Kaufman Music Center Presents The 2019 Ecstatic Music Festival

Kaufman Music Center's Ecstatic Music Festival (EMF) returns for its ninth year, bringing together composers and performers from diverse musical backgrounds for six, one-night-only performances featuring world premieres, new arrangements and the opportunity to hear artists discuss their work. Hailed as "the alt-classical world's main showcase" (The New York Times) and "a feather in the cap of the avant-classical scene" (The New Yorker), the festival kicks off on January 7, 2019 and runs through March 21. The only festival that exclusively presents new work resulting from collaborations, the EMF is curated by composer and New Amsterdam Records Co-Director Judd Greenstein with Merkin Hall Director Amy Roberts Frawley.

Each Ecstatic Music Festival concert brings together unique and surprising combinations of artists. The 2019 performances kick off on Jan 7 with a powerful, silo-bombing collaboration between Gothic-electronic songwriter Zola Jesus, composer William Brittelle and the exuberantly raucous chamber orchestra wild Up. On Feb 16, the fiercely original avant-pop superstars of Deerhoof team up with the high-octane percussion group Tigue. The revolutionary free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements joins forces with legendary pianist/vocalist/improviser Amina Claudine Myers and composer/flutist Nicole Mitchell on Feb 28. The annual Bang On a Can People's Commissioning Fund Concert on Mar 6 premieres adventurous new works by cutting-edge composers, and on Mar 17 the virtuosic alternative string quartet ETHEL joins the acclaimed youth new music ensemble Face the Music and special guest Todd Rundgren. The 2019 festival concludes on Mar 21 with the Grammy-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus in collaboration with the rock duo Wye Oak and Owen Pallett.

"The curatorial process always begins with artists whose work I love," says Ecstatic Music Festival Curator Judd Greenstein. "I find out what the artists have always dreamed of doing, and what kind of collaboration would make their work even more exciting. I believe that we live in a world of untapped artistic potential because artists aren't asked, often enough, what they most want to do. The EMF is about unleashing that potential."

Merkin Hall Director Amy Roberts Frawley says, "It is a pleasure to work with Judd Greenstein to ensure that Ecstatic Music Festival - New York City's only festival entirely dedicated to genre-bending, cross-disciplinary collaborations - continues to pioneer opportunities for artists and audiences alike. Whether it's a whisper or a shout, a breath, a bow, a mallet, a gong, or anything and everything all at once, no performances should be missed during the 2019 EMF's six one-of-a-kind evenings."

"I've been a big fan of the Ecstatic Music Festival since it launched in 2011 and am proud to be part of this dynamic showcase for vibrant and adventurous new music," says Kaufman Music Center's new Executive Director Kate Sheeran, who took the helm in September 2018. "Hailing from diverse musical backgrounds, the EMF artists include celebrated and established performers as well as brilliant young musicians like Face the Music who represent a new generation already shaping the music scene."

Presented in association with New Amsterdam Records, the Ecstatic Music Festival includes three New Sounds Live concerts hosted by John Schaefer, which will be webcast live on NewSounds.org and taped for future broadcast on WNYC. New Sounds serves as the festival's digital venue.

2019 Performance Schedule

Mon, Jan 7, 7:30 pm
wild Up, Zola Jesus & William Brittelle

A New Sounds Live presentation hosted by John Schaefer and streamed live on NewSounds.org

Zola Jesus brings her unmistakably powerful, Gothic-electronic songwriting into dialogue with William Brittelle's "silo-bombing music that is at once free-ranging, formally adventurous, unconventionally beautiful, and a joyful thrill to experience" (The Nation), in a special collaboration with the "raucous, grungy, irresistibly exuberant" (New York Times) chamber orchestra, wild Up.

Sat, Feb 16, 7:30 pm
Deerhoof & Tigue

Boundless energy, laser-like precision, and an endless array of sonic possibilities are the common ground where Deerhoof, "Earth's most exuberant art-pop band" (Time Out New York), and the "high octane" (New York Times) Tigue, the upstart band-that-happens-to-be-a-percussion-trio, meet. They'll perform Deerhoof's widely-beloved 2007 album, Friend Opportunity, with new percussion additions by Tigue, and Tigue will write a new piece for the two bands together, plus more TBA.

Thu, Feb 28, 7:30 pm
Irreversible Entanglements, Amina Claudine Myers & Nicole Mitchell

From Copenhagen to Brooklyn, the Grammy-revolutionary free jazz collective Irreversible Entanglements has shared its message of liberation. Comprised of mesmerizing vocalist Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother) - whose searing poetic narrations of Black trauma, survival and power drive each work, alto saxophonist Keir Neuringer, trumpeter Aquiles Navarro, double bassist Luke Stewart and Tcheser Holmes on drums, this quintet will join forces for a unique evening of music-making with two equally powerful artists: Legendary pianist/vocalist/improviser Amina Claudine Myers and the "furiously inventive" (Los Angeles Times) composer/flutist Nicole Mitchell, "the most important jazz flutist of her generation" (Allaboutjazz.com).

Wed, Mar 6, 7:30 pm
Bang on a Can People's Commissioning Fund Concert
A New Sounds Live co-presentation hosted by John Schaefer and streamed live on NewSounds.org

Bang on a Can's People's Commissioning Fund (PCF) is a radical partnership between artists and audiences to commission works from adventurous composers. Founded in 1997, long before crowd-funding became the norm through Kickstarter and the like, Bang on a Can's PCF has pooled contributions of all sizes from hundreds of friends and fans and since its inception has commissioned over 50 works of music for New York's electric Bang on a Can All-Stars.

Sun, Mar 17, 5 pm
ETHEL & Face the Music
Special guest appearance by Todd Rundgren
NYC's "infectiously visceral" (Pitchfork), "vital and brilliant" (New Yorker) string quartet ETHEL teams up with the dynamic youth ensemble Face the Music for an afternoon of invigorating new music. The performance showcases repertoire commissioned for ETHEL and developed during the quartet's 2018-19 residency with Face the Music at Kaufman Music Center.

Thu, Mar 21, 7:30 pm
Brooklyn Youth Chorus
A New Sounds Live presentation hosted by John Schaefer and streamed live on NewSounds.org

The Grammy-winning Brooklyn Youth Chorus presents a live collaboration with the beloved rock duo Wye Oak, plus the premiere of a new work by Owen Pallett plus other collaborators TBA. Acclaimed for their "enormous versatility and polish" (New York Times), the Brooklyn Youth Chorus has been praised for their "perfect intonation" (Classical Voices) and "astonishingly secure performances" (New Yorker).

Ecstatic Music Festival Ticket Information
Tickets at 212 501 3330 or www.EcstaticMusicFestival.com
6-Concert EMF All-Access Pass: $108
Purchase 2 or More Concerts: $20 per concert
Single Tickets: $25
Students with ID: $15

Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center
129 W. 67th St.
New York, NY 10023
KaufmanMusicCenter.org/MH

Transforming Lives Through Music - See a Concert, Take a Class, Connect with Music
Kaufman Music Center is where music lovers, from curious fans to renowned performers, come together to explore their musical passions. Founded in 1952 as a community school for pre-conservatory music training, today's Kaufman Music Center is home to Merkin Hall; Lucy Moses School, New York's largest community arts school; Special Music School, a K-12 public school that teaches music as a core subject; and the acclaimed youth new music ensemble Face the Music.