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 13, 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.”
Late Night at National Sawdust: a Live Radio Broadcast Vol. 1
January 20, 2017 - 10:00pm Returning audiences to the glory days of live radio broadcasts, Late Night at National Sawdust is a collaboration between Open G Records and Access Contemporary Music on a quarterly concert series airing live on Relevant Tones, the world’s only weekly syndicated contemporary music radio program.
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.
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.
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.
Michael Gordon / Rushes Ensemble
January 26, 2017 - 7:00pm Composed for seven bassoons, Rushes takes its place alongside Michael Gordon’s Timber for expanding the boundaries of a single instrument’s repertoire into unknown (and at times, otherworldly) spaces. Like Timber, which maps new percussive territory for the simantra—a simple two-by-four slab of wood, amplified and played in a group of six to yield trance-like sonic textures—Rushes brings out tonal and timbral aspects of the bassoon that are meant to induce a quasi-meditative, almost ecstatic state, in the listener as well as the performer.
National Sawdust+ /ˈəntrəpē/ Mickalene Thomas + Terri Lyne Carrington
February 28, 2017 - 7:30pm Acclaimed Brooklyn-based distinguished international artist and filmmaker Mickalene Thomas, a 2015 United States Artists Francie Bishop Good & David Horvitz fellow, turns her gaze from her arresting, often glittering and provocative mixed-media work to present /ˈentrəpē/ , a collaboration of music and art with three-time Grammy Award-winning jazz musician, Terri Lyne Carrington.
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.
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.
New York Philharmonic Presents: Contact!
January 23, 2017 - 7:30pm Celebrating its 175th Anniversary season and the city that has shaped its history and guides its future, the New York Philharmonic returns to National Sawdust this spring with two programs focusing on composers who have called New York home. From revered figures such as Carter and Druckman, to major voices of today such as David Lang and Steve Mackey, to newer voices such as Zosha di Castri and David Fulmer, the musicians of the New York Philharmonic present a snapshot of New York past, present and future.
Bridging the Gap III
March 5, 2017 - 7:00pm Featuring music by Philip Glass, Paola Prestini, and John Zorn.
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.
