Tickets
About the Show
National Sawdust is thrilled to announce a new venture with John Zorn’s artist movement THE STONE. THE STONE is opening a new chapter in its storied history of artist empowerment through a monthly commissioning series at National Sawdust, directly investing in the careers of the most exciting composer/performers of New York. This move by THE STONE is the next step in Mr. Zorn’s mission, allowing the venue to transcend its walls to expand its reach and exist in multiple places. National Sawdust is honored to be a prominent host for THE STONE’s evolution, and looks forward to this new opportunity to continue empowering the artist community.
Other Winter Highlights
Ferus Festival: Sxip Shirey’s A Bottle of Whiskey and a Handful of Bees
January 9, 2017 - 7:00pm National Sawdust’s in-house record label VIA Records celebrates its release of the new album by composer, producer, interdisciplinary performer, and NS curator Sxip Shirey.
James Rhodes
February 4, 2017 - 7:00pm Immortal piano music by history's finest composers performed in an intimate setting with the lights down low and an opportunity to disappear and escape from the world for an hour and a half. Along with a few jokes. And a bit of historical context.
Spring Revolution: Amanda Gookin
March 1, 2017 - 7:00pm The Forward Music Project is driven by social justice for women. We musicians, now more than ever, have an incredible ability to effect change in our communities. The seven FMP composers were commissioned to write pieces based on their personal story or a particular issue that affects women and girls. The compositions are stylistically contrasting and represent the vast definition of what it means to be a woman, ranging from empowerment and issues of the LGBTQ+ community, to reproductive rights, and violence against women. A visceral experience, the composers require that she embodies the spirit of their message mentally, emotionally, and physically. In performance Amanda sings, chants, breathes, and sweats life into these works.
Lost Spring
March 3, 2017 - 7:00pm One hundred years after the Armenian Genocide, a mother must explain this troubled history to her daughter. But how does one explain inhuman cruelty to innocence itself? Mixing theater, dance, and live music, and further brought to life by the visuals of artist Kevork Mourad, this multi-disciplinary creation is the poetic journey of a woman in quest of her history, in quest of meaning, in quest of a lost spring…
Josh Green & The Cyborg Orchestra
March 2, 2017 - 10:00pm Josh Green & The Cyborg Orchestra will take on full-blooded human form for the live debut and release of their irreverent album, Telepathy & Bop — a quirky, colorful, approach to melding modern jazz and contemporary classical music.
Prototype Presents: Funeral Doom Spiritual
January 13, 2017 - 10:00pm Funeral Doom Spiritual is a song of mourning for what Anthony Paul Farley calls “the motionless movement of death through slavery, segregation, and neo-segregation.” This new monodrama composed by M. Lamar and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix draws on themes of apocalypse, end times, and rapture found in Negro Spirituals, what Lamar calls “Doom Spirituals.”
Sxip Shirey presents: Trevor Wishart
March 25, 2017 - 6:30pm Encounters is an 8-channel sound-surround piece based on speaking voices recorded in the North East of England where Trevor Wishart was A.C.E. Composer-in-Residence from October 1st, 2006 to September 2009, based at the University of Durham. The piece is constructed in 4 Acts of approximately 20 minutes each, combining portraits of individual speakers (accompanied by sounds and imaginary instruments derived from the voices themselves) with computer animation of the entire community of voices - speech that waltzes, speech that locks in harmony, clouds of speech that circle the audience, culminating with speech that transforms into song. The piece was finally completed on January 1st 2011.
Ferus Festival: Revert to Sea (Yuka C. Honda)
January 6, 2017 - 10:00pm National Sawdust artist-in-residence Yuka C. Honda presents a brand new multimedia work-in-progress based on the writings of Japanese author Ryu Murakami. Murakami, while not well known in the United States, is one of Japan’s most celebrated and iconic living literary figures.
Prototype Presents: Funeral Doom Spiritual
January 14, 2017 - 7:00pm Funeral Doom Spiritual is a song of mourning for what Anthony Paul Farley calls “the motionless movement of death through slavery, segregation, and neo-segregation.” This new monodrama composed by M. Lamar and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix draws on themes of apocalypse, end times, and rapture found in Negro Spirituals, what Lamar calls “Doom Spirituals.”
Timo Andres Presents: Work Songs
March 18, 2017 - 7:00pm "Inspired by old American parlor songs, I've written a set of “Work Songs” on the general subject of artists writing about their work." -Timo Andres
yMusic: Freshly-Minted
February 5, 2017 - 3:00pm Hailed by NPR’s Fred Child as “one of the groups that has really helped to shape the future of classical music,” yMusic is a group of six New York City instrumentalists flourishing in the overlap between the pop and classical worlds. Their virtuosic execution and unique configuration (string trio, flute, clarinet, and trumpet) has attracted the attention of high profile collaborators—from Ben Folds to Dirty Projectors to Jose Gonzalez—and inspired an expanding repertoire of original works by some of today’s foremost composers, including Nico Muhly and Andrew Norman.
Doug Fitch’s Art Gallery Variety Show
March 3, 2017 - 10:00pm This being the first edition of Doug Fitch’s Art Gallery Variety Show, we begin in the bubble of comfort of our own little room – so nice to come home to – only to find certain outside influences more pernicious and pugnacious than one might have envisioned. The demons of disingenuity are swarming about, filling the void with fallacious authenticity and threatening our exceptionalist contentment. Following a story-esque through-line presented in songful vignettes and other musical vehicles, some of the city’s most talented performers and cultural barometers inhabit National Sawdust, offering uplift in this downful time.
