Schedule / Past Festivals

Our all-day, immersive Guitar Marathon at The Met Cloisters

Perched atop North Manhattan’s Fort Tryon Park, with a view of the Hudson River below and cliffs of the Palisades across the way, The Cloisters houses one of the world's finest collections of medieval European art.

featuring Rez Abbasi, Derek Gripper, Kaki King and Glenn Jones

An evening of music and conversation with Rez Abbasi, Derek Gripper, Kaki King and Glenn Jones. Hosted by WNYC New Sounds' John Schaefer.

 

 

Performances include:

Curated by Joel Harrison

This year, the Alt Guitar Summit launches a new annual series entitled "While We're Still Here," celebrating living composers. For this inaugural, the honorees will be none other than jazz big-band leader Carla Bley and the widely influential Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.
 

Curated by Joel Harrison

Beauty and Noise is devoted to players who inhabit electronic frontiers, creating sonic rapture, sometimes absent of notes. Listeners will be immersed in wild, mysterious textures rarely imagined. Some artists will play solo, others will have accompaniment, some of the music will be composed, some improvised.

Celebrating 101 years of Sister Rosetta Tharpe

NYGF ‘16 begins with a Mother's Day concert in honor of gospel/blues legend Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the godmother of rock & roll. She was America’s first national gospel star, and her famous windmill guitar moves lived on in Keith Richards and Pete Townshend.

Toubab Krewe + Joseph Arthur PREMIERE SCORES TO CLASSIC SILENT FILMS

The West African-inspired Asheville, North Carolina-based ensemble Toubab Krewe plays Malian-accented world-pop that’s imbued with laconic, Southeastern minimalism.

Luther Dickinson + Alvin Youngblood Hart PREMIERE SCORES TO CLASSIC SILENT FILMS

Formerly lead guitarist with The Black Crowes and current front-man for North Mississippi Allstars, Memphis-born Luther Dickinson deploys his aggressively Southern sensibility to Walter Ruttman’s 1927 documentary portrait of a Berlin long gone by, Berlin: Symphony of a Great City.

BADI ASSAD + KAKI KING PREMIERE SCORES TO CLASSIC SILENT FILMS

The extraordinary Brazilian guitarist/singer Badi Assad premieres her score for one of the best-known films of China's cinematic golden age: Wu Yonggang’s 1934 debut The Goddess, the story of a prostitute working the seamy streets of Shanghai to afford an education for her young son.

Marc Ribot + Chris Eldridge PREMIERE SCORES TO CLASSIC SILENT FILMS

Marc Ribot did such a fabulous job with Chaplin's classic The Kid at the 2010 Festival,” NYGF Founder David Spelman remembers, “bringing out not just the humor, but the deep humanity of the film, that I knew we wanted to have him back, but this time with a film that might summon up an even wider emotional palette.” This season, Ribot returns with a new score for Josep

Co-curated by William Kanengiser + Badi Assad

FREE for the first time in our Festival's history, this six-hour Marathon (taking place on MLK Day) celebrates the classical guitar in North and South America, contrasting rich traditions with bold experimentation.

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