The Village Trip 2025 Classical/New Music

// painting by Klay Enos //

THE VILLAGE TRIP 2025 – PROGRAM

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THE VILLAGE TRIP FESTIVAL PREVIEW at LOFT 393

393 Broadway (2nd floor)
September 12 – 14 | 7:00 – 8:30pm

Featuring a display of work by Village artists Diana Wege, Joelle Shefts, Klay Enos, C Damon Carter, Meyer Kupferman, Corey Hardeman, and Agustin Castilla-Avila

September 12
Stefan Wolpe, Leo Brouwer & Morton Feldman

Exploring the role of Village composer Stefan Wolpe, his connection to the Bauhaus and Josef Albers, and work by his students Morton Feldman and Leo Brouwer. Featuring Daniel Conant and Angel Blanco, and The Village Trip Guitar Orchestra.

$20

September 13
The Darkness is God

The Olson/De Cari Duo perform Ben Verdery’s What God Looks Like, plus the première of Thomas Flippin’s The Darkness is God – Four Prayers from Rilke. Also works by David Glaser, Robert Morris, Stefan Wolpe, Bartok and more. Featuring Oren Fader, Bowers Fader Duo, and The Village Trip Guitar Orchestra.

$20

September 14 |7:00 – 8:30pm
Shift and Riff

The Curtis Guitar Quartet offers Eric Sessler’s “Shift and Riff”, plus soloists Muxin Li (guitar), William Anderson (mandolin), and Joan Forsyth (piano), and The Village Trip Guitar Orchestra. Works by Eric Sessler, Mario Davidovsky, Michael Starobin, Wolpe, and the première of Gary Philo’s Prelude and Caprice for mandolin and piano.

$20

September 19 | 7:00 – 9:00pm
Village Voices: With James Martin, baritone & Lynn Raley, piano
World Premières of New Work by David Amram, Carman Moore & Maria Thompson Corley

St John’s in the Village, 218 West 11th Street/Waverly Place

The world première of Five American Voices, a song cycle by David Amram, Artist Emeritus of The Village Trip and “the renaissance man of American music,” reflecting “the diverse voices of our cultural mosaic.” Also: premières of Carman Moore’s A Village Triptych for voice and piano, and a new work by Jamaican-born composer and pianist Maria Thompson Corley. Plus selections from Wide As Heaven, the Martin-Raley duo’s “varied, moving and entertaining album” (New York Times).

$25/$20

September 20 | 2:00 – 4:00pm

Classical Cool! Kids’ Concert hosted by Nina Bernstein Simmons
St John’s in the Village, 218 West 11th Street/Waverly Place

Taking a leaf from the Maestro’s inspirational Young People’s Concerts, a family concert celebrating the legacy of conductor, composer and educator Leonard Bernstein which also honors the 150th anniversary of the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).

Classical Cool! includes works by Bernstein, and a performance of Saint-Saëns’ whimsical family favorite Carnival of the Animals, by the Going the Distance Players conducted by Alexander Wu, and with narration by Nina Bernstein Simmons.

Featuring pianists Kevin Chance, Joan Forsyth, Alexander Wu, and Tomoko Uchino.Meet and chat with the musicians and their instruments in the church courtyard afterward!

Proceeds from Classical Cool! will benefit Artful Learning, the extraordinary teaching model founded by Nina’s brother, Alexander Bernstein. Artful Learning puts Bernstein’s own philosophies of education into practice, galvanizing students and teachers into becoming co-creators. The model is thriving in schools nationwide.

$25/20
$35 - Family ticket for four: One or two adults + two or three kids

Looking East
Balinese Gamelan Ensemble Yowana Sari & Friends

Portico outside St. Mark’s in the Bowery, 131 East 10th Street/Second Avenue

Gamelan Yowana Sari and guitarists Kyle Miller and Jack Lynch perform music by Michael Gordon, Evan Ziporyn, Kyle Miller, Vivian Fung, and I Gusde Widnyana.

Gamelan Yowana Sari plays new music written for Balinese instruments. The group is comprised of students and professional musicians dedicated to the presentation of both traditional and new works for gamelan.

This concert will take place on the Portico of St Mark’s but will move inside in the event of rain

Free

September 21 | 4:30 - 6:00pm
Habitat East Village with Damien Sneed and Friends
St. Mark’s in the Bowery, 131 East 10th Street/Second Avenue

Jimmy Carter’s first Habitat for Humanity project was in the East Village, off Tompkins Square Park. Carter had a love for music and musicians of every ilk and, as President, he brought many wonderful artists to the White House. They ranged from Dizzy Gillespie to the great pedagogical pioneer Shinichi Suzuki. He saw music as a healer and a bridge between diverse groups, and recognized excellence in all genres. Following the gamelan concert, join us inside the church as we revisit some of that music, with Damien Sneed and his gospel choir, the Third Street Jazz Ensemble, and Suzuki Strings, with classical favorites close to the President’s heart.

$25/20

September 24 | 7:00 - 9:00pm
Poets of Patchin Place: Musical Settings of Village Poets
Salmagundi Arts Club, 47 Fifth Avenue/12th Street

Djuna Barnes—poet, artist, illustrator, journalist, and author—lived on Patchin Place where neighbors included ee cummings. In Paris, she was a friend of James Joyce, who gave her an early manuscript of Ulysses. This program brings these three poets together in musical settings by William Kentner Anderson, Victoria Bond, and Laura Schwendinger. Plus, Nehemiah Luckett’s treatment of Village resident James Baldwin’s Another Country. With Sopranos Sharon Harms and Zoe Allen, baritone Michael Kelly, pianists Christopher Allen and Joan Forsyth, and harpist June Han.

Presented by The Village Trip and Cutting Edge Concerts in cooperation with The Coffee House Club at the Salmagundi Club

$30$25

September 26 | 7:15 – 8:30pm
ETHEL at the Met
Mezzanine at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 100 Fifth Avenue

As part of their regular residency at the Met, acclaimed string quartet ETHEL with guitarist Kyle Miller offer a preview performance of Miller’s Plea and A Minimum of Mountain, new works for electric guitar and string quartet commissioned by The Village Trip.

Free with Met Museum admission

September 26 | 7:00 – 9:00pm
Poetica Musica: Inspired by the Village
St John’s in the Village, 218 West 11th Street/Waverly Place

New York-based chamber group Poetica Musica presents a concert celebrating composers inspired by Greenwich Village and the East Village – among them Astor Piazzola, George Gershwin, Charles Ives, Bela Bartok, and William Anderson. Featuring guitarists Owen Fader and William Anderson; flutist Barry Crawford; pianist Molly Morkoski; and soprano Eleanor Valkenburg, artistic director of Poetica Musica.

$25/$20

September 27 | 7:15 – 8:30pm
ETHEL at the Met
Mezzanine at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 100 Fifth Avenue

As part of their regular residency at the Met, acclaimed string quartet ETHEL with guitarist Kyle Miller offer a preview performance of Miller’s Plea and A Minimum of Mountain, new works for electric guitar and string quartet commissioned by The Village Trip.

Free with Met Museum admission

September 27 | 7:30 – 9:00pm
The Bergamot Quartet: Three World Premières
St John’s in the Village, 218 West 11th Street/Waverly Place

The ever-innovative Bergamot Quartet performs world premières – by Samuel Adler, Louis Karchin, and Eli Greenhoe. The virtuosic yangqin player Cheng Jin Koh joins the quartet for a performance of her work Mountain of Echoing Halls.

$25/$20

September 28 | 3:00 - 4:30 pm
ETHEL with Kyle Miller, electric guitar
St John’s in the Village, 218 West 11th Street/Waverly Place

Acclaimed guitarist-composer Kyle Miller joins the ever-exciting and eclectic string quartet ETHEL for a program featuring world premières of his works Plea and A Minimum of Mountain. Plus, music by Philip Glass, Marcelo Zarvos, Phil Kline, Fred Hersch, David Lang, and select Tin Pan Alley favorites. Join this powerhouse quintet for a vibrant tour of musical New York City!

$25/$30

September 28 | 5:00 - 7:00pm
Composers Concordance: Ciabatta Cantata
St. Mark’s in the Bowery, 131 East 10th Street/Second Avenue

Composers Concordance and friends explore themes of food and politics in new music for chorus, guitar and theorbo. The program includes music by Gene Pritsker, Dan Cooper, and William Anderson. Enjoy fresh ciabatta from the Grandaisy Bakery during the performance.

$20 ($30 at the door)