The City Parks Foundation announced the 2019 season of the Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage, New York’s largest free outdoor performing arts festival, bringing nearly 100 free and benefit shows to Central Park and 17 neighborhood parks across all five boroughs. This year, the festival will feature 200 renowned artists and rising stars from around the world in local neighborhood parks, showcasing distinctly New York genres – salsa, 
jazz, and hip-hop – alongside indie, reggae, Afrobeat, soul, contemporary dance, and much more.
SummerStage has a long history of showcasing artists on the brink of breakout success. The launch of the 2019 season will continue this legacy with the reopening of SummerStage in Central Park on Saturday, June 1, as a night of discoveries. The audience will be introduced to both a renovated venue and the next big stars of the music industry. The night will feature New York native, soulful R&B singer-songwriter Emily King, 
along with emerging artists and the deep soul revival band Durand Jones & the Indications, and more throughout the evening.
“This is a very important year for SummerStage. Not only are we reopening our iconic venue in Central Park, modernizing it for the next 30 years, but we are also partnering with our new main sponsor and looking to the future by launching the season with young musicians who represent the next generation,” said Heather Lubov, Executive Director of the City Parks Foundation. “Of course, throughout the summer, we will present a lineup that reflects the population of our city, focusing not only on gender equality but also on the enormous diversity of cultures and backgrounds that make New York so special and exciting.”
Brazilian Night
• Panel: Brazil: The Transformative Power of Music to Overcome Times of Crisis. Presented by Fabiana Batistela, Director and Founder of SIM 
São Paulo
Saturday, July 27, 4 PM – 5 PM
Brazil is one of the richest countries in terms of artistic talent and cultural production, but it is going through a new economic and moral crisis. Batistela and the panelists will discuss an overview of the Brazilian music market, present data developed by DATA SIM (the research arm of SIM São Paulo), and explore the country’s music scene with exciting new artists and notable festivals. The panelists will also share creative examples of how music and culture can be used as tools to transform and resist oppression, promote economic and social development, increase the export of products, and project a positive image of Brazil.
• Music: Alceu Valença / Cordel do Fogo Encantado / Labaq / DJ Grace Kelly in Association with Brazil Summerfest
Saturday, July 27, 6 PM – 10 PM (Doors open at 5 PM)
A showcase of Brazilian music from across the spectrum, highlighting the undeniable cultural richness of the country’s Northeast. From the dry hinterlands of Pernambuco to a vast catalog of songs that topped the charts in Brazil, Alceu Valença encompasses modern and tropical sounds without losing his undeniable roots in the Brazilian Northeast. This performance marks his first time in the U.S. since his debut at SummerStage in 1993. He is joined by Cordel do Fogo Encantado, a musical-poetic rock group known for their dramatic theatrical performances with massive drums; LaBaq, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who splits her time 
between Europe and Brazil and typically composes gentle songs full of emotion, but has recently been experimenting with electronic dissonance; and DJ Grace Kelly, the Berlin-via-Bahia DJ who presents Afro-Brazilian music and Latin American sounds like Baile Funk filtered through electro and house.
For the most up-to-date schedule and lineup of the entire SummerStage program, visit www.SummerStage.org.