The Sound Heard Around the World: The Music of James Reese Europe

Don’t miss this: Through music and narration, the Grammy Award-winning saxophonist and bandleader Branford Marsalis guides New World Symphony in sharing the story of James Reese Europe, the trailblazing musician who brought ragtime into the mainstream and went on to be remembered as “the Martin Luther King Jr. of music.” Book tickets.

I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance in Europe

Picture this: It’s 1938, Paris. You’re at Chez Bricktop, the glamourous nightclub where café society rubs shoulders with the likes of Josephine Baker, Cole Porter and Ernest Hemingway. A woman takes the stage, and she starts to sing… 

This year’s I Dream a World festival takes us on a tour through interwar Europe to meet the Black musicians who transformed art and culture on both sides of the Atlantic. Over the course of two weeks, join New World Symphony for a closer look at the pivotal moment in music that went on to shape early jazz and inspire composers like Ravel and Stravinsky.