KCO History

Under the direction of Gary S. Fagin, the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra was founded to reintroduce people to their musical heritage by performing great music in distinctive downtown venues and by offering innovative educational outreach.

Since its first concert in 2009, the Knickerbocker Chamber Orchestra (KCO) has performed in Lower Manhattan’s most inspiring performing spaces -- the soaring atrium of the Brookfield Place Winter Garden, the inspiring space of Trinity Church, Pace University's state-of-the-art Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts -- and at smaller venues around Lower Manhattan, including numerous schools. We've featured soloists of world-renown at these performances. Audiences indoors and out have waltzed with us, and children have listened and asked eager questions in their school auditoriums.

Founded by Downtown resident Gary S. Fagin—an accomplished conductor, composer and educator—the KCO is the only professional chamber orchestra based in Lower Manhattan. The KCO is a meshing of the old and the new: classical music played by top contemporary musicians, performed in the fast-growing neighborhoods of old New York, in venues steps away from cobblestone streets and wireless skyscrapers. Until the KCO was founded, there were few programs in Lower Manhattan devoted to the great classical music repertoire.

Highlights of the KCO's presentations include the January 2010 world premiere at the World Financial Center Winter Garden of Mr. Fagin’s composition “And Bold To Fall Withal (Henry Hudson In The New World),” featuring Broadway star Jason Danieley singing the story of Henry Hudson’s arrival in New York Harbor 400 years ago. At that same concert, author Neil Gaiman narrated “Peter and the Wolf.” The January 2011 world premiere of Mr. Fagin's music theater work "Robert Moses Astride New York" at the Winter Garden featured visionary performer Rinde Eckert portraying controversial NYC builder Robert Moses. Read The New York Times Arts section cover story about this work.

In May 2011, the KCO partnered with Jody Oberfelder Projects to present "A Soldier's Tale," a dance theater piece based on a Russian folk tale, set to music by Igor Stravinsky, at Pace University's Schimmel Center. In 2015, the KCO presented “Music of the Gilded Age” at Pier A. In the spring of 2016, the KCO offered two world premieres at the Schimmel Center: “Supreme Justice: The Battle for Gay Rights,” music and libretto by Gary S. Fagin, and “Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra” by Michael Bacon.

The KCO has performed six extraordinary concerts at the Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust. Broadway's Marin Mazzie starred in "Music for the Tempest Tost: A Tribute to Emma Lazarus" in June 2012. In May 2013, "Banished Genius: Emigre Composers in America" at the museum featured singer/actor Henry Stram. One year later, in May 2014, the KCO presented "Pièces de Résistance: Music Celebrating the Polish Spirit," featuring violin virtuoso Shir Levy. In April 2019, the KCO presented the world premiere of Gary S. Fagin's one-act children's opera "Jumping Mouse." On September 11, 2021, the KCO offered the poignant "9/11 Tribute Concert" in the Museum's Safra Hall to live and online audiences, and on June 19, 2022, the KCO presented a Juneteenth concert at MJH featuring the world premiere of Mr. Fagin’s “Good Trouble” with vocal soloists Lindsay Roberts, Rosena Hill Jackson, Chauncey Packer, and Tamar Greene.

KCO’s tenth anniversary season kicked off with “Renaissance & Renewal” in the Winter Garden, featuring Elizabeth Pitcairn and her red Stradivarius playing “A Lark Ascending” by Ralph Vaughan Williams and former U.S. Attorney for New York Preet Bharara speaking the words of Abraham Lincoln in Aaron Copland’s “Lincoln Portrait.” The season continued with “Kurt Weill’s Zaubernacht,” choreographed by Jody Oberfelder, at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, and Gary S. Fagin’s “The Struggle To Forgive: Confronting Gun Violence in America” at the Schimmel Center.

In 2023 the KCO presented “Music of Our Sphere” at Brookfield Place’s Winter Garden, a celebration of Earth Day, featuring a conversation with MacArthur Genius Award recipient, author, and ecologist Carl Safina, and the world premiere of Gary S. Fagin’s Rachel Carson-inspired composition, “In Every Grain of Sand,” with mezzo-soprano Rosena Hill Jackson and baritone Nathaniel Stampley.

In the summertime, the KCO often performs outdoors. You’ve seen us at the Belvedere in Battery Park City, on the cobblestones in South Street Seaport, aboard the tall ship Wavertree, and on Pier 45 in Hudson River Park. Come join us for a waltz!