MoMA Nights Kick Off For July and August; Evenings Feature Live Music In The Garden

The Museum of Modern Art will remain open until 8:45 p.m. every Thursday in July and August, providing visitors with a relaxed atmosphere in which to view MoMA's collection and special exhibitions, and enjoy live music and refreshments in The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Sculpture Garden. All of the Museum's galleries and exhibitions will be open, including Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 (opening July 18), The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today (opening August 1), Picasso: Themes and Variations, and Pictures by Women: A History of Modern Photography.

Live music will be presented in the Sculpture Garden, weather permitting, with two series, Hear Brazil (July) and Hear France (August). Both series offer an opportunity for New York audiences to get a taste of today's Brazilian and French music scenes. Performances will be in two sets, at 5:30 and 7:00 p.m.

Each series is organized by Melanie Monios, Assistant Director of Visitor Services, The
Museum of Modern Art.

Music for MoMA Nights in July was organized, for the second year running, in collaboration
with music producer and artistic director Béco Dranoff, and is presented in conjunction with the film
exhibition Premiere Brazil 2010 (July 15-29). This year's series showcases the fresh and vibrant music of a new crop of Brazilian artists. Hear Brazil travels from the rootsy, maracatú-based music of Nation Beat to the sonic experiments of Wax Poetic Brasil, featuring Thalma de Freitas; it visits the modern Brazilian jazz of Adriano Santos and the melodies of Pierre Aderne and Alexia Bomtempo, and concludes with Kay Lyra's fresh perspective on the now-classic genre of bossa nova.

In August, Hear France will include four performances of inventive popular French songwriters
in the spirit of the exhibition Matisse: Radical Invention, 1913-1917 (July 18-October 11). These
performances make up the third series presented in collaboration with Olivier Conan, programmer and co-owner of the Barbès performance space in Brooklyn. Artists in this series have struck a conscious balance between tradition and innovation-while drawing on various aspects of the chanson heritage and placing a strong emphasis on literate lyrics, all have found ways to construct work that is also modern and personal.

Weather permitting, there will be a cash bar with specialty cocktails, draft beer, wine, and
non-alcoholic beverages, and seasonal tapas for purchase in the Sculpture Garden. The Garden Cart will sell artisanal ice creams, sorbets, and homemade sundaes, as well as wine, beer, and specialty coffees. Terrace 5, located inside the Museum on the fifth floor, will feature a menu of light fare and a special summer ceviche tasting menu presented by Chef Lynn Bound. In the event of rain, the Sculpture Garden will close and two sets of music will be presented in The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 1 or 2; cocktails and wine will be available for sale in The Agnes Gund Garden Lobby

Regular Museum admission applies:
$20 adults; $16 seniors, 65 years and over with I.D.; $12 full-time students with current I.D. Free for children 16 and under. Free for members. (Includes admittance to Museum galleries and film
programs.) Tickets are valid from 10:30 a.m., with re-entry until closing. The public may call
212/708-9400 or visit www.MoMA.org for detailed information in early June.

Schedule of Performances:
Sets will be performed at 5:30 and 7:00 p.m.
July: Hear Brazil

July 1: Nation Beat
Led by drummer/percussionist Scott Kettner, and featuring Brazilian vocalist Liliana Araujo, Nation
Beat is an explosive ensemble that explores the deep-rooted connections between the music of
Northeastern Brazil and that of the American Deep South. Their critically acclaimed album Legends of the Preacher (2008) seamlessly blends Brazilian maracatú, forro, coco, and ciranda rhythms with
American rock, country, blues, and funk.

July 8: Wax Poetic Brasil featuring Thalma De Freitas
Wax Poetic is a New York-based band led by saxophonist, record producer, and composer Ilhan
Ersahin, also founder of the New York jazz club Nublu. Between 2006 and 2007, Wax Poetic released a series of three albums titled Copenhagen, Istanbul, and Brasil, combining global music styles with their own alternative pop, rock and electronica roots. For this performance, Wax Poetic Brasil is joined by Thalma de Freitas, the popular actress and singer.

July 15: Alexia Bomtempo & Pierre Aderne
The singer-songwriters Alexia Bomtempo and Pierre Aderne set charming melodies in arrangements
that are soft, yet fully worked out, based in the smooth harmony of their voices. After contributing to each other's solo albums, the two collaborated on the critically acclaimed Doces Cariocas (Inpartmaint label, 2008). In 2009 they won the prestigious Brazilian Music Award for best group, which led to the recording of a forthcoming live DVD, Pouso de Folia. They have toured in Brazil, Europe, Japan, and the United States, appearing in festivals such as South by Southwest. Their music has a cosmopolitan flavor, wrapping Brazilian sounds and instruments in echoes of pop, jazz, and folk, finished with a touch of samba and bossa nova.

July 22: Adriano Santos Brazilian Jazz Quartet
Adriano Santos is at the epicenter of New York's contemporary Brazilian drummers. His playing style is typified by natural clarity, swing, and deep-seated groove in the tradition of Airto Moreira, Edson
Machado, and Milton Banana. He studied at São Paulo's acclaimed Zimbo Trio Music School and in
Boston and New York, and has performed with a host of International Artists. He now tours with the
Vinicius Cantuária Group, Hendrik Meurkens Quartet, and Matt Geraghty Project, and also leads his
own band. At MoMA, the Adriano Santos Brazilian Jazz Quartet will perform compositions from his new CD In Session. This promises to be a high-octane night, with infectious percussive grooves and melodies that will transport listeners to the tropical landscapes of Brazil.

July 29: Kay Lyra
The music of the Brazilian-American composer and singer Kay Lyra derives from deep bossa nova
roots but often incorporates nontraditional sounds, from the pedal steel guitar to the bagpipes. Her
repertory is similarly eclectic. Her album Kandagawa includes not only a bossa nova classic written by her father Carlos Lyra, a founding force in the genre, but also her bossa arrangements of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the title track, a Japanese folk song, as well as her setting of a Dorothy Parker poem. The arrangements feature her precise, pure voice, which led the critic Nelson Motta to proclaim her "the daughter of bossa nova with a crystal voice."

August: Hear France

August 5: Holden Mocke (Dominique Dépret) and Armelle Pioline have been performing as the pop duo Holden for over 10 years. The two started out in Dublin, singing mostly in English, but have since settled in Paris, where they have become some of the most sophisticated purveyors of the new French chanson style.

Three of their four albums were produced in collaboration with renowned German electronic producer Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart and Señor Coconut). They draw from influences as varied as yé-yé, film scores, bossa nova, and electronic music, combining the lighthearted pleasantness of a 1960s spy soundtrack with the more austere appeal of electronic minimalism. They are high on the list of most French music critics and have proved immensely popular in Chile.

August 12: Pascal Parisot & Fredda
Pascal Parisot is a Paris-based artist whose original music mixes classic French chanson, Latin beats, and Brazilian harmony. His witty and literate lyrics recall Serge Gainsbourg, but his DIY sound, heavy on 1960s keyboards, vintage drum machines, and cha-cha beats, is all his own. As a singer, songwriter, and producer, Parisot has collaborated with such talent as Julie Delpy and Thierry Stremler. In one of his latest projects, Radiomatic, he takes obscure yé-yé classics and rearranges them with his Signature Sound, adding the ethereal lead vocals of his longtime collaborator Fredda. For this performance, Parisot and Fredda perform songs from both their albums.

August 19: TBA
August 26: Marianne Dissard
Based in Tucson, Arizona, Marianne's chansons have a strong flavor of Americana. Her last album,
L'entredeux, was cowritten and produced by fellow Tucson resident Joey Burns, of Calexico fame, and has earned her raves on both sides of the Atlantic. Her French lyrics have a timeless edge, and her sometimes cinematic arrangements manage to reference Françoise Hardy, Serge Gainsbourg, Western ballads, and polka while always retaining a strong personal identity. Dissard is also a filmmaker and performance artist whose work has been shown across Europe.