The Southern Theater Presents yMusic & Gabriel Kahane, 4/16 & 4/17

Armed with astounding technical virtuosity and a rare gift for composition, singer, pianist and composer Gabriel Kahane is at the forefront of a generation of musicians who find their voices, outlets and audiences in unexpected and exciting places. On the heels of his Lincoln Center American Songbook debut, Kahane brings his "music for the ears, the intellect and the soul" (Prefix Magazine) to the Southern Theater by way of For the Union Dead, a song cycle on poems by Robert Lowell, written specifically for yMusic.

The collective of conservatory-trained performers of yMusic find common space in the often overlapping classical and pop music worlds. In addition to accompanying Kahane in For the Union Dead, yMusic will play new works by Shara Worden, Son Lux, and New Amsterdam Records founders Judd Greenstein and Sarah Kirkland Snider, as well as instrumental arrangements by collaborators Sufjan Stevens and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

"To my knowledge, yMusic is the only new music group whose members move with such ease and grace between the worlds of classical music and indie rock," said Kahane. "It was with this knowledge that I wrote For the Union Dead, and I am honored to play it with them at the Southern Theater, marking the Twin Cities premiere of this work."

Performances: April 16 & 17, 2010

Fri. & Sat. at 8pm

Pre-show reception each night at 7pm sponsored by the Red Stag Supperclub

Tickets: $20

Southern Theater box office: 612.340.1725

1420 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN 55454

www.southerntheater.org

yMusic bio 

New Amsterdam recording ensemble yMusic is an expandable group of performers actively engaged and equally comfortable in the overlapping classical and pop music worlds. In addition to being conservatory-trained, its members are multi-instrumentalists, improvisers, composers, arrangers, conductors and singers. Six core musicians (Rob Moose, CJ Camerieri, Hideaki Aomori, Alex Sopp, Nadia Sirota and Mike Block; individual member bios at http://ymusicensemble.com/?page_id=2) perform as a dynamic chamber ensemble, writing and commissioning works to feature our revolving instrumentation and unique musical perspectives. They also serve as a ready-made collaborative unit for artists interested in expanding their sonic palette on recordings and in performance.

yMusic was created in 2008 and its members have toured and recorded with top artists across genre lines such as Jay-Z, Bjork, The New York Philharmonic, Antony and The Johnsons, Ryuichi Sakamoto, The National, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Rufus Wainwright, Grizzly Bear, Yo-Yo Ma, Meredith Monk, David Byrne and Sufjan Stevens.

More info at http://ymusicensemble.com/; recent Strings Magazine feature on yMusic founder Rob Moose at http://www.stringsmagazine.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=25447

Gabriel Kahane bio

Singer, pianist, and composer Gabriel Kahane is at the forefront of a generation of artists who are reinventing the landscape of music in the 21st century. Armed with a "sonorous, mesmerizing baritone" (The New Yorker) and a profound gift for composition, Kahane has found niches in the indie, classical and theater worlds while effortlessly blurring the lines between them.

A testament to his Catholic musical pursuits, Kahane's self titled debut album was released in September 2008. With twenty musicians involved, the recording offers snippets of string quartets juxtaposed with strummy folk songs, and brass chorales right beside jangly piano pop; yet it's very much of a piece, an album meant to be heard as a whole. His popular song cycle Craigslistlieder-art-song settings of eight anonymous posts Kahane found on the personals/classifieds website craigslist.org-has won over fans and critics with its unlikely affiliation of raucous pop culture with deft high-art craft.

Much in demand as a composer, Kahane recently completed a large-scale solo work for pianist Natasha Paremski, as well as a short piece for his father called Django: Tiny Variations on a Big Dog. Django had its New York City premiere at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and was hailed by the New York Times as "most striking, if only for the virtuosity and varied stylistic sensibility it demanded." Upcoming writing projects include The Red Book, a string quartet for the Kronos Quartet inspired by Anne Carson's Autobiography of Red; a hybrid cello sonata/song cycle for cellist Alisa Weilerstein and himself for the 2010-11 season; as well as an evening-length work for piano, voice, and orchestra, exploring his family's genealogy and journey from Germany to the United States.

Recently named The Public Theater's inaugural Musical Theater Fellow, Kahane has nearly completed a new musical, February House, as the centerpiece of the fellowship. In addition, Kahane was recently commissioned by the Signature Theatre in Arlington, Virginia, to write an evening-length work for its American Musical Voices Project.

Among his varied credits as a performer, Kahane has appeared in recital with Grammy Award-winning bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff throughout Europe, toured the Schumann Piano Quintet with the Mark Morris Dance Group, and accompanied violinist Hilary Hahn in the slow movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto in a dirty bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Additionally, he has performed and/or recorded with Sufjan Stevens, Rufus Wainwright, Bill Frisell, Elvis Costello, Chris Thile and Loudon Wainwright III, among others.

Kahane makes his home in Brooklyn, New York, in close company with a piano and many books.

Recent press - http://new.lincolncenter.org/live/index.php/as-2010-mar-03 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/arts/music/05gabriel.html http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/arts/music/26smit.html http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/honestly-sincere#

Southern Theater mission and artistic statement

The Southern Theater cultivates artistic exploration by providing a vibrant home for performance, fostering a multiplicity of voices and catalyzing connections among artists and audience.

The Southern presents and produces performance characterized by innovation and originality. We value connections to the local community and celebrate artwork that holds potential for transformative exchange. On stage, we are unyielding in our commitment to the highest levels of professionalism and artistic integrity.

For more information on the Southern, please visit www.southerntheater.org or call 612.340.0155.