National Sawdust Announces Wide-ranging Interdisciplinary 2018/2019 Season, “Hear It New!”

New project from opera superstar Jessye Norman, performance inspired by photographer Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills, music from composers Daniel Bernard Roumain, Julian Wachner, Angélica Negrón, and much more

Top Photo: Amanda Gookin, cellist, performs at National Sawdust’s 2016 Spring Revolution (photo: Jill Steinberg)

New York, NY (July 30, 2018) — With its largest and most diverse group of residencies, curators, and series to date, National Sawdust – the music incubator and venue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn – today announced highlights of its fourth groundbreaking season, featuring a mix of veteran and emerging artists, festivals and cross-genre collaborations. Providing a crucial platform for artists underrepresented by mainstream institutions, National Sawdust’s new season features the premiere or development of more than 25 new works, allowing audiences unprecedented access to bold new music and innovative creative voices.

Highlights from the Season Include:

A fundraiser, featuring a roster of luminaries from across the artistic spectrum, for opera legend Jessye Norman’s new project, Sissieretta Jones, an immersive operatic experience exploring the life of the first African American to sing at Carnegie Hall, co-produced by National Sawdust Projects.

The season opening weekend featuring the world premiere collaboration between pioneer composer Terry Riley, recognized for his “brightly insistent music” (New York Times), and LCD Soundsystem analogue “synth wizard” (NPR) Gavina Rayna Russom (Sep 15).

Cuban composer Tania León, who has “played an active role in shaping American musical life” (New York Times), and composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, who channels “everything from Bach to Gladys Knight” (NPR), joining National Sawdust as Curators spotlighting the role of race and gender in music.

Joan Tower and Friends, a concert co-presented by Chris Grymes in honor of Joan Tower’s 80th birthday, featuring an afternoon of curation by the Grammy-winning contemporary composer and exclusively comprising works by female composers, including Jennifer Higdon, Tania León, and Julia Wolfe (Nov 11).

Film Stills, a new project developed at National Sawdust featuring opera singer Eve Gigliotti presenting original pieces by Du Yun, Missy Mazzoli, Nico Muhly, Paola Prestini and others, inspired by photographer Cindy Sherman’s series Untitled Film Stills (Spring 2019); and avant-garde cellist Amanda Gookin’s Forward Music Project 2.0, presenting new works by six female composers that address issues such as sex positivity, trans rights, and gender non-conformity (Spring 2019).

National Sawdust’s Artists-in-Residence program, presenting twelve new artists and works, including a new composition by Trinity Wall Street Music Director Julian Wachner performed by the Aizuri Quartet; the premiere of award-winning composer Angélica Negrón’s new drag opera, Chimera; composer Julia Adolphe’s new comedic opera, A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears; and more.

NationalSawdust+, the performance and conversation series curated by Elena Park, which returns with directors Gary Ross and Claudia Solti, opera star Joyce DiDonato, Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen, Emily Nemens (of the Paris Review) and Chris Jackson (of One World); plus the debut of Paul Muldoon‘s new literary-music series, Against the Grain, with writers Jennifer Egan and Kevin Young and electronic duo Matmos (Nov 15), presented in association with London Review of Books.

A concert collaboration between violinist, violist, and founding Curator of National Sawdust Miranda Cuckson, a “champion of new music” who is recognized for playing “complex works with charismatic devotion” (New York Times), and composer and pianist Michael Hersch, “one of the most prominent composers in the country, [who] writes masterly modernist music of implacable seriousness” (New Yorker) and “a natural musical genius who continues to surpass himself” (Washington Post). For over a decade, Cuckson has been one of the most trusted interpreters of Hersch’s work. Now, in a rare collaboration, Hersch joins Cuckson on stage to present selections from his oeuvre, including selections from in the snowy margins, Fourteen Pieces, and more (Sep 18).

A performance entitled Art of the In-Between, created by newly announced National Sawdust Curator and “punk ballerina” Karole Armitage, a dancer, choreographer, and the Artistic Director of the New York-based Armitage Gone! Dance Company (Oct 20). Armitage is known for her “fiercely pure” style that “presents the performers as molten steel cooling into stunning shapes” (Village Voice). Art of the In-Between, featuring music by Fats Waller, Terry Dame, Wyclef Jean and more, celebrates Mexico’s rich mixture of indigenous and European cultures, with two original dance pieces: Día de los Muertos – a joyful, subversive comedy of screwball surrealism for a gang of dancing skeletons – and Donkey Jaw Bone – a piece inspired by the theatrical Mexican wrestling form Lucha Libre and accompanied by pre-Columbian instruments bringing the penetrating sounds of Nahuatl music to the stage.

Paola Prestini, composer, Co-founder and Artistic Director of National Sawdust, explains:

“The music in Season Four includes National Sawdust’s trademark blend of veteran composers and discovery artists, mentorship, and a deep sense of rigor across styles. We are in a true golden age of new music, and I believe it is the responsibility of venues, curators, and lovers of the performing arts to stand behind the artists who ignite this creativity.”

Opening Night Concert

Season Four officially kicks off with a night devoted to new music from minimalist composer Terry Riley, celebrated as a “pioneering American composer” and “guru of American music” (New York Times), and a Founding Artistic Advisory Board member of National Sawdust. On Saturday, September 15 at 7:00 pm, Riley will share the stage with Trinity Wall Street’s renowned ensembles NOVUS NY and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, led by “viscerally dramatic” (New York Times) composer-conductor and National Sawdust Artist-in-Residence Julian Wachner, to perform Madrigal (2015), Archangels (2003), and Remember This, O Mind (1997). Then, at 10:00 pm, the revered composer will share the stage with Gavin Rayna Russom for an otherworldly, improvised collaborative performance.

Leading Names & Emerging Artists in New Music

The National Sawdust Artists-in-Residence program provides invaluable support to artists and projects at early and transitional stages in their development. Artists receive commissioning and performance opportunities, access to rehearsal and recording time, the opportunity to explore collaborations with one another, and the potential to tour their projects. Projects are given the space and time necessary to be formulated, workshopped, revised, and recorded.

National Sawdust is proud to announce J. Hoard, Thea Little, PUBLIQuartet, Julian Wachner, Innov Gnawa, L’Rain, and Gavin Rayna Russom as 2018-2019 Artists-in-Residence. Grammy Award-winning songwriter and “Brooklyn vocal marvel” (Deli Magazine) J. Hoard expands his scope as arranger and performer, using National Sawdust’s Artists-in-Residence platform to expand the unique sound he has been cultivating in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. Brooklyn-based performer, choreographer, musician, composer, and director Thea Little, recognized for her exploratory dance pieces, will examine relevant social topics such as feminism, queerness, and social class with her new movement pieces. PUBLIQuartet, recognized as “a perfect encapsulation of today’s trends in chamber music” (Washington Post) will curate three concerts throughout the season—the first featuring music by Andy Akiho, the second celebrating women in music, and culminating with premieres of new works by emerging composers in response to our environment on Earth Day, April 22, 2019. Julian Wachner, Director of Music and the Arts at Trinity Wall Street since 2011 and an “emphatic and theatrical” conductor (Washington Post), is also the composer of an extensive catalogue of music from chamber and choral to opera; at National Sawdust he marks his first residency as a composer. Grammy-nominated musical collective Innov Gnawa will create and record contemporary gnawa music – ritual trance music of formerly enslaved black Africans assimilated into Moroccan culture; experimental composer and multi-instrumentalist L’Rain, praised for her “beautiful, untidy” songs that “seem to softly wander and change shape” (Pitchfork), will develop her unique blend of electronica and R&B exploring the complexity of grief and the audacity of joy; and LCD Soundsystem’s “tech wizard” (SF Weekly) Gavin Rayna Russom will use her residency to build upon her innovative work as a solo artist, developing a new multimedia production using analog and digital synthesizers, video, and dance.

National Sawdust Projects-in-Residence helps established artists and composers to actualize a concept or further explore a piece currently in development. This season’s National Sawdust Projects-in-Residence include cellist Amanda Gookin’s Forward Music Project 2.0, which features six newly commissioned cello pieces from female composers, as well as video and production design by Katy Tucker, exploring topics such as sex positivity, trans rights, pleasure and pain, gender non-conformity, fashion and dignity, hysteria, BDSM, and more; a new comedic opera entitled A Barrel of Laughs, A Vale of Tears by composer Julia Adolphe – renowned for being “alive with invention” (New Yorker) – developed with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann; Chimera, a chamber opera featuring seven different drag performers portraying the same character, by composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón; and Resonant Theatre: The Sonic Great Wall by “one of the world’s leading young composers” (New Yorker) Huang Ro. This sonic, spatial, visual, and audience-interactive project inspired by the Great Wall of China aims to demolish barriers and boundaries through moving sounds, words, and movements, and will be performed in collaboration with the Amsterdam-based Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble at National Sawdust’s annual FERUS Festival.

National Sawdust Curators are a diverse group of celebrated master artists from across musical genres who program their own work as well as that of artists they admire. Curators program several evenings throughout the year, generously using their own success to build audiences for emerging or undiscovered artists. Renowned Cuban-born and award-winning composer Tania León will curate shows featuring female Latina artists who are often artistically and culturally underrepresented in the mainstream classical music world. Daniel Bernard Roumain – whose recent chamber opera We Shall Not Be Moved was named “The Best Classical Performance of 2017” by the New York Times – will, as an affiliate of Arizona State University’s National Accelerator for Cultural Innovation and Inclusion program, join National Sawdust in a mentoring partnership to highlight inclusivity and create space for discourse about the role of race in society through music. American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) curates shows that will bridge theory and practice to create a deep context from which to listen to stories, ideas, and music of the past. Music event producers AdHoc will bring the Brooklyn aesthetic to the National Sawdust stage with shows including Majical Cloudz, Low, Andy Shauf, Trevor Powers, and more; and dancer and choreographer Karole Armitage, the Artistic Director of the New York-based Armitage Gone! Dance Company, completes the roster of Curators (see Highlights section above).

National Sawdust Series

Giving audiences an opportunity for long-term and in-depth explorations of specific styles, genres and topics, National Sawdust Series include AFROPUNK’s new Liberation Sessions, featuring local Brooklyn artists addressing issues surrounding sex, gender, and race; a series overseen by Brooklyn-based institution RVNG exploring an intersection of present and pioneering musicians operating in avant-garde realms; The Revolution, highlighting the newest emerging sounds from Brooklyn and Harlem; Jazz for Kids, the original National Sawdust series introducing children to world of music; 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; and NationalSawdust+, curated by Elena Park.

Festivals

Three major National Sawdust Festivals, lasting anywhere from a day to a week and focused on a central theme, take place over the course of the 2018-19 season. On October 6, the Resonator Festival will showcase the sounds of hip-hop, R&B, soul, and rock with collaborations between up-and-coming local artists and more established names. In January, National Sawdust will host the annual FERUS Festival, celebrating new voices in new music. And in the spring, National Sawdust presents the second annual Pan Asia Music Festival, curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Du Yun.

Mentorship

Part of the National Sawdust mission is to provide support to emerging composers and artists from diverse backgrounds. In the 2018-19 season, the institution hosts the second annual Hildegard Competition. With support from the Toulmin Foundation, the Hildegard Competition supports emerging female and nonbinary composers, annually selecting three winners to each receive a $7,000 cash prize, a performance and recording by a National Sawdust group in residence, and coaching and mentorship by three critically acclaimed composers.

Also underlining a commitment to education and the support of early-stage artists, National Sawdust is thrilled to partner with community human rights organization El Puente for the Very Young Composers concert, presented with the New York Philharmonic, which unlocks and empowers the natural artistry, musicianship, and creativity inherent in virtually all children, regardless of economic circumstance, race, gender, or nationality. Led by composer Angélica Negrón – who “marches to her own strangely timed beat” with work that “ranges from the electro-pop of her Puerto Rican underground band Balún to avant garde compositions for film and symphonic performance” (Paste Magazine) – the program builds personal confidence and leadership, cultivates a deeper understanding of music, and inspires tomorrow’s composers to create the music of the future.

Finally, National Sawdust proudly announces Summer Labs, an initiative that seeks out emerging musicians in the Brooklyn community to receive four hours of practice time in our state-of-the-art venue, a 30-minute performance at National Sawdust, and the potential to be considered for future mentorship opportunities at National Sawdust, including the Artists-in-Residence program.

Beyond The Factory Walls

National Sawdust Projects incubates and produces more than a dozen new works every year, with the goal of breaking these productions out of the venue’s factory walls and bringing them to a global stage. This year, National Sawdust is thrilled to announce that the following projects will tour to the Wallis Annenberg Center for Performing Arts, Classical: Next in Rotterdam, and other locations: We Were Fridays by multi-genre cellist Jeffrey Zeigler in collaboration with Daniel Bernard Roumain, about restlessness and running away from complex legacies; Forward Music Project by avant-garde cellist Amanda Gookin; and composer Andy Akiho’s Miyamoto is Black Enough.

Season 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.

SEPTEMBER

Opening Night
Terry Riley, NOVUS NY, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and Julian Wachner
September 15, 2018 7:00 pm
Honoring compositional luminary Terry Riley, NOVUS NY and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street perform Madrigal (2015), Archangels (2003), and Remember This, O Mind (1997).

Terry Riley, Gavin Rayna Russom, and Gyan Riley
September 15, 2018 10:00 pm
Composer and analog synth designer Gavin Rayna Russom teams up with dynamic father-son duo Terry and Gyan Riley for an evening of electro-acoustic improvisation.

AdHoc Presents: Devon Welsh (of Majical Cloudz)
Devon Welsh (of Majical Cloudz)
September 16, 2018 7:00 pm
This opening-weekend performance from Devon Welsh (of Majical Cloudz) marks the debut of a series of concerts curated by artist-created and Brooklyn-based music publication and events company AdHoc, which highlights voices pushing contemporary underground music into surprising new shapes.

Miranda Cuckson and Michael Hersch
Miranda Cuckson, Michael Hersch
September 18, 2018 7:00 pm
Violinist and violist Miranda Cuckson was one of National Sawdust’s founding Curators; she returns to the venue with the music of daring composer and pianist Michael Hersch.

NationalSawdust+ presents The Gate
Chris Jackson, Emily Nemens, Paola Prestini, Elena Park
September 30, 2018, 7:00 pm
Pioneering editors Chris Jackson (One World) and Emily Nemens (Paris Review) will talk with NationalSawdust+ Curator Elena Park about “gatekeeping” and bringing important new voices to the forefront, as debates about inclusion and equity rage on. The event will feature readings and performances, including a performance of Hildegard-winning composer Emma O’Halloran’s Constellations.

OCTOBER

The Resonator Festival
October 6, 2018 4:00 pm and 9:00 pm
This all-day festival will showcase the sounds of hip-hop, R&B, soul, and rock with collaborations between up-and-coming local artists and more established names. Last year’s featured artists included OSHUN, Theo Croker, Amy León, LiKWUiD, QNA, and Zaven.

J. Hoard Presents: Dan Edinberg and WiggzCaro
J. Hoard, Dan Edinberg, WiggzCaro
October 12, 2018 8:00 pm
J. Hoard is a Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter whose “dope beats and vibrant melodies” have led him to work as far afield as Mexico and Canada. In this concert, he shares the stage with Dan Edinberg and WiggzCaro.

The Glass Effect
Lavinia Meijer
October 14, 2018 4:00 pm
The only classical artist to hit the Dutch top-ten charts with three consecutive albums, harpist Lavinia Meijer plays a concert of minimalist music including her own transcriptions of Philip Glass.

Art of the In-Between
Karole Armitage
October 20, 2018 7:30 pm and 10:00 pm
Iconic Tony-nominated choreographer and National Sawdust Curator Karole Armitage celebrates Mexico’s rich mixture of indigenous and European cultures, paying choreographic homage to the Day of the Dead and the Mexican wrestling form Lucha Libre, accompanied by pre-Columbian musical instruments bringing the penetrating sounds of Nahuatl music to the stage.

NOVEMBER

PUBLIQuartet Presents: Andy Akiho
PUBLIQuartet, Andy Akiho, and Ian Rosenbaum
November 7, 2018 7:00 pm
Dedicated to presenting contemporary works by composers outside the standard classical canon, in November PUBLIQuartet will present the driving and visceral music of Andy Akiho with special guests Andy Akiho (steel pan) and Ian Rosenbaum (marimba).

Joan Tower at 80, presented by Chris Grymes
Joan Tower, Jennifer Higdon, Tania León, and Julia Wolfe
November 11, 2018 4:00 pm
For her 80th birthday, Joan Tower, one of the most celebrated living American composers, curates a concert of music by female composers.

NationalSawdust+ presents Paul Muldoon’s Against the Grain
Jennifer Egan, Kevin Young, and Matmos
November 15, 2018 7:30 pm
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon launches a new literary-music series with award-winning writers Jennifer Egan and Kevin Young and electronic duo Matmos. Presented in association with London Review of Books, Against the Grain is dedicated to making art that is equal to the contrariness and complexity of our moment. (The series continues on January 24 and May 23.)

DECEMBER

NationalSawdust+ Curated by Gary Ross and Claudia Solti
Gary Ross and Claudia Solti
December 10, 2018 7:30 pm
Directors Gary Ross and Claudia Solti curate a NationalSawdust+ evening exploring a century of protest music. Through live performance, readings, and film clips, the event will cover Voices of Resistance from the Wobblies (IWW) to Bob Marley and beyond.

JANUARY

FERUS Festival: Miranda Cuckson, Katherine Rosenberger
Miranda Cuckson and Katherine Rosenberger
January 6, 2019 7:00 pm
Traditional violin playing and ghostly whispers from paper objects come together in Katherine Rosenberger’s exploration of texture and tangibility.

FERUS Festival: Resonant Theatre: The Sonic Great Wall
Huang Ruo and Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble
January 7, 2019 7:00 pm
One of National Sawdust’s Projects-in-Residence, Huang Ruo’s Resonant Theatre: The Sonic Great Wall is a sonic, spatial, visual, and audience-interactive project inspired by the Great Wall of China.

FERUS Festival: AMPLIFY
Brooklyn Youth Chorus
January 8, 2019 7:00 pm
Brooklyn Youth Chorus’s Concert and Men’s Ensembles present an array of choral works amplifying young voices, contemporary artists and themes. Works by: Paola Prestini, David Lang, Angélica Negrón, Daniel Bernard Roumain, Olga Bell, and more.

NationalSawdust+ presents Paul Muldoon’s Against the Grain
Jorie Graham, Colm Toibin, and Laurie Anderson
January 24, 2019 7:30 pm
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon’s new literary-music series continues with award-winning writers Jorie Graham, Colm Toibin, and trailblazing artist Laurie Anderson, who will also perform. Presented in association with London Review of Books, Against the Grain is dedicated to making art that is equal to the contrariness and complexity of our moment. (The series continues on May 23.)

FEBRUARY

Freedom and Faith
PUBLIQuartet
February 10, 2019 4:00 pm
Dedicated to commissioning and presenting works by composers outside the standard classical canon, this program celebrates the music of extraordinary women.

MARCH

NationalSawdust+ presents Joyce DiDonato + Sasha Cohen
March 31, 2019 7:00 pm
Opera diva Joyce DiDonato (starring in the Metropolitan Opera’s La clemenza di Tito) and Olympic figure skater Sasha Cohen (2006 Olympic Silver Medalist) talk about thriving in the virtuosic, exacting worlds of sports and performance in a conversation spanning topics such as training, improvisation, adapting to the moment, and being in the zone.

APRIL

American Modern Opera Company (AMOC) Presents Listening to Tom-Tom
April 4, 2019 7:00 pm
Scholar Lucy Caplan, in partnership with the American Modern Opera Company (AMOC), presents a discussion of the 1932 opera by author, musicologist and composer Shirley Graham Du Bois. Following a performance of excerpts from the work, Lucy Caplan and fellow panelists, including AMOC bass-baritone Davóne Tines, discusses the opera’s complex representations of race, gender and history, as well as the opportunities and challenges of presenting Tom-Tom today.

PUBLIQ Access 4.0: Our Environment
PUBLIQuartet
April 22, 2019 7:00 pm
Dedicated to commissioning works by composers outside the standard classical canon, PUBLIQuartet presents three world premieres in response to environmental issues.

NationalSawdust+ presents Paul Muldoon’s Against the Grain
Min Jin Lee and Tracy K. Smith
May 23, 2019 8:00 pm
The third installment of Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon’s new literary-music series features award-winning writers Min Jin Lee and Tracy K. Smith (plus musicians to be announced). Presented in association with London Review of Books, Against the Grain is dedicated to making art that is equal to the contrariness and complexity of our moment.

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About National Sawdust

National Sawdust’s mission is to build new audiences for classical and new music by providing outstanding resources and programmatic support to both emerging and established artists and composers. Centered on discovery within music, its programming introduces audiences to new artists and styles, and introduces artists to new audiences. An incubator of new music, NS also provide artists the space, time, and resources they need to create their art.

National Sawdust is both a state-of-the-art performance venue and a recording studio, housed within a preserved century-old sawdust factory. The building—which has won multiple architecture awards—also houses Rider, a two-story bistro and bar led by James Beard Award-winning chef Patrick Connolly. Rider completes the audience experience by offering an exceptional menu of food and drink during performances.

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Press Contact for National Sawdust: David Clarke [email protected]

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