Thank you for experiencing Studio BFPL: Holiday Edition!

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION | December 10 – 13

Thursday, Dec 17, 5-7 PM: Thad Debrock

Thad DeBrock is a consummate guitarist who has worked with the likes of David Byrne , Chromeo, Renee Fleming, Graham Nash, Judy Collins to name a few. His guitar playing can be heard on Grammy winning and nominated records, movies and tv. Thad is a co-founder of the PLM Music Revue (People Love Music) and has spent the last 9 months preforming on the back of a pick up truck in different various New York City neighborhoods raising thousands of dollars of food for The Campaign Against Hunger.

Friday, Dec 18, 5-7 PM: Michael Winograd and Ilya Shneyveys

Clarinetist Michael Winograd lives in Brooklyn, New York.  He is one of today’s most celebrated Klezmer musicians.  He tours the world with his band Michael WInograd & the Honorable Mentshn, along with Pneuma Quartet, and Sandaraa, a world music fusion project he co-leads with Pakistani pop sensation Zeb Bangash.  He’s performed with a veritable who’s who of today’s leading Jewish musicians including Itzhak Perlman, Frank London, Socalled, Budowitz, the Klezmer Conservatory Band and others.  Michael was featured as the clarinet soloist on Vulfpeck’s 2016 album The Beautiful Game, and appeared with them to a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden in September 2019.  He produces records, composes for film, has a top secret life as a stock music producer, is the artistic director of KlezKanada, North America’s largest gathering of klezmer musicians, and is a founder Yiddish New York.

Ilya Shneyveys is an international performer, accordionist and multi-instrumentalist, teacher, composer, arranger and producer of contemporary Jewish music, from klezmer and Yiddish folk song to fusion and experimental projects.

A founding member of Berlin’s famous Neukölln Klezmer Sessions and Shtetl Neukölln festival, as well as a long-time faculty member at Yiddish Summer Weimar, Ilya has performed and taught at major Jewish festivals around the world, including Yiddish Fest Moscow, Yiddish New York, Klezfest St.Petersburg, Klezfest London, KlezKanada, Montreal Jewish Festival, Toronto Ashkenaz Festival, Krakow Jewish Festival and more.

He is the artistic director and a founding member of the Yiddish psychedelic rock band Forshpil (LV-RU-DE), which just released a new album, and a founding member of the Yiddish-Bavarian fusion project Alpen Klezmer (DE), winner of 2014 RUTH World Music Award at TFF Rudolstadt. He is an artictic director of the German-Israeli student exchange project The Caravan Orchestra, for which he was awarded the 2017 Shimon-Peres-Prize. As a touring member of the klezmer-balkan band Dobranotch (RU) he has received the Eiserne Eversteiner Preis in 2017. He has performed and collaborated with such projects like Opa! (RU), The Klezmatics (US), Daniel Kahn and the Painted Bird (DE) and many others. Ilya composes contemporary traditional klezmer pieces and creates original arrangements of traditional Jewish music. He is renowned as an improviser, accompanist and band leader. Originally from Riga, Latvia, Ilya has been traveling the world for the last 15 years promoting Yiddish music and culture. He is currently based in Brooklyn, NY, where he’s been organising socially distanced klezmer jam sessions and picnics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Saturday, Dec 19, 5-7 PM: Thad Debrock

Thad DeBrock is a consummate guitarist who has worked with the likes of David Byrne , Chromeo, Renee Fleming, Graham Nash, Judy Collins to name a few. His guitar playing can be heard on Grammy winning and nominated records, movies and tv. Thad is a co-founder of the PLM Music Revue (People Love Music) and has spent the last 9 months preforming on the back of a pick up truck in different various New York City neighborhoods raising thousands of dollars of food for The Campaign Against Hunger.

Sunday, Dec 20, 1 – 2:20 PM: Brandee Younger and Dezron Douglas

A leading voice of the harp today, performer, composer, educator, and concert curator Brandee Younger defies genres and labels. Recently awarded Rising Star Harpist in Downbeat Magazine’s 2020 Critics Poll, she has performed and recorded with artists including Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Jack Dejohnette, Charlie Haden, Common, John Legend, The Roots, Stevie Wonder and Lauryn Hill. In 2019, she released her fourth solo album Soul Awakening and her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix Concert-Documentary, Beyoncé: Homecoming. This same year, Ms. Younger was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueens’ “Soundtrack of America”. Ms. Younger’s ability to seamlessly inject the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked is a testament to her deep love for and exemplary command of the instrument.

Ms. Younger earned her Bachelor of Music in Harp Performance at the Hartt School of Music and her Master of Music and Performing Arts Professions at New York University.  She is on the harp faculty at NYU Steinhardt and has taught at Adelphi University, Nassau Community College and The Hartt School Community Division at the University of Hartford.  Past residencies and masterclasses include The Royal Conservatory of Music (Toronto), University of Birmingham (UK), Howard University, Drexel University, Princeton University, Tulane University, Trinity College, The Hartt School, University of Michigan, DePaul University, Berklee College of Music and she also serves as Symphonic and Jazz Harp Artist in Residence at the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts.

She holds leadership positions through the Apollo (theater) Young Patrons Steering Committee and the American Harp Society, Inc. where she is Director at Large.  As a concert curator, Ms Younger organized “Divine Ella,” part of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture’s annual Women’s Jazz Festival. She also served as curator of the 2016 Harp On Park concert series, “highlighting the diversity of the harp and the contemporary importance of an ancient instrument,” and most recently coordinated “Her Song,” featuring the works of women composers, both for Arts Brookfield.

Bassist, composer, bandleader, and educator Dezron Douglas has established himself as a major force in contemporary creative music. A protégé of the great Jackie McLean, the Downbeat Magazine 2019 Rising Star is known for his work with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Cyrus Chestnut, David Murray, Louis Hayes, and also with piano legends George Cables, Eric Reed, Mulgrew Miller and Benny Green. Douglas has recorded on more than 100 albums, contributing to the artistry of numerous bandleaders and maintaining an integral presence in the sounds of his peers, including Keyon Harrold, Jonathan Blake, Melanie Charles, and Makaya McCraven. He is an active music educator, currently on the Jazz Studies faculty at NYU Steinhardt. He has released 6 albums as a lead artist and maintains a variety of projects that he uses as platforms for his compositions. His band, Black Lion, released their latest single “COBRA” in October of 2020.

Sunday, Dec 20, 2:50 – 4:00 PM: The Mistletones

The Mistletones have been spreading their unique brand of cheer for the past 14 years in and around New York City. This contemporary a cappella quartet performs all of their music in tight 4-part harmony arrangements.  Upbeat, fun and festive, their music ranges from classic carols to contemporary holiday favorites.

Art is all Around You!

You may have noticed that when you entered the Encounters performance space tonight you walked through a large-scale vinyl artwork covering the windows. The work is by Miami-based Afro-Latina visual artist, author and educator, Reyna Noriega. Arts Brookfield commissioned Noriega to design a winter installation on the glass exteriors of Brookfield Place, as well as in the Winter Garden. Click here to learn more.

Brookfield Place, also known as BFPL, is a destination in step with the latest in global and local culture, from art and music to cuisine, shopping, and more. Brookfield Place is now open for dining, shopping, and exploring. Treat your taste buds, stop by your favorite shops, and enjoy the best sunset views in Manhattan.

CONCIERGE HOURS

Monday – Saturday, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Sunday, 12:00 – 6:00 PM