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About Summer Labs
National Sawdust fights constantly to be on the cutting edge of artistic innovation. So we created Summer Labs: our way of giving to both our patrons and the artistic community. We selected ten incredible artists—both solo acts and groups—from a pool of over 100 applicants to create, workshop, and showcase a masterpiece they couldn’t make happen anywhere else. National Sawdust supplies our stage as workshop space in addition to financial and marketing support, all culminating in a final performance. This is the final showcase of the summer!
About the Show
Sugar Vendil
For National Sawdust’s Summer Labs, Vendil will show a work-in-progress of “Islander” (working title), a music and movement suite scored for various keyboards, kulintang (indigenous Philippine gongs), and electronics. From the lens of a second generation Filipino American, the work examines the residue colonialism has left behind through centuries and generations, and explores the tension that exists within one’s identity. Vendil’s longtime collaborator, composer Trevor Gureckis, will design electronic elements. Performed by Vendil and collaborators: pianists Melinda Faylor and Mary Prescott, and weaver Cynthia Alberto of Weaving Hand.
Book of Dreams
Book of Dreams: Chapter Sand is the first installment of GLMMR’s long range, multi-genre work, Book of Dreams. It is an electroacoustic song cycle that pushes the boundaries of traditional art song by fusing unamplified operatic vocals with digital sound design to weave a delicate tapestry of human and machine sounds. Based on the work of surrealist poet Sonja Krefting, the cycle combines an original vocal composition by acclaimed composer David T. Little with an electronic realization by Metropolitan Opera baritone and digital media artist David Adam Moore. It is commissioned by Sparks & Wiry Cries, performed by David Adam Moore, directed by Vita Tzykun, with visuals by GLMMR, sound engineering by Garth MacAleavey, and narration by Beth Morrison.
Anna Roberts Gevalt
Anna is a Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist whose work is based in archival research, and nestles in the space between ancient ballads and new sounds.
Following a degree in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in 2009, she moved to Appalachia, studying with living masters of traditional songs and fiddle music, and at a research fellowship at the Berea College Music Archive. She is a prize-winning banjo and fiddle player, and has taught at institutes across the country, including the Cowan Music School in East Kentucky where she served as artistic director for three years, Augusta Heritage Center (WV) and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes (WA).
She collaborates primarily with Elizabeth LaPrelle (Anna & Elizabeth), working with traditional songs from Appalachia and New England uncovered in archives. They are currently at work on their third studio album with Benjamin Davis (Cuddle Magic) and Jim ; directing a series of dance films (with direction from AnnieB Parson); developing an interactive website; and developing an experimental play about ballad collectors.The two have toured abroad and in the US for the last six years, including the Newport and Cambridge Folk Festivals, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and the Atlanta Museum of Modern Art.
Anna has been a fellow at The MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center For Creative Arts, the Montalvo Arts Center, AIR Serenbe (Atlanta), and the Found Sound Nation / State Department’s world music initiative, OneBeat. She has also worked with/played for Mercury Prize winning singer Sam Lee, Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show), Susan Alcorn (Mary Halvorsen), Matmos, and composers David Rothenberg, Cleek Schrey, Brian Harnetty, Nate May and Ruby Fulton.
About the Artists
Sugar Vendil
Sugar Vendil is a New York-based composer, pianist, and multidisciplinary artist lauded for “leading the unlikely intersection of classical music and new fashion” (The New York Times). A first generation Filipino-American, Vendil grew up in El Sobrante, CA, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is the founder of The Nouveau Classical Project (NCP), a contemporary music ensemble.
In addition to rigorous discipline as a musician, her artistic practice is strongly focused on multidisciplinary performance that integrates music, movement, and fashion, and approaches the piano in unconventional ways. Residencies include Earthdance (E|MERGE Multidisciplinary Residency), the A-Z West Wagon Station Encampment, and Arts Letters & Numbers. Vendil was a 2016 Fellow in the Target Margin Institute for Collaborative Theater Making.
Sugar is an advocate of the oxford comma, is obsessed with her cat Coco, and has an excellent memory. Her name is a combination of her parents’ names: SUsan and edGAR.
GLMMR
GLMMR [Giving Light Motion + Memory + Relevance], an NYC-based multimedia art collective founded by David Adam Moore and Vita Tzykun, which features an ever-expanding roster of internationally-acclaimed collaborators in the areas of art, design, technology, and performance.
David Adam Moore
Performer and multimedia artist David Adam Moore is a highly sought-after leading baritone by major opera houses and orchestras worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburg Festival, and Carnegie Hall, among others. His performances have been broadcast on BBC, Arte television, NPR, Radio France, RAI, and Radio Netherlands, and recorded by BMG, GPR, and Innova records. With a repertoire of over 50 principal roles, he is best known for his interpretations of Billy Budd, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Rossini’s Figaro, Papageno, DeRocher in Dead Man Walking, Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Prior Walter in Angels in America, Zurga in The Pearl Fishers, Schubert’s Winterreise, Carmina Burana, and the Soldier in David T. Little’s Soldier Songs, which Moore premiered and recorded. His work as a composer and visual artist specializing in digital media has been presented in NYC venues such as the 92nd Y, .NO Gallery, and National Sawdust, while his work as stage director and projection designer has been produced by opera companies throughout the US, including San Diego Opera, Atlanta Opera, Indianapolis Opera and next season at Lyric Opera of Chicago. www.davidadammoore.com
David T. Little
David T. Little is “one of the most imaginative young composers” on the scene, a “young radical” (The New Yorker), with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times). His operas JFK (Royce Vavrek, librettist; Fort Worth Opera / Opéra de Montréal / American Lyric Theater), Dog Days (Royce Vavrek, librettist; Peak Performances / Beth Morrison Projects), and Soldier Songs (Prototype Festival) have been widely acclaimed, “prov[ing] beyond any doubt that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future” (The New York Times). Other recent works include The Conjured Life (Cabrillo Festival Orchestra / Cristian Măcelaru), Ghostlight (eighth blackbird / The Kennedy Center), AGENCY(Kronos Quartet), dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet (The Crossing / ICE), CHARM (Baltimore Symphony / Marin Alsop), Hellhound (Maya Beiser), Haunt of Last Nightfall (Third Coast Percussion). Little is currently working on a new opera commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater new works program with Royce Vavrek, and the music-theatre work Artaud in the Black Lodge with poet Anne Waldman (Beth Morrison Projects). His music has been heard at LA Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, LA Opera, the Park Avenue Armory, Holland Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, BAM Next Wave, and elsewhere. He serves on the Composition Faculty at Mannes-The New School, and is Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia and Music-Theatre Group. The founding artistic director of the ensemble Newspeak, his music can be heard on New Amsterdam, VIA, and Innova labels.He is published by Boosey & Hawkes. www.davidtlittle.com
Victoria “Vita” Tzykun
Victoria “Vita” Tzykun [tsee-‘koon] is a director and production designer who has designed sets, costumes, and projections for companies such as The Bolshoi Theatre (Russia), Den Norske Opera(Norway), LA Opera, Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, Dallas Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Philadelphia, The Kennedy Center (DC), Wexford Opera Festival (Ireland), Boston Lyric Opera, Atlanta Opera, Utah Opera, and Cincinnati Opera among others. Her numerous film and television credits include art direction for Lady Gaga’s ABC Thanksgiving Special, production design for several award winning feature films and shorts, and commercials for leading companies such as PBS, DirectTV, Axe, Bulova, and Qualcomm. Upcoming engagements include set design for the World premiere of the (R)Evolution of Steve Jobs at Santa Fe Opera, and set and costume design for Faust at Chicago Lyric Opera. Her work was recently showcased in a solo exhibition at the National Opera America Center in New York, and has been featured in exhibitions at the Entertainment Industry Expo in NYC, Habima National Theater in Tel-Aviv, the World Stage Design Exhibition in Toronto, and in Entertainment Design magazine. In 2016, Victoria Tzykun received a nomination for Designer of the Year from the International Opera Awards. www.vitavision.net
Sparks & Wiry Cries
Sparks & Wiry Cries is a global platform for art song that explores the dynamic union of music and text through publication, performance, and commission of new works, enlivening the practice and experience of artful storytelling within its diverse community. The Casement Fund Song Series, hosted by Sparks & Wiry Cries, is entering its 5th season of presenting intimate vocal recitals. The Casement Fund is a trust that encourages creative writing and, by extension, the written word as it relates to art song. www.sparksandwirycries.com
Anna Roberts-Gevalt
Anna Roberts-Gevalt is a Brooklyn-based multi-disciplinary artist whose work is based in archival research, and nestles in the space between ancient ballads and new sounds.
Following a degree in ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University in 2009, she moved to Appalachia, studying with living masters of traditional songs and fiddle music, and at a research fellowship at the Berea College Music Archive. She is a prize-winning banjo and fiddle player, and has taught at institutes across the country, including the Cowan Music School in East Kentucky where she served as artistic director for three years, Augusta Heritage Center (WV) and the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes (WA).
She collaborates primarily with Elizabeth LaPrelle (Anna & Elizabeth), working with traditional songs from Appalachia and New England uncovered in archives. They are currently at work on their third studio album with Benjamin Davis (Cuddle Magic) and Jim ; directing a series of dance films (with direction from AnnieB Parson); developing an interactive website; and developing an experimental play about ballad collectors.The two have toured abroad and in the US for the last six years, including the Newport and Cambridge Folk Festivals, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and the Atlanta Museum of Modern Art.
Anna has been a fellow at The MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center For Creative Arts, the Montalvo Arts Center, AIR Serenbe (Atlanta), and the Found Sound Nation / State Department’s world music initiative, OneBeat. She has also worked with/played for Mercury Prize winning singer Sam Lee, Chance McCoy (Old Crow Medicine Show), Susan Alcorn (Mary Halvorsen), Matmos, and composers David Rothenberg, Cleek Schrey, Brian Harnetty, Nate May and Ruby Fulton.
