The Sheen Center Presents Anthony de Mare - LIASONS

The Catholic Archdiocese of New York's new downtown cultural initiative, The Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Center for Thought and Culture, located at 18 Bleecker Street, is proud to present Anthony De Mare - Liaisons: Re-imagining Sondheim from the Piano, Thursday, October 22 at 8pm in the Loreto Theater.

Conceived by concert pianist Anthony de Mare, LIAISONS is a landmark commissioning and concert project based on the songs of legendary musical theater composer Stephen Sondheim. The project has brought together 36 of the world's foremost contemporary composers from across the musical spectrum, inviting them to "re-imagine" one of Sondheim's songs as a solo piano piece. Representing seven countries and 29 Grammy, Pulitzer, Tony, Academy and Emmy Awards, these composers include Steve Reich, Wynton Marsalis, Jason Robert Brown, Duncan Sheik, David Shire, Nico Muhly, Thomas Newman, Jake Heggie, and more.

The result is a brand new world-class piano repertory that reveals Sondheim's influence across multiple genres, generations and continents, making the case for him as one of the 20th century's greatest composers. Performed exclusively by de Mare through 2016, individual pieces can be combined to form an infinite variety of concert, recital and residency programs. This is the second in a three-concert series including Birdland in September and Symphony Space in November.

The repertoire includes pieces from such shows A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Anyone Can Whistle, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Pacific Overtures, Sweeney Todd, Merrily We Roll Along, Sunday In The Park With George, Into The Woods, Assassins, and Passion.

"I created this project," says Anthony De Mare, "because I wanted to show Sondheim's influence on composers of many different genres and also to enhance and add to the piano repertoire with a whole new body of work."

Composer Stephen Sondheim overwhelmingly endorsed the project, commenting "I was flattered and intrigued. Over the years I've heard songs of mine harmonized differently, and I've also heard arrangers change one note and completely kill the harmony. But the pieces [here] are by serious composers, not arrangers. Nearly all of them totally surprised me, taking approaches that would never have occurred to me - very few of these re-imaginings are built like a song. They're much more free-floating, there's much more of a fantasia about them."

LIAISONS has played to critical and popular acclaim in cities throughout the U.S. and Canada, including world premieres of the first 32 pieces in two sold-out concerts at Symphony Space in 2012 and 2013. The entire 36-song collection is now available on ECM Records (September 2015).

TICKETS are $35 for the orchestra and $29.50 for the mezzanine.

To purchase, visit www.SheenCenter.org/events or via 212-925-2812.

Named after the late Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, best known for his popular radio and TV ministry in the 1950s and 60s, The Sheen Center is the newest arts center in New York City in 35 years, and will showcase works that affirm the highest values of the human spirit through the performing and visual arts, symposia, lectures and exhibits. The state-of-the-art complex has a 274-seat proscenium theater equipped with five-camera high-definition livestream capability and a multi-track recording studio with thirty-two onstage inputs; an 80-seat black box theater; four rehearsal studios; and an art gallery.

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