For the last 37 years, Tibet House US has celebrated the Tibetan New Year (Losar) with an all-star benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. Revered as one of New York City’s longest-running cultural events, this year’s concert took place on Monday night (February 26th) with performances from the likes of Joan Baez, Maggie Rogers, Maya Hawke, Gogol Bordello, and many more.
As part of the enduring mission of Tibet House US to “protect, preserve, and empower the unique Tibetan culture,” the 2024 edition of the Tibet House Benefit Concert opened as per usual with entrancing chants from Tibetan Monks. Tibet House President Bob Thurman (and Hawke’s grandfather) gave opening remarks before one of the evening’s co-artistic directors, Laurie Anderson, took the stage. Accompanied by Martha Mooke, Shazad Ismaily, Tenzin Choegyal, and Gina Gershon on the jaw harp (!!), Anderson performed her Big Science B-side “Walk the Dog.”
Choegyal stayed on to play “Himalaya” and the Tibetan national anthem, “Gyallu,” a song that is still banned today in Tibet itself. Hawke — alongside Christian Lee Hutson, Shazad Ismaily, and 2024 Grammy winners Scorchio Quartet — then debuted two beautiful new songs called “Hang in There” and “Black Ice,” complete with impeccable harmonies with Hutson. Hutson and the Scorchio players stayed on for his “Northsiders” and “Afterhours,” before acclaimed electronic composer Jlin delivered “The Precision of Infinity.”
With a nod to their namesake and the night’s other co-artistic director up in the balcony, Philip Glass Ensemble played the mind-altering “Music in Twelve Parts.” Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang was next, giving an impassioned reading of Allen Ginsberg’s “Who Be Kind To” while backed by the legendary Patti Smith Band. He then welcomed out Maggie Rogers, who sang a stirringly downtempo rendition of “Alaska” with Scorchio Quartet, and was backed by The Patti Smith Band for the title track off her newly announced album, Don’t Forget Me.
Folk icon Joan Baez, a frequent presence at the Tibet House Benefit, came on for “God Is God,” before welcoming back out Rogers for a duet on Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right.” (Check out video of that performance below!) Baez then teamed with Anderson, Choegyal, Jlin, and all the night’s backing musicians for “There But for Fortune.”
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Gogol Bordello closed the evening, an encore from their performance at the 2023 event. Dedicating “My Companjera” to “to refugees and countries that should be free around the world,” the Ukrainian-born Eugene Hütz led his band in a performance as rocking as anything ever seen on the Carnegie Hall stage. As Gogol Bordello played through “When Universes Collide” and “Solidarity,” the night’s other performers trickled out for what became an onstage dance party. Finally, the audience joined in as Baez and Rogers led the whole company in “We Shall Overcome.”
Check out footage and a photo gallery (including backstage images) of the 37th annual Tibet House Benefit Concert below.
@consequence Maggie Rogers performs her new song “Don’t Forget Me” at the Tibet House Benefit Concert #maggierogers #tibethouse
@consequence Maggie Rogers performs her new song “Don’t Forget Me” at the Tibet House Benefit Concert #maggierogers #tibethouse