Laurie Anderson News

Since releasing her first album under the name My Brightest Diamond in 2006, Shara Nova (formerly Shara Worden) has been a triple threat: an art-rock songwriter, a classical music composer, and a singer for whom a number of other contemporary composers have written music. My Brightest Diamond is where she gets to sing her own music, which is thoughtful without being mopey, and which demonstrates that songs sung from a woman's point of view are also capable of balls-to-the-wall attitude. Today we premiere the new video for her song “Dorian,” which is the second single she's released this year, after the Valentine's Day's song “Another Chance.” The occasion this time is the start of a new stretch of shows beginning on May 8 in Minneapolis and rolling into her old stomping grounds of New York on May 14. (Shara has lived in Detroit since 2009 but has continued to maintain a presence on the New York new music scene.) The song, which contains everything from birds to buzzing electric guitar, seems to occupy that tenuous place between love and obsession, between desire and the desire to control. The video is a similarly elusive blend of the abstract and the concrete, with hypnotic lines that resolve to form silhouetted people and birds. 

The June 2019 So-fi festival announces that it will be presenting works at The Clemente's Los Kabayitos and Flamboyan Theaters (107 Suffolk St. between Rivington & Delancey) and Westbeth (463 West Street between Bethune and West 12th St) June 6th-23rd 2019.

The Times Square Alliance announced today the appointment of Jean Cooney, the current Deputy Director of Creative Time, as the Director of Times Square Arts. Cooney will be responsible for overseeing the Alliance's public art program, following 7 years at Creative Time, where she played a lead role in the organization's major artist commissions, public programming, engagement initiatives, and cultural partnerships.

Today Ghostlight Records announces a May 20 digital download and streaming release date for the soundtrack to Anthem: Homunculus, created by award-winning writer/director John Cameron Mitchell (Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Shrill) and composer/writer Bryan Weller, featuring original music and lyrics by Weller & Mitchell. Anthem is an edgy anthology series produced by Topic (Missing Richard Simmons) and distributed by Luminary, that tells a unique American story through a distinct musical voice. A groundbreaking and ambitious new podcast that combines music, drama, film and theater, Anthem: Homunculus is the first of its kind to offer audiences an original, Broadway caliber production in podcast form starring top talent, including Cynthia Erivo, Glenn Close, Nakhane, Patti LuPone, Laurie Anderson, Marion Cotillard and Denis O'Hare.

Kronos Quartet's David Harrington will be Tom Needham's exclusive guest this Thursday, April 18th at 6 pm on WUSB's THE SOUNDS OF FILM. The two will be discussing A THOUSAND THOUGHTS: A Live Documentary with Kronos Quartet written and directed by Sam Green and Joe Bini. The multimedia piece, which has already earned lavish praise at the Sundance Film Festival, is making its New York City debut on Thursday, April 25th at The Town Hall.

My Brightest Diamond is dropping a stirring new song today with the release of 'Dorian.' The song was recorded during the A Million And One LP sessions with My Brightest Diamond's Shara Nova on vocals and guitar, Earl Harvin (Sam Smith, Seal,The The, Tindersticks) on drums and Vincent Taurelle (Air) on keyboards. The song was produced by Nova and The Twilite Tone (Common, Gorillaz, Kanye West) and mixed and mastered by Andrew Scheps (Beyonce, Adele, Red Hot Chili Peppers).

PEN America today announces the full lineup of events for the 2019 PEN World Voices Festival: Open Secrets (May 6-12), focusing on the dissolving boundary between the public and the private in the literary, cultural, social, and political realms.

Bill Posley and director Oren Rudavsky are Tom Needham's featured guests this Thursday on WUSB's THE SOUNDS OF FILM.

On Saturday, April 13, the American Museum of Natural History will mark Earth Day with an all-day EarthFest that will immerse visitors in art, science, and culture to celebrate the beautiful planet we call home. The event is free with Museum admission and for Members.

REDCAT, CalArts' downtown center for contemporary arts, presents the West Coast premiere of John Kelly's Time No Line, Thursday April 25 to Saturday April 27, 2019.

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County Announces summer live! AT arsht Long.Live.Summer.

Fox Millions Duo is the convergence of two of New York's most sought after percussionists, Greg Fox and John Colpitts aka Kid Millions. On Record Store Day 2019 (April 13th) the pair will release their new collaborative recording, Biting Through as a limited-run LP. Employing modular synthesis to lift their already inventive music in unexpected ways, Biting Through pushes the sonic and compositional potential of the drum kit to the limits, creating some of the most fearless and exhilarating music in either player's catalogue.  

TV Host, Ricki Lake, is Tom Needham's exclusive guest this Today at 6 pm on WUSB's 'The Sounds of Film.' She will be discussing her career and new film, 'Weed the People.'

New York Live Arts 2019 Live Ideas Gala, co-chaired by Matthew Putman, Slobodan Randjelovi and Jon Stryker, and hosted by award-winning director and photographer and noted social activist Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, pays tribute to Live Arts' annual Live Ideas Festival. The Gala will take place at the Caldwell Factory, 547 W 26th St, New York City on Monday, March 25th starting with a cocktail reception followed by a dinner catered by BITE and performances.

TV Host, Ricki Lake, is Tom Needham's exclusive guest this Thursday at 6 pm on WUSB's 'The Sounds of Film.' She will be discussing her career and new film, 'Weed the People.'

The San Francisco-based Kronos Quartet/Kronos Performing Arts Association(KPAA) is pleased to present Kronos Festival 2019, Kronos' fifth annual, three-day music festival, at SFJAZZ Center on May 30-June 1. Kronos Festival 2019 will highlight the voices of singers, storytellers, and activists over three evening concerts, a Saturday morning family concert and Kronos Labs, free public events that are new this year. Kronos has long collaborated with vocal artists, including in its recent Grammy Award­-winning album Landfall (Nonesuch Records) with Laurie Anderson and its new album Placeless (Kirkelig Kulturverksted) with Iranian singers Mahsa and Marjan Vahdat.

Manchester International Festival today unveils its 2019 programme, which takes place across 18 extraordinary days (4-21 July 2019). Internationally-acclaimed artists from over 20 countries - many working in one-off creative collaborations - will present 20 UK and world premieres at the cross-art form biennial festival, the second with John McGrath as Artistic Director.

This summer sees Southbank Centre welcome acclaimed international dance companies to its three venues including Deborah Colker Dance Company, Cullbergbaletten (Cullberg Ballet) and Deborah Hay, Groupe Acrobatique de Tanger and Grupo Intergro alongside solo artists including a principal of the Royal Ballet Natalia Osipova and Mohamed Toukabri. Associate Company ZooNation Youth Company also return with their latest Southbank Centre commission.

Invitado por la Secretaría de Cultura, a través del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL), el violonchelista estadounidense Jeffrey Zeigler, ex miembro del afamado Kronos Quartet, estará en México para el concierto The Sound of Science, el viernes 1 de marzo a las 20:00 horas en la Sala Manuel M. Ponce del Palacio de Bellas Artes y el sábado 2 a las 19:00 en el Ex Teresa Arte Actual.