It seems like New Yorkers’ desire to hear chamber music and opera performed in city crypts and catacombs is at an all-time high.
Death of Classical has been putting on concerts in unexpected corners of New York since 2015. The nonprofit has expanded dramatically in the decade since, offering rare — and perhaps even singular — experiences.
“We did about six shows in 2016, maybe 10 shows in 2017, and now we do 50 or 60 shows a year,” said Andrew Ousley, the founder and force behind the nonprofit, as he led a group of patrons on a winding tour through Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery at dusk on a recent Thursday. The destination was the burial ground’s catacombs, where, for the umpteenth time, Ousley had organized a sold-out, intimate display of living talent among the long deceased — this time, a production of Brooklyn-based composer Paola Prestini’s "Houses of Zodiac."
While walking along the over 470-acre cemetery’s winding paths, Ousley said the shows aim to have fun with classical music. But he’s also got his eye on something grander.
“What I love most about New York is unexpected experiences that are overwhelming, that put you in touch with something that is great,” said Ousley, a Manhattan native and the son of an amateur opera singer and an Episcopal priest. “What is unifying in the human experience — transcendent or universal.”
The answer is hard to put into words, and perhaps better felt while sitting among vaults of the dead and listening to a cellist's somber tune as dancers sway mournfully up and down the narrow aisle on pounds of peat moss carted in specifically for them. Two things seemed clear to all in attendance that night: The veil between this world and the unseen was thin; and pounds of peat moss are very sneeze-inducing.
Artist and audience member Chris Becker called the experience "dreamlike and mesmerizing" as he and some 60 attendees were ushered out of the dimly lit tomb and into Green-Wood's darkness.
Becker, a repeat Death of Classical attendee, loves the shows for their incredible acoustics and the access they provide to religious spaces that are normally off-limits.
“I love the unique environments. It’s an excuse to go into some of the places that we usually can’t get to, like the crypts and the big churches, and it’s a great location to combine with classical music,” he said.
Andrew Ousley in the Green-Wood catacombs.
In addition to offering patrons exclusive access and otherworldly delights, Death of Classical also provides a most welcome — if humble — income and attention stream to venues that must still make money from the living despite mostly catering to those who’ve entered eternity.
Ousley’s shows are also a regular occurrence at the crypts under the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the Church of the Intercession. Performances are slated to take place at both venues later this month.
And Nightfall, the sprawling 8-year-old annual festival of macabre delights that has become the crowning event of Green-Wood’s fall season, happens this Thursday and Friday. Thousands of attendees will find musicians, rooftop films, dancers and even circus performers along the cemetery paths. Tickets are $85.
