Back in 2007 we talked to Ronen Givony, who had just started up the Wordless Music Series. One month later, Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood was talking to us about participating in the series, and this year the series turns 5 years old. Their anniversary announcement landed in our inbox with some big names attached to it, namely Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel, and Jonny Greenwood (back for an encore). The next season will begin in September, but there are also some shows left for the current season. Details below for all NYC shows can be found here, but here are the two big ones for the East Coast—tickets on sale this weekend. more ›

Sufjan Keeps it Local We really enjoyed Sufjan's BQE show last Friday at BAM. It was a great, refined, change of pace evening for the indie rock crowd. The evening was really a sum of it's parts, all told. The entire presentation of the BQE piece was far more engaging than the actual music itself. It was solid, but not up to Suf's lofty magical standards. But the little things...the gritty video clips of the... more ›

Jonny Greenwood was named the BBC’s composer-in-residence in 2004; during this time he debuted "Popcorn Superhet Receiver", a twenty-minute work for string orchestra inspired, in part, by the phenomenon of white noise and Penderecki’s "Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima". Tickets are on sale for a two-night performance of the composition at The Church of St. John the Apostle in January as part of The Wordless Music Series; works by John Adams and Gavin Bryars will also be performed. more ›

EVENTS: Both Open House NY and The New Yorker Festival are upon us. You can check out more of OHNY's event here, and The New Yorker Festival here. Some picks: more ›

Not too long ago Ronen Givony started the Wordless Music Series, which is pretty much just what it sounds like it would be. Sonic worlds collide and fuse classical with indie, jazz with electronic and listeners with instrumental-only music. In the next week audiences will enjoy the sounds of Do Make Say Think and Beirut from an intimate setting for just such an experience. more ›

(pic via Maryanne Ventrice's Flickr) more ›

Tonight we'll definitely be heading over to the second show of the series, which will feature Andrew Bird. They're calling it a violin recital, which is cute, but we bet he'll even whistle a little! Joining Bird will be the duo A Hawk and a Hacksaw and pianist Steven Beck. more ›

THEATER: Mime-bashing never goes out of style, but don’t you wonder what stories an off-duty mime could tell you? In “It Goes Without Saying”, actor and mime Bill Bowers takes audiences along a hilarious and heartfelt tour from his Montana childhood (“not exactly a hotbed of mime”) to the rough and tumble life of a mime on the streets of Times Square. The 75-minute tell-all, which the Times calls “zestful and endearing”, received a “rapturous response” when it premiered at the Rattlestick Theater last fall. - John Del Signore more ›