The Stone, New York’s cult space for experimental music will be organising its programs at a new address from March 2018, at The New School College of Performing Arts.
The Stone’s founder and artistic director John Zorn has announced that The Stone at the New School – as it will be officially known, will offer audiences concert programs every week from Tuesday to Sunday, just like the current Stone. The collaboration will be marked by concerts at the new venue every Friday and Sunday starting this June. The entire program has already been announced and it includes numerous artists who, just like Zorn himself, have performed at Jazz Fest in previous years (some of them on multiple occasions): Uri Caine, Mark Feldman, Wadada Leo Smith, Dave Douglas, John Medeski, Ikue Mori, Craig Taborn, Mark Feldman, Sylvie Courvoisier, Trigger, Kenny Grohowski, Eric Friedlander, Jen Shyu, Jennifer Choi, Jim Black, Marc Ribot, Trevor Dunn, as well as artists like Laurie Anderson or Mary Halvorson.
“It was fun to play at a filthy corner in East Village but this music deserves to be seen in a different context”, said Zorn and emphasised that the relocation of The Stone to Greenwich Village will move experimental music from margins to a “serious space at the hart of the Village”, to the modern Glass Box Theatre. Although slightly bigger than the current Stone, it will have the same number of seating places – 74, in order to keep the intimate atmosphere of The Stone from East Village.
The Stone is a concert space, opened and led by John Zorn since 2005. Although a space of a very small capacity, it became very influential on New York’s music scene. It was announced past December that The Stone is changing its location, not due to financial or similar reasons, but because “its time for a change” said Zorn.
New School’s management, led by dean Richard Kessler has enabled The Stone rent free usage of the space to support Zorn’s concept of The Stone – tickets cost 20 USD, the entire ticket revenue serves as a fee for musicians who perform that night. In order to enable audiences to focus on the music exclusively, food and drinks will not be sold at the venue.