GALA NYC Performance Series Debuting in May at Brooklyn Lyceum
GALA NYC, a unique performance series, will preview at the Brooklyn Lyceum for four concerts in May with a full season of twice-monthly shows to begin in September.
Mike Block is the Artistic Director and creative force behind the upcoming GALA NYC series.
The first shows will take place on Saturday evenings at 8 PM on May 7, 14, 21 and 28, with tickets costing $15 in advance and $18 at the door. Tickets are available here.
Developed by the Juilliard-trained cellist and composer Mike Block, who has been described by Yo Yo Ma as “the ideal 21st century musician”, the concert series expands the musical conversation to create an artistically multi-lingual program that is intimate, immediate and interactive.
Drawing performers from a wide swath of musical styles and arts disciplines, GALA NYC serves as a platform for artists to collaborate and connect with one another, and with the audience, in a unique and spontaneous way.
“At the highest level, GALA NYC is about a personal interaction between the specific artists,” Mike Block says. “It’s not an academic exercise about how can we combine genres but a dialogue shaped by peoples’ individual backgrounds, responses and influences.
“I want to break down the barrier between audiences and performers so it becomes one creative community,” Block continues. “The audience can influence the direction the show takes.”
To open a more direct communication between musicians and concertgoers, the program will always include an improvisational element guided by audience members. In addition, Block will keep a blog during rehearsals that reveal collaborations in real-time and viewers can give their input on the music being created. As a result, responses to the concert preparations can actually influence the final performances.
The range of artists includes multiple Grammy winners and nominees, as well as other world-class musicians from diverse backgrounds. The concerts in May will feature Aaron Dugan, guitarist for the Top-40 band Matisyahu; and Classical Grammy nominees—Russian violin soloist Anastasia Khitruk, and the Enso String Quartet.
Among the other performers scheduled are: Aoife O’Donovan, vocalist for the Alt-Bluegrass band Crooked Still; Jay Foote, bassist for pop singer-songwriter Diane Birch; Mathias Kunzli, a percussionist for Lauryn Hill and Moby; Japanese folk and jazz flutist Kaoru Watanabe; Carmela Torchia & Chris Shiak Mathis (of the CxC StreetstyleContemporary Dancers); Syrian clarinetist Kinan Azmeh and his City Band; Kristin Andreassen, a folk singer-songwriter with Uncle Earl; and Shane Shanahan, a percussionist who performs regularly with Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble and for the Broadway show “Shrek.”