Nestled midway on West 67th between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue is a treasure house of music and education: the Kaufman Center. Within the Center is a gem, Merkin Hall, a 450-seat performance space boasting unparalleled acoustics and a welcoming ambience that’s been compared to “an enormous
living room.” Named one of the “Top Jazz Venues in New York,” by AllAboutJazz-New York in 2006, this year Merkin celebrates its 30th anniversary.
An innovative spirit offering a broad spectrum of music has always characterized programming at Merkin. Director Gregory Evans, who says their emphasis is “more on the artist than the repertory,” is himself a French horn player and jazz musician. “I look [for] the unfamiliar and the eclectic to showcase a lot of good local talent and some from out-of-town,” and “new music on the edgier side of things.”
In discussing the challenges of programming Evans observes, “Especially as a jazz venue, many artists’ managers don’t know [this] space and
mistakenly give me [contract] riders for arena-style venues - amplification, drum isolation equipment, large arrays of monitors and such. Then the artists often show up and realize they don’t need the stuff they asked for. ...They’re thrilled with the acoustics and a knowing staff who know how to make it
comfortable for them and understand what they need ...The room is particularly well suited to acoustic jazz and that’s definitely what I prefer to program.”
The Turtle Island String Quartet, whose repertoire includes a good deal of jazz, and Bang On A Can, a hybrid/crossover group that plays all kinds of new music influenced by jazz, world, rock and more, will return this year. Dafnis Prieto’s splitting a show with Billy Martin, who brings the downtown jazz and tranced-out experience. Anthony Coleman will do one performance with counter)induction and another in a duo piano recital with new music scene star Stephen Goslin. Mark O’Connor’s String Quartet Cycle’s appearance will coincide with a CD release. Continuing a series of recreations of jazz classics, modern trumpeter Russ Johnson will give new life to Eric Dolphy’s masterpiece Out To Lunch, as was notably done two years ago with Andrew Hill’s Passing Ships and Don Cherry’s Complete Communion.
Trendy spots such as Victoria’s Secret and
highrise buildings have encroached on the area as the Center has continued its mission behind the modest front of an outwardly unprepossessing six-story
building. With the completion of extensive
renovations underway since last May, led by renowned architect Robert AM Stern, a bright and airy-feeling ultra-modern front will lend a fresh
openness to the Center and especially to the hall.
Its reopening Jan. 21st will be celebrated with a free six-hour Grand Piano Marathon. It’s planned as journey through the varied landscape of piano music featuring players from the worlds of classical,
contemporary, popular and jazz including John Medeski, Philip Glass, Stephen Flaherty, Jonathan Batiste and Orli Shaham. This mega-concert will also include a world premiere by Pulitzer Prize and Grammy winner William Bolcom.
Included among them is Israeli-born Anat Fort, a classically-trained pianist who has studied with Rufus Reid and Harold Mabern. Of Merkin she says, “I love how it kinda falls between the cracks. It’s not a typical concert hall and it’s not a jazz club. It’s just not
anything other than itself. ...Any music can be played there and any performer or audience member can feel at home there because it’s so open.”
Another Merkin veteran, Vijay Iyer, is scheduled for the Marathon. He calls it “a very nice, dignified
listening environment for music from all parts of the musical world. ...You can really get power of the instrument in that room.”
“What I love about music in general is the more intimate, the real working sort of environment...,” says John Medeski of Medeski, Martin and Wood. “...the real musical experience is to be connected and a part of something happening. Merkin Hall is a great place for that.”
Executive Director Lydia Kontos has been with the Kaufman Center for 29 years and almost Merkin’s entire existence. She’s its proud and enthusiastic champion as she cheers about the uniqueness of the elements of the Kaufman Center: Merkin Hall, the Lucy Moses School (a community school for music, dance and theater) and the Special Music School, which is public and the only school in the United States which combines pre-conservatory music instruction with a full academic program.
“This is a place of education and performance [with] equal attention to both, where artists step right off the stage and into the classroom and children go from the classroom into the audience and onstage.”
With added emphasis she observes, “We tried artists of name recognition...” making clear they
decided to move on to territory that’s often overlooked elsewhere. “...There’s lots of diversity now. Support of emerging artists is the real deal here.”
~ Andrew Velez
About Merkin Concert Hall
Renowned for its acoustics, accessibility and innovative programming, Merkin Concert Hall is the recipient of multiple awards for Adventurous Programming, most recently from ASCAP/Chamber Music America in January 2002.
The Hall is a division of the Kaufman Center, which also includes the Lucy Moses School (a community arts school) and the Special Music School (a New York City public school for musically-gifted children). A not-for-profit organization founded in 1952, the Kaufman Center��which celebrates its 50th Anniversary this season��occupies its own facility, the award-winning Goodman House, located in the heart of Manhattan�s Upper West Side. Through its three divisions, the Center is an unsurpassed cultural resource where people of all ages experience the joy of artistic creation, expression and appreciation.
About the Jazz Breakthroughs Series
Hosted by radio personality and jazz historian Phil Schaap, Jazz Breakthoughts explores the jazz tradition through performance and discussion.
About Monday Nites: No Minimum
Hear jazz duo-piano concerts featuring the unique pairing of two incomparable artists for each of four special evenings. The performances promise to be memorable occasions of spontaneously created music, revealing the unique side of the piano masters involved and setting the stage for historic�if not legendary�meetings.
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