Events & Tickets
Special Event
Cabaret: Mary Lou’s Salon
New World Center, Truist Pavilion
On the heels of two sold-out performances, New World Symphony’s cabaret series returns. Sip on a cocktail and prepare to be transported to Café Society, the Greenwich Village nightclub where Mary Lou Williams and her protégées held court in the 1940s. This intimate performance offers audiences the rare chance to get up close and person with jazz pianist Aaron Diehl whose performances of Mary Lou Williams' music have been praised as “joyous, enchanting creation… a triumph” by The Guardian and been lauded by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and more. This event is part of the I Dream a World: Mary Lou's Harlem festival. See more festival events at nws.edu/harlem.
Aaron Diehl, piano and jazz trio
Pianist and composer Aaron Diehl mystifies listeners with his layered artistry. At once temporal and ethereal, his expression transforms the piano into an orchestral vessel in the spirit of beloved predecessors Ahmad Jamal, Erroll Garner and Jelly Roll Morton. Following three critically-acclaimed leader albums on Mack Avenue Records — and live appearances at historic venues from Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Village Vanguard to New York Philharmonic and the Philharmonie de Paris — the American Pianist Association’s 2011 Cole Porter fellow now focuses his attention on what it means to be present within himself. His forthcoming solo record promises an expansion of that exploration in a setting at once unbound and intimate.
Mr. Diehl conjures three-dimensional expansion of melody, counterpoint and movement through time. Rather than choose one sound or another, he invites listeners into the chambered whole of his artistry. Born in Columbus, Ohio, he traveled to New York in 2003, following his success as a finalist in JALC’s Essentially Ellington competition and a subsequent European tour with Wynton Marsalis. His love affair with rub and tension prompted a years-long immersion in distinctive repertoire from Monk and Ravel to Gershwin and William Grant Still. Among other towering figures, Still in particular inspires Mr. Diehl’s ongoing curation of Black American composers in his own performance programming, unveiled this past fall at 92nd St. Y.
Mr. Diehl has enjoyed artistic associations with Wynton Marsalis, Benny Golson, Jimmy Heath, Buster Williams, Branford Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Philip Glass and multi-Grammy Award-winning artist Cecile McLorin Salvant. He recently appeared with the New York Philharmonic and The Cleveland Orchestra as featured soloist.
Mr. Diehl holds a bachelor of music degree in jazz studies from The Juilliard School. A licensed pilot, when he’s not at the studio or on the road, he’s likely in the air. Follow both his earthbound and aerial exploits via Instagram at @aaronjdiehl.
Aaron Diehl Trio includes David Wong, bass and Quincy Davis, drums.
Musicians of the New World Symphony
A laboratory for the way music is taught, presented and experienced, the New World Symphony consists of 87 young musicians who are granted fellowships lasting up to three years. The fellowship program offers in-depth exposure to traditional and modern repertoire, professional development training and personalized experiences working with leading guest conductors, soloists and visiting faculty.
NWS Fellows take advantage of the innovative performance facilities and state-of-the art practice and ensemble rooms of the Frank Gehry-designed New World Center, the campus of the New World Symphony and home of the Knight New Media Center.
In the hopes of joining NWS, nearly 1,000 recent music school and conservatory graduates compete for available fellowships each year. The Fellows are selected for this highly competitive, prestigious opportunity based on their musical achievement and promise, as well as their passion for the future of classical music.
