Monday, October 4, 2010 7:30 pm
McManus Room
Cathedral historian Salvatore Basile will speak about his book Fifth Avenue Famous: The Extraordinary Story of Music at St. Patrick's Cathedral. As the city’s preeminent Catholic institution, St. Patrick’s Cathedral has served one of the most dynamic and diverse communities in the world for well over a century. It has been intimately entwined with the history of New York: a major center of culture in the nation’s cultural capital. The Cathedral Choir provides an extraordinary and largely overlooked insight into this history, and in Basile’s pitch-perfect exploration, it becomes a microcosm for the larger trends, upheavals, and events that have made up the history of the city, the nation, and even the world. Basile will also give a presentation on "Forgotten Showbiz: New York’s Extravagant Sacred Music Scene in the Gilded Age—And How Tossing Out the Ladies Ended It All."
Salvatore Basile is Cathedral Music Historian, as well as a soloist and Senior Cantor of the Cathedral Choir at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. He has performed in numerous venues and is a music historian with a vast collection of period recordings.
Books will be available for purchase and signing. A percentage of all purchases will benefit the Library.
