How New York's Long Play Festival Is Rewriting the Rules of Classical Music
Fifty-plus concerts. Three days. One festival pushing classical music into bold, unclassifiable territory.
Long Play Festival might be classical music's least classical weekend. One moment you're hearing pristine harmonics from a string quartet, the next you're swimming in electronic distortions, before ending in an hour-long minimalist set that leaves you wondering if you zoned out or tapped into something deeper.
Presented by Bang on a Can, this three-day (May 2–4) takeover of Brooklyn venues pulls together more than 50 concerts, each stretching the idea of classical music, sometimes past the point of recognition.
Performances pop up all over the place from Pioneer Works' industrial warehouse to churches with heavenly acoustics, with stops at intimate venues like Roulette, Irondale, and ISSUE Project Room where experimental sounds feel right at home without any pretense. It’s the kind of festival where you don’t need to know exactly what you’re hearing to know it’s worth hearing.
Passes ($235 for the weekend, $95 for a single day, plus fees) get you into nearly everything, though some performances also offer single tickets or are totally free. Seating is first come, first served, and a few sets will definitely draw early lines, so plan accordingly or embrace serendipity. Either approach tends to work well.
Below are some standout performances worth highlighting from this year's lineup.
Kim Gordon with Kassie Krut and I.U.D.
Pioneer Works, Red Hook, Brooklyn — Fri, May 2 7:30pm
Kim Gordon doesn’t play it safe. The Sonic Youth legend and art-rock icon kicks off Long Play with a performance that promises to unsettle as much as it excites, pulling from her Grammy-nominated 2024 album, The Collective. It’s made up of fractured beats, spectral vocals, and the kind of distorted, confrontational grooves that feel like pop songs pulled apart and rebuilt inside out. Joined by I.U.D. and Kassie Krut, the night veers toward performance art territory, staged in the industrial vastness of Pioneer Works’ Main Hall. It’s not a welcome party. It’s a plunge into Kim Gordon’s creative world.
Venue Notes: A massive, industrial arts space where sound and visuals expand beyond the usual limits. Nothing here feels conventional, in the best way possible.
Ideal For: Experimental music fans, and anyone drawn to raw sound, performance art, and music that resists easy definition.
Henry Threadgill (World Premiere) / Peter Evans’ Being & Becoming
Roulette Intermedium, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn — Fri, May 2 8:00pm
How do you write about a piece no one’s heard yet? You start with the composer. Pulitzer winner Henry Threadgill debuts Listen Ship, a new work for two pianos and six guitars that’s likely as dense, unpredictable, and sharply cut as anything he’s written. It’s a rare chance to catch one of America’s most visionary composers in full exploratory mode. Also on the program is trumpeter Peter Evans’ Being & Becoming, a quartet that blends improvisation, electronics, and rhythm in unexpected ways. With vibraphone, synth, bass, and drums wrapped around Evans’ restless trumpet lines, the group pulls from jazz, classical, and experimental traditions without landing squarely in any one.
Ideal For: Curious listeners open to jazz and beyond.
Venue Notes: A restored Art Deco theater with wraparound balconies and detailed acoustics, Roulette is built for bold sounds. A home for music that doesn’t sit still.
American Opera Projects plays Arvo Pärt
South Oxford Space, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 1:00pm
I had Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel saved in a Spotify playlist for years before I understood why I kept going back to it. His music doesn’t chase resolution or drama, it just sits still, inviting you to do the same. American Opera Projects, usually known for debuting new operas, takes a quieter turn here with a program devoted entirely to Pärt. It’s music that rewards patience, unfolding slowly in a space small enough to catch every breath of sound. Just show up, listen, and see what comes up.
Ideal For: Classical newcomers, Listeners curious about music as meditation, Anyone looking for a quiet reset in the middle of the festival.
Venue Notes: South Oxford Space is small, low-key, and deeply local, tucked just off Fulton Street in Fort Greene. Expect close quarters and clean acoustics.
BlackBox Ensemble presents Embodying Eastman: Speculative Listening with Isaac Jean-François
The Space at Irondale, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 1:00pm
Julius Eastman wrote minimalist music that was anything but minimal in impact. Fiercely political, unapologetically queer, and decades ahead of its time. The adventurous BlackBox Ensemble teams up with Yale scholar Isaac Jean-François for a live exploration into Eastman's work and legacy, combining performance with conversation. Together they make the case for Eastman as essential listening. It’s a chance to hear how music from the margins can still land dead center.
Venue Notes: A converted Sunday school with high ceilings and flexible staging, The Space at Irondale feels equal parts theater and workshop. The openness of the room makes it ideal for experimental work that benefits from proximity and vulnerability.
Ideal For: Curious listeners, Anyone drawn to music that confronts history as much as drawing from it.
Michael Gordon’s Amplified performed by Dither
BRIC Ballroom, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 2:00pm
Dither—a powerhouse electric guitar quartet—takes on Amplified, Michael Gordon’s visceral, hour-long odyssey for four amplified guitars. The piece showcases Gordon's knack for sharp rhythms and raw, gritty sounds. With past collaborations ranging from indie darlings Yo La Tengo to avant-garde icon John Zorn, Dither brings both precision and abandon to their performances in equal measure. Expect waves of feedback, intricate patterns, and a sound world that feels built for a warehouse space like BRIC.
Venue Notes: BRIC Ballroom feels like a cross between a black box theater and a big loft. The ceilings are high and there’s enough space for music to hit hard without getting muddy. Great for loud sets, immersive setups, or anything that needs room to breathe.
Ideal For: Fans of experimental guitar, electric textures, and anyone looking for a classical concert that doesn’t behave like one.
The Rhythm Method with Anaïs Maviel
Issue Project Room, Downtown Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 2:30pm
Known for turning classical convention inside out with graphic scores, vocals, improvisation, and a feminist ethos, The Rhythm Method has built a practice around deep listening and unexpected forms. Here they team up with Anaïs Maviel, a composer, vocalist, and multi-instrumentalist whose work spans oral tradition, experimental sound, and sensory experiences. The pairing feels natural. Both bring an embodied and instinctive approach to their music, and this set—rooted in their 2020 collaboration listen to the rain—it’s less about how the music is built, and more about how it lands in your body.
Ideal For: String Quartet Skeptics, Open-minded Maximalists, The Spiritually Curious.
Venue Notes: ISSUE Project Room is a former courthouse turned sonic sanctuary. The room is spare, resonant, and a little mysterious. Ideal for music that doesn’t fit neatly into genre or form.
John Cage's Sonatas and Interludes by Adam Tendler
BRIC Ballroom, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 4:00pm
John Cage's masterpiece for prepared piano finds its ideal interpreter in Adam Tendler, a pianist known for pairing technical clarity with emotional depth. Written during Cage's study of Indian philosophy, these twenty short pieces transform the piano into a miniature percussion orchestra—screws, rubber, and felt between the strings create sounds that hover between meditative bells and gamelan gongs. Tendler’s personal artistic journey, from a DIY 50-state tour to commissioning new works in memory of his father, makes him uniquely attuned to the introspective spirit of this piece.
Ideal For: Listeners Curious About Cage, Meditation Enthusiasts (this is basically a 70-minute sonic meditation), Anyone looking to rewire their sense of sound.
Kate Moore: Rose of roses, flower of flowers (World Premiere) + Selected Works
The Space at Irondale, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 4:30pm
Kate Moore writes music that feels ancient and futuristic in the same breath. In this world premiere of Rose of roses, flower of flowers, performed by Australia’s boundary-pushing Ensemble Offspring, Moore draws on the 13th-century cantigas de Santa Maria and recasts them for our time, where a nightingale pierced by a thorn sings itself to death. The program also includes pieces for vibraphone, solo violin, and trio with backing track, showcasing Moore’s compositional versatility of ritual, electronics, and slow-unfolding mystery.
Ideal For: Listeners drawn to spiritual minimalism, mythic storytelling, or music that lives somewhere between ancient hymn and dream sequence.
David Handler’s Life Like Violence (World Premiere Screening)
L10 Arts and Cultural Center, Downtown Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 5:30pm
Best known as the co-founder of (Le) Poisson Rouge (LPR), composer and violinist David Handler has spent years giving other artists room to experiment. Now he’s stepping into the spotlight himself. Handler unveils five new music videos from his long-awaited debut album, Life Like Violence. Expect eerie electronics, acoustic intimacy, and visuals that captivate. Stay afterward for Handler’s Q&A with a surprise moderator. Seats are limited, so RSVP here.
Ideal For: Fans of ambient storytelling, visual music, and anyone curious about what a composer-impresario does with his own moment.
Venue Notes: Located steps from BAM, the new L10 Arts and Cultural Center is a sleek, modular space ideal for screenings and off-the-beaten-path premieres. A festival newcomer with some serious potential.
Ringdown (Caroline Shaw & Danni Lee Parpan)
Roulette Intermedium, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 6:00pm
If you’ve ever wondered what a Pulitzer-winning composer sounds like when she forms a soft-pop duo with her partner and swaps string quartets for synths, welcome to Ringdown. Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan call their music “cinematic pop,” but that’s only half the story. It’s dreamy, sentimental, and beautifully off-kilter. Their songs range between Patsy Cline covers and Brahms samples, stitched together by warped loops and raw emotion. Some moments might surprise you more than others—but when the pieces click, you’ll feel it. For the curious, the skeptical, and the romantically bruised.
Ideal for: Curious listeners, Those in the throes of new love or an artistic crisis, Fans of big feelings.
Fausto Romitelli Professor Bad Trip, performed by Talea Ensemble
Church of St. Luke & St. Matthew, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sat, May 3 9:00pm
The ultra-adventurous Talea Ensemble tackles Fausto Romitelli's mind-bending masterpiece Professor Bad Trip. Inspired by mescaline trips, psychedelic rock, and the violence depicted in Francis Bacon’s paintings, this performance dives into avant-garde intensity, where distorted timbres, dense textures, and corrupted harmonies collide to form a piece that feels unstable by design. Expect the full triptych alongside Christophe Guiraud’s complementary piece, A Woman Bathing in a Stream, in the reverberant Brooklyn church.
Venue Notes: Built in the late 1800s and rebuilt after multiple fires, St. Luke and St. Matthew is all arches, height, and echo. A Romanesque landmark with a history as layered as its acoustics.
Ideal For: A Brooklyn night out. Fans of avant-garde with a pulse. Anyone who likes their contemporary music loud, layered, and slightly unhinged.
David Lang's darker, performed by Ensemble Signal, with film by Bill Morrison
BRIC Ballroom, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sun, May 4 12:00pm
Classical music loves its emotional roller coasters. David Lang prefers the slow burn. In darker, the Pulitzer-winning composer trades drama for restraint. Instead of dramatic highs and lows, Lang offers a narrow expressive band where the shift from light to shadow is nearly imperceptible, until suddenly, it isn’t. Performed by Ensemble Signal, whose attention to detail and patience puts Lang’s music in very good hands, the piece is paired with film by Bill Morrison, known for his haunting, time-warped imagery. Together, the music and visuals create something closer to an atmosphere than a story. Less a concert than a recalibration of the senses.
Ideal for: People who feel more than they show. A quiet way to open your festival day.
Ensemble Offspring plays Xenakis
BRIC Stoop, Fort Greene, Brooklyn — Sun, May 4 3:00pm
Sydney’s Ensemble Offspring brings the fierce, percussive world of Iannis Xenakis to BRIC Stoop in a free indoor performance that dives deep into the composer’s visceral, mathematical sound. The program features two of Xenakis’s most iconic works: Rebonds, a relentless, full-body workout for solo for percussion, and Charisma, a tightly wound dialogue for clarinet and cello. Led by Claire Edwardes, the ensemble rounds out the program with striking pieces by Claude Vivier, Felicity Wilcox, and Brenda Gifford. Music that’s never afraid to go to extremes.
Venue Notes: BRIC Stoop is an open, street-level space inside BRIC House—no stage, just sharp acoustics and a casual setup that brings audience and performers eye to eye.
Ideal For: Anyone who appreciates music that's cerebral, physical, and confidently challenging.
Terry Riley 90th Birthday Tribute with Bang on a Can All-Stars, Gyan Riley, and Special Guests
Pioneer Works, Red Hook, Brooklyn — Sun, May 4 8:00pm
Terry Riley's 90th birthday bash might just blow your mind wide open. The composer who shattered Western musical conventions in 1964 with In C gets a fitting tribute as Bang on a Can All-Stars perform the iconic work and premiere a reimagined version of his psychedelic piece A Rainbow in Curved Air, arranged by his son Gyan Riley. The ensemble features sitarist Krishna Bhatt and flutist Nicole Mitchell as they trace Riley's influence across continents and genres, celebrating the music that dismantled rigid structures and launched a movement. For anyone seeking the intersection of musical innovation and cultural transformation, this is your Sunday night revelation.
Ideal for: Adventurous listeners, cultural historians, and anyone curious about the revolutionary composer who influenced everyone from Philip Glass to The Who.