New York Guitar Festival at Bryant Park with Host John Schaefer (8/14 & 8/15)
On August 14 and 15, the New York Guitar Festival returns to Bryant Park with two free events that highlight global guitar culture. Hosted by WNYC’s John Schaefer, the two evenings span virtuosic classical guitar, Brazilian popular music, punk-jazz, and folk-based improvisations.
Both concerts will be recorded for later broadcast on New Sounds. The performances will also be livestreamed on the Bryant Park YouTube channel.
On Friday, August 14, “A Carnival of Classical Guitar” features star guitarist Raphaël Feuillâtre who will play some of the core pieces of the classical guitar repertoire. Then, the concert will expand to include Argentine tango from the duo Ziggy & Miles and the Balkan-South Asian-Latin fusion of Goran Ivanovic & Fareed Haque. Of course, no carnival is complete without a trip to Brazil, so Gabriele Leite will play a set of Brazilian favorites.
Saturday, August 15, brings “The Misbehaving Guitar”– a concert that features musicians who color outside the lines. It promises to be a wild ride with The Messthetics offering their fusion of guitarist Anthony Pirog’s avant-jazz with the rhythm section of the punk band Fugazi and special guest Marc Ribot; Pierre Bensusan playing open-tuning explorations of Celtic and North African music as well as jazz and electronics; and Gyan Riley’s cosmic mix of psychedelia, minimalism, and contemporary classical music.
