State of Emergency

The State of Emergency (SoE) is a concert series founded in 2019 by contemporary classical composers Howie Kenty and Sunny Knable whose mission is to program works by diverse composers and whose concerts benefit local and global causes.

The first SoE concert was held at Areté Venue and Gallery, involving 6 composers and 10 performers who wrote and performed works on the subject of immigration and whose ticket sales benefited the New York Immigration Coalition. It involved composers Bahar Royai, Melinda Faylor, katie bishop, Randall Woolf, Daniel Felsenfeld and Niloufar Nourbakhsh with performers Felicia Chen, Naomi Florin, Alice Jones, Victoria Rodriguez, Kathleen Supové, the Parhelion Trio and Amal El-Shrafi.

Areté Venue and Gallery owned by pianist/composer Melinda Faylor
Sunny Knable performing "My Toy President"	Felicia Chen performing Bahar Royai's "The Kitchen"
the katie bishop ensemble performing bishop's "no one more deportation!"	Philip Brand educated the audience about the New York Immigration Coalition
Kathleen Supové performing Randall Woolf's "A Face in the Crowd"	Parhelion Trio performing Daniel Felsenfeld's "This Machine"
Amal El-Shrafi and Niloufar Nourbakhsh performing Nourbakhsh's "an aria for the executive order"	Howie Kenty speaks to the crowd before his "When Were You Silent?"

The second SoE concert was held at The Red Room at KGB with a different set of composers and performers on the subject of environmental issues, with funds going towards the Environmental Advocates of New York. It involved Kate Amrine, Big Dog Little Dog, Ford Fourqurean, Gilbert Galindo, Amanda Gookin, Kevin Joest, Jim and Sunny Knable, Lish Lindsey, Jascha Narveson, The Perspective Collective, Judith Shatin and Laura Virella.