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Dec 13, 2010 Owen Pallett By Lauren Barbato

New York has its fair share of must-see music fests—CMJ, Siren at Coney Island, and All Tomorrow Party’s at the famed upstate venue Kutsher’s Country Club. Now, the state can claim one more.

New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall has teamed up with New Amsterdam Records for the 2011 Ecstatic Music Festival, a three-month-long series of concerts showcasing more than 150 composers, songwriters and performers from musical backgrounds as diverse as classical to pop. The theme of the fest—which will be held at the Merkin Concert Hall, commencing January 17th with a free seven-hour concert featuring minimalist art-rcok duo Buke and Gass—is collaboration, pairing together Owen Pallett with violist Nadia Sirota, Bryce Dessner’s instrumental project Clogs with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and Dan Deacon with the drumming quartet So Percussion. With its unabashedly out-there showcases, the fest will certainly be the most eclectic of them all to hit the Empire State—OK, the most ecstatic about the art of the soundclash, too.

For a full event schedule, check out the Eclectic Music Festival’s concert listing below.

Ecstatic Music Festival Series schedule (Additional artists TBA):

Monday, January 17th, 2011 2-9 pm, FREE

Ecstatic Music Festival Marathon

Featuring headliners Buke & Gass, and sets by some of the artists appearing later in the festival along with performers TBA.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Creator/Curator, vol. 3: The Chiara String Quartet and the Music of Nico Muhly & Valgeir Sigurdsson


Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 7:30 pm

So Percussion & Dan Deacon


Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Craig Wedren, Jefferson Friedman & ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble)


Sunday, January 30, 2011 at 2 pm

Alarm Will Sound & Face the Music


Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Bang on a Can All-Stars 2011 People’s Commissioning Fund Concert **


Saturday, February 19, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Roomful of Teeth & tUnE-yArDs: The Music of William Brittelle, Caleb Burhans & Merrill Garbus


Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Newspeak & Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society: Works by Darcy James Argue, Vijay Iyer, Nicole Lizée & David T. Little **


Thursday, March 3, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Judd Greenstein (The Yehudim) & Olga Bell (Bell)


Saturday, March 5, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Timo Andres & Gabriel Kahane

An Evening with Charles Ives


Wednesday, March 9, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Nadia Sirota & Thomas Bartlett (Doveman) with Owen Pallett


Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Clogs & Brooklyn Youth Chorus


Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 7:30 pm

Sarah Kirkland Snider & yMusic & Special Guest TBA **

So Percussion & Bobby Previte with Zeena Parkins, John Medeski, DJ Olive & Jen Shyu **

** A special Presentation of New Sounds® Live with WNYC’s John Schaefer

(www.kaufman-center.org)