Washington Square NYC News

December 2, St. Joseph’s Church

On Friday, December 2, 8 pm in St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, 371 Sixth Avenue at Washington Place, the Washington Square Music Festival offers iconic and eclectic music, both played and sung, by Festival artists soprano Lucia Hyunju Song, pianist David Oei, violinist Eriko Sato, and cellist Lutz Rath.
This concert is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served.
December 2, 8 pm Program
St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church
371 Sixth Avenue – West 4th St on A, B C, D, E, F, M
Christopher St. on 1 train
IKONS

“Qui la voce” from I Puritani Vincenzo Bellini
soprano Lucia Hyunju Song
Piano trio in C minor op.1, no.3 Ludwig van Beethoven
Akhmatova for soprano and cello John Tavener
Russian texts: Anna Akhmatova
Romance-Suite for soprano and piano trio op. 127 Dmitri Shostakovich
Russian texts: Alexander Blok
Festival info line: 212-252-3621 www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org
Under the auspices of the Washington Square Association

Music Notes:

Pianist and scholar Charles Rosen writes: “Beethoven in C minor has come to symbolize his artistic character. In every case, it reveals Beethoven as Hero. C minor does not show Beethoven at his most subtle, but it does give him to us in his most extrovert form, where he seems to be most impatient of any compromise”. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is also in the key of C minor.
Sir John Tavener, b.1944, made many explorations of Russian and Greek culture, as shown in Akhmatova. Anna Andreyevna Gorenko (Russian: А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко), better known as Anna Akhmatova (Russian: А́нна Ахма́това), was a Russian and Soviet modernist poet, one of the most acclaimed writers in the Russian canon. As were many artists, she was badly treated by the Stalinist regime. She was descended from Russian nobility.
Romance-Suite with poems by symbolist Alexander Blok (Russian: Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Блок,) were the first pieces Dmitri Shostakovich wrote after his heart attack in 1966. According to a friend, Shostakovich claimed to have had the idea for the songs while still in the hospital but had a great deal of difficulty in actually composing them and feared that his heart attack had paralyzed him creatively. The composer said that the actual impetus to finish the works came out of a bottle of brandy:

“Three days ago, Irina Antonova (his wife) left the house. I was alone. I opened a cupboard, and, lo and behold, there on the bottom shelf was a half a bottle of brandy. She had hidden all the drink in the house but by chance I discovered this bottle. And, you know, I had this sudden urge to drink, which I couldn’t resist, so I had a glass. And, you know, it was so good that I sat down and everything came to me at once, and I finished the work in three days.”

Akhmatova and Romance-Suite will be sung in Russian by Lucia Hyunju Song.

Major funding is provided by: Earle K. & Katherine F. Moore Foundation, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, NYS Council on the Arts, a State agency, NYC Council Member Margaret Chin, Senator Thomas K. Duane, Assemblymember Deborah J. Glick, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Washington Square Association., Margaret Neubart Foundation Trust, New York University Community Fund, New York University Government & Community Affairs, Con Edison, Down the Hatch, Emigrant Savings Bank, Jane Street Block Assn., Le Poisson Rouge, Salamon-Abrams Family Fund, Washington Square Hotel and the generosity of local businesses and individuals.

View and Download the Poster Here.  Make a Donation Here.

The Park gives us so much,will you give back by volunteering your time and gardening skills on November 4th and 5th please give a little back! Join Parks Department folks and your neighbors in planting bulbs.

Help Make a Difference in Your Neighborhood Park.

We have over 15,000 flower bulbs to plant in Washington Square Park before winter. We need your help to get this project done in time.

The tulip and hyacinth bulbs we plant now will be the first flowers to bloom in the spring, turning Washington Square into an explosion of color.

So join your neighbors and bring your friends to do your part for Washington
Square Park. All tools will be provided. Be sure to wear your gardening
clothes. And don’t worry if you’re not a gardener – they will show you what to do !!!

November 4th and 5th, 11 am – 1 pm
RSVP to rebecca.ferguson@parks.nyc.gov or 212-408-0297
Meet under the Washington Arch

New Yorkers traditionally celebrate the holidays with song, and The Washington Square Association offers two chances to sing yuletide carols in downtown’s historic park. The Association also provides the annual 45-foot Christmas tree under the Arch that will be lit for the season between the hours of 4 pm and 1 am. Washington Square Park Arch is located at the foot of Fifth Avenue, one block south of Eighth Street. Public information number is: 212-252-3621.

On Wednesday, December 7 at 6 pm, the Rob Susman Brass Quartet and children and grown-ups alike will sing holiday songs. The multi-colored lights on the resplendent tree will be turned on to mark the beginning of festive winter evenings. Santa Claus himself has promised to appear and lead the children in the illumination countdown. The Washington Square Association provides complimentary songbooks.

Christmas Eve, Saturday, December 24 at 5 pm is the traditional time to celebrate the holiday with carols at the Washington Square Arch. The Rob Susman Brass Quartet, song leader and the revelers from all over the city will lustily sing out the familiar tunes. The words are in the songbooks distributed compliments of the Washington Square Association, but many will know them by heart. “Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men” will ring out to remind us all of the true meaning of the holidays.

The Washington Square Association, Inc. founded in 1906, is one of the city’s oldest community organizations. For 105 years, it has sponsored carol singing under the arch. Other activities concern the continued improvement of Washington Square, the Washington Square Music Festival, and the fostering of neighborhood spirit.

Ken Howard Photohrapher

The Village Alliance presents
2011 TASTE OF THE VILLAGE
A benefit for Washington Square Park

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14th
6:00 to 8:00 PM
Enter at the Washington Square Arch

TICKETS $50
Available at villagealliance.org or in person at 8 East 8th Street
Give us a call at: 212 777 2173

Move-In Day Parking Relief for Community Members
Sunday, August 28, 2011

Our freshman class will begin arriving early on the morning of Sunday, August 28, and will be moving into freshman residence halls all day. We are sensitive to the effect this has on parking and traffic in the neighborhood, and, for your convenience, NYU would like to offer parking reimbursement to residents in the area designated by the darker-shaded section of the map above–from 14th Street down to Houston Street, between Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and Second Avenue–to help alleviate potential difficulties. If you put your car in a garage Saturday night or Sunday, we will pay for the cost of a stay of up to 24 hours.

Please bring your original parking receipt and proof of residency to 25 West Fourth Street, 5th Floor, Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., for reimbursement. For your convenience, you may also mail the original receipt and a copy of your proof of residency to NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs at the address below or email a pdf version to the email below. Please keep a copy of the receipt for your records.

If you have any additional questions, please contact us:
NYU’s Office of Government and Community Affairs
25 West Fourth Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10012-1119
212.998.2400 * community.affairs@nyu.edu
NYU-Government and Community Affairs Address: 25 W. 4th Street New York, NY 10012

Tuesday, July 12 at 8 pm
The Washington Square Music Festival, Lutz Rath, music director, opens its 53rd season of free concerts on Tuesday July 12 at 8 pm on the new Main Stage in the Square, south of the Arch, entrance from Waverly Place. The Bronx Opera Company will perform Mozart’s comic opera, The Impresario; also featured is Schubert’s 5th Symphony. Michael Spierman, the opera company’s artistic director, will conduct the Festival Chamber Orchestra in both works.

The Festival is under the auspices of the Washington Square Association, Inc. Seating is on a first-come, first served basis. Rainspace is St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, 371 Sixth Avenue. Festival info line: 212-252-3621 www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s one-act comic opera, The Impresario, premiered February 7, 1786 when Emperor Joseph II presented it at “Pleasure Festival” at his Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Mozart, then 30, was at the height of his powers and the music, an overture, two arias and two ensembles, is worthy of this prime time in his creative life. The Impresario recounts the trials, tribulations and comic turns of an impresario, his assistant, a wealthy benefactor and his two quarreling soprano mistresses, an ingénue and another, slightly overripe. This hilarious comedy is performed in an English version by Ben Spierman who will also direct and play the speaking role of the besieged impresario. Other members of The Bronx Opera in the cast are Caprice Corona, Michelle Trovato, Robert Hughes and Gary Giardina.

Franz Schubert wrote his Symphony No.5 in B-flat Major in the fall of 1816, when he was 19, for a private amateur performance given by a small orchestra which included the composer, his father and his two older brothers. It is one of his most delightful early symphonic scores and has been popular with audiences ever since its belated first public performance in London in 1873, more than four decades after Schubert’s tragic death in his native Vienna at the age of 31.

The Bronx Opera Company was founded in 1967 by Michael Spierman, and performs regularly in The Bronx, Manhattan and Long Island. This is its debut appearance with the Washington Square Music Festival. The Bronx Opera’s two annual productions are always sung in English with a full chorus and orchestra, featuring talented singers selected from an open competitive audition process. The company presents one known and one rarely-performed opera each season, receiving consistently favorable reviews. www.bronxopera.org

FUTURE CONCERTS IN WASHINGTON SQUARE
July 19: The Joy of Unfamiliar Music: Pius Cheung, marimba and the Festival Chamber Ensemble with soloists perform Emmanuel Séjourné’s Concerto for Marimba and Strings; Johann Sebastian Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in d minor, BWV 1052, Luciano Berio’s Opus Number Zoo, for speaker and wind quintet; Corrado Maria Saglietti’s Suite for Alto Trombone and String Quartet; Vincent Gambaro’s Three Quartets for flute, clarinet bassoon and horn.

July 26: Music Making by the Masters: 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.

Aug 2: The Charles Mingus Orchestra Plays Jazz. Featuring the 10 piece band performing works by the late, great Mingus. Rainspace for all three concerts is St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, 371 Sixth Avenue.

The Washington Square Music Festival is made possible through Margaret Chin and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council for the Arts and NYS Parks and Recreation, through the generosity of Senator Thomas Duane and Assemblymember Deborah Glick. Generous grants from The Earle K. & Katherine F. Moore Foundation, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Washington Square Association, The Margaret Neubart Foundation Trust, New York University Community Affairs, and NYU Community Fund, Con Edison, Salamon-Abrams Family Fund, and Emigrant Savings Bank are deeply appreciated.

SPEND SUNDAY AFTERNOON AT LE POISSON ROUGE TO BENEFIT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE MUSIC FESTIVAL: May 22
On Sunday, May 22, 4-7 p.m. a benefit party featuring delicious food, wine, beer and performances by Festival artists celebrates the 53rd anniversary season of the Washington Square Music Festival. The popular music venue, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, hosts this convivial get-together. Proceeds support the free concerts presented in July and August by the Washington Square Music Festival.

Featured musicians are Leslie Swanson and Kirk Dougherty from The Bronx Opera Company singing works from traditional opera and Broadway show tunes. Music director Lutz Rath, known for his provocative programming, will perform Jon Deak’s The Hound of the Baskervilles for cello and speaker. Remember the Sherlock Holmes tale?
Guests also will enjoy an open wine bar and savories, have a chance at unique door prizes – a complimentary raffle ticket will be handed out at the door. Prizes include three sets of tickets to three important Sanford L. Smith & Associates art fairs for the up-coming NYC season, passes to Le Poisson Rouge events, exotic Pennsylvania beers, and Emily Kies Folpe’s book, It Happened On Washington Square.

Tickets at $200, $150 or $75 with $50 being a special price for music-lovers under 40, will help the Festival present its 53rd season of free classical and jazz concerts Tuesdays at 8 pm July 12, 19, 26 and August 2 in Washington Square Park. The Festival reaches large, diverse audiences who appreciate expert music making in an informal alfresco setting.

Checks, part of which is tax-deductible, should be made out to WASHINGTON SQUARE ASSOCIATION MUSIC FUND and mailed to PO Box 1066, Village Station, New York NY 10014-0706. For information:

Contact: Peggy Friedman 845-292-8967, 917-855-4205

www.washingtonsquaremusicfestival.org

Get your dog and the park fit for the summer.
BEGIN your dog’s walk on the quarter-mile
sidewalk around the parameter of the park.
This will allow your canine to do their “business”
outside of the park and save the plants inside the
park from being destroyed. Your Pooch will
get fit and so will the park ! Please help us keep
the park green.