There are few people more ingrained in BKCM’s operations and lifeblood than Miranda Knutson, especially when you consider that she’s been a student here since she was eight years old (back when the entire lobby had a shag carpet). It was in the lot nearby — now BKCM’s garden — where she would do homework for hours in the trees, waiting for lessons to happen.

These days, as BKCM’s Senior Events and Community Partnerships Manager, you can find her everywhere at once: singing in a chamber music group, putting out fires (metaphorically, mostly), cultivating a new relationship with a community organization around the corner. It’s no wonder, then, that Open Stages is one of her favorite community events to curate. With 16 stages spread across the stoops and sidewalks of Park Slope, it is a pure expression of music’s simultaneity and diversity. As Miranda explains: “I really get to look at all the programming we have through the year, all the art and music, and then go: ‘You know what? We haven’t done steel pan. We haven’t done sea shanties in a while…’”

If this sounds like a challenging operation, that’s because it is. And yet, the very inception of this festival was the result of a much greater challenge. When COVID-19 hit in 2020, Miranda and the rest of the team were faced with a complex question: “What can we do that is outdoors, where people can feel like they can be near each other, but also not near each other?” As the five years since have gone by, it is still this thumbprint of community connection that drives Open Stages to be free and accessible for everyone, even as it continues to expand and evolve. At some point, Miranda realized: “We’ve created something that people put into their calendar a year in advance – a part of the lexicon of Park Slope.”