Category: Genres

National Sawdust (Paola Prestini, Artistic Director, Ana De Archuleta, Managing Director) has announced its Winter/Spring 2024 season. In a moment of existential crisis for the performing arts field—as COVID relief funding runs out, ticket sales and fundraising lag across the industry in comparison with pre-pandemic levels, and smaller budgets frequently result in reduced opportunities and resources for artists—National Sawdust embraces its role as a “vital part of New York’s new music scene” (The New York Times), for artists and audiences alike.

National Sawdust is a dynamic non-profit cultural institution that commissions, produces, and presents programming rooted in sound and supports multidisciplinary artists and arts organizations in the creation of innovative new work. Founded in 2015 by Kevin Dolan and Paola Prestini, National Sawdust operates out of an intimate space, equipped with a state-of-the-art Meyer spatial sound system, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where it is one of the few remaining cultural venues. The New York Times has described National Sawdust as “the city’s most vital new-music hall” and as “a triumphantly successful performance space that stands for a hip, sophisticated brand of new music.”

On the eve of its tenth anniversary, taking advantage of its nimbleness, and bolstered by the recent acquisition of its state-of-the-art Williamsburg venue, National Sawdust is finding new ways—and strengthening its impactful existing programs—to support composers, musicians, and multidisciplinary artists. The organization has initiated new partnerships with fellow NYC cultural institutions that will extend its impact. It teams with Harlem Stage on a new, cross-borough, series  Uptown Nights: Convent to Wythe. Together, they will present silver through the grass like nothing, an in-process solo by violinist, vocalist, poet, and interdisciplinary performance artist yuniya edi kwon, and even in the shadow of a retching fog, a new work by performance collective SUN HAN GUILD, at Harlem Stage; and  (( ( PHONATION ) )), a work of sound and visuals by Bora Yoon and R. Luke DuBois at National Sawdust.

National Sawdust also joins forces this season with Sparks and Wiry Cries to present their two-day festival featuring 14 world premieres by emerging composers from around the world and a co-curated concert by composer and Hildegard Commission-winner Niloufar Nourbakhsh; with Composers Now to present the opening event of the Composers Now Festival, hosted by that organization’s visionary founder and artistic director Tania León; with Winter Jazz Fest to offer Hess Is More’s category-defying musical concert and art installation Apollonian Blackout; and with the Metropolitan Opera to produce the 2023-24 season-long initiative Opera Evolved, a series of conversations with composers and artists about the contemporary operas featured at the Met this season and the ways opera is evolving today. In Winter and Spring, Opera Evolved presents Lileana Blain Cruz and Paola Prestini in discussion of genre fluidity, and a talk about reviving work from living composers.

National Sawdust is also bringing back its indispensable artist residency program, this season hosting eddy kwon & Holland Andrews. kwon and Andrews are among a wide range of artists making use this season of National Sawdust’s Meyer Sound spatial sound system, which facilitates ambitious sonic explorations and makes the live audience experience of new works uniquely compelling. Others include Hess Is More, Bora Yoon, Bruce Brubaker, Ning Yu, Maya Beiser, Susie Ibarra and Jeffrey Zeigler, Paola Prestini, and more.

By providing today’s most visionary artists with the institution’s unique suite of resources, National Sawdust empowers them not only to experiment and make meaningful contributions to a field undergoing various paradigm shifts, but to lend their visions and voices to urgent conversations in the world at large.

Please see below for the currentWinter/Spring 2024 programming schedule.

National Sawdust Winter/Spring 2024 Schedule
yuniya edi kwon and Holland Andrews How does it feel to look at nothing

January 12, 2024 7:30pm

Using a new language of deconstruction, Holland Andrews and yuniya edi kwon present an in-process performance of How does it feel to look at nothing, a pre-origin story and collaboratively developed opera about a deity of namelessness. An opera of the elemental, of pre-deities, and illusions of containment, How does it feel to look at nothing is an embodied, interdisciplinary performance emerging through a story of transitional states. Composer-performers, multi-instrumentalists, and extended technique vocalists Andrews and kwon co-create this work through composition, improvisation, dance, physical theater, and ritual.

National Sawdust and Winter Jazz Fest present Hess Is More Apollonian Circles

January 16 & 17 at 8pm

Apollonian Circles is a multi-disciplinary musical concert and art installation experience that combines elements of electronic music, jazz, theater, and performance art. Each performance hinges on audience participation and improvisation guiding an ever-changing narrative of artistic expression; we are all participants reflecting one another’s experience as if in a hall of mirrors.

This project explores the very definition of what audiences have come to expect from a traditional concert.  From the moment they arrive, attendees are transported to a mysterious dream-like space where the unexpected can happen. In the literal center of the room is a large table (decorated with other-worldly artifacts and ornaments) that is both stage and set piece for the performers and audience to gather.

Apollonian Circles is a constantly evolving musical live work, where concert formats and the relationship between music, musicians and audiences are explored and challenged. Apollonian Circles grow out of a  constant longing for integration. We bring together artists, performers and ultimately audiences in a space that feels wide open yet artistically distinct and defined.

The music is composed and arranged by the Danish multi-instrumentalist Mikkel Hess and performed by his band, Hess Is More, which comprises musicians from Copenhagen and New York and features notable guests such as acclaimed singer Nomi Ruiz. The scenography is developed by Danish theater luminaries Christian Friedländer and Dicki Lakha in collaboration with award-winning director Tue Beiring, and with costumes by fashion design superstar Henrik Vibskov.

National Sawdust and Sparks and Wiry Cries present
Laura Nevitt (8th Annual NYC songSLAM & songSLAM Commission winner) Anger in Open Mouths: three sweet songs

January 19, 2024 7:30pm

Fashioned after traditional poetry slams and storytelling events like The Moth, each Sparks & Wiry Cries songSLAM gives teams of composers and performers a chance to present world premieres of art song and compete for audience-awarded cash prizes totaling up to $2,000. Each regional songSLAM is produced with a partnering local organization.  Since the inaugural songSLAM of 2016 in NYC, our first come, first served registration has filled in under 15 minutes of opening, and our songSLAM audiences are typically sold out and/or standing room only.  The songSLAM was developed to bring in new, energized, and invested audiences for art song while removing barriers and gatekeepers for performers and composers. Our NYC songSLAM is the flagship event and in 2024 will be produced in partnership with National Sawdust.

During the 2023-2024 season, SWC will partner with organizations across the United States and internationally to produce 8 songSLAM events, allowing for the premiere of over 100 new songs and engaging with over 200 emerging artists in the following cities:  NYC (‘Sparks’ & ‘National Sawdust’), Tallahassee (Florida State University), Waco, TX (Lone Star Song), Bratislava, Slovakia (421 Foundation), Bloomington, IN (Indiana University), Chicago, IL (Fourth Coast Ensemble), Ljubljana, Slovenia (Festival Ljubljana), and Minneapolis, MN (Source Song Festival).

Every year Sparks & Wiry Cries awards a songSLAM commission prize to one of the composers from the previous NYC songSLAM. This year’s commission will be the world premiere of Anger in Open Mouths: Three Sweet Songs, by composer Laura Nevitt and poet Viviana Gill performed by mezzo-soprano Clara Osowski and pianist Erika Switzer.

Only Voice Remains A recital co-curated by Niloufar Nourbakhsh and Sparks & Wiry Cries
January 20, 2024 7:30pm

Only Voice Remains is a new sparksLIVE project. The title is inspired by Iranian poet Forugh Farrokhzad’s poem of the same name, and the program explores themes of exile, loss, and migration, using a diverse range of vocal traditions rooted in Iran and neighboring regions. The music in this program explores the intersection of Persian Flamenco, contemporary singer-songwriters, and Iranian classical music intertwined with the western classical recital format. Also highlighted on the program is the Pashtun Landay—a poetic folk couplet shared by women that exists primarily through an oral tradition. Set to music by Juhi Bansal for soprano, piano, and cello, these poems highlight similar motifs of struggle and triumph echoing down generations from woman to woman. Artist performers on this program include: Mahya Hamedi (vocalist), Ava Nazar (pianist), Farnaz Ohadi (vocalist), Karen Ouzounian (cellist courtesy of Silk Road Ensemble), and Abigail Sinclair (soprano).

Composers Now presents The Opening Event of the 2024 Composers Now Festival Hosted by Tania León
January 31, 2024 7:30pm

While it may be nearly impossible to capture the totality of creativity as expressed by today’s composers, Composers Now and Tania try. From the very young to the legendary, you will come away from this evening with plenty of new sounds heard and composers met. Among the participants, Tania welcomes: the recipients of the 2024 Visionary Awards — Dwight Andrews, Philip Glass and Libby Larsen; the recipient of the First Commission Award and the world premiere of a newly written work, in collaboration with Jazz Gallery; a short documentary capturing the Fall 2023 Collaborative Creative Residency at the Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund; works by Paola Prestini, a percussion trio by Javier Diaz, and more.

Julian Crouch and Saskia Lane BIRDHEART
February 3, 2024 6pm

BIRDHEART is an intimate chamber piece of animated theater with a sheet of brown paper and a box of sand. A show about transformation,loneliness, and the urge to fly, BIRDHEART holds a hand-mirror up to humanity and offers it a chair. Through a series of animated images built in front of the audiences’ eyes BIRDHEART creates something achingly beautiful from the humblest of beginnings.

The BIRDHEART performance is preceded by some bird themed songs performed by Saskia and Julian, and led by the extraordinary musician Philip Roebuck. Singing along is encouraged.

National Sawdust and the Metropolitan Opera present Opera Evolved: Genre Fluidity

February 22, 2024 7:30pm

The second installment of this three-part series celebrates artistic convergence by investigating the intersection of innovation and tradition at National Sawdust. This event brings together a diverse array of multi-faceted artists, including Paola Prestini, esteemed composer and co-founder and artistic director of National Sawdust, and dynamic theater and opera director Lileana Blain-Cruz. Attendees will be treated to rich discussions and captivating performances that highlight genre-blending compositions and illustrate the transformative power of opera.

Bruce Brubaker Eno Piano
February 23, 2024 7:30pm

Brian Eno famously said, “The studio is a musical instrument.” American pianist Bruce Brubaker now says, “A musical instrument can be a studio.” Brubaker will take the stage for a concert highlighting his 12th studio album, Eno Piano. This record, released November 10 on InFiné, encompasses a selection of Brian Eno’s iconic ambient music, including Music for Airports.

Can a single instrument convey ambient music originally made through studio techniques and tape loops? Eno Piano is a companion to Bruce Brubaker’s acclaimed album Glass Piano (2015); even the two album covers are companions. Named by Pitchfork “one of the most exciting pianists in the contemporary American classical scene,” Brubaker, in Eno Piano, shows that just as the studio can be a musical instrument, a single musical instrument can be a studio.

Brian Eno’s music is a significant part of the repetition-based musical minimalism practiced by Philip Glass, Terry Riley, and others in the late 20th century. In 1971, Philip Glass performed at the Royal College of Art in London. In the audience were two 23-year-olds: David Bowie and Brian Eno. Glass’s music was a fundamental influence on Eno. Later, Glass wrote three symphonies based on the three albums of Eno and Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy. Eno Piano acknowledges this deep artistic bond.

Alkemie and guest artist Amanda Gookin A Worthy Mirror
February 25, 2024 7:30pm

A Worthy Mirror represents a time-traveling dialogue with the 12th-century trobairitz—the feminine counterpart of the poet-composers known as troubadours. Together with guest artist Amanda Gookin of Forward Music Project, we are commissioning eleven female and non-binary composers to respond to and converse with the 36 extant trobairitz texts (of which we only have music for one). This body of lyric poetry represents a large group of historically female and anonymous femme voices in the literary tradition. Witty, ironic, heartbreaking, and erotic—these texts present a mirror to reflect upon what feels foreign about the past and what feels familiar, what is the role of gender and self in relationships, and how do we make space for the multiplicities of identity, both in the 12th century and today.

Composers for this program include Gelsey Bell, Maya Bennardo, Alison Cheeseman, Hai-Ting Chinn, Melika Fitzhugh, Sarah Goldfeather, Tis Kaoru Zamler-Carhart, Racquel Acevedo Klein, Li Qi, Niccolo Seligmann, and Patricia van Ness.

NationalSawdust+ presents Insectum Featuring Susie Ibarra, Jeffrey Zeigler, Graham Reynolds, and Jessica Ware
February 26, 2024 7:30pm

Join a zany evening devoted to Insectum, a sonic exploration of the world of arthropods. The program takes its name from the forthcoming record release featuring composer-musicians Susie Ibarra, Jeffrey Zeigler, and Graham Reynolds, who worked closely with University of Texas at Austin entomologists to create their album showcasing original tunes such as “Mosquito” and “Melolonthinae Larvae.” American Museum of Natural History evolutionary biologist Jessica Ware shares research that unravels the evolutionary history of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata), termites, and cockroaches (Blattodea) in this event, hosted by NationalSawdust+ curator Elena Park. Insectum will be both a celebration of the most successful and longest existing multicellular group of animals on the planet, as well as a cautionary tale about how their current threatened status poses dangers for the entire global ecosystem.

Part of NS+’s continuing For Nature series, Insectum kicks off three programs exploring the interplay and collision between the natural and human worlds, featuring artists and musicians, scientists, and activists working to preserve and restore the environment. For Nature is made possible by the generous support of Kathryn and Emmanuel Morlet and the Westcustogo Foundation.

Insectum commissioned by Golden Hornet

Co-Commissioned by Kathleen and Harvey Guion & The Guion Family Fund

Co-Commissioned by Suzanne Deal Booth & The Suzanne Deal Booth Cultural Trust

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts

Presented in partnership with the Asia Society and its initiative, Coal + Ice: Inspiring Climate Action Through Art and Ideas.

Insectum was created in consultation with Alex Wild and Jo-anne Holley at University of Texas at Austin. Insect images displayed are courtesy of Alex Wild.

National Sawdust and Harlem Stage present Bora Yoon featuring R. Luke DeBois  ( ((PHONATION)) )
March 9, 2024 8pm

( (( PHONATION )) ) is a multimedia performance by Bora Yoon with live video manipulations by R. Luke DuBois, exploring where sound connects to the subliminal using found sounds, new and antiquated instruments, electronic devices and voice. Using a sound designer’s approach to performance composition that is steered by a penchant for a song, ( (( PHONATION )) ) engages with music as music, and not as part of a genre, taking the means to one end, and using it for another to form new utterances of sound and the beginnings of a new sonic language, within its spatial and architectural context. In every case, a particular sonic geography is evoked that might be inspired by a simple, found-sound in the world, or an expression of a sonic paradox bouncing around only in the mind.

Jodie Landau Performance of Self
March 15 & 16, 2024 7:30pm

Performance of Self is an immersive piece by Jodie Landau that uses chamber music and dance to weave its way through songs and stories about queerness, gender, sexuality, [online] dating, choice, consent, attraction, desire, expectations, conforming to someone’s needs vs. self-preservation, language and communication, dance, drag, costume, and the performance of self.

“We continuously construct and curate our lives, our relationships, and our selves,” says Landau, “by choice or by circumstance. We weave the stories given to us, those we gather, and those we choose to retell to form a sense of identity. In identifying ourselves and each other we look to codify and define, and in such things we find both comfort and tribulations, as well as opportunity and limitations. Within all this, gender and sexuality are heavily weighted and fascinating topics, or at least have been for me, by choice and circumstance.”

Lætitia Sadier

March 20, 2024 7:30pm

Over the course of her career, spanning three-plus decades, Lætitia Sadier has never shied away from the hard topics, or stopped advocating for the possibility of self determination and emancipation in the face of the powers that be, conscious or unconscious. This is an essential part of the foundation she co-built with Stereolab, showcasing her spiritual, scientific and sociopolitical inquiries. She’s continued this process with Monade and under her own name and as a writer/singer/musician whose every album acts as a report on her journey of the self through time, space and the collective.

On Rooting For Love, the report is set alight by the heat of a turbulent world, collapsing institutions and Lætitia’s fully engaged process of expression as well as orchestration. The opening number, “Who + What” elucidates the central issue of the album: a call for a collective striving for Gnosis — an inquisitive outlook that will lend clues to the traumatized civilizations of Earth, allowing us to evolve away from millennia of alienation and suffering and towards the achievability of healing. The musical arrangements help to embody the layers of the issue, as with “Who + What”’s combination of organ, synths, guitar, bass, trombone, drum programming, vibraphone and zither, all working along intricate paths of chord and tempo changes. Leading from the inside is the implacable presence of Lætitia Sadier, herself interacting with a vocal assembly of men and women billed as The Choir. The regular reappearance of The Choir throughout Rooting For Love is a reminder of this music being one of a people in critical mass, in addition to an evolution that continues to deepen the rich harmonic fields in which Lætitia plays.

Past wounds are addressed again and again in the libretto, as the music provides a transformational balm to aid the healing process. The melodic funk of bassist Xavi Muñoz leads a Chic-adjacent slink to the occasional dance floor vibes and no-wave rockouts, while Hannes Plattemier and Emma Mario take turns in mixing the tracks and informing the far reaches of the material, with vibes, additional drum programming and synths alongside a talented cast of players and singers from Lætita’s Source Ensemble and beyond.

Whether drawing inspiration from Zen Shiastu training, or the lyrics of Véronique Vincent, (lyricist and singer for Aksak Maboul, and once upon a time, lead singer of the French Honeymoon Killers), Lætitia faces the truth without flinching. The shadows, whatever stuff they are made of — individual and collective, present and ancestral — need to be recognized and acknowledged, because the more we heal within ourselves, the more undivided we become in the face of looming Neofascist/Neoliberal narratives polluting the inner and outer landscapes. As with the cover image of the winter tree mirrored by the word patterns of Rooting For Love, Lætitia maintains that how we heal the world that’s coming, and what we make of it, will be a co-creation. The quality of our imagination, the orientation we give our thoughts and the capacity to bring love to ourselves and the world are a first step.

Alongside her collaboration with Modern Cosmology, last year’s incredible What Will You Grow Now?, as well as her continued tours with a reformed Stereolab, Rooting For Love finds Lætitia back in the world, once again urging all our grounded inner alignment and heart power to make us better equipped for creating what’s to come.

Palaver Strings Visions + Miracles
March 22, 2024 7:30pm

This one-hour program brings together music that is transcendent in nature, drawing inspiration from dreams, medieval chant, renaissance polyphony, spirituality, and the power of silence. Anchored by Christopher Theofanidis’ otherworldy composition of the same name, Visions and Miracles takes us on a journey through the gentle sound worlds of Arvo Part, Max Richter, and Caroline Shaw, interspersed with excerpts of Mendelssohn’s Sinfonia No. 1. With mesmerizing harmonies and moments of joy, grief, and gentleness, Visions and Miracles is evocative and reflective, grounding and transcendent.

• Summa for Strings Arvo Pärt
• Entr’acte Caroline Shaw
• Sinfonia No. 1 Felix Mendelssohn
• Visions and Miracles Christopher Theofanidis
• On the Nature of Daylight Max Richter
• Fiddle Set Maya French/Jamie Oshima

Ning Yu + Qubit Piano Realities

March 28, 2024 7:30pm

Piano Realities is a program of works for piano and electronics, created and produced in collaboration by soloist Ning Yu and Qubit. As one of the foremost pianists of her generation, Yu is a champion of adventurous contemporary works, particularly those that incorporate aspects of sonic technology. As such, this concert has been specifically designed to realize the full potential of National Sawdust’s Constellation audio system, a multichannel environment with dozens of speakers.

The program features work by a group of composers—all based throughout the US and Europe—centered around the relationship between the grand piano and spatial audio. Yu will perform excerpts from David Bird’s Iron Orchid, a piece they developed together closely over several years. Also featured is the US premiere of Joanna Bailie’s new work, Marblepark, which aims to create, in the composer’s words “an impossible [acoustic] space,” while Aaron Einbond’s Cosmologies places the listener at the center of a larger-than-life grand piano. The program also includes the Berlin-based, Canadian composer Chiyoko Szlavnics’ haunting Constellations I-III; the world premiere of Heather Stebbins’ Prism II, as well as the first North American performance of Alec Hall’s A dog is a machine for loving, a powerfully emotional cycle for piano and tape based on the dogs in his life.

Roger Eno
March 29, 2024 7:30pm

Roger Eno is a British composer and musician whose distinctive style as a recording artist has attracted a cult following. In 2020, at the start of the global pandemic, he made his debut on Deutsche Grammophon with Mixing Colours, his first duo album with his brother, Brian. During this turbulent period, the album garnered much praise, with The Observer noting that iIts slowly unspooling, generative beauty feels like a balm for these anxious times.” His debut solo album on DG, The Turning Year, was released in April 2022, at times featuring a 20-piece string ensemble and clarinetist. Critically well received, in May 2022 he was asked to appear on NPR’s Tiny Desk series.

After The Turning Year, Roger went on to release Rarities, an illuminating EP of unreleased tracks and gems from the album session. As well as this he also released “Above and Below,” a track that became an Amazon streaming success with 20 million plays to date.

Eno was born in the Suffolk market town of Woodbridge. He became immersed in music at school and bought a battered upright piano with money earned every Saturday as a butcher’s boy. His musical education continued at Colchester Institute School of Music. After a brief interlude playing jazz piano in private clubs in London, he returned to East Anglia.

As well as first collaborating with his brother Brian and Daniel Lanois in 1983 on Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks, he has made over a dozen solo albums and other collaborative pieces with the likes of Peter Hammill, The Orb and his first “band,” the ambient supergroup Channel Light Vessel, whose line-up included Laraaji, Kate St. John, Bill Nelson and Japanese cellist Mayumi Tachibana. He’s also teamed up as a session musician and band member with artists as diverse as The Orb, Lou Reed, Jarvis Cocker and Beck, and not to mention his three-year stint as Musical Director for Tim Robbins and his band, The Rogues Gallery.

Known as a solo composer in both theater and film, Roger scored Trevor Nunn’s highly acclaimed production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal at London’s National Theatre and, more recently, Nick Hornby’s Emmy winning TV series State of the Union, directed by Stephen Frears. Most recently he composed the soundtrack to the Erica Jong documentary Breaking the Wall.

Roger Eno lives in a small town on the border of Suffolk and Norfolk. Those two rural counties, with their quiet lanes, medieval churches and waterways, have given focus and intensity to the natural introspection of his music. He has described his creative process as one of “decomposing”—improvising in his studio early in the morning to later strip away all excess from the result to reveal the essence of the piece. His approach to the world has been likened to that of a visitor to a flea market, that nothing should be ignored, that the curious can be all too easily overlooked…

Roger’s sophomore album on DG is entitled the skies, they shift like chords, and is a quietly startling follow-up to The Turning Year. It features solo piano tracks, multi-instrumental piece, and electronic enhancement. The first track, “Strangely, I Dreamt” involves a stunning appearance on vocals by his daughter, Cecily.

Ran Blake Shimmering Shadows
April 5, 2024 7:30pm

Ran Blake (b. 1935) will perform a rare NYC concert in solo and duo format with special guests. To celebrate the release of Ran’s biography, this concert will be inter-spliced with a live interview and film clips to present a retrospective of the life and music of this iconic pianist. From his early love of film noir, his the much heralded 1962 debut with Jeanne Lee on Newest Sound Around, taking care of Thelonious Monk’s children after their apartment fire, getting caught up in the resistance after a coup in Greece on his birthday in 1967, to his highly influential teaching after founding the “Third Stream” program at the New England Conservatory; Ran Blake’s life sparkles with incredible vignettes, which he will share and

explore in his music for this performance.

In a career that now spans seven decades, pianist Ran Blake has created a unique niche in improvised music as an artist and educator. With a characteristic mix of spontaneous solos, modern classical tonalities, the great American blues and gospel traditions, and themes from classic Film Noir, Blake’s singular sound has earned a dedicated following all over the world. Blake is the recipient of a MacArthur “Genius” award and in 2022 earned a “Satchmo” award from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation.

Maya Beiser Terry Riley’s In C(ello)
April 6, 2024 7:30pm

Dubbed a “cello goddess” by The New Yorker, Maya Beiser creates radical works for the cello, reimagining her instrument’s boundaries with her iconoclastic performances and recordings.

On her forthcoming album, a multi-cello tribute to Terry Riley’s epic In C out in April 2024, Maya creates a hypnotic, rapturous soundscape with her cello, constructed from a series of drones and live cello loops. Joined by two of her long-time collaborators, the drummers Shane Shanahan and Matt Kilmer, this performance incorporates spatial sound designed specifically for National Sawdust’s immersive Meyer Constellation system.

National Sawdust and the Metropolitan Opera present Opera Evolved: Revival of New Work by Living Composers
April 9, 2024 7:30pm

The compelling conclusion to this three-part series unveils the forefront of operatic innovation, offering a deep dive into the symbiosis of traditional support and cutting-edge creation in opera. This event compares the Metropolitan Opera’s groundbreaking initiative of presenting 17 contemporary works over the next five seasons with National Sawdust’s visionary plan to commission five new pieces in their 2024–25 season. The discussion will center on the transformative impact of these artistic endeavors by exploring the Met’s dedication to works by living composers and examining the pivotal role a burgeoning institution like National Sawdust can play in supporting this progressive shift.

NationalSawdust+ presents COMPOST! Featuring Melissa Clark, Tannis Kowalchuk, Mark Stewart, and More
April 25, 2024 7:30pm

NationalSawdust+ digs deep into its For Nature exploration with COMPOST!, an evening of mixed fare with music, theater, and conversation devoted to the process of decomposition and cultivation. Multi-instrumentalist, song leader, composer, instrument designer, and committed composter Mark Stewart brings his Pete Seeger-meets-John Cage sensibility to bear, while theater artist Tannis Kowalchuk (co-founder of Willow Wisp Organic Farm and artistic director of Farm Arts Collective) performs a scene from her dynamic new solo show, Decompositions, which draws a parallel between the process of living, aging, and dying, and the transformation taking place in a compost pile on the stage. New York Times food writer Melissa Clark shares musings on biodegradation and moderates an engrossing discussion with farmers and activists in this nourishing NS+ evening, hosted by series curator Elena Park.

The event is part of NS+’s continuing For Nature series, three programs exploring the interplay and collision between the natural and human worlds, featuring artists and musicians, scientists, and activists working to preserve and restore the environment. For Nature is made possible by the generous support of Kathryn and Emmanuel Morlet and the Westcustogo Foundation.

Julia Jacklin New York Residency
May 9, 15, 22, and 29 8pm

Since releasing her debut album Don’t Let the Kids Win in 2016, Julia Jacklin has carved out a fearsome reputation as a direct lyricist willing to excavate the parameters of intimacy and agency in songs both stark and raw, loose, and playful.

2019 follow-up Crushing was described as “a triumph” by The Independent, and “a candidate for this year’s strongest singer-songwriter breakthrough” by Rolling Stone, and her latest album, PRE PLEASURE, has been met with similar acclaim and continues to establish Jacklin as a mainstay of the indie world.

Jacklin returns to the US for the first time since her sold out PRE PLEASURE TOUR in 2022/23, and will be doing a unique series of solo residency shows alongside supporting a run of dates with Mitski.

Describing the upcoming shows, Jacklin says, “The residency idea started because in the spirit of doing what I want next year, even if it doesn’t make sense, I decided I wanted to do a Vegas Residency. The thought made me laugh, and I want to laugh more, and I want more joy in the indie rock touring circuit. I just feel like I jumped on a train in 2016 when I released my first record and it’s been a while since I’ve interrogated why I’m still on the train or asked who’s driving. I’m approaching next year’s shows with a sense of play. I want to write on the go, try things out and slow things down for a second. I want to stay in the same city for more than a night, have some breathing room in between each show to really think about what I’m doing, why I’m drawn to songwriting and public performance and how I can change my practises to be more sustainable. Maybe I can even work on my enduring stage fright in intimate rooms where I can see peoples faces, feel their support, and remember that this is all just about connecting with other people at the end of the day. I’ll be playing solo, I’ll have some guests, some friends, who knows! I’m just going to see how it feels and leave room for exploring and experimenting. Hope to see you there.”

NationalSawdust+ presents A Crisis of Responsibility: Excerpts from The Shell Trial Featuring Ellen Reid, and More to be Announced
June 13, 2024 7:30pm

Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Reid joins a special NationalSawdust+ evening showcasing insights and excerpts from her new opera, The Shell Trial, written with librettist Roxie Perkins, on the heels of its March 2024 world premiere in Amsterdam. Commissioned by Dutch National Opera and based on the play De zaak Shell by Rebekka de Wit and Anoek Nuyens, the opera explores climate devastation as a crisis of responsibility via a landmark 2021 court case in which environmentalists won a shocking lawsuit against Shell Oil.

The program will include arias sung from the perspectives of diverse figures, such as The Climate Refugee, The CEO, The Artist, as well as a chorus of children representing those killed by Shell’s colonial past and climate disasters. Members of the Young People’s Chorus of New York (YPC) will perform in the evening, which will include a probing discussion featuring a climate activist along with Reid and NS+ curator Elena Park.

The composer will share her experience of creating the provocative piece, which offers a range of voices and viewpoints on whose responsibility it is to halt climate change. As the complexity of the issues in the Shell lawsuit becomes clear, boundaries between guilty party and innocent victim, past harm and future progress, and individual and collective responsibility grow increasingly blurred.

The event is part of NS+’s continuing For Nature series, three programs exploring the interplay and collision between the natural and human worlds, featuring artists and musicians, scientists, and activists working to preserve and restore the environment. For Nature is made possible by the generous support of Kathryn and Emmanuel Morlet and the Westcustogo Foundation.

The Shell Trial is a commission by Dutch National Opera, in co-production with Het Geluid (Maastricht), Opera Philadelphia, and Bregenz Festival.