Spurred on by a growing number of offbeat performance venues and enterprising young classical musicians, New York is experiencing a boom in small, largely below-the-radar concert series. There are opera nights at a Lower East Side dive bar, chamber music concerts at a boxing gym beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, contemporary music at a cabaret in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and avant-garde fare in a silo on the banks of an industrial canal.

The rise of an alternative classical scene recalls the 1960s and 70s, when downtown lofts and art galleries helped give rise to minimalism and performance art. The current crop of classical series resembles a similar trend happening in jazz and world-music circles, as the club epicenter has spread from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Classical musicians often say they are drawn to simpler, less pretentious encounters with audiences.

“It’s just like going to see a band,” says Anne Ricci, a soprano in describing Opera on Tap, an opera recital series that she co-founded in June 2005 at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, a former bowling alley and cop bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, that now presents live music.

“Classical Music Meets the Alternative Scene,” by Brian Wise, MusicalAmerica.com, November 9, 2006
Hat tip: Tyler Cowen

More

• Barbes Bar and Performance Space, 376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, corner of 6th Avenue, 718-965-9177
• Concert Artists Guild
• Freddy’s Bar & Backroom, 485 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY, 718-622-7035
• Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, between Kent and Wythe, 718 782-5188
• International Contemporary Ensemble
• Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY, between Bond and Nevins, 718-330-0313
• Opera on Tap
• The Empty Vessel Project

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