National Sawdust Announces FERUS Festival 2020, and Continues Fifth Anniversary Season, “Take Root”

BROOKLYN, NY (November 13, 2019) — National Sawdust, the music incubator and venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, announces the return of the annual FERUS Festival (January 10-17), featuring presentations from National Sawdust Artists-In-Residence and more. This annual showcase of untamed voices will present the latest in cutting-edge new music and multimedia, with an emphasis on performances that push the envelope. Each year the festival is a showcase for all that National Sawdust stands for as a music venue and nonprofit.

“The FERUS festival is our one festival a year that incubates and presents exciting artists-in-residence and the work they are doing at the intersection of art, innovation, discipline, and technology,” says Paola Prestini, composer and Co-Founder and Artistic Director of National Sawdust. “I am so excited this year for the artists to explore the Meyer Sound system, and to share their voices, which are deeply emblematic of Sawdust’s mission.”

FERUS FESTIVAL (January 10–17)
Opening this year’s festival, Sister Sylvester’s The Eagle and The Tortoise is a theatrical reading experience tracing the story of a young Turkish woman who became an icon of leftist resistance as an armed militant, political prisoner, and proxy soldier in the American war against ISIS. Moving between myth, history, and journalism, The Eagle and the Tortoise shifts our perspective on this still-unfolding tragedy of our time. The piece makes use of Meyer Sound’s Constellation® acoustic system and its immersive component Spacemap® to envelop audiences in a live score improvised by both human and non-human performers. The production is directed and conceived by Kathryn Karaoglu Hamilton with dramaturgy by Andrew Kircher, lighting design by Bruce Steinberg, immersive sound design by Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, projection programming by Robin A. Ediger-Seto, book and model design by Emre Özyetis, and book design consultation and printing by Gabe Greenberg (January 10).

Part II: A Barely Arching Bridge is the second installment in vocalist Lucy Dhegrae’s The Processing Series. This concert confronts sexual violence squarely and unapologetically, and explores how one can transform one’s abuse into a tool of healing. Eve Beglarian’s She Gets to Decide, which combines personal history, the painting Thérèse Dreaming by Balthus, and the words of Judge Aquilina during the trial of Larry Nassar — "Leave your pain here, and go out and do your magnificent things" — is the centerpiece of a program which also features works by Amadeus Regucera, Philippe Leroux, Georges Aperghis, Chaya Czernowin, Peter Kramer, Guillaume de Machaut, and Francis Poulenc (January 11).

Taking its name from the lyrics of one of the most famous Shaker hymns, composer Sarah Hennies and sculptor Mara Baldwin’s Come ‘Round Right is an opera with no characters, exploring the cultural residue left behind by the nearly extinct Shaker society. Blurring the lines between music, visual art, and theater, Come ‘Round Right concerns itself with labor, identity, survival, love, and the passage of time. It pairs sculptural set pieces by Baldwin, inspired by Shaker furniture and crafts, with music by Hennies based on Shaker hymns (January 12).

National Sawdust, through its partnership with Meyer Sound, is the only institution in New York City using both the Constellation® and Spacemap® systems in its concert space. Stretching the boundaries of creative possibility, Constellation® allows for a single physical space to emulate the acoustics of a chamber music venue, symphony hall, or vast cathedral (and even an ideal classroom or rehearsal studio) — all with the press of a button. The multi-channel panning available through Spacemap® grants artists the freedom to explore and play with three-dimensional spatial sound. Combined, these systems have transformed National Sawdust into a dynamic auditory playground where artists of all stripes can craft performances with once inconceivable sonic agility and precision. The Meyer Sound Artist Playground will feature artists exploring the creative and technical possibilities afforded by the new Constellation® and Spacemap® systems from Meyer Sound (January 13).

A force of soulful, slow-burning R&B, singer/songwriter Sonic has a unique relationship with sound: she’s partially deaf. An Artist-in-Residence at National Sawdust for the 2019-20 season, and the first-ever resident to come out of The Revolution series, Sonic kicks off her 3-act performance Seasons: An Experiential Voyage Through Sound with a special preview as part of FERUS Festival. Based on songs from her LP of the same name, as well as new, unreleased work, Seasons immerses audiences in Sonic’s journey of self-discovery, acceptance, and self-love by navigating through her experiences as a queer, partially deaf womxn of color. Sonic makes use of National Sawdust’s new Constellation and Spacemap systems from Meyer Sound, alongside ASL interpretation, to craft an evening that reflects how she experiences sound. Incorporating live performance, monologue, movement, and more, Seasons will amplify the senses while inviting audiences into Sonic’s world (January 14).

Inspired by iconic photographs from Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1977–80), #12, #60, #39, and #48, National Sawdust Projects presents a work-in-progress presentation of Untitled (Inspired by Film Stills), featuring artists Eve Gigliotti (mezzo-soprano & Creative Producer), Royce Vavrek (librettist), and R.B. Schlather (director); new music from composers Paola Prestini and Ellen Reid; and excerpts by Nico Muhly and Missy Mazzoli. The workshop performance will be followed by a conversation with the collaborators that gives insight into the process of creating this new chamber opera work. The piece is a study of four women, each confronting a critical choice that determines the course of their lives. Both an installation and a live performance set to premiere in 2021, Untitled (Inspired by Film Stills) will invite audiences to intimately experience the visceral power of operatic storytelling, as voyeurs into scenes of lust, creation, empowerment, and destruction (January 17).

SPRING AT NATIONAL SAWDUST AND BEYOND
Beyond FERUS Festival, National Sawdust continues its fifth season, TAKE ROOT, this spring. Digging deeper into the season’s celebration of the artistic process, from incubation to dissemination, the institution will honor the local and global artistic community it serves. Highlights of the upcoming spring season at the venue include the next installment of Chris Grymes’ Open G Series, in which Grymes and Jeremy Gill present classical cellist Jakob Kullberg (February 2); National Sawdust Artists-in-Residence Against the Grain Theatre’s work-in-progress presentation of their latest commission, Mrs. Winslow's Soothing Syrup, composed by Michelle DiBucci and written by Vavrek (February 15); National Sawdust Artists-in-Residence Mwenso & The Shakes’ new music-theater piece exploring forms of spirituality and celebrating strength and resilience (February 20); JACK Quartet performing John Zorn’s Complete String Quartets (March 13–14); the continuation of National Sawdust Artists-in-Residence Kinds of Kings’ series Equilibrium and Disturbance, featuring pianist Isabelle O’Connell premiering new work for piano and electronics by Gemma Peacocke (March 19); the New York City debut of Jenny Hval’s The Practice of Love, a staged version her most recent album (April 6–7); National Sawdust Artist-In-Residence Ash Koosha’s immersive concert featuring YONA, an auxman (auxiliary human) singer-songwriter, who will present haunting “self-generated” love songs (April 17); and the landmark 50th volume of the monthly series The Revolution, curated by Katie “KJ” Jones and featuring up-and-coming musical acts from Brooklyn and Harlem (May 28).

This winter and spring, National Sawdust Projects, the institution’s producing arm, will bring several touring productions across the world.   

Kipatsi, Nija, Añaantsi (Land, Water, Life) from Murat Eyuboglu’s film The Amazon, featuring music composed by Pauchi Sasaki, will be screened at Festival Internacional de Cine de Chihuahua, Mexico. This excerpt follows Asháninka communities of the Peruvian Andes as they pay tribute to their sacred sites along the Kipaí, a stream that flows into the Amazon River. Their rituals protest a planned dam between Peru and Brazil that challenge Asháninka lives on both sides of the border (November 15-17).

San Diego Opera will perform the West Coast premiere of Aging Magician as part of their 2019-20 detour Series. Co-created by Julian Crouch (stage direction and puppet design), Rinde Eckert (libretto), Paola Prestini (score), and Mark Stewart (instrument design), this opera tells the story of an eccentric and aging clockmaker who is nearing the end of his life and preparing a book of secrets to pass on. At a critical point in his story, he must decide upon the fate of the magician, and the magician's fate may mirror his own. As the clockmaker ponders these decisions, he finds himself transported inside a mystical musical realm where fiction and reality collide. (March 13-14).

Composer Sxip Shirey and choreographer Coco Karol’s immersive, site-specific choral and movement piece The Gauntlet will have its Middle East Premiere hosted by The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi. The intimate experience bathes audiences in waves of harmony, poetry, and gesture, as they are led through musical corridors of sonic architecture created by the human voice. Each performance of The Gauntlet is unique, reflecting the site, community, and performers it is created with. Prior to the performances at a given location, Shirey and Karol work with choirs and wider community members to develop gestures and to generate the text for The Gauntlet through a series of workshops. These workshops include “movement interviews,” which are inquiries into each participant’s phenomenological experience of “home” and belonging, and can be tailored to wider social and curatorial themes (April 17).

Miranda Cuckson and Katharina Rosenberger’s sensory multimedia journey from the present to the past, folds, featuring the work of John Burnett, will be performed at The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. The piece engages with the voices of artists from the past and brings the ephemeral nature of sound and thought into dialogue with the tangible world. An array of paper objects — sculptures, manuscripts, scraps woven between the strings of the violin — highlight the importance of capturing the art and thought of past centuries. These traces of our physical world further serve as an impulse to reflect on our current dependency on the digital and virtual realms  (May 21-22).

WINTER AND SPRING PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS
The following is a list of highlight events for the season. For the most up-to-date event listings and times, please visit NationalSawdust.org/Calendar.

NOVEMBER

National Sawdust Projects: Kipatsi, Nija, Añaantsi (Land, Water, Life) from The Amazon
Murat Eyuboglu and Pauchi Sasaki
Festival Internacional de Cine de Chihuahua, Mexico
November 15-17, 2019
Follow Asháninka communities of the Peruvian Andes as they pay tribute to their sacred sites along the Kipaí, a stream that flows into the Amazon River. Their rituals protest a planned dam between Peru and Brazil that challenge Asháninka lives on both sides of the border.

BluePrint Fellowship Concert
National Sawdust Ensemble and Juilliard performance students
November 17, 2019 7:00 PM
The BluePrint Fellowship, a new National Sawdust initiative in collaboration with Juilliard, is a dual-track career, project mentoring, and commissioning course developed to support student composers. For the fellowship’s inaugural season, Juilliard composition students, Evan Anderson, Hannah Ishizaki, Katie Jenkins, Cheng Jin Koh, and Marc Migo will present their commissioned BluePrint projects, for an exciting mix of voice, dance, electronics, and chamber ensemble, performed by both Juilliard students and the National Sawdust Ensemble. Project mentors for the fellowship, spearheaded by Composer, Co-Founder, and Artistic Director of National Sawdust Paola Prestini, include leading women composers such as Prestini, Claire Chase, Reena Esmail, Nathalie Joachim, Laura Kaminsky, and Alex Temple.
The BluePrint Fellowship is generously supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

The Processing Series Part I: More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell
Lucy Dhegrae, Pala Garcia, Amy Garapic, Nathaniel LaNasa, and more
November 23, 2019 7:00 PM
The Processing Series, from vocalist and 2019–20 Artist-in-Residence Lucy Dhegrae, was sprung from a prompt to four composers: write a piece for voice with electronics, violin, and/or percussion that deals with an aspect of trauma recovery. The first concert in The Processing Series, More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell, addresses the struggle to articulate an experience after trauma. It features the world premiere of Osnat Netzer’s Philomelos, which explores the “unspeakable” residual effects of trauma through the lens of Shakespeare’s character Lavinia, from Titus Andronicus. This premiere is accompanied by a collection of works that speak to these themes of communicative paralysis and explore the body’s ability to communicate beyond language: Jason Eckardt’s Dithyramb, Bethany Younge’s Her Disappearance, Maria Stankova’s Rapana, Vinko Globokar’s ?Corporel, and Caleb Burhans’ No.

PHYSICALITY Rev 3: One Woman Show (Club Mix)
Gavilán Rayna Russom
November 24, 2019 7:30 PM
The electrifying final show of Gavilán Rayna Russom’s residency will be a dazzling fusion of the first two events. Moving from the raw and messy sketches of the opening show through the seamless energy of the second, this evening of music, light, and movement will synthesize all the elements Russom has been working with and will highlight a breathtaking new direction in her work. 

DECEMBER

NationalSawdust presents “Inside Juggling”
Featuring Sean Gandini with Caroline Shaw & Mark Stewart
With performances by Anthony Roth Costanzo & Gandini Juggling
December 3, 2019 7:30 PM
Take a deep dive into the art of juggling with Sean Gandini and his boundless and virtuosic troupe, Gandini Juggling. In this surprising NationalSawdust program, Gandini will join Pulitzer Prize-winning composer / singer Caroline Shaw and multi-instrumentalist / instrument inventor Mark Stewart in a conversation moderated by NationalSawdust curator Elena Park. The evening will be punctuated by juggling excerpts performed by several members of the London-based company, in town for the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Philip Glass’s Akhnaten. Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, who sings the title role of the Egyptian sun god, will make a special appearance.
This event is presented in cooperation with the Metropolitan Opera (Akhnaten runs November 8-December 7) and Peak Performances at Montclair State University, which presents the American premiere of Spring featuring Gandini Juggling and Alexander Whitley from December 12-15).

Equilibrium and Disturbance: Real Loud
Real Loud perform works by Shelley Washington and Andrew Rodriguez
December 13, 2019 7:30 PM
Disruptions to the status quo can see positive changes that result in a new equilibrium. This notion serves as the basis for Equilibrium and Disturbance, a project from 2019–20 Artists-in-Residence Kinds of Kings. In the first of these three evenings, Brooklyn-based sextet Real Loud will perform The Workers’ Dreadnought, by Kinds of Kings composer Shelley Washington. Taking inspiration from the left-wing newspaper of the same name, the composition explores the continual, backbreaking crusade for intersectional equality across the globe.

Chris Grymes Open G Series: Lucy Shelton
Lucy Shelton
December 15, 2019 7:00 PM
Open G Records, founded by clarinetist Chris Grymes, is committed to producing music that is rooted in the classical tradition, but brings artists and their fans together in new and innovative ways. For this installment of the Open G Series, legendary soprano Lucy Shelton presents a “tasting menu” of composers with whom she has worked extensively over her decades of performing, including Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman, Miriam Gideon, Shulamit Ran, and George Rochberg, as well as composers of whose works she provided the first major or complete recordings — songs by John Cage, Ruth Crawford, and Igor Stravinsky. Now in her 75th year, Lucy is a direct link to many of the most important creative minds of the 20th century, and continues to be a proponent of musical and vocal experimentation through her performances and her extensive teaching and coaching in New York City and throughout the world. 

HomeBaked Project: ETHEL
ETHEL (Ralph Farris, Kip Jones, Dorothy Lawson, and Corin Lee) perform music of Sugar Vendil, Simon Brown, Sarah Goldfeather, Nailah Nombeko, Walter Smith, and Harrison Ponce
December 18, 2019 7:00 PM
Described as “indefatigable and eclectic” (New York Times), the string quartet ETHEL return to National Sawdust with the fourth chapter of their HomeBaked Project, an initiative showcasing emerging composers. ETHEL will perform world premiere works by the current round of commissioned HomeBaked composers — Sugar Vendil, Simon Brown, Sarah Goldfeather, and Nailah Nombeko — and by Walter Smith, along with a piece by Harrison Ponce. HomeBaked has been a resounding success for early career composers, who have gone on to win prestigious national and international prizes — this is an unmissable opportunity to hear their compositional voices take shape.

JANUARY

FERUS Festival - The Eagle and The Tortoise
Sister Sylvester
January 10, 2020 7:00 PM and 9:30 PM
The Eagle and the Tortoise is a theatrical reading experience tracing the story of a young Turkish woman who became an icon of leftist resistance as an armed militant, political prisoner, and proxy soldier in the American war against ISIS. Moving between myth, history, and journalism, The Eagle and the Tortoise shifts our perspective on this still-unfolding tragedy of our time. The piece makes use of Meyer Sound’s Constellation acoustic system and its immersive component Spacemap to envelop audiences in a live score improvised by both human and non-human performers.

FERUS Festival - The Processing Series Part II: A Barely Arching Bridge
Lucy Dhegrae
January 11, 2020 8:00 PM
The Processing Series, from vocalist and 2019-2020 Artist-in-Residence Lucy Dhegrae, was sprung from a prompt to four composers: write a piece for voice that deals with an aspect of trauma recovery. Part II: A Barely Arching Bridge is the second installment in The Processing Series. This concert confronts sexual violence squarely and unapologetically, and explores how one can transform one’s abuse into a tool of healing. Eve Beglarian’s She Gets to Decide, which combines personal history, the painting Thérèse Dreaming by Balthus, and the words of Judge Rosemarie Aquilina during the trial of Larry Nassar — “Leave your pain here, and go out and do your magnificent things” — is the centerpiece of a program which also features works by Amadeus Regucera, Philippe Leroux, Georges Aperghis, Chaya Czernowin, Peter Kramer, Guillaume de Machaut, and Francis Poulenc. 

FERUS Festival - Come ‘Round Right
Sarah Hennies
January 12, 2020 7:00 PM
Taking its name from one of the most famous Shaker hymns, Come ‘Round Right is an opera with no characters — taking place after everyone has left — and explores the persistence of a disappearing community by examining what remains. Blurring the lines between music, visual art, and theater, it concerns itself with labor, identity, survival, love, and the passage of time. Come ‘Round Right pairs sculptural set pieces by Mara Baldwin, inspired by Shaker furniture and crafts, with music by Sarah Hennies based on Shaker hymns. Hennies reinterprets this monodic music by replacing horizontal time (melody) with vertical time (harmony), each section of the piece consisting of a block of immersive and hypnotic sound.

FERUS Festival - Meyer Sound Playground
January 13, 2020 3:30 PM
National Sawdust is continuing to stretch the boundaries of creative possibility by introducing Meyer Sound’s Constellation® acoustic system and its immersive component Spacemap® to our concert space. An extraordinary breakthrough in acoustical science, Constellation allows for a single physical space to emulate the acoustics of a chamber music venue, a symphony hall, or a vast cathedral (and even an ideal classroom or rehearsal studio) — all with the press of a button. And with the multi-channel panning available through Spacemap®, artists can explore and play with three-dimensional spatial sound. This dynamic new auditory playground will allow artists of all stripes to imagine and craft performances with once inconceivable sonic agility and precision. The Meyer Sound Artist Showcase features artists exploring the creative and technical possibilities afforded by the new Constellation and Spacemap systems from Meyer Sound. Previous artist participants have included Laurie Anderson, Arto Lindsay, Bora Yoon, Helga Davis, Dan Tepfer, Theo Bleckmann, Timo Andres, Yuka C. Honda, and more. 

FERUS Festival - W.A.V. Sonic presents Seasons
Sonic
January 14, 2020 8:00 PM
An Artist-in-Residence at National Sawdust for the 2019-20 season, and the first-ever resident to come out of The Revolution series, Sonic kicks off her 3-act performance Seasons: An Experiential Voyage Through Sound with a special preview as part of FERUS Festival. Based on songs from her LP of the same name, as well as new, unreleased work, Seasons immerses audiences in Sonic’s journey of self-discovery, acceptance, and self-love by navigating through her experiences as a queer, partially deaf womxn of color. Sonic makes use of National Sawdust’s new Constellation and Spacemap systems from Meyer Sound, alongside ASL interpretation, to craft an evening that reflects how she experiences sound. Made in collaboration with her collective Womxyn Amplify, an experiential production house that creates experiences that amplify the voices of LGBTQIA womxyn and non-binary artists, Seasons aims to provide accessibility for all audiences and increase awareness around disabilities of all kinds. Incorporating live performance, monologue, movement, and more, Seasons amplifies the senses and invites audiences into Sonic’s world.

FERUS Festival - Untitled (inspired by Film Stills)
Work-in-progress, featuring new music by Ellen Reid, Paola Prestini, Nico Muhly & Missy Mazzoli
January 17, 2020 2:00 PM
Untitled (inspired by Film Stills) is a series of four operatic monodramas exploring the stages of transformation and identity in a woman’s life. Inspired by iconic photographs from Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills (1977–80), #12, #60, #39 and #48, the piece is a study of four women, each confronting a critical choice that determines the course of their lives. Join the artists at the culmination of their second workshop at National Sawdust, in which mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti performs new music by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid and composer and National Sawdust Co-Founder & Artistic Director Paola Prestini. This work-in-progress showing will also feature excerpts by Nico Muhly and Missy Mazzoli, followed by a conversation with the collaborators, offering insight into the process of creating this new chamber opera work.

FEBRUARY

Chris Grymes Open G Series: Jakob Kullberg
Jacob Kulberg
February 2, 2020 7:00 PM
Open G Records, founded by clarinetist Chris Grymes, is committed to producing music that is rooted in the classical tradition, but brings artists and their fans together in new and innovative ways. Chris and Open G present Danish cellist Jakob Kullberg in an evening of recent music by Nordic composers. Kullberg has worked extensively with many of the leading lights of contemporary Scandinavia, premiering and recording major works by Per Nørgård, Kaija Saariaho, and Bent Sørensen, among others. A two-time winner of the Danish Grammy and an internationally-renowned performer and advocate of contemporary composers, Kullberg has chosen a program that features his favorite recent works by Nordic composers for cello, clarinet, and piano. He’s joined by Open G regulars Chris Grymes and Jeremy Gill.

Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup
Against the Grain Theatre Company
February 15, 2020 7:30 PM
Against the Grain Theatre, a National Sawdust Season 5 Artist-in-Residence, presents a work-in-progress performance of Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, a new chamber opera written by celebrated composer Michelle DiBucci and award-winning Canadian librettist Royce Vavrek. A journey into a young woman’s world torn apart by abuse, neglect, addiction, and apathy, this opera is an unflinching and compassionate look at the opioid crisis and a brutal testament to a plague that is emblematic of this decade. Witness the results of a four-day workshop at National Sawdust with a first look at the development of this new contemporary work addressing one of the most urgent issues of our time. This work-in-progress presentation will feature about 30 minutes of new music, as well as a discussion with the creative team alongside researchers and addiction specialists, giving insight into the collaborative process of creating timely, socially-engaged work.

Mwenso and The Shakes
Mwenso and The Shakes
February 20, 2020 8:00 PM
Over the course of three evenings, Artists-in-Residence Mwenso and the Shakes, an international, multicultural troupe of musicians and dancers led by Sierra Leone-born, London-raised, and NYC-based singer Michael Mwenso, present a new music-theater piece exploring forms of African spirituality and celebrating strength and resilience.

MARCH 

John Zorn’s Complete String Quartets
JACK Quartet
March 13, 2020 8:00 PM and March 14, 2020 8:00 PM
The JACK Quartet, hailed by the New York Times as the “nation’s most important quartet,” perform the full cycle of string quartets by seminal avant-garde composer John Zorn over two nights. Night 1 Program: Cat O’Nine Tails; The Dead Man; Memento Mori; and Kol Nidre. Night 2 Program: Necronomicon; The Unseen; The Alchemist; and The Remedy of Fortune.

National Sawdust Projects: Aging Magician
San Diego Opera
March 13, 2020 7:30 PM; March 14, 2010 2:00 PM;  and March 14, 2020 7:30 PM
An eccentric and aging clockmaker is nearing the end of his life and preparing a book of secrets to pass on. At a critical point in his story, he must decide the fate of the magician…or is it his own fate? As Harold ponders these decisions, he finds himself transported inside a mystical musical realm where fiction and reality collide. In its west coast premiere, Aging Magician is a hauntingly beautiful hybrid of opera and theatre that combines opera, choral music, and puppetry, produced by one of today’s most influential and innovative taste makers, Beth Morrison Projects.

The Processing Series Part III: I Was Breathing
Lucy Dhegrae
March 28, 2020 7:00 PM
The Processing Series, from vocalist and 2019-2020 Artist-in-Residence Lucy Dhegrae, was sprung from a prompt to four composers: write a piece for voice that deals with an aspect of trauma recovery. The third concert in The Processing Series asks: What is the daily at-home experience of a body holding PTSD? Works by Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Alison Knowles, Pamela Z, Meredith Monk, Kate Soper, and Luciano Berio explore themes of self-care and domesticity. Interludes that draw from self-defense classes, the writings of Audre Lorde, and EMDR therapy weave through the evening, culminating in the world premiere of How to Hold by Katherine Young, which combines several healing modes (EMDR, meditation, physical vibration, group therapy) in an instruction-based score for voice, violin, percussion, and electronics.

APRIL

Jenny Hval
Jenny Hval
April 6, 2020 7:00 PM and April 7, 2020 7:00 PM
At first listen, The Practice of Love, Jenny Hval’s seventh full-length album, unspools with an almost deceptive ease. Across eight tracks, filled with arpeggiated synth washes and the kind of lilting beats that might have drifted, loose and unmoored, from some forgotten mid-’90s trance single, The Practice of Love feels, first and foremost, compellingly humane. Given the horror and viscera of her previous album, 2016’s Blood Bitch, The Practice of Love is almost subversive in its gentleness — a deep dive into what it means to grow older, to question one’s relationship to the earth and one’s self, and to hold a magnifying glass over the notion of what intimacy can mean. Celebrating the new album, hear Hval perform songs from her latest album in the exquisitely intimate music hall at National Sawdust.

Floating Points
Floating Points
April 14, 2020 9:00 PM (SOLD OUT), April 15, 2020 9:00 PM (SOLD OUT), and April 16, 2020 9:00 PM (SOLD OUT)
The best musical mavericks never sit still for long. They mutate and morph into new shapes, refusing to be boxed in. Floating Points — aka Sam Shepherd – has so many guises that it’s not easy to pin him down. There’s the composer whose 2015 debut album Elaenia was met with rave reviews – including being named Pitchfork’s Best New Music and Resident Advisor’s Album of the Year — and took him from dancefloors to festival stages worldwide. The curator whose record labels have brought soulful new sounds into the club and, on his esteemed imprint Melodies International, reinstated old ones. The classicist, the disco guy that makes machine music, the digger always searching for untapped gems to rerelease. And then there’s DJ whose liberal approach to genre saw him once drop a 20-minute instrumental by spiritual saxophonist Pharoah Sanders in Berghain. Don’t miss Floating Points live at National Sawdust.

Ash Koosha with YONA
Ash Koosha
April 18, 2020 8:00 PM
Born in Tehran and based in London, 2019-20 Artist-in-Residence Ash Koosha is a composer, producer, singer, filmmaker, music technology pioneer, and self-described “software humanist.” YONA is an Auxuman (Auxiliary Human), or an Artificial Intelligence program, that generates lyrics and melodies and then sings them. Together, Koosha and YONA will perform a set of half-human, half-machine-generated music that will feature a “live” visual appearance by YONA projected in 3D, accompanied by a CGI visual narrative created by artist Isabella Winthrop.

National Sawdust Projects: The Gauntlet
The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi
April 17, 2020 4:00 PM and 6:00 PM
An immersive, site specific choral and movement piece by composer Sxip Shirey and choreographer Coco Karol. It is an intimate experience bathing audiences in waves of harmony, poetry, and gesture, as they are led through musical corridors of sonic architecture created by the human voice. Each performance of The Gauntlet is unique, reflecting the site, community and performers it is created with. The Gauntlet is inspired by the theme Connection (also the theme of The Arts Center’s 5th Anniversary Season), with text formed from ‘Movement Interviews’ with change-makers, cultural figures, and artists. ‘Movement Interviews’ are a form of embodied inquiry that use movement, language, and impulse to mine personal stories, poetry, and gestures. 

Harold López-Nussa
Harold Lopez-Nussa
April 30, 2020 8:00 PM
Hailing from Havana, Cuba, celebrated composer and pianist Harold López-Nussa is rapidly becoming a household name in jazz, with a feverish global following. With his brother Ruy Adrían López-Nussa, Harold’s tight-knit groups captivate audiences with a relentless vivaciousness that “bridges generations and genres” (Billboard). López-Nussa’s music reflects the full range and richness of Cuban music, with its distinctive combination of classical, folkloric, and popular elements, as well as its embrace of improvisation and interaction. In 2005, López-Nussa won First Prize at the Solo Piano Competition at the Montreux Jazz Festival. He has collaborated with Cuban legends such as Leo Brouwer, Chucho Valdés, and Omara Portuondo, and jazz stars like David Sánchez, Christian Scott, Stefon Harris, Grégoire Maret, and Vincent Peirani. In 2018, Harold’s trio was featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk. Un Día Cualquiera, his second release for Mack Avenue Records, represents López-Nussa’s musical vantage point with force and innovation. He tells this story — his story — with drama, heartfelt emotion, and consummate skills. The album nods to classic Cuban composers and musicians, but focuses mostly on López-Nussa’s original compositions and his distinctive trio concept. López-Nussa chose the album’s title, which means “Just Another Day,” because, he said, “the idea is to put the music and the trio together in a studio and just play, the way we three do every day, any day — like a concert in your living room.” Within two days of release, Un Día Cualquiera was the most added album on jazz and college radio in the United States. In the past year alone, Harold has performed for sold-out audiences at the Kennedy Center and SFJAZZ, along with some of the best jazz festivals in the world: Newport, North Sea, Monterey, Detroit, and Playboy.

MAY

National Sawdust Projects: folds
Miranda Cuckson, Katharina Rosenberger, and John Burnett
The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
May 21, 2020 8:00 PM and May 22, 2020 8:00 PM
Beginning with folds, a half-hour multimedia work by composer Katharina Rosenberger and video designer John Burnett, these evenings with violinist Miranda Cuckson explore memory, fragility and durability, old and new technologies, and the artistic creations of women. folds considers the physical and sonic properties of paper, its use over centuries to document and preserve music, and the ephemeral nature of music and sound. Recognizing that women’s compositions have been particularly lost to history, Rosenberger’s music for violin and electronics creates a dialogue with a work by 17th-century composer Barbara Strozzi, whose music has recently received a resurgence of interest. In folds, Cuckson plays both composers’ music and, along with several stagehands, activates a variety of amplified paper objects. Drawing a larger web among women composers from around the world, evocative recent compositions for violin by Rozalie Hirs, Clara Ianotta, Liza Lim, and Aida Shirazi also convey delicacy and ephemerality but also a sense of far-off voyage and exploration.

Beth Morrison Projects: Jodie Landau "Performance of Self"
Jodie Landau
May 27, 2020 8:00 PM
We continuously construct and curate our lives, our relationships, and our selves, by choice or by circumstance. We weave the stories given to us, those we gather, and those we choose to retell to form a sense of identity. In identifying ourselves and each other we look to codify and define, and in such things we find both comfort and tribulations, as well as opportunity and limitations. Within all this, gender and sexuality are heavily weighted and fascinating topics, or at least have been for Jodie Landau, by choice and circumstance. This immersive piece by Jodie Landau uses chamber music and dance to weave its way through songs and stories about queerness, gender, sexuality, [online] dating, choice, consent, attraction, desire, expectations, conforming to someone’s needs vs. self-preservation, language and communication, dance, drag, costume, and the performance of self.

The Revolution, VOL. 50
Artists to be announced
May 28, 2020 8:00 PM
The Revolution is a performance series highlighting Brooklyn- and Harlem-based artists and musicians that not only represent the core of independent pop culture but also stand in the breeding ground of evolution within their genre.

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About National Sawdust

National Sawdust’s mission is rooted in music discovery that is open, inclusive, and based in active mentorship of emerging artists, while building new audiences and communities of music devotees. By supporting emerging artists, programming groundbreaking new music in our state-of-the-art Williamsburg venue, and developing and touring new, collaborative music-driven projects, National Sawdust is reshaping the landscape of contemporary music.

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