The Chelsea Music Festival in NYC announced the return of its annual June festival, this year titled Songs For The Earth, running from June 24-29.
The Chelsea Music Festival celebrates the creativity of one of New York City’s most dynamic neighborhoods and brings together world-renowned performers to celebrate great music. Since 2010, the festival has become a critically acclaimed, accessible, and interactive gateway to chamber music in non-traditional concert spaces like art galleries, churches, and more. The 2023 festival theme is Songs For The Earth, focusing on honoring and drawing attention to the changing needs of our planet.
Iranian-Canadian composer and pianist Iman Habibi joins the festival as the Composer-in-Residence. Habibi is the co-founder of the piano duo ensemble Piano Pinnacle with his wife and pianist Deborah Grimmet and is a 2022 laureate of the Azrieli Music Prize and a recipient of dozens of international music awards. Tying in with the theme of helping the planet, Habibi’s work and values as an artist are shaped by his care for the natural world. Festival Co-Artistic Director and conductor Ken-David Masur performed Habibi’s work “Jeder Baum spricht” with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, translated as “every tree speaks,” a line by Beethoven.
This year’s festival has events ranging from chamber music, art song, jazz, and daytime outreach will foster ecological awareness and focus on the earth as our shared home. This season, the festival partners with a number of environmentally-focused culinary partners including Growing Uptown, an organization that teaches communities to grow their own food and promote food security.
Chelsea Music Festival 2023 Lineup
June 24- Opening Weekend
11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.- Taking place at the Genesis House is a performance by the Asaran Earth Trio and Festival Talks with Visual Artist-in-Residence MaDora Frey and composer Nicky Sohn alongside Artistic Directors Melinda Lee Masur & Ken-David Masur.
7:30-9:30 p.m.- The performance this night is titled Dear Earth, Dear Friend, featuring music that spans the centuries including composers such as Franz Schubert, Amy Beach, and Edvard Grieg, alongside New York Premiere Performances of works written by Nicky Sohn and David Evans, as well as solo piano works by Olivier Messaien, Louis-Charles Daquin, Edward Macdowell, a trio by Edvard Grieg, and music by Composer-in-Residence Iman Habibi.
June 25
1:30-3 p.m.- Back at the Genesis House, there are performances by gamin, violinist Tomotaka Seki, and violist Ayako Tahara.
3-4 p.m.- The Verona Quartet, described by The New York Times as an “outstanding ensemble…cohesive yet full of temperament,” appear at the Chelsea Music Festival.
6:30-8:30 p.m.- Performances by cellist Angela Lee, violinists Lisa Lee & Jocelyn Zhu.
June 26
7:30-9:30 p.m.- In Rite of Healing, the Veron Quartet performs Reena Esmail’s breathtaking quartet from their new album SHATTER alongside quartets by Korean-born American composer Texu Kim and Beethoven. The performance takes place at the General Theological Seminary.
June 27
12-1 p.m.- The Asaran Earth Trio, an all-female multinational group of virtuosic musicians and educators who perform folk songs from around the globe as well as original compositions, return.
5:30-7 p.m.- The Stay Grounded Planting Workshop & Happy Hour features performer Rogério Boccato on percussion with all natural materials and group, as well as artwork displays.
7:30-9:30 p.m.- The concert of the night is Beloved of the Sky, featuring soprano Sonya Headlam and Festival Strings performing works by Dvorak, Holst, Florence Price, and World Premieres by Iman Habibi and Sung Jin Hong with intermission reception.
June 28
5:30-7:30 p.m.- Dinner from 5:30-7:30 and a show immediately after. The Four Elements Concert features the tour de force quartet of the most sought-after percussionists including Rogério Boccato and Keito Ogawa collectively composing live on stage a four-part suite based on nature’s four elements (earth, water, fire, and air). Their music will be interspersed with readings from poems from around the world about each of the elements.
June 29
7:30-9 p.m.- Our Shared Home Festival Finale at St. Peter’s Chelsea, featuring works by Takashi Yoshimatsu, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Patricio Molina, Claude Debussy, and Gerald Finzi with a reception to follow.
9-10:30 p.m.- Jazz Finale with Los Hermanos with Cuban pianist Aldo López Gavilán and violinist Ilmar Gavilan. Pre-concert reception included.
For more information about the Chelsea Music Festival and to purchase tickets, visit here.
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