arts>World Financial Center Presents Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra With Author Neil Gaiman, Tenor Jason Danieley, Jan. 16, 2010
January 4, 2010
Winter Season

For Immediate Release

For information and photos contact:
Patrick Kowalczyk, patrick@pkpr.com
Gretchen Griffin, gretchen@pkpr.com
PKPR, 212.627.8098

Who:
The Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra featuring Neil Gaiman, Jason Danieley

What:
Musical Tales and Adventures: Peter and the Wolf & And Bold To Fall Withal - Henry Hudson in the New World

When: Saturday, January 16th, 2010
Time: 7:00 pm
Phone: 212.945.0505
Web: www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com
Where: World Financial Center Winter Garden
Cost: Free – No tickets or reservations required

ARTS>WORLD FINANCIAL CENTER PRESENTS KNICKERBOCKER CHAMBER ORCHESTRA WITH AUTHOR NEIL GAIMAN, TENOR JASON DANIELEY, JAN. 16, 2010

Free downtown concert to feature master storyteller Neil Gaiman narrating Peter and the Wolf, Broadway tenor Jason Danieley in new composition celebrating the voyage of Henry Hudson

http://www.artsworldfinancialcenter.com/

http://www.knickerbocker-orchestra.org/

New York, NY (December 21, 2009) – arts>World Financial Center, New York City’s leading year-round showcase for free visual and performing arts, will present a free performance of the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra on January 16, 2010, featuring special guest Neil Gaiman narrating Peter and the Wolf.

In a rare New York appearance, the Newbery Award winner and author of Coraline will give new life to Sergei Prokofiev's children's classic as part of “Musical Tales and Adventures: Peter And The Wolf & And Bold To Fall Withal - Henry Hudson in the New World,” an evening of music by the Lower Manhattan-based chamber orchestra set in the World Financial Center’s glass-vaulted Winter Garden.

The concert will also feature acclaimed Broadway tenor Jason Danieley in And Bold To Fall Withal - Henry Hudson in the New World, a world premiere composition by Knickerbocker founder and conductor Gary S. Fagin. Commissioned by The Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, the work celebrates the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson's sail into New York Harbor.

The evening will also include a performance of Charles Ives’ haunting The Unanswered Question and Duke Ellington’s playful Up and Down, Up and Down, from Such Sweet Thunder. At the end of the one-hour concert, the audience will be invited to dance to Tchaikovsky’s irresistible Waltz from Eugene Onegin, transforming the Winter Garden into a ballroom.

Now in its 22nd season, arts>World Financial Center is the East Coast’s largest presenter of free, year-round performing and visual arts. Other season highlights include a weeklong celebration of Chopin’s 200th birthday, with 200 hours of the composer’s works performed by such pianists as NPR host Christopher O’Riley; Sounds from the Black Box, animations by South African artist William Kentridge paired with new scores by South African composer Philip Miller; and a three-week run of New York Classical Theatre’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark to be performed throughout nearly 3.5 acres of the sprawling World Financial Center.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering once again with the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra, which in one short year has established itself as an estimable force on New York’s classical music scene,” said Debra Simon, artistic director of arts>World Financial Center. “Neil Gaiman and Jason Danieley both rank among the most exciting voices in their respective fields, and it’s a testament to Knickerbocker’s influence that they’ve chosen to be a part of this magical evening in one of New York’s most stunning performance spaces.”

About arts>World Financial Center
arts>World Financial Center is the leading showcase in Lower Manhattan for visual and performing arts, presenting the work of emerging and established artists. The artistic process is made accessible in a free, open and interactive manner to workers, residents and the broader public of cultural consumers. Since 1988, year-round and free to the public, arts>World Financial Center has presented interdisciplinary arts programming with an emphasis on commissioned works, site-specific installations and premieres.