In his years with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Alan Pierson created a series of unique collaborative projects, which engaged local communities to explore and nurture rich, wide-ranging traditions.  
Picture
Created by Alan Pierson in collaboration with local Russian-born artists, including composer Lev Zhurbin, and with the legendary Soviet animation studio Soyuzmultfilm, Russian Cartoon Music brings 70 years of great Russian animation to the big screen and onto the concert stage for the first time. Features scores by Shostakovich and Vyacheslav Artyomov, local Russian actors voicing much loved Soviet era cartoon characters, and an award-winning new Russian cartoon, Only Love, taking a tongue-in-cheek look back at the Soviet era.
Top Ten Classical Performances of 2011: Alan Pierson showed that a fine orchestra can come down off the acropolis without losing its soul. 
—Justin Davidson, New York Magazine

This was a confident and tremendously smart performance and program. Intelligence and fun are too rarely combined in classical music performances, and easily revealing their natural affinity makes the Brooklyn Philharmonic one of the most exciting orchestras in the country.
—George Grella, The Brooklyn Rail 
Created by Alan Pierson in collaboration with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and local librettist Royce Vavrek, this multimedia event places the audience in a 19th century church about to be torn down to make way for the Brooklyn Bridge. The production features music by Beethoven, Copland, Sufjan Stevens, Matthew Mehlan, and David T. Little. 
The orchestra's most visionary undertaking in recent memory... Brooklyn Village was irresistible, suffused with conviction and ennobling warmth. To witness it was to feel a part of it.

--Steve Smith, ​The New York Times
Created by Alan Pierson in collaboration with Yasiin Bey (Mos Def), Bed-Stuy Restoration Corporation, the Noel Pointer Foundation, and local composer Derek Bermel, Bed-Stuy Traditions brought together wide-ranging music in a show that exploring Bed-Stuy's rich history and electrifying present. Featured the music of Yasiin Bey and Lena Horne, along with Beethoven, remixed anew by emerging artists living and working in East Brooklyn today. 
An orchestra...responding to the histories and needs of its audiences in a way that has been truly inspiring.
—Zachary Woolfe, The New York Times

An engaging blend of old and new, classical and pop, that both complements Brooklyn’s diversity and fits the cultural moment.
—A.C. Lee, The New York Times

​