Symphony Space Reveals Lineup For 2023-2024 Season

Symphony Space has announced its 2023-2024 Season, bringing artists, writers, and myriad communities together for one-night-only, only-at-Symphony Space events that celebrate the magic and sanctuary found only in the arts. Musicians explore new sides of their work and their influences—many paying tribute to other legendary performers. Bridging the worlds of literature and performance, many events enlist artists and authors to propel words from the page onto the stage—and into timely, rich, lively discourse. In this new season, Symphony Space gives audiences opportunities to experience bespoke events with leading artists in an intimate, one-of-a-kind venue.

Symphony Space Executive Director Kathy Landau says, “One of the most beautiful things about Symphony Space is we offer performance, literature, and music and embrace our identity as an organization of broad communities. That has been the DNA of who we are since the very beginning, when we were founded on marathon, day-long programming: ‘throw open the doors and invite the community in.’ This season, we’re excited for so many captivating artists in so many disciplines to bring their worlds into Symphony Space.”

Music

This season’s musical offerings traverse a spectrum of genres in thrilling and unique live performances. In the 2023-24 season, Symphony Space’s Music Residency Program invites an entire groundbreaking collective to the Leonard Nimoy Thalia stage: Black Opry, a home for Black artists working in country, Americana, blues, and folk music, will be in residence November 9–11, with performances from collective members Chris Pierce (November 9), Kaia Kater (November 10), and Elizabeth Lubin (November 11). Spring 2024’s resident musician is the legendary Nona Hendryx, in performances spanning genres and disciplines, mirroring her multifaceted and ever-evolving six-decade career (March 14, April 18, May 9). Her residency concludes with a special celebration of Betty Davis on May 16, initially explored by Nona at Symphony Space’s Wall to Wall Women of Soul in April 2023.

The season features two major events celebrating vibrant, world-changing musical legacies: Symphony Space hosts a special celebration of the 85th Anniversary of the influential, music history-making record label Blue Note Records, featuring The Blue Note Quintet, led by six-time GRAMMY Award-nominee Gerald Clayton, with Joel Ross, Immanuel Wilkins, Kendrick Scott, and Matt Brewer (February 23). Later in the season, Prince gets Symphony Space’s Wall to Wall treatment in a free all-day marathon celebration of his electrifying artistry (May 4).

In numerous concerts throughout the season, audiences can witness both rip-roaring and intimate live acts. Multi-instrumentalist, multi-GRAMMY Award-winner, and International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame inductee Sam Bush makes a rare New York appearance (October 27). GRAMMY-nominated Mardi Gras Indian funk band Cha Wa brings New Orleans festivity to New York (June 21). Symphony Space’s dynamic concert series Revelry returns after a pandemic hiatus. The Revelry series features local, national, and International Artists across musical genres in an intimate venue where interactions between artists and audiences are part of the fun. This season brings Jerron ‘Blind Boy’ Paxton & Dennis Lichtman (November 17), Soule Monde (December 1), Mile Twelve (December 8), Stephane Wrembel (December 14), Cillian Vallely & Kevin Crawford (January 19), Queen Esther (January 25), Hazmat Modine (January 26), and JigJam (March 21) to the Leonard Nimoy Thalia stage.

Literature Onstage

Symphony Space’s best-known series, Selected Shorts, was conceived over 35 years ago with a simple premise: take great stories by well-known and emerging writers and have exceptional actors perform them live. It continues in Fall 2023, beginning with a sesquicentennial celebration of Willa Cather (September 27), hosted by influential documentarian Ken Burns, a longtime Cather fan. On October 18, acclaimed author Min Jin Lee (Pachinko, Free Food for Millionaires), editor of The Best American Short Stories 2023, hosts a Selected Shorts event curated from the much-anticipated anthology. One of the most groundbreaking and beloved contemporary genre-crossing authors, Neil Gaiman (American Gods, The Sandman), hosts an evening celebrating Ray Bradbury, “the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream” with “imaginative and lyrical evocations of the future” (The New York Times) (November 1). Bestselling author and New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast (Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?) leads an evening inspired by her new book illustrating and contemplating the bizarre world of sleep, I Must Be Dreaming (December 6).

While Selected Shorts brings literature into the sphere of performance, special literary events this season celebrate beloved performers who have turned to the page to tell their stories. This programming features evenings with five accomplished performers introducing their new memoirs: Maria Bamford—once described by Judd Apatow as “the most unique, bizarre, imaginative comedian out there right now”—in conversation with Phoebe Robinson on Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult (September 5); two-time Emmy nominee Leslie Jones and Seth Meyers discussing Leslie F*cking Jones (September 19); icon of the stage and screen Sir Patrick Stewart on Making It So: a Memoir (October 2); author and comedian Sarah Cooper (100 Tricks to Appear Smart in Meetings: How to Get By Without Even Trying), in conversation with Amy Schumer on Foolish: Tales of Assimilation, Determination, and Humiliation (October 5); and GRAMMY-winning and two-time Tony-nominated actor Andrew Rannells on his essay collection Uncle of the Year (November 6).

A wild and exciting range of subjects are explored on Symphony Space’s stages; look no further than Pulitzer Prize-winning author and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee celebrating the paperback launch of his acclaimed book The Song of the Cell, tracing science surrounding cells from their discovery in the 1600s to how our knowledge of them is deployed today (September 14); presidential inaugural poet Amanda Gorman in an all-ages evening introducing Something Someday, her new children’s picture book about finding beauty, and being an agent of change in a troubled world (September 26); comedy legend Keegan-Michael Key and writer and producer Elle Key discussing their book The History of Sketch Comedy, which stems from their Webby Award-winning podcast (October 3); and Roxane Gay sharing her latest collection Opinions (October 10).

Thalia Book Club looks to exceptional new books and classics as sources of rousing conversation—between authors, and with audiences—rooted in the belief that gathering to discuss a book can expand one’s reading of it. This season, the series (named after the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre space where the events typically take place) continues with Pulitzer Prize-nominated author Ann Patchett (The Dutch House, Bel Canto) in conversation with Patrick Ryan (The Dream Life of Astronauts) on her upcoming novel Tom Lake (September 21); National Book Award-winning author James McBride (Deacon King Kong, The Good Lord Bird) on his latest novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store (November 2); bestselling, National Book Award-winning author Sigrid Nunez (The Friend) in conversation with fellow novelist Elizabeth Strout on her upcoming ninth novel, The Vulnerables (November 14); and Min Jin Lee and Colm Tóibín joining forces to discuss E.M. Forster’s A Passage to India for the classic’s 100th anniversary (January 16).

Film

Symphony Space transports theater and art lovers to some of the most talked-about plays and exhibitions from around the world through its film programming. The NT Live presentations feature exquisitely recorded performances from London’s prestigious National Theatre. NT Live productions scheduled to screen this season include the Chichester Festival Theatre’s production of King Lear starring Sir Ian McKellen, Frankenstein starring Johnny Lee Miller as the title character and Benedict Cumberbatch as his creation in a production directed by Academy Award-winner Danny Boyle, and The Best of Enemies, a blistering thriller starring David Harewood and Zachary Quinto as feuding political rivals. The Exhibition on Screen film series takes audiences behind-the-scenes at the most acclaimed museums and galleries to see how the blockbuster exhibitions come together, with curator interviews, close-ups, and context that goes far beyond the wall text of a typical art gallery. Exhibitions on Screen will include Degas: Passion for Perfection, a look at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, Leonardo: The Works, details every single attributed painting from the 500th anniversary of his death, Munch, details 220 paintings from Oslo’s National Museum and the Munch Museum, and Manet details the first ever retrospective of his portraiture hosted by the Royal Academy of Arts. Additional screening dates for these titles and more will be announced as the season gets underway. 

Other films at Symphony Space further reflect the institution’s passion for Broadway, music, and literature: during the fall, Symphony Space invites audiences to join the fun for sing-along screenings of 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody (September 12), 1982’s Annie (October 21), and 1954’s White Christmas (December 12). As part of the Thalia Film series, Symphony Space will screen François Truffaut’s adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s classic Fahrenheit 451 (November 21), a complement to the Selected Shorts event dedicated to the author earlier in the fall.

Comedy fans will also delight in the return of Symphony Space’s absurd comedy series that promises to incite heated debate among A-list performers, Uptown Showdown (Human vs. AI on October 12 and Brains vs. Brawn on November 30). Additional shows and debaters to be announced.

See the list of Fall 2023 - Spring 2024 programming to date below.All ticketed programs are on sale to the general public as of today. Many programs offer livestreaming options, and discounted tickets for those under 30. Please visit SymphonySpace.org for further details on tickets, programs, and accessibility options, and stay tuned for additional program announcements as the season unfolds.

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