More than 55 artists from across the sonic spectrum come together for nine collaborative, one-night-only performances, including three presented with WNYC’s New Sounds Live

Hailed as “the alt-classical world’s main showcase” (The New York Times) and “a kind of heaven for show-goers in search of the ever-elusive, one-of-a-kind live music experience” (The Village Voice), Kaufman Music Center’s Ecstatic Music Festival returns for its sixth year, bringing together composers and performers from different musical genres or scenes for collaborations leading to performances that are adventurous and utterly unique.

According to hip hop MC Kool Moe Dee, “Pharoahe Monch is like an eloquent linguistics professor moonlighting as a rhyme serial killer terrorist, challenging the listeners’ I.Q. while daring him or her to keep up.” Legendary MC rapper Pharoahe Monch and the exuberant PitchBlak Brass Band perform new arrangements from Monch’s acclaimed, deeply personal 2014 album “PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.” The epic sounds of PitchBlak’s sousaphone, trombones, trumpets, French horn, saxophone, guitar and percussion — augmented with strings for this special performance — build a stunning context for intricate songs narrating the trials and tribulations of an independent artist at war with the music industry, and the struggle of the black male experience in America.

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