In 1999, Pavlina Dokovska, chair of the Piano department, founded the Mannes Sounds Festival and became its artistic director. The festival presents more than 20 concerts annually performed by Mannes' talented students and master classes and lectures by distinguished faculty members and renowned guest artists. The events are held at various prestigious New York City concert venues and cultural institutions.

The Mannes Sounds Festival is one of the outstanding components of Mannes' performance program.

Schedule of Events:

7:30pm - Mannes Sounds: The Dybbuk, or Between Two Worlds; A chamber opera by Ofer Ben-Amots based on the play by S. Ansky

Stage Direction by Stephen Brown-Fried

Music Direction by Robert Kahn

Through his haunting and evocative score, Ofer Ben-Amots offers an operatic retelling of S. Ansky’s masterpiece of the Yiddish theatrical canon. Wracked with grief for her beloved, Leah, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, recounts her love of a young scholar who died on learning of her betrothal to another man. On the day of the wedding, she becomes possessed by an evil spirit, known in Jewish folklore as a dybbuk. In order to exorcise the spirit and save Leah’s soul, the village must learn the spirit’s true origin.

A partnership with the American Society of Jewish Music and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, directed by Stephen Brown-Fried and performed by students from Mannes and the College of Performing Arts, The Dybbuk is certain to excite your spirits!

Location:
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011

7:00PM - Mannes Sounds: Charles-Valentin Alkan: Piano Visionary

Curated by Donald Wagner, a member of The College of Performing Arts Board of Governors, this concert will explore the life and compositions of Alkan, the French pianist-composer friend and contemporary of Chopin and Liszt, who was justly celebrated in his lifetime. However, his fiercely difficult and starkly original compositions did not find consistent champions after his death in 1888, leading to his obscurity for generations- until a revival in the 1960s. We will hear excerpts from some of his most important works for piano- as well as chamber, vocal and pedal piano works- to demonstrate his wide ranging influences and his unique voice.

Location:
Victor Borge Hall at Scandinavia House
58 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016