Composers often find inspiration from other music, drawing from history, tradition, and artistic lineage. The Music That Inspires Us begins with Reena Esmail’s Avartan, a transcendent fusion of Indian and Western classical traditions. Next on the program is Caroline Shaw’s Entr’acte for string orchestra. Written in 2011, the piece was inspired by a moment in a Haydn string quartet where the music suddenly shifts in tone and texture. Shaw describes Entr’acte as “taking you to the other side of Alice’s looking glass,” a kind of musical portal that begins in a classical idiom and gradually distorts it. We will conclude the program with Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite. Taken from his ballet on the Italian commedia dell’arte character, the Pulcinella Suite is a witty and colorful homage to 18th-century Italian Baroque music filtered through Stravinsky’s modernist lens.
Repertoire
- Reena Esmail: Avartan
- Caroline Shaw: Entr’acte
- Igor Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite
This concert will be approximately 1hr, no intermission. Reception to follow.
Bring the whole family to our “Meet the Instruments” petting zoo where even our youngest listeners can get up close and personal with their favorite instruments before seeing them come alive onstage. Then find your seats for our enchanting and engaging Family concert! Narrator Sarah Ziegler will guide you through musical selections from our MainStage concert “The Music that Inspires Us.”
- 2:15pm-2:45pm: Meet the Instruments
- 3pm-3:45pm: Family Concert
Best for children age 1-10 and their families.
*All attendees must purchase a ticket. Infants under the age of 1 receive complimentary admission.
WHCO Family concerts are relaxed performances.
Get ready for an afternoon full of joy, sabor, and community spirit, all while supporting scholarships for our students at The Academy for Theatre, Leadership, & Advocacy.
When: Sunday, November 2, 2025 | 12–4 PM
Where: NEW LOCATION
P.S. 048 P.O. Michael J. Buczek Athletic Field
4360 Broadway – enter on Broadway between 185th & 186th Sts
Admission:
Family (up to 4): $20
Individual: $10
Live performances from Dance Project of Washington Heights, Collectives 4 Arts Music & Dance, Jazz Power Initiative, and Dominican Writers. Plus delicious food, raffles, face painting, games, a kids costume contest, and our community altar of remembrance celebrating Día de los Muertos
Bring a photo or small item that honors a loved one, together we’ll create a beautiful altar of connection, joy, and collective memory.
Thank you to our sponsors: Ponce Bank, L+M Development Partners, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospitals, and Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union.
Word Up Community Bookshop / LIbrería Comunitaria and Dominican Writers Association present a screening of PBS American Masters’s Julia Alvarez: A Life Reimagined. Please register in advance.
The Dominican-American poet and novelist Julia Alvarez burst onto the literary scene and blazed a trail for a generation of Latino authors . Her semi-autobiographical novel, How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, was published in 1991, followed in 1994 by In the Time of the Butterflies, which sold over a million copies and raised global awareness about life under Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo. Alvarez’s work includes three nonfiction books, 3 poetry collections, 11 books for children and young adults and 7 literary novels. This new documentary opens a window into her extraordinary journey from an idyllic, privileged childhood in the Dominican Republic to a life of exile in New York City to a brilliant literary career that shows no sign of slowing down. At 74, she recently published the critically acclaimed novel The Cemetery of Untold Stories.
Filmed in the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, it features extensive interviews with Alvarez, her family, and her literary contemporaries. Produced and directed by Adriana Bosch, award-winning documentary filmmaker who served as series producer on the PBS series Latino Americans (2013) and Latin Music USA (2009).
