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Press Releases
National Sawdust Announces 5th Anniversary Season, 'Take Root'
New York, NY (July 24, 2019) — For its landmark fifth anniversary, National Sawdust — the performing arts institution in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — Takes Root by celebrating the artistic process, from incubation to dissemination, while honoring the local and global artistic community it serves.
Over the last four seasons, National Sawdust has tackled themes of multiculturalism, feminism, and more; developed work that has toured around the world; and solidified its position as the premier performing arts institution in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As an institution co-founded by composer Paola Prestini, mentorship, representation of voices seeking equity, and the process of developing original work have always been at the forefront of National Sawdust’s values. In its fifth season, National Sawdust deepens its ties to its community and digs into its roots with the Artists-In-Residence program, which takes artists’ work from incubation to dissemination. By programming cross-cultural and stylistically polyglot artists, National Sawdust strives to reflect the world we inhabit and create a space for audiences to discover new work.
With a focus on mentorship, National Sawdust partners with Juilliard this season for the public debut of the BluePrint Fellowship Program, a dual-track career, project mentoring, and commissioning course designed to leverage the extensive project development and presenting experience of the National Sawdust team and guest women and female-identifying mentors to help bridge the fellows’ training and bring their interdisciplinary projects to completion at National Sawdust. Guest composers for this first round, spearheaded by Composer, Co-Founder, and Artistic Director of National Sawdust Paola Prestini, include Prestini, Claire Chase, Reena Esmail, Nathalie Joachim, Alex Temple, and Laura Kaminsky. National Sawdust continues to stretch the boundaries of creative possibility through the launch of a long-term sound partnership with legendary Berkeley company Meyer Sound. With the installation of Meyer Sound’s Constellation® acoustic system as well as its immersive component Spacemap®, National Sawdust builds upon its already stellar reputation as a place for bold experimentation and creativity. Spacemap’s sophisticated, multi-channel panning system provides artists an extraordinary amount of freedom to explore and play with three-dimensional spatial sound, while Constellation offers an almost unlimited palette of acoustic possibilities with the press of a button.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE SEASON INCLUDE:
- opening weekend concerts featuring Timo Andres and Nico Muhly performing music by Meredith Monk and honoring composers Missy Mazzoli, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, and Emma O'Halloran while showcasing the ingenuity and innovation of Meyer Sound Constellation® and Spacemap® systems (September 27), a premiere ambient concert by William Cashion of Future Islands (September 28), and a program of women composers commissioned and performed by Claire Chase (September 29)
- two week-long curations, led by Black Thought (October 7 - 10) and Ted Hearne (June 2020)
- National Sawdust’s Artists-in-Residence program, presenting world premieres of four new works exploring how music can address the aftermath of trauma, commissioned and performed by vocalist Lucy Dhegrae; a concert featuring the next phase of development in Ash Koosha’s technologically innovative half human, half machine music project named YONA; thought-provoking concerts featuring world premieres curated by composer and artist collective Kinds of Kings; and more
- expanding the birthday celebration of composers series, National Sawdust offers dual bashes featuring performances for iconoclast George Crumb’s 90th birthday (October 28) and new music luminary, composer, conductor, and Music Director of Trinity Church Wall Street Julian Wachner’s 50th birthday (November 10).
“Season 5 is the culmination of years of planning as we refine our incubator, which takes artists from the incubation of their ideas to their dissemination. Our theme this season, ‘Take Root’, highlights the process of development that is at the heart of what we do. Our programs are designed to bridge different phases of our residents’ careers, from emerging to established life”, says Paola Prestini, Composer, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of National Sawdust. “Furthermore, in terms of seeding systemic change, we place emphasis on voices seeking equity through programs such as the newly formed BluePrint Fellowship Program, designed to highlight women and female-identifying mentors and composers, and the Hildegard Competition, for female, trans, and nonbinary artists, which will be entering its third year. I could not be more proud of what we’ve contributed to the artistic ecosystem, and look forward to this incredible kickoff year, with our newly formed National Sawdust Ensemble, our new unlimited sonic palette from Meyer Sound, and the development of our Artists-in-Residence Program and the incredible art that emerges from it yearly.”
OPENING NIGHT CONCERT
Season Five begins with a night showcasing the roots of the institution. Co-founded by a woman and led by women, National Sawdust will honor game-changing female composers. The evening brings home second season curator Timo Andres and National Sawdust Artistic Advisory Board member Nico Muhly, who both played essential roles in laying National Sawdust’s foundation. Together, they will perform a work by National Sawdust Artistic Advisory Board member Meredith Monk. Composer and pianist Samora Pinderhughes, a National Sawdust fan favorite, will premiere a new work inspired by revolutionary composer and distinguished pianist Clara Schumann in celebration of the 200th anniversary of her birth. The newly formed National Sawdust Ensemble, with musical direction from Jeffrey Zeigler, will honor friend and supporter of National Sawdust Missy Mazzoli, Co-Founder and Artistic Director of National Sawdust Paola Prestini, and former National Sawdust Artist-In-Residence and 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner Ellen Reid with performances of their works. Acclaimed soprano Naomi Louisa O'Connell will perform Emma O'Halloran’s Constellations, which premiered at the first Hildegard Competition Concert, with the National Sawdust Ensemble. The concert will also feature Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang of Son Lux, who will perform a tribute to pioneering and award-winning jazz composer Mary Lou Williams, and renowned duo Nelson Patton.
The evening will also feature the public debut of the new Meyer Sound Constellation® and Spacemap® systems at National Sawdust. Exploring the flexible acoustic offerings of these systems through the creation of original sound designs, these artists will showcase the dexterity the Constellation system adds to the venue’s already lauded acoustics. The bold new system ensures that National Sawdust’s aural landscape will be a fully responsive technological playground capable of meeting all the demands and satisfying the wildest dreams of artists and audiences alike (September 27).
LEADING NAMES & EMERGING ARTISTS IN NEW MUSIC
Artists aim to interpret the world, and draw on personal experiences to develop work that creates an impact. To realize that goal, they need space, support, and guidance. As an artist-led institution, this was the genesis for the National Sawdust Artists-in-Residence program. Now in its fifth season, the program has come to fruition and will serve as the core programming for the 2019–20 season. With artist mentors such as composer Meredith Monk; award-winning visionary artist, choreographer, writer, educator, and speaker Liz Lerman; Composer, Co-Founder, and Artistic Director of National Sawdust Paola Prestini; and more, residents receive mentorship, access to rehearsal space, recording opportunities, a commission, performances at National Sawdust, and the potential to tour their work under National Sawdust Projects. The 2019–20 class of residents are Lucy Dhegrae, Ash Koosha, Against The Grain Theatre, Kinds of Kings, Mwenso & The Shakes, and Sonic.
Vocalist Lucy Dhegrae will develop The Processing Series, a four-part concert series exploring trauma's complex terrain of loss, conflict, and renewal. Inspired by Bessel Van Der Kolk’s pioneering book on trauma therapies, The Body Keeps the Score, each concert of The Processing Series centers on a newly-commissioned work, partnered with additional works speaking to similar practices, atmospheres, or questions. Part I: More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell (November 23, 2019) features the world premiere of Osnat Netzer's Philomelos, inspired by Shakespeare’s Lavinia, from Titus Andronicus: “sorrow concealed… burns the heart to cinders.” Eve Beglarian’s She Gets to Decide — which combines personal history, the painting Thérèse Dreaming by Balthus, and the words of Judge Rosemare Aquilina during the trial of convicted gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar — is the centerpiece of Part II: A Barely Arching Bridge (January 11, 2020). Part III: I Was Breathing (March 28, 2020) features the premiere of Katherine Young’s At least, drink water (For Lucy), which confronts the manic and meditative extremes of self-care. Part IV: The Frying Pan (June 2020) features a premiere by Angélica Negrón, as well as Frying Pan, co-composed by Negrón and Dhegrae.
Iranian-born British futurist and technology pioneer Ash Koosha will use the 2019–20 season to incubate and premiere the next phase of his Ash Koosha x YONA project. 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. As a National Sawdust Artist-In-Residence, Koosha will build new materials that combine his previous electronic techniques with contemporary classical music. Then, in performance, Koosha’s live electronic band will be complemented by a CGI visual narrative created by artist Isabella Winthrop.
Award-winning Canadian opera collective Against the Grain Theatre — a group known for presenting classical music in innovative ways, led by Founding Artistic Director Joel Ivany — will perform a work-in-progress showing of their latest commission, Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup (composed by Michelle DiBucci and written by Royce Vavrek), a chamber opera that loosely follows characters and scenes from Georg Büchner's play Woyzeck. With more than 130 people in the United States dying after overdosing on opioids daily (National Institute on Drug Abuse), this timely and topical new opera tells the story of Meri, a wife and young mother who becomes addicted to painkillers after a routine surgery. Her life quickly spins out of control as she turns to street heroin to feed her addiction. Exploring a young woman’s world being torn apart by abuse, neglect, addiction, and apathy, this operatic journey is an unflinching and compassionate look at the opioid crisis and a brutal testament to a plague that is emblematic of this decade. Providing space and resources for Against the Grain Theatre to develop Mrs Winslow's Soothing Syrup, National Sawdust continues to embrace artists’ expressions centered on relevant, hot-button topics.
Kinds of Kings is a collective of six US-based composers — Gemma Peacocke, Shelley Washington, Emma O'Halloran, Finola Merivale, Maria Kaoutzani, and Susanna Hancock — focused on amplifying and advocating for under-heard voices and producing immersive and inclusive work. Across four concerts, each member of the collective will incubate and present world premieres staged by director Benita de Wit and featuring video art by Xuan. The first concert, Real Loud, features world premieres by Merivale and Washington addressing environmental and sociopolitical themes. The second concert, Equilibrium and Disturbance, features pianist Isabelle O’Connell premiering new piano and electronics works by O’Halloran and Peacocke. Refraction, with world premieres from Hancock and Kaoutzani, centers on themes of personal identity. The residency concludes with Towards Home, a collaboration between Kinds of Kings and award-winning Australian ensemble Rubiks Collective on an evening-length work exploring ideas of home and displacement. As part of their residency, Kinds of Kings will also launch the Bouman Fellowship for early-career composers. Mason Bynes, Andrew Rodriguez, and Cassie Wieland will be commissioned to write and premiere new works throughout the season with support and mentorship from the collective.
Focused on the themes of African spirituality, Mwenso & The Shakes will use their residency at National Sawdust to develop and premiere the first phase of their new theatrical/musical presentation, which features improvised music. This unique troupe of global artists are best known for presenting music that merges the highest forms of entertainment and artistry while commanding a formidable timeline of jazz and blues expression through African and Afro-American music. Immigrating from Sierra Leone, London, South Africa, Greenwich Village, Madagascar, France, Jamaica, and Hawaii, the Shakes all now call Harlem their home.
Sonic, the first annual Artist-In-Residence selected from The Revolution series, and her LGBTQIA creative collective Womxyn Amplify, will leverage National Sawdust's newly-installed Constellation® acoustic and Spacemap® systems to create an immersive musical and artistic journey as a queer, partially deaf, artist and womxn of color. Utilizing the spatial sound controls of the Spacemap® Multi-Channel Panning System, these concerts will highlight the changing of the seasons and capture the emotional divisions of the year while taking audience members on a sensory voyage of self-discovery, both as active observers and as participants.
Across the four previous seasons, a diverse group of celebrated master artists from across musical genres have been National Sawdust Curators, programming their own work as well as that of artists they admire over several evenings throughout the year. For its fifth anniversary season, National Sawdust is dedicating a week to each of its diverse curators to better ensure that the organization’s curatorial model provides an invaluable platform for the artists selected and guided by the curators to advance their careers through performances on National Sawdust’s stage.
Black Thought (Tariq Trotter) — the co-founder and lead MC/singer of The Legendary Roots Crew, a Grammy-winning writer, actor, and artist who is one of the most skilled, incisive, and prolific rappers of his time — will curate four concerts, reminiscent of The Roots' iconic "Black Lily" jam sessions, to showcase emerging and innovative talents in rap, R&B, and alternative rhythm. Every night will feature an emerging artist Trotter admires and supports in stripped down, emotional, and moving performances.
Composer, singer, and recording artist Ted Hearne, a Chicago native, will bring to National Sawdust's stage a collection of artists who represent a smattering of his hometown’s robust and varied contemporary music scene. Hearne will also perform and premiere new works of his own while curating at National Sawdust. Chicago-based composer/performers working at the intersection of hip-hop/R&B, art rock, jazz, and notated music populate this soulful and boundary-pushing week of music.
MENTORSHIP
Deepening its roots of incubation and dissemination, in its fifth season National Sawdust will present the public debut of the BluePrint Fellowship Program with Juilliard. This expansion builds upon the ways it works with young, school-age artists and emerging and underrepresented artists with programs such as the annual Hildegard Competition, now in its third season, and Student CoLab with El Puente’s Beacon Leadership Program and Summer Labs, now in their fifth seasons.
The institution will present the inaugural season of Paola Prestini’s latest initiative with Juilliard, the BluePrint Fellowship Program. This program was designed by Prestini to support composers and other musicians at every stage of their careers. It grants Juilliard students the opportunity to work with acclaimed mentors, such as choreographer Liz Lerman and New Inc. Director Karen Wong; learn from National Sawdust staff members about how to produce and market a show; hone grant application and writing skills under the guidance of National Sawdust staff; and develop the other valuable skills needed to become a self-sustaining artist in today’s music marketplace.
Part of the National Sawdust mission is to provide support to emerging composers and artists from diverse backgrounds. In the 2019–20 season, the institution hosts the third annual Hildegard Competition for emerging female, trans, and nonbinary composers. With support from the Toulmin Foundation, the annual Hildegard Competition awards three winning composers with a $7,000 cash prize and a performance and recording of their winning composition, as well as coaching and mentorship by a team of critically acclaimed composers. Past winners include 2019 OPERA America Discovery Grant winner Niloufar Nourbakhsh, 2019 Mizzou International Composers Festival fellow inti figgis-vizueta, and 2019 Mostly Mozart Festival featured composer Bergrún Snæbjörnsdóttir, among others.
Inspired by themes and artists in National Sawdust’s Artist-in-Residence and Projects programs, Student CoLab returns for its fifth anniversary season as the institution’s flagship education program for middle school composers and artists. This program enables direct collaboration between National Sawdust artists and young people through a partnership with El Puente’s Beacon Leadership Program. During the three-month program, students watch live performances at National Sawdust and participate in workshops with teaching and performing artists to create original compositions and artwork of their own. The program culminates in a performance of their work by professional artists alongside the students at National Sawdust.
Finally, National Sawdust proudly announces the return of Summer Labs, an initiative that seeks out emerging musicians in the Brooklyn community to receive four hours of practice time in National Sawdust’s state-of-the-art venue, a 30–40 minute performance at National Sawdust, and the potential to be considered for the National Sawdust Artists-in-Residence program.
NATIONAL SAWDUST SERIES & FESTIVALS
National Sawdust Series give audiences an opportunity for long-term and in-depth explorations of specific styles, genres, and topics. This season, National Sawdust will debut a new audiovisual series by composer Ricardo Romaneiro entitled A/V 360. This series will explore immersive performances and relationships between sound, light, film, and live visuals. Utilizing the Constellation® acoustic system, newly installed at National Sawdust, A/V 360 will envelop audiences in an ethereal, pulsating audiovisual experience intertwined with electronic and classical sonorities. Building upon The Hum’s already hyper-collaborative ethos among artists who are female or non-binary, National Sawdust, in collaboration with Rachael Pazdan, also adds The Hum Presents: Estuary to its series offerings for the 2019–20 season. This interdisciplinary series weaves together dance, contemporary visual practices, and more with live music to create a space where female and non-binary musicians can shed the usual dynamics of their main projects and explore new avenues of their creativity. Also, Powerful Sounds, curated by Nicole Merritt, is a new series presenting world-class artists in one-of-a-kind performances that harness the restorative powers of sound through guided meditations, sound baths, ambient concerts, participatory movement and singing events, and more. With the pristine Constellation® acoustic system and an acoustically sealed hall, National Sawdust is uniquely positioned to provide audiences an unparalleled immersive sonic experience.
Returning series include The Revolution, which is curated by Katie Jones (KJ) and highlights the newest emerging sounds from Brooklyn and Harlem; John Zorn Presents: The Stone Commissioning Series, which honors the spirit of the Stone by presenting the world premiere of new experimental, avant-garde works on the last Wednesday of each month; NationalSawdust , the lively performance and conversation series curated by Elena Park; and Chris Grymes Open G Series, which will honor George Crumb.
In January 2020, National Sawdust will host the annual FERUS festival, which celebrates new voices in new music.
BEYOND THE FACTORY WALLS
National Sawdust Projects, the touring arm of National Sawdust, produces national and international tours of works developed through the institution’s residency program to ensure these pieces of art have a life beyond the venue’s factory walls. For the 2019–20 season, National Sawdust is thrilled to announce that the projects will tour to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Southern Methodist University, Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, San Diego Opera, and other locations. Currently touring projects include The Colorado, a music based documentary directed by Murat Eyuboglu, written by William deBuys and Eyuboglu, narrated by Mark Rylance, and set to music composed by John Luther Adams, William Brittelle, Glenn Kotche, Shara Nova, and Paola Prestini; Miranda Cuckson and Katharina Rosenberger’s folds, a sensory journey from the present to the past that brings the ephemeral nature of sound and thought into dialogue with the tangible world; and Julian Crouch, Rinde Eckert, Prestini, Mark Stewart, and the Attacca Quartet’s Aging Magician, an opera-theater work that tells the story of Harold, an aging clockmaker who is writing a book about an aging magician who, in turn, is searching for a young boy to pass his knowledge on to, co-presented by Beth Morrison Projects. Joining the National Sawdust Projects touring roster are Yuka C. Honda’s No Revenge Necessary, an original multimedia opera that combines acoustic and electronic music with film and more to explore the relationship between humans and technology through a dystopian lens, and Huang Ruo’s The Sonic Great Wall, a sonic, spatial, visual, and participatory project inspired by one of the world’s earliest and largest communication projects: the Great Wall of China. Tour dates for these two pieces will be announced at a later date.
National Sawdust Projects will also continue to tour Forward Music Project 1.0 and 2.0: in this skin by avant-garde cellist Amanda Gookin, with video projections by S. Katy Tucker. These evening length concerts are comprised of commissions for solo cello by today’s most forward-thinking composers that encourage social change and empowerment for women and girls while showcasing Gookin’s ability to remain “consistently self-possessed, and alternately delicate and fierce in her musical approach” (San Francisco Classical Voice). Also continuing to tour is Miyamoto is Black Enough, an exploration of meaning and conversation based on the story of Ariana Miyamoto, a Japanese national who grew up as a self-described mixed race “hafu”, the child of an African-American father and Japanese mother, that has been praised as “incandescent in its synergy between music and poetry" (Los Angeles Times). The project features music by Andy Akiho and text by Roger Bonair-Agard. Following a large-scale performance by hundreds of singers at Rockefeller Center on August 3, 2019, National Sawdust Projects will also tour composer Sxip Shirey and choreographer Coco Karol’s immersive choral and movement piece The Gauntlet. Each performance of The Gauntlet is unique, reflecting the site, community, and performers it is created with. Through a series of workshops, Shirey and Karol work with choirs and wider community members to develop gestures and generate the text for The Gauntlet.
Dedicated to producing tours of innovative interdisciplinary works which reflect the world we live in today, National Sawdust Projects will continue to support the development of several projects throughout the season. Projects in development include Untitled (inspired by Film Stills), a series of four operatic monodramas exploring the stages of transformation and identity in a woman’s life. Inspired by photographer Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills, this work features original compositions by Ellen Reid, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini, with libretto by Royce Vavrek, directed by R.B. Schlather and performed by mezzo-soprano Eve Gigliotti. National Sawdust Projects will produce a workshop in Winter 2020 with Prestini and 2019 Pulitzer Prize winner Reid.
The Amazon, Murat Eyuboglu's second documentary feature and performing arts event, pays tribute to the indigenous peoples and natural history of the region; chronicles key events and figures; and sounds the clarion about looming tipping points that are poised to disrupt the Earth System. The Amazon will continue to be supported throughout the season, while National Sawdust Projects releases the first short film Kipatsi, Nija, Añaantsi (Land, Water, Life), set to music by Peruvian violinist and composer Pauchi Sasaki, featuring members of the Asháninka people, who occupy various watersheds in Peru and Brazil. This short film has been selected to be screened at the 43rd Margaret Mead Film Festival, which will take place at the American Museum of Natural History from October 17–20, 2019. We Were Fridays, by multi-genre cellist Jeffrey Zeigler with direction by Jessica Grindstaff and featuring Butoh dancer Dai Matsuoka, will be incubated by National Sawdust Projects this season. It is about restlessness and running away from complex legacies, and will be given time, space, and resources to come to fruition.
National Sawdust Tracks focuses on the future of its robust, growing catalogue of notable music by representing the inner workings of National Sawdust artists. During the 2019–20 season, multiple album releases with concurrent performances at National Sawdust’s venue are planned, including: Miyamoto is Black Enough (November 3) and Square Peg Round Hole (November 8). A compilation of the first two seasons of Hildegard Competition concerts will also be released.
FALL 2019 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS
The following is a list of highlight events for the Fall 2019 Season. For the most up-to-date event listings and times, please visit NationalSawdust.org/Calendar.
SEPTEMBER
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
September 11, 2019 7:00 pm
National Sawdust, the performing arts institution and artist incubator in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, presents new music from performers and composers involved in their many programs designed to support artists. Including for the hands, wild in your wildless hair, a new work by emerging composer inti figgis-vizueta, winner of the venue's mentorship program, the Hildegard Competition; Waves & Lines by Kinds of Kings collective member, Gemma Peacocke, Artist-in-Residence at the venue throughout the 2019-20 season; and the premiere of ...and everywhere the sea by composer and pianist Jeremy Gill, performed with National Sawdust Curator and Artistic Advisory Council Chair, clarinetist Chris Grymes.
Lara Downes, Magos Herrera, Simmone Dinnerstein, and Bridget Kibbey
September 13th, 2019 7:00 pm
Presenting work from her Sony Masterworks album of the same title, and celebrating her newest release For Love Of You, Lara Downes marks the 200th birthday of Clara Schumann with a genre-fluid tribute to influential female composers past, present, and future, featuring music by Schumann, Florence Price, Meredith Monk, Nina Simone, Paola Prestini, Joni Mitchell, and more. Joined by harpist Bridget Kibbey, vocalist Magos Herrera, and pianist Simone Dinnerstein, Lara brings the work of brilliant, trailblazing women alive on stage.
The concert will include a discussion moderated by WQXR's Clemency Burton-Hill.
Ryan Egan, Liberation Era, and Niya Levon
September 21, 2019 10:00 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.
John Zorn Presents: The Stone Commissioning Series
Wendy Eisenberg
September 25, 2019 7:00 pm
Guitarist Wendy Eisenberg will be presenting a program of new pieces for a quintet of improvisers, featuring Neil Cloaca Young on percussion, Donald Warner Shaw on bass and alto saxophone, Andy Allen on bassoon and saxophones, and Ruth Garbus on vocals.
Timo Andres, Nico Muhly, Samora Pinderhughes, Naomi Louisa O'Connell, Nelson Patton, Rafiq Bhatia and Ian Chang (Son Lux), and National Sawdust Ensemble
September 27, 2019 7:30 pm
Season 5 launches with a nod to National Sawdust’s roots as a women-led institution. From Clara Schumann to Missy Mazzoli, National Sawdust will spotlight and celebrate the dynamism and diversity of these innovative pioneers. Featuring work by Clara Schumann, Mary Lou Williams, Meredith Monk, Missy Mazzoli, Paola Prestini, Ellen Reid, and inaugural Hildegard Competition winner Emma O’Halloran, the evening includes performances by two of the brightest stars in contemporary music, Nico Muhly and Timo Andres. Joining these two legends on stage will be soprano Naomi Louisa O'Connell, composer/pianist Samora Pinderhughes, Nelson Patton, guitarist Rafiq Bhatia and drummer Ian Chang of Son Lux, and the newly formed National Sawdust Ensemble, with musical direction by former Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey Zeigler. The evening will also showcase the ingenuity and innovation of the Meyer Sound Constellation® acoustic system.
Willian Cashion (Future Islands)
William Cashion
September 28, 2019 7:30 pm
William Cashion is best known as the bassist in synthpop giants Future Islands, one of the most formidable acts in indie rock. Now Cashion is striking out on his own, making a collection of meditative ambient pieces that take after Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Robin Guthrie, and Suzanne Ciani. As part of our Season 5 opening weekend, he presents the NYC debut of this new body of work, which he calls “postcard music”, music that doesn't have a beginning or an end, music to listen to with your eyes closed.
Claire Chase
September 29, 2019 7:00 pm
From an exploration of musical memories to a work that draws from the intricate patterns of stuttered speech, MacArthur Fellow and flute virtuoso Claire Chase presents five original pieces from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Composing Women program. Opening with Bree van Reyk’s A (Real and Imagined) Map of Claire Chase, a solo bass flute composition that traces musical motifs from Chase’s childhood sound memories, and continuing with an excavation of previously unreleased pop songs by Peggy Polias, this program employs flute, electronics, and vocals to present a kaleidoscopic range of styles displaying the boundless sonic possibilities of the flute.
This program is sponsored by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s Composing Women program with the generous assistance of APRA AMCOS, Ken and Liz Neilson, and Jason Catlett.
OCTOBER
NationalSawdust presents: Jad Abumrad’s Covering Home
Jad Abumrad, Caroline Shaw, and more
October 1, 2019 7:30 pm
MacArthur Award-winning radio host and composer Jad Abumrad (Radiolab, More Perfect) takes part in his fourth NationalSawdust program, Covering Home, a playful evening of storytelling and song that explores ideas of home, loss, and migration. Taking us from the mountains ranges of Tennessee to Jabal Lubnan in his father’s Lebanese homeland, his program will showcase abstracted covers of traditional songs performed by singer/violinist and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw and others, as well as his own mash-ups from Abumrad's upcoming project.
Chega de Saudade: A tribute to the music of João Gilberto, the father of Bossanova
Magos Herrera, Maucha Adnet, Anat Cohen, Gregoire Maret, Guilherme Monteiro, Helio Alves, Edward Perez and Alex Kautz
October 2, 2019 7:30 pm
New York-based singer Magos Herrera leads a tribute to the music of João Gilberto, the father of bossa nova. Gilberto, a giant of contemporary Brazil who had an immense influence on musicians and audiences around the world, was a singer, songwriter, and guitarist who pioneered the bossa nova genre in the late 1950s with songs like the classic "Chega de Saudade", commonly known as "No More Blues". He passed away earlier this year. Alongside Magos, this concert features performances by Maucha Adnet, Anat Cohen, Gregoire Maret, Helio Alves, Edward Perez, Alex Kautz, and Guilherme Monteiro.
Black Thought
Black Thought
October 7th, 2019 7:30 pm
One of the most incisive, skilled, and prolific rappers of his time, Black Thought is the co-founder and lead MC/singer of The Legendary Roots Crew and a Grammy-winning writer, actor, and artist. Across four concerts, Black Thought will showcase a new generation of emerging talents across rap, R&B, and alternative rhythm. Every night will feature an up-and-coming artist he admires and supports in stripped down, emotional, and moving performances.
Black Thought Curation
Artist(s) Curated by Black Thought
October 8th, 2019 7:30 pm
Across four concerts, Black Thought will showcase a new generation of emerging talents across rap, R&B, and alternative rhythm. Every night will feature an up-and-coming artist he admires and supports in stripped down, emotional, and moving performances.
Black Thought Curation
Artist(s) Curated by Black Thought
October 9th, 2019 7:30 pm
Across four concerts, Black Thought will showcase a new generation of emerging talents across rap, R&B, and alternative rhythm. Every night will feature an up-and-coming artist he admires and supports in stripped down, emotional, and moving performances.
Black Thought Curation
Artist(s) Curated by Black Thought
October 10th, 2019 7:30 pm
Across four concerts, Black Thought will showcase a new generation of emerging talents across rap, R&B, and alternative rhythm. Every night will feature an up-and-coming artist he admires and supports in stripped down, emotional, and moving performances.
PHYSICALITY Rev 3: One Woman Show (Club Mix)
Gavin Rayna Russom
October 11, 2019 7:30 pm
The electrifying final show of Gavin Rayna Russom’s 2018-19 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.
The Revolution, VOL. 43
Juwan Crawley, Ziarra Washington, and Nickel & Dime OPS
October 17, 2019 8:00pm
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.
Lido Pimienta
October 19, 2019 7:30 pm
Iconoclastic Colombian-Canadian musician Lido Pimienta, whose album La Papessa won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize, comes to National Sawdust. Powered by glittering synths and influenced by Afro-Colombian singing and drumming styles, Pimienta’s deeply political music and multidisciplinary work is informed by her identity as an immigrant, an Afro-indigenous person, and an intersectional feminist. So are her live shows: she famously rearranges her audience to allow women of color to the front.
Ives Concord Centennial Anniversary Concert
Jason Hardink and Clarie Chase
October 20, 2019 7:00 pm
Charles Ives’ Concord Sonata is often described as one of the greatest American piano works. Now, on the centennial of its creation, one of the most sought-after soloists and chamber musicians of our time presents the Ives Concord Centennial Anniversary Concert. Jason Hardink, a pianist heralded by the New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini for his “capacity for tenderness and grace”, along with guest flutist and MacArthur Fellow Claire Chase, presents a night of music celebrating Ives’s staggeringly complex masterwork. In addition to the Concord Sonata, Hardink will premiere a piece by Jason Eckardt which combines original music with reimagined passages from the sonata, commissioned expressly to commemorate its centennial.
Powerful Sounds: Laraaji
Laraaji
October 27, 2019 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm
Powerful Sounds is a new series presenting world-class artists in one-of-a-kind performances that harness the restorative powers of sound through guided meditations, sound baths, ambient concerts, participatory movement and singing events, and more. With the pristine Meyer Sound Constellation® acoustic system and an acoustically sealed hall, National Sawdust is uniquely positioned to provide audiences an unparalleled immersive sonic experience.
Chris Grymes Open G Series Honors George Crumb
Chris Grymes, Ann Crumb, and Zac Nicholson
October 28, 2019 7:00 pm
Chris Grymes and Open G present a concert of mystical, celestial music by seminal American composer George Crumb, one of the most significant composers of the last half century, in honor of his 90th birthday. The program includes the classic Night of the Four Moons, a setting of dreamlike texts by Lorca for the intriguing combination of mezzo-soprano, flute, banjo, electric cello, and percussion. Written in 1969 as a response to the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, the piece unfolds in whispers and echoes, amid an enigmatic landscape peppered with the sounds of Tibetan prayer stones, Japanese Kabuki blocks, African thumb pianos, and Chinese temple gongs. The evening will also feature the premiere of a new short film about Crumb by Zac Nicholson, produced by Open G Records and National Sawdust.
John Zorn Presents: The Stone Commissioning Series
Jen Shyu
October 30, 2019 7:00 pm
Jen Shyu premieres a new multilingual, multimedia drama, ZERO GRASSES, expressed through modern myth interfacing with ancient shamanic art forms from Timor, Korea, Indonesia, and Japan. ZERO GRASSES shows how people recount loss in disaster and how humans regain connection with nature and each other. Shyu sings in several languages, dances, plays Taiwanese moon lute, Korean gayageum, piano, and Japanese biwa, and employs electronics and projections to tell this transformative, uplifting story.
NOVEMBER
Miyamoto is Black Enough Album Release
Andy Akiho, Roger Bonair-Agard, Sean Dixon, and Jeffrey Zeigler
November 3, 2019 7:00 pm
Miyamoto is Black Enough is a collaborative exploration of meaning and conversation, based on Ariana Miyamoto, a Japanese national who grew up as a self-described mixed race “hafu”, the child of an African-American father and Japanese mother. This work, celebrating her legacy, is a blend of hard driving rhythms and biting social commentary that utilizes steelpan, cello, drums, and poetry/vocals. Drawing from a melange of musical styles, Miyamoto is Black Enough forms a brash symphony that nods the head, moves the feet, and asks the listener/viewer to challenge and disturb her own comfort. The resulting work is a bold narrative about people, justice, struggle, joy, and celebration.
Emily Marie Pope, Muriel Loveau, and Angélica Negrón
November 6, 2019 7:30 pm
Isterica brings together dancer/choreographer Emily Marie Pope with singer/composer Muriel Loveau and composer/multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón for a series of collaborative improvisations exploring the historic and sociocultural dynamics of hysteria. Isterica questions archetypes of women, delving deep into perceptions of gender, transgression, and emancipation via inquiry-driven physical embodiments and sonic and poetic realizations of these ideas. The show will move fluently from solo to duo structured improvisations between Negrón and Louveau, combining voices with electronics and unusual instruments. Pope will be responding in real time to these soundscapes through the physicalization of these different states of hysteria, exploring the inward versus the outward expressions of these extreme emotions and altered states.
Square Peg Round Hole Album Release
Square Peg Round Hole
November 8, 2019 7:00 pm
Caught somewhere between the post-rock and contemporary classical worlds, Square Peg Round Hole bring their minimalist, ambient music to National Sawdust for their first headlining show, which also celebrates their new album release on National Sawdust Tracks. Debuting a new batch of music that simmers with irresistible electroacoustic textures, Square Peg Round Hole show off their eclectic combination of technical precision and indie rock groove. Through drums, vibraphone, samples, analog synths, metal pipes, glass bottles, and even children’s toys, Square Peg Round Hole will create a sonic landscape that surprises and delights at every turn.
Powerful Sounds: Sara Auster
Sara Auster
November 9, 2019 5:00 pm & 8:00 pm
Powerful Sounds is a new series presenting world-class artists in one-of-a-kind performances that harness the restorative powers of sound through guided meditations, sound baths, ambient concerts, participatory movement and singing events, and more. With the pristine Meyer Sound Constellation® acoustic system and an acoustically sealed hall, National Sawdust is uniquely positioned to provide audiences an unparalleled immersive sonic experience.
Julian Wachner, Jeffrey Zeigler, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, NOVUS NY, and Anthony Roth Costanzo as emcee
November 10, 2019, 7:00 pm
From “gritty, fearless” presentations of early music (New York Times) to Pulitzer-winning premieres, conductor and composer Julian Wachner’s tireless musical output has left a lasting imprint on the musical life of New York City. In honor of his 50th birthday, Julian returns to National Sawdust with friends and collaborators to perform his works for Julian Wachner @50, emceed by Anthony Roth Costanzo.
Anthony Roth Costanzo appears courtesy of the Metropolitan Opera.
Jill Peacock, Wayne Tucker & the Bad Mothas, and RINI
November 14, 2019 8:00pm
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.
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, six Juilliard composition students — Evan Anderson, Hannah Ishizaki, Katie Jenkins, Cheng Jin Koh, Marc Migo, and Will Stackpole — will present their commissioned BluePrint projects, for an exciting mix of voice, dance, electronics, and chamber ensemble, performed by Juilliard students with the National Sawdust Ensemble.
The BluePrint Fellowship is generously supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.
NationalSawdust presents: Paul Muldoon’s Against the Grain
Carolyn Forché, Andrey Kurkov, and The Knights
November 21, 2019 7:30 pm
Paul Muldoon‘s new literary-music series, Against the Grain, presented by NationalSawdust with London Review of Books, returns with the bold voices of American poet, teacher, and activist Carolyn Forché and Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov, joined by pioneering collective The Knights.
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
As an Artist-in-Residence at National Sawdust in 2019–20, Lucy Dhegrae will present The Processing Series, a concert series in four parts. The Processing Series 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 series, More Beautiful Than Words Can Tell, explores the struggle to articulate one's experience after trauma, and features the world premiere of Osnat Netzer's Philomelos. The piece uses text from Shakespeare's Lavinia, whose tongue and hands are cut off after she is raped, so as to not identify her perpetrator. This evening also features works by Peter Kramer, Jason Eckardt, Chaya Czernowin, Georges Aperghis, Philippe Leroux, Maria Stankova, and Vinko Globokar.
John Zorn Presents: The Stone Commissioning Series
Ben Goldberg
November 27, 2019 7:00 pm
Ben Goldberg presents a new work for clarinet, two vibraphones, electric guitar, and bass, featuring Ches Smith, Kenny Wollesen, Ryan Ferreira, and Thomas Morgan.
Powerful Sounds: Ecstatic Dance
Ecstatic Dance
November 30, 2019 7:00 pm
Powerful Sounds is a new series presenting world-class artists in one-of-a-kind performances that harness the restorative powers of sound through guided meditations, sound baths, ambient concerts, participatory movement and singing events, and more. With the pristine Meyer Sound Constellation® acoustic system and an acoustically sealed hall, National Sawdust is uniquely positioned to provide audiences an unparalleled immersive sonic experience.
DECEMBER
Equilibrium and Disturbance: Real Loud
Real Loud and Kinds of Kings
December 11, 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 Shelly 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. Presented alongside this original composition will be the world premiere of Trash Vortex. This multimedia work by Finola Merivale sheds light on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a mass of 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic roughly the size of Texas, which has come to represent the plastic crisis humanity is both causing and facing.
Christmas Time is Here: Canadian Brass 50th Anniversary Holiday Show
Canadian Brass (Chuck Daellenbach, Christopher Coletti, Caleb Hudson, Achilles Liarmakopoulos, and Jeff Nelsen)
December 16, 2019 7:30 pm
Internationally recognized quintet Canadian Brass, named "one of the most popular brass ensembles in the world" by the Washington Post, come to National Sawdust for their annual holiday celebration, performing jubilant arrangements of beloved Christmas songs. Canadian Brass are sure to bring Christmas cheer with this performance showcasing their virtuosity, spontaneity, and sense of fun. Along with Christmas classics, they’ll bring their trademark mix of genres, from Baroque and Dixieland tunes to new compositions and arrangements created especially for them — performed on five continents and selling over 2 million albums worldwide — to this special holiday celebration.
ETHEL (Ralph Farris, Dorothy Lawson, Todd Reynolds, and Mary Rowell)
with Kip Jones and Corin Lee
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 Marcelo Zarvos and Walter Smith, along with a piece from a previous round of HomeBaked by Harrison Ponce. HomeBaked has been a resounding success for early career composers, who have gone on to win prestigious national and international prizes.
John Zorn Presents: The Stone Commissioning Series
Patricia Brennan
December 26, 2019 7:00 pm
Improviser and composer Patricia Brennan has been influenced by new music, free jazz, and experimentalism, as well as her Latino roots. Known for her rhythmic and precise approach as a mallet percussionist, she will be presenting an entirely new body of work that will highlight the gentle complexity of her compositional and improvisatory voice.
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About National Sawdust
At National Sawdust, we believe music has the power to change the hearts and minds of those who listen, and therefore, the world. 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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