Club Free Time Blog

Sum-Sum-Summertime!

Gail Wein
May 25, 2016

Finally. It's outdoor concert season. The weather is unpredictable, but the price is right.
This year, the season is more active than ever, and there are stellar opportunities to hear first-class performers at scads of free concerts around the city. Naumberg Orchestra Concerts has been presenting concerts for over 100 years, and opens their season in Central Park on June 14 with Ensemble LPR featuring Vasko Dukovski as soloist in Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto. Later in the month, on June 28, the venerable Orpheus Chamber Orchestra performs an all-Beethoven program. Summerstage launches its season on June 4 with McCoy Tyner in Central Park. In addition to the jazz, rock, comedy and dance performances through the summer, Summerstage presents the Met Opera recital series with fantastic young divas and divos on June 22 and Central Park and June 24 in Brooklyn Bridge Park; and four more recitals in July.
The NY Philharmonic's very popular Concerts in the Parks returns with outstanding free programs on June 15 and 16 in Central Park, June 17 in Prospect Park and June 20, 21 and 22 in Queens, Bronx and Staten Island. Most of these NY Phil concerts culminate in a festive fireworks display, and all are very popular. Consider yourself lucky if you snag a spot on the lawn close enough to see conductor Alan Gilbert's baton; the hi-tech sound system insures that everyone will be able to hear the music.
With over 1200 free concerts on a single day - June 21 - Make Music New York serves as a tentpole in the summer concert season. It's the 10th edition of this five-borough festival, and the range of programming is truly dizzying. Check out details and schedules on the MMNY website, or just walk through a park or along a sidewalk in your neighborhood that day and you're bound to come across some live music.
Lincoln Center's flagship summer festivals Mostly Mozart and Lincoln Center Outdoors kick off in July; more about those fests next month.
Several indoor concerts of note: The New York Philharmonic Biennial continues through June 11, with performances at Lincoln Center and other spots around Manhattan and Brooklyn. There's big buzz around the opera The Importance of Being Earnest (June 2, 3 and 4), and a trio of "Ligeti Forward" concerts at the Met Museum. On June 8, the Crypt Sessions presents Attaca Quartet performing Haydn's deeply emotional The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross, in the intimate and atmospheric crypt space of the Church of the Intercession in Harlem. Tickets are only available in advance, through the series' website. And, the Chelsea Music Festival returns June 10-18, with a wide range of events, including classical, jazz, late night events and more. Tickets available through the festival's website.