American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
The Village, long home to many musical innovators, has always pushed the boundaries of arts, activism, and ideas. This year, The Village Trip is proud to welcome musical scholars and composers from twelve countries to give talks, demonstrations, lecture recitals and concerts touching on American Primitive and those "inventors of genius" who changed the conversation. Come be part of it.
Microtonal Village Conference, hosted by composer Agustín Castilla-Ávila American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
Composers and musicologists from around the world gather to present their music and thoughts on the microtonality of American Primitive and other new directions, with attention to developments in Greenwich Village through visionaries like Cage, Harrison and Partch. Agustín Castilla-Ávila—a tireless advocate for composers around the world who are exploring new and old tuning systems, and President of the Ekmelic Society of Salzburg—will preside.
Greenwich Village A Go Go : The Greenwich Village Rock and Pop Scene of the 1960s, Walking Tour
Bagel Pub 418 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY, United StatesJoin Marc Catapano and Ann McDermott on a journey of discovery of the Mod, Pop, Happening world of 1960s Greenwich Village. Visit iconic spots like Café Wha? and Kettle of Fish, where legends like Bob Dylan, Edie Sedgwick, and Jimi Hendrix turned the Village into a cultural epicenter. Immerse yourself in the era's wild energy and liberating spirit.
Roy Lichtenstein Studio and Home Tour
Roy Lichtenstein Studio 745 Washington Street, New York, NY, United StatesThe Lichtenstein studio is not usually open to the public, so this is a special opportunity to explore the place where one of the 20th century’s most important artists created many of his seminal works of Pop Art. The tour will be led by Nick Holmes, the Whitney’s Legal Counsel and a person who was instrumental in the renovation of the building.
Aché! Bobby Sanabria & Ascensión
Teatro Latea at The Clemente 107 Suffolk St, (Second Floor), New York, NY, United StatesCancelled: Due to New York City building work which has badly overrun, The Clemente, of which the Latea Theater is a part, will now be closed until late September. Sadly, it has proved impossible to relocate this concert at such short notice and we now have no option but to cancel. We at The Village Trip are as disappointed as we know you will be, but we do hope to present Bobby Sanabria and Ascensión, and Antoinette Montague, at the Latea sometime soon. We hope to see you at other festival events.
John Schneider: American Maverick Guitar American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
Greenwich House Music School 46 Barrow Street, New York, NY, United StatesGrammy Award-winning guitarist John Schneider explores another side of the Greenwich Village music scene, looking at works by the intrepid Harry Partch and Lou Harrison and others and their engagement in world music and the "American Primitive”. Schneider's work is "of a caliber that kept this listener in a state of continuous astonishment" Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times.
Eliza Garth: Sonatas and Interludes by John Cage American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
St Mark’s in the Bowery 131 East 10th Street, New York, NY, United StatesPianist Eliza Garth performs Sonatas and Interludes, John Cage’s 1947 masterpiece for prepared piano, a composition regarded as a formative piano work of the 20th Century. St Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery is known and loved as a gathering place for innovative musicians, dancers, and poets, including Allen Ginsberg and Cage.
William Bland: Village Maverick American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesKevin Gorman, praised for his “passion, technical facility and explosive tonality,” (Fanfare Magazine) is a champion of the piano music of maverick composer, poet, painter William Bland. He has performed and recorded Bland's epic cycle of piano sonatas for Bridge Records to great acclaim.
The Village Trip GuitarFest 24: Featuring soloists Oren Fader and Giacomo Fiore American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesGuitarFest 24 expands on American Primitive, with the wildly inventive Ictus Novus, the Curtis Guitar Quartet, soprano Sharon Harms, and many of New York’s best guitarists. It features music by American Primitives John Fahey, and Julián Carrillo and works by Paul Lansky, Kyle Miller, David Amram, Agustín Castilla-Ávila, and Gary Philo, among others.
Stoned Soul Picnic: Diane Garisto & The Laura Nyro Project
The Bitter End 147 Bleecker Street, New York, NY, United StatesSidewalk and pigeon, you look like a city, but you feel like religion to me – Laura Nyro, in her album New York Tendaberry
Laura Nyro was “the very essence of New York City in the most passionate, romantic, and ethereal sense,” said Bette Midler, inducting Nyro into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. At the historic Bitter End, to which Nyro was no stranger, Diane Garisto and the Stoned Soul Picnic band celebrate her remarkable legacy.
Chopping Wood: Thoughts & Stories of a Legendary American Folksinger
Assembly Hall, Judson Memorial Church 239 Thompson Street, New York, NY, United StatesCome celebrate the long life and inspirational work of Pete Seeger, who died in 2014 aged 94, with David Bernz and Jacob Bernz. David will discuss his latest book Chopping Wood, co-authored with Seeger. David and his son Jacob, a founding member of Clearwater's Power of Song group, will also play some of Seeger's songs.
Janis Siegel and Friends: Something to Live For – Celebrating the Music of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn
Blue Note 31 West 3rd Street, New York, United StatesThe music of Edward Kennedy Ellington and William Thomas Strayhorn has long been a staple of both the Great American Songbook and the jazz lexicon. This program of lovingly curated music contains some cherished classics, such as “Mood Indigo,” “Prelude to A Kiss,” and “Take The ‘A’ Train,” but also delves into some of the "deeper cuts" like “Star-Crossed Lovers,” “Absinthe (Lament for An Orchid),” and “Johnny Come Lately.”
Genius & Invention: Schoenberg, Ives, Cage & Harrison – An Exploration American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
St John’s in the Village 218 W 11th St, New York, NY, United StatesCelebrating ground-breaking composers Arnold Schoenberg and Charles Ives at 150 with the Hayley/Laufer duo’s stunning interpretation of the lushly expressionistic Book of the Hanging Gardens, and Ives’ violin and piano sonata. Plus Varied Trio and early keyboard music by unlikely Schoenberg students Lou Harrison and John Cage.
Bob Dylan’s Village Trip: An Evening of Songs and Stories
Café Wha? 115 MacDougal St, New York, NY, United States“Those early days in the Village were great,” Bob Dylan told his biographer Robert Shelton around 1970, shortly after he had moved into his townhouse on MacDougal Street, trying to recreate the magic of the early 1960s, when there was “music in the cafes at night and revolution in the air.”
Quattro Mani American Primitive & Inventors of Genius Weekend
Greenwich House Music School 46 Barrow Street, New York, NY, United StatesRenowned duo pianists Susan Grace and Steven Beck perform works by Lou Harrison, John Cage, Arnold Schoenberg, John Adams and Fred Lerdahl who, with linguist Ray Jackendoff, developed the Chomsky-inspired generative theory of tonal music, an endeavor inspired by Leonard Bernstein’s Norton Lectures, given at Harvard in 1973.
The Art & Science of Hang-out-ology:
David Amram in Conversation with Cliff Pearson
Lobby Bar at the Washington Square Hotel
103 Waverly Place, New York, NY, United States
David Amram, “Renaissance Man of American Music” and real-life Zelig, is now in his sixth year as Artist Emeritus of The Village Trip. He is the spirit of the festival, and a link to more than a half-century of fabled Village history. Indeed, David has lived much of it—hanging out with the Abstract Expressionists who changed the course of art, jamming with Parker, Monk and Mingus who changed the course of jazz, and composing for the great Joe Papp, who changed the course of theater.
A Parting Glass: Dan Milner, Mick Moloney and Irish Music in Greenwich Village
The Bitter End 147 Bleecker Street, New York, NY, United StatesOur memorial concert honors Dan Milner and Mick Moloney--performers, professors, and impresarios who brought great Irish music to settings as varied as the Eagle Tavern on West 14th Street and classrooms at New York University. Performers include Bonnie Milner, Daniel Neely, their friends, and members of the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra.
East Village Underground: Two Centuries of Creativity and Rebellion, Walking Tour
Ottendorfer Library 135 Second Avenue, New York, NY, United StatesJoin Marc Catapano and uncover the dynamic history of NYC's East Village and its famous underground movements. Explore its radical political past, its avant-garde art, and groundbreaking jazz, rock, and punk scenes. Visit iconic sites like CBGB’s, St Mark’s Place, and Tompkins Square Park, and revel in the area's extraordinary cultural legacy.
Go Tell It On the Mountain: James Baldwin in Words and Music
Judson Memorial Church 55 Washington Square South, New York, NY, United StatesAlmost 40 years after his death, the words of James Baldwin are ever more resonant, speaking powerfully to us about culture, faith, race, justice, and identity. This celebration of Baldwin’s centennial honors his remarkable legacy with readings directed by actor and playwright Daniel Carlton, plus performances of the jazz, blues and gospel Baldwin listened to as he wrote, as well as new music by Julian Hornik and Nehemiah Luckett inspired by the novels Giovanni’s Room and Another Country.
Donald Judd Home and Studio, Guided Tour
101 Spring Street 101 Spring Street, New York, NY, United StatesOne of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Donald Judd challenged boundaries and definitions in the worlds of art, architecture, and design. Renovated in 2013 by Architecture Research Office (ARO), 101 Spring Street tells the story of Judd’s ideas and presents his work as he dictated it should be when he lived and worked there. Adam Yarinsky, a founding principal at ARO, will lead the tour along with a guide from the Judd Foundation.