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
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.”
The Passionate Pilgrim Deluxe
June 3, 2017 - 7:00pm The Passionate Pilgrim” is a song cycle co-written by composer-performer collective Oracle Hysterical (Elliot Cole, Majel Connery and Doug and Brad Balliett). In this collaboration with baroque period ensemble, New Vintage Baroque, “The Passionate Pilgrim” brings an all-but-forgotten poem cycle back to life, reimagined as tuneful Baroque pop.
Bridging the Gap II
January 22, 2017 - 4:00pm Featuring composers from the Yale School of Music: Martin Bresnick, Michael Gilberston, Balint Karosi, and Aaron Jay Kernis.
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.
Philip Glass @ 80 – The Complete Etudes with Maki Namekawa
February 24, 2017 - 7:00pm Following studies at the Kunitachi Music University in Tokyo, Maki Namekawa pursued advanced work under Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the Musikhochschule in Cologne as well as studies with Werner Genuit and Kaya Han at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe and Stefan Litwin in Saarbrücken.
The New American Songbook
January 11, 2017 - 7:00pm The quarterly web magazine for experimental music, Sound American, moves from the text to the sonic in order to answer the question: “What does a truly modern American Songbook sound like?”
Bridging the Gap IV
April 30, 2017 - 7:00pm Composers from the Yale School of Music: William Gardiner, Paul Kerekes, David Lang, Hannah Lash, Daniel Schlosberg, and Christopher Theofanidis.
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.
Bluegrass Situation: Michael Daves Plays Orchids and Violence
March 23, 2017 - 7:00pm The Bluegrass Situation is thrilled to partner with National Sawdust for a series of intimate performances featuring some of today's best modern roots acts. The first concert in this series will feature Grammy-nominated guitarist and singer Michael Daves.
ETHEL’s HomeBaked Round III
March 8, 2017 - 7:00pm The musically omnivorous string quartet ETHEL, whom The New York Times has described as “indefatigable and eclectic” and The New Yorker has deemed “vital and brilliant,” returns to National Sawdust to present the third chapter of ETHEL’s HomeBaked project. With its focus on emerging NYC-based composers, the project, which began in 2010, has already produced eight compositions, many of which have entered the quartet’s repertoire.
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: Requiem for: A Tuesday
January 7, 2017 - 7:00pm Requiem for: A Tuesday is a theatrical concert that takes the form of a ceremony in which those assembled are invited to overcome fear by looking to each other. In this ceremony, music opens up a space for the audience to witness and thus face collective and individual notions of mortality and fear. By taking part in such an act, the assembled will perhaps understand that these actions are universal and thus fear of the other is not necessary as there is, in fact, no other
