This is a fun program that comes around twice a year—summer solstice and winter solstice. I decided to take a day off from work in order to see as many different sites and sounds as possible. All of the musicians I heard were amateurs, and that sort of adds to the fun. My first stop was at the Bard Graduate Center on West 86th Street, where I heard pianist Carolyn Enger. The crowd was very small—two toddlers with their caregivers, one woman, and me. A couple of other folks stopped in a bit later. There was no printed program, but Ms. Enger did let us know which composers we were hearing. They included Schubert; Zemlinsky; a contemporary female composer; Clara Schumann; Pia Møller Johansen (a Norwegian composer); and one more contemporary female composer.
After running an unplanned errand, I next heard a solo trumpeter,
Jayson Greengold, playing on the sidewalk near Lincoln Center. He’s a
middle schooler and plays pretty darn well. My favorite from his set was
Puttin’ On the Ritz. He had boom box–style accompaniment.
My next stop was the main library at 42nd Street to hear the Passion Flute Choir—a quartet (and sometimes sextet) of flutists. They started off with Scott Joplin’s The Entertainer, which was quite fun. Flight of the Bumblebee was also fun. There was a three-movement classical work that was written for strings but transformed for six flutes, here. I liked it better than the Frozen medley that followed. Another favorite of mine was an Astor Piazzolla tango.
Fourth on my agenda turned out to be a bust. The listing had an incorrect time for the appearance of one artist, so she had performed and gone by the time I got to the venue.
A trip to the Village led me to The Renaissance Street Singers, who are just that, amateurs who sing music of the 15th and 16th centuries, right on the street (sidewalk, to be more precise). They've been in existence since the 1970s. It was enjoyable. Oddly, there were more men than women at the portions of their sets that I heard—that’s usually not the case with vocal groups. A few blocks away found me listening to NYC Sacred Harp, a group of shape note singers. It’s a notation system that I really don’t know much about, but the singing itself was very rustic. It was enjoyable, just not my cup of tea. But the singers were having a good time.
It was a fun day. I’m not sure I’d take a day off from work next time, though.
ConcertMeister
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