Photos: Serge Clivio Marks Fifth Anniversary of SERGE AND FRIENDS at Gramercy Theatre

Vocalist and songwriter Serge Clivio marked the fifth anniversary of his Serge and Friends concert series with a sold-out performance at the Gramercy Theatre on Saturday night. Check out photos from the event.

The event, which featured a nine-piece band and an expanded roster of guest artists, continued the tradition Clivio and longtime collaborator Mike Stapleton began in 2019 of blending pop, rock, and soul material in a high-energy concert setting.

Now a fixture of New York’s fall music calendar, Serge and Friends has grown each year in scope and scale. The 2025 edition opened with a medley revisiting earlier shows, underscoring Clivio’s evolution as both vocalist and arranger. Joined by co-creator and music director Stapleton, Clivio led the ensemble through more than twenty numbers drawn from his recording catalog and previous concerts.

Guest performers included Daniel Scott Walton, Emily Royer, Alexa Lebersfeld, Jessica Kundla, Hannah Joy, Michael Mahady, Tyler Whitaker, Drew Arisco, David Merino, and Alia Hodge. Highlights included Walton’s duet with Clivio evoking Freddie Mercury’s showmanship, Royer’s debut on a Sting selection, and Hodge’s collaboration with Clivio on a re-imagined arrangement of Stevie Wonder’s “Part-Time Lover.”

Clivio also performed “Trenches” from his recent album Songs from an Unexpected Season, followed by covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” and Journey’s “Separate Ways.” The finale paired Arisco and Clivio on Chris Stapleton’s “I Think I’m in Love with You,” segueing into an encore of “Sex on Fire.”

Across its fifth year, Serge and Friends continued to emphasize collaboration and musicianship, reaffirming its place as one of the city’s notable independently produced concert series.