Ghost Train Orchestra: The Music of Moondog

Most tourists who come to New York City for the first time seek out sights like the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty and Central Park. But between the early 60s and 1972, visitors with a more adventurous nature had a different agenda. “Certain people flying into the city at that time would jump into a cab and tell the driver – ‘Take me to Moondog!’” said Robert Scotto, author of a book about the eccentric musician and composer who went by that luminous name. “The driver would take them straight to 6th Avenue and 53rd Street because everyone knew that’s where he was.” The Ghost Train Orchestra shares Moondog’s creative legacy in a two-part evening of the composer’s works, with intermission.

For twenty years, the jazz and chamber ensemble Ghost Train Orchestra has reinvented itself multiple times, from reimagining the work of obscure composers from the 1920s and ‘30s to recording and arranging with David Byrne on the 2025 colorful art pop record Who Is the Sky? Their 2023 album Songs and Symphoniques featured a collaboration with Kronos Quartet, Joan As Police Woman, and many other guest artists reimagining the beguiling work of Louis Hardin, aka Moondog.