Kaufman Music Center Announces 2023/24 Season

The New York-based venue’s Merkin Hall will present GRAMMY Award-winning artists including VC Artist Charles Yang from September 28, 2023

Themed “Listen Different,” the Kaufman Music Center’s (KMC) 2023/24 season will explore diverse and innovative artists through concerts and educational programs, to be presented at KMC’s performance venue, Merkin Hall. 

The season’s featured musicians will include the KMC 2023-24 Artists-in-Residence — the self-conducted orchestra A Far Cry, composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón, and GRAMMY-nominated tenor and educator Nicholas Phan — who will also participate in KMC’s educational programs.

The upcoming season also heralds KMC’s new Artist As Curator series, featuring the Quince Ensemble, Negrón, The Living Earth Show, Nathalie Joachim, Isabel Hagen, Conrad Tao, VC Artist Charles Yang, Peter Dugan, Danny Clay, Pamela Z, Distractfold, and D-Composed, among others. 

The venue’s returning series include Piano Dialogues, which will involve pianists Adam Tendler and Conor Hanick, Jeremy Denk, Awadagin Pratt, Sara Davis Buechner, and Einav Yarden. The acclaimed vocal ensembles VOCES8 and Chanticleer will perform in the KMC’s Great Vocalists series, which will also see Phan giving the world premiere of a new work by Vivian Fung. 

Presenting professional artists alongside student musicians, the Bridges series will see clarinetist David Krakauer, pianist Kathleen Tagg, and the string trio Time For Three, perform with students from KMC and Montclair State University’s John J. Cali School of Music.

Students of Kaufman’s Special Music School and Lucy Moses School will participate in the 2024 Kaufman Music Center Concerto Competition Winner’s Concert, Contemporary Music Festival, plus public masterclasses with Carol Wincenc, Jeremy Denk, Awadagin Pratt, A Far Cry, and Nicholas Phan.

Further, the KMC Tuesday Matinees will highlight young classical music stars including the Terra String Quartet, soprano Magdelena Kuźma, and VC Young Artist SooBeen Lee.

Hosted by Rob Kapilow, KMC’s What Makes It Great? series will examine musical masterpieces from periods like the Swing Era, and artists including Mussorgsky, Nadia and Lili Boulanger, Simon and Garfunkel, plus Beethoven with his Violin Concerto in D major performed by violinist Ariel Horowitz and the Manhattan School of Music Sinfonia.

Co-presented by KMC and the Concert Artists Guild, Musicians on the Rise will feature award-winning young classical musicians: the Galvin Cello Quartet, Vision Duo & Chromic Duo, and pianist Ariel Lanyi. 

Additionally, the New York Festival of Song and the 25th season of the New York Guitar Festival will be held with KMC, as well as the Broadway Close Up program exploring the lives and work of musical theater’s notable figures, hosted by Sean Hartley. The latter will also present Broadway Playhouse, introducing children to notable writers of American musical theater. 

With the creators of the 2013 film Frozen, Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, audiences will have opportunities to explore the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop, which supports emerging musical theater composers, lyricists, and librettists.

“The new season features an extraordinary group of trailblazing, world-renowned artists who are shaping the future of music and inspiring the next generation,” said KMC’s executive director Kate Sheeran. “I invite you to come share an unparalleled performance experience with us — a different kind of concert where there’s no barrier between performers and audiences, and artists connect directly with our audiences and students across genres and generations.”

The KMC 2023/24 season events can be found here. 

Founded in 1952 with the mission of providing access without barriers, KMC is New York City’s largest community arts school and complex — housing the Lucy Moses School, Special Music School, the “Face the Music” program, and Merkin Concert Hall, which provides access to today’s top artists, workshops, and competitions.