Death of Classical and The Green-Wood Cemetery announce Season 3 of The Angel’s Share

The acclaimed series will feature seven in-person events across the Cemetery and in the Catacombs, as well as seven filmed programs from the Catacombs, broadcast on The WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV

The season will open June 3-5 with Hymn to the City, an immersive performance event in partnership with the New York Philharmonic that celebrates New York’s singular spirit of resilience and renewal

Additional performances include Gil Shaham & The Knights performing their “Pocket Beethoven” Violin Concerto, pianist Min Kwon playing pieces from her kaleidoscopic America/Beautiful project, PUBLIQuartet’s acclaimed program Freedom and Faith, Simone Dinnerstein giving a multi-piano, Cemetery-wide performance of Richard Danielpour’s An American Mosaic, the Ulysses Quartet pairing Schubert’s Death and the Maiden with Osvaldo Golijov’s Tenebrae, and Cantori New York closing the season with a large-scale, outdoor, candlelit performance of the Fauré Requiem

A series of filmed performances entitled From the Catacombs will be broadcast live on The WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV channel in the New York metro area and will stream nationally on allarts.org and the ALL ARTS app, with performances by Jennifer Koh, Simone Dinnerstein, Conrad Tao, Conor Hanick, Helga Davis & Jeffrey Zeigler, Ulysses Quartet, and the Harlem Chamber Players Quartet.

Brooklyn, New York – April 20, 2021 - Death of Classical and The Green-Wood Cemetery announce season three of their acclaimed concert series The Angel’s Share. The series will offer seven in-person events in the Cemetery and Catacombs, and seven filmed programs broadcast on The WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV channel, and streaming on allarts.org and the ALL ARTS app.

The season opens June 3-5 with Hymn to the City, a sprawling, immersive event in partnership with the New York Philharmonic that pays tribute to New York’s singular spirit of resilience and renewal after a year of collective trauma, loss, and mourning. 

Next up on June 25, violinist Gil Shaham is joined by five players from the Brooklyn-born orchestra The Knights for an outdoor performance of their pandemic-proof “pocket Beethoven” violin concerto arrangement. 

July 8 & 9, pianist Min Kwon will play two programs from her America/Beautiful project, in which she commissioned 70 of America’s top composers to each write a variation on America the Beautiful, combining to offer a sonic portrait of the U.S. in all of its sprawling complexity. 

August 4, 6, & 7, the PUBLIQuartet perform music from their album Freedom and Faith, which celebrates women composers through the ages and explores ideas of spirituality, resilience, and inspiration. Composers include Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald, Jessie Montgomery, Hildegard von Bingen, and original MIND THE GAP compositions by PUBLIQuartet.

September 15-17, pianist Simone Dinnerstein will give a one-of-a-kind performance of An American Mosaic, a new piece written for her by Richard Danielpour where each movement commemorates a different segment of the American population that’s been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. For each performance, Dinnerstein will guide audiences across the Cemetery, pausing periodically to perform on Yamaha pianos placed along the route. She will also be joined by radio personality Robin Quivers to perform Joseph Phillips’ Never Has Been Yet. 

Ulysses Quartet will perform Death and Shadows in the Catacombs on October 6-8, a program that pairs Schubert’s towering Death and the Maiden string quartet with Osvaldo Golijov’s otherworldly Tenebrae, a piece which contrasts the terrible violence he saw while visiting Israel with the cosmic wonder of his son’s first trip to a planetarium.

The season closes October 21-23 with a large-scale, outdoor, candlelit performance of Fauré’s Requiem by Cantori New York, conducted by Mark Shapiro. Fauré’s deeply moving meditation on grief moves from the suffering of death on to the hope of eternal peace in paradise, offering an opportunity to mourn the terrible toll of the pandemic, while also reminding us that there is always light in the darkness.

In addition to the in-person performances, a series of filmed performances entitled From the Catacombs will be broadcast later this year on The WNET Group's ALL ARTS TV channel in the New York metro area and will stream nationally on allarts.org and the ALL ARTS app. The series includes performances in the Catacombs by Jennifer Koh, Simone Dinnerstein, Conrad Tao, Conor Hanick, Helga Davis & Jeffrey Zeigler, Ulysses Quartet, and the Harlem Chamber Players Quartet. Dates and times of each individual broadcast to follow.

Said Andrew Ousley, Death of Classical’s Founder and Artistic Director, of the new season: “Over the past year, we have been through a trial together. A seemingly endless barrage of suffering, fear, anger, and sorrow. But now that we see light at the end of this long, dark tunnel, it’s vital that we pause to process and reflect on what we’ve experienced. The music in these programs offers an opportunity both to mourn and to move forward, to grieve for all that is lost, but also to honor the moments of heroism and selflessness, the fearlessness of our first responders, the quiet humanity of one neighbor helping another in a time of need. After everything, more now than ever, I have hope for the future.”

Said Harry Weil, Director of Public Programs at Green-Wood: “This season reflects the complexity of what it means to create, produce, and perform after the harrowing experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the music and the setting of the Cemetery echo the grief  felt for those we have lost and the uncertainty of what's to come, while also radiating the very real hope of renewal and rebirth. As a site dedicated to commemorating and celebrating the departed, we are proud to be partnering with Death of Classical for another year of imaginative and thought provoking performances.” 

Pianos for The Angel’s Share are generously provided by Yamaha. Spirits will be provided by Appalachian Gap Distillery, Madre Mezcal and others.