10 THENEWYORKER,AUGUST 5 &12, 2019
ILLUSTRATION BY JINHWA JANG
In addition to writing music of originality and distinction, Earle Brown was a
diligent advocate for his fellow-creators, steering commissions toward worthy
artists and facilitating recordings of their works. TIME:SPANS, a festival estab-
lished by the Earle Brown Music Foundation, in 2015, pursues similar aims.
If its New York début, in 2017, made a modest splash, the upcoming edition,
running Aug. 10-28, promises a full-blown cannonball, with events spilling
past the confines of the DiMenna Center. The German composer Chris-
tina Kubisch guides “Electrical Walks,” in which participants wear custom
headphones that pick up and amplify the chitter and hum of urban electrical
grids, and the Italian pianist Marino Formenti literally takes up residence at
the Goethe-Institut, playing twelve hours a day during two weeks of con-
tinuous live streaming. Beyond excellent mainstays like the JACK Quartet,
the Talea Ensemble, and Quatuor Bozzini, this year’s festival embraces vital
musicians whose work falls outside the classical-music lineage.—Steve SmithCONTEMPORARYMUSICFESTIVAL
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CLASSICALMUSIC
Bang on a Can
MASS MoCA
OUT OF TOWN Past seasons of the Bang on a Can
Summer Festival, a three-week series of work-
shops, lectures, and public concerts, have ended
with scaled-down versions of the composer
collective’s signature marathon. This year,
though, the festival introduces a truly grand
finale: Loud Weekend, an explosive profusion
of shows that reflect the institution’s all-em-
bracing ethos. Featured artists include the Bang
on a Can All-Stars, the Sun Ra Arkestra, Horse
Lords, Julianna Barwick, and Pamela Z; a week-
end pass provides discounted access to dozens
of performances.—Steve Smith (Aug. 2 at 4, Aug.
3 at noon, and Aug. 4 at 11 A.M.)Harlem Quartet
Bryant Park
Continuing its mission of championing diverse
sounds and minority composers, the Harlem
Quartet brings a free, genre-bending program
to midtown. Debussy’s high-saturation String
Quartet in G Minor dissolves its formal Euro-
pean model in a solution of fluid harmonics and
unabashed emotion; William Bolcom’s “Three
Rags for String Quartet” gives an easy, ironic
spin to ragtime melodies; and “Cuarteto en
Guaguancó,” by Guido López-Gavilán (whose
son Ilmar is one of the ensemble’s violinists), is
rooted in Cuban rumba rhythms. The Quartet
mixes in homespun arrangements of numbers by
John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie before bring-
ing it home with a jaunty rendition of “Take the
‘A’ Train.”—Fergus McIntosh (Aug. 2 at 6.)“Treemonisha”
Phoenicia Festival of the Voice
OUT OF TOWN Dreamed up by a group of opera
singers with ties to the small town of Phoenicia,
New York, this festival marks its tenth anni-
versary with a weekend of events celebrating
African-American culture. The exhilarating
pianist and composer Damien Sneed, convinced
that Scott Joplin’s unfinished opera about freed
slaves, “Treemonisha,” has never been com-
pleted in a way that honors the ragtime king’s
style, has rearranged excerpts from it. Sneed
accompanies the singers Brandie Sutton, Djoré
Nance, and Norman Shankle, among others, in
a concert presentation that includes side-by-side
comparisons with popularized versions of the
selections. Also playing: The director Maria
Todaro’s production of “L’Elisir d’Amore” (Aug.
3 at 8) transports Donizetti’s rustic Italian com-
edy and an all-black cast to a village in Ghana,
where West African drums provide local instru-
mental color; David Wroe conducts.—Oussama
Zahr (Aug. 3 at 5:30.)J. P. Jofre
Temple Emanu-El
The bandoneon, a cousin of the concertina, first
appeared in Germany, but its biggest market
was in Argentina. In this concert with the Or-
pheus Chamber Orchestra, the composer and
bandoneonist J. P. Jofre plays his Tangodromo
No. 1—a striking demonstration of his instru-
ment’s varied moods, from eerie croons to spiky
jollity—and “Adiós Nonino,” by his countryman
Astor Piazzolla, which makes for a syrupy trib-
ute to the bandoneon’s biggest booster. They’re
buttressed by storybook orchestral pieces from
Spain and Latin America, including Manuel
Ponce’s “Estampas Nocturnas” and two move-
ments from Gabriela Lena Frank’s “Leyendas.”
Admission is free.—F.M. (Aug. 6 at 7.)Festival of Contemporary Music
Tanglewood
OUT OF TOWN This annual mini-festival provides
a focal point amid Tanglewood’s musical cor-
nucopia. The five days of concerts include a
world première by Andrew Hamilton and the
first U.S. performance of Richard Ayres’s cham-
ber opera “The Cricket Recovers.” Some of the
older works sound almost extraterrestrial: Chaya
Czernowin explores “an imagined physics” in herrecently, “Solace,” from 2018—sturdy hooks
are secondary to dark-toned grooves sourced
from the kind of late-nineties progressive-house
anthems made by Faithless and Sasha.—M.M.
(Aug. 9-11.)
AmericanaFest NYC
Damrosch Park
Each summer, Lincoln Center closes out its
sprawling Out of Doors festival with a dive into
the slovenly, mutable beast that is American
roots music. This year’s edition begins with Yola,
a riveting country-soul artist, who opens for
the acclaimed songwriter Patty Griffin. Night
two belongs to the “Hadestown” composer and
writer, Anaïs Mitchell, and the irascible hippie
David Crosby, who, armed with his indomita-
ble mustache, is embarking on an unexpected
late-career tear.—J.R. (Aug. 10-11.)
Lila Downs / Lido Pimienta
SummerStage
Lila Downs and Lido Pimienta have both
stacked their music with the spirit of their
ancestors. Downs, a vocal powerhouse with a
taste for bright folk costumes from her native
Mexico, has a record of infusing her catalogue
with son jarocho, Pueblo instruments, and lyr-
ics in Zapotec. Farther north, Pimienta, an
Afro-indigenous Colombian musician based
in Canada and the winner of the 2017 Polaris
Music Prize, reimagines cultural traditions in
prismatic productions.—J.L. (Aug. 11.)