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INITIATIVES
Music and Concerts

Washington Square Music Festival

Peggy Friedman, Executive Director
Jean Lyman Goetz, Festival Manager
Laima Hood, chair, Board of Directors
Suzette Jacobs, Associate Music Director
Lutz Rath, Music Director
For more information visit:
www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org

The sole activity of The Washington Square Music Festival is to present free concerts. New York has other free outdoor classical concert series, but only the Washington Square Music Festival is sponsored by a local civic organization—the Washington Square Association, Inc.

Jeffrey Levine, double bassist, Lutz Rath, cellist and Music Director, with the Festival Orchestra,
July 20, 2004. Photo: Ken Howard

Music Director Lutz Rath has announced the 53rd season of the Washington Square Music Festival, beginning July 12th, 2011, that will take place in the center of the park just south of the end of Fifth Avenue on the Main Stage. All concerts are free. The Festival is under the auspices of the Washington Square Association, Inc. Seating is first come, first served. Rain space: St. Joseph’s Church, 371 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY. Info: 212-252-3621. Press Release

Tuesday, July 12: Opera in the Park: Michael Spierman conducting Festival Chamber Orchestra in W.A. Mozart’s The Impresario with soloists from The Bronx Opera Company and Schubert’s Fifth Symphony. This is The Bronx Opera’s debut appearance in Washington Square.

Tuesday, July 19: The Joy of Unfamiliar Music: Festival Chamber Ensemble with soloists perform Emmanuel Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and strings; Luciano Berio’s Opus Number Zoo, for speaker and wind quintet; Corrado Maria Saglietti’s Suite for Alto Trombone and String Quartet

Tuesday, July 26: Music Making by the Master: Stanley Drucker (formerly first clarinet for the New York Philharmonic for 30 years) and the Festival Chamber Ensemble performing W.A. Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A major, K.581; Astor Piazzolla’s Four for Tango; Anton Arensky’s String Quartet op 35 in a minor.

Tuesday, Aug 2: The Charles Mingus Orchestra Plays Jazz. Featuring the 10 piece band performing works by the late, great Mingus.

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The Washington Square Music Festival is made possible through The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency, and State Senator Thomas K. Duane, through NYS Parks and Recreation. Generous grants from The Earle T. & Katherine Moore Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Washington Square Association, The Margaret Neubart Foundation Trust, New York University Community Affairs, Con Edison, Salamon-Abrams Family Fund, and Emigrant Savings Bank are deeply appreciated. US Recording Companies fund in part the instrumental music for the series, as arranged by Local 802, American Federation of Musicians.

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The Festival was founded in 1953 by violinist and neighbor Alexander Schneider, member of the famed Budapest String Quartet, and the Washington Square Association. Over the years the concerts have become a venerable summer tradition, shaped by Peggy Friedman, executive director, the late music director Henry Schuman, and the current music director, Lutz Rath, as well as countless patrons, volunteers and neighborhood agencies that make the Festival such a popular Tuesday evening event.

Membership to the Washington Square Association
supports the Washington Square Music Festival concerts throughout the year.

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Last Update: Saturday, October 08, 2011 11:29 AM