2022 Emerging Music Festival | Photo Credit: Chris Lee
Bryant Park Picnic Performances presented by Bank of America announces new artists added to their summer lineup! All shows are free to the public and designed to be enjoyed casually – no tickets required – with more than 700 picnic blankets for audience members to borrow and ample chairs available.
New addition highlights:
- Contemporary Dance adds award-winning tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel, joined by Naomi Funaki and Jared Alexander, and from-subway-to-stage group It’s Showtime NYC! (6/6)
- Two days of buzzworthy artists at the AdHoc-curated Emerging Music Festival with Chanel Beads, Mei Semones, and Los Esplifs (6/28), and Horsegirl, Hannah Jadagu, Bloomsday, Greg Mendez, and @ (6/29)
- World Music Institute adds Afro-rock sensation Natu Camara (8/16)
- Jalopy Theatre presents a mashup of dance music from around the world, featuring the Honky Tonk tunes of Cristina Vane, the Balkan Brass beats of Slavic Soul Party!, and the Latin American rhythms of Guachinangos (8/17)
- Vijay Iyer’s trio will be rounded out by bassist Devon Gates and drummer Jeremy Dutton, presented by Asian American Arts Alliance (8/30)
- The beloved Bryant Park tradition Accordions Around the World adds powerhouse Haitian roots collective Lakou Mizik (September 5)
Many of this season’s performances will livestream for free on Bryant Park’s social media channels and website, reaching national and international audiences. Additional media support is provided by public radio stations WBGO and WQXR. View an archive of performances from previous years here.
Food and drink are available for purchase from a curated lineup of local vendors near the lawn. At all performances, attendees can discover new dishes and celebrate classics from the five boroughs with a rotating line-up of artisanal vendors by Hester Street Fair. Stout NYC offers light bites as well as a selection of beer, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages for purchase.
Additional artist and performance information will be available in the coming months. For the most current information please visit bryantpark.org/picnics.
Bryant Park Picnic Performances 2024 New Artist Additions
Naomi Funaki + Jared Alexander Featuring Ayodele Casel, Sidra Bell, It’s Showtime NYC!, National Dance Institute
Ayodele Casel is an award-winning and critically acclaimed tap dancer and choreographer named one of The New York Times’ “biggest breakout stars of 2019.” Born in the Bronx and raised in Puerto Rico, her practice centers highly narrative works rooted in expressions of selfhood, culture and legacy. Her projects include her concert and Bessie Award-winning film Chasing Magic, her one-woman show While I Have the Floor, and her theatrical and film series Diary of a Tap Dancer. She serves as a tap choreographer for the Broadway revival of Funny Girl, which garnered her a 2022 Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Choreography. A frequent New York City Center collaborator, she created an interactive show for their inaugural “On the Move” five-borough tour and is one of their 2023 featured “Artists at the Center.” Her collaboration with Grammy award-winning Latin jazz composer and pianist Arturo O’Farrill is hailed by The New York Times as “next level” and “thrilling.”
Sidra Bell is the founder of Sidra Bell Dance New York and a choreographer and educator who is currently a Master Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and a recent artist-in-residence at Harvard University. Bell is also the founder and creative director of the award-winning MODULE Laboratory, a New York City based immersive platform for movement and theater artists. Bell has won several awards, including a First Prize for Choreography at the Solo Tanz Theater Festival in Stuttgart, Germany, and a National Dance Project Production Award from the New England Foundation for the Arts. Bell has created over 100 works, notably for BODYTRAFFIC, Ailey II, The Juilliard School, Whim W’Him, among many others. She was the first Black female choreographer commissioned to create work for New York City Ballet, where she created two works for film and the Lincoln Center stage (Fall Fashion Gala 2021 and Innovators & Icons Program).
It’s Showtime NYC!’s mission is twofold. First, to cultivate creative excellence within the next generation of Street/Club Dancers by providing unique experiences connected to careers within the dance and performing arts world. Second, to advocate for, and highlight the recognition of, Street/Club Dances as seminal American artforms and folkloric movement cultures within the performing arts sector. Their vision is to become a leading talent incubator for Street/Club Dancers in the NYC metro area by investing in the dancers’ creative maturity; building community; creating space for future ambassadors in Street/Club Dance, spreading the dance forms through schools, stage, studio and the screen. It’s Showtime NYC! is a program of the Bronx-based non-profit organization Dancing in the Streets.
National Dance Institute is a non-profit arts education organization that brings children together through inclusive, joyful dance and music programs. Founded by legendary dancer Jacques d’Amboise, NDI has impacted the lives of thousands of children worldwide for nearly fifty years. At Bryant Park, NDI children will perform beloved repertory choreography and a sneak peek of our June Event of the Year, “Earth’s Song.”
Emerging Music Festival Curated by AdHoc
Chanel Beads, Mei Semones, Los Esplifs
Chanel Beads — the project of New York-based musician Shane Lavers — recently released its debut album, Your Day Will Come, which marks Lavers’ arrival as a new force in experimental music. Throughout the album, Lavers captures the many contradictions of modern existence and the strange infiniteness of the digital world. Though he incorporates the scrappy sonics of post-punk, the gripping sentimentality of pop tunes, and the spectral artifice of electronic music, he blurs lines through unconventional song structures that build into transcendental climaxes. As he intentionally prints his songs down to embed fried artifacts and ghostly remains, the resulting songs have a time-collapsing quality, both transitory and timeless.
Mei Semones’ sweetly evocative blend of jazz, bossa nova and math-y indie rock is not only a way for her to find solace in her favorite genres, but is an intuitive means of catharsis. Semones chronicles infatuation, devotion, and vulnerability in her songs, complete with sweeping strings, virtuosic guitar-playing and heartfelt lyrics sung in both English and Japanese, that have all become part of her sonic trademark: ornately catchy, genre-fusing compositions serving as the backdrop to tender lyrics touching on the universalities of human emotion.
Influenced by Fania, fashion, and psychedelia, Los Esplifs blends nostalgic rhythms and sounds with progressive youth culture. Led by Bandleaders Saul Millan and Caleb Michel, this genre-bending, psychedelic “conjunto” is an instant explosive performance. With an EP and two full-length album releases in their arsenal, this six-piece Latin-Psych group is not slowing down.
Horsegirl, Hannah Jadagu, Bloomsday, Greg Mendez, @
Horsegirl is a noisy rock trio from Chicago composed of Penelope Lowenstein (she/her), Nora Cheng (she/her), and Gigi Reece (they/them). Horsegirl draws inspiration from shoegaze and post-punk, in the realm of ‘90’s American and UK indie underground.
Hannah Jadagu released her debut EP, What Is Going On?, a collection of intimate bedroom pop tracks recorded entirely on an iPhone 7, which was, at the time, Jadagu’s most accessible mode of production. An off-the-cuff approach to music making and instinctive ability to write unforgettable hooks belied the intensity of Jadagu’s subject matter. In 2023, Jadagu released her ambitious debut album, Aperture, which The New York Times applauded for “Jadagu’s easy aptitude with lilting melodies and her love of deliciously crunchy texture.”
Bloomsday is the tender, cerebral project of the New York-based Iris James Garrison. Their debut 2022 album Place to Land, was largely about transitioning and finding a home in their identity, body, and in other people. Since the project’s inception in 2019, Bloomsday has toured the US extensively, including supporting Becca Mancari and Joe Vann, sets at Hopscotch Music Festival and SXSW, and playing with Courtney Barnett and Bonny Doon. Their music has been featured on NPR New Music Friday, Nylon, and Paste, among other publications. Bloomsday’s new album, Heart of the Artichoke, is out this June via Bayonet Records.
On Greg Mendez‘s most recent release, Greg Mendez, the Philadelphia-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist investigates the shaky camera of memory, striving to carve out a collage that points to a truth. But there isn’t a regimented actuality here; instead, Mendez highlights the merit in many truths, and many lives, and how even the hardest truths can still contain some humor. While this is technically Mendez’s third full-length album, his back catalog boasts an extensive range of EPs and live recordings. He’s a prolific and thoughtful songwriter, understanding the joy in impulse, and shying away from the clinical sheen of overproduction. 2017’s ¯_(ツ)_/¯ and 2020’s Cherry Hell garnered acclaim for their quiet, lo-fi urgency, exploring themes of addiction and heartbreak with an intentional, authentic haze, and it’s this approach that has solidified Mendez as a staple in the DIY community for years.
@ (pronounced “At”) is the folk-pop project of vocalist/guitarist Victoria Rose and multi-instrumentalist Stone Filipczak. Their debut 2021 album Mind Palace Music was released to rave reviews; Pitchfork said, “Mind Palace Music is an example of what happens when you take a poignant songwriter who’s careful about her chord progressions and introduce a fellow songwriter who knows the magic of no-frills arrangements.” In 2024, @ released their new EP “Are You There God? It’s Me, @.” Diverting from their usual acoustic instrumentation, @ go soul-searching on a sonic side quest into more electronic music.
World Music Institute
Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Natu Camara
For the first time in America, Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and an eight-piece band will perform his 1975 debut album, Simigwa, in its entirety! Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a musical luminary hailing from Ghana, West Africa, with a staggering 29 albums under his belt. Known affectionately as the “Simigwa Do Man,” Ambolley’s musical journey began in the vibrant port city of Sekondi-Takoradi, in the Western Region of Ghana. His early fascination with music blossomed into a lifelong passion. From mastering his father’s flute at the tender age of eight to honing his guitar skills under the mentorship of “Uncle Bonku,” Sammy Lartey, and Ebo Taylor, Ambolley’s musical odyssey has been nothing short of extraordinary. This all led to Ambolley becoming a musical life force and exploding on the scene in 1973 with a jazzy highlife sound called “Simigwa-Do.” His name has become synonymous with Simigwa music and dance. Gyedu-Blay Ambolley’s groundbreaking debut solo album, Simigwa, stands as a cornerstone of Ghanaian music history (and one of its most iconic album covers). Simigwa stands as Ambolley’s magnum opus, a masterpiece fusing together the rich tapestry of highlife, afrobeat, folk and funk.
Natu Camara is a powerhouse hailing from the vibrant heart of West Africa. As a dynamic singer, songwriter, and humanitarian, she blends Guinean traditional sounds with pop, soul, and rock, creating an Afro-rock experience that knows no borders. Natu’s mesmerizing performances tackle global issues, from love to child marriage, loneliness, unity, and pressing concerns, touching hearts worldwide. Beyond her musical talent, she embodies, resilience, and hope, connecting spirits in a way that feels almost spiritual. Her unwavering commitment to social justice adds an inspiring dimension to her artistry, making her a true luminary in the world of music.
Jalopy Theatre
Cristina Vane, Slavic Soul Party!, Guachinangos
Cristina Vane is an Italian born, emerging Americana artist out of Nashville. Her signature bottleneck slide guitar playing, travis picking, and clawhammer banjo are tied together by her silky, powerful voice and her vivid songwriting. Vane’s musical perspective is decidedly unique and authentic. Cristina’s authentic sound is compelling, and has resulted in direct support opportunities with Bob Weir, Wynonna Judd, Cass McCombs (The Fillmore SF), Town Mountain, Duane Betts, and Willi Carlisle.
Fiery Balkan brass, irresistible beats, Roma (Gypsy) accordion wizardry, and virtuoso jazz chops make Slavic Soul Party! NYC’s official #1 brass band for BalkanSoul GypsyFunk. These nine musicians pump the sounds of New York life through a Balkan brass filter, making new music out of immigration, integration, and ingenuity. The band’s Tuesday night residency in Brooklyn has become a destination for music fans from around the world, and is famous for “delivering a great time.” (The New York Times)
Cumbia with a Mexican Jarocho flavor, Guachinangos features members from diverse cultural backgrounds. The band fuses Mexican son jarocho with Colombian cumbia and other Latin American rhythms. Their exciting instrumentation and electrifying stage energy invites anybody to enjoy, sing and move to the rhythm of the music.
Asian American Arts Alliance
Vijay Iyer Trio
Described by The New York Times as a “social conscience, multimedia collaborator, system builder, rhapsodist, historical thinker and multicultural gateway,” composer-pianist Vijay Iyer has earned a place as one of the leading music-makers of his generation. His honors include a MacArthur Fellowship, a Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, a United States Artist Fellowship, and the Alpert Award in the Arts. His newest album features his acclaimed trio with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and bassist Linda May Han Oh titled Compassion (ECM, 2024). His lush, expansive collaboration with Arooj Aftab and Shahzad Ismaily, Love in Exile (Verve, 2023), received two Grammy nominations and was named among the best albums of the year in Pitchfork and The New York Times. For this performance, Iyer will be joined by bassist Devon Gates and drummer Jeremy Dutton.
Accordions Around the World Curated by Ariana Hellerman
Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, Afro Dominicano, Lakou Mizik
2024 Grammy Award nominee and “America’s Hottest Accordion” winner, Dwayne Dopsie plays high-energy zydeco that keeps you wanting more. Dwayne hails from one of the most influential Zydeco families in the world. Although inspired by tradition, he has developed his own style that defies existing stereotypes and blazes a refreshingly distinct path for 21st century Zydeco music. Dwayne attributes his musical abilities to his father, Rockin’ Dopsie, Sr., a pioneer of Zydeco music. He has played the accordion since age seven and states, “This is my calling – Zydeco music is in my blood and it is my heart and soul.” This singer/songwriter and accordionist has performed in 40 countries and also in hundreds of cities across the United States, Europe, Brazil, Panama and Canada since debuting his band at age 19.
The funk-fusion combo Afro Dominicano infuses their songs with Afro-Caribbean soul: a blend of Dominican folkloric styles and pop influences that includes merengue, bachata, samba, reggae, punk and R&B, all filtered through a uniquely New York sensibility. The group’s mix of sweet vocals, accordion, guitar, traditional percussion and electric bass sparks high-energy riffs and romantic balladry that eludes the pigeonhole of genre in favor of genuine human connection. The social justice-inspired collective of Dominican-American musicians celebrates the forthcoming release of their newest album with a night of fresh jams and good times, featuring music by DJ Bembona.
Lakou Mizik is a powerhouse collective of Haitian roots music with a soulful energy and a mix of styles that feels mystical and familiar at the same time. In the wake of Haiti’s devastating earthquake the band came together to show the world that their country was much more than the sum of headlines that were being shot around the globe. Today with their positive messages and roots revival music, they have become one of Haiti’s hottest exports and have gained an international following with their critically acclaimed debut album Wa Di Yo and their mystical, soulful, dance party inducing live shows.
Complete Bryant Park Picnic Performances Line Listings
May
May 31: New York City Opera – Puccini Celebration
June
June 01: New York City Opera – Puccini Celebration
June 06: Contemporary Dance – Naomi Funaki + Jared Alexander Featuring Ayodele Casel, Sidra Bell, It’s Showtime NYC!, National Dance Institute
June 07: Contemporary Dance – David Dorfman Dance, Soles of Duende, Joffrey Concert Group, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts
June 14: Contemporary Dance – Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, Robin Dunn’s ‘SHOUT,’ Kevin Wynn Tribute, Brooklyn Arts
June 21: Jazzmobile – Sarah Vaughan Centennial Featuring Charenée Wade
June 28: Emerging Music Festival Day 1 – Chanel Beads, Mei Semones, Los Esplifs
June 29: Emerging Music Festival Day 2 – Horsegirl, Hannah Jadagu, Bloomsday, Greg Mendez, @
July
July 05: Carnegie Hall Citywide – Tania León and The Harlem Chamber Players
July 12: Carnegie Hall Citywide – Thandiswa Mazwai
July 19: Carnegie Hall Citywide – Louis Cato
July 26: Carnegie Hall Citywide – Michael Olatuja & Lagos Pepper Soup
August
August 02: Carnegie Hall Citywide – La Excelencia
August 09: Joe’s Pub – Broadway en Spanglish: Florencia Cuenca and Jaime Lozano
August 10: New Victory Theater – Ephrat Asherie Dance + Barkin/Selissen Project
August 16: World Music Institute – Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, Natu Camara
August 17: Jalopy Theatre – Cristina Vane, Slavic Soul Party!, Guachinangos
August 23: New York City Opera – Tosca
August 24: New York City Opera – Tosca
August 30: Asian American Arts Alliance – Vijay Iyer Trio
August 31: Contemporary Dance – Mark Morris Dance Group, Blacks in Ballet, Reed Luplau
September
September 05: Accordions Around the World – Dwayne Dopsie and the Zydeco Hellraisers, Afro Dominicano, Lakou Mizik
September 06: American Symphony Orchestra – Beyond the Hall
September 12: Harlem Stage – Artist TBA
September 13: The Town Hall + Belongó – The Man with The Golden Horn
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Location and Subway Directions:
Bryant Park is situated behind the New York Public Library in midtown Manhattan, between 40th and 42nd Streets & Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Take the B, D, F, or M train to 42nd Street/Bryant Park; or, take the 7 train to 5th Avenue.
