David Byrne News

Aaron Johnston, drummer and founding member of Brazilian Girls and current member of David Byrne's touring band, is bringing his new project, J.E.D.I. (Jazz Electronic Dance Improvisation), to New Orleans for a very special Jazz Fest late-night performance. The new collaborative project, which features a rotating cast of musical characters at each performance, is set to take place at Maison on Sunday, April 29th. Johnston, who will be performing with Byrne at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival earlier that day, has put together an all-star lineup for this edition of J.E.D.I., featuring bassist Marc Brownstein from The Disco Biscuits, keyboardist Borahm Lee of Break Science and Pretty Lights Live Band, and Lettuce saxophonist Ryan Zoidis.

Today, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts announced two performances in the 2018-2019 Kauffman Center Presents series.

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center announces the fourth annual Segal Center Film Festival on Theatre and Performance (FTP). The program includes a roster of more than 35 features, shorts, and documentaries by artists from Argentina, Belgium, Canada, China, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Lebanon, The Netherlands, Poland, Serbia, The United Kingdom, and the United States. The festival takes place on Thursday, March 1; Friday, March 2; and Saturday, March 3 at The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, located at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NYC, 365 Fifth Avenue, at 34th Street.

Victor Krummenacher, Greg Lisher, Chris Pedersen (all from Camper Van Beethoven) and David Immerglück (Counting Crows) collectively known as Monks of Doom, are set to release their first album of all new material since 1993's Forgery in the Spring of 2018. Recorded over a several years beginning in 2009, The Brontë Pin continues the Monks' spontaneous forays into the worlds of improvised music, adventurous instrumental work, dystopian paranoia and mind melting psychedelia. Recorded and mixed by Bruce Kaphan (American Music Club, David Byrne, Chris Isaak, The Black Crowes), the album simply picked up where the Monks left off in 2005 with their album of covers, What's Left For Kicks? By measures more aggressive and more laid back than previous recordings, The Brontë Pin continues in the grand tradition of this exceptional yet reclusive group of musicians, melding myriad influences into a virtuosity hard to define in the world of current music: The Monks fail to fit into any particular indie rock marketing term. They remain untamed, oblique and defiant. They simply are Monks of Doom.

BRIC is pleased to announce that Academy and Grammy Award-winning actor and musician Common will open the 40th annual BRIC Celebrate Brooklyn! Festival with a free concert on June 5 at the Prospect Park Bandshell, marking the first event in a yearlong celebration to cap off four decades for the pioneering NYC arts-and-media organization and leading presenter of free cultural programming in Brooklyn. Preceding the concert will be a gala honoring outgoing BRIC President Leslie Griesbach Schultz for her 13 years of transformational leadership.

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater began its weeklong stay in D.C. on Tuesday night with a beautiful gala night performance. If you have the opportunity to see this fantastic company, especially its signature piece Revelations, I highly urge you to do so.

It's 1961 and the concrete's just been poured for a brand new housing estate. It's beautiful, not because of the clean lines, indoor toilets and wide windows, but because the idea behind it is beautiful. This is the future, and it's for everyone.

Lena Hall-helmed musical film Becks held its premiere last night, February 5, 2018. Becks is being released this Friday, February 9th in select cities across the country and VOD. It won this year's LA Film Festival and is Lena Hall's feature film debut in the lead role starring alongside Mena Suvari, Christine Lahti and Dan Fogler.

Following an acclaimed five-week season launch in New York City,Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will continue to grace stages from coast to coast during a 21-city North American tour beginning January 30th in Chapel Hill, NC. On February 6th, a week-long engagement at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. opens with a gala to benefit Ailey's D.C. programs, including the creation of new works, arts-in-education activities, and scholarships to talented young area dancers to attend The Ailey School in New York.

Singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will bring his tour to the Fred Kavli Theatre on Sunday, March 11, 2018 at 7:00pm.

Jack White has released a third track from his eagerly anticipated solo album, BOARDING HOUSE REACH (out March 23 via Third Man/Columbia). 'Corporation' is available now digitally worldwide.

Hennepin Theatre Trust announced today that due to popular demand, a second show has been added for DAVID BYRNE, AMERICAN UTOPIA TOUR at the historic Orpheum Theatre (910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis) on Friday, May 18, 2018 at 7:30 p.m. Every ticket purchased online for David Byrne includes a CD of the new album 'American Utopia,' released on March 9.

The New York Philharmonic will present Bernstein's Mahler Marathon: The Sony Recordings, a 13-hour expedition through Bernstein's recordings of Mahler's complete symphonies. Hosted by Fred Child, the free event, part of the Philharmonic's Insights at the Atrium series, takes place Sunday, February 25, 2018, 10:00 a.m. 11:00 p.m., at the David Rubenstein Atrium.Both Bernstein and Mahler served as Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, and Bernstein is credited with popularizing the music of his predecessor through performances and recordings. Bernstein's marked scores from the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives will be projected in real time during the marathon. Music students and fans have volunteered to page turn the digital score live for each of the 39 movements. Between each symphony, special guests will read selections from Bernstein's own writings on Mahler, and video clips of Bernstein talking about Mahler will be projected.

Today, the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts announced that iconic rock singer and songwriter David Byrne will perform in Muriel Kauffman Theatre on Thursday, June 7. Byrne comes to Kansas City as part of his American Utopia Tour. This event is part of the 2017-2018 Kauffman Center Presents series.

Ruthie Ann Miles will reprise her Tony Award winning and critically acclaimed Broadway role of Lady Thiang in the West End production of THE KING AND I, which opens at the London Palladium on 21 June (Press Night 3 July). She will join fellow Tony Award winner Kelli O'Hara (Anna) and Tony and Oscar nominee Ken Watanabe (The King) in the Broadway transfer of the multi award-winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's classic musical.

Gearing up for the release of its first full length album in over seven years, (they released a tour-only EP last year) seminal electronic band MEAT BEAT MANIFESTO (MBM) is ready for the release of IMPOSSIBLE STAR on January 19, 2018 via Flexidisc distributed by Virtual Label. The album will be available for preorder through iTunes

After a tremendously successful solo recital and performance with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra in fall 2017, pianist Daniil Trifonov continues his Perspectives series on Tuesday, February 6 at 8:00 p.m. in Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage in collaboration with baritone Matthias Goerne as they explore Trifonov's self-described fascination with vocal music. The program includes Schumann's Dichterliebe; Berg's Four Songs, Op. 2; Wolf's Three Poems of Michelangelo; selections from Shostakovich's Suite, Op. 145; and Brahms's Vier ernste Ges nge, Op. 121.

On the heels of his triumphant album release concert at Carnegie Hall, Mercury-Prize winning artist Benjamin Clementine will tour North America in support of his sophomore album, I Tell A Fly (Capitol Records). The tour includes an appearance in The New York Times' prestigious live interview series, TimesTalks (February 2 at the TheTimesCenter) whose upcoming and recent guests include Tom Hanks, Ai Wei Wei, Julianne Moore & Todd Haynes, and Neil DeGrasse Tyson, to name a few Clementine will perform songs from his critically lauded sophomore album, I Tell a Fly, and discuss our changing world and our ancient struggles, in addition to providing a lens into his singular artistry. A full tour itinerary is below.

The nonprofit AT&T Performing Arts Center and AEG Presents announced today that tickets for David Byrne will go on sale Friday, January 19 at 10 a.m. Founding member, principal songwriter and lead singer and guitarist of the American new wave band Talking Heads, David Byrne, will perform for one-night-only at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 24, 2018 at the Winspear Opera House in the downtown Dallas Arts District.

David Byrne just announced an extensive world tour in support of his forthcoming solo record, American Utopia. David will perform songs from the new album, which is out March 9 via Todomundo/Nonesuch Records, as well as classics from his solo career and his days with Talking Heads. A twelve-piece band will also join David on stage for a choreographed concert that he has called the most ambitious show I've done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense.