Encompass New Opera, Treehouse Shakers and More Ste for BAM's 2014-15 PDP

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) today announced the participants of the third cycle of the BAM Professional Development Program (BAM PDP), led by BAM and the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the University of Maryland. The companies for this session represent mixed disciplines ranging from dance to theater to opera. Chosen by a BAM-convened panel, the organizations taking part in this session are Encompass New Opera Theatre, Satellite Collective, Summation Dance, and Treehouse Shakers. As with the previous sessions, the DeVos Institute extended invitations to a group of organizations to apply for the training portion of the BAM PDP-expanding the program's reach beyond Brooklyn-based companies. These additional organizations taking part in the program areBalletNext, Beth Morrison Projects, S? Percussion, and Zvi Dance.

Launched in 2012, the BAM PDP is a 9-month program that utilizes the strengths of both institutions to provide professional development training and deeply discounted theater and rehearsal studio rental to an annual selection of qualifying Brooklyn non-profit arts organizations. Through the program, supported by Brooklyn Community Foundation, BAM and the DeVos Institute strive to help arts organizations expand their skill base, increase their institutional capacity, and build necessary foundations for their long-term success. The latest cycle of the program began this month and culminates with each Brooklyn-based company presenting a self-funded production in the BAMFisher Fishman Space within the year following the training portion.

The second component of the program is the DeVos Institute's Performers in Transition Arts Management Training Program designed to train professional performing artists who have completed or are nearing the end of their professional career to transition into arts management roles. The program offers professional artists in New York City an opportunity to take part in the arts management training offered by the BAM PDP, coupled with the applied experience of working alongside one of the program's organizations as it mounts a production.

From backgrounds as diverse as the cycle's companies, the Performers in Transition (and their performance affiliations) are Tsarra Bequette (MOMIX, Project Flux, Ballet Idaho), Tadej Brdnik (Martha Graham Dance Company), Cynthia Dragoni (Dragoni Dance Institute and Company),Elise Drew (José Limón Dance Foundation), Janice Hall (Fort Worth Opera, NYCO, Santa Fe Festival, Washington National Opera), Steve Holloway (CELT Productions, Riverdance, Broadway tours), Curt Olds (Hawaii Opera Theatre, Nashville Opera, Arizonza Opera, Broadway), Damian Smith (San Francisco Ballet), Pablo Francisco Ruvalcaba (José Limón Dance Foundation), andSusie Williams (Lisa's Bright Ideas, Aerial Salon, Varsity Interpretive Dance Squad, Built for Collapse).

About BAM PDP Companies:

BalletNext is a New York City-based ballet company that produces dance performances with all new choreography en-point, set to live music. Led by Artistic Director Michele Wiles, who founded the company in 2011 after leaving her role as principal dancer at American Ballet Theater, BalletNext brings together leading classically trained dancers, choreographers, composers, and musicians in an environment that encourages risk taking and a focus on process during the creation of high-quality work. BalletNext will return to New York Live Arts, February 10- 14, with an all new program entitled Baroque'd. Highlights include a new ensemble work by Canadian choreographer Peter Quanz and a collaboration with Wiles, electro-acoustic cello composer Chris Lancaster, and Flex is Kings dancer Jay Donn. In the fall of 2015, BalletNext will premiere a full evening program by Mauro Bigonzetti.

Beth Morrison Projects identifies and supports the work of emerging and established composers and their collaborators through the commissioning, development, and production of their work, taking the form of opera-theater, music-theater, and multimedia concert works. Relying on the core values of collaboration, exploration, experimentation, artistry, and excellence, BMP provides a nurturing structure that allows artists to push the boundaries of their art form. Founded in 2006, BMP rapidly developed a reputation for "envisioning new possibilities and finding ways to facilitate their realization" (The New York Times). In eight years, BMP has commissioned, developed, and produced more than 30 operas and music-theater pieces that have premiered or been performed across the country and around the globe. The Wall Street Journal said, "Ms. Morrison may be immortalized one day as a 21st-century Diaghilev, known for her ability to assemble memorable collaborations among artists." BMP's ability to recognize emerging talent, invest in the vision of living composers and their collaborators, and partner with presenters to bring new work to life has allowed it to become vital in the landscape of new music and opera.

Encompass New Opera Theatre, leading champion of new and classic American opera, is dedicated to creating, developing, and producing adventurous productions of new music drama/contemporary opera. Striving to discover and nurture emerging composers, librettists, singers and musicians, premiere ground-breaking new productions, as well as dynamic revivals of musical works by leading American and international composers, Encompass has produced over 58 full-scale operas with orchestra and staged readings of more than 159 new works, from jazz and cabaret to musicals and opera. The Encompass Science & Arts Program, Paradigm Shifts features a Music & Film Festival exploring environmental issues from a global perspective, bridging indigenous cultures, women's wisdom, and western science. Founded in 1976 by international stage director Nancy Rhodes and producer Roger Cunningham, Encompass quickly established a reputation for its performances, noted as "rare theatrical experiences" by The New York Times, which hailed its award-winning production of The Mother of Us All by Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson, who became the company's mentor and honorary chairman. Acclaimed productions followed of Aaron Copland's The Tender Land, Marc Blitzstein's Regina, Benjamin Britten's Phaedra, Ned Rorem's Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters, and Elizabeth and Essex, a new musical starring Academy Award-winner Estelle Parsons. World premiere operas developed and produced by Encompass include Ricky Ian Gordon's Only Heaven, Evan Mack's Angel of the Amazon, Louis Gioia's Un Racconto Fiorentino at Alice Tully Hall, and an award-winning production of Grigori Frid's The Diary of Anne Frank. Future premieres include Charles Fussell/Jack Larson's The Astronaut's Tale, John David Earnest/Nancy Rhodes' The Theory of Everything, and Virgil Thomson/Jack Larson's Lord Byron. In November 2014, Encompass will produce the New York premiere of Richard Pearson Thomas' A Wake or a Wedding, a sparkling, fast-paced new opera at the Baruch Performing Arts Center.

Satellite Collective is an arts incubator, focused on generating original, collaborative, interdisciplinary works of performance and publication. Its mission is to foster intensive dialogue between seemingly disparate artistic communities. Inspired by the work of Ballet Russes, Staatliches Bauhaus, Black Mountain College, and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Satellite

Collective believes that honest interdisciplinary collaboration addresses difficulties of expression that are challenging to resolve within a single field alone. Based in New York City, with an annual residency at Lake Michigan, Satellite Collective has funded work by over 400 artists locally, nationally, and internationally. About Satellite's most recent performance at the BAM Fisher, The New York Times said, "These are people who know how to produce a show." Satellite Collective has produced three full-length ballets, two modern dance works, two animated short films, over three hours of original musical composition, and more than 100 works of visual art. However, Satellite Collective isn't simply a performance company. In addition to their performance works, they publish Transmission-an online arts journal-the fourth issue of which was recently published. Thus far, Transmission has published the work of over 50 artists, critics, and art historians from across the nation. Last year, Satellite launched Telephone: An International Arts Experiment, which has generated original, sequentially created works by over 300 artists from 159 cities in 42 countries and 39 states. This project will culminate in a massive interactive online exhibition in November. The orchestral wing, Satellite Ensemble, has also begun selling and licensing compositions and has recently been engaged to develop the score for a feature length film.

So? Percussion is dedicated to the limitless possibilities of creative music making in our time. It seeks to extend the percussion ensemble's legacy of innovation through commissioning new works from composers, performances of landmark works from the past, multi-disciplinary collaborations, the creation of new work by its four artist-members, recordings, and an array of educational projects. Formed at the Yale School of Music in 1999 and based in Brooklyn since 2004, So? Percussion has cultivated a unique repertoire of American music-from John Cage to the rich diversity of today's musical culture-collaborating closely with composers Steve Reich, David Lang, Paul Lansky, Steve Mackey, Fred Frith, Dan Trueman, and Martin Bresnick. So? Percussion has worked with jazz musicians Dave Douglas, Bobby Previte, and Kneebody; electronic artists Matmos and Dan Deacon; rock musicians Glenn Kotche (Wilco) and Bryce Dessner (The National); and collaborated with the New York City Ballet, Ballet Tech, and Shen Wei Dance Arts. Its members have composed music for theatrical projects (Imaginary City and Where (we) Live [BAM Next Wave 2009 and 2012]), the 2wice "Fifth Wall" iPad App, Q2 Internet Radio, TEDxMet, and the Whitney Biennial, and released 16 albums to date. So is in residence at Princeton University and founded the percussion department at the Bard College Conservatory in 2011. The annual So? Percussion Summer Institute-a two-week chamber music course-is in its seventh year.

Summation Dance Company, founded by Sumi Clements and Taryn Vander Hoop, is a New York City-based modern dance company creating exciting, innovative, and highly physical work. Empowering each other on all decisions, Clements and Vander Hoop have distinct roles, but an equal partnership that is complimentary in aesthetic and vision. The mission of Summation is to find the beauty in struggle and humor in the mundane. The company values dance that moves the flesh; it bubbles from underneath, knots in the back, and rips away the layers leaving us raw and exposed. Clements' works are powerfully kinetic and emotional explorations of the human experience. Her work demands physicality as she pushes the limits of the body, often displaying the exhaustion and vulnerability of her dancers, while at the same time using small or eccentric gestures to communicate the essence of her idea. In 2010, Clements and Vander Hoop graduated with MFAs in dance performance and choreography from NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Since the spring of 2010, Summation Dance has self-produced seasons at Brooklyn Academy of Music and Baryshnikov Arts Center, as well as produced three Dancing Literate Project performances-their annual dance education outreach festival at Judson Memorial Church. Through the Dancing Literate Project, Summation has commissioned Suzanne Beahrs (Suzanne Beahrs Dance), Sidra Bell Dance (Sidra Bell Dance New York), Claudia Anata Hubiak (The Anata Project), Peter Kyle (Peter Kyle Dance), and Kendra Portier (BandPortier) to perform-and Andrea Miller (Gallim Dance), Sydney Skybetter (skybetter & associates), and Taryn Vander Hoop (Summation Dance) to set repertory pieces on Summation's dancers.

Treehouse Shakers, a non-profit dance and theater company, was founded in 1997 by collaborators and childhood friends Emily Bunning (choreographer/dancer) and Mara McEwin (writer/actor). The troupe creates work that experiments with narrative styles and explores a story's elements through the abstraction of modern dance. Treehouse Shakers has created and performed 13 original dance-plays for young audiences and adults in theaters, festivals, and schools across the country. They have built their performance repertory to carefully address every age level and currently serves babies to teens. Treehouse Shakers has five original performances for young audiences on a rotating tour across the US, as well as an annual New York City season. The company is dedicated to making sure that all children, despite their income levels, have the opportunity to experience the arts. Every year they provide thousands of underserved communities with free and low-income tickets. Treehouse Shakers prides itself in providing inventive, intelligent work for young people that entertains, engages, and seeds creative and inventive thought. They have performed at the United Nations, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, Ailey Citigroup Theater, BAM Fisher's Hillman Studio, Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Victoria Theater Associations (Dayton, OH), Alden Theater (McLean, VA), Aronoff Center (Cincinnati, OH), Paramount Theater (Peekskill, NY), Westhampton Beach Playhouse (NY), Tribeca Film Festival (NYC), Jacob's Pillow's Community Day (Becket, MA), Two Rivers Theater (Red Bank, NJ), Black Rock Theater (Germantown, MD), Bucks County Playhouse (New Hope, PA), and RVCC Arts Center (Somerville, NJ).

ZviDance is a New York-based contemporary dance company which exists to share the choreographic vision and movement vocabulary of Israeli-born Artistic Director Zvi Gotheiner with its audience and to engage students in enriching their appreciation of the art form. The company is shaped by a collaborative model of creation, involving the ensemble and designers from the initial research phase, so as to constantly push the methodology and ethics of a creation process within an inter-disciplinary format. In its 24 years of existence, ZviDance has received critical praise and stable funding for its artistic projects. Alastair Macaulay named Gotheiner's Dabke in his 2013 Top Ten list in The New York Times. Currently led by Executive Director Nikki Chalas, the company performs frequently at home in venues including the Joyce Theater, New York Live Arts, and Lincoln Center Out -of- Doors. ZviDance has toured across North America to festivals such as Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival and the American Dance Festival, and abroad to Germany, Poland, Russia, Israel, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Japan.

About the DeVos Institute of Arts Management - The DeVos Institute provides training, consultation, and implementation support for arts managers and their boards. It operates on the premise that while much is spent to train artists, too little is spent to support the managers and boards who keep those artists at work. Since its founding in 2001, the Institute has served over 1,000 institutions from over 80 countries.

While environments, objectives, and disciplines vary, each of these clients share the desire to create, market, and sustain exemplary cultural programs. As such, the Institute has designed its services to assist a wide range of institutions, from traditional performing and presenting organizations, museums and galleries, arts schools and libraries, to botanical gardens, glass- making studios, public art trusts, and non-profit cinemas, to name a few. It offers support to individuals, organizations, and-in collaboration with foundations and governments-to communities of organizations throughout the world.

In September 2014, the DeVos Institute transfers its offices and activities to the University of Maryland. The move will enable the Institute to expand its global training and consulting programs, enhance its fellowships for North American and international arts managers within the context of a major educational institution, and create a Master's program that leverages both University and Institute resources.

About BAM - Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is recognized internationally for its innovative programming of dance, music, theater, music-theater, opera, and film. Its mission is to be the home for adventurous artists, audiences, and ideas. BAM presents leading national and international artists and companies in its annual Spring Season and highlights groundbreaking, contemporary work in the performing arts with its Next Wave Festival each fall. Founded in 1983, the Next Wave is one of the world's most important festivals of contemporary performing arts. BAM Rose Cinemas features new, independent film releases and BAMcine?matek-a curated, daily repertory film program. In 2012, BAM added the Richard B. Fisher Building to its campus, providing an intimate and flexible 250-seat performance venue-the Fishman Space-as well as the Hillman Studio, a rehearsal and performance space.

BAM serves New York City's diverse population through a weekend concert series in BAMcafe?, community events, literary series, and a wide variety of educational and family programs. BAM, America's oldest performing arts center, has presented performances since 1861, and attracts an audience of more than 700,000 people each year. The institution is led by President Karen Brooks Hopkins and Executive Producer Joseph V. Melillo-each of whom has been associated with BAM for more than thirty years.

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafe are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn's only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafe, operated by Great Performances, offers a bar menu and dinner entre?es prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafe? also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafe Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a bar menu available starting at 6pm.

For ticket information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.