OUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BOROUGH OF KINGS
COURIER LIFE, MAY 28-JUNE 3, 2021 39
BY BEN VERDE
The streets of Park Slope were alive
with the sound of music on Saturday,
May 15, as over 150 musicians hit the
pavement for the Brooklyn Conservatory
of Music’s spring benefi t.
Performers took the stage on stoops,
in parks, and on Fifth Avenue’s open
street, serenading the Slope with hiphop
tunes, classical sonatas, sea shanties,
and more.
“We looked at the whole neighborhood
as a stage,” said the conservatory’s
executive director Chad Cooper. “The
vision was to bring people together.”
The event spread out over 20 stages,
with set-ups at PS 321, Puppetworks,
the Old Stone House, Spoke the Hub,
Dime Community Bank, High Dive,
and at least 10 brownstone stoops
throughout the neighborhood.
“We wanted to feel very much a part
of the fabric of the neighborhood,” Cooper
said.
Joining the 150 conservatory
staff and students who performed
was Grammy-winning artist Arturo
O’Farrill, who kicked things off with
his Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra at the
PS 321 mainstage.
After a year of virtual performances,
the conservatory jumped at
the opportunity to hold a safe, in-person
performance as the city continues
to reimagine uses for its public spaces,
Cooper said.
“We really felt strongly that we
wanted to do an in-person event in a
pandemic sensitive way that allowed
people to come together around music,”
he said. “We couldn’t bear the idea
of another major virtual event. We’ve
done hundreds of them, literally.”
The Brooklyn Conservatory of Music,
at home on Seventh Avenue, was
founded in 1897. Its mission, according
to its website, is to “transform lives
and build community through the expressive,
educational and therapeutic
powers of music.”
Sing out!
Park Slope streets
fi lled with music
during Brooklyn
Conservatory bash
STREET SOUNDS: (Clockwise from to) Bluegrass musicians
took over a stoop on Eighth Avenue. La Rumba de la Musa performed
at the Old Stone House. Crowds listened to music on the
Fifth Avenue open street. Rathkopf Photography