Shearing of the Heather Garden and Community Parade
The three-acre Heather Garden is the site of our annual rite of spring – the Shearing of the Heather parade and community celebration in Fort Tryon Park!
Bring your musical instruments and join in our community parade through the Heather Garden led by traditional bagpipers. Learn why Fort Tryon Park has the largest heath and heather collection in the northeast. Make flower-themed crafts, take home your own propagated heathers, get your face painted, make some chalk art, chat with our gardeners, enjoy at tour of the Heather Garden, and celebrate spring while enjoying the garden’s beauty and panoramic views of the Hudson River and Palisades! Fun for all ages!
Welcome spring to Fort Tryon Park’s Dongan Lawn with a guided birding tour led by local expert birder Alexandra Wang. As seasonal migrants return, participants will explore the park’s landscapes and learn to spot and identify the vibrant birdlife that makes Fort Tryon a special stop along the migratory path. This walk is perfect for beginners and experienced birders alike and offers a wonderful way to connect with nature as the season changes.
Dongan Place New York, NY 10040
Join astronomer Novaughn Miller for an evening of stargazing as we observe the Moon and Jupiter and learn more about the world above and explore the wonders of the night sky together.
From the Cloisters Lawn, participants will have the opportunity to observe celestial highlights like the Moon and Jupiter while learning more about astronomy and the vast world above our skies. This guided experience is perfect for curious minds of all ages and offers a chance to slow down, look up, and connect with the universe in one of New York City’s most beautiful park settings.
Join us for an evening of traditional West African music, blues, funk and jazz hosted by Lamine World Music Afrofusion trio
Our repertoire comprises new compositions based on traditional West African music, blues, funk and jazz. In this ensemble we’re centered around the djembe as the lead instrument. In addition, Lamine has his own approach to tuning the djembe that allows for a greater range of overtones. Together with voice, bass and guitar, this creates a vibe that’s both unique and hypnotic.
Lamine Thiam is a percussionist, singer, dancer, choreographer, actor and educator based in New York City. Originally from Senegal, he has worked and performed internationally and is currently on the dance faculty at SUNY Purchase. While his mastery of the art form is unquestionable, Lamine views himself as a lifelong student and holds humility as being essential to the development of artistic excellence.
Al Castro is an electric bassist and guitarist who is interested in the music of the African diaspora. He has performed in a variety of rock and Latin music ensembles.
Sid Whelan is an experienced and versatile guitarist who gears his playing towards the songs and the ensemble of the moment. In this context that typically means percussive West African funk guitar ostinatos alternating with Lamine’s melodic phrases; punchy ensemble breaks and improvised blues solos.
7:30 PM Doors Open — 8:00 PM Start
Ekmeles vocal ensemble gives their annual Valentine’s Day performance of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s landmark 1968 work Stimmung. The work is a touchstone of 20th century composition, a meditative concert-length work wholly based around a single tone and its acoustically tuned overtones. The spirit of the 60s is present not only in the work’s experimental striving, but also its personal eroticism, which inspired Ekmeles’s Valentine’s Day tradition and the title and motto for the event: Stimmung is for lovers.
Stimmung translates literally to “tuning”, and also can refer to “atmosphere” or “harmony”, encompassing both the theoretical focus of the work, and its meditative aspects. Composed while Stockhausen was living on Long Island Sound in Connecticut, Stimmung is a captivating balance between intellectual rigor and spiritual exploration. The pitch material of the work is derived from a single low Bb, overtones of which the singers articulate on pulsing rhythmic patterns of vowels. Treating each of the overtones of this fundamental Bb as new fundamentals on which to produce overtones, Stockhausen multiplies the timbral possibilities of the work into the hypnotic and rich textures it is known for.
Director and baritone Jeffrey Gavett will be joined by sopranos Charlotte Mundy and Amber Evans, countertenor Timothy Parsons, tenor Tomás Cruz, and bass Steven Hrycelak.
