. His style, combining Western and Chinese classical and vernacular elements, is enormously appealing -- and he's shown himself to be a capable musical dramatist. So expectations for this new opera are high. Focusing on a Vietnamese immigrant family, it explores the conflicts between preserving cultural heritage and attaining success and acceptance in America.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The bar at Eleven Madison Park is surprisingly approachable (attitudinally if not economically). And, putting the excellent bar menu aside, the cocktails are some of the best in any New York restaurant.
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Monday, April 15, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 15 & 18 - 22, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 28)
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should be accessible, even entertaining -- continue their exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
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Monday, April 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Madison Brookshire: Passages, Veils, Fountain
PERFORMANCE
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2019
7:30 PM
Microscope Gallery
1329 Willoughby Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$8; $6 students
https://microscopegallery.com/madison-brookshire/
LA film artist Madison Brookshire presents films that are live double-projected or made without a camera by immersing the film in paint and treating it. That latter immersed film will have live musical accompaniment by the local exploratory ensemble LCollective.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ops: the best wine program of any pizzeria this good. Also, pure fun (the wine program helps that).
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Mon, Apr 15, 2019, 7:30 PM – Tue, Apr 16, 2019, 8:30 PM
-
Monday, April 15, 2019, 6:45 PM – 7:45 PM
Dupré: Symphonie-Passion
MUSIC
MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2019
6:45 PM
Dupré: Symphonie-Passion
St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue
1 West 53rd Street, Midtown, Manhattan
Free (donation requested)
https://www.saintthomaschurch.org/calendar/events/worship/24641/holy-week-musical-meditation-dupr-symphonie-passion
This List has made no secret of its high level of affection for 20th Century French organ music, with its pungent modern harmonies spicing echos of Gregorian chant (or, in the case of Messiaen -- not on this program -- of the music of the planet Mars). Dupré is a great early master of the style, transitioning out of Romanticism -- and what's more, he recorded some rather famous records at this very Church in the late '50s (although it had a different organ back then). Also on the program is a piece by a the lesser-known proponent of the style, the Belgian composer Paul de Maleingreau. St. Thomas's Assistant Organist, Benjamin Sheen, is a very fine player.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Back into the worldly world with trad Alsatian food from a master chef at the Baccarat Grand Salon.
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Sunday, April 14, 2019, 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM
George Crumb at 90: Part I
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019
5:00 PM
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center
1941 Broadway, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$32-$75
https://www.chambermusicsociety.org/nyc/events/upcoming/george-crumb-at-90-part-i-april-14-2019/
What can you say about George Crumb? That he was writing listenable, ear-catching, but never pandering avant-classical music before it became fashionable? That his music challenges as it pleases, but also pleases as it challenges? That his unexpected forms and textures are always right? That, although he would never head a "school" or anything like that, he's a guiding spirit for much of what's good in contemporary classical music? That we're lucky he's still active and at his best? That it's hard to imagine anyone not finding much to deeply enjoy in this first of two surveys of Crumb's music (the other one's next Tuesday) -- including a nonagenarian world premiere?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I think we're going to say Sunday evening at Oxbow Tavern.
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Sunday, April 14, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
PhiloSonia
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019
4:00 PM
Dweck Center, Central Library, Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Free (registration required)
https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/classical-interludes-central-library-dweck-20190414
This Brooklyn chamber ensemble presents a superfine program of music touching on the divine unknown: Osvaldo Golijov's Klezmer-inflected The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, a really good piece; and an out-and-out great one, one of the greatest of all, in fact: Messaien's strangely beautiful (what other kind of beauty could you expect to be conjured by an inmate in a Nazi prison camp?) Quartet for the End of Time.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, stop into Tom's Restaurant for the best pancakes you'll ever have out. Afterward, Oxalis: you can either go for the astonishing-value $60 tasting menu in the dining room, or for cocktails, wine, and highly imaginative bar food in the bar in the back.
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Sunday, April 14, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Dawn Upshaw feat. The Bard College Conservatory Graduate Vocal Arts Program
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019
4:00 & 7:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$25 each show
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/dawn-upshaw/
The definitive American soprano Dawn Upshaw is now the Artistic Director of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard. Here, she and singers from the the Program present two different sets of new and recent vocal music, all New York premieres. Dawn Upshaw couldn't do something that isn't in perfect taste (and probably quite wonderful) if you put a gun to her head.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I guess it's a good night for the eminently pleasant D.O.C. Wine Bar, with its tasty Sardinian (some of it, anyway) food.
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Sunday, April 14, 2019, 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Klein
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019
3:00 PM
PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$15
https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/5032?locale=en
How great is Klein, the South London composer/playwright/performer whose dense, propulsive music incorporates R&B, electronics, noise, and found sounds and field recordings? Really great, is the answer. This is major.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, the usual Sunday-brunch-in-LIC recommendation of Bierocracy for beer and sausage (I don't have much use for Sunday brunch). After the show, go to Red Sauce heaven at Manducatis (and don't even think of ordering a wine by the glass when their bottle mark-ups are so ridiculously low).
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Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Handel: Semele
OPERA
SUNDAY, APRIL 14, 2019
2:00 PM
The English Concert
Carnegie Hall
881 7th Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$16-$118
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/04/14/The-English-Concert-0200PM
Handel called this story of godly philandering an oratorio, but everybody knows it's really an opera (it's just one in English, that's all). Whatever it is -- and in an unstaged concert performance like this one, what difference does it really make? -- it's a hoot from start to finish. Ravishing music, vocal fireworks: the usual Handel stuff. Even though one could imagine a more exciting conductor than Harry Bicket, The English Concert's annual Handel opera performances have become reliably special events, with good casts of often new-to-us-here singers you really want to hear, and works that would never get old even if you got to hear them often enough, which you don't.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Speaking of hoots, the Burger Joint hidden in plain sight in the lobby of the Parker New York Hotel is still one.
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Saturday, April 13, 2019, 10:30 PM – 11:30 PM
Chris Cohen
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019
10:30 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$15
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/adhoc-presents-chris-cohen/
Former Deerhoofer (indeed, he played on their best album, The Runners Four)Chris Cohen would probably say that the surface appeal of his poppy psychy guitar rock masks hidden depths. I'd say that when the surface is so appealing, who cares? (Of interest to my fellow New York Olds: Cohen's father is Kip Cohen of the Fillmore East.)
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, why not have dinner and drinks in the perfectly good restaurant housed in National Sawdust, Rider? After the show, Hotel Delmano for cocktails.
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Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 6:00 PM
Huang Ruo: Bound
OPERA
SATURDAY & SUNDAY, APRIL 13 & 14, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 18)
8:00 PM SATURDAY
5:00 PM SUNDAY
Baruch Performing Arts Center, Baruch College
55 Lexington Avenue (entrance on 25th Street), Rose Hill, Manhattan
$16-$36
https://www.baruch.cuny.edu/calendar/EventList.aspx?fromdate=10/15/2018&todate=5/3/2019&display=Day&type=private&eventidn=58111&view=EventDetails&information_id=750423
Composer Huang Ruo has been on a roll lately. His style, combining Western and Chinese classical and vernacular elements, is enormously appealing -- and he's shown himself to be a capable musical dramatist. So expectations for this new opera are high. Focussing on a Vietnamese immigrant family, it explores the conflicts between perserving cultural heritage and attaining success and acceptance in America.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The bar at Eleven Madison Park is surprisingly approachable (attitudinally if not economically). And, putting the excellent bar menu aside, the cocktails are some of the best in any New York restaurant.
-
Saturday, April 13, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Hamza Qawwal & Brothers: Sufi Chants of Pakistan
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$26 advance; $30 door
https://roulette.org/event/rba-hamza-akram-qawwal-brothers-sufi-chants-of-pakistan/
Can it really be 30 years since Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan made his U.S. debut at BAM and instilled New York with a serious case of qawwali fever? Speaking for myself, I haven't been to a qawwali concert in years -- but the feeling you get from live performances of this music of being simultaneously in a trance and extremely excited is something you don't get elsewhere. Time for more.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Really great Korean food at Insa. I recommend you forego the at-table barbecue in the dining room and eat in the lounge, which is much more pleasant.
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Saturday, April 13, 2019, 3:30 PM – 4:30 PM
-
Saturday, April 13, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
ModernMedieval Trio of Voices
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019
1:00 PM
The Fuentidueña Chapel, The Cloisters
99 Margaret Corbin Drive, Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan
$55; accompanying children aged 6-16 $1
https://rsecure.metmuseum.org/event/ticket/405608
A vocal trio comprising a former member of Anonymous 4, the lead singer of Pavo Pavo, and a member of Roomful of Teeth performs a gorgeous program. There's ineffably beautiful music by Hildegard von Bingen for the medieval part. For the modern part, new pieces by composers including Caroline Shawand Caleb Burhans: just the people you'd want to be writing for this kind of ensemble. Amazing as it seems, this is worth schlepping all the way uptown early on a Saturday afternoon for.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The Salvadorian food at La Cabaña Salvadoreña is really nice. (And you take a really nice walk through the park to get there.)
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Saturday, April 13, 2019, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM
OPERA Ensemble: On Climate Change
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 13, 2019
1:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
All you need to know about this ensemble of singing (and composing) instrumentalists is that it was formed by the fascinating composer/performer Lucie Vitková. Here they take on climate change.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Littleneck Outpost is mainly known for its shellfish, but everything there is just delightful.
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Friday, April 12, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Of Montreal
MUSIC
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019
8:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$25-$30
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-04-12-of-montreal/
Kevin Barnes's fantasia of a band, Of Montreal, went all '80s retro on their most recent album, and now they're taking that dance-pop on the road. Their elaborate stagecraft is endearingly low-tech. The show is sold out; look for last-minute availability or on the secondary market.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I know it must seem repetitious for me to keep recommending the same spot for Elsewhere shows, but when someplace as good (and fun!) as Mission Chinese Food Brooklyn is right there in the same building, it's hard to tell you to go anywhere else. (PS: Inside the venue, don't forget to get your drinks from the upstairs cocktail lounge -- not the bar at the back of the music hall, which is far inferior.)
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Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, April 12, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
J Hoard
MUSIC
FRIDAY, APRIL 12, 2019
8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$20
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/j-hoard-3/
Brooklyn R&B phenom J Hoard can sing and compose really really well. Now we'll see how he programs. This concert features Hoard (performing a set with with Kid Singapore -- in case you, unlike me, know who that is) along with a veritable load of other performers Hoard has selected. The guy's so good you just have to think you can trust his taste.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Radegast Hall & Biergarten, for beer and the kind of food you'd expect in a biergarten.
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Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 8:30 PM
Karole Armitage: You Took a Part of Me
DANCE
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 12 & 13, 2019
7:30 PM
Japan Society
333 East 47th Street, Turtle Bay, Manhattan
$30
https://www.japansociety.org/event/karole-armitage-you-took-a-part-of-me
Punk ballerina Karole Armitage choreographs a piece loosely based on an old Noh play exploring those typical subjects of the genre, erotic entanglement, unresolved attachments, and the search for harmony.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: You can't go to the izakaya Sakagura -- hidden downstairs past a door in an office building lobby -- and not have a great time. It just never happens. (The awe-inspiring sake selection helps.)
-
Friday, April 12, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Friday, April 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Friday, April 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
-
Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 8:00 PM
Arab.AMP Spring Gathering 2019
MUSIC
FRIDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 12 - 14, 2019
7:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$10
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
A three-day festival of experimentalists from the Arab Diaspora. It's curated by Leyya Mona Tawil -- a leading Arab experimentalist herself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Bar Bolinas's California-style burger really makes it.
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Thursday, April 11, 2019, 8:15 PM – 9:15 PM
Ensemble in Process: Bridge the GAP
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019
8:15 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Manhattan
$15 advance; $20 door
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
A London-based rotating ensemble performing new music by British and American composers. This show features performances by local composer/pianist Brian Mark; vocalist Rose Hegele, one half of Boston's Peridot vocal duo; and London's Marsayas Trio, comprising flute, cello, and piano. Among the home-team composers are Meredith Monk, Erin Gee, and Missy Mazzoli.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: OG Paulie Gee's for excellent Neapolitan by-the-pie pizza.
-
Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 9:00 PM
MATA: 21st Festival of New Music
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 11 - 13, 2019
8:00 PM
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street, Chelsea, Manhattan
$25 per show
https://thekitchen.org/event/mata-21st-festival-of-new-music
The MATA Festival, started more than 21 years ago (they skipped a few years along the way) by no less a personage than Philip Glass, is one of the major events on each year's New Music calendar. The programming, featuring new pieces selected from all over the world, is reliably surprising and satisfying. Go to all three shows. But if I had to pick just one, it would Saturday's, featuring vocalist/composer Paul Pinto -- possibly this List's single favorite live performer -- wrapped in aluminum foil.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hard to believe, but it looks like Rocco DiSpirito's return to serious cooking at the Standard Grill is for real. Time to get (moderately) excited.
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Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 4:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 8 & 11 - 14, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 28)
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should be accessible, even entertaining -- continue their exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
-
Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 8:00 PM – Fri, Apr 12, 2019, 9:00 PM
Alexandra Bachzetsis: Escape Artist
DANCE / PERFORMANCE
THURSDAY & FRIDAY, APRIL 11 & 12, 2019
8:00 PM
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$15
https://pioneerworks.org/programs/alexandra-bachzetsis-escape-act/
Zurich-based choreographer Alexandra Bachzetsis demonstrates that signifiers don't really signify when girls turn out to be boys and boys girls in contexts evoking strip clubs and vogueing -- even turning drag in on itself.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not only is St. John Frizell's Fort Defiance one of the best cocktail bars in New York, with perfectly good food as well -- but Thursday night is Tiki Night! (Friday night you'll just have to go with their regular everyday excellence.)
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Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 4:30 PM
Norma Jean Baker of Troy
THEATER
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 11 - 14, 2019 (continuing through MAY 19)
7:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$99-$179
https://theshed.org/program/4-norma-jeane-baker-of-troy
If you're going to make a theater piece mashing up two enormously famous but somewhat disparate beauties, each having made a huge impact on Western Culture at some cost to themselves (imposed because they were sexualized women), then you might as well have a cast comprising . . . Ben Whishaw and Renee Fleming? It begins to make sense when you see that the piece was written by Anne Carson, one of the best there is at twisting the classics for immediate relevance. The director is the highly distinguished Katie Mitchell.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the Sunday matinée, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or its adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, you might try the meatcentric food at Belcampo -- although I must say that, emblematically, the delicious dishes they served to the elite guests (and me) at the Hudson Yards preview reception the night before opening were much more interesting and better prepared than what actually appears on the menu.
-
Thu, Apr 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 8:30 PM
Stephen Petronio: Bloodlines
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 11 - 13, 2019
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$55-$65
https://nyuskirball.org/events/stephen-petronio/
Postmodern dance legatee Stephen Petronio has been celebrating his legacy over the last few years with the Bloodlines series, combining new pieces by himself with revivals/reconstructions of pieces by his predecessors. The new piece on this program is called American Landscapes, an exploration of American landscape and culture featuring music by Jim Jarmush and Jozef van Wissem and visual design by Robert Longo. The old works are by Rudy Perez (the rare OG postmodern dancer of color) and Merce Cunningham.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ardyn is yet another place serving what seems to be cookie-cutter Euro-American contemporary restaurant food -- but reports have been very positive. Cudos for staying open decently late.
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Thursday, April 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Thursday, April 11, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
American Composers Orchestra
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019
7:30 PM
Zankel Hall, Carnegie Hall
881 7th Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$15
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/04/11/American-Composers-Orchestra-0730PM
A knockout program from the American Composers Orchestra. This List's utter adoration of the music of Morton Feldman is no secret; tonight we have one of the pieces emerging from his fascination with Oriental carpets, The Turfan Fragments. Then, the first symphony of Gloria Coates, an expat American Postminimalist living in Munich whom you might well never have heard of, but whose rigorously structured rushes of sound and energy will, I promise, bowl you over. Capping things off, a new piece by Du Yun -- certainly one of the best young composers out there -- with accompanying film by the Palestinian artist Khaled Jarrar.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Hunan House, with the usual strong recommendation that you order from one of the special menus and not the rather prosaic general one.
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Thursday, April 11, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jihye Chang: Continuum 88, Part III: Etudes and Fantasies
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019
7:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Pianist Jihye Chang plays études by luminaries Ligeti, Unsuk Chin, and Hans Abrahamsen -- as well as a bunch of unidentified less-famous contemporary composers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cherry Point, for extremely well-prepared English-inflected MEAT.
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Thursday, April 11, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Lisa Moore: In the Mists
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 2019
7:00 PM
Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS In Visible Roads Piano Series
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15; $10 students; $100 festival pass
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/in-the-mists
If you're going to have a series of contemporary piano recitals, you're going to want to include Lisa Moore, one of the better practitioners out there. In this wide-ranging recital, Moore traverses the repertoire from Beethoven and Schumman to Janáček to Missy Mazzoli, Frederic Rzewski, and (the ace up Moore's sleeve) Moore's great house composer (they're married), Martin Bresnick.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Uncle Boons for stylish, delicious Thai. And soon it'll be hot enough for their fabulous Beer Slushies!
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Wednesday, April 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Matt McBane & Build
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019
8:00 PM
Areté Venue and Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Build, a textbook post-classical or "indie classical" or whatever chamber band, has been out of commission for a few years. But now they're back. Their music has drive, intricacy, chops: just what you expect from this kind of music.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Let's go to the exquisite Vietnamese restaurant Di An Di.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Thumbscrew
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019
8:00 PM
Public Records
233 Butler Street, Gowanus, Brooklyn
Free
https://www.facebook.com/events/327742167849701/
The awesome jazz supertrio Thumbscrew -- Mary Halvorson on guitar, Tomas Fujiwara on bass, Tom Rainey on drums, masters all -- plays songs from their recent twin releases, Ours (featuring songs the band members wrote) and Theirs (featuring songs they didn't). Exciting new venue, too.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: And wouldn't you know it, the closest restaurant to this new venue is our old friend Freek's Mill, serving fresh New American with a great wine program.
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Wednesday, April 10, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
AMOC
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019
8:00 PM
National Sawdust
80 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
$29
https://nationalsawdust.org/event/amoc-in-concert/
The American Modern Opera Company presents an evening of chamber music, of all things. One piece is at least by an opera composer: Matthew Aucion, whose status as opera's "great new hope" I personally don't get (especially in what seems to me to be something of a golden age of opera composition). More promising, from my perspective, is a piece by Celeste Oram that is described as "us[ing] a medieval French ballade as a springboard to explore the fluidity space between the sacred and the mundane, the virtual and the real, the performative and the everyday". Now you're talking my language!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Aurora for sort-of-Tuscan food. The garden is very nice -- and heated.
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Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 4:00 PM
Taylor Mac: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 9 - 14, 2019
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$275
https://garyonbroadway.com/
I've wondered what it would take to get me to List a Broadway show. Written by Taylor Mac? Starring Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin? (Oops! Lost Andrea Martin.) Directed by George C. Wolfe? I guess this has what it takes. Hope it's hilarious. The title sure is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's been decades, but I remember thinking the vaguely Venetian Osteria al Doge was pretty good. Stays open late like a Theater District restaurant should, too. But what you really want, after dinner (or after the show if you've already eaten), is the new cocktail lounge Blue, from the Blue Ribbon folks.
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Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 5:00 PM
Mabou Mines: Faust 2.0
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 9 - 14, 2019
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
150 1st Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $18 students/seniors
https://www.maboumines.org/production/faust-2-0/
The veteran avant-theater company Mabou Mines do their multi-media Mabou Mines thing with Goethe's Faust Part II (the more abstract fabulistic difficult part, as you'll recall). A new song by Big List Fave Eve Beglarian is icing on the cake.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The resurgent (downtown OG) Momofuku Noodle Bar, a key site in recent food culture history.
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Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 8:00 PM – Wed, Apr 10, 2019, 9:00 PM
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Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Luigi Lai: Master of the Launnedas
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019
8:00 PM
The Stone at the New School
Glass Box Theater, The New School
55 West 13th Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20
http://thestonenyc.com/calendar.php
You don't get to hear the launnedas -- ancient droning triple pipes from the wild Sarrabus subregion in Sardinia -- every day. And Luigi Lai is the instrument's undisputed living master. He'll be accompanied by Mauro Palmas on mandola (not to confused with its smaller cousin, the mandolin).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: How I wish I could send you to a nearby Sardinian restaurant. But the one that used to be around here closed. So I'm sending you to a very nice Emilia-Romagnan restaurant instead: Da Andrea.
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Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Bergamot Quartet feat. Claire Chase
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 2019
7:30 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
An up-and-coming New Music string quartet from Baltimore teams up with a genuine New Music superstar on flute. The composers include such solid faves as Julia Wolfe, Anthony Cheung, and Jessie Montgomery. Why wouldn't you go?
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Basic pasta, secondi, and wood-fired pizza at Il Porto-- a place that looks appealing from the outside, even though I don't know a single person who's ever been there. Care to try?
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Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 4:30 PM
Faye Driscoll: Thank You for Coming: Space
DANCE / PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 9 - 14, 2019
7:30 PM TUESDAY - FRIDAY
8:00 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Alexander Kasser Theater, Montclair State University
1 Normal Avenue, Montclair, New Jersey
$30
https://www.peakperfs.org/event/thank-you-for-coming-space/2019-04-11/
Some complain that Faye Driscoll's pieces are too friendly, too eager to please, too cute, too shaggy. I say, relax; if you let them do what they're trying to do, they can be marvelous. This is the last part of Driscoll's Thank You for Coming trilogy, which has examined social interactions (including not least those between performers and audience). In this final installment, Driscoll constructs a world upheld by pulleys, ropes, and people acting as counterweights, dramatizing the effects of the presence and absence of others. The Tuesday and Wednesday shows are previews, at which the audience will have some input into the formulation of the piece.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Pharmacie Bar + Kitchen for cocktails and food to absorb them.
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Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 4:30 PM
-
Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 3:00 PM
-
Tuesday, April 9, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Tue, Apr 9, 2019, 11:15 AM – Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 12:15 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 9 - 14, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY & SUNDAY1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM THURSDAY - SATURDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
The Shed doesn't dispel your misgivings when you first walk in. To the contrary, when confronted, upon entering The Shed from the plaza of this glitzy collection of high-priced office and residential towers and built-in shopping mall, with a bank of monitors showing talking heads extolling the benefits of diversity and inclusivity in the arts and culture, I had to restrain myself from screaming, "how gullible do you think I am??????" (It doesn't change anything that the admirable people who run The Shed -- as opposed to those who planned and fund it -- are almost certainly sincere in believing that message) (as am I). The building, while stunning on the outside, is what it is: what will tell is how the programing goes. This show is both very good and somewhat dispiriting. It is an almost discorporate collaboration among three major international artists. And yes, the three principals are all undeniably great (the new piece Steve Reich wrote for this show is especially good, BTW, maybe the best thing he's written in years -- perhaps because, as he has noted, Gerhard Richter's artistic approach impelled him to recur in part to the style of his early years). But another outlet for Major Collaborative Pieces by the Established International Avant-Garde isn't going to make at least one visitor forgive the epic scar on the urban fabric this real estate development represents, built for the ultra-rich with money filched from taxpayers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to one of the early shows, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or its adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, you might try the meatcentric food at Belcampo -- although I must say that, emblematically, the delicious dishes they served to the elite guests (and me) at the Hudson Yards preview reception the night before opening were much more interesting and better prepared than what actually appears on the menu.
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Monday, April 8, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 8 & 11 - 14, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 28)
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should be accessible, even entertaining -- continue their exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
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Monday, April 8, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Monday, April 8, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Amir ElSaffar's Two Rivers feat. Hamid Al-Saadi
MUSIC
MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019
7:00 PM
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$10 advance; $15 door
https://pioneerworks.org/programs/amir-elsaffars-two-rivers-with-hamid-al-saadi/
Amir ElSaffar is an excellent Iraqi-American trumpeter who, with his Two Rivers ensemble composed of players of traditional Arabic and jazz instruments, not only tries but succeeds in synthesizing jazz and Arabic music, particularly the Iraqi maqam. Here the ensemble is joined by Iraqui maqam vocalist Hamid Al-Saadi. The music will be subtle, moving, with immensely interesting and appealing textures.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not only is St. John Frizell's Fort Defiance one of the best cocktail bars in New York, with perfectly good food as well -- but Monday night is Burger Night!
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Sunday, April 7, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sunday, April 7, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
Ah Young Hong & Jacob Rodebeck: Music of Babbitt, Haas, and Hersch
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2019
7:30 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
Vocal pieces by Milton Babbitt, Georg Friedrich Haas, and Michael Hersch. Serious stuff -- but seriously good. Babbitt has the reputation of an avant-garde ogre, for example, but his Philomel for voice and electronics (performed here tonight) is extremely affecting -- and kind of a trip.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Obligatory Sunday night recommendation for Vinegar Hill House, maybe the coziest restaurant in Brooklyn.
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Sunday, April 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
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Sunday, April 7, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Stina Nyberg: The Woman Who Lit the World
DANCE
SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2019
7:00 PM
Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
Free (by R.S.V.P.)
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/stina-nyberg/
Swedish choregrapher/performer Stina Nyberg has been working for the last few years on a set of related pieces about the eccentric/visionary (depending on how you look at it) electronic engineer Nicola Tesla. This piece is a sort of storytold account of her experiences gathering material for the project.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Cross the street to New York's most-honored Mexican restaurant (and Queens's current only Michelin-starred restaurant), Casa Enrique.
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Sunday, April 7, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
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Sunday, April 7, 2019, 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM
Spektral Quartet
MUSIC
SUNDAY, APRIL 7, 2019
4:00 PM
Dweck Center, Central Library, Brooklyn Public Library
10 Grand Army Plaza, across the street from Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Free (registration required)
https://www.bklynlibrary.org/calendar/classical-interludes-central-library-dweck-20190407
A typically fascinating program by Chicago's questing Spektral Quartet. You get some Elliott Carter, you get a recent piece by Hans Thomalla, you get a pleasant movement by Mozart. And you get Beethoven's last string quartet, one of that remarkable string of late quartets that sound like they could have been written yesterday (the only non-contemporary music I'd say that about).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, stop into Tom's Restaurant for the best pancakes you'll ever have out. Afterward, Oxalis: you can either go for the astonishing-value $60 tasting menu in the dining room, or for excellent cocktails and highly imaginative bar food in the bar in the back.
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Saturday, April 6, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Saturday, April 6, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
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Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 4:30 PM
Norma Jean Baker of Troy
THEATER
SATURDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 6 - 7, 2019 (continuing through MAY 19)
7:30 PM SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Shed, 545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, Manhattan
$99-$179
https://theshed.org/program/4-norma-jeane-baker-of-troy
If you're going to make a theater piece mashing up two enormously famous but somewhat disparate beauties, each having made a huge impact on Western Culture at some cost to themselves (imposed because they were sexualized women), then you might as well have a cast comprising . . . Ben Whishaw and Renee Fleming? It begins to make sense when you see that the piece was written by Anne Carson, one of the best there is at twisting the classics for immediate relevance. The director is the highly distinguised Katie Mitchell.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the Sunday matinée, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or the adjacent sandwich/snack bar. On Saturday and later on Sunday, meat (on sandwiches, on plates, not on a stick) at Belcampo.
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Saturday, April 6, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
gamin, Robert Dick, Ned Rothenberg & Adam Rudolph
MUSIC
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2019
7:00 PM
Happylucky No. 1
734 Nostrand Avenue, Crown Heights, Brooklyn
Ticket price unavailable
http://www.happyluckyno1.com/happenings/2019/4/6/gamin-robert-dick-ned-rothenberg-amp-adam-rudolph
A fascinating ensemble of improvising musicians with world-music grounding. Gamin is a mistress of the Korean oboe known as the piri. Robert Dick not only can do anything on the flute, he does do anything. Ned Rothenberg is perhaps the world's quietest woodwind player. Adam Rudolph is a percussionist of broad stylistic sweep. What they'll all do together is anyone's guess.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, grab a double -- a Trinidadian treat consisting of curried chickpeas in flatbread -- at the legendary A&A Bake & Double. After the show, have a pastrami-brisket combo sandwich (my personal fave -- although I'll admit most people prefer the straight pastrami) at David's Brisket House.
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Saturday, April 6, 2019, 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM
Ying Liu: PLAYDATE
PERFORMANCE
SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 2019
2:00 PM
ISSUE Poject Room
22 Boerum Place, Downtown, Brooklyn
Free ($10 suggested donation)
https://issueprojectroom.org/event/ying-liu-playdate
Um, wow. An outdoor performance piece by Ying Liu emanating from ISSUE Project Room's space on Boerum Place encompassing and treating the Special Downtown Brooklyn District. A roving band of players will, the materials say, "perform sequenced performative tasks which include dealing with local businesses, public facilities, and various contingencies." Wait, that sounds like my every day!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: May I suggest the bagels and somewhat tricked-up appetizing at Shelsky's of Brooklyn?
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Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 1:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 2:00 PM
Reich Richter Pärt
MUSIC
SATURDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 6 - 7, 2019 (continuing through JUNE 2, 2019)
1:00, 2:30, 5:00 & 6:30 PM SATURDAY
11:15 AM & 12:30, 3:00 & 4:30 PM SUNDAY
The Shed
545 West 30th Street, Hudson Yards, New York
$52
https://theshed.org/program/2-reich-richter-part
The Shed finally opens: the only truly architecturally significant building in the new Hudson Yards development; a sop to the community for the billions of dollars of public money spent on this huge multi-block enclave for the super-rich; yet another glitzy outpost of the International Avant-Garde in New York. We're going to ignore The Shed's apparent attempt to paper over its inclusion in a blatantly exclusionary and anti-urban real estate development by presenting an admittedly sophisticated and attractive series of concerts devoted to African-American music. Instead, let's leap to this planting of the Big-League International Avant-Garde flag. Each show encompasses separate collaborations between two Minimalist composers, the incisive Steve Reichand the spiritual Arvo Pärt, and the German visual artist Gerhard Richter, Post-Expressionist except when he's Post-Pop (or Post-Something Else). The music on Saturday will be sung by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street; on Sunday by the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. The problem is, of course, that you really can't miss this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: If you go to one of the early shows, you can avail yourself of Kāwi, the most forthrightly Korean (which is not to say it's straight Korean) of the Momofukus -- or the adjacent sandwich/snack bar. Later on, meat (on sandwiches, on plates, not on a stick) at Belcampo.
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Friday, April 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Opera on Tap: New Brew: Creme de la Creme
MUSIC
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019
8:00 PM
Barbès
376 Ninth Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn
$10 (suggested donation)
https://www.operaontap.org/newyork/
An evening of song from or evoking Paris. The irresistable composers includePoulenc, Satie, Ives, Weill, Bernstein, Debussy, Lili Boulanger, and Asperghis.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Believe me, you'll drink enough at Barbès. Then, soak it up at the self-explanatory Colombia in Park Slope.
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Fri, Apr 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 9:00 PM
-
Friday, April 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Friday, April 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Aizuri Quartet: Intricate Machines
MUSIC
FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2019
8:00 PM
DiMenna Center for Classical Music
450 West 37th Street, Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
$10-$20 advance; $10-$20 (cash) door
https://dimennacenter.org/event/intricate-machines/
The ubiquitous Aizuri Quartet presents a program of recent work by young composers.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. Dive in at the deep end and walk into the bar at Thomas Keller's TAK Room, perhaps the most conceptually offensive restaurant at the new Hudson Yards development. It's hyper-expensive food for people who don't like to think too hard about cuisine -- but boy is it good. The cocktails are throwback classics -- but impeccably made. The Mid-20th Century food is ridiculously, nosebleedingly expensive, and totally retrograde -- but absolutely delicious. Just close your eyes and think of Manhattan.
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Fri, Apr 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 9:00 PM
Budapest Festival Orchestra
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 5 & 6, 2019
8:00 PM
Carnegie Hall
881 7th Avenue, Midtown, Manhattan
$15-$98
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/04/05/Budapest-Festival-Orchestra-0800PM
https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2019/04/06/Budapest-Festival-Orchestra-0800PM
This really stretches the inner limits of what this List covers. But Bartók, whose music is the subject of these two concerts, provides an excellent way in for people who think they don't like mainstream classical music. It's not because Bartók makes extensive use of Hungarian folk music, but because that music, with its pentatonic scales and strong rhythmic underpinnings, sounds so modern, so accessible to listeners of African-derived American pop music. The Saturday show is particularly notable in this regard, coupling a concert performance of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle -- a unique and stunning experience, and one of the very best operas of the 20th Century -- with contrasting sets of Hungarian folk songs sung by the Hungarian folk legend Márta Sebestyén and Bartók folk-song settings. But don't ignore the Thursday show, featuring Bartók's chef de ouevre, the Concerto for Orchestra, along with the savage Miraculous Mandarin suite and some almost never-performed choral pieces. It doesn't hurt that the Budapest Festival Orchestra is one of the world's best, and that its founder, Ivan Fischer, is not only a genius conductor but also a profound musical thinker who is one of the best programmers in the business (as these shows attest).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Donburiya not only serves delicious Japanese food, but it stays open as late as a New York restaurant should.
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Fri, Apr 5, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 9:00 PM
New York Classical Players: Baroque Melting
MUSIC
FRIDAY & SATURDAY, APRIL 5 & 6, 2019
8:00 PM
FRIDAY: West Side Presbyterian Church
6 South Monroe Street, Ridgewood, New Jersey
SATURDAY: W83 Auditorium
150 West 83rd Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free
http://www.nycpmusic.org/new-events-2
An incredibly appealing program in which this period orchestra combines genuine Baroque / Galant music with later music that reflects those styles: Stravinsky as you'd expect; Chausson as you wouldn't; and a contemporary piece by Vivian Fung.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: In Ridgewood, inventive but unpretentious cooking and a lot of fun at No. 12. On the Upper West Side, fancy Italian with a pedigree at Leonti.
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Friday, April 5, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
-
Thursday, April 4, 2019, 9:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Ricardo Gallo's Horse's Mouth
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
9:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Manhattan
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Ricardo Gallo is really good. This jazz pianist from Colombia makes use of the musics of his homeland, but not in any hackneyed way. In fact, while you sometimes see Gallo's music referred to as "Latin Jazz" or even "Soul Jazz", it's actually sharp, bright, and forward-looking, incorporating all sorts of advanced compositional techniques. Very much worth a try.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: OG Paulie Gee's for excellent Neapolitan by-the-pie pizza.
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Thu, Apr 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 6:00 PM
-
Thu, Apr 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 9:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 1 & 4 - 7, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 20)
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should be accessible, even entertaining -- continue their exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
-
Thursday, April 4, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
-
Thursday, April 4, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
New York Baroque Incorporated: Alchemy: Water
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
7:30 PM
St. Paul's Chapel
209 Broadway, FiDi, Manhattan
$20-$35
https://www.nybaroque.org/201819/2019/4/4/alchemy-water
This local baroque ensemble initiates a four-concert series, each one devoted to one of the four classical elements. This one focuses on water, and winter (cuz it's over, I guess), where water freezes into ice (or used to),. Exactly how rigorous they're being is shown by the fact that although they're playingTelemann's Wassermusik, the Handel piece they're playing isn't what you'd expect but rather one of his highly enjoyable Concerti Grossi Op. 3. I'm sure they know what they're doing. Also some Vivaldi and Locatelli.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The menu at Crown Shy may be standard-issue Euro-American, but people have told me the food is kind of delicious.
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Thu, Apr 4, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 8:30 PM
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Thu, Apr 4, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 8:30 PM
A.I.M.: Live! The Realest MC
DANCE
THURSDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 4 - 6, 2019
7:30 PM
Skirball Center, NYU
566 LaGuardia Place, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$55-$65
https://nyuskirball.org/events/m-kyle-abraham-live-realest-mc/
Kyle Abraham is one phenomenal choreographer. Coming off a sensational debut as a ballet choreographer at City Ballet last year, returns to his hip-hop-inflected dance company A.I.M. (f/k/a Abraham In Motion), presenting a new piece taking off on Pinocchio's quest to become a "real" boy, examining gender roles and masculinity in the African-American community and the rules for acceptance in the world of hip-hop celebrity. This is going to be great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Ardyn is yet another place serving what seems to be cookie-cutter Euro-American -- but again, reports have been very positive. Cudos for staying open decently late.
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Thu, Apr 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 8:00 PM
End Tymes X
MUSIC
THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 4 - 7, 2019
7:00 PM
Secret Project Robot
1186 Broadway, Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn
$60 festival pass; various bundles beyond that
https://www.secretprojectrobot.org/calendar
A festival of noise and experimental music, with an extensive artists' list. Also, one of your last chances to visit the current iteration of Secret Project Robot before they decamp for new quarters at the end of the month.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Before the show, grab some good steam-table Jamaican food at the barebones Soldier (Malcolm X Boulevard branch). After the show, if you haven't adequately lubricated yourself at the Secret Project Robot in-house bar, go to what I guess you'd call their out-house bar up Broadway, Flowers for All Occasions.
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Thursday, April 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
7:00 PM
Matmos & Keith Fullerton Whitman
Pioneer Works
159 Pioneer Street, Red Hook, Brooklyn
$15 advance; $20 door
https://pioneerworks.org/programs/matmos-keith-fullerton-whitman/
Matmos is an endlessly inventive percussion duo, using anything and everything they can get their hands on as a source of sound, thereby creating sounds that go way beyond anything you'd associate with percussion. Keith Fullerton Whitman is an electronic composer/performer possessing broad musical interests. Whatever they jointly come up with will be fascinating.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Not only is St. John Frizell's Fort Defiance one of the best cocktail bars in New York, with perfectly good food as well -- but Thursday night is Tiki Night!
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Thursday, April 4, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Elliott Sharp / Quiet City / Heroes of Toolik
MUSIC
THURSDAY, APRIL 4, 2019
7:00 PM
Areté Venue & Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
If you're a New York avant-rockist of a certain age (I mean, if you're a New York avant-rockist, of course you're of a certain age), this show is for YOU (or should I say, "us"). Elliott Sharp is, of course, a past master of noise (and other) guitar, and game (and other) compositional strategies. Quiet City and Heroes of Toolik are sort of avant-rock supergroups, including (at various times) members of Television, the Modern Lovers, Anti-Social Music, the Glenn Branca Ensemble, and local gamelan orchestras.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Since I'm recommending this music that has "me" written all over it, I'll send you to bar/restaurant that also has "me" written all over it Cherry Point, for extremely well-prepared English-inflected MEAT.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Teiku feat. John Lindberg
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2018
8:00 PM
Spectrum
70 Flushing Avenue, Garage A, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
$15; $10 students/seniors
http://www.spectrumnyc.com/site/calendar.php
A contemporary, improvisatory take on the Passover music that the families of two Jewish American musicians each took with them from the Ukraine when they fled religious violence and persecution early last century. The Jewish-Ukrainian villages they left, and the communities they were part of, have of course long since been wiped out; the survival of the music is a cause for celebration. Everything will be illuminated.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Appealing Pan-Latin at Colonia Verde.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Iranian Female Composers Association / Hypercube: Another Birth
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $25 door
https://roulette.org/event/another-birth/
Don't know anything about any of the Iranian female composers on the bill. But I do know that the sax/guitar/piano/percussion ensemble Hypercube is a great band.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The old Building on Bond for a burger/ Robert for cocktails combo.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Terry Riley & Gyan Riley
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019
8:00 PM
(Le) Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village, Manhattan
$20-$25 advance; $25-$30 door
https://lpr.com/lpr_events/terry-gyan-riley-april-3rd-2019/
Terry Riley is a giant of American music: the only one of the early Minimalists whose music smiled. His son Gyan is one of the better guitarists around, with a very distinctive vaguely Indian-inflected style that suggests he's listened to music with his father. Their improvisations together are part jazz, part classical, all Riley.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: I'm feeling the burger (and Martinis!) at J.G. Melon tonight.
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Wed, Apr 3, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 9:00 PM
Lauren Bakst: More Problems with Form
DANCE
WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 3 - 6, 2019
8:00 PM
Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
$20
https://chocolatefactorytheater.org/lauren-bakst-more-problems-with-form/
Choreographer Lauren Bakst spent a year examining herself as an object of detached study, and this live/film performance, representing Bakst as daughter, lover, analysand, etc., is the result.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Tournesol for competent -- that's a compliment -- French bistro.
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 7:30 PM – 8:30 PM
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Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Lucy Yao: Trajectories
MUSIC
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 3, 2019
7:00 PM
Areté Venue and Gallery
67 West Street #103, Greenpoint, Brooklyn
$15; $5 students (suggested donations)
https://www.aretevenue.com/events
Pianist Lucy Yao presents pieces for piano and visuals or electronics. The big deal is the one by Anna Thorvalsdottir, which we can expect will feature that composer's usual stunningly, rivetingly nuanced sounds.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: We'll keep up with the delicacy of this program with a visit to the exquisite Vietnamese restaurant Di An Di.
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Wed, Apr 3, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 8:00 PM
Jackie Sibblies Drury: Marys Seacole
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 1 & 3 - 7, 2019
7:00 PM MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$50
https://www.lct.org/shows/marys-seacole/
Jackie Sibblies Drury is one of the best (and, it emerges more and more, most influential) playwrights in America. So her new play -- a time-spanning tale of ambition and being a woman who is paid to care -- is kind of a must.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Very good food for the price at Indie Food & Wine, in the lobby of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019, 9:00 PM – 10:00 PM
Leikeili47
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019
9:00 PM
Elsewhere
599 Johnson Avenue, Bushwick, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $22 door
https://www.elsewherebrooklyn.com/events/2019-03-28-leikeli47/
Brooklyn's masked rapper Leikeili47 is just wonderful: sharp, self-aware, down-to-earth, with a lot to say. Lots of people apparently have already decided that this sold-out show is unmissible (look for some last-minute availability or the secondary market).
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: So there's this real good alt-Sichuan place right in this building.
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Tue, Apr 2, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 5:00 PM
Mabou Mines: Faust 2.0
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 2 - 7, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 14)
8:00 PM WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY
4:00 PM SUNDAY
150 1st Avenue, East Village, Manhattan
$25; $18 students/seniors
https://www.maboumines.org/production/faust-2-0/
The veteran avant-theater company Mabou Mines do their multi-media Mabou Mines thing with Goethe's Faust Part II (the more abstract fabulistic hard part, as you'll recall). Music by Big List Fave Eve Beglarian is icing on the cake.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: The resurgent (downtown OG) Momofuku Noodle Bar, a key site in food culture history.
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Tue, Apr 2, 2019, 8:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 4:00 PM
Taylor Mac: Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus
THEATER
TUESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 2 - 7, 2019
8:00 PM TUESDAY - SATURDAY
2:00 PM WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
Booth Theatre
222 West 45th Street, Midtown, Manhattan
$39-$275
https://garyonbroadway.com/
I've wondered what it would take to get me to List a Broadway show. Written by Taylor Mac? Starring Nathan Lane and Andrea Martin? (Oops! Lost Andrea Martin.) Directed by George C. Wolfe? I guess this has what it takes. Hope it's hilarious. The title sure is.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: It's been decades, but I remember thinking the vaguely Venetian Osteria al Doge was pretty good. Stays open late like a Theater District restaurant should, too. But what you really want, after dinner (or after the show if you've already eaten), is the new cocktail lounge Blue, from the Blue Ribbon folks.
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Tue, Apr 2, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 4:30 PM
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Tue, Apr 2, 2019, 7:30 PM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 8:30 PM
Racoco Productions: TILT
PERFORMANCE
TUESDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 2 - 6, 2019
7:30 PM
Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$26; $16 age 18 and under
https://www.abronsartscenter.org/program/abrons-racoco-productions-tilt/
A performance piece that somehow combines wood, movement, live music, tap, pinball, and the story of Don Quixote. There's an installation in the lobby to examine before the show.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody loves the Malaysian coffee house food at Kopitiam.
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
RighteousGIRLS: Legion
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019
7:00 PM
Metropolis Ensemble x BLUEPRINTS In Visible Roads Piano Festival
1 Rivington
1 Rivington Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan
$15; $10 students; $100 festival pass
https://metropolisensemble.org/all-events/legion
This List just loves this piano-flute duo, who are not afraid of sonic enhancements or disregard of genre. So the centerpiece of this show is a new piece by Alex Burtzos for eight flutes and eight pianos, which the duo will play. You're not surprised to see fellow Paula Matthusen having a piece on the program. The duo has had a fruitful relationship with the lively Andy Akiho, so it's good to see him represented -- and Mike Perdue is another good percussionist/composer. That leaves a piece by Ambrose Akinmusire, the excellent young jazz trumpeter whose composing has been getting really good.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Everybody just loves the rustic Italian at Peasant -- served in one of the darkest dining rooms you've ever seen (or, rather, notseen).
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Tue, Apr 2, 2019, 7:00 PM – Sun, Apr 7, 2019, 3:00 PM
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Tuesday, April 2, 2019, 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM
Rebecca Fischer
MUSIC
TUESDAY, APRIL 2, 2019
6:00 PM
Pop-Up Concerts
Miller Theater at Columbia University
2960 Broadway, Morningside Heights, Manhattan
Free
https://www.millertheatre.com/events/rebecca-fischer
Miller Theater's Pop-Up Concerts are so appealing in their format -- you get in for free, you grab a free drink, you sit up on the stage alongside the performer(s) -- that it almost doesn't matter who's playing. But, in this as in most cases, the show is compelling in its own right. Violinist Rebecca Fischer plays a program including solo pieces by such solid List faves as Lisa Bielawa,Missy Mazzoli, Paola Prestini, Jessie Montgomery, Suzanne Farrin, and Gabriela Lena Frank. You're not gonna do much better than this.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: And then there's the other Pop-Up plus: the concerts end early enough that you can get to the wonderful steam-table sould food at Manna's before the ridiculously early closing time. (The Fredrick Douglass Boulevard branch is the closest.)
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Monday, April 1, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Wet Ink: 20th Anniversary Bash
MUSIC
MONDAY, APRIL 1, 2019
8:00 PM
Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (entrance on 3rd Avenue), Boerum Hill, Brooklyn
$18 advance; $20 door
https://roulette.org/event/wet-ink-20th-anniversary-bash/
The Wet Ink Ensemble, a bunch of fabulous composer-performers and performer-performers, resides on the slightly gnarlier side of listener-friendly alt classical. They've built up a great body of work -- as you'd only expect from any band that includes (among others) Kate Soper, Alex Mincek, Eric Wubbels, and Sam Pluta (all of whom will have pieces played on this program). Hard to believe they've been doing this for 20 years. Don't stop!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Black Mountain Wine House isn't the very best wine bar in Brooklyn. But it may well be the coziest.
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Monday, April 1, 2019, 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Target Margin Theater: Marjana and the Forty Thieves
THEATER
MONDAY & THURSDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 1 & 4 - 7, 2019 (continuing through APRIL 20)
8:00 PM MONDAY & THURSDAY - SATURDAY
3:00 PM SUNDAY
The Doxsee Theater
232 52nd Street, Sunset Park, Brooklyn
$25-$35
http://www.targetmargin.org/our-season/show-1/
Target Margin -- who believe passionately that avant-garde theater should be accessible, even entertaining -- continue their exploration of the endlessly rich and labyrinthine Thousand and One Nights (with an emphasis on gender issues). Plus: dates, almonds, apricots, and sesame honey candy for the audience!
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Xun Yu Si Kao specializes in Sichuan fish pot. You choose a fish. You choose a broth. You put the fish in the broth. You put other stuff (noodles, vegetables, rice cakes, pig's blood cakes) into the broth. Eventually you eat it. There are other things if you're not in the mood for fish pot.
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Monday, April 1, 2019, 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Jackie Sibblies Drury: Marys Seacole
THEATER
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY, APRIL 1 & 3 - 7, 2019
7:00 PM MONDAY & WEDNESDAY - SUNDAY
2:00 PM SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Claire Tow Theater, Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Upper West Side, Manhattan
$50
https://www.lct.org/shows/marys-seacole/
Jackie Sibblies Drury is one of the best (and, it emerges more and more, most influential) playwrights in America. So her new play -- a time-spanning tale of ambition and being a woman who is paid to care -- is kind of a must.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Very good food for the price at Indie Food & Wine, in the lobby of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.
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Mon, Apr 1, 2019, 11:00 AM – Sat, Apr 6, 2019, 8:00 PM
Accordion Mixology
MUSIC
MONDAY - SATURDAY, APRIL 1 - 6, 2019
11:00 AM MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY & SATURDAY
6:00 PM MONDAY
2:00 PM TUESDAY
12:00 PM FRIDAY
New York Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Upper West Side, Manhattan
Free (reservation required for Monday evening show)
https://www.nypl.org/events/calendar?keyword=accordion&target[]=ad&target[]=ya&target[]=cr&city[]=man&date_op=GREATER_EQUAL&date1=03/22/2019&location=55&type=&topic=&audience=&series=
The estimable accordionist William Schimmel -- or Dr. Schimmel, as the Library's promotional materials insist on calling him -- curates and participates in a week-long accordion festival. The daytime shows take place during library hours in the Library's Vincent Astor Gallery and you can wander in and out at will throughout the day; the ticketed (but still free) Monday after-hours show is in the Bruno Walter Auditorium. That ticketed evening show is undoubtedly the pick of the week, providing a general overview. Beyond that, I'd note the Punkordion show on Friday -- featuring, among many others, the ubiquitous-this-week Elliott Sharp. But really any of them will be pretty great.
MAKE A NIGHT OF IT: Gotta be Indie Food and Wine.
