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Music, Theater and the Visual Arts 

Arts at The Park includes live music, theater, political and theological discourse, and family and holiday events at the Park Avenue Christian Church. Our mission is to inspire, entertain and empower while turning neighbors into friends.

Advance tickets for events may only be purchased at www.smarttix.com or by calling their box office at 212-868-4444. Our on-premises box office is only open on the day of an event, one hour before the performance.

Click here to join our new Facebook group. You can follow us on Twitter: @parkavenuearts

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2012 AT 8 PM

The Deviant Septet: Stravinsky’s L’histoire du Soldat

The Deviant Septet
Courtney Orlando, violin
Doug Balliett, bass
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Brad Balliett, bassoon
Mike Gurfield, trumpet
Dave Nelson, trombone
Shayna Dunkelman, percussion

Staged and directed by Rafael Gallegos

Program:
l'Histoire du Soldat – Igor Stravinsky
The Rake – Elliot Cooper Cole and Brad Balliet, based on “The Rake’s Progress” of Stravinsky
The Devil Dances with Tom Sawyer - Stefan Freund

Tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Student/Senior at Smarttix.com

Hailed as a "stylish young ensemble" by New York Magazine, Deviant Septet formed in late 2010 with the goal of creating a repertoire for and fulfilling Stravinsky's vision for his unique l'Histoire du Soldat ensemble and is the first and only chamber music ensemble of its kind. The group of "New York Contemporary music scene veterans" will present a Faustian inspired evening, beginning with a staged version of Stravinsky's l'Histoire, played, sung, and danced by the members of the ensemble. Also featured on the program will be the world-premiere septet version of Elliott Cooper Cole and Brad Balliett's The Rake, a hip-hop, multi-media take on Stravinsky's other Faust legend, The Rake's Progress.

READ MORE...

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SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 26 AT 3 PM

This Is My Story, This Is My Song: Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes

Caryn Kerstetter, soprano
Audrey Snyder, mezzo-soprano
Anthony Webb, tenor
Carl DuPont, baritone
Dalia Sakas and Leslie Jones, piano

Program:
Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op.52 - Johannes Brahms
Neue Liebeslieder Waltzes, Op.65 – Johannes Brahms

Tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Student/Senior at Smarttix.com

We continue a series of recitals curated around our season's theme, featuring talented members of The Park's music staff.

In Brahms' Liebeslieder Waltzes, we hear pure infatuation, vehement jealousy, and even longing to experience either of those things.The excesses of love and passion’s most extreme sentiments are beautifully, almost ironically, juxtaposed with the restraint and classicism of stylized Viennese Waltzes. The combinations of solos and duets that arise from the quartet of singers and quartet of hands at the piano express how the trials of love and relationships are unique to us all but are still a shared human experience.

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 POSTPONED  

Park Avenue Gospel Festival

Tickets: Suggested Donation $20

Join us as we raise the praise at our second Gospel Festival, which will feature choirs and guest soloists from churches around the New York Metro Area.

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SUNDAY, MARCH 11, 2012 AT 3 PM

All-Mozart Program with the Manhattan String Quartet + John Manasse

The Manhattan String Quartet
Curtis Macomber, violin
Calvin Wiersma, violin
John Dexter, viola
Chris Finkel, cello

with John Manasse, clarinet

Program:
String Quartet No. 18 in A Major, K. 464 - W.A. Mozart
Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581 - Mozart

Tickets: $35 General Admission / $50 Front Orchestra at Smarttix.com

Critically acclaimed as one of America's leading ensembles, The Manhattan String Quartet is celebrating its 41st season. Hailed by Michael Steinberg of the Boston Globe as “a national treasure”, the ensemble has appeared throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, Canada, Mexico and South America. Well known for their performances of 20th-century “classics”, the Manhattan String Quartet has established a significant international reputation as today’s pre-eminent interpreter of the fifteen string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich.

The MSQ's second appearance on our Spring series features John Manasse, an internationally-recognized soloist and chamber musican whose performances are characterized by a uniquely glorious sound and charismatic performing style. The program contrasts the contrapuntal sophistication of Mozart's Quartet in A Major with the sublime and lyrical Clarinet Quintet.

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SUNDAY, MARCH 25 AT 3 PM

This Is My Story, This Is My Song: Celebrating Ethnicity Through Song

Michelle Trovato, soprano
Susan Morton, piano
Paul Vasile, piano

Program:
Songs and piano works by Ottorino Respighi, Karol Szymanowski, Francis Poulenc, Reynaldo Hahn, Frederic Chopin and Paul Vasile

Tickets: $20 General Admission at Smarttix.com

Featuring members and friends of The Park's talented music staff, this unique program explores the idea of heritage and how it shapes us. The artists performing share both Polish and Italian roots and have programmed music by composers from those countries, as well as music by composers who have been inspired by Italian and Polish music and culture.

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SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 2012 AT 3 PM

Earth Day Concert: Requiem for Extinct Birds

Eric Brenner, countertenor
Kirsten Sollek, mezzo-soprano
The Sanctuary Choir of Park Avenue Christian Church 
Paul Vasile, conductor

Program:
Requiem Pro Avibus Mortuis (2011) - Hannah Lash
In Beauty May I Walk - Jonathan Dove

Tickets: Tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Student/Senior at Smarttix.com

In celebration of Earth Day, we are pleased to present the world premiere of Hannah Lash's Requiem Pro Avibus Mortuis (Requiem for Extinct Birds) for a cappella choir and soloists. With texts drawn from the Latin Requiem mass and Rachel Maitra, the composer's sister, this intricate and expressive work mourns the loss of birds who have either become extinct or endangered. The composer writes: "It is a piece about loss in a very universal sense; although the birds are its focal point, the concept of loss is one that is not limited or specific. Perhaps we do not stop to notice the destruction we have caused, but it affects us nonetheless because our world is changed forever."

Hailed by the NY Times as “striking and resourceful…handsomely brooding,” Hannah Lash’s music has been performed at the Times Center, Chicago Art Institute, Tanglewood Music Center, Harvard University, The Chelsea Art Museum, and on the American Opera Project’s stage in New York City. Commissions include The Fromm Foundation, The Naumburg Foundation, The Orpheus Duo, The Howard Hanson Foundation’s Commissioning Fund, Case Western Reserve’s University Circle Wind Ensemble, MAYA, and the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble.

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SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2012 AT 3 PM

OMEGA Ensemble: “Gift to the City" Concert

Kristin Lee, violin
Andrew Janss, cello
Doris Konig, piano
Miya Imai, violin*

*Omega Youth Discovery Artist

Program:
Sonata for Piano and Violin in G Major, K. 379 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart:
Intermezzo from "Goyescas" (arr. Gaspar Cassado) - Enrique Granados
Duo for Violin and Violoncello, Op. 7 – Zoltan Kodaly

Tickets: Free and open to the public / Donations gratefully accepted

The Omega Ensemble is a non-profit chamber music group whose mission is to introduce extraordinary, award-winning young musicians to the public. The Omega Ensemble's young artists have won international competitions, performed with major orchestras, won Avery Fisher Career Grant Awards, and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. A musical dialogue and reception with the artists will follow after the concert.

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TUESDAY, MAY 8, 2012 AT 8 PM

Music of Pēteris Vasks

The Afiara String Quartet
Yuri Cho, violin
Valerie Li, violin
David Samuel, viola
Adrian Fun, violoncello

Paul Vasile, organ

Program:
Viatore (2005) - Pēteris Vasks
Canto di forza (2002) - Pēteris Vasks
String Quartet No. 4 (1999) - Pēteris Vasks

Tickets: $20 General Admission / $15 Student/Senior at Smarttix.com

We celebrate the work of acclaimed Latvian composer, Pēteris Vasks, with the first New York City program dedicated entirely to his music. Known for deeply spiritual works which often incorporate elements from Latvian music and place them within a dynamic and challenging relationship with the language of contemporary music, the program will feature two monolithic works for organ and Vasks' alternatingly dramatic and tender String Quartet No. 4.

Organist Paul Vasile, the artistic director of Arts at The Park, will perform alongside the all-Canadian Afiara String Quartet, which is widely noted for its engaging, authentic presence and performances balancing “intensity and commitment” with “frequent moments of tenderness.” [The Montreal Gazette].  Winner of the 2008 Concert Artists Guild International Competition, the 2010 Young Canadian Musicians Award, top prizes at the Munich ARD International Music Competition and the Banff International String Quartet Competition, where they also took the Szekely Prize for best Beethoven interpretation, the Afiara String Quartet has lively interest in new works and fresh insight into core classical repertoire.

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SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2012 at 3 PM

This Is My Story, This Is My Song: Three Tenors

Joseph Hudson, tenor
Jose Ruiz, tenor
LaVell Thompson, tenor
Eric Sedgewic, piano

Program:
Songs by Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, DuParc, Poulenc, Neapolitan songs and musical theater selections

Tickets: $20 General Admission at Smarttix.com

Our season's theme continues with program celebrating repertoire for the tenor voice, sung by members and friends of The Park's talented music staff.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2012 at 7:30 PM

Hesperus is Phosphorus

Network for New Music
Linda Reichert, artistic director

The Crossing
Donald Nally, conductor

Program:
Hesperus is Phosphorus - Lewis Spratlan

Tickets: $35 Front Orchestra / $25 General Admission at Smarttix.com

When composers and musicians are inspired by words — by poems or stories or simple everyday talk between friends — they find new and expressive ways to make those words part of the music itself. In this collaborative program, the Philadelphia-based Network for New Music joins the dazzling singers of The Crossing, directed by Donald Nally, in the world premiere of a major new chamber work by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Lewis Spratlan, described by the New York Times as “a master of timbres and how to blend them.” Hesperus is Phosphorus takes the form of a secular Vespers service; drawing on the words of American poets, playwrights, and physicists, Spratlan’s beautiful new work explores growth and loss in our ever-expanding world of discovery.

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