For those of you outside of NY, the Stone is a not-for-profit performance space dedicated to avant-garde and experimental music. John Zorn is its artistic director, and the programming is determined by guest curators. In other words, you don't apply to perform there, you have to be invited (and I look forward to being invited one of these days!).

And what an A-list I see for August's calendar, curated by Annie Gosfield and Roger Kleier, especially the solo piano evenings! I won't list everything here, but the roster reads like a who's who of New York's top new music pianists: Anthony DeMare, Kathleen Supové, Blair McMillen, Stephen Gosling, Margaret Leng Tan, Joseph Kubera, Sylvie Courvosier and Jenny Lin.

There's one West Coast interloper (always welcome on the East Coast, I hasten to add): Sarah Cahill. She premiers a lot of new music, she's a writer, a presenter, and a broadcaster, and a formidable Bay Area presence.

Anyway, go here - The Stone - to see the schedule.

I'll certainly try to catch as much as I can at the Stone, but right now I'm preparing for my mini four-hand festival at the Cornelia Street Café, August 10th and 11th (how do I have the time to do practice, do the laundry, the cooking, the bill paying, go to the gym, and write all of the Gramophone articles, reviews and blog entries?)

On the 10th, pianist Jung Lin and I collaborate in the Schubert F Minor Fantasy, perhaps some Mozart, and definitely we'll play solos. I'm playing Schumann's Arabeske, my own The Woman Who Danced (which you can download from Amazon), and Frederic Rzewski's Fantasy. Jung is scheduled to play Rachmaninov and Godowsky.

And on the 11th, Simon Mulligan and I go through my piano bench, dusting off 19th century four hand arrangements of popular overtures, opera potpourris and salon goodies. We'll also take audience requests, and most likely transform the second Moszkowski Spanish Dance into Autumn Leaves, or play The Barber of Seville Overture while I sing Bugs Bunny's lyrics to The Rabbit of Seville.

The shows start at 8:30, and you can get ticket information here: Cornelia Street Café.

If that's not enough, on the 12th I fly to Hungary, where I'll be blogging from the Kaposvár International Chamber Music Festival. I just have to find a free hour to learn Hungarian...