New Summer Music Fest Takes Stage At 92nd Street Y

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — The 92nd Street Y announced a new annual summer music festival last week as the Upper East Side institution celebrates its 150th anniversary year.

The new festival starting July 11, called Midsummer MusicFest, will spotlight a different element from the 92nd Street Y — now known as 92NY — programming archive.

In its first year, the focus will be on jazz, with a week of performances before merging with 92NY's annual Jazz in July series on July 18.

The series will open with longtime Broadway singer Norm Lewis. Next, a swing dance party with dancer Caleb Teicher, jazz singer Veronica Swift and with the Charles Turner & Uptown Swing band backing.

And to close the first jazzy week, 21st-century jazz pianist savant Vijay Iyer and his trio will perform with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for the New York debut of "Emergence," a new suite by Iyer for chamber orchestra and jazz trio.

For the combination Midsummer MusicFest and Jazz in July and opens with jazz master Dee Dee Bridgewater alongside trumpeter Nicholas Payton and the Bill Charlap Trio.

Other shows include Aaron Diehl, John Schofield and a show-stopping finale on July 27 with all-stars like John Pizzarelli, Renee Rosnes, Ken Peplowski and more.

Jazz has long held strong roots at 92NY, where legends like John Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, Joshua Redman, Thelonious Monk, Bill Evens and more have taken to the stage, some way before they had reached famous status.

According to the announcement, all that jazz actually started with a 1918 Thanksgiving eve performance from the Jumuly Jazz Band and continued with evenings of parlor jazz over the next decades. In 1955, jazz found a more prominent position at 92NY, with a Modern Jazz Festival featuring Monk and Charles Mingus.

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