Brian Worsdale News

This One’s For You: The Music of Barry Manilow Pops 40th Birthday Gala adds starry new cast members.

Jim Caruso, Megan Hilty, Michael Urie & Lillias White will now join The New York Pops, led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, for its 40th Birthday Gala. Learn how to purchase tickets!

Emmy, Grammy, SAG, and Tony Award nominee Norm Lewis, and Grammy Award winners Melissa Manchester, Billy Stritch and Dionne Warwick will now join The New York Pops, led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, for its 40th Birthday Gala, This One’s For You: The Music of Barry Manilow.

The New York Pops 40th Birthday Gala concert, This One's For You: The Music of Barry Manilow, on Monday, May 1, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall will feature 26 participants from the orchestra's Kids on Stage program.

The New York Pops, led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, has announced an initial line-up of guest artists for its 40th Birthday Gala, This One's For You: The Music of Barry Manilow.

Theatre critic Matt Windman returns to French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts to check out a Side By Side concert, conducted by Jason Robert Brown. He writes about his experience!

Elizabeth Stanley headlined The New York Pops Underground cabaret on Monday, September 19, 2022 at 54 Below. New York Pops Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke hosted the program. Check out photos here!

Green-Wood’s annual Memorial Day concert will make a triumphant return following a two-year hiatus. On Monday, May 30th from 2:30–4:30pm, the community is welcomed to enjoy a concert beside the Cemetery’s iconic Gothic Arch near the Main Entrance at 25th Street and Fifth Avenue. Visitors are encouraged to bring friends and family, pack a blanket and picnic lunch, or purchase sandwiches on site from nearby Baked in Brooklyn, all while enjoying a classical symphonic repertoire.

Green-Wood’s annual Memorial Day concert will make a triumphant return following a two-year hiatus. On Monday, May 30th from 2:30–4:30pm, the community is welcomed to enjoy a concert beside the Cemetery’s iconic Gothic Arch near the Main Entrance at 25th Street and Fifth Avenue.

Next month, Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras (TRYPO) is heading out on tour, with a high-profile stop in New York City. The youth orchestra was originally scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall in June 2020, but the event was canceled due to the pandemic. This year, however, they’ll get their chance to participate in Carnegie Hall’s New York “Sounds of Summer” Festival.

Three Rivers Young Peoples Orchestras has announced its spring concert, Brand New Way, which will take place on Sat., May 28, at Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts. The program features Sibelius's “Suite for Violin” with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra member Irene Cheng and 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' with vocalists Dr. Zuly Inirio and Anita Levels from UniSound's Black Teaching Artist-in-Residence program.

The New York Pops 39th Birthday Gala concert, For the First Time In Forever: The Songs of Kristen and Bobby Lopez, on Monday, April 25 at 7:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall will feature 27 participants from the orchestra's Kids on Stage program.

Kristen Bell (Film and Television star; voice of Anna in Disney’s Frozen), Caissie Levy (original Elsa in Frozen on Broadway) and Betsy Wolfe (originated leading role in world premiere of the Lopezes’ musical Up Here) will join The New York Pops, led by Music Director and Conductor Steven Reineke, for its 39th Birthday Gala.

Stars in the House presented a gala and telethon with French Woods Festival of the Arts partnering with the Hancock-French Woods Arts Alliance this past Sunday, August 16th. The virtual Gala reached over 20,000 views throughout the Stars In The House network and raised $26,000 with 100% of the proceeds supporting the College Arts Scholarship Fund.

Stars in the House continues today (7pm) with Moments in the Woods. Join Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jason Alexander, Todrick Hall, Mandy Gonzalez, Andréa Burns, Seth Rudetsky, and more to raise funds to support the Hancock - French Woods Arts Alliance.

The New York Pops will additionally honor Nicola M. Heryet, Principal of Avison Young; June Freemanzon, founding board member of The New York Pops; and Ron Schaefer, Founder of French Woods Festival for the Performing Arts, at its 37th Birthday Gala, Into the Unknown! The Songs of Kristen & Bobby Lopez, on Monday, April 27, 2020 at 7:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall, presented by The New York Pops.

Over the last 50 years, French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts has become famous for its summer programs in music, theater, dance and the performing arts.  The bedrock of the program is an all-encompassing schedule of  80 theater productions, including shows that are fresh off Broadway, along with other favorites, classics, and forgotten jewels from the last century of musical theater. On top of that, Broadway stars, professional musicians, conductors, composers and playwrights as well as members of internationally recognized orchestras will visit French Woods during the summer and offer their mastery as coaches to the campers. Additionally, the instrumental program collaborates with the theater program with the use of live full orchestrations for the musicals. This raises the quality of the performance as well as the experience for performers and their audiences.

Last night, Feinstein's/54 Below again celebrated the popular and prolific summer camp, French Woods Festival of the Performing Arts.

George Gershwin loved going to nightclubs. One evening when he was “on the town' with his pal Fred Astaire as they were in a club enjoying a group of entertainers George turned to Fred and said…”Where do all these new young talented people come from”?

Two years ago, I revisited French Woods Festival of the Arts (which I attended from 1999 to 2002 as a camper/teen actor and then as an assistant director/stage manager) and BroadwayWorld kindly published an article I wrote about the experience. In light of my responsibilities at work (attorney by day, theater critic by night) and at home (including a hyperactive toddler and commuting daily between NY and NJ), I was not planning on visiting again this past summer, but that instantly changed when I learned that the camp was planning on presenting 1776 for the first time in nearly two decades - and with an all-female cast.