Raissa Katona Bennett has announced a name change and new mission for her award-winning free outdoor concert series at Tudor City. The summer series, which presents a top-flight roster of performers from the worlds of Broadway, jazz, cabaret and classical music, will now be called The Concerts for City Greens, and its mission will expand to support all of New York’s privately owned public green spaces.
The series, which also strives to increase and diversify the audience for live music in New York, will link with other community groups and organizations to promote public and private stewardship of public green spaces. “Bringing live music to other settings will be part of this broader mission,” says Bennett, a Broadway actress and singer who produces and hosts the series. “We remain based in Tudor City, but our goal is to be active in different venues and parts of New York as we raise awareness about the city’s unique inventory of privately-maintained green spaces.”
The Concerts for City Greens is currently wrapping up the call for submissions period for its citywide songwriting contest of songs celebrating the different roles green spaces play in the lives of New Yorkers. The deadline for the contest – which is being juried Neil Sedaka, Amanda McBroom, Ann Hampton Callaway, Michael John LaChiusa, David Friedman, and MTV Networks executive Matthew Parillo – is January 31, 2012.
Throughout the summer, eight semi-finalist songs selected from the contest’s initial pool of submissions, will be performed – two per concert. The contest’s top three songs, chosen through a combination of online and jury voting, will be performed at a special concert at Feinstein's at the Loews Regency, in the fall or winter of 2012. (TBA)
“We’re receiving a wonderful array of songs, in a variety of styles, from veteran songwriters and unknowns,” Bennett reports. “We have two more weeks and we hope that some last-minute submissions from the late-bloomers will continue to land on our doorstep.” Bennett (Broadway in “Phantom of the Opera” national tours of “Cats” and “Parade”) won the 2010 Bistro and 2011 MAC Award for hosting “The Concerts at Tudor City Greens.”
Past singers from the series have included: Norm Lewis, Kristy Cates, Sarah Rice, Eric Michael Gillett, Buskin & Batteau, David Friedman, and series regulars Sean Harkness and Terese Genecco.
The Concerts for City Greens, the free outdoor concert series that brings the sounds of live music to diverse urban audiences in unique, privately maintained public green spaces, is expected to run from May through October. (TBA)
For Concert and Contest information visit www.raissakatonabennett.com
Tudor City Greens, the site of The Concerts for City Greens, is one of a select number of privately maintained public spaces in New York. Nestled in the heart of Tudor City, which was built in the late 1920's by the developer Fred French, this green oasis in the heart of Midtown was threatened by Harry Helmsley in the 1970's who planned to build high-rises on the twin parks. A successful grass roots campaign to rescue the parks was mounted by Tudor City residents. Today, the Tudor City Association and the non-profit tenants group, Tudor City Greens, continue the tradition of park preservation.
