News Archive

Music Education, Broadway Style

Thousands of children in New York have received their first taste of the great Broadway musicals not along the Great White Way, but a little farther uptown at Merkin Concert Hall. They may have sung along to songs from Hello, Dolly or West Side Story, or come on stage to participate in a game inspired by Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods. Created in 2007, Kaufman...

New Theater Wing Artist-In-Residence Program

For more than a decade, Kaufman Center’s Theater Wing has developed new shows for its Poppy Seeds Players series through the “Planting New Seeds” commissioning program. This year, the Theater Wing has created a new Artist-in-Residence program. Instead of commissioning a specific work for hire, residencies support artists as they work on their own independent projects....

Kaufman Center’s Face the Music Teen Ensemble is Featured in the NY Times!

"At first glance the ensemble setting up in a fifth-floor classroom at the Kaufman Center on West 67th Street in Manhattan seems like any other student group and exactly what you would expect to find in a building that houses two music schools and Merkin Concert Hall," writes Allan Kozinn in the New York Times. "Teenage string and brass players tune their instruments...

Read a New York Times review of Rhys Chatham and Oneida’s Ecstatic Music Festival Performance!

This past weekend, composer Rhys Chatham teamed up with Brooklyn experimental group Oneida for a collaboration at the Ecstatic Music Festival. The performance was reviewed by Steve Smith in today's New York Times, where Smith remarked, "the bulk of the crowd was transfixed... the effect was undeniably ecstatic."

The full review can be read here.

Dan Deacon Interviewed in the Huffington Post!

This week, composer Dan Deacon was interviewed by Amy Lee in the Huffington Post, where he shared his thoughts on his performance style, the future of alt-classical crossovers, and the life of a composer. Read the full article here.

Tonight marks the return of Dan Deacon to the Ecstatic Music Festival, when he premieres new compositions featuring NOW Ensemble and the...

New York Festival of Song’s “Paris to Paradise” reviewed in the New York Times!

Tuesday night's New York Festival of Song concert, "New York to Paris, Paris to Paradise," was reviewed in the New York Times by Anthony Tommasini. Of the concert, which featured pianists Steven Blier and Michael Barnett, along with performances by young artists from the Caramoor Vocal Rising Stars program, Tommasini stated, "The evening was like a music appreciation...

Read a New York Times Review of Violinist Benjamin Beilman’s 3/12 Concert!

The New York Times' Steve Smith praises Young Concert Artist International Audition winner Benjamin Beilman's "handsome technique, burnished sound and quiet confidence."

"For two young musicians out to make a lasting first impression, it would be hard to pick a more appropriate selection of pieces than those chosen by the violinist Benjamin Beilman and the pianist...

Intimate Musical Evenings benefiting Special Music School

Kaufman Center is hosting upcoming intimate Musical Evenings featuring pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn and the Harlem String Quartet. These performances will benefit Special Music School.

THU ∙ APR 5, 2012
Ignat Solzhenitsyn, piano
At the home of Lisa & Robert Towbin

WED ∙ MAY 23, 2012
Harlem String Quartet
At the home of Bethany & Robert Millard

These events will...

NEW VIDEOS! EMF preview with Mikael Karlsson and Mariam Wallentin

Mariam Wallentin, hailed for her “beyond gorgeous” voice (Prefix) in the band Wildbirds & Peacedrums, teams up with acclaimed composer Mikael Karlsson to create a new song cycle, The Spirit & the Cloud, performed with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble. The evening will also include a selection of Karlsson’s instrumental compositions and arrangements of Wildbirds...

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Listen to the First Four 2012 Ecstatic Music Festival Performances on Q2 Music!

Got started a bit late on the Ecstatic Music Festival? Thanks to the festival's partnership with Q2 Music, the first four performances of the 2012 Ecstatic Music Festival are now available for streaming on WQXR's website! The concerts featured are Jherek Bischoff and the Wordless Music Orchestra (February 4th), Sxip Shirey and Angélica Negrón (February 7th), Richard...