Experiential Orchestra

The birds are returning to Prospect Park this week! 🐦🌳

Join Experiential Orchestra for A Field Guide to Imaginary Birds—a one-of-a-kind musical adventure where seven woodwind musicians are hidden throughout the landscape, each bringing an extraordinary imaginary bird to life through their unique songs as composed by EXO Artistic Advisor, Brad Balliett.

Part concert, part treasure hunt, part nature walk, this beloved outdoor experience invites listeners of all ages to explore, discover, and listen in a whole new way.

📍 Prospect Park
🗓 Saturday, June 6
⏰ 1 PM & 3 PM
🎟 Free
Bring your curiosity, your friends, and your sense of wonder. No binoculars required.

Hear us on Performance Today this Tuesday, May 19th! Our performance of Julia Perry's Ye, Who Seek the Truth, arranged by Jannina Norpoth, will be featured at the top of the first hour. It is one of the tracks on our Grammy-nominated album, American Counterpoints, featuring our musicians under the direction of EXO founder and music director, James Blachly. Check your local listings or the website to listen to the entire program.

We had so much fun talking with the brilliant students in EXO board member Sharon Counts' Leadership and Team Building seminar at the New School yesterday! As much as we enjoyed sharing EXO's story and our thoughts about leadership and innovative thinking in the arts, I think we gained as much if not more inspiration from these ambitious and wildly talented artists.

Broadcast alert: Our Grammy Award winning world premiere recording of Dame Ethel Smyth's The Prison will be the featured work on WETA's Choral Showcase this Sunday, April 26th. Check your local listings or visit weta.org to tune in!

Thank you to Charlie Kusiel King of WKCR for his feature in this month's issue of On Air of our February presentation of works by Arvo Pärt at the the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. It was an extraordinarily special experience for all of us and we were honored to perform these pieces with the reverence and careful attention they so deserve.

✨ April Concert Composer Feature: Ludwig van Beethoven ✨

Composed just two years before his death, Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 15 in A minor, Op. 132, contains some of the most profound and deeply moving music of his life's work. Its third movement, entitled “Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart” (“Holy Song of Thanksgiving from a convalescent to the Deity in the Lydian mode"), encapsulates his personal, intimate journey from life-threatening illness to recovery and spiritual gratitude.

We hope you will join us on our own journey as EXO's extraordinary musicians perform the Heiliger Dankgesang as the the breathtaking finale to our program this week, which we will be sharing with audiences in the Crypt of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on April 10th and 11th. Click the link in bio to purchase your tickets to this not to be missed experience.

✨ April Concert Composer Feature: Jessie Montgomery ✨

Jessie Montgomery's Source Code holds a special place in the heart of EXO founder and music director James Blachly, who first conducted this work back in 2015. A one movement work whose melodic core is rooted in the language of Black spirituals, Source Code explores and re-interprets gestures, sentences, and musical syntax derived from the works of choreographer Alvin Ailey, poets Langston Hughes and Rita Dove, and the great jazz songstress Ella Fitzgerald.

Immerse yourself in the special acoustics of the Crypt at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine and hear how they heighten your experience of Source Code on April 10th and 11th. Click the link in bio to purchase your tickets now.