Lara Downes and Adam Gopnik to Bring NEW YORK STORIES to Symphony Space

The pianist Lara Downes and the essayist Adam Gopnik come together to make an evening of music about New York City: its anthems, its atmosphere, its ambitions.

From Gershwin to Joplin, and from William Grant Still to Kurt Weill, Downes will play the music she thinks best captures the special spirit of the city, while Gopnik will speak his mind -- and read from the masters -- about what Manhattan means. Together they promise a special evening of city conversation and cross-talk, both in notes and in words.

A presentation of the Impromptu! Classical Music Recital Series at Peter Norton Symphony Space presented by The Drozdoff Society and SH Acoustics, "Lara Downes and Adam Gopnik: New York Stories" is set for Wednesday, May 18, 2016 at 8:00 pm (Doors open at 7:30 p.m.). Tickets: $35/$25 (seniors/students), children under 12 free. For more information, click here.

Program to include:

Lukas Foss: For Lenny, Variation on New York, New York

Morton Gould: American Caprice

Lou Harrison: New York Waltzes

William Grant Still: Blues from Lenox Avenue

Kurt Weill: Lost in the Stars (arr. Jed Distler)

Vladimir Drozdoff: Elegy

Scott Joplin: Wall Street Rag

George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue

ABOUT LARA DOWNES
Lara Downes, laureate of the 2016 Sphinx Organization Medal of Excellence award, has been called "a delightful artist with a unique blend of musicianship and showmanship" by NPR, and praised by the Washington Post for her stunning performances "rendered with drama and nuance". Known for her eclectic presentations of the piano repertoire - from iconic favorites to newly-commissioned works - her performances bridge musical genres and traditions, and engage a wide range of audiences with what San Francisco Classical Voice has called "an elegant example of how accessibility and a breezy relevance can exist, organically, in a classical music concert.'

Born in San Francisco and raised in Europe, Downes' musical outlook reflects the diversity of her personal heritage and extensive travels. Her interest in connecting music to a wide and inclusive breadth of human experience mines her own mixed African American and Eastern European background and the impressions of her transatlantic adventures to produce a unique range of creative projects, from an exploration of the music of Jewish composers in exile to a centenary tribute to Billie Holiday, from an intimate portrait of the marriage of Robert and Clara Schumann to a sweeping look at the musical breakthroughs of the American 20th Century. www.laradownes.com

ABOUT ADAM GOPNIK
Adam Gopnik has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1986. During his tenure at the magazine, he has written fiction, humor, book reviews, profiles, and reported pieces from abroad. He was the magazine's art critic from 1987-1995, and the Paris correspondent from 1995-2000. From 2000 to 2005, he wrote a journal about New York life. His books, ranging from essay collections about Paris and food to children's novels, include "Paris to the Moon," "The King in the Window," "Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York," "Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln, and Modern Life," "The Table Comes First: Family, France, and the Meaning of Food," and "Winter: Five Windows on the Season." Gopnik has three National Magazine awards, for essays and for criticism, and also the George Polk Award for Magazine Reporting.

In the past five years, Gopnik has engaged in many musical projects, working both as a lyricist and libretto writer. With the composer David Shire he has written both book and lyrics for the musical comedy TABLE, to be produced in 2016 by the Long Wharf theater under the direction of Gordon Edelstein. He wrote the libretto for Nico Muhly's oratorio "Sentences", which premiered in London at the Barbican in June of 2015. Other projects include collaborating on a one-woman show for the soprano Melissa Errico, "Sing The Silence", which debuted in November of 2015 at the Public Theater in New York, and included new songs co-written with David Shire, Scott Frankel, and Peter Mills. Future projects include a new musical with Scott Frankel. www.adamgopnik.com