Across all five boroughs, the classic arts scene in New York is never quiet. Here is just a sampling of some of the classic arts events happening this week:
Conductor Gemma New leads the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in performances of Mozart’s Prague Symphony August 1 and 2 at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall. The program will also include the New York premiere of Sarah Gibson’s warp & weft, and Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with soloist Stewart Goodyear.
August 4 and 5, Jonathon Heyward will take the conductor’s baton, and lead the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra in an entirely Mozartless program featuring Schumann’s third symphony, Jessie Montgomery’s Records of a Vanishing City, and Barber’s violin concerto with soloist Simone Lamsma.
New York City Ballet will host a Ballet Essentials Workshop Weekend August 3-6. The four-day weekend is designed for beginners or advanced beginners with some ballet experience. Workshops led by NYCB dancers and artistic staff will teach technique and choreography from the NYCB repertoire.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre’s summer festival Ailey Moves NYC! returns this week with workshops and performances in all five boroughs. The festival kicks off July 31 at the Von King Cultural Center in Brooklyn, and continues August 1 at the Queens Community House, and Marcus Garvey Park in Manhattan; August 2 at Staten Island’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center; August 3 in Bryant Park in Manhattan; August 4 at Little Island in Manhattan; and August 5 at Poe Park in the Bronx.
The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD Summer Encores continues August 2, with Il Trovatore. The rebroadcast of the 2011 performance stars Sondra Radvanovsky, Marcelo Álvarez, Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and Dolora Zajick. Marco Armiliato conducts David McVicar’s acclaimed production of Verdi’s opera. Il Trovatore is one of the most popular operas in the repertoire, containing some of opera’s most iconic musical numbers, including the famous Anvil Chorus, and the showstopping tenor aria “Di quella pira.”
Bargemusic presents pianist Sophia Agranovich August 4 in a concert of works by Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, Mendelssohn, and Liszt. Then, across this week and next, violinist Mark Peskanov and pianist Sara Davis Buechner will give Beethoven’s complete violin sonatas. The first concerts in this series will be August 5 and 6 at Bargemusic.
To stay up to date with classic arts news, subscribe to Playbill's classic arts newsletter.
