Weekend Arts Planner: Summer concerts, prominent American orchestras at Carnegie Hall and the Queens Night Market reopens
This week, Steve Smith, WNYC's Culture and Arts Editor joins Weekend Edition host David Furst for a preview of some major summer concerts in the city, a couple of big shows coming to Carnegie Hall this week and the reopening of the Queens Night Market.
Steve's picks:
As an enthusiastic fan of eating and a proud resident of Jackson Heights, I look forward to the Queens Night Market opening every year — and this year, it opens Saturday, April 15. This is one of the culinary highlights of the year, a fun and friendly way to sample Afghan mantu, Peruvian ceviche, Trinidadian shark sandwiches, and Sichuan ice jelly — literally dozens of options from around the world, and all of it reasonably priced. The Night Market also offers also arts and crafts vendors, activities for kids, DJs and live music.
The Night Market is open every Saturday night in the wide-open field adjacent to the New York Hall of Science in Corona — the best way to get there is to take the 7 train to 111th Street. April 15 and next Saturday night you can buy advance tickets for $5 — and any tickets remaining at the gate will cost $8. From April 29 onward, admission is free.
2. Orchestras from Boston and Washington, D.C. visit Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is welcoming two prominent American orchestras who don't visit all that often. First up on Saturday, April 15, is a group with a self-explanatory name, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
One of the pieces they'll be performing is "Play," a frenetic, wacky showcase composed by Andrew Norman. It's a piece BMOP commissioned and premiered in 2013, and in 2017 it won the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Music director Gil Rose and his ensemble have been commissioning big new pieces and documenting important past works since 1996, and now the group is celebrating its 25th anniversary a little belatedly tonight with the Norman piece and two more works: "In Medias Res" by Lisa Bielawa and another Grawemeyer Award winner, "A Thousand Mountains, a Million Streams" by Lei Liang.
And then on Tuesday night at Carnegie Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra pays a visit from Washington, D.C. That group is hitting new peaks of critical and popular approval under the leadership of music director Gianandrea Noseda, and the concert includes a piece by another great American composer, George Walker, whose music Noseda has been championing recently.
3. A look ahead to the summer concert season
The summer concerts season is still a few months away, but shows are being announced now, and there are some seriously choice events ahead. The Blue Note Jazz Festival and Celebrate Brooklyn both announced their lineups within the last few weeks.
Forest Hills Stadium rolled out its season this week, and we covered that announcement on Gothamist. It's a season packed with artists like The Smile, The Strokes and Duran Duran.
We'll find out early next week what Lincoln Center has in store for us this summer, and we're all eagerly anticipating word from Central Park SummerStage.
And all of this is in addition to the big shows we already knew about. In June alone, Governors Ball comes to Flushing Meadows Corona Park, The Cure plays three nights at Madison Square Garden, and Dead & Company mount their final two-night stand at Citi Field.
