Roulette is a concert hall in Boerum Hill housed in a 1928 Art Deco building. Since 1978, it has presented over 120 annual performances in improvised music, contemporary composition, and dance, while paying guaranteed fees to all artists.
Roulette started as a Tribeca loft in 1978 (an "homage to Dada and to chance operations in music") and never really left that headspace. Now housed in a 1928 Art Deco YWCA concert hall at Atlantic and Third Avenues in Boerum Hill, the 400-seat theater runs over 120 performances a year across improvised music, contemporary composition, dance, and intermedia. The through-line from loft to landmark is artist support: guaranteed fees since day one, annual commissions and residencies for early-career composers, and a free public archive of more than 4,000 digitized recordings going back to the early 1980s. Roulette keeps asking what it looks like to build an audience for music that doesn't yet have one.
Fun Stuff covers what's worth showing up for in Williamsburg every week, including programming at Roulette. Free.
Know more about Roulette, or someone else we should feature?
hello@funstuffnyc.com →