Seven Picks a Week is our guide to what’s worth catching in arts and culture during the week ahead, with contributions from reporters throughout the WNYC newsroom, as well as colleagues from WQXR and All of It.
— Steve Smith, Culture & Arts Editor, WNYC/Gothamist
Feast your eyes on flamboyant fashion
The highly anticipated exhibition “Thierry Mugler: Couturissime” opens to the public today, and runs through next May. The flashy, fashion-focused museum retrospective traces the highly influential designer's career, and features more than 130 outfits from his archive. Some of my early favorites include the sculptural vintage 1995-96 Thierry Mugler Couture ensemble Cardi B wore to the 2019 Grammys, the motorcycle corset he designed for Beyonce’s “I Am..” tour, and, of course, the gold robot suit Bey wore for her 2009 music video, “Sweet Dreams.” Friday, Nov. 18–Sunday, May 7, 2023; brooklynmuseum.org
— Precious Fondren
See how the Great Migration inspired a cellist to make a move
Already known as one of the finest young cellists of his generation, Seth Parker Woods reveals himself to be considerably more in this original multidisciplinary performance piece. Taking the Great Migration as his theme, Woods serves as soloist, narrator, and motion artist in a program comprised of poetry by Amiri Baraka and Dudley Randall, choreography by dancer Roderick George, film and contemporary pieces created by a wide variety of composers — including, in this newest iteration, new music by Ted Hearne and Devonté Hynes (a.k.a. Blood Orange). And if you can’t attend in person, livestream tickets are available. Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:30 p.m.; 92ny.org
—Steve Smith
"The Prediction of Extreme Events," an hour-long animated documentary by David Ruf, is among more than 100 films streaming in a virtual Queens World Film Festival.
View new films from around the world without leaving your sofa
Whether you're eager to revisit the bounty of global cinema screened at this year's 12th annual Queens World Film Festival earlier this month or you missed the entire thing, you've got a second chance to see a slate of films from across the country and around the world during a virtual encore festival that starts this Sunday. Sign up for a smorgasbord of shorts or a single feature for $10, or indulge in an all-you-can-watch festival pass covering more than 100 offerings for $50. Sunday, Nov. 20 – Sunday, Dec. 4; FilmFestivalFlix.com
— Steve Smith
Hear music from a timely new opera the night before it opens
One of the big events of the season will be the New York premiere of Kevin Puts's opera “The Hours,” based on the novel by Michael Cunningham and starring a trio of powerhouse vocalists — Renée Fleming, Kelli O'Hara and Joyce DiDonato — on Tuesday at the Metropolitan Opera. But on Monday you can hear a more intimate affair, when a chamber ensemble of musicians from the Met Orchestra and the dazzling mezzo soprano Jennifer Johnson Cano present an evening of Kevin's music: selections from the opera, as well as other songs. Presented by the always interesting Music Mondays series, this concert will showcase one of the most lyrical and gifted composers writing for the opera stage today. (Check out a recording of his first opera, “Silent Night,” when you can, too!) Advent Lutheran Church, Monday, Nov. 21 at 7:30 p.m.; musicmondays.org
— Ed Yim, WQXR
"Ada Ada," painted by Alex Katz in 1959, is part of a new Guggenheim Museum show spanning the full career of an artist still vital at age 95.
See the show the Washington Post says the Guggenheim has been waiting for
Alex Katz is one of the most celebrated and prolific living American painters and, at 95, he’s still painting and exhibiting new pieces. His more recent work has focused on places and spaces, a slight departure from the portraits of his earlier career. But in “Alex Katz: Gathering,” at the Guggenheim now through Feb. 20, you can see the many different iterations of Katz’s work and the evolution of his style all under one roof, from his work in the early ‘40s to the present day – one painting was still wet when it was being installed. Through Monday, Feb. 20; guggenheim.org
— Alison Stewart & Simon Close, All of It
Jason Moran (center) and his trio, The Bandwagon, hit the Village Vanguard for their annual Thanksgiving-week residency.
Jump on the Bandwagon at the world's most storied jazz club
Befitting his status as a MacArthur Fellow, Jason Moran is an impressively multi-hyphenate creative: pianist, composer, educator, curator, record-label impresario, visual artist and collaborator to formidable fellow artists like Joan Jonas, Glenn Ligon, Ragnar Kjartansson and Kara Walker. But every year (pandemic willing), in what's become a Thanksgiving-week ritual as welcome as pumpkin pie and the big parade, Moran brings it all back home to the Village Vanguard for a stint with The Bandwagon, his tight-knit trio with bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits. Tuesday, Nov. 22 – Sunday, Nov. 27 at 8 & 10 p.m.; villagevanguard.com
— Steve Smith
Swing by a Greenwich Village gallery for jazz-infused art
Speaking of jazz artists who also engage in visual media, “The Art of Counterpoint: 8 Musicians Make Art” features works by creators better known as jazz performers. The show, just opened at Zürcher Gallery, on Bleecker Street in the heart of Greenwich Village, includes works by historic icons Marion Brown, Bill Dixon, and Ted Joans, as well as living innovators Douglas R. Ewart, Oliver Lake, Matana Roberts, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Wadada Leo Smith. You can view the catalog in advance here. Through Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023; galeriezurcher.com
— Steve Smith
