Young attendee wears the craft project she created at the Museum Mile Festival on Fifth Avenue. ( Photo: Christine Butler for MCNY) Fifth Avenue Transformed into a Cultural Playground for Museum Mile Festival Fifth Avenue shut down to cars but came alive with art, music, and crowds on the evening of June 10 as the 47th annual Museum... City Arts 16 Jun 2025 | 04:46
Ian Carleton Schaefer conducting the Second Ending Ensemble. ( Photo: Chris Lee) Why have one career when you can have two? A lawyer’s guide to classical music Ian Carleton Schaefer is a conductor through and through. On the podium, he has to think a millisecond ahead of his ensemble.... City Arts 17 Jun 2025 | 10:46
Shannon Lewis is the choreographper behind the Tony-nominated musical about Bobby Darin, Just in Time. ( Photo: John Taylor) The Woman Behind Jonathan Groff’s Dance Moves Before her foray into choreography, Shannon Lewis spent 25 years as a dancer, including performing in 10 Broadway musicals.... City Arts 13 Jun 2025 | 01:01
Author Elyce Arons is now CEO of the Frances Valentine fashion company. She went into business with her college friend Kate Spade, creating a fashion dynasty. Elyce’s new memoir celebrates her friend, who tragically took her own life. ( Photo: Adam Ward) Longtime Biz Partner of Fashion Icon Kate Spade Pens Moving Memoir to Her Friend “She is the most gracious, sweet, intelligent, funny woman I’ve ever known,” says Elyce Arons of her best friend of 40 years,... City Arts 20 Jun 2025 | 01:09
Director Joe John Battista (left) and playwright Michael Gorman are the powers behind the new opera The Moby Dick Blues, which has a limited run at La Mama theater in the East Village. ( Photo: Sabine Stock) The Moby Dick Blues: Classic Melville Novel Transforms Into Modern Opera The first time I picked up Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, I managed only the first hundred pages before feeling hopelessly... City Arts 06 Jun 2025 | 03:39
Professor Robert Blecker pondered the fate of Dr. Joseph Warren of Boston, the man who dispatched Paul Revere on his historic ride at the start of the American Revolution. Now Blecker has written an off-Broadway play about a nearly forgotten American hero. ( Photo: Nicholas & Lence communications ) Father Anonymous Celebrates the Man Behind Paul Revere’s Famous Ride For one brief, shining moment he was the best of us. Dr. Joseph Warren of Boston, revolutionary commander. He dispatched... City Arts 08 Jun 2025 | 04:23
Music journalist Will Hermes said he first became enamored with the music of Lou Reed (shown above) and the band he co-founded, the Velvet Underground, while a college student. Hermes’s new bio from Picador Press tells all the ups and downs of Reed’s storied and turbulent career. ( Photo: Forest Scholl) Book on Lou Reed Paints the Velvet Underground Founder as The King of New York So many books and stories abound about Lou Reed that you’d be forgiven for believing that nothing else could be said about... City Arts 30 May 2025 | 03:47
A self-portrait of John Singer Sargent, painted in 1886. Aberdeen City Council (Aberdeen Archives, Gallery & Museums collections). ( Photo: Wikimedia Commons) John Singer Sargent: American in Paris Lands at the Met John Singer Sargent, the renowned American expatriate painter, is being celebrated at The Met Fifth Avenue 100 years after... City Arts 22 May 2025 | 02:25
The cast that won best production for the comedy Granny Jackson’s Dead were welcomed by the Irish Consul General Helena Nolan (fourth from right) while Origin Theatre Company artistic director Michael “Mick” Mellamphy (far right) presented the award to playwright Zoe Seaton (second from right). ( Photo: Rory Duffy) Sinéad O’Brien Lands Best Play Honors at Irish Theatre Festival The 17th annual Origin 1st Irish Theatre Festival dished out a host of awards, including Best Male Actor to Alan Smyth, Best... Home 31 May 2025 | 03:41
An impromptu Irish music session at Mary O’s on Avenue A in the East Village is held every Thursday evening. Each day of the week, the wandering troubadours perform for free in a different Irish pub in Manhattan playing traditional Irish instruments. ( Photo: Claire Leibowitz) Irish Traditions Kept Alive by Free Music Sessions in Manhattan Pubs It’s difficult to move around Mary O’s on a Thursday night. Like any other pub, rounds of Guinness and fish and chips are... City Arts 19 May 2025 | 12:30
Norm Lewis plays Russell Parker, a former vaudevillian who is down on his luck as the proprietor of a failing barbershop in Harlem. The seldom-produced play from 1969 is now enjoying a short-run Off Brosdway revival. ( Photo: Maria Baranova) Norm Lewis Is Back in a Revival of Ceremonies in Dark Old Men People often joke about already knowing the last line of their obituary. Norm Lewis has performed for decades and still one... City Arts 02 May 2025 | 09:58
Hitting the Big Time by Mark Kostabi is one of the many paintings from the downtown icon on display at the Park West Gallery in SoHo through the end of May. Kostabi’s works are also part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. ( Photo: Park West Gallery) Mark Kostabi: Hitting the Big Time, from Gritty East Village Artist to MoMA The Mount Rushmore of Art by Eduardo Kobra hovers over the Empire Diner in Chelsea, depicting four great artists of their... City Arts 09 May 2025 | 10:43
Thomas Crawford conducts the American Classical Orchestra at David Geffen Hall in 2017. He will take the stage for the orchestra’s season finale on May 7 this year at Alice Tully Hall. ( Photo: Chris Lee/courtesy American Classical Orchestra) Manhattan Maestro Brings Sounds of the Past to New Audiences When Thomas Crawford takes the stage at Alice Tully Hall on May 7 for “Magnificently Mozart,” it will cap his 40th year as... City Arts 24 Apr 2025 | 11:41
Karen’s Quirky New York Revisits Her First Photo Shoot with Philip Maier