While preparing this list, we realized we missed so many amazing NYC music events in 2024! Nevertheless, here is the best of what we’ve seen and want to remember. As always, with no intention of ranking, in reverse chronological order. (Although with a definite preference for 1, 9, and 23.)
Photo by Bogdan Grytsiv
“Suppose Beautiful Madeline Harvey,” a Richard Foreman play by Object Collection (La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, December 13-22)
David Lang’s poor hymnal (Lincoln Center, December 21) [Here is David Lang’s thought-provoking interpretation of the work’s genre.]
TRIO with special guests: Ikue Mori, Ingrid Laubrock, Sylvie Courvoisier, and Lotte Anker (The Stone, December 13) [As well as all other Lotte Anker’s appearancesthroughout the year. Her thoughts on improvisation are certainly worth a read.]
Sally Gates, Zoh Amba, Brian Chase (Sisters, August 12) [As well as all other Zoh Amba’s appearances throughout the year. Here is an inspiring interview with her by the Roulette Tapes.]
Annual New Year’s Day Poetry Marathon, in particular, the performances by Claire Chase, and Ka Baird with Shelley Hirsch. (St. Mark’s Church, January 1)
This episode provides an overview of the major works by award-winning composer duo Roman Grygoriv and Illia Razumeiko – creators of 12 operas and founders of Opera Aperta, a laboratory of experimental opera in Kyiv. Plunging into their unique archeological process of creation, we position their work alongside the music and the ideas of major 20th – 21st century artists and intellectuals: Richard Foreman, David Lynch, Jorge Louis Borges, Umberto Eco, Les Kurbas, Hanna Havrylets, Karlheinz Essel, and Jorge Sánchez-Chiong.
Grygoriv and Razumeiko’s Chornobyldorf won the Opera and Music Theatre Award by the Royal Philharmonic Society in 2024 and received eight sold-out shows at LaMaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York. Their most recent work, GAIA-24. Opera del Mondo, will be presented at O.Festival in Rotterdam and at the Venice Biennale.
Untitled, rock band “Karna” Live concert recording, Ivano-Frankivsk, 1999
Mass in B minor BWV 232, J. S. Bach The Netherlands Bach Society Jos van Veldhoven, conductor Hana Blažíková, soprano 1 Anna Reinhold, soprano 2 David Erler, alto Thomas Hobbs, tenor Peter Harvey, bass
TAU XII – Jesus stirbt am Kreuz, Karlheinz Essl Tanja Elisa Glinsner: mezzo soprano, conducting Elisabeth Möst, flutes Andreas Schablas, clarinets Daniel Loipold, french horn Eva Maria Mitter, accrodion Barbara Körber, cello
extended techniques 