Kick off the summer with Green-Wood’s 16th annual Memorial Day concert. The concert features the ISO Symphonic Band, founded in 1995 to sponsor talented students throughout New York City and led by ISO’s inimitable founder and conductor Brian P. Worsdale. Each year we feature the works of Green-Wood’s permanent residents Fred Ebb, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Leonard Bernstein, and many others.

Bring a blanket and enjoy this free early summer performance. Food and refreshments will be on sale all day. Directly after the concert, enjoy a special trolley tour with Green-Wood Historian Jeff Richman.

After becoming one of the most innovative and exciting figures of 20th-century dance, Isadora Duncan endured the tragic accidental deaths of her two young children. The experience filled her subsequent choreographic works with mournful yearning, spiritual redemption and powerful images of rebirth. Now we present those dances amidst the serene landscape of Green-Wood.

Dancer and choreographer Catherine Gallant has, for over thirty years, choreographed her own dances and worked to preserve and enliven the dances of Isadora Duncan. She and her company, Catherine Gallant/DANCE, will perform Duncan’s “Grande Marche” (1914) set to the music of Schubert, plus other late-period Duncan dances born of her sorrow. The company will then turn to works of hope and rebirth, set to a Nocturne and Polonaise of Chopin, followed by Duncan’s dances of exuberance and light to celebrate the rising of the sun.

Join Barrie Raffel, registered yoga teacher, for an hour of active-but-gentle outdoor yoga that integrates the serene landscape of Green-Wood in a subtle, thoughtful way. Green-Wood’s rich history and quiet, picturesque grounds allow a uniquely calming atmosphere to practice connecting our bodies to all our senses.

After the session, stay for a short walk to one of Green-Wood’s stunning views for a relaxing breakfast picnic. Tea, coffee and light breakfast snacks will be provided.

Enjoy a classic piece of American theater amidst the timeless beauty of Green-Wood Cemetery. Our Town tells the story of Emily Webb and George Gibbs of Grover's Corners, New Hampshire, a small New England town at the turn of the twentieth century. But the lessons of Grover's Corners stretch far beyond the sleepy town, as the play touches on the beauty of life, the randomness of the universe, and celebrates spirituality and the importance of memorials and memory. Deeply rooted in American and social history, Our Town fits in perfectly with Green-Wood's own history and the hundreds of thousands of personal stories memorialized across its beautiful landscape.