The Morris-Jumel Mansion
The Morris-Jumel mansion in Washington Heights is Manhattan’s oldest Colonial residence and served as General Washington’s headquarters during the Revolutionary War. Today, visitors to the mansion can make their way from the subway via a cobblestone street lined with Victorian row houses. In the early 19th Century, the mansion was purchased by Stephen and Eliza Jumel. Stephen died in 1832 and the next year Madame Jumel married Aaron Burr, the former Vice President, in the mansion’s front parlor. Madame Jumel’s 19th Century bedroom features a suite of furniture in the French Empire syle; she claimed that some of the objects in the room belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte. Visitors to the mansion can also see the bedrooms of Aaron Burr, Mary Bowen – Madame Jumel’s adopted daughter — and George Washington. The City of New York bought the house in 1903 and has preserved it as a museum ever since. Neighbor and jazz great Duke Ellington called it “a gem at the top of Sugar Hill.” And today the mansion honors the Duke each summer by hosting a popular jazz series free to the public.

Free music at Symphony Space
Audiences have an opportunity to enjoy some free performances of great music next weekend, when Symphony Space concludes its “Sonidos” series with an all-day marathon of latin music and dance. “Wall to Wall” is Symphony Space’s annual gift to the city, presenting 12 hours of music free to the public. This year’s program expores the richness and diversity of latino cultures with a roster of stellar latin artists from around the world. Performances will include new works by Mexican composers as well as classics by the Brasilian Hector Villa-Lobos; Grammy-Award winner Fernando Otero and his Electric Tango Project; and the world premiere of a new work by Arturo O’Farrill for his Afro-Latin jazz orchestra.

Bach, by Dinnerstein
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein brings her special interpretation of Bach’s work to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For years, Glenn Gould’s albums of Bach’s Goldberg Variations were considered definitive. But Dinnerstein made her mark with the success of her recording from 2007, even before she was signed to a record label. For her May 13 concert at the Met, Dinnerstein will perform works by Bach as well as Robert Schumann. This concert will be Dinnerstein’s only solo recital in New York this season.

Take Dance: Salaryman
In dance, Take Dance celebrates its seventh New York season with its first evening-lengh production. Artistic director Takehiro “Take” Ueyama formed his company in 2003 after eight years with acclaimed dancemaker Paul Taylor. Since then Take has been creating works that expl0re the integration of expressive and physical movement. His latest, “Salaryman” draws on take’s personal experiences as a Tokyo native and his observations of Japan’s collectivist business culture. The dancers perform vignettes that depict the salaryman’s pressures and responsibilities, and their emotional impact. A work in progress over the past year, “Salaryman” was conceived prior to the devasting tsunami in Japan, yet the piece is a testiment to Japan’s resilent nature. “Salaryman” will be presented at Dance Theater workshop May 18th through May 21st.

German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse at MoMA
The Museum of Modern Art presents its first major exhibition devoted to German Expressionism in over 50 years. At the same time the museum is making its entire collection of more than 3200 Expressionist works on paper available to the public. “German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse” focuses on the explosive production of graphic art – prints, drawings, posters, illustrated books, and periodicals – that came out of Expressionism, the broad Modernist movement that developed in Germany and Austria during the early decades of the 20th Century. It features more than 250 works by nearly 30 artists, drawn from the Museum of Modern Art’s exceptional holdings of German Expressionist prints. The exhibit represents just a fraction of the museum’s collection, which, thanks to a major Annenberg Foundation grant, are now accessible to the public on the museum’s website. You can see the works in “German Expressionism: The Graphic Impulse” at MoMA through July 11, and online indefinitely.