One of the first cassette tapes I purchased at Tower Records when I moved to the East Village in the late 1980s was The Velvet Underground & Nico. I would walk down St. Marks Place and imagine what it would have been like to have been at one of Andy Warhol’s Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows…
Category: Concert
Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival 2017
If you have not heard of the environmental organization called Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, I urge you to look them up. Started by folk musician and environmentalist, Pete Seeger and his wife, Toshi, its mission since its founding in 1969 is to protect the waters of the Hudson River and beyond. Supporting this mission is…
Lila Downs, Orkesta Mendoza, and Garth Fagan Dance
My first two Celebrate Brooklyn! events of the season, and they could not have been more different. Thursday evening, I was exhausted from work and not up to crowds. I brought my dinner to Prospect Park and spent a peaceful evening on the grass under a tree listening first to the zany, rollicking, madcap musical…
New York City Labor Chorus
The right song at the right moment can change history.” — Pete Seeger Just days after what has probably been the most contentious election in my lifetime, I was gifted with a ticket to go hear my friend’s mom sing in the New York City Labor Chorus. There was no place I would rather have…
New York Philharmonic, Violent Femmes & Carnegie Hall
It’s all in a weekend, from the high to the low to the high again — in terms of culture, that is — and I guess, in terms of my mood, too. Confused? Sure you are. Bear with me. The weekend began with the first of three intensive rehearsals in Manhattan with visiting choral conductor, Alex…
Green-Wood Cemetery Memorial Day Concert
Tradition dictates that if certain friends and I are in town, we amble over to Green-Wood Cemetery for their wonderful, old-fashioned Memorial Day concert. This year it was their 18th. The ISO Symphonic Band — under the direction of Brian P. Worsdale — conducts. There are always talented guest vocalists. Even the wild green parrots…
Park Slope Singers Spring 2016 Concerts
I am a member of this chorus and we would be honored to have you attend our upcoming concerts the weekend of June 4th and June 5th! We are under the incredibly talented direction of Dusty Francis. You can find out more about us here!
A Season of Beautiful Music
April showers bring not only May flowers — or more showers, as the case has been this spring — but they also bring beautiful music. Actually, more music than I can keep up with. But until I have a cultural clone to help me with the wealth of performances I wish I could attend at any given time, I…
Winter/Spring 2016 Cultural Highlights
I try very hard to keep up with this blog, but sometimes life gets in the way. In my case, very often it’s a wealth of cultural outings crowding out my writing time. (Not a bad problem to have, I admit!) Before the spring turns to summer, I want to note some of the rich…
John Prine & Iris Dement
My folk music club friend and I found ourselves in the last row of seats in the gorgeous Kings Theater in Brooklyn on April 8th — a Friday evening. This is a venue in the grand tradition of old movie houses. There is literally not a bad seat in the house. The strangely beautiful voice…
Rebecca Lazier with Dan Trueman: There Might Be Others
I had the privilege of witnessing a one-of-a-kind dance/music performance Thursday evening at New York Live Arts. Literally. What I saw that evening will never happen again in exactly the same way. Intrigued? Choreographer Rebecca Lazier, along with composer Dan Trueman, created a dance/music piece entitled There Might Be Others. It was inspired by Terry…
The Spinning Wheel Festival, Part II
It is with a mixture of joy and sadness that I attended my last event as part of the fabulous Spinning Wheel Festival last night at BRIC — joy because this was an incredible experience and sadness because it is nearly over. (The first two events I attended are reviewed here.) This two-week multimedia festival was…
victoriab:culture 