The Sounds of Summer In and Around FiDi

The Sounds of Summer In and Around FiDi

 

Warm weather welcomes a number of outdoor music festivals and summer series to the Financial District, Battery Park City, and Governors Island. Jazz, folk, pop, rock, classical: Whichever genre you prefer, you will doubtless be able to enjoy it alfresco in and around FiDi this summer.

 

Jazz Age Lawn Party

Colonels Row, Governors Island

Jazz Age Lawn Party_by Andrew Yamato

The Jazz Age Lawn Party. Image: Andrew Yamato

 

For two weekends this summer—June 15-16 and August 24-25—bucolic Governors Island travels back in time to the 1920s. The event is just what it says: a fete celebrated on the lawn, with Jazz Age apparel suggested but not mandatory. A croquet tournament and the Bathing Beauties and Beaus Promenade take place on the Sundays, as do Peabody dance contests; Charleston contests take place on the Saturdays. Don’t know the steps to either? Classes on both days will teach you the hottest dances of the era. And of course there is plenty of music. Michael Arenella, who founded the party in 2005, plays each year with his Dreamland Orchestra, one of today’s best-known Jazz Age ensembles; other performers this year include Drew Nugent & the Midnight Society, jazz vocalist Queen Esther, the vaudeville-influenced Gelber & Manning Band, and pianist Peter Mintun.

 

Pier 17 Summer Concert Series

89 South Street (at Fulton Street)

Pier 17

The Pier 17 rooftop. Image: Pier 17

 

Five stories above the South Street Seaport and jutting 300 feet out over the East River, the Rooftop at Pier 17 is one of the loftiest locales for outdoor concerts. This year’s Summer Concert Series, the second at this venue, began in May with two shows by indietronica band Passion Pit. The slate of concerts is an eclectic one. Upcoming highlights include Lonely Island on June 21, part of the comedy-music trio’s first-ever live tour; English post-punk rockers the Psychedelic Furs and James on July 12; guitar-based rockers the Struts on July 27; rock-bluegrass band Greensky Bluegrass on August 2; power-pop stalwarts Squeeze on August 24; and punk bands Social Distortion and Flogging Molly on August 25.

 

Porch Stomp

Nolan Park, Governors Island

Porch Stomp

Porch Stomp. Image: Governors Island

 

A free annual event, taking place this year on June 23, Porch Stomp is nirvana for lovers of bluegrass, blues, folk, and other Americana music. On porches throughout Governors Island’s Nolan Park, more than 100 informal concerts will take place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Workshops will be held as well, and a cornucopia of food and drink will be available for sale.

 

Rite of Summer Music Festival

Nolan Park, Governors Island

Rite of Summer

Go: Organic Orchestra and Brooklyn Raga Massive will play the Rite of Summer Music Festival in August. Image: Adrien H. Tillmann

 

 

One Saturday each month throughout the summer, the knolls and lawns of Governors Island thrum with contemporary classical music as part of the annual Rite of Summer concert series. This year’s festival kicked off June 1 with Ensemble Connect, a collective made up of young professional musicians participating in a two-year fellowship program. On July 6, Brooklyn-based quartet Sandbox Percussion will perform the world premiere of “Conjoining” by fellow Brooklynite Brendon Randall-Myers along with works by Juri Soo, Julia Wolfe, and others. Brooklyn Raga Massive and Go: Organic Orchestra team up on August 10 to perform excerpts from their upcoming triple-album, “Ragmala (A Garland of Ragas),” a marriage of Indian and Western classical music. Closing out the season, on September 7, Sirius Quartet performs works by the Beatles, Radiohead, and its own members. Each concert takes place at 1 p.m. and again at 3 p.m. and is free of charge. Pack a picnic, hop a ferry, sit under a tree to listen to the music, then explore the island’s hills afterward.

 

River & Blues

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park

River _ Blues

Amythyst Kiah plays at Wagner Park on August 1. Image: Battery Park City Parks

 

This year marks the 20th anniversary of River & Blues, a series of free concerts that start at 7 p.m., with the sunset over the Hudson River providing a glorious backdrop to the music. Blues guitarist/singer Son Little, who has collaborated with the Roots and Mavis Staples, among others, takes the stage on July 11. Piano-driven rockers Low Cut Connie follow on July 18, with roots-music duo the War & Treaty on July 25. Wrapping up this year’s series on August 1 is Americana singer/guitarist/banjo player Amythyst Kiah.

 

River to River Festival

Sites throughout lower Manhattan

 

The River to River Festival was founded in 2002 as lower Manhattan was still recovering from 9/11. This year’s fest takes place June 18-29 and, as always, consists of free performances and exhibits throughout downtown. The lineup includes two visual projects from Yoko One: “The Reflection Project,” text directives in the Fulton Transit Center, South Street Seaport, and storefront windows, and “Add Color (Refugee Boat)” at 203 Front Street, where visitors are encouraged to add messages to the installation. Performances include, on June 18-19 at Nelson A Rockefeller Park, “Time is forever dividing itself toward innumerable futures,” a site-specific dance choreographed by Pam Tanowitz to an original score for French horns by Ted Hearne. “Ditch,” choreographed by Jennifer Monson, takes place June 23 at Pier 35 and June 26 and 28 at the Melville Gallery at the South Street Seaport Museum.

 

Strings-on-Hudson

Belvedere Plaza (at Pier 34, near North Cove and North End Avenue), Battery Park City

Strings on Hudson

The String Queens close out this year’s Strings-on-Hudson. Image: The String Queens

 

Is there a better way to unwind at the end of the day than by listening to classical music outdoors as sea breezes rustle through the tree leaves? If your answer to that question is no, you do not want to miss Strings-on-Hudson, held three consecutive Thursdays in August, beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra will play a program of waltzes on August 8 (dancing is of course allowed). On August 15 string quartet Leadlights will perform works by composers old (Debussy, Schubert) and new (New York-based Jessie Montgomery). The String Queens, a trio whose repertoire spans centuries and genres, performs on August 22.

 

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