Carnegie Hall

On the heels of an exciting concert series at Bryant Park this summer, Carnegie Hall Citywide continues this fall bringing music to all five boroughs of New York City throughout the 2019–2020 season. Presented in partnership with local community organizations, more than 20 free performances throughout the season showcase outstanding mainstage artists and rising stars, tapping into the pulse of the city and bringing people together to share in the joy of music. Carnegie Hall Citywide builds on Carnegie Hall’s tradition of bringing free concerts to New York City neighborhoods for more than 40 years.

The 2019–2020 lineup will include 24 concerts across 16 different venues, showcasing exciting classical, folk, gospel, jazz, Latin, and soul musicians. With artists from Iceland, Ireland, Haiti, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and beyond, the series is truly global, reflecting the diversity and vibrancy of New York City. Highlights include South African singer Thandiswa Mazwai at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (October 8); a performance at the Brooklyn Public Library by the Catalyst Quartet as part of 400 Years of Inequality, a nationwide initiative exploring the ongoing repercussions of slavery and inequality and the ways these forces shape our lives today (November 17); husband-and-wife duo The Baylor Project at Harlem Stage Gatehouse (December 5); and clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg at the Brooklyn Public Library (March 1). New partners include the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, hosting Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely (April 7) and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, presenting Tabou Combo at The Plaza at 300 Ashland (May 28). The series concludes with Flor de Toloache, New York City’s first and only all-women mariachi group, performing at the DUMBO Archway as part of Make Music New York (June 21).

Please see below for a complete schedule of 2019–2020 Carnegie Hall Citywide concerts:

Carnegie Hall Citywide—2019–2020 Season

EDNA VAZQUEZ
Saturday, October 5, 2019 at 5:00 PM
Brooklyn Museum
Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion
200 Eastern Parkway (at Washington Avenue) | Brooklyn

Be moved by the power of every phrase Jalisco, Mexico–born vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist Edna Vazquez sings. Passionate, poetic, and inspired by folk, rock, pop, and R&B, her strikingly original music is powered by her expressive vocals, fiery guitar playing, and lively contributions from her band. Life, love, compassion, and cultural healing are the cornerstones of her music—it will touch your heart and delight your ears.

 

THANDISWA MAZWAI
Tuesday, October 8, 2019 at 7:00 PM
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Langston Hughes Auditorium
515 Malcolm X Boulevard (at 135th Street) | Manhattan

Experience the fire in Thandiswa Mazwai’s music. The flame was kindled growing up in Soweto during the dismantling of apartheid and ignited when she joined the visionary band Bongo Maffin. Mazwai’s politically aware lyrics and emotional vocals propelled the band to South African stardom. You can now hear her solo and be captivated by her use of traditional Xhosa rhythms, reggae, kwaito (a South African blend of hip-hop and house music sounds), funk, jazz, and more to create music that’s simply incendiary.

 

ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Sunday, November 10, 2019 at 5:00 PM
Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church
178 Bennett Avenue (at 189th Street) | Manhattan

Hear Poulenc’s effervescent wit, Mozart’s grace, and Beach’s soaring Romanticism in music performed by Ensemble Connect, “one of the strongest ensembles in the city” (New York Classical Review). The bubbly outer movements of Poulenc’s Trio for Oboe, Bassoon, and Piano frame a gorgeous central section, while Mozart’s Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat Major delights with virtuosic horn passages. To conclude the concert is Amy Beach’s Piano Quintet, a rapturous work flowing with rich melodies and boundless invention.

Ensemble Connect
Lead funding has been provided by Marina Kellen French and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Max H. Gluck Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, Hearst Foundations, The Kovner Foundation, Phyllis and Charles Rosenthal, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Beatrice Santo Domingo, and Hope and Robert F. Smith.

Global Ambassadors: Hope and Robert F. Smith, and Maggie and Richard Tsai.

Additional support has been provided by the Arnow Family Fund, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, E.H.A. Foundation, Barbara G. Fleischman, Leslie and Tom Maheras, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, and Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Ensemble Connect is also supported, in part, by endowment grants from The Kovner Foundation.

 

CATALYST QUARTET
Sunday, November 17, 2019 at 4:00 PM
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library
Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Cultural Center
10 Grand Army Plaza (at Flatbush Avenue) | Brooklyn

The Catalyst Quartet, an ensemble known for its commitment to diversity and education, presents a program celebrating the legacy of two composers previously overlooked in classical music due to their race or gender. Florence Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint span the warmly Romantic to homespun Americana, while her String Quartet in G Major’s rich harmonies and breathlessly beautiful slow movement are stunning. Also performed is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Fantasiestücke, a superb set of expressive character pieces, each with its own style and tone. This performance is part of 400 Years of Inequality, a nationwide initiative exploring the ongoing repercussions of slavery and inequality and the ways these forces shape our lives today.

 

THE BAYLOR PROJECT
Thursday, December 5, 2019 at 7:30 PM
Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at 135th Street) | Manhattan

When The Baylor Project performs, you’ll see why the husband-and-wife team of vocalist Jean Baylor and drummer Marcus Baylor has been nominated for two Grammy Awards. Deeply rooted in jazz—Jean has performed with such stars as Marcus Miller and Buster Williams, while Marcus is a former member of the legendary Yellowjackets—their eclectic musical style is also steeped in gospel, blues, and soul. Whether it’s a soulful ballad or an up-tempo classic, The Baylor Project will uplift you.

 

LOS HACHEROS
Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 5:00 PM
Brooklyn Museum
Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Pavilion
200 Eastern Parkway (at Washington Avenue) | Brooklyn

The Golden Age of Latin music lives in the exuberant sound of Brooklyn-based Los Hacheros. Feel an irresistible urge to dance as the band puts its mark on traditional folk styles like son montuno, guaracha, and salsa, while adding dashes of fiery Puerto Rican bomba rhythms. The musicians’ full-blooded sound is fueled by violin, trombone, flute, bell, gourd, congas, and tres (a guitar-like instrument from Cuba), providing a platform for soaring, soulful vocals.

 

KAYLEIGH DECKER
MADELINE SLETTEDAHL
Saturday, January 11, 2020 at 3:00 PM
St. Michael’s Church
225 West 99th Street (at Amsterdam Avenue) | Manhattan

“Dulcet-toned” (The Wall Street Journal) mezzo-soprano Kayleigh Decker has a must-hear voice. A superb song interpreter, she was named one of Caramoor’s 2018 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars; she was also part of the inaugural season of Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. Decker’s operatic triumphs include a recent Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Mozart’s Idomeneo, and title roles in operas by Rossini and Handel. She has also been featured on the concert stage, singing in Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, and more.

 

ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Sunday, January 12, 2020 at 2:00 PM
Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum
895 Shore Road | Bronx

Whether it’s a string quartet by Haydn or a daring new Carnegie Hall commission, the stellar young musicians of Ensemble Connect bring trademark virtuosity and passion to everything they perform. These fellows in a two-year program prepare for careers as performers and teachers, while energizing audiences with their daring programming and exuberant performances. In this concert, they perform Mozart’s Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat Major and Britten’s String Quartet No. 2 in C Major.

Ensemble Connect
Lead funding has been provided by Marina Kellen French and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Max H. Gluck Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, Hearst Foundations, The Kovner Foundation, Phyllis and Charles Rosenthal, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Beatrice Santo Domingo, and Hope and Robert F. Smith.

Global Ambassadors: Hope and Robert F. Smith, and Maggie and Richard Tsai.

Additional support has been provided by the Arnow Family Fund, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, E.H.A. Foundation, Barbara G. Fleischman, Leslie and Tom Maheras, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, and Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Ensemble Connect is also supported, in part, by endowment grants from The Kovner Foundation.

 

STEFON HARRIS AND BLACKOUT
Monday, January 27, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
Langston Hughes Auditorium
515 Malcolm X Boulevard (at 135th Street) | Manhattan

Take a jazz journey with outstanding vibraphone and marimba player Stefon Harris and his band Blackout. Named Best Vibraphonist by DownBeat’s 2018 International Critics Poll, Harris spins nimble solo lines that dart and swirl, while his stellar band complements his playing with its own flights of invention. On their most recent album, Sonic Creed, Harris and Blackout chart new melodic and rhythmic paths in a compelling reflection on present-day African American life, featuring original tunes and classics by such jazz giants as Wayne Shorter, Bobby Hutcherson, and Horace Silver.

 

PISTOLERA
Friday, February 14, 2020 at 8:00 PM
Flushing Town Hall
Main Theater
137-35 Northern Boulevard | Queens

Pistolera’s songs grab you with their powerful lyrics and melodic beauty. Anchored by the Spanish vocals of Sandra Velasquez and buoyed by accordion, guitar, bass, and percussion, Pistolera’s sound owes much to traditional Mexican music. The group’s socially conscious songs address timely topics such as immigrants’ rights, racism, feminism, and more. Pistolera has given thrilling performances while sharing the stage with Los Lobos, Lila Downs, and others, and energized audiences at major festivals around the world.

 

DAVID KRAKAUER
KATHLEEN TAGG
Sunday, March 1, 2020 at 4:00 PM
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library
Dr. S. Stevan Dweck Cultural Center
10 Grand Army Plaza (at Flatbush Avenue) | Brooklyn

BREATH + HAMMER

Clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg performed brilliantly in From Shtetl to Stage: A Celebration of Yiddish Music and Culture as part of Carnegie Hall’s 2019 festival Migrations: The Making of America. This outstanding duo’s innovative Breath + Hammer program takes classical masterworks and juxtaposes them with folk-based music. Their remarkable technical skills—Krakauer’s improvisatory prowess and Tagg’s ability to play inside the piano to create unique effects—are showcased in music that is both daring and invigorating.

 

MOONA LUNA
Sunday, March 15, 2020 at 2:00 PM
New York Hall of Science | Viscusi Gallery
47-01 111th Street | Queens

Whether you have kids or are a child at heart, you are going to love Moona Luna. The Brooklyn-based group finds inspiration in many musical sources, including American pop hits of the 1950s and ’60s, influences from the African diaspora, and the musicians’ own Latin roots. With a delightful sound buoyed by accordion and guitar, the band brings audiences together when they sing in English and Spanish. New York Daily News praised the band for finally providing a “soundtrack for bilingual/bicultural Latino kids,” but you’ll discover the music is for everyone.

 

MALUCA MALA
Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 4:00 PM
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue | Manhattan

There’s a message behind Bronx-born, beat-driving Maluca Mala’s music. Her inspiring lyrics, sung in Spanish and English, encourage Afro-Latinas to be proud of their identity, push against European beauty standards, and reject gender stereotypes. Fusing hip-hop and merengue—a dance rooted in her Dominican heritage—with electronic dance music, Maluca Mala has dubbed her style “experimental tropical punk, ghetto tech, and hip-house.” It’s won her a large fan base, including Grammy-nominated singer Robyn, with whom she recently collaborated.

 

SOH DAIKO
Saturday, March 28, 2020 at 3:00 PM
LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College
Mainstage Theater
31-10 Thomson Avenue | Queens

When you come to hear Soh Daiko, you’ll experience much more than a concert. High-octane rhythms are pounded with exuberant athleticism that’s as much fun to see as it is to hear. Soh Daiko honors the revered Japanese taiko tradition by playing drums they make from oak wine barrels and ox hides, joined by bamboo flutes, brass bells, conch shells, gongs, and more. You may have heard traditional taiko drumming before, but Soh Daiko takes it to an exciting new level.

 

TOSHI REAGON AND BIGLovely
Tuesday, April 7, 2020 at 7:00 PM
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
Lerner Auditorium
208 West 13th Street (at Seventh Avenue) | Manhattan

Folk, rock, R&B, and blues burn brightly when Toshi Reagon and her band BIGLovely perform. Called “one helluva rock’n’roller-coaster ride” by Vibe magazine, her vocal style ranges from a “dirty blues moan to a gospel shout to an ethereal croon” (The New York Times). Reagon’s dedicated activism for women’s rights sings out even more passionately when she’s backed by BIGLovely—a who’s who of outstanding NYC musicians. Be entertained, energized, and empowered by this remarkable winner of an Outmusic Award and honoree of the National Women’s History Project.

 

MAGDALENA KUZMA
NATE RASKIN
Saturday, April 18, 2020 at 3:00 PM
St. Michael’s Church
225 West 99th Street (at Amsterdam Avenue) | Manhattan

In 2019, Magdalena Kuzma was one of 10 young singers who were selected from a global pool to be mentored by Renée Fleming in the inaugural year of SongStudio, a Carnegie Hall initiative that explores the future of the song recital. Kuzma is a recent graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, where she studied psychology and voice. Kuzma has sung song masterpieces as well as operatic roles that include Miles in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, Drusilla in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, and the title role in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène.

 

ENSEMBLE CONNECT
Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 2:00 PM
Ridgewood Branch Library, Queens Library
20-12 Madison Street | Queens

You can expect versatility and virtuosity when Ensemble Connect performs. These young professional musicians are fellows in a two-year program that prepares them for careers as daring performers, dedicated teachers, and advocates for music that spans the Baroque era to the present day. They have been called “the new face of classical music” (The New York Times) and “one of the strongest ensembles in the city” (New York Classical Review). In this concert, they perform Florence Price’s Five Folksongs in Counterpoint, Villa-Lobos’s Quinteto em forma de chôros, and Reena Esmail’s String Quartet (Ragamala).

Ensemble Connect
Lead funding has been provided by Marina Kellen French and the Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Foundation, Max H. Gluck Foundation, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, Hearst Foundations, The Kovner Foundation, Phyllis and Charles Rosenthal, The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations, Beatrice Santo Domingo, and Hope and Robert F. Smith.

Global Ambassadors: Hope and Robert F. Smith, and Maggie and Richard Tsai.

Additional support has been provided by the Arnow Family Fund, The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, E.H.A. Foundation, Barbara G. Fleischman, Leslie and Tom Maheras, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Susan and Elihu Rose Foundation, Sarah Billinghurst Solomon and Howard Solomon, and Trust for Mutual Understanding.

Public support is provided by the New York City Department of Education and the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Ensemble Connect is also supported, in part, by endowment grants from The Kovner Foundation.

 

BRIDGET KIBBEY
Sunday, April 26, 2020 at 5:00 PM
Our Saviour’s Atonement Lutheran Church
178 Bennett Avenue (at 189th Street) | Manhattan

BACH TO BRAZIL

When you hear Bridget Kibbey, you’ll toss aside everything you thought you knew about harp music. Praised for her “bravura and sensitivity” (The Washington Post), her daring and diverse programming spans the Baroque era—her performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor is a YouTube sensation—to explorations of Brazilian dance music. She regularly performs with The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, is a passionate advocate for living composers, and has toured and recorded with such superstars as Plácido Domingo and Dawn Upshaw. In this concert, she is joined by guitarist João Luiz Rezende and percussionist Samuel Torres.

 

MAURICE BROWN
Thursday, May 14, 2020 at 7:30 PM
Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at 135th Street) | Manhattan

When you hear Maurice “Mobetta” Brown, you’ll experience a gutsy musician who is a master of contemporary jazz, blues-rock, and cutting-edge hip-hop. Brown’s sound is one-of-a-kind, rooted in bebop and spiced with hip-hop hooks. His breakthrough album, Maurice vs. Mobetta, shows him wearing three hats as musician, MC, and producer. Remixed trumpet parts dance over hip-hop beats while guests Talib Kweli, Prodigy, and Jean Grae swap rhymes with Mobetta, Brown’s hip-hop persona. Expect this and more from a musician who is ever-evolving and constantly pushing the envelope.

 

ÌFÉ
Saturday, May 16, 2020 at 4:00 PM
El Museo del Barrio
1230 Fifth Avenue | Manhattan

Drummer, producer, singer, and Yoruba priest (or Babalawo) Otura Mun is the visionary creator of ÌFÉ. This Puerto Rico–based project fuses Cuban rumba, sacred Yoruba praise songs, Jamaican dancehall music, and American R&B with cutting edge electronica. With its ensemble of singers and dancers, ÌFÉ conjures trance-like moods that shift from otherworldly serenity to the raw and ecstatic. NPR’s Felix Contreras called ÌFÉ’s debut album IIII+IIII (2017) “one of those I can’t figure out how I ever lived without.” Hear ÌFÉ live and you will feel the same.

 

TABOU COMBO
Thursday, May 28, 2020 at 6:30 PM
Downtown Brooklyn Partnership: The Plaza at 300 Ashland
Flatbush Avenue at Lafayette Avenue | Brooklyn

Tabou Combo has been spreading the joys of compas—Haiti’s national music—globally for more than 50 years. Singing in English, Spanish, French, and their native Creole, the group’s high-energy performances are invigorating mixes of merengue dance music from the Dominican Republic, Haitian voodoo traditions, splashes of French colonial styles, and American funk. Layers of percussion, intertwining guitar lines, and brass give the music a unique color and a vitality that inspires audiences to get up and dance.

 

ÁLFHEIÐUR ERLA GUÐMUNDSDÓTTIR
KUNAL LAHIRY
Saturday, May 30, 2020 at 3:00 PM
St. Michael’s Church
225 West 99th Street (at Amsterdam Avenue) | Manhattan

Álfheiður Erla Guðmundsdóttir is an award-winning soprano who has delighted audiences in her native Iceland and abroad. She won two awards at the 2015 International Giulio Perotti Singing Competition, and was selected to participate in the inaugural year of Carnegie Hall’s SongStudio under the guidance of Renée Fleming. Opera is also an integral part of her career: She has sung such roles as Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, Marzelline in Beethoven’s Fidelio, Adele in R. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and others.

 

LJOVA AND THE KONTRABAND
Saturday, June 13, 2020 at 2:00 PM
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
Tuscan Garden Green Amphitheater
1000 Richmond Terrace | Staten Island

Sway to jagged Central and Eastern European rhythms and swoon over the folksy melodies that Ljova and the Kontraband serve up in this concert. The group is led by Lev “Ljova” Zhurbin, a Moscow-born, New York–based violinist and composer who has worked with Yo-Yo Ma, Kronos Quartet, JAY-Z, and others. Ljova is joined by soulful vocalist Inna Barmash (his Lithuanian-born wife), plus accordion, bass, and percussion. Classical, klezmer, tango, and gypsy jazz are all part of the genre-smashing music-making of this wildly eclectic group.

 

FLOR DE TOLOACHE
Sunday, June 21, 2020 at 5:00 PM
DUMBO Archway
Water Street between Anchorage Place and Adams Street | Brooklyn

Mariachi bands aren’t just for men—Flor de Toloache’s exuberant performances and Latin Grammy Award prove it. New York City’s first and only all-women mariachi group has been bringing its edgy new take on Mexican music to audiences since 2008. A multinational ensemble, its members hail from Mexico as well as countries not traditionally associated with mariachi music, like Germany and Australia. The resulting musical mix pushes the boundaries of the genre, delighting purists while winning new converts.

This concert is part of the citywide music festival Make Music New York.

To learn more about Carnegie Hall Citywide, please visit: carnegiehall.org/Citywide.

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Lead support for Carnegie Hall Citywide is provided by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Additional support is provided by the A. L. and Jennie L. Luria Foundation.

In honor of the centenary of his birth, Carnegie Hall’s 2019–2020 season is dedicated to the memory of Isaac Stern in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to Carnegie Hall, arts advocacy, and the field of music.

Bank of America is the Proud Season Sponsor of Carnegie Hall.