World Music Institute to Present New York Guitar Festival
Up first is Bill Frisell and Skúli Sverrisson.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz May. 21, 2025
NY Guitar Festival will be presented by World Music Institute. Events will take place on June. Learn more here!
Night One: Bill Frisell and Skúli Sverrisson
(With Mary Halvorson and Tomas Fujiwara)
Friday, June 13
8 PM | Doors 7 PM
First Unitarian Congregation
119-121 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn Heights
Advance: $45 | Day of Show: $50 | Children 14 and under: $5
Must be accompanied by an adult and tickets must be purchased at the door.
Bill Frisell has been a regular guest of the NYGF, and as with all of his past appearances, he is bringing a new duo partner. This time, it's the Icelandic composer and bass guitarist Skúli Sverrisson, whose discography includes work with Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed, Wadada Leo Smith, and over a hundred others. Frisell, meanwhile, has a discography best described as epic. It includes work with Elvis Costello, jazz legend Elvin Jones, and British composer Gavin Bryars. He has routinely ignored genre categories, working across rock, jazz, country, experimental, classical, and West African music. Guitar fans can be a contentious, opinionated lot - but there is unanimous agreement on Frisell's place in the pantheon. - John Schaefer
Drummer Tomas Fujiwara and guitarist Mary Halvorson have been collaborating for eighteen years. They met in New York City in the early 2000's, and first started playing together in cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum's sextet. Since then they have become each other's most frequent collaborators, working together in a myriad of projects led by Michael Formanek, Adam O'Farrill, Matana Roberts, Tomeka Reid, Ben Goldberg and Mike Reed. Fujiwara is also a part of Halvorson's Code Girl and Amaryllis, and Halvorson is a member of Fujiwara's bands Triple Double and The Hook Up. This rare duo performance showcases a project built on years of history and collaboration in a stripped down setting.
Night Two: Rahim AlHaj and Derek Gripper
Thursday, June 26, 2024
8 PM | Doors 7:30 PM
Kaufman Music Center
129 West 67th Street, Manhattan
Tickets: $35 | $47 | $65
South African guitarist Derek Gripper and the Iraqi-American oud virtuoso Rahim AlHaj offer a kind of musical family affair, as the Arab oud is generally considered to be the ancestor of the modern guitar. Gripper earned international acclaim (and more than a few "how did he do that?" reactions) for his collection of West African kora music, transcribed from that 21-string harp to a standard 6-string classical guitar. AlHaj has taken the centuries-old tradition of Arab classical music and blended it with the sounds of contemporary Western music. Both have long lists of collaborators, including Gripper's album with American world music cellist Mike Block and AlHaj's work with the Native American poet Joy Harjo. 2025 marks the first year that their global musical orbits come together. - John Schaefer.
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