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The season will open May 24 with Spring, Strings, and Tasty Things, a large-scale outdoor event featuring beloved early music band Ruckus teaching a social square dance lesson, and performing Handel’s “Water Music” suite.
Catacombs concerts include Beethoven’s String Quartet Op. 132 by the Ulysses Quartet, Fourth Wall Ensemble performing Caroline Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices, and Gelsey Bell’s acclaimed opera m??n?? [morning//mourning] which imagines Earth without humans.
The acclaimed series is curated by Andrew Ousley, and takes place in Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery and Catacombs. Each performance includes a pre-show spirits tasting with whiskey, mezcal, and more.
For immediate release - Death of Classical and The Green-Wood Cemetery announce season six of The Angel's Share, their acclaimed concert series which takes place in the Catacombs and Cemetery grounds in Brooklyn.
The season begins on May 24 with Spring, Strings, and Tasty Things, the highly-anticipated follow up to Burgers, Bourbon & Beethoven, Hot Dogs, Hooch & Handel, and Tacos, Tequila & Tavener's Protecting Veil. The centerpiece of the evening is Ruckus, an ensemble whose “excellent performances” (The New York Times) fuse Baroque music with American roots. This large-scale outdoor program opens with a variety of food, spirit tastings, and chamber music performances, and then Ruckus will teach audiences a social square dance, before closing the evening with a performance of Handel's "Water Music" suite.
The remaining three programs each take place in Green-Wood's Catacombs:
On June 20-22 will feature the multiple-award-winning Ulysses Quartet’s return to The Angel’s Share for a performance of Beethoven’s transcendently life-affirming final String Quartet Op. 132 in A Minor.
On September 5-7, the fast-rising vocal group Fourth Wall Ensemble will perform a program fusing medieval chant and Renaissance and Baroque polyphony, before flowing seamlessly into Caroline Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices.
On September 12-14, “one of New York’s most adventurous musicians” (The New York Times) Gelsey Bell will join with vocalists Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Justin Hicks, Aviva Jaye, and Paul Pinto to perform her acclaimed opera m??n?? [morning//mourning]. The work explores the decades, centuries, and millennia after humanity has disappeared from the Earth, and Bell has created a specially-adapted production especially for the Green-Wood Catacombs.
Said Death of Classical Founder and Artistic Director Andrew Ousley of the new season: “This season of the Angel’s Share traces the long arc of history, exploring where we’ve been, where we are, and where we might go from here. From the ancient church music that infuses Beethoven’s weary hymn of thanks, to the Baroque dances rippling through Caroline Shaw’s Pulitzer-winning Partita, to Gelsey Bell’s uncategorizable masterpiece m??n?? [morning//mourning], which looks back on humanity long after its passing with an air sweet nostalgia, tinged with bitterness at our wasted potential. In a present moment that feels more and more fragile with each passing day, we wanted to reflect on the lessons of the past, and offer a reminder that the future remains unwritten.”
Said Green-Wood Vice President of Education and Public Programs Harry Weil: “I might be biased, but Green-Wood’s Catacombs and Death of Classical’s curatorial vision make for the most unique music stage in all of New York City. After a twilight stroll through the historic Cemetery, you arrive at a cavernous space lit with hundreds of flickering candles. With only a few dozen other attendees, you settle in to something truly special. This year’s roster of concerts promises to be the most memorable yet, transporting listeners from the ancient world to the present, with some stops along the way.“
Each performance will begin with a pre-show spirits tasting with whiskey, mezcal, and more before audiences take a twilight walk through the Cemetery to the Catacombs.
Spring, Strings, and Tasty Things
May 24, 2024 (Rain Date May 25, 2024)
7:00PM - 10:00PM
After three years of alliterative magnificence, beginning with the legendary Burgers, Bourbon & Beethoven Festival, we've decided that we should stop limiting ourselves to just one choice of food, drink, and musical repertoire. This year, we open our hearts, minds, and gullets, to take in a smorgasbord of sounds, sips, and sumptuous victuals.
The evening begins with a wondrous bit of wandering across Green-Wood’s historic landscape – the perfect backdrop to enjoy a variety of food (snacks included in ticket price, with heartier fare available for purchase), spirit tastings, and chamber music performances. Then, the insanely talented members of Ruckus, one of the finest Baroque bands playing today, will offer a lesson in old-school social dancing, to anyone who wishes to shake it like they did in 1799... THEN, just when you thought it couldn't get any better, Ruckus will close the evening with a performance of Handel's majestic Water Music suite. We'll send you home with a happy heart, a full belly, and a spring in your step.
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Ulysses Quartet
Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15, Op. 132
June 20 - 22, 2024
Early Evening Performance: 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Twilight Performance: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
Beethoven's final String Quartet is an indescribably powerful, transcendently life-affirming masterpiece. Its movements are centered around the towering slow section, which Beethoven wrote after recovering from a terrible illness, solemnly titling it a “Hymn of thanks to God from one who is healed.” In times of despair and division, the beauty of this music remains a balm to the soul, and a reminder of how we can find strength in our darkest moments.
The fabulous foursome of the Ulysses Quartet, who last joined us in the Catacombs to perform Schubert's Death and the Maiden, return once more, bringing their glorious musicality to this singular work.
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Fourth Wall Ensemble
Caroline Shaw’s Partita
September 5 - 7
Early Evening Performance: 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Twilight Performance: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
Caroline Shaw's Pulitzer Prize-winning Partita for 8 Voices is a work of profound emotional beauty, a timeless expression that feels at home in any musical era. For these performances, the groundbreaking vocal talents of Fourth Wall Ensemble will weave together a program that begins with improvised medieval chant, flowing seamlessly through the Renaissance and Baroque periods, before arriving at Shaw's staggering sonic suite.
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Gelsey Bell, Ashley Pérez Flanagan, Justin Hicks, Aviva Jaye, and Paul Pinto
m??n?? [morning//mourning]
September 12 - 14
Early Evening Performance: 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Twilight Performance: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
“Sly and sweet, wistful and winsome and altogether lovable... Gelsey Bell’s wonderful, uncategorizable guide to what might unfold on Earth in the millions and billions of years after human history” – The New York Times
m??n?? (the phonetic spelling for the word "morning" as well as the word "mourning") is an operatic masterpiece by singer and composer Gelsey Bell that begins just after humanity has disappeared from the Earth, and traces the weeks, months, years, and millennia that follow. What emerges is a journey through time that is simultaneously whimsical, fantastical, playful and profound, offering a poignant reminder of what it means to be human – despite taking place entirely after our species has vanished from the planet. This specially adapted, abridged telling of this critically acclaimed opera was created just for the Catacombs.
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