By their metaphors ye shall know them. As we chat about the concert series at the 92nd Street Y, on upper Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, the music director Nicholas Russotto, 35, describes himself in passing as an “omnivore” and an “evangelizer”—two words that pretty much say it all.
A native of “the tobacco fields and cow pastures of Somers, Connecticut,” Russotto credits his entire career to his maternal grandmother, an amateur pianist who sat him down as a boy for his first piano lessons and introduced him to the Springfield Symphony, just over the state line in Massachusetts. At American University, in Washington, D.C., Russotto studied organ performance and business, joining 92NY as its music administrator of concerts in 2017. The current season is his second as the executive director of the department, responsible for some 60 to 80 events a year.
When Russotto came on board, the fare that dominated was “high-end European.” From the start, he was encouraged to help fold in more contemporary American and international voices—a trend that has only accelerated. “I have a lot of leeway,” Russotto says. “There’s enough of a critical mass in New York to plausibly come in for almost anything.”
Seating 917, the Y’s Kaufmann Concert Hall falls squarely in a performer’s Goldilocks zone: “Not too large,” Russotto says, “not too small.” Buttenwieser Hall, a flexible space for more intimate events, accommodates up to 250. Whichever venue they’re headed to, new or regular ticket-holders will find the atmosphere singularly inviting—maybe because 92NY is no pompous cultural citadel but a buzzing community center, serving many constituencies, often simultaneously. The sleepy ambience of the neighborhood—Carnegie Hill, not Carnegie Hall—is its own plus. No one hovers to reassure you or congratulate you for showing up. The ethos seems to be: “You’re here because you want to be. This is your life.”
Russotto’s omnivore’s menu for the season in progress has showcased the mandolin wiz Chris Thile, Angela Hewitt revisiting Bach’s Goldberg Variations 50 years after she first performed it, the Norwegian literary sensation Karl Ove Knausgård in concert with the drumming phenomenon Glenn Kotche, a Motown blowout (three shows!), a reunion of the jazz legends Henry Threadgill, Vijay Iyer, and Dafnis Prieto (a blue-moon trio as yet never recorded), and more.
Through New Year’s, highlights include Taylor Mac, the drag icon and MacArthur fellow (November 16); the pianist’s pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, sharing a bench and 88 keys with the composer’s composer Sir George Benjamin (November 19); an all-star classics-meet-bluegrass string trio (November 22); the baritone Konstantin Krimmel and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz with the three immortal song cycles of Franz Schubert (December 3, 5, and 7); and a deep dive into the Paul Williams songbook (December 6 through 8). In 2026, the hits just keep on coming, with Julia Bullock, Laura Benanti, Arturo Sandoval, Marc-André Hamelin, and Sérgio & Odair Assad prominent in the lineup.
“I’ve made the program about as broad as I think I can,” says Russotto the evangelist—literally the spreader of good news. “I want to entertain and enlighten different groups of people throughout the city. I think a lot about not only what I like, which of course plays into it, but of what I respect. Is there intentionality of craft? Do I see a creative impulse? Am I interested in what somebody is expressing, even if it’s maybe not particularly what I like?”
Building personal connections is paramount, in the getting-to-know-you phase and beyond. As much as he can, Russotto checks artists out at live events in the Big Apple, across the U.S., and abroad. Is it germane to note that the brainiac composer Adrian Leverkühn, the hero of Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus, called interest the strongest of all affects, stronger than love itself?
Apart from the Five W’s, the 92NY concert calendar often reflects an unusually personal voice. “That’s me talking to you in every blurb,” Russotto confesses when the subject arises. “I’m your tour guide through a somewhat strange assemblage of things that I really like and respect—things that should happen on the New York stage.”
92NY offers concerts throughout the year. Many events are available for streaming, either individually or by subscription
Matthew Gurewitsch writes about opera and classical music for AIR MAIL. He lives in Hawaii
