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Read the press release here.

Artist Converts Apartment to Sunrise Concert and Slumber Party Central

By Meredith Hoffman | September 18, 2013 9:55am
 Silent Barn's sunrise concert series features five mornings of music as the sun rises in Bushwick.
Silent Barn's sunrise concert series features five mornings of music as the sun rises in Bushwick.
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Ben Seretan

BUSHWICK — As they head to work this week, Bushwick early risers can kick-start their days with more than a latte or pastry — they can watch a whole concert as dawn light pours in their neighbor's home.

In the Sunrise Concert Series, the sun will literally rise during each performance in artist Kunal Gupta's living room.

The free public shows include coffee, breakfast and even a chance for a pre-show “slumber party" under Gupta's giant skylight.

"The whole room is going to be set up for this beautiful performance and then we’re all going to go to bed," said Gupta, 31, of the "slumber party" setting. He said interested guests can email him requesting to sleep over the night before each concert in his apartment above the venue and arts collective Silent Barn.

“It’s worth playing with your life,” said Gupta of the shows’ unusual timing. “It’s a different psychological social setting for the day for people [on their way to work]… And we’re messing with the idea of what it means to have a private home.”

The series, which Gupta has organized with Silent Barn (which he helped found and whose other members live and work in the building), is also toying with his own relationship with his home, since he is hosting strangers and setting up for shows the night before each one starts.

“I’m moving in these tubular bells on Friday and they take up the whole room, and someone wants to move an organ in for the Friday show,” Gupta said. "I have no idea how to fit this into my life, it's tricky."

Gupta said he's thrilled for the challenge, however, which was prompted by one of the performers, Benjamin Seretan.

"Ben wrote from Alaska saying he'd been playing sunrise shows there and that he'd love to do something [like that] when he returned," Gupta said. "I haven't seen my skylight turn from dark to light yet and I probably won't until Wednesday."

The shows, which kicked off Wednesday and go through Sunday, are public but Gupta asks that guests email him to RSVP.

A full lineup and more details can be found on the event's Facebook page.