Benjamin Sheehan's Akathist: Nov. 10, at 7:30pm at Trinity Church Wall Street

Three years in the making, Benedict Sheehan’s oratorio Akathist weaves together a diverse array of musical languages—from medieval chant and minimalism to gospel and jazz—and is based on a unique text from the Eastern Orthodox tradition known as “Glory to God for All Things.” Featuring The Choir of Trinity Wall Street; Artefact Ensemble; NOVUS NY; Downtown Voices; Trinity Youth Chorus; and Elaine Kelly, conductor. Free. Also streaming online.

Brooklyn Folk Festival: Nov. 10-12 at St. Ann's Church

Now in its 15th year, the Brooklyn Folk Festival presents the best in American and world folk music, from NYC and around the world. Located at Brooklyn Heights' historic St. Ann’s Church (157 Montague St.) the 3-day festival includes 30+ bands, vocal and instrumental workshops, a square dance, film screenings, a Banjo Toss contest and more. Lineup includes legends like Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Alice Gerrard and David Johansen, alongside newcomers such as Nora Brown and Jake Blount. Single day tickets are $65; full festival pass is $145.

Durations Festival: Nov. 9-11 at Pioneer Works and Public Records

Tim Hecker, Laurel Halo and other adventurous practitioners of electronica headline this new festival billed as "a multi-instrumentalist exploration of sound, an intentional act of connection, and exploration of time as the intensive movement of body and mind.” Tonight's Tim Hecker show at Pioneer Works is sold out, but tickets are still available for the nightcap at Public Records, as well as tomorrow and Sunday's shows. More info here. 

Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels' Omar : Sat Nov. 11 at 10:30pm at San Francisco Opera

Rhiannon Giddens is having a Month. She completed a tour in support of her first original album, You’re the One (Nonesuch), which just today was nominated for two Grammys. She hosted the season-opening Live in HD broadcast of “Dead Man Walking” at the Met. And her own opera, “Omar” (co-written with Michael Abels) won the Pulitzer prize and is currently onstage at San Francisco Opera. If you can't be in SF, you can watch a live stream of Saturday's performance at 730 PST (replays available for 48 hours after).  

James Adler at Yamaha Artist Services Studio NY: Tues. Nov 14 at 7pm

The award-winning pianist and composer premieres his A Curtis Reflection, commissioned by Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music for their centenary in 2024, as well as works by composers Henco Espag, Paul Turok, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, and Vladimir Horowitz. Free, but reservations are required.

Whether it's the annual Marathon or the summertime Loud Weekend up in the Berkshires, Bang on a Can has mastered the art of wall-to-wall music presentation over the past 35 years. This week, they are expanding to a full weekend of shows with the first annual Long Play Festival, sited at venues in and around downtown Brooklyn. According to BOAC founders Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe:

"There has never been a time when music contained so much innovation and diversity, so much audacity and so much courage. And we want to show you all of it...It’s a lot of music!”

The festival, which was originally supposed to be held in 2020 but postponed due to COVID-19, is serving up more than 60 shows across a wide range of genres, including jazz, electronic, world and new/experimental music. Highlights include Matmos performing Robert Ashley's Perfect Lives, the Bang on a Can All Stars performing Terry Riley's In C and Brian Eno's Music for Airports, the Vijay Iyer Trio, Moroccan Sufi Blues masters Innov Gwana, and an epic closing night presentation of Ornette Coleman's seminal 1959 album The Shape of Jazz to Come, with Jason Moran, Wallace Roney, Jr, James "Blood" Ulmer, and Coleman's own son Denardo, among others.

Most of the venues are within a reasonable walking distance of each other (BAM, the Mark Morris Dance Center, Roulette), while others will require a bit of a hoof (Littlefield, Public Records.) Masks and proof of vaccination required.

Passes for individual days and the full weekend are available here. More info on participating artists and composers here. And below, you can find the festival map, along with my own schedule grid, broken out by day. (You're welcome. :))

Friday, 2/11

Ethan Iverson at Roulette, 8pm

Ever since leaving The Bad Plus, the rock-jazz trio he co-founded in 2000, pianist Ethan Iverson has flourished as a solo artist while also branching out into composition.  This double bill features Iverson wearing both of his hats: on the first half, The New England Conservatory Jazz Orchestra performs Ritornello, Sinfonias, and Cadenzas: a 45 minute through-composed work premiered in Italy last summer. Then, Iverson plays selections from his just-released album Every Note is True (Blue Note) with an all-star trio featuring bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Nasheet Waits.

New York Philharmonic with Yuja Wang at Alice Tully Hall, 8pm

The always captivating (and occasionally cringe-inducing) pianist Yuja Wang returns to the Phil to perform Franz Liszt’s explosive First Piano Concerto, part of an Eastern European program led by the young Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša that also includes Zoltan Kodály’s colorful Concerto for Orchestra and Bohuslav Martinů’s richly textured First Symphony (Repeats on Saturday).

Saturday, 2/12

Tristan Perich, Lesley Flanigan and Christopher Tignor at National Sawdust, 7:30pm

Very excited to see these three electroacoustic mavens, who haven't performed in NYC in more than two years. Tristan continues his exploration of 1-bit music with "Tone Patterns," (see above) featuring cascading harmonies of 1-bit tones generated by his own custom-built hardware. Lesley will perform "Subtonalities," featuring two sine-wave oscillators generating low-frequency tones that she'll combine with pitches from her own voice. And Christopher debuts new music for violin and percussion, along with his custom-built interactive live processing platform.

Flying Lotus at Carnegie Hall, 8pm

Part of Carnegie's ongoing (and somewhat curious) Afrofuturism festival, Grammy Award–winning producer, composer, and rapper Flying Lotus takes over the Stern Auditorium with a performance that promises "a transportive electroacoustic musical blend in Carnegie Hall’s unrivaled acoustics." Should be...different.

Sunday 2/13

No live music, but I (like most of America) will be watching the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which features hip hop for the very first time. Not exactly cutting edge - nothing the NFL does is - the show features a billionaire (Dr. Dre), a beer salesman (Snoop Dogg), a shill for the Home Shopping Network (Mary J. Blige), and a white kid from Detroit (Eminem). Fortunately, someone had the presence of mind to include the brilliant lyricist Kendrick Lamar, though I doubt he'll get as much airtime as his elders. Should start around 8pm.