The Brooklyn Academy of Music is launching itself into a new season art and performance with new leadership and themed programming beginning this fall.
Arts veteran and longtime partner of the academy Amy Cassello is stepping up as the new artistic director tasked with overseeing the creativity and imagination of the multi-discipline arts center.
BAM president Gian Duncan credited Casello’s eye for detail and sharp thinking.
“This is an exciting moment for BAM as we bridge our past with our future. Amy is a deep thinker who considers the needs of artists and arts workers at every turn. As a longstanding BAM programmer and creative producer, she intimately understands our role in the arts ecosystem,” Duncan said in a statement. “I could not have a better partner in leading BAM’s artistic programming at this pivotal moment.”
Cassello has been on the BAM team since 2012 as the inaugural associate producer for the Next Wave Festival, an annual celebration of dance, music, theater and opera. She’s been serving as the interim artistic director since the fall of 2023.
“I am excited to work with Gina and BAM leadership as we endeavor to find new, substantive ways to support art-making and the expansion of our audience base by incorporating more curatorial voices into our programming choices,” Cassello said.
She joins the team as BAM prepares for its fall programs, Next Wave 2024 and Emerging Visions. This year’s schedule aims to re-contextualize contemporary creatives with work that unpacks a present that is informed by the past and imagines future artistic possibilities.
Next Wave 2024 begins in October with a yet-to-be-announced musical performance, and continues through January 2025 with a poetry series, dance pieces including “Still/Here” and “Frontera,” the plays “Catarina and the Beauty of Killing Fascists” and “Gaviota,” and more.
Emerging Visions will feature two new works — a musical adaptation of the film “Safety Not Guaranteed,” directed by Lee Sunday Evans and with music by Ryan Miller of Guster; and “Reconstructing (Still Working But the Devil Might be Inside)” a “meta theater experiment” directed by Rachel Chavkin and Zhailon Levingston.
A detailed list of shows and performance times is posted on the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s website.
