Today’s “Fab 5″+1/ Selected NYCity Events – MONDAY, SEPT. 15, 2014
“We search the internet looking for the very best of What’s Happening on Manhattan’s WestSide, so that you don’t have to.”

Mahler As New York Contemporary I
Gustav Mahler – Symphony No. 9 (1899-1901/1902-10)
arranged for chamber ensemble by Klaus Simon (2007)
Argento Chamber Ensemble — Michel Galante, conductor

The legendary Austrian composer Gustav Mahler spent some of his later years in New York City and served as the director of the Metropolitan Opera and the New York Philharmonic. His forward-looking musical style and language continue to resonate in contemporary music today.

This concert series—three concerts spanning the 2014-15 season—situates Mahler as a New York new music contemporary. Each concert features one of Mahler’s monumental works composed during his New York period in chamber arrangement, which provides the context for a showcase of the finest works of today’s emerging composers. Discussion with composers and performers follows each program.
Music Mondays Concert Series, Advent Lutheran Church,
2504 Broadway at 93rd St.
Subway: 1/2/3 to 96th Street
7:30 PM / FREE

Lorde (also Tuesday)
On the strength of a spindly and unavoidable single about listening to NYC rapper A$AP Rocky, Lorde’s “Royals” was a pop phenomenon as it rose to the top of the charts. Spare enough for modern R&B radio, defiant enough for teens and as plainspoken as a country song, Lorde became the youngest solo artist to hit No. 1 since Tiffany in 1987. With Majical Cloudz.” (WSJ)
United Palace Theater, 4140 Broadway at 175t St.,
7PM / $65 – $225
(212) 568-6700

Feast of San Gennaro Festival (through Sept. 21)
The 88th Annual Feast of San Gennaro takes over the ever shrinking Little Italy with food, rides, games of chance, a pizza eating competition (9/16 @ 2pm), the world’s biggest cannoli (9/20 @ 3pm), and more.

This festival will be held on the streets of historic Little Italy, the lower Manhattan neighborhood which served as the first home in America for hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who came here seeking to improve their lives beginning in the early part of the 20th century.

This year’s Feast is expected once again to attract more than one-million people from the four corners of the globe to the streets of Little Italy to participate in the annual Salute to the Patron Saint of Naples.

Centered on Mulberry Street, enjoy indoor and outdoor dining at 35 of Little Italy’s most famous Italian restaurants. More than 300 licensed street vendors selling international foods, official Feast of San Gennaro, New York City and Little Italy souvenirs.
11:30am–11pm / free admission.

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
There’s a tradition in many New York City jazz clubs – Monday nights are reserved for big bands. The Village Vanguard, the most storied of clubs, has observed this practice since 1966. The Grammy-winning Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, established by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, is definitely a big band with 4 trumpets, and 4 trombones to accompany 6 reed players. Why not make it your tradition, too.

The band features music with complex yet warm harmonies and memorable melodies mostly written by Thad Jones. We play various styles, from relaxing swing, 70’s-style jazz-funk, ballads with complex harmonic structures, avant-garde tunes with modern rhythms. In addition to the classic Thad Jones charts our library includes music of Bob Brookmeyer, Jim McNeely, Slide Hampton, Bob Minzter, Kenny Werner and others. The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra has gained world-wide respect for their wide-ranging repertoire and rich sound.
Village Vanguard, 178 7th Avenue South, just below West 11th St.
At 8:30 and 10:30 pm / $25
212-255-4037 / villagevanguard.com

Considering the Creative Habit with Twyla Tharp
Twyla Tharp, dancer, choreographer, pioneer of the crossover ballet, joins the College as a Distinguished Guest Artist for the 20142015 academic year. In this capacity, Tharp, who received Barnards Medal of Distinction in 1982, will participate in a variety of academic and artistic undertakings, including lectures, interdisciplinary projects, and workshops.

In this lecture, based on her New York Times best-selling book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use it for Life, she talks about the principles and practices for success in life and art. For Tharp, sustained creativity begins with rituals, self-knowledge, harnessing memories, and organizing of materials. In her creative realm, optimism rules. Since graduating from Barnard, Tharp has created more than 160 works for concert and commercial stages. She has received many awards including one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards, and 19 honorary doctorates. Registration required.
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Columbia University Morningside Campus Barnard College Event Oval,
The Diana Center

Elsewhere, but worth a detour for fans of Photography:

The New York Press Photographers Association’s annual show, for one day only,
at Brooklyn Borough Hall. // 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. – FREE

The Fence (through October)
“This 1,000-foot photographic installation returns for a third year to showcase the work of 40 photographers from around the world, including the photographer Stephen Shames, who has been documenting youth in the Bronx. The artists were asked to capture the essence of the word “community,” and the resulting work is broken into categories like “home,” “streets” and “play.” (NYT)
Brooklyn Bridge Park, Pier 5, with entrances at Joralemon St. and Main St., Brooklyn
Daily from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.
fence.photovillenyc.org.

=============================================================================
♦ Before making final plans, we suggest you call the venue to confirm ticket availability, dates and times, as schedules are subject to change.

♦ NYCity is a big town with many visitors, where quality shows draw crowds. Try to reserve seats in advance, even if just on day of performance.
==============================================================================

What’s on View:
Special Exhibitions @ 3 Museum Mile / Fifth Ave. Museums:
‘Garry Winogrand’ (through Sept. 21)
Mr. Winogrand, who died at 56 in 1984, was the photographer laureate of urban and suburban middle-class life in the United States from the late 1950s through the ’70s and beyond. This ample retrospective focuses on his prime years, when he recorded a newly prosperous America while strolling Manhattan’s avenues and then followed it as it waded into increasingly troubled political waters. The result is a remarkable panorama of an era, with some terrific pictures, and some that Winogrand, who left a mountain of unprocessed film behind, never edited or printed. 212-535-7710, metmuseum.org. (Cotter-NYT)
‘The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy’ (through Oct. 26)
‘Early American Guitars: The Instruments of C.F. Martin’ (through Dec. 7)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave, at 82nd St.
(212) 535-7710 / metmuseum.org
—————————————————————————————————————————————-

‘Men in Armor: El Greco and Pulzone Face to Face’ (through Oct. 26)
The 400th anniversary celebration of El Greco’s death begins with a stunning clarification of the youthful greatness of his portrait “Vincenzo Anastagi” — a Frick Collection stalwart — that also teaches much about radicalism, fame and painting. This is done simply by pairing it with the obsessively detailed “Jacopo Boncompagni,” a rarely seen portrait by Scipione Pulzone, the now-forgotten artist of the moment in 1570s Rome, where both works were made. (Roberta Smith-NYT)
Frick Collection: 1 East 70th St. (btw 5th/Madison)
212-288-0700, frick.org.
——————————————————————————————————————————-

Kandinsky Before Abstraction, 1901–1911 (through spring 2015)
Early in his career Vasily Kandinsky experimented with printmaking, produced brightly-colored landscapes of the German countryside, and explored recognizable and recurrent motifs. This intimate exhibition drawn from the Guggenheim collection explores the artist’s representational origins.
Guggenheim Museum, 1071 Fifth Avenue, at 89th St.
(212) 423-3500 / guggenheim.org.

========================================================== Museum Mile is a section of Fifth Avenue which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world. Ten museums can be found along this section of Fifth Avenue:

• 110th Street – Museum for African Art

• 105th Street – El Museo del Barrio

• 103rd Street – Museum of the City of New York

• 92nd Street – The Jewish Museum

• 91st Street – Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

• 89th Street – National Academy Museum

• 88th Street – Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

• 86th Street – Neue Galerie New York

• 83rd Street – Goethe-Institut

Last, but certainly not least, America’s premier museum
• 82nd Street – The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Additionally, though technically not part of the Museum Mile, the Frick Collection on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 70th St. and the The Morgan Library & Museum on Madison Ave and 37th St are also located near Fifth Ave. Now plan your own museum crawl. ==========================================================

For other selected Museum and Gallery Special Exhibitions see Recent Posts in right Sidebar: “NYCity Events: Manhattan’s WestSide” dated 09/013and 09/11.