Join composer-instigator Jad Abumrad and virtuoso trio Ji Hye Jung and Sō Percussion’s Eric Cha-Beach and Jason Treutling in this playful evening highlighting maximum efficiency with minimal waste. They will be joined by induction chef extraordinaire Rachelle Boucher, New York Times food writer Melissa Clark, and NS+ curator Elena Park.
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In this entertaining and enlightening evening, Abumrad (a frequent NS+ accomplice) and Treuting will unveil new percussion works created for the evening complemented by pieces by John Cage and others, while Boucher will offer a demo of cooking through magnetic induction with New York Times food writer Melissa Clark, and discuss the pioneering work of the Building Decarbonization Coalition. “The more people learn about the environmental costs of gas, the more they’re turning to induction," she told Clark in a recent Times feature. "It’s the future, there’s no going back.”
NationalSawdust+, the lively performance and conversation series curated by Elena Park that launched when the venue first opened its doors, brings together luminaries from across disciplines who share their passion for music and explore ideas and current issues, making surprising connections. This season, NS+ continues its For Nature theme, investigating the interplay and collision between the natural and human world; programs feature artists and musicians, scientists, and activists working to preserve and restore the environment, with recent evenings focusing on regeneration, coral reef and wildlife protection, and indigenous wisdom. The NS+ team includes Producer Jeff Tang and Associate Producer Avery Leigh Draut.
For Nature is made possible by the generous support of Kathryn and Emmanuel Morlet and the Wescustogo Foundation.
Header Photo credit: Freepik
Please join us for other programs in our NS+ Series:
JAD ABUMRAD
Jad Abumrad (b. Syracuse/New York) is a composer, musician, and storyteller who lives in Brooklyn. He is the host and creator of several podcasts (Radiolab, More Perfect, Dolly Parton’s America) that collectively are downloaded over 130 million times a year. He's been hailed for his unique ability to combine cutting edge sound-design, cinematic storytelling, and a personal approach to explaining complex topics, from the stochasticity of tumor cells to the legal foundations of the war on terror. Jad studied creative writing and music composition at Oberlin College in Ohio.
He wrote much of the music for Radiolab and continues to compose music for film, television, theater, and live ensembles. Amongst his many current collaborations, he’s scoring a new commission for the Dance troupe Pilobolus and composing an album of Nocturnes along with a “sleep opera” (i.e. an opera performed by live waking performers but conducted via brainwave by a sleeping human). Jad has received three Peabody Awards, the highest honor in broadcasting. And in 2011 he received the prestigious MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship.
He’s currently a Distinguished Professor of Research at Vanderbilt University.
JI HYE JUNG
Percussionist Ji Hye Jung has been praised as "spectacular" by the Los Angeles Times and "extraordinary" by the Ventura County Star, with the New York Times further describing her as "a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once."
Ji Hye began concertizing in her native South Korea at the age of 9, going on to perform more than 100 concerts including solo appearances with every major orchestra in Korea. Soon after coming to the United States in 2004, she garnered first prizes at the 2006 Linz International Marimba Competition and the 2007 Yale Gordon Concerto Competition.
With percussion repertoire still in its formative stages, Ji Hye feels strongly about collaborating with composers to further the creation of a new voice for the art form. Recent solo engagements include appearances at the Westport Festival of Chamber Music in Ireland, Portugal’s Tomarimbando Festival, New Music Indaba in South Africa, The Intimacy of Creativity in Hong Kong, the Grand Teton Music Festival, Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Cortona Sessions for New Music in Italy, the Grachtenfestival in Holland, and the Ligeti Symposium in Helsinki, Finland.
Since 2015, Ji Hye has served as Associate Professor of Percussion at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee where she lives with her husband Lee and their daughter Eugenia. Ji Hye also serves as the Artist Director for Chamber Music City in Nashville, Tennessee.
ERIC CHA-BEACH
As a member of Sō Percussion, Eric Cha-Beach has performed at top venues around the world and worked closely with composers Angélica Negrón, Bryce Dessner, Caroline Shaw, Dan Deacon, Dan Trueman, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Nathalie Joachim, Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey, Steve Reich, Tristan Perich, Vijay Iyer, and many others. He has collaborated with The National, Radiolab, Buke and Gase, Kid Millions, Dave Douglas, and Matmos and appeared on film soundtracks for Ken Burns, M. Night Shyamalan, and HBO’s The Jinx. As a composer, he has written music for and with JACK Quartet, Caroline Shaw, Shara Nova, Ji Hye Jung, Modern Medieval, Sirius String Quartet, This Is How We Fly, Shen Wei Dance, and Q2 Radio. Together with the other members of Sō Percussion, Eric is a performer-in-residence at Princeton University and Co-Director of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute and the percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory of Music.
JASON TREUTLING
A founding and current member of the influential quartet, Sō Percussion, composer/percussionist Jasonhas appeared in performance throughout the world, from the Barbican to Lincoln Center, to Carnegie Hall, DOM Moscow, Walt Disney Hall, and elsewhere. His compositions, widely noted for their compelling rhythmic language and evocative expressivity, have been performed by artists including Shara Nova, the JACK Quartet, TIGUE, Susan Marshall and Company, and others.
Jason’s original compositions include Amid the Noise, an evolving suite of musical explorations scored for a flexible range of instruments; this work has been performed widely by Sō Percussion, Matmos, and other artists, at the Lincoln Center Festival, the Barbican, the Walker Arts Center, National Sawdust, and elsewhere. It has been presented by Fast Forward Austin, Kadence Arts Boston, Chatterbird, and others, and was recorded by Sō Percussion for release on Cantaloupe Records.
Jason is co-director of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute, an annual intensive course on the campus of Princeton University for college-aged percussionists. He is also co-director of a new percussion program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, and is a lecturer of music at Princeton University, where Sō Percussion is ensemble-in-residence. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey with his partner, the violist Beth Meyers, and their two daughters.
RACHELLE BOUCHER
Rachelle Boucher is the Senior Lead for Culinary Experiences and Events for the Building Decarbonization Coalition (BDC), whose mission is to bring people and organizations together to advance the transition to a clean energy future. As an appliance industry insider and top national voice for kitchen electrification, she leads the BDC’s Chefluencer Program, training a diverse community of chefs and culinarians to bring the wonders of today’s electric kitchens to life through interactive events, culinary storytelling and delicious cooking.
Her adventures as a private chef to legends in film and sports alongside her work with disadvantaged youth were always centered in the kitchen. This passion for cooking and for people, combined with her love of nature became a recipe for her greatest adventure yet, bringing partners, manufactures, and stakeholders to the table to decarbonize the built environment. Rachelle has been featured on the front page of the New York Times food section, in Bloomberg and numerous publications as well as on CBS Sunday Morning. Her electric kitchens journey is chronicled in the best selling book Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our Waste and Heal Our World by Pulitzer Prize winning author Edward Humes. When she is not in the kitchen, she can often be found in the lush, coastal Maine woods marveling at moss.
MELISSA CLARK
Food writer and cookbook author Melissa Clark is staff reporter for the New York Times Food section, where she writes the popular column A Good Appetite and appears in a weekly cooking video series. Melissa has written forty-five cookbooks, including her latest, Dinner in One, published in 2022. Her books include collaborations with some of New York City’s most celebrated chefs, including Daniel Boulud, David Bouley, Andrew Feinberg, Claudia Fleming, Bruce and Eric Bromberg, and former White House pastry chef Bill Yosses.
Her work has been honored with awards by the James Beard Foundation and IACP (International Association of Culinary Professionals), and has been selected for the Best Food Writing series. Melissa is a regular guest on the Today show and on All Of It with Alison Stewart on WNYC.
This is Melissa's second NS+ appearance, following her series debut a year ago as part of the COMPOST! evening.
ELENA PARK
Filmmaker, producer, and NationalSawdust+ curator Elena Park has moved freely through the worlds of arts, culture, and media throughout her colorful career. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she founded Lumahai Productions to embrace opportunities for artistic collaboration and social change with artists, thinkers, and communities as well as institutions, large and small.
Elena's first hour-long film, Eun Sun Kim: A Journey Into Lohengrin, created with San Francisco Opera (SFO), was just released, with broadcasts on KQED. Last spring, she conceived and directed Visual Cavafy, a series of visual poems screened at the New Museum as part of the Onassis Foundation's Cavafy Festival, showcasing the talents of Taylor Mac, Julianne Moore, Caroline Shaw, and Carl Hancock Rux with Daniel Bernard Roumain, Bora Yoon, and Jeffrey Zeigler, among others.
Additional director/executive producer credits include eight In Song award-winning video portraits for SFO, featuring Pretty Yende and Jamie Barton; Cleveland Orchestra’s In Focus performances ranging from Mozart to Debussy to Unsuk Chin, conducted by Alan Gilbert and Jane Glover; Vân-Ánh Võ for Stanford Live; and Jake Heggie's Intonations for the Cabrillo Festival. For the Metropolitan Opera, she is Executive Producer of the Saturday radio broadcasts and was Supervising Producer for the first 140 shows in its worldwide Live in HD series.
Selected roles: Curator for SFO's INSTIGATORS; Supervising Producer for San Francisco Symphony's MTT25: An American Icon; Special Advisor for …(Iphigenia); Artistic Consultant for the Kennedy Center; Executive Producer for WNYC Radio; and Strategic Advisor for SFO, Cambodian Living Arts, and Meyer Sound. TV/film credits: Bel Canto, Amazon's Mozart in the Jungle.