You are reading

‘Live at the Gantries’ Summer Concert Series Returns Next Month

Musicians performing at Live at the Gantries in 2021 (Photo: Kupferberg Center for the Arts)

June 20, 2022 By Michael Dorgan

Who needs Pitbull?

A series of free outdoor concerts that take place at Gantry Plaza State Park every summer will return to the waterfront next month.

The series, called Live at the Gantries, will include six concerts over July and August, each taking place on a Tuesday at 7 p.m. Musicians will perform in front of the northern set of gantries at the park to the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline.

Live at the Gantries aims to highlight the diverse local talent which represents the community of Queens. It will feature an assortment of jazz, funk, electronic and salsa music along with offerings from Mexico, South America and the Arab world.

The series kicks off on July 12 with a performance by Brass Queen, an 8-piece brass band whose music spans various genres and is inspired by New Orleans traditional jazz.

Other performances include the Mariachi band Real De Mexico, an Arab music and dance ensemble called Zikrayat as well as Cuban-born singer Gerardo Contino who brings a raucous style of salsa to the stage.

Meanwhile, Slavic Soul Party, a 9-piece brass band, will blast out a mix of Dixieland, funk, klezmer, and Roma music.

The series will conclude on Aug. 16 with a performance by Sofia Rei, a singer and music producer. Rei’s music draws from South American folkloric, pop, jazz, new classical and electronic music. She has won four Independent Music Awards.

The series of concerts are produced by the Kupferberg Arts Center at Queens College, located at 153-49 Reeves Avenue in Flushing. The center is the largest multidisciplinary arts complex in Queens which aims to deliver accessible and affordable performances to the borough’s residents.

Live at the Gantries is also co-produced by the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historical Preservation.

For more information about Live at the Gantries click here.

Live at the Gantries 2022 Poster

(Live at the Gantries 2022 Poster)

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Queens Public Library hosts conversation with Astoria author on borough history

Borough history geeks will want to mark Tuesday, April 4, on their calendars for the Queens Public Library’s Queens Memory Project online talk with Astoria author Rebecca Bratspies. The processor at CUNY Law in Long Island City will discuss her new book, “Naming Gotham: The Villains, Rogues and Heroes Behind New York’s Place Names,” and take a deep dive into the lives of the people for whom many Queens places are named, some of which have become synonymous with congestion, recreation or culture.

“Queens is the most diverse place on the planet. That diversity is our greatest strength. Our patchwork of unique neighborhoods has welcomed successive waves of immigrants, each adding incredible foods and traditions to our vibrant civic life,” Bratspies said. “Yet it is striking how few of the names that grace Queens’ major infrastructure actually reflect that diversity. By tracing the lives of the people whose names have become New York’s urban shorthand for congestion, recreation, and infrastructure, Naming Gotham offers readers an accessible way to understand the complexity of multiracial, multicultural New York City.”