June 16, 2017

Ornette Coleman, Carlinhos Brown, and Morton Subotnick Featured in Lincoln Center Festival 2017

Lincoln Center Festival

                                                                                                                                        PRESS CONTACT 

Aleba Gartner, 212.206.1450

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Lincoln Center Festival

Music Advisory

 

Ornette Coleman: Tomorrow is the Question

July 11–16

 

Four-part series honoring Ornette’s Coleman’s legendary work as a composer, innovator, and performer

 

Cloud River Mountain

Featuring Gong Linna and Bang on a Can All-Stars

July 14–15

 

Chinese vocal star Gong Linna premieres a new work written for her by

Lao Luo and Bang on a Can co-artistic directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe

 

An Evening with Carlinhos Brown

July 15

 

A rare New York performance bursting with his trademark

driving percussion, joyful melodies, and colorful theatricality

 

Subotnick

Silver Apples of the Moon

Crowds and Power

July 20–22

 

50th anniversary of landmark work and a world premiere commission featuring Joan La Barbara and Lillevan

 

Nomadic Nights: Music at the Crossroads

July 25-29

 

A five-part series highlighting the Festival’s celebrated globalism with a

variety of modern-day troubadours from the far reaches of our world

 

Lincoln Center Festival 2017 features 20 international productions by innovators and iconoclasts in dance, music, theater, and film. The Festival continues its mission of globalism by inviting to Lincoln Center artists and companies from a dozen countries and five continents who are creating audacious, original, and relevant work. From July 10-30, 43 performances will animate Lincoln Center’s campus venues and beyond. 

 

This summer’s music events exemplify the Festival’s theme that art has no boundaries, featuring dynamic presentations from artists both close to home and around the globe. These events showcase this range, from pathbreaking American pioneers such as Ornette Coleman and Morton Subotnick to Brazil’s Carlinhos Brown, China’s Gong Linna, and the diverse artists in the Nomadic Nights series from Poland, Cape Verde, Chad, and Palestine. Details about the complete Lincoln Center Festival lineup may be found here and at LincolnCenterFestival.org.

 

Ornette Coleman: Tomorrow is the Question

July 11–16

  

By 1967, the groundbreaking composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman had already established himself as a disruptor of the established order of jazz. In 1997 Lincoln Center Festival, in collaboration with Ornette and his son Denardo, presented a multipart series celebrating the jazz legend’s work as a composer, innovator, and performer. Twenty years later, with this four-part music and film series, Lincoln Center Festival reunites with Denardo Coleman to celebrate the life and legacy of Ornette Coleman, who passed away in 2015.

 

Ornette wrote and played in a way that seemed intuitive, but which was grounded in his deep knowledge of all the rules of classical harmony and the blues. To him, each key on the piano was a distinct “color.” He talked about the “grammar” of his particular music, freed from a tonal center. He gave his theory of things the name “harmolodics.”

 

In the words of Nigel Redden: “Ornette is a quintessentially American artist in the sense that he explored, tried out new ideas, broke boundaries not just in jazz but in the classical world too, and truly believed in what he was doing. We’re still digesting his music, and it’s time to hear it again.”

 

Naked Lunch with Live Orchestral Accompaniment

Tuesday, July 11 at 7:30 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage

 

Film by David Cronenberg

Based on the novel by William S. Burroughs

Score by Howard Shore, Ornette Coleman

Ensemble Signal

Conductor Brad Lubman

Saxophones Ravi Coltrane and Henry Threadgill

Bass Charnett Moffett

Drums Denardo Coleman

 

David Cronenberg’s 1991 film inspired by William S. Burroughs’s hallucinatory novel owes much of its surrealist mood to its famous score—a collaboration between Howard Shore and Ornette Coleman that originally featured Ornette and the London Symphony Orchestra.

 

In this screening and live performance, saxophone legends Ravi Coltrane and Henry Threadgill summon Ornette’s spirit in otherworldly riffs and fevered tangents while Ensemble Signal evokes Shore’s shadowy orchestral textures.

 

Burroughs’s novel—an experimental, nonlinear set of vignettes about a junkie known sometimes as William Lee—was released in 1959, the same year as Coleman’s album The Shape of Jazz to Come, and the two artists both inhabited the same fringes. In the film score, one can even detect Coleman’s composition “Midnight Sunrise” from the album Dancing in Your Head (Burroughs was at the 1973 recording session).

 

Running Time: 2 hours 5 minutes

 

Ornette: Made in America (1985)

Wednesday, July 12 at 6:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

 

Documentary film by Shirley Clarke

 

True to the spirit of its subject, Shirley Clarke’s celebrated 1985 portrait of Ornette Coleman defies traditional documentary formats. Complementing documentary footage of the musician’s triumphant return to his home city of Fort Worth, Texas, the film includes reconstructed dramatic scenes and early music videos that highlight Ornette’s originality and the soft-spoken confidence that endeared him to those who knew him personally. William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Buckminster Fuller, Don Cherry, Yoko Ono, Charlie Haden, Robert Palmer, Jayne Cortez, and John Rockwell are all featured in this kaleidoscopic portrait of an American genius.

 

Running Time: 2 hours

 

Prime Time: A Reunion

Friday, July 14 at 8:00 pm

Alice Tully Hall, Starr Theater, Adrienne Arsht Stage

 

Prime Time: Tone Dialing

Special guests

Saxophone Joshua Redman

Trumpet Wallace Roney

Prime Time

Guitar Kenny Wessel

Bass Al MacDowell, Chris Walker

Keyboards Dave Bryant

Tablas Badal Roy

Drums Denardo Coleman

 

Prime Time: Dancing in Your Head

Special guests

Saxophone Kidd Jordan, David Murray

Prime Time

Bass Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Al MacDowell

Guitar Charlie Ellerbe

Drums Calvin Weston, Denardo Coleman

 

Original members and friends of Ornette Coleman’s celebrated jazz-funk fusion band, Prime Time, come together for a one-night-only musical tribute. With 1976’s Dancing in Your Head, the first album featuring the set of musicians that would become Prime Time, Ornette Coleman broke through to an entirely new realm of imagination. With two electric guitarists, two drummers, one (sometimes two) electric bassists, and Coleman’s horn in the center, Prime Time would later become Ornette’s primary vehicle for exploring how his system of “harmolodics” could fit into groove-based music.

 

This performance is dedicated to Bern Nix, an original member of Prime Time who passed away May 31, 2017.

 

Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes

 

Ornette: Chamber Music

Sunday, July 16 at 2:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

 

Ensemble Signal

Conductor Brad Lubman

Trinity (Fantasy for Solo Violin), 1986

Forms and Sounds, 1967

In Honor of NASA and the Planetary Soloists, 1986

Oboe: Jackie Leclair

The Sacred Mind of Johnny Dolphin, 1984

Trumpet: Seneca Black

 

Even as he pushed the boundaries of improvisation, Ornette was also focused on capturing what he heard in his head in through-composed works. His orchestral piece Skies of America, performed at Lincoln Center Festival in 1997, and numerous chamber works earned him accolades from many classical music innovators, including Virgil Thomson and Leonard Bernstein, who often invited Ornette to performances and rehearsals at Lincoln Center. Members of Ensemble Signal will illuminate this intriguing corner of Coleman’s artistry.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

 

* * *

 

Cloud River Mountain

Friday and Saturday, July 14–15 at 8:00 pm

Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College

 

Featuring Gong Linna

Bang on a Can All-Stars

Composers Lao Luo, Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe

  

A spectacular journey into Chinese myths and ancient poetry, Cloud River Mountain combines the stories of the past with the sounds of the future. In a rare U.S. appearance, Chinese vocal star Gong Linna joins New York's electric Bang on a Can All-Stars in a brilliantly staged new work co-composed by Lao Luo and Bang on a Can co-artistic directors Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe. Weaving together ancient Chinese storytelling and Western songwriting, Cloud River Mountain honors the sound worlds of China and the West, fusing texts sung in both Mandarin and English with sophisticated chamber music, rock, folk, and jazz. Cloud River Mountain is inspired by the tales of gods, spirits, and the world of the shamans from the Chu Ci anthology (also known as Songs of the South) by the famous Chinese poet Qu Yuan. It offers an inspiring, poignant, and ultimately contemporary answer to the question of what a new and authentic collaboration of Chinese and American art music may provide.

 

The “extraordinary” and charismatic Gong Linna (The New York Times) is a classically trained Chinese singer from Beijing, passionate about creating a new “Chinese Art Music” but who is also a very recognizable pop star in China. In 2010 her performance of the song “Tan Te” on Chinese national television to billions of viewers made her an overnight sensation, vaulting her to celebrity status. Her stratospheric vocalizations and adventurous artistic range that embraces Chinese folk, pop, and avant-garde music has drawn comparisons to Björk. In recent years, she has starred on television in China—but she is virtually unknown to the Western world.

 

Bang on a Can co-founder and composer Michael Gordon became mesmerized by Gong Linna during visits to China, originally having seen her on Chinese television and then having subsequently met her and her partner, composer Lao Luo. The disparate compositional styles of Lao Luo, Michael Gordon, Julia Wolfe, and David Lang as interpreted by Gong Linna and the Bang on a Can All-Stars meld together in this unique new work.

 

Cantaloupe Music releases a recording of Cloud River Mountain on July 21, 2017.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 10 minutes

 

* * *

 

An Evening with Carlinhos Brown

Saturday, July 15 at 8:00 pm

David Geffen Hall

 

In a rare New York performance, Brazilian superstar Carlinhos Brown returns to Lincoln Center Festival for another joyous global party. Coming of age just a generation after Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, the songwriter, percussionist, and record producer from Salvador, Bahia is one of today’s most prominent torchbearers of the Bahian sound. He is considered a pioneer in Tropicalia, an artistic movement that combines Brazilian and African rhythms with rock and roll, folkloric music with pop. Thirty of his songs have topped the Brazilian charts, he has won two Latin Grammys, and he was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Original Song Category, for Real in Rio.

 

His famously electrifying stage show features virtuosic percussion, a full band that includes electric guitars and brass, colorful costumes, and non-stop dance that inevitably get audiences on their feet. Deeply committed to improving lives in his hometown of Candeal, Brown and his artistry also glows with generosity, creating ecstatic moments of community and celebration wherever he goes.

 

In the 1980s, Brown began to gather people in Candeal and taught them to play percussion patterns. This project evolved into the formation of his band Timbalada, which grew in popularity and recorded several successful albums, with proceeds going towards repairing roads and homes in Candeal. Following Timbalada’s success, Brown released numerous solo albums and has collaborated with artists such as Sergio Mendes, Bonga, Marisa Monte, Los Van Van, Shakira, and others. He was also featured in the kick-off song for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Brown is recognized for his efforts in rebuilding the cultural life of Brazilian communities; he established the Pracatum Music School in Candeal, which is dedicated to music education and community assistance and development programs near his hometown.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

 

* * *

 

Subotnick

Silver Apples of the Moon (50th anniversary)

Crowds and Power (World premiere)

Thursday–Saturday, July 20–22 at 8:30 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

 

Composer/Live Electronics Morton Subotnick

Live Imagery Lillevan

Actor/Singer Joan La Barbara

 

One of the most inventive minds in music—Morton Subotnick, the pioneering American composer of electronic music—performs two works that bookend 50 continuous years of avant-garde vision. First, Subotnick presides over his onstage studio, performing his 1967 technological and artistic masterpiece Silver Apples of the Moon live. A crucial milestone in early electronic music, Silver Apples of the Moon was instantly iconic when it was released by Nonesuch Records 50 years ago, influencing generations of artists including Paul McCartney, Kraftwerk, and Daft Punk. “As this was the first electronic album ever commissioned by a classical record label, it was a radical departure from tradition; I felt programming it would give us a sense of that time,” Nigel Redden says. This landmark live performance will be performed on a modern-day version of the first Buchla synthesizer (the original is now in the Library of Congress).

 

Then out of complete darkness emerges Crowds and Power, a “media tone poem” for voice, electronic sound, and live imagery inspired by Elias Canetti’s troubling and eternally relevant book. Intrepid vocalist Joan La Barbara—a diva of the avant-garde—performs the central character and Berlin-based video artist Lillevan provides a live and striking visual environment in this world premiere performance.

 

Subotnick was one of the first composers to work with the Buchla modular synthesizer—one of the earliest synthesizers—and his music is believed to be among the early influences on techno. Subotnick was a champion of the distinctive expressivity of electronic music; while other early electronic composers focused on the abstract constructions of sine waves and oscillations, Subotnick discovered rhythm and groove in his music that elicited the characteristics of acoustic instruments while still highlighting the timbres, textures, and pitch manipulations that are unique to electronic media.

 

Commissioned by Lincoln Center Festival and the Harvestworks Artist in Residency Program.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

 

* * *

 

Nomadic Nights: Music at the Crossroads

A five-part series featuring musical snapshots from the far reaches of our world.

July 25–29

 

Maria Pomianowska

Tuesday, July 25 at 8:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

U.S. debut

 

Suka Maria Pomianowska, Aleksandra Kauf

Patrycja Napierala, Iwona Rapacz

 

In the 1990s, with only a 19th-century painting as a guide, classically trained Polish musician, composer and teacher Maria Pomianowska painstakingly reconstructed the Bilgoraj suka, a lost medieval ancestor of the modern violin. Since then, she has been crafting a new repertoire for the instrument, blending the plaintive melodies of Polish folk music with the flavors she has absorbed in her musical travels across North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. With earthy vocals and a small instrumental ensemble, she will spin a hypnotic musical experience that invokes powerful ancient spirits.

 

Pomianowska has released over 20 recordings and is celebrated for her ability to revive ancient traditions as inspiration for music of our time. Whether interpreting Chopin’s folk tunes with instrumentalists from a variety of cultures or composing a piece commissioned by Yo-Yo Ma for cello and suka, there is no limit to her imagination and ability to plumb the depths of musical history to uncover new inspiration for the 21st century.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

 

Bohemian Trio

Wednesday, July 26 at 8:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

 

Piano Orlando Alonso

Cello Yves Dharamraj

Saxophone Yosvany Terry

 

The piano, cello, and saxophone of New York–based Bohemian Trio bring the diverse sounds and rhythms of Cuba and the Americas to life in an original brand of new music. With roots in Cuba, France, Trinidad, and the U.S., the trio shifts intuitively between classical, jazz, and world music. At the heart of their collaboration are Yosvany Terry’s original works, which are driven by Afro-Cuban rhythms, sweeping classical melodies, and a touch of improvisation. In this intimate performance, these “talented and innovative musicians with an ear open to the world” (Post and Courier) will perform works from their newly released album Okónkolo (on Innova) as well as recently commissioned pieces by the Trio.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

 

Tcheka

Thursday, July 27 at 8:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

 

This solo show features one of today’s most engaging torchbearers of the African griot tradition of musical storytelling. Tcheka is a Cape Verdean singer, songwriter, and guitarist who is part of a growing group of post-colonial Cape Verdean artists reclaiming traditional musical styles. He has built a distinctly 21st-century catalog of songs influenced by batuku and other indigenous genres, Brazilian music, Afropop, jazz, blues, and rock. With expressive vocals and dynamic guitar style, he draws audiences into universal themes of love, loss, beauty, social justice, and what it means to be home. Tcheka’s fifth album will be released in 2017.

 

In addition to this Lincoln Center Festival appearance, Tcheka will present two concerts for Lincoln Center Education, as part of its Summer Forum professional development labs.

 

H’Sao

Friday, July 28 at 8:00 pm

Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse

 

Vocal/Guitar Caleb Rimtobaye

Vocal/Keyboard Israel Rimtobaye

Vocal/Bass Moss Rimtobaye

Vocal/Drums Dono Ledjebgue

 

Growing up singing the distinctive a cappella harmonies of their native Chad (which shares land borders with six countries), the three Rimtobaye siblings and childhood friend Dono Bei Ledjebgue have been immersed in the new world gospel, soul, R&B, reggae, and jazz of Montréal, their adoptive home for the past 15 years. Those bright vocals, along with joyful choreography and charismatic showmanship, will fuel H’Sao’s vibrant live performance.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 25 minutes

 

Le Trio Joubran

In the Shadow of Words

Saturday, July 29 at 8:00 pm

Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College

North American premiere

 

Oud Samir Joubran, Wissam Joubran, Adnan Joubran

Percussion Youssef Hbeisch

 

“Among the most inventive musicians in the Arab world” (Guardian, U.K.), the three Palestinian brothers Samir, Wissam, and Adnan Joubran each play the oud, a pear-shaped string instrument that has been crafted and played by their family for generations. They seamlessly blend traditional Arabic music with inflections derived from jazz, rock, and flamenco. Originally from Nazareth, the brothers now record and perform all over the world and were featured in the soundtrack of the award-winning film The Last Flight (2009). At this intimate performance, Le Trio Joubran pay tribute to one of their most influential collaborators—the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish who died in 2008. Reading his poem “The Dice Player,” among others, Darwish’s recorded voice floats over the trio’s winding melodies while images and the poem’s words are projected, sparking a soulful dialogue between worlds.

 

Running Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

 

***

 

ARTIST BIOS

 

Ornette Coleman: Tomorrow is the Question

Ornette Coleman

Since the late 1950s, when Ornette Coleman burst onto the New York jazz scene with his legendary engagement at the Five Spot, Coleman has been teaching the world new ways of listening to music. In 1958, with the release of his debut album Something Else, it was clear that Coleman had ushered in a new era in jazz history. With core musical partners trumpeter Don Cherry, double bass player Charlie Haden, and drummer Billy Higgins, their music, freed from the prevailing conventions of harmony, rhythm, and melody, transformed the art form. From 1959 through the rest of the 60s, Coleman released more than 20 critically acclaimed albums on the Atlantic and Blue Note labels, most of which are now recognized as jazz classics.

 

In the classical realm, Coleman studied trumpet and violin, expanding the scope of his repertoire to include string quartets, woodwind quintets, and symphonic works. Coleman recorded his symphony Skies of America with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, released on Columbia in 1972.

 

After Coleman’s journeys to villages in Morocco and Nigeria in the 1970s, he created a new sound that was full of his trademark musical theory “Harmolodics,” which led to the creation of his electric band Prime Time. In the next decade, more surprises included trendsetting albums such as Song X with guitarist Pat Metheny, and Virgin Beauty featuring the late Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia, as well as works on the soundtracks for the films Naked Lunch and Philadelphia.

 

In 1994 Ornette Coleman was named a MacArthur Fellow and in 1997, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2007 Coleman’s recording Sound Grammar was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Coleman has been given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and The Shape Of Jazz To Come was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015, the same year he passed away. ornettecoleman.com

 

Denardo Coleman

Denardo Coleman made his debut on drums at the age of ten on The Empty Foxhole, an album with his father Ornette Coleman and Charlie Haden, released on Blue Note in 1966. He began touring with his father by the mid 1980s, and he also became his manager. Denardo went on to produce several Ornette Coleman recordings, including the historical double recording In All Languages featuring Prime Time along with Ornette Coleman’s groundbreaking original quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins. Denardo has been involved with many other projects—none more enriching than the work he has done with his mother Jayne Cortez, one of America's pre-eminent contemporary poets. With the Jayne Cortez and the Firespitters group, he collaborated on five recordings, including Taking the Blues Back Home. Denardo has just launched Song X Records and Films; its first release is "Celebrate Ornette,” a box set that includes multiple DVDs, CDs, and LPs, including the last performance by Ornette Coleman, who passed away in 2015.

 

Shirley Clarke

Born October 2, 1919 in New York, Shirley Brimberg Clarke started out as a dancer, studying with such innovative choreographers as Martha Graham, Hanya Holm, and Doris Humphrey. Eventually Clarke turned her talents to cinema, becoming an esteemed filmmaker at a time when few women worked in the field. Her early shorts reflected her lifelong love of dance along with a growing mastery of the new medium. In her award-winning films, Clarke captured movement on film in a new way, eschewing close-ups in favor of long takes and innovative editing. An active member and advocate of New York’s independent film community, Clarke later turned her attention to social-issue filmmaking. Despite the success of her fourth feature, the 1967 documentary Portrait of Jason, Clarke found it increasingly difficult to get financing for her films. From 1975 to 1985, she redirected her talents to teaching film and video production at UCLA. Clarke’s fifth and final feature, Ornette: Made in America was a well-received portrait of the eccentric musical genius and a cinematic comeback for Clarke. Once again, she was on the cutting edge of film style, weaving documentary footage, video art, music videos, and architecture into a vibrant collage that mirrored Coleman’s groundbreaking jazz. She died of a stroke in Boston in 1997. projectshirley.com

 

Ensemble Signal

Ensemble Signal, described by The New York Times as “one of the most vital groups of its kind,” is a New York–based ensemble dedicated to offering broad audiences access to a diverse range of contemporary works. Since its debut in 2008, the Ensemble has performed over 100 concerts, has given the world, U.S., or New York premieres of more than 20 works, and co-produced eight recordings. Signal has performed at Lincoln Center Festival, Big Ears Festival, Zankel Hall, Tanglewood Music Festival of Contemporary Music, Ojai Music Festival, Miller Theatre, (le) Poisson Rouge, Cleveland Museum of Art, the Wordless Music Series, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. Signal has worked with artists and composers including Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Irvine Arditti, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Oliver Knussen, Hilda Paredes, and Charles Wuorinen. Recent highlights have included the performance of Steve Reich’s video opera Three Tales, as well as David Lang, Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe’s video opera Shelter and a headliner performance of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Radio Rewrite at the 2014 Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tennessee. The Ensemble is currently premiering a new work by Steve Reich at venues across the country. signalensemble.org

 

Cloud River Mountain

Gong Linna

Even today, with China being omnipresent in the world, Chinese superstar Gong Linna is still relatively unknown to the rest of the world. Gong Linna’s music, though steeped in Chinese tradition, defies categorization in any musical genre. Her vocal style encompasses traditional vocal techniques from Chinese opera and folk song traditions, sophisticated art songs based on classical Chinese lyrics, highly experimental songs with vocal acrobatics, and an art-pop style that is unique to Gong Linna. Born in Guizhou, a largely ethnic minority province in China known for its flamboyant singing culture, Gong Linna first performed onstage at the age of five. This led to seven years of vocal education at the Chinese Conservatory of Music, eventually a position as soloist at China’s renowned Central Chinese Orchestra, and numerous awards and prizes. After intense studies of Chinese traditional vocal techniques, Gong Linna developed her own unique style and became the most important innovator of contemporary Chinese vocal music. Today, Gong Linna is respected throughout all musical genres in China and is adored by fans who often comprise three generations of a family. Several of Gong Linna’s songs broke the mark of 100 million views, and her appearances on television are enormously popular. Gong Linna performs extensively with her own chamber music ensemble, as well as with many major Chinese orchestras, including the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, and Beijing Broadcasting Symphony Orchestra. Besides her career on stage, Gong Linna has created a modern academic teaching system for Chinese vocal techniques, with the aim of leading more Chinese singers to find a new yet tradition-based vocal style. gonglinna.com

 

Bang on a Can All-Stars

Formed in 1992, the Bang on a Can All-Stars are recognized worldwide for their ultra-dynamic live performances and recordings of today’s most innovative music and have been called “the country’s most important vehicle for contemporary music” (San Francisco Chronicle). Freely crossing the boundaries between classical, jazz, rock, world, and experimental music, this six-member amplified ensemble has consistently forged a distinct category-defying identity, taking music into uncharted territories. Together, the All-Stars have worked in unprecedented close collaboration with some of the most important and inspiring musicians of our time, including Steve Reich, Ornette Coleman, Burmese circle drum master Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Tan Dun, DJ Spooky, and many more. The group’s celebrated projects include its landmark recordings of Brian Eno’s ambient classic Music for Airports and Terry Riley’s In C, as well as live performances with Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Don Byron, Iva Bittová, Thurston Moore, Owen Pallett, and others. Recent project highlights include the premiere performances and recording of Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize–winning Anthracite Fields for the All-Stars and guest choir; the record release of Wolfe’s acclaimed Steel Hammer, featuring Trio Mediaeval, plus a brand new staged collaboration with SITI Company and director Anne Bogart; Field Recordings, a major new multimedia project and CD/DVD featuring over 30 commissioned works by Tyondai Braxton, Mira Calix, Anna Clyne, Bryce Dessner, Florent Ghys, Michael Gordon, Jóhann Jóhannsson, David Lang, Christian Marclay, Steve Reich, Todd Reynolds, Julia Wolfe, and more; and the world premiere performances and recording of Steve Reich’s 2x5, including a sold-out performance at Carnegie Hall. With a massive repertoire of works written specifically for the group's distinctive instrumentation and style of performance, the All-Stars have become a genre in their own right. The All-Stars record on Cantaloupe Music and have released past recordings on Sony, Universal, and Nonesuch. bangonacan.org/bang_on_a_can_all_stars

 

An Evening with Carlinhos Brown

Carlinhos Brown

Born in 1963 in Bahia, Brazil, Carlinhos Brown has become one of the most important figures to arise from Bahia's music scene. As a songwriter, bandleader, producer, and percussionist, he mixes Afro-Brazilian music with many different styles in idiosyncratic and rhythmically rich tunes. The list of musicians he has worked with ranges from Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, Carlos Santana, and Daniela Mercury to the heavy metal band Sepultura. Famed Spanish director Fernando Trueba shot the movie El Milagro de Candeal with Brown and Bebo Valdez. His fame spread quickly after appearing on Sergio Mendes’s Grammy-winning album Brasileiro and on Bahia Black (both from 1992). Brown’s long-awaited first solo album Alfagamabetizado, released in 1996 by Virgin France, was highly successful. It was followed by Omelete Man (1998) and Bahia do Mundo – Mito e Verdade (2001). Tribalistas, a CD that he composed, produced, and played together with Marisa Monte and Arnaldo Antunes, achieved huge sales in Brazil and throughout the world, reaching No. 2 on the Italian album charts (2003). For his album Carlito Marrón (the first album released by Sony BMG Spain), Brown experimented with the Latin sound, mixing Brazilian and Cuban music. The album was honored as Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album at the Latin Grammy Awards 2004. He released A gente ainda nao sonhou in 2007. Since then, he brought a full Trio Elétrico to Barcelona in 2004 to celebrate the carnival of Bahia, and with Carlito Marrón, Carlinhos Brown has become a star in Spain where he now plays huge indoor and outdoor concerts. carlinhosbrown.com.br

 

Subotnick

Morton Subotnick

Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and an innovator in works involving new media, including interactive computer music systems. The work that brought Subotnick celebrity was Silver Apples of the Moon (1966–7), commissioned by Nonesuch Records, marking the first time an original large-scale composition had been created specifically for the disc. It has become a modern classic, and in 2009, it became one of only 400 recordings entered into the National Recording Registry of Works at the Library of Congress. Subotnick’s current projects involve developing innovative musical creative tools for young children, including an iPad app, Pitch Painter, a series of CD-ROMs, and an online K–6 curriculum in musical creativity and Ear Training. Morton Subotnick’s Music Academy (msmusicacademy.com) has just been launched. He tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a composer/performer and lecturer. mortonsubotnick.com

 

Lillevan

Lillevan is an animation, video, and media artist. He is perhaps best known as a founding member of the visual/music group Rechenzentrum (1997–2008). He has performed and collaborated with many artists from a wide array of genres, from opera to installation, minimal electronic experimentalism to dance and classical music. Lillevan has performed and exhibited all over the globe and at major media festivals. Since the mid-’90s he has investigated non-narrative facets of film, which has led to completely abstract works, collage explorations of film history, interactive works for dance groups, and more. His focus is often on the musicality of his imagery, thus defining it as an instrument in its own right, as opposed to accompanying music. In Lillevan’s world, intensity and texture are more important than narrative and figure. He explores the relationships between an image’s elements and the viewing eye, between the eye, the mind, and the soul. lillevan.com

 

Joan La Barbara

Composer/performer Joan La Barbara is renowned for her unique vocabulary of experimental and extended vocal techniques (her “signature sounds”: multiphonics, circular singing, ululation, glottal clicks), influencing generations of composers and singers. Her awards and prizes include the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award (2016); DAAD-Berlin and Civitella Ranieri Artist-in-Residencies; Guggenheim Fellowship; and seven NEA awards plus numerous commissions for chamber ensembles, orchestra, chorus, interactive technology, soundscores for dance, video, and film, including an electronic/vocal score for Sesame Street. Her multi-layered textural compositions have premiered at Festival d'Automne à Paris, Brisbane Biennial, MaerzMusik Berlin, Warsaw Autumn, and many other international venues. Exploring ways of immersing the audience in her music, La Barbara placed the American Composers Orchestra around and among the audience in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall to build her sonic painting “in solitude this fear is lived,” inspired by Agnes Martin’s minimalist art. La Barbara is an artist faculty member of NYU and Mannes/The New School. joanlabarbara.com

 

Nomadic Nights: Music at the Crossroads

Maria Pomianowska

Maria Pomianowska is a multitalented artist who has single-handedly resurrected two forgotten Polish instruments: the suka and the Plock fiddle. As Assistant Professor of Musical Arts at the Music Academy in Warsaw, she has now taught a new generation of players the suka and recently released a new CD called Reborn in celebration of this centuries-old instrument.

 

Pomianowska’s interest in stringed instruments dates back to her college days when she was awarded a scholarship to study the sarangi in India with maestro P. Ram Narayan. What started as a fascination with the sarangi evolved to include the study of a variety of Asian stringed instruments. Her travels have taken her to China, Mongolia, Japan, Central Asia, and the Middle East where she has studied instrumental techniques and engaged in collaborations with local musicians. She spent five years living and working in Japan and via a fortuitous meeting with Yo-Yo Ma while there, performed a piece he commissioned her to write featuring the cello and the suka.

 

Pomianowska has collaborated with outstanding artists such as Anna Maria Jopek with Gil Goldstein and Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Ian Gilan (Deep Purple), Stanislaw Soyka (Polish jazz artist), and Boris Grebenshchikov (the Russian “Bob Dylan”). Her effervescent musicality spans not only performance and teaching, but also curatorial practice in her role as director of Warsaw’s Cross-Culture Festival. 

 

In 2010 she recorded Chopin on 5 continents, with unique arrangements of Chopin’s masterpieces written for ethnic instruments from all over the world. This CD placed No. 5 on the World Music Charts Europe organized by EBU. In 2010 she also opened the first Ethnic Music Department at the Academy of Music in Cracow (a first for Poland). In 2011 she created the inaugural Suka & Fidel Orchestra, which consists of her students (fidel is how one spells fiddle in Polish). Beginning in 2011, she has travelled throughout the Middle East and Africa creating multicultural projects in Egypt, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, Algeria, and Morocco. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Silver Merit Award from the Polish government and the Chopin’s Passport Award, given to an outstanding artist participating in the jubilee celebration of Chopin’s birth. www.pomianowska.art.pl/en

 

Bohemian Trio

Despite being immersed in different cultural and musical backgrounds, Yosvany Terry (saxophone and chékere), Orlando Alonso (piano), and Yves Dharamraj (cello) formed Bohemian Trio in 2013. The three musicians were drawn to the idea that their blend of traditions would speak to the true voice of the Americas: a cacophony of cultures that, together, forges a new identity that transcends Old World boundaries. Bohemian Trio intertwines earthy, Afro-Cuban rhythms with the sweeping melodies of classical, the improvisation of jazz, and the celebration of Latin dance to transport its audiences. These musical narratives, deftly woven into original and commissioned works, simultaneously evoke joy, passion, and a longing for a bygone era. Invited by Tania León and the Composers Now Festival to make its debut on the Music of Now Marathon at Symphony Space in New York City, the trio has since appeared at prominent music series such as Pocantico, Wave Hill, Jazz Gallery, Deer Isle Chamber Music, Spoleto Festival USA, Bargemusic, Make Music New York Festival, and more recently at National Sawdust. Bohemian Trio released its critically acclaimed debut album Okónkolo on Innova Records in February 2017. bohemiantrio.com

 

Tcheka

Tcheka was born in a small, remote spot on the island of Santiago, Cape Verde. He has created a unique and exquisite style that is a testament to the global influences he has embraced. Tcheka’s essence is impossible to pin down—he is neither modernist nor traditionalist, and his music resists any easy categorization or comparison. While referencing multiple genres from Cape Verde (batuku, funaná, finason, tabanka, morna, and coladera), Tcheka’s music is also a busy intersection of Brazilian and African pop, traditional forms, folk, jazz, blues, rock, literature, anthropology, and film. It is never just Cape Verdean, and it is never just music, but it’s always captivating. Tcheka’s much-anticipated fifth album, due for release in 2017, will consist of solo pieces that highlight his inimitable form and mastery on guitar and unmistakable vocals. tchekamusic.com

 

H’Sao

This Montréal-based band from Chad, H’Sao has been capturing the hearts of audiences since 2001 with its unique blend of modern sound and traditional African musical influences. H’Sao has traveled the world, delivering electrifying performances, launching four innovative albums, and most of all, developing a musical signature that spans several genres that transcend the “world music” category.

 

At first, voices were their only instrument. Then, brothers Caleb (guitar), Moss (bass), and Israel (keyboard) along with their childhood friend Dono (drums) added musical instruments to their rich and inspired compositions. Today, the self-taught musicians continue to weave impressive a cappella harmonies into their powerful live performances, punctuated by catchy choreography and warm interactions with the audience. These seasoned musician-singers have stayed true to their roots, drawing from gospel, soul, R&B, reggae and Chadian music. Whether its style is labeled Afro-fusion or Afro-jazz, H’Sao is defined by the strength of its voices and vocal harmonies, its rhythms and its authenticity.

 

H’sao has appeared at prominent festivals such as WOMAD (New Zealand), Brisbane Festival (Australia), Queensland (Australia), Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Montréal’s Francofolies, Luminato Festival (Toronto), Montréal International Jazz Festival, Nuits d’Afrique, Festival d’Eté de Québec, Coup de Cœur Francophone, Awesome Africa (South Africa), and FrancoFête (Moncton). H’Sao notably played before the Queen of England on Canada Day, at the Francophonie games, with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, at Québec City’s 400th anniversary, and at the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Gala. The band will tour Canada, the United States, and Europe throughout 2017 and 2018. hsao.ca/en/

 

Le Trio Joubran

Le Trio Joubran is three brothers, natives of Nazareth: Samir, Wissam, and Adnan. Its repertoire is filled with magnificent improvisations and rich melodies, composed with a virtuosic knowledge of the oud (Arabic lute), an instrument that holds deep meaning in Palestinian culture. In their compositions, each brother contributes without overshadowing the other two. For them, music only has meaning as a trio. The brothers hail from a long line of luthiers, and their music is about the perpetuation of a tradition—a tradition they have also deeply revitalized with their innovations.

 

Since 2002, the trio’s reputation has continued to grow: from the Olympia in Paris to Carnegie Hall in New York to the United Nations, it has played to sold-out crowds. Accompanied onstage by compatriot and percussionist Youssef Hbeisch, its compositions leave room for exceptional improvisations. In addition to a number of recordings, Le Trio Joubran has composed scores for films such as Nassim Amaouche’s Adieu Gary, for which it won the Best Composer Award at the Dubai Festival in 2009, and for Karim Dridi’s Le Dernier Vol, starring Marion Cotillard and Guillaume Canet. The Trio Joubran also celebrate its country by setting the words of preeminent poet Mahmoud Darwish to music (À l’Ombre des Mots/In the Shadow of Words). letriojoubran.com

 

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Lincoln Center Festival has received worldwide attention for presenting some of the broadest and most original performing arts programs in Lincoln Center’s history. The festival has presented some 1,465 performances of opera, music, dance, theater, and interdisciplinary forms by internationally acclaimed artists from more than 50 countries. To date, the festival has commissioned more than 44 new works and offered some 145 world, U.S., and New York premieres. It places particular emphasis on showcasing contemporary artistic viewpoints and multidisciplinary works that challenge the boundaries of traditional performance. LincolnCenterFestival.org

 

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (LCPA) serves three primary roles: presenter of artistic programming, national leader in arts and education and community engagement, and manager of the Lincoln Center campus. A presenter of more than 3,000 free and ticketed events, performances, tours, and educational activities annually, LCPA offers 16 series, festivals, and programs, including American Songbook, Avery Fisher Career Grants and Artist program, David Rubenstein Atrium programming, Great Performers, The Performing Arts Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center, Lincoln Center at the Movies, Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Awards, Lincoln Center Festival, Lincoln Center Out of Doors, Lincoln Center Vera List Art Project, Midsummer Night Swing, Mostly Mozart Festival, White Light Festival, the Emmy Award–winning Live From Lincoln Center, which airs nationally on PBS, and Lincoln Center Education, which is celebrating 40 years enriching the lives of students, educators, and lifelong learners. As manager of the Lincoln Center campus, LCPA provides support and services for the Lincoln Center complex and the 11 resident organizations: The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, New York Philharmonic, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, School of American Ballet, and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.

 

Lincoln Center has become a leading force in using new media and technology to reach and inspire a wider and global audience. Reaching audiences where they are—physically and digitally—has become a cornerstone of making the performing arts more accessible to New Yorkers and beyond. The reimagination of David Geffen Hall will play an important part in these efforts. For more information, visit LincolnCenter.org.

 

Lincoln Center is committed to providing and improving accessibility for people with disabilities. For information, call the Department of Programs and Services for People with Disabilities at 212.875.5375.

 

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Lincoln Center Festival lead support is provided by American Express.

 

Endowment support is provided by Doris Duke Charitable Foundation and Nancy Abeles Marks.

 

Lincoln Center Festival 2017 is also made possible by The Shubert Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, The Harold & Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust, Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation, The Katzenberger Foundation, Inc., Mitsui & Co. (U.S.A.), Inc., Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Jennie L. and Richard K. DeScherer, Lepercq Charitable Foundation in Memory of Paul Lepercq, Sumitomo Corporation of Americas, J.C.C. Fund of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of New York, FACE Foundation, The Harkness Foundation for Dance, The Joelson Foundation, Great Performers Circle, Producers Circle, Chairman’s Council, and Friends of Lincoln Center.

 

Public support for Festival 2017 is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and

New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

 

American Airlines is the Official Airline of Lincoln Center.

 

Nespresso is the Official Coffee of Lincoln Center.

 

NewYork-Presbyterian is the Official Hospital of Lincoln Center.

 

“Summer at Lincoln Center” is supported by Pepsi Zero Sugar.

 

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Documents

• LC Festival Music Advisory [PDF]

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