Public Programs
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The New School is a place where education has always been interwoven with public life. Since our founding, our university has served as a meeting place where influential people and ideas intersect, where issues are debated the moment they surface, and where leaders break new ground on a diverse set of topics.
Each year, The New School hosts more than 1,000 public events with some of the most famous and engaged people, organizations, and institutions around the world. These events range from interviews to readings, performances to screenings, connecting what students learn in the classroom with what’s happening in the world.
New School public programs and events, both in person and online, offer viewers a chance to ask questions, discover new ideas, make connections, and find a community of people ready to engage. Unmatched in quality and quantity, public programs are a hallmark of the New School experience.
I saw a public program with Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart my freshman year—it was great! I learned that you really have to be thoughtful about what you want to do as an artist."
—Rafah Mahmud, BFA Dramatic Arts, School of Drama
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To learn about upcoming events, visit our Events Calendar or sign up for our monthly newsletters.
View past events on our YouTube channel.
Events

Roger Kellaway, John Goldsby & Terry Clarke Autumn Reunion Concert
Join us for a special evening of jazz as we welcome the esteemed trio of Roger Kellaway, John Goldsby, and Terry Clarke to The New School.The program is dedicated to jazz and will include historical and newer compositions by Roger Kellaway and John Goldsby. Kellaway, Goldsby, and Clarke will also reprise a number of selections from their Live at Tokyo album, recorded 40 years ago.Kicking off the month of October, this special Autumn Reunion brings together three musicians with a shared history and decades of experience. It’s an evening of music and connection you won’t want to miss.The concert is being produced by Samuel Turvey, a founder of the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival and its producer from 1993 to 2002. New School faculty member and alto saxophone player David Glasser is serving as the Assistant Producer. Pam Shaw and Victor Talbot are serving as the Creative Producers for this event.About Roger Kellaway: Roger is a Grammy Award winner and Academy Award nominated Pianist/Composer and has written in the fields of jazz, classical, and pop, also composing and scoring for films and television. He has worked with everyone from Ellington to Elvis, Joni Mitchell to Barbara Streisand, and Quincy Jones to Yo-Yo Ma. Roger’s commissions range from a ballet for George Ballachine and the New York Ballet to his most prized television credit, “Remembering You,” the closing theme for the groundbreaking “All in the Family” television series. In addition to leading many jazz recordings and accomplishments, he has appeared and recorded with Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, Oliver Nelson, Ben Webster, Clark Terry and Bob Brookmeyer. Roger resides in Los Angeles.About John Goldsby:John is bass player and musician of extraordinary talents including his accomplishments in jazz education. He has led numerous successful recording sessions of his own and has performed with many legends including Scott Hamilton, Jay McShann, Barney Kessel, Michael Brecker, Mel Lewis, and John Lewis. During his 30-year tenure with the Westdeutscher Rundfunk Big Band (WDR Big Band) he performed and recorded with McCoy Tyner, John Scofield, Joshua Redman, Ambrose Akinmusire, Roy Hargrove, Knower, Nduduzo Makhathini, and many others. John’s current album—Big Band Bass—features Bob Mintzer and WDR Big Band. The Jazz Bass Book is Mr. Goldsby’s classic work documenting jazz bass players and their techniques from a historical perspective. John resides in Germany, near Cologne.About Terry Clarke:Terry is a Canadian jazz drummer who worked in the mid 60’s with the legendary saxophonist, John Handy III and is featured on the recording, Live at The Monterey Jazz Festival. Clarke then joined the GRAMMY-winning group, “The Fifth Dimension”, and appears with the group in the OSCAR WINNING Summer of Soul documentary. He later relocated to Toronto and played with luminaries such as Frank Rossolino, Lenny Breau, jazz guitar legend Jim Hall and piano icon Oscar Peterson. During this period Clarke played for 25 years with the GRAMMY and JUNO-winning jazz big-band, “Rob McConnell and the Boss Brass”. Clarke later worked in New York City with The Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra, Helen Merrill, Toots Theilmans, Red Mitchell and Roger Kellaway. Clarke is the only living drummer to be a Member of the Order of Canada (Canada’s highest civilian honour). His recording, It’s About Time, was the winner of “The Best Traditional Jazz Recording” at the 2010 JUNO Awards (Canadian GRAMMY).

Mannes Sounds Masterclass: Michal Tal
Dr. Michal Tal is one of Israel’s most distinguished and influential musicians. She is the recipient of the Frank Pelleg Lifetime Achievement Award for sustained artistic contribution at the highest level, presented by the Ministry of Culture (2024)Her multifaceted career spans three continents and includes numerous performances and recordings as both soloist and chamber musician. She is regularly invited to festivals, masterclasses, and teaching residencies, and serves as adjudicator at competitions at leading festivals and conservatories worldwide.Dr. Tal educates the next generation of piano teachers at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music (Tel Aviv University).She initiated and directed the “Young Piano” program at the Jerusalem Music Centre. She is the Founder and Artistic Director of PianoWebFest, the international online piano festival, PianoFest Arad, and the “Tav HaNegev” association.

In the Footsteps of Liszt and Chopin: A Biographer’s Journey
The New York City premiere of It Takes a Life, a documentary film by director Joe Sabia exploring the life and career of Alan Walker. Featuring reflections from Alan Walker on his monumental biography of Franz Liszt, presented on Liszt’s birthday — October 22, 2026.

A Child of Our Time
What does resistance sound like? Nearly 90 years after it was written, Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time continues to ask urgent questions about fear, injustice, division, and hope. Written in response to the rise of fascism in Europe and the violence of Kristallnacht in 1938, Tippett’s powerful oratorio for chorus and orchestra draws on African American spirituals. For Tippett, these songs expressed a universal truth: even in the face of injustice, the human spirit endures. For this one-night performance, singers from the New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) will join the Mannes Orchestra conducted by David Hayes, with an acclaimed cast of soloists from the Mannes faculty: Laquita Mitchell, William Burden, Margaret Lattimore and Stephen Powell. Presented one week before the 2026 midterm elections, this performance invites audiences to reflect on where we have been, where we are, and the future we want to create. More than a concert, A Child of Our Time is a reminder of the power of music to bear witness, challenge injustice, and bring people together. "We are thrilled to partner with Mannes School of Music on this extraordinary performance. Bringing together the New York Choral Society’s volunteer singers with Mannes' exceptional orchestra, acclaimed voice faculty, and rising young artists is exactly the kind of collaboration that makes New York's cultural community so extraordinary. To perform a work as profound and urgently relevant as A Child of Our Time in David Geffen Hall is an incredible privilege. At a moment when many of us are searching for connection and hope, Tippett reminds us that music has the power to bear witness, challenge injustice, and bring people together. This performance lives at the intersection of art, resistance, and our shared humanity, and I can't imagine a more meaningful way to open our season." — Ellen PutneyMoore, Executive Director, New York Choral Society ABOUT THE NEW YORK CHORAL SOCIETYThe New York Choral Society (NYCHORAL) is The Voice of the City—more than 150 auditioned volunteer singers representing every borough, profession, generation, and socio-economic background that make New York unlike anywhere else in the world. Founded in 1960, NYCHORAL is entering its 69th season with a chorus that is younger than ever: today, more than half of its singers are under the age of 35, proving that the future of choral music is already here.By day, our singers are physicians, teachers, attorneys, baristas, nonprofit leaders, engineers, artists, students, and retirees. Together, they create extraordinary performances that reflect the city they call home. Through bold programming that pairs classical masterworks with contemporary voices and ideas, NYCHORAL explores the issues shaping our world while honoring the traditions that brought us here.At NYCHORAL, we believe choral music isn't a museum piece, it's one of the most immediate ways people can come together to explore difficult questions, celebrate our shared humanity, and experience the transformative power of singing with one voice.ABOUT MANNES ORCHESTRAKnown for their bold and adventurous programming, and led by maestro David Hayes, Mannes Orchestra has been hailed by The New York Times as an orchestra whose quality is “a revelation,” and for its “intensity of focus.” The orchestra performs a multitude of concerts each season at venues including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, David Geffen Hall, John L. Tishman Auditorium at The New School, Carnegie Hall, and performances with Martha Graham Dance Company at New York City Center, and Mannes Opera at various venues throughout the city.

JACK Quartet in Concert
Join us for an evening of contemporary music performed by JACK Quartet, Ensemble-in-Residence at Mannes, featuring works by Cenk Ergun, Keir GoGwilt, and Austin Wulliman.ProgramCenk Ergun, Celare (2016)Keir GoGwilt, Treatise on Limited Freedoms: Future Mode I (2024)Austin Wulliman, Escape Rites (2025)Cenk Ergun, Sonare (2015)JACK QuartetChristopher Otto, violinAustin Wulliman, violinJohn Pickford Richards, violaJay Campbell, cello

Lang Craft Talks: Emma Heaney
The Lang Craft Talks series continues with special guest Emma Heaney.Emma Heaney is the author of The New Woman: Literary Modernism, Queer Theory, and the Trans Feminine Allegory (Northwestern 2017), This Watery Place: Four Essays on Gestation (Pluto 2025), and the forthcoming Ghost Cousins: Literature After Cisness [Cambridge University Press, 2027]. She is the editor of Feminism Against Cisness (Duke 2024) and co-editor (with Carlo Sariego) of a forthcoming special issue of TSQ entitled Trans Reproduction. She is a scholar of comparative literature, trans studies, and Marxist feminism and teaches courses in these areas as Clinical Associate Professor in the XE Program at New York University. Visit the Lang Craft Talks Hub for the full line-up of writers this spring!

