Annie Gosfield Portrait Concert

Concert This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. Admission: $15 YIVO members & students: $10 Watch the video Read the program

This concert explores music of composer Annie Gosfield that takes its inspiration from Jewish culture, history, and the New York immigrant experience. A longtime resident of New York City’s East Village, Gosfield has been hailed “a star of the downtown scene,” (The New Yorker), and her music has been described as “imaginative” and “exuberant” (The New York Times).

The culmination of months of immersion in YIVO’s collections, this concert features a premiere from Gosfield commissioned by YIVO for singer Rachel Calloway and violinist Ari Streisfeld about a rent strike by immigrants in the Lower East Side in 1905. The concert also features performances by Gosfield, guitarist Roger Kleier, percussionist Brian Chase, and pianist Kathleen Supové.

A discussion with Gosfield on Jewish identity, her family history in the Lower East Side and the influence of Jewish history and culture on her work follows the program.